CC Andrews

If you have younger workers who have or plan to have children, you should look at how you support new moms. According to a new survey, many employers aren’t doing enough:

• 68% of 2,000 working mothers say lack of time to pump at work and/or the stress of pumping enough at work are significant challenges.
• 65% say they feel challenged getting milk home to their babies.
• Under half (40%) say their company has a dedicated lactation space or room with a locking door. Only 28% say this space is comfortable and well-furnished.
• Over a fourth (26%) say they have no space at work to pump. One respondent says she has resorted to pumping in a shower stall.

In 2019, 83% of U.S. workers were reported to suffer from work-related stress. At the same time, they see the value of health and wellness perks, and 73% of workers say they are directly influenced by these when choosing a job. There is much at HR and other leaders can do to address employee stress:

• Build realistic, customized programs. Pay attention to what is sustainable, positive, and low pressure. Remember that you won’t be able to eliminate all stress, but you can minimize it and give workers the tools and skills they need to live a low-stress work life.
• Promote downtime. Breaks can be very effective for both managers and their teams. Encourage and enable your teams to build routines with healthful, productive downtime. Coffee breaks, a few minutes of walking or stretching, and 15 minutes in a quiet room can be tremendously refreshing and revitalizing.
• Provide tools and training. Make sure you have mental health benefits designed to combat … [Read more...] about (2/18) Workplace Stress: The Silent Productivity Killer

Job hopping is on the rise, according to a new report. In fact, workers are changing jobs at a rate of 4.1%, twice that of 10 years ago. The good news is that the job switching rate is lowest in the health services, education, and manufacturing industries. Among other findings from the survey:

• Workers usually leave their industries when they change jobs, but the rate they jump to other industries has remained fairly consistent in the past decade.
• Employers are increasingly hiring job candidates who already have employment, as well as those who lack credentials previously required.
• More employers are using recruitment strategies that include offering more generous pay and benefits.
• Job hopping is most common in administrative and support services jobs.

For job hunters, every day they don’t hear back from a company they’ve interviewed with can be agony. Yet a recent survey found that the average time between the first interview and a job offer is about 33 days, an 84% increase since 2010. This causes, or at least contributes to, a 16% reduction in candidates accepting offers. Being decisive reaps benefits, the survey suggests, indicating that hiring managers prepared to make quick decision end up with 10% more high-quality candidates and 11% fewer low-quality candidates that their slower-moving counterparts. This partly because they reduce to time-to-hire time period by 17%. To make faster and better hiring decisions, consider aligning hiring with expertise and involving people beyond a hiring manager in decision-making. It also is helpful to engage with candidates, building a trusting relationship. Read the full … [Read more...] about (7/29) Are Slow Hiring Decisions Dragging You Down?

Fear can motivate people; but in the workplace, fear can lead to low self-esteem, poor morale, and high turnover, instead of productivity. Management by fear was once a popular concept among some organizations. However, this leadership style has largely been discredited; and it has been determined to deteriorate team relationships, increase stress and anxiety, and create a dysfunctional, tense workplace. When fear rears its head, it is usually a sign that something has gone wrong and needs to be fixed. Read the full article. … [Read more...] about (12/14) Does Fear Motivate Workers or Just Make Things Worse? — HR Executive

Noncompete clauses have long been used to retain executives and keep ex-employees from ‘stealing’ clients and company information. Now, in the midst of a serious caregiver shortages, restrictive agreements are gaining popularity for low-wage workers in the home health industry. The most common trends: agreements that let caregivers work for competitors but not take clients or co-workers with them and a financial penalty for customers who hire an agency caregiver directly. While such agreements may have some benefits, experts caution that they actually could drive caregivers to other industries or settings. Read the full story. … [Read more...] about (12/4) Home Care Companies Increase Use of Noncompetes, Other Contract Restrictions – Home Health Care News

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid will soon be releasing two new toolkits to promote employee retention. One will include an employee satisfaction survey that lets facility employees share their perceptions about team building, job satisfaction, management/leadership, scheduling/staffing, and more. The other kit will be a guide to improving nursing home employee satisfaction. Read the full article. … [Read more...] about (12/3) CMS Announces Tools To Help Nursing Homes Boost Employee Satisfaction–McKnight’s