Links You Can Use: November 26-30

In this week's Links You Can Use, see how smoke-free environments have impacted the workplace, and how to deal with stress at work, especially at the onset of the busy holiday season. And in other news: do conflicts involving English-speaking ability and foreign accents constitute a diversity issue?

About 23 states (roughly half of the U.S. population) have smoke-free workplace laws, which some attribute to the recent decline in heart attacks. But some experts are saying it's not enough. (FOX News)

The economy is still undergoing some hardship, and the holiday season has just begun. So chances are many businesses are working harder with fewer resources. Check out these organizational tips to keep stress levels down among your workers. (Forbes)

Links You Can Use: August 13-17

This week's Links You Can Use includes a few tips for managers and organizations interested in enhancing the workplace.

Staying productive at work during the late summer season can be tough, so here are some guidelines for managers to help keep their teams focused. (Forbes)

This article provides insight on managing workers from different generations. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Here are some helpful tips to spot signs of stress in your work life. (MSNBC)

Links You Can Use: July 30-August 3

Whether you're looking for easy ways to enhance your health or your wardrobe, or you're wondering how to troubleshoot customer service problems, we've got links you can use.

Lifehacker has 10 suggestions for reinvesting your health insurance rebate check, but really, it's a top 10 list for things you can do right now to improve your health and well-being. (Lifehacker)

One encouraging sign of how diversity helps companies: a study suggests that public companies do better with female board members than companies that do not have them. (LA Times)

Why Employers Should Care About Employees Who Are Caregivers (Part 2)

In our previous blog post, we talked about why some workers caring for children with special needs may require more health care and lose time and focus at work. But demanding caregiving needs are not just limited to parents of children with special needs.

An increasing number of employees are now also caring for older adults. In fact, nearly 55 million Americans care for an older adult, and 42% of workers reported caring for an older loved one within the last five years. (1)

Research from the MetLife Mature Market Institute and National Alliance for Caregiving (2) revealed the following:

• Each year, employers lose up to $33.6 billion in lost productivity as a result of full-time workers having to provide care to older adults.
• Employers lose an average of $2,110 annually per each full-time employed caregiver.
• The costs are due to employee replacement, absenteeism, partial absenteeism (coming in late, leaving work early), workday interruptions, eldercare crises, supervisor time (supervisors spending more time at work), unpaid leave*, and workers going from full-time to part-time.

*The Family and Medical Leave Act entitles eligible employees to job-protected, unpaid leave for a certain number of days per year. However, employers still have to pay for temporary employees and reassignments.

General population trends show that the aging Baby Boomer generation will continue to require care from loved ones, including those who work full-time or part-time. And many workers experience a knowledge gap when it comes to managing and paying for care.

Why Employers Should Care About Employees Who Are Caregivers (Part 1)

What could be causing millions of people to be called away from work, decrease their work hours, or force them to leave the workforce altogether? Research shows that it’s caregiving for children with special needs or older adults.

Today, caregiving needs have become more demanding, and the costs to businesses come in the form of higher healthcare claims and lost productivity.

In this special two-part post about caregiving, we’ll talk about employees’ caregiving challenges, costs to employers, and what employers can do about it. Part 1 will focus on the challenges unique to caring for children with special needs.

Caregiving for Children With Special Needs

Almost 14% of all children under age 18 in the United States have a special healthcare need (a chronic or severe health or mental health problem that requires more intensive or specialized care than children normally require), according to a 2008 study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1)
 

Bias Against Older Workers Decreases Engagement—In Younger Workers!

While most employers are aware of the legal ramifications of ageism, are they aware of the other ramifications? What are the other ramifications?

Jacquelyn B. James, PhD, Sharon McKechnie, PhD, and Elyssa Besen surveyed over 4,000 retail employees aged 18 to 94 about whether older workers are as likely to be promoted as younger workers; whether older workers are able to adapt to new technology; and so on.

They categorized any bias they found as (1) perceived by interviewees as fair; or (2) perceived by interviewees as unfair. In a discussion of their research on the website Aging&Work: AGEnda, they explained,

Our hypothesis did not prepare us for the finding that the perception of [unfair] discrimination was actually more strongly related to lower employee engagement among younger workers than older workers.