InFront on the Workforce

Long-term and post-acute care publication

Subscribe | Events | Advertise | Contact Us

Featured

Industry Trends, Workforce Numbers Add Up to Big Challenges for Home Care

By /

A new report identifies opportunities to strengthen the home care workforce and improve quality and access.

With 15 million home-dwelling adults in the U.S. requiring some degree of personal assistance, there are significant opportunities for home care services and policies moving forward. These assistance needs are impacted by factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, nativity, geographic location, and health and economic status, as well as pending shifts in the population. A new report, Envisioning the Future of Home Care: Trends and Opportunities in Workforce Policy and Practice, offers insights into how to strengthen the lagging home care workforce and enhance quality as demands for services and support in this sector grow.

New Report: More Than Ever, Hackers Are Targeting You

By /

Sophisticated malware is on the rise, and attackers are finding creative ways to steal your information.

Sarah, a well-respected and highly productive manager, is working on getting a loan to buy a new house. In the midst of an especially hectic day, she gets an e-mail about a problem with her account. In a panic, she opens it and clicks on a link. Too late, she realizes she’s opened the door to cybercriminals. According to a new report, malware in particular is on the rise; and hackers are targeting individuals in healthcare instead of organizations. Read on to learn about some alarming trends and what you can do to protect yourself and others.

Don’t Let Legal Risks Haunt Your Halloween Fun

By /

It’s a day of fright and fantasy; but don’t let costumes, parties, and decorations be more trick than treat for your employees and organization.

Halloween can be fun. It also can be scary, but less for the ghostly costumes and more for the legal risks. Know the dos and don’ts of celebrating Halloween to protect your employees and your company. Read on about risks you should manage now to prevent legal nightmares later.

Informal Leaders: An Overlooked Treasure Trove

By /

They may fly under the radar, but these people have knowledge, influence, skills, and power that you should be seeking to harness. It’s a classic win-win.

Look around your organization. You are likely to observe people who self-identify as agents of positive change, but they may not see themselves as leaders. It is important to identify those individuals who have leadership potential and help them grow and thrive.

This requires seeking out those people who may not have management or supervisory titles but who are informal leaders. These individuals are seen by others as experts, and they have knowledge to share. They have strong social skills, and they inspire others to go along with them. They have internal qualities that others respect and admire. These are the people you go to when you want to find out what is really happening.

Survey: Employees Still Aren’t Confident about Reporting Bad Behavior

By /

On the two-year anniversary of #MeToo, workplace harassment, misconduct continue to plague employees; and employers still struggle with how to protect workers.

Two years after the #MeToo movement started, a new survey shows that 56% of employees have witnessed or experienced inappropriate, illegal, or unethical behavior. However, they say that their concerns often aren’t investigated; and some suggest that these incidents go unreported because employees fear consequences or worry they won’t be believed.

From Bedside to Commuter Ride, Cybersecurity Is Your Job In and Out of the Office

By /

Protect your patient data, and give everyone peace of mind. Include all clinicians who access your systems in “cyber hygiene” and security efforts.

Cybersecurity doesn’t just affect your operations. It can have a serious impact on patient care, as well as your organization’s reputation and your ability to attract quality clinicians. According to a new survey, over half (55%) of physicians say they’ve been a cyberattack victim; and 74% say that their access to patient records and electronic health records (EHRs) have been blocked because of cybersecurity concerns. Don’t forget to involve physicians and other clinicians in your efforts to prevent cybercrime.

When Employees and Managers Connect, Everyone Wins

By /

A new survey suggests that everyone’s talking about emotional wellness in the workplace, but few are doing anything about it.

While it’s not realistic to expect your workplace to be like a TV sitcom, the truth is that happy people make better, more productive employees. In a recent survey, 90% of employees say they perform better when their company supports their emotional wellness. Managers agree, and 94% surveyed say the emotional wellness of their workers is just as important as their job performance. However, only 41% of managers say they make it a point to ask employees about emotional wellness in one-on-one conversations. At the same time, over half of employees say they’ve never brought up a personal matter with their manager; and only 43% say they’ve used their organization’s employee assistance program.

Giving into Temptation Can Be Expensive, Embarrassing

By /

Think you have legal access to personal emails former employees leave behind? Know the law before you make a move you could regret.

Last week, InFront talked about how to address the issue of employees taking company information with them when they move on. However, they may leave behind personal data, and that presents a different challenge. It may be tempting to look at the emails in personal accounts they leave on a company device, but think twice; or you could find yourself in legal hot water.

According to the federal Stored Communications Act, it is an offense to “intentionally access…without authorization a facility through which an electronic communication service is provided” and thus open a communication while it is in electronic storage. The penalty for violating this law can be thousands of dollars in fines, damages, attorney’s fees, and court costs if the access to this personal data “was willful or intentional.”

Activity-Based Work: An A-Plus Way to Increase Productivity, Innovation, Teamwork

By /

A new workspace model is gaining traction as a cost-effective, efficient solution to employee ennui.

Activity-based work is a hot new trend with staying power. By providing flexible workspace designs that enable workers to choose workstations for various tasks, activity-based work environments are creating more agile workforces and giving employees more control over their daily activities. In fact, according to one source, 98% of highly satisfied employees work at an organization where they are free to move around during the day.

In an activity-based environment, workers don’t have specific workstations and can choose one that best meets their needs for certain tasks. For instance, nurses could choose quiet spaces for phone conversations with physicians where accurate note-taking requires them to be free from distractions and noise.