HR Industry Brief

Super Bowl Sunday is fast-approaching; and your workers could be excited to distraction. To keep this big event from disrupting your workplace, address these key issues:

• Gambling in the workplace. About 54 million Americans join betting pools, although only 13 states have legal exemptions that permit some form of these. Know your state laws, and have a workplace gambling policy, share it before the big day, and apply it consistently.
• Lost productivity. Last year, American businesses lost close to $4.4 billion in productivity the week before Super Bowl. Why? Workers are getting psyched for the game—reading articles, checking social media, texting friends, watching videos, and planning parties. To combat this, emphasis the importance of focusing on work goals, offer rewards for top performance, and encourage managers to watch employees for signs of distraction. Consider holding Super Bowl-themed lunches or happy hours to give workers set times to think/talk about … [Read more...] about (1/27) Super Bowl Shouldn’t Be a Super Headache for Employers

According to a new report, employers increasingly realize the value of improving the financial wellness of their workers. Among the findings:

• 77% of employers believe access to affordable legal services can help improve employees’ financial well-being.
• 61% would consider offering identity theft and/or legal protection plans; and nearly 40% are already offering one or both benefits.
• 85% see direct access to a qualified law firm as a key feature of a legal services plan.
• Over 75% think a comprehensive mobile app is an important feature in identity theft protection and legal services plans.
• On the employee side, 53% of workers say that a legal event has affected their job in the past two years; and more than 60% say that legal and identity theft protection benefits would increase their financial wellbeing.

A new survey of Wall Street’s interest in science and healthcare investments offers some good news for post-acute and long-term care:

• Stakeholders are most likely to put their money into home care and hospice, as opposed to long-term and managed care.
• Among healthcare investor, 39% view the sector as being in a bubble, compared to 50% last year.
• Only 23% of life sciences investors characterize the sector as in a bubble, compared to 48% who held that view last year.
• 51% of healthcare investors see strong or moderate fundamentals, and 42% of life sciences investors see the same in that sector.

  Okay, no one wants to have to deal with a crisis. However, a bad situation can offer some good lessons and enable you to shine as a leader:

• Don’t run away. Stand up, step up, and take ownership of the situation. Take a leadership role, suggest a solution, and be ready to move forward with it.
• Seek help. Make crisis management a team activity. Get the advice and support you need, and seek the help of individuals with relevant expertise. Build your network of trust.
• Take action. Analysis is safe, but it doesn’t solve problems. Dive into action, even if it’s risky and hard. Jolt people out of inactivity and motivate those who are paralyzed by fear.
• Share the credit. Don’t claim the spotlight for yourself; share it with others and recognize their contributions.

People who are the bedrock of your organization—staffers who are stable, reliable, and have years of experience and who embody your values and culture—should be nurtured over time, instead of being ignored or taken for granted. Do this with three key actions:

• Include bedrock employees in decision-making and strategic development.
• Engage these people as critics, influencers, and change agents on an ongoing basis.
• Demonstrate to others that you value bedrock employees as advisors and mentors.

/qFlu season started in October of last year, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 9.7 million people have gotten ill, 87,000 have been hospitalized, and 4,800 have died from influenza. While you are working on keeping your residents safe, don’t forget about your employees, your family, and yourself:

• Get the flu vaccine if you haven’t already done so. Don’t assume if that if you already had the flu that you can’t get it again and, therefore, don’t need the vaccination.
• Follow precautions such as washing hands frequently, eating right, getting enough sleep, and avoiding contact with people who are sick.
• Contact your healthcare provider as soon as you experience symptoms such as cough, sore throat, runny/stuffy nose, headaches, muscle/body aches. Don’t try to self-medicate. Prescription antibiotics can alleviate symptoms quickly and prevent complications such as sinus infections.
• Stay home if you are … [Read more...] about (1/20) Flu Is on the Rise: How to Protect Yourself

Data suggests that many employees aren’t saving enough for retirement. HR and finance leaders can partner to help develop plans that work for all employees. To succeed, these plans must:

• Be easily understood by employees.
• Be a differentiator when you are hiring and one that makes it difficult for your workers to leave for another job.
• Allow you to reward top performers.
• Give employees a choice between lump sums and fairly-priced lifetime income.
• Give employees confidence that they will be able to retire comfortably when the time comes.

Physician burnout is high; and according to a new report, it’s even higher among the generation in the middle. The study from Medscape says that nearly 48% of Gen X physicians (those aged 40 to 54) report burnout, compared to 38% of millennials and 39% of baby boomers. Among other findings:

• 42% of all physicians report feeling burned out; interestingly, this is down from 46% five years ago.
• Specialties reporting the highest levels of burnout include critical care, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, neurology, and urology.
• 48% of women report experiencing burnout, compared to 37% of men.
• The top contributors to burnout include too many bureaucratic tasks, spending too many hours at work, lack of respect from administrators/colleagues/staff, increasing computerization of practice, and insufficient compensation/reimbursement.

Your words have the ability to change how people feel and think. You can lift them up or knock them down. Here are some words you may be using that make others feel diminished and inferior:

• Dumb
• Fool
• Irresponsible
• No
• Failure
• Bad
• Ashamed
• Incompetent
• You’re in the way
• Hate
• Weird
• Disappointment
• Don’t
• Wrong

With unemployment at record lows and worker shortages facing many sectors of healthcare, it’s more important than ever to create and maintain an inclusive workplace. A few strategies for this include:

• Emphasizing the business case for diversity/inclusion with upper management, as well as customers and other external audiences.
• Recognizing and addressing bias.
• Practicing inclusive leadership. Create a safe space where all employees feel free to speak up and feel they are heard and welcome.
• Providing sponsorship programs that accelerate the progress of women and people of color by pairing them with experienced employees to coach/advise them over time.
• Holding leaders accountable. Make inclusion a core organizational value, and make sure all leaders live and breathe it (instead of just paying lip service to it).