I will use this module to share with you some of the latest news or research I learn about. The postings will be short and may include a link to where you might go for further information.

July 30, 2008
Employees Report a Significant Level of Stress

Data from two recent on-line surveys from CareerBuilder.com and Harris Interactive have been combined and analyzed to reveal:
* 78% of the respondents reported feeling burned out at work
* 46% of the surveyed workers reported experiencing increased workloads within the past six months
* 45% of the respondents reported their current workload as being heavy or very heavy
* 23% reported being dissatisfied with their current work/life balance
* 54% reported that their organization offered one or more flexible work arrangement strategy
* 66% indicated that they personally utilized one or more of their organization's work/life balance programs
* Utilization of the work/life benefits included:
> 72% participated in alternative scheduling
> 24% utilized compressed work weeks
> 15% telecommute
> 14% utilized summer hours
> 6% participated in job sharing

The combined data represents the responses 16,743 employed Americans who were surveyed between February 11 and June 13, 2008.

Homelife Work/Play Balance

According to the iRobot Corp.'s "Balance at Home" survey, another work/life balance issue is emerging - the balancing of work and play within the home environment. More than one-half of the adult Americans responding to the survey reported that their household tasks often interfere with their enjoying their weekends. Forty-nine (49) percent of the respondents reported being stressed out just by the thought of pending household chores. The survey found that 40% of the respondents spend 40% of their in-home waking hours doing household chores.

This survey would suggest that work/life balance is no longer exclusively about work life vs. home life. Work/life balance seems to also apply to balancing housework with play.

To see my earlier postings to Current News and Events, please continue to scroll down.

Whether we like it or not, or whether we even care, 2008 will be a year dominated by politics (though I think we should care). On Saturday, January 5, 2008, the ABC television network aired both the Republican and Democratic debates held in New Hampshire, just prior to the New Hampshire primary. The debates were moderated by Charles Gibson, ABC Evening News Anchor.

One of the questions Charles asked the Republican candidates was what were their personal guiding principles? A number of the candidates responded by reciting the things they would do if they were elected President. This answer begs the question.

The more I thought about the question, the more I realized how profound a question it is. I am glad that I did not have to answer the question on national TV without having had the benefit of time to think about and craft my answer.

Self awareness is a critical part of work - life effectiveness. Answering the question, "What are your personal guiding principles?" will contribute to your self awareness. So as I contemplate an answer to this question, I challenge you to do the same.

Those of us who are employees know only too well that the type of relationship we have with our supervisor/manager can clearly impact upon our work - life perspective. Research has shown us the important role the supervisor/manager plays in talent management and employee retention. We have known for a long time that employees do not leave their job; they leave their supervisor/manager.

So what kind of supervisor/manager do employees want?

For the answer to this question, one source could be the 2007 Maritz Employee Engagement Poll. This poll reflects the results from a survey of 1,300 working U.S. adults who work more than 30 hours per week.

This poll identified six different supervisor/manager types and the effect they had on employee engagement. The six types and their characteristics were:
* The Caring Mentor (26%)
* The Respectable Professional (29%)
* The Win-at-Any Cost (19%)
* The Taskmaster (10%)
* The Likeable Loser (9%)
* The Glad Handler (7%)

The Caring Mentor - (26% of the respondents reported their supervisor fit this description)

The Caring Mentor encourages high employee performance levels. The Caring Mentor is very relationship focused and greatly appreciated by their direct reports. They are described as being cheerful, generous, friendly and flexible. Honesty is considered to be their strongest attribute.

The poll identified direct reports of the Caring Mentor as having the strongest affinity for customers. Caring Mentors were also found to have direct reports who stayed with the company long term and who recommended their company to others.

The Respectable Professional - (29% of the respondents reported their supervisor fit this description)

This category was the most common reported in the poll. Direct reports viewed the Respectable Professional with respect and believed them to be honest and reliable. The Respectable Professional was described as task driven, efficient and flexible, but only flexible when they were required to be so. Direct reports said the Respectable Professional tended to maintain a professional distance from their staff and failed to make the company a fun place to work.

The Win-at-Any Cost - (19% of the respondents reported their supervisor fit this description)

Direct reports describe the Win-at-Any Cost supervisor/manager as being tough, controlling and ruthless. They are also seen as not being ethical, honest or intelligent. They are characterized as inconsistent and clueless by their direct reports. When it comes to employee engagement, this category was found to have the lowest level.

The Taskmaster - (10% of the respondents reported their supervisor fit this description)

The Taskmaster was described by their direct reports as being goal and task driven, tough and controlling. The Taskmaster is also not cheerful or peaceful. While the Taskmasters rated higher on ethics and competence, they do not engender much employee loyalty.

The Likeable Loser - (9% of the respondents reported their supervisor fit this description)

Direct reports stated they did not respect the Likeable Loser. The Likeable Loser was described as being incompetent, inconsistent, while also exhibiting wholesomeness and charm.

The Glad Handler - (7% of the respondents reported their supervisor fit this description)

While first appearing to be friendly and flexible, direct reports described the Glad Handler as being dishonest, unreliable, clueless and uncaring. This category was rated as the second worst when it came to employee engagement.

Despite what we know about psychology and human behavior today, it strikes me as being really unfortunate that nearly half the poll respondents characterized their supervisor as following into one of the four negatively described categories. It seems to me that we are falling far short when it comes to supervisory/manager development.

While it is good that the largest category is the Respectable Professional, how much better would things be if we could move more of the Respectable Professionals into the Caring Mentor category? What do you think it would take?

Adapted from: Godar, Paula. "Managers with Superpowers Can Transform A Business." Talent Management, Vol. 4(7), July 2008, p.16.

During the past summer, a group of work-life practitioners, researchers and non-profit leaders met at the Boston College Center for Work and Family to develop a vision for the future of workforce management. The result of this two day endeavor was the identification of four issues they believed would most influence the future of workforce management. The four issues are:
1. Diversity - in the broadest sense of the word
2. Managing cultural challenges
3. The impact of stress and overwork
4. Technology's double edge - being both the problem and the solution

Diversity

To the standard, expected diversity issues of race, gender, ethnicity, faith and personal style, the group added generational diversity, as many organizations today are now employing 4 - 5 different generations at their worksites. The group foresees women out earning men, resulting in men becoming more vocal about work-life benefits and practices. The group felt two specific issues need attention in the near term:
1. The continued evolution and predominance of the non-traditional family. The group believes this will result in the need to change the coverage of corporate health and welfare benefits, as well as the need for employers to support changes to social policy in support of extended family members.
2. Women will continue to expand their role in managing and leading organizations. The group believes this will result in the need for organizations to attract and retain their fair share of working women by creating women friendly work environments.

Managing Cultural Challenges

Understanding organizational culture and cultural change are central to work - life and employee health and wellness initiatives. Change is a dominant issue today and will not doubt continue to be so in 2008. The pace of change is continuing to accelerate and the scope of change is monumental. There is not much today that escapes the march of change. The work group noted that change is impacting the home, the workplace, the nature of work and technology. In response, they believe the following four work - life strategies are needed:
1. An even greater collaboration with HR
2. Influencing organizational leaders
3. Individual career management
4. Influencing social policy through efforts outside the workplace

The Impact of Stress and Overwork

The workgroup recognized the importance of linking work-life programming to positive health outcomes and to identify the root causes of declining health, both physical and mental, in the workplace. They believe integrating work practice flexibility into worksite health promotion represented one promising strategy. The work group also thought that recovery and resiliency training should be incorporated into the employee work - life experience.

Technology's Double Edge

Technological capabilities and capacities continue to evolve. The work group looked at the impact of technology on human life and performance. Recognizing the technology driven increasing pace and level of productivity, the group questioned the human costs associated with these achievements. A strategy proposed by the work group was for work-life programs to help employees identify and define personal boundaries and set limits.

The work - life work group also generally concluded that work - life issues are quickly becoming core business/organizational issues.

Source: Kathy Lingle. Outlook for 2008: Work - Life Balance. Available electronically at: http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimLink?id=21779. Accessed: October 23, 2007

So what constitutes a great place to work? According to Anne Driscoll, Manager of People Programs at Google, "We find that the perks aren't as important as having an open communication platform and corporate culture." This is confirmed by Hal Adler, President of the Great Place to Work Institute, which compiles Fortune Magazine's Best Places to Work list. According to Adler, a great place to work is one where "benefits play a role, but it's not the 401(k). It is the way benefits connect unique parts of a culture."

The Great Place to Work Institute considers a great place to work as being one where:
* Employees trust the people they work for
* Employees take pride in what they do
* Employees enjoy the people they work with

Adler states: "Trust is particularly important and involves three parts: credibility, respect and fairness." According to Adler, credibility comes down to what the employee thinks of their manager. Does the employee believe them and think they are capable? Adler reports respect and fairness is dictated by what the employee believes the manager thinks of the employee. Does the employee feel supported and listened to? Fairness occurs in an environment where there is a level playing field and where every employee is treated as an individual.

Greatness "has less to do with size or resources than with relationships within the organization, says Adler. According to Adler, "even at Google, while employees appreciate all the lavish benefits and perks, they speak about having positive relationships, empowerment and the freedom to mistake mistakes."

Based on this, while benefits cannot be overlooked, great places to work are determined by communication, relationships and corporate culture. Once again we see that the soft skills or so called people skills rein supreme. Does your organization's leadership development program teach your supervisors and managers these very learnable skills and then supplement the training with coaching?

Source: Kelley M. Butler. "BMF&E Session Gives Inside Look at Fortune's Greatest Workplaces." Employee Benefit News, November 2007, pp. 70 - 71.

Due to constant change and the ever escalating pace of change, being flexible will be a necessary element to have in the future. This will include: individual flexibility, organizational flexibility and community flexibility. As our knowledge based, innovation driven, creative economy deepens, I foresee the future employer - employee relationship (paradigm) being based more on productivity and less on presenteeism (as used in the HR community). Employer expectations will be based more on measurable performance (individual or team) and production results, task completion or goal attainment and less on face time or time in the seat. The increasing size of the virtual workforce will also help to drive this change.

Currently, the implementation of flexible scheduling is one of the core challenges facing the work - life practitioner. Due to this changing employer - employee relationship, Kathie Lingle, Director of the Alliance for Work Life Progress (AWLP), hopes that in the future, "we are going to be battling less about flexible scheduling as an accommodation and as a program."

Being flexible and having flexibility incorporated into the job will be critical for the future workforce. Many workers will be accomplishing their tasks wherever, whenever and however they need to in order to get the job done. The focus will be on task, goal or project completion, rather than the hours ticking by on a clock. Intrinsic or internal motivation will become critical for the worker, while performance and talent management will become a critical skills for the supervisor - manager.

Having this flexibility will, I believe, result in an even greater of the line between work and life. Globalization and its 24/7 workforce will contribute to the line blurring as well.

While having greater flexibility should help to reduce the stress being experienced by workers, it will also result in the employee being even more responsible for setting the work vs. life limits. How much work? How much life? One strategy worth considering might be increasing individual, organizational and community resilience.

Achieving success today means more than just doing your job. Today and in the future, success will depend upon your ability to add value to the work process or your organization. Successful employees will not only do their jobs well, but they will also focus on their organization's strategic objectives. This means:

* Recognizing societal trends and how they will impact your organization
* Identifying potential obstacles to your organization's success
* Looking for opportunities to impact the drivers of your organization's strategies
* Helping your organization to gain strategic clarity
* Helping your organization to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible
* If you are in the private sector, helping your organization to make money

Our future will surely contain increased technology accompanied by increased complexity. Since every action has consequences (both intended and unintended), what might the future consequences be?

In a recent article, Arnold Brown suggests that the side effects will be information overload and incompetence. Brown argues that the increased complexity of structures and systems, driven by an increase in technology, will be accompanied by a large growth in the number of societal organizations, private, public and non-profit or NGOs. This growth in the number of organizations will result in an increased demand for leaders and senior executives, a need already being felt by the NGO sector. (See Employee Benefit News, August 2007)

Increasingly more complex technology and systems are subject to error and breakdown, requiring more sophisticated talent (read talented employees/workers) to repair them, as well as to keep them running.

There is also another issue worth considering. This issue is individual and societal expectations. As more data is collected and systems grow increasingly more sophisticated, so will our expectations for future organizations. Improved organizational performance results in greater expectations. Personal and societal satisfaction becomes a moving target. As Brown notes, "no matter how well companies do, the gap between expectations and perceptions of performance persists - and can even increase."

Increasingly, I am afraid, our expectation will be that future organizations will solve all our problems or even worse, prevent bad things from happening to us in the first place. The expectation of the future, no matter how unrealistic it might be, will become infallibility.

In an age of information overload, how we process the information we access becomes a critical skill. Due to the future's accelerated rate of change, we will be in a constant state of action. Since we will feel we never have enough information to make the "right" decision, recognizing and utilizing our intuition becomes critical.

While future employees will be required to add value, managers will be required to oversee the ever more complicated systems. Human control of the systems and human - machine interface will dominate a manger's future.

Flexibility and adaptability will be critical skills in our future work - life.

Arnold Brown. "Not With A Bang: Civilization's Accelerating Challenge." The Futurist. Sept - Oct 2007, pp. 35 - 38.

As a baby boomer, one of the resources I utilized transitioning from grad school student to the workforce was Richard Bolles' classic, "What Color Is Your Parachute? I have also referred to the book on several occasions during transition points in my professional career. As I approach retirement, it seems only logical that I read the new book, "What Color Is Your Parachute - For Retirement?" also by Bolles and John E. Nelson.

John Nelson left his career as a pension consultant to pursue a Ph.D. in adult education at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. During his studies, Nelson developed the Retirement Well-being Model upon which the book is based. Since baby boomers are so familiar with Bolles' book, using it as a career guide, Bolles and Nelson wrote the new book to help prepare and guide boomers into the retirement phase of their life. While there are many definitions out there for well-being, Nelson defines well-being as having three components: health, prosperity and happiness.

In an article about the book in the October 2007 edition of Employee Benefit News, author Jill Elswick reports Nelson as saying he thinks his definition of well-being is useful because each of the three components is not interchangeable and "you have to create each one of those things in its own right." Personally, I found it very interesting that my work and focus encompasses two of the three components identified by Nelson - health and happiness.

While geared to baby boomers approaching retirement, the book's content is relevant to the work - life, employee health and wellness and the creative aging processes. In the article, Nelson made an interesting comment about why he included social relationships as part of the book. He stated: "People are so used to having social relationships at work. Most retirees are taken by surprise to realize that they are not part of that social network once they are retired."

The book includes exercises and resources for each of the three components of well-being. In addition, Nelson reports additional resources are available on his Web site at www.retirementwellbeing.org. Individuals, as well as work-life, employee wellness and financial planning professionals can benefit from reading this book.

The paradigms in both the health and mental health arenas appear to be changing, if even ever so slowly. Within the health community, recognition is developing that the absence of disease does not equal well-being. Within the mental health (AKA behavioral health) community, a recognition is also developing that the absence of a diagnosable mental illness does not equal being mentally healthy or flourishing.

According to Cory Keyes at Emory University, "the absence of mental illness is not the presence of mental health; flourishing individuals function markedly better than all others, but barely one-fifth of the adult U.S. population is flourishing." Just as curing or eliminating all diseases does not create optimal health or well-being, curing or eliminating mental illness does not create a mentally healthy population or flourishing. It would therefore seem logical that to create a flourishing society with optimal health requires additional strategies in addition to those strategies already targeted at curing or eliminating disease and mental illness.

To date, our approach to health has involved three strategies:
1. The pathogenic approach
2. The salutogenic approach
3. The complete state model or holistic approach

The pathogenic approach views health as the absence of disease, disability and pre-mature death. The salutogenic approach views health as the presence of positive states of thinking, feeling and behavior, while the complete state model or holistic approach views health as the combination of the pathogenic and salutogenic states where the state includes positive thinking, feeling and behavior as well as absence of disease.

As we have become more knowledgeable about disease and disease states, the cause of death has shifted from acute and infection related causes of death to chronic and lifestyle causes. Unfortunately, the gain achieved in life expectancy has resulted in living more years with chronic diseases and mental illnesses, not in better health.

Up until lately, the medical and public health practices contributing to increased life expectancy have been beneficial and cost-effective. Keyes now believes, however, that "the continued attempt to improve population health solely by disease and illness prevention and panaceas has proven extremely costly and largely ineffective."

According to Keyes, "Until the mid-1990's, mental illnesses were overlooked as sources of economic burden to developing and developed nations." Keyes reports that "before the age of 55, half of all adults will have experienced at least one serious mental illness; approximately one-quarter of adults experience a serious mental illness each year."

As a result of his research, Keyes believes the mental health of a person can be placed into one of three categories:
1. Languishing
2. Moderately mentally healthy
3. Flourishing

Through his research, Keyes has identified three factors with 13 dimensions that reflect flourishing mental health. They are:
1. Positive Emotion - Emotional Well-being
* Positive affect
* Avowed quality of life
2. Positive Psychological Functioning - Psychological Well-being
* Self acceptance
* Personal growth
* Purpose in life
* Environmental mastery
* Autonomy
* Positive relations with others
3. Positive Social Functioning - Social Well-being
* Social acceptance
* Social actualization
* Social contribution
* Social Coherence
* Social integration

As a society, why should we strive to achieve flourishing mental health? Using data from the 1995 MacArthur Foundation's Midlife in the Unites States telephone and mail survey, Keyes concluded that "anything less than complete mental health results in increased impairment and disability. Adults, who were diagnosed as completely mentally healthy, functioned superior to all other adults."

According to Keyes, "a flourishing adult experienced:
* The fewest work days missed
* The fewest half day or less cutbacks of work
* The lowest level of health limitations of activities of daily living
* The fewest chronic physical diseases and conditions
* The lowest health care utilization
* The highest levels of psychosocial functioning"

It is increasingly being recognized that mental illness, particularly depression, is often a co-morbid condition of a number of physical illnesses. Keyes' research found that "chronic physical conditions increased as the level of mental health decreased." Keyes felt it was noteworthy that "mental health status was a significant predictor of chronic physical conditions, even after adjustment for the usual sociodemographic variables, as well as body mass index, diabetes status, smoking status, and level of physical exercise. Adults who were completely mentally healthy (flourishing) had the lowest number of chronic physical conditions at any age."

Since medical and public health sciences have added to life's longevity, Keyes' work would suggest that we must now also target an improvement in the quality of life. As more effort goes into work - life programs and more and more employee health and wellness programs begin to target risk factors and outcomes, now seems like the perfect opportunity to also incorporate a focus on the 13 dimensions of flourishing. This approach would coincide nicely with society's increased interest in and acceptance of a holistic approach to health.

Source: Corey L.M. Keyes. "Promoting and Protecting Mental Health as Flourishing: A Complementary Strategy for Improving National Mental Health." American Psychologist, February-March 2007, pp. 95-108.

It is already well established that today's boomers are not yet ready to retire, even as they approach the traditional retirement age. The bridge to retirement today may be connected to non-profit work. In an earlier post, I wrote about the emerging trend of senior executives "retiring" and then starting new careers in the non-profit sector. This is an extremely important trend as the number of non-profits continues to grow along with their need for talented, experienced senior leadership.

Since non-profits can neither offer the salary of the private sector, nor the benefits of the public sector, what is the attraction of the non-profit sector? Simply put, it is mission. The motivation of the retired executive is intrinsic. They are seeking to work in an area they have identified with - an area in which they have passion and purpose.

If you are an executive thinking about going to work for a non-profit, there are a number of key issues to consider:
1. The mission of the agency is key. Everything else is secondary.
2. You need to think about and view your worth in terms other than compensation.
3. Your salary will be lower.
4. Compensation bonuses will be rare to non-existent.
5. Annual compensation increases, if they exist at all, will be at or below the cost of living.
6. While you will acquire no equity in the organization, you can gain a sense of pride and accomplishment from the non-profit's successes.

While the above logistics are often non-negotiable, you still might be able to negotiate non-financial items such as enhanced leave and flexible work arrangements. Taking a job in the non-profit sector is no different than taking a job anywhere else. Make sure you:
1. Do due diligence about the agency and its mission.
2. Benchmark the compensation and benefits the agency offers you with similar organizations in terms of size, location and scope of work.
3. Look at the agency's culture. Will it be a good fit for you?

For the first time in history, four to five different generations can be found working in today's workplaces. With this many generations at work, inter-generational conflict is bound to occur.

According to the Society for Human Resources, nearly 60% of HR managers from large employers have observed office conflicts stemming from inter-generational differences. The tensions and conflicts are reported to surround perceptions regarding loyalty and respect.

Myth 1 Young Workers Love Change
Not so. According to a survey by the Center for Creative Leadership, of 3200 employees surveyed, only 12, across all generations surveyed, reported liking change. Resistance to change is a common human trait. Change means an upset to the current balance or homeostasis. Change equates to a gain or loss. To readily accept change, the perceived gain must be greater than the perceived loss. When resistance to change is encountered, ask what the individual perceives they are losing.

Myth 2 Young Workers Lack a Strong Work Ethic
Not true. Our work style is a function of how we view work. Our view of work is based on our experiences growing up. How we view our parents' treatment in the workplace, mixed with our own personal socio-cultural experiences. As a result, each generation has different perceptions and experiences that color their view of work.

For baby boomers, work is part of our identity. Younger generations see work as a means to other ends. Boomers incorporate work into their social patterns. For younger workers, their social interests generally reside outside the workplace. Younger workers also focus on the end result, not the process used to get there. The focus and interests of the younger workers will result in continued, significant changes to the employer - employee relationship. When dealing with a younger worker, focus on the end result, not the process.

Myth 3 Disrespect for Elders
Young workers today have more leverage in the workplace than did the baby boomers when they joined the workforce. At the very least, this is due to the size of the available workforce. The greater the supply, the choosier, less tolerant employers can be. Compared to when the baby boomers joined the workforce, young workers have many more options today. This allows younger workers to question and challenge more. When dealing with younger workers, be clear in your expectations and be prepared to explain the whys behind your decision or assignment.

Myth 4 Younger Workers Prefer to Work Alone
Not true. Again, this is a function of worker style. Rather than go to a meeting, younger workers would prefer to get the information they need or problem solved via technology - IM, text messaging, or other form of on-line communication. A preference for fewer meetings does not mean a preference to work alone. After all, we all know how productive meetings can be, don't we!

I feel fortunate that I have been able to attend 2 positive psychology courses led by Chris Peterson , Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Chris is one of the leaders of the positive psychology movement. The most recent class is an applications class focusing on how to apply the tenets of positive psychology in various settings.

One of the settings we studied was the workplace. I thought there might be some value in sharing with you Chris Peterson's suggested positive psychology exercises for the workplace. The thirteen exercises are designed to improve relationships at the workplace and to make employees more respectful and appreciative of each other.
1. Responding to others in an active - constructive way. This means that when a co-worker tells you something, respond with interest, be supportive and share in their good feelings. Positive psychology research suggests that positive comments need to outnumber negative comments by a three to one margin for relationships to flourish.
2. Learning things about co-workers. Each day, learn something personal about a co-worker. As your details about this person accumulate, so will your appreciation for them as an individual.
3. Let someone else shine. Let others take the credit and praise for a task or project done well.
4. Be a good teammate. Try to be like the co-workers you admire or respect. Volunteer for the unpopular tasks. Contribute positively in meetings. Help others to do their job.
5. Open doors for others. Make opportunities for success available to your co-workers. When you do, don't make a bid deal of it. Don't ever say, "See what I did for you."
6. Do good deeds. Do a good deed without considering what your reward or recognition might be. Do a good deed, on the sly, every day for a co-worker. Others may be helping you in ways you do not know.
7. Know your own strengths. Know what you do well and use these strengths on a daily basis at work.
8. Know the strengths of your co-workers. Identify what your co-workers do well. When you work with them, put this information to good use.
9. Give the gift of time. At least once a week, freely give your time to another co-worker, without feeling resentful or frequently looking at your watch.
10. Write a gratitude/appreciation letter. Write a note or card to a person who impresses you at work. Express your gratitude or appreciation. Be specific and hand deliver the card and ask them to read it in your presence.
11. Let go of grudges. Think of co-workers you resent or dislike. Privately, let go of the grudge. Think and feel differently about the individuals.
12. Be zestful. People filled with zest and enthusiasm, love their work. Fitness and health set the stage for zestfulness. Give yourself permission to take care of your physical well-being at work.
13. Redesign your job. Knowing what you have learned from the other exercises, work with your supervisor to redesign or rearrange your job so you can have better days at work.

The best predictor of individual well-being is good relationships with others. Good social relationships are based on liking each other, seeing others as competent and pleasant with shared goals and purposes.

In August 2007, Monster (the online employment service) conducted an online Work - Life Balance Survey. A total of 1,336 people took the survey. Of the 1336, 506 were HR professionals and 830 were workers. The findings of the survey included:
* 89% of the employees believed work/life balance programs such as flex time and telecommuting were important for an applicant to consider when evaluating a new job offer
* Less than ½ of the HR professionals considered work/life programs to be an important company initiative
* 29% of the workers viewed their company's work/life programs as good or excellent
* 58% of the workers said their employer encourages working too much
* 61% of the HR professionals believe there will be more employer provided work/life balance initiatives in five years
* 56% of the HR professionals believe that general work/life balance will improve in the future
* More than 75% of the workers believe that work/life balance initiatives result in more loyal and efficient employees
* 49% of the HR professionals feel they acquire more qualified candidates because of their work/life balance initiatives
* 63% of the workers reported they spent too much time working, with 35% blaming their bosses expectations and 26% stating they overworked to fit into the corporate culture
* 91% of the workers reported working for a workaholic, with 51% of them saying this resulted in them working longer hours, 28% saying they gave up vacation days as a result and 25% stating they boasted about work/life balance in order to demonstrate commitment and hard work
* 72% of the workers said they spend more time working due to their use of a lap top computer, while 64% said they spend more time working due to a PDA
* Of those who use a PDA, 44% said they wished they could relinquish using it outside of work, while nearly 1/3 said their use of a PDA limited the quality of their face to face interactions with colleagues or others outside work

According to Jesse Harriott, Vice-President of Research at Monster, "We found that a healthy work/life balance is more valued by younger workers - Gen X and Gen Y - so employers looking to cultivate those talent pools would be well advised to promote work/life balance related initiatives."

February 20, 2008 - The 2007 CCH Unscheduled Absences Survey

The results of the 2007 CCH Unscheduled Absences Survey were reported recently in Continuity Central's Newsflash Service (http://www.continuitycentral.com) According to the survey, 87 percent of the employers responding to the survey reported having employees sick with acute illnesses such as a cold or the flu showing up at work. A total of 38% of the employers surveyed reported presenteeism as a being a problem for their organization.

According to the survey, 54% of the employers responding stated they addressed the issue of presenteeism by sending sick employees home. The other ways employers stated they addressed presenteeism included:
* 40% stated they educated employees about the importance of staying home when they are sick
* 34% reported fostering a culture that discouraged sick employees from coming to work
* 30% reported using telecommuting programs to deter presenteeism

The CCH survey found the most common reasons given that sick employees showed up at work included:
* 65% cited too much work or work deadlines
%u2022 56% cited no one else was available to cover the workload
* 55% cited employees not wanting to use vacation time
* 49% cited employee wanted to save sick leave time for use later in the year
* 49% cited fear of discipline as the reason employees show up (According to the survey, 89% of the organizations responding cited using discipline as a way of controlling absences.)

The good news is that this year's CCH survey found nearly a 100% increase, over 2006, in the number of organizations reporting they have a plan in place to address the event of having a large percentage of employees becoming ill and not showing up for work (a pandemic flu type plan). The bad news is that just 27% of the organizations responding reported having such a plan in place.

Policies and programs that can help an employer address the issue of presenteeism might include:
1. A policy that addresses the issue of employee's coming to work sick and the circumstances under which a manager can direct the employee to return home
2. Educating employees and establishing guidelines to help employees determine when they should stay home or if they can safely come to work. A good source of educational materials about good health habits and the spreading of germs is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov)
3. Make sure your absence control policies don't unnecessarily make employees feel they need to report to work sick or fear the consequences of not coming to work
4. Create and support an environment and organizational culture that supports health and employees making healthy choices
5. Make sure your managers and supervisors lead by example. When they are sick, they need to stay at home too.
6. Offer annual seasonal flu shots to employees and adult dependents. Research has shown that flu shots benefit both the organization and the employee
7. Establish a worksite wellness program for employees. Worksite wellness programs have demonstrated having a positive impact on presenteeism. For more information on worksite wellness programs, see my Squidoo Employee Health and Wellness blog at:
http://www.squidoo.com/employeehealthandwellness

January 7, 2008 - Stress Institute's 2007 Awards

With the recognition of the impact that stress has on our health, a plethora of stress management tools have hit the market. To separate the good, bad and ugly, the American Institute of Stress, (https://www.stress.org) has identified the following tools as recipients of their 2007 Award for Distinction and Innovation.

Personal Stress Reliever
www.emWave.com

Biofeedback device
www.StressEraser.com

Assorted tress management tools
www.StressStop.com

Peak Achievement Trainer
www.peakachievement.com

Relaxation supplement
www.relaxity.net

Medical device stress control system
www.alpha-stim.com

November 13, 2007 - Canadian Public Employees Affected by Stress As Well

As a public employee, when I scan the news, headlines about public employees tend to get my attention. A November 5th article in the Ottawa Citizen was one such article. According to the article, the incidence of disability claims by Canadian federal employees is at a 37 year high, based on figures provided by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), a large Canadian employee union.

In the article, James Infantino, a PSAC Pensions and Disability Insurance Officer, singled out job stress levels and problems with work - life balance as key reasons for the escalating claims. Infantino describes the Canadian federal government as being "a cesspool right now. The stress levels are inconceivable, actually." The article also pointed out that this past July, the Treasury Board of Canada released a report indicating there was also a high rate of depression in the public service workforce.

Mr. Infantino noted that women make-up 54% of the Canadian federal workforce and 2/3 of the disability claim filers were women. Mr. Infantino stated: "For every three claims, two are filed by women." By comparison, in 1991, women constituted approximately 45% of the federal workforce and women filed 51.4% of the disability claims.

In 1991, 23.7% of the approved disability claims were for depression and/or anxiety. In 2006, that number had increased to 45.1%. A total of 2908 workers filed disability claims in 2006, a claim incident rate of 13.54 claims per 1,000 federal employees. According to Mr. Infantino, today almost 50% of the claims filed cite depression or anxiety as the primary disability. Certified medical evidence is required before a disability claim is approved.

Mr. Infantino attributed the job stress due to overwork being a major contributing factor. In the late 1990's, the Canadian federal government underwent a major downsizing. According to Mr. Infantino, while employees were eliminated, the workload was not. In the article, he also related that the remaining employees are also concerned about their future as concern amongst the employees mounts that the federal government workforce might be subject to another round of downsizing.

October 29 - ROWE: Results Only Work Environment

The employer - employee relationship paradigm continues to evolve and change. As the paradigm changes, one of the challenges for organizations has been how to successfully manage today's knowledge workers using HR policies and programs based on industrial era strategies and thinking.

Electronics retailer Best Buy appears to have broken the traditional HR policy mold. According to the October 24, 2007 edition of HR Daily Advisor, Best Buy is reporting success using an employee management system called ROWE or Results Only Work Environment. The ROWE model focuses on results, not seat time at work. Using this philosophy, Best Buy management is reporting increased productivity, while experiencing decreased turnover.

Under the ROWE program, staff level employees are free to set their own working hours and work location. They can work from the office, home, the lake or their local coffee shop. FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) exempt employees do not have to track their hours and have few restrictions placed on them. Non-exempt employees must continue to track their time for FLSA reporting purposes. While meeting attendance is not optional, employees can attend via virtual connection, so the employee can still be wherever they wish, so long as they have an Internet connection at that location and can link into the meeting.

Performance is based on getting the job done, not the expected time in the chair. Employees report liking the program because they can integrate work and family life into their day without having to make excuses for time off or to waste time appearing to be busy. Managers reportedly like the program because they are freed up to truly manage their employees, instead of playing time cop. While the program is currently available just for staff level employees, Best Buy is supposedly looking into how they might bring the program down to the retail store level, while still maintaining the required sales employee staffing levels.

According to an article about Best Buy in the October edition of Workspan, Best Buy is also breaking the HR mold when it comes to the issue of long-term income (LTI). According to the article, "Best Buy is attempting to improve the perceived value of its LTI program by using employee input to create a menu of choices" for employees. The described program uses four types of delivery vehicles, rather than the one traditional stock options vehicle. Best Buy's redesigned plans incorporate both internal and external performance measures, while allowing employees to choose their own packages.

According to the Workspan article, "Offering choices is consistent with Best Buy's total rewards philosophy, which is anchored to the following four pillars:
1. Give employees more choice of rewards that are most valued to them
2. Differentiate rewards based on contributions
3. Encourage experimentation and recognize innovation
4. Reward employees for achieving business results"

Best Buy is making bold philosophical statements and news. Will Best Buy's breaking the mold lead to increased adoption of these strategies by others? Only time will tell.

Sources:
HR Daily Advisor, October 24, 2007. Available electronically at: http://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/
Accessed: October 24, 2007.

Abboud, Saado. "Best Buy Uses Flexibility and Choice to Improve Long-Term Incentive Design," Workspan, Vol. 50 No. 10, October 2007, pp. 30-35.

October 12, 2007 - Pikes Peak or Bust

I recently returned from a business/pleasure trip to Colorado. The business portion of the trip was to attend an instructor training program in holistic stress management. The training was led by Brian Luke Seward, Ph.D. through his organizations Inspiration Unlimited and Paramount Wellness Institute (http://brianlukeseward.net). Dr. Seaward is a nationally recognized leader in the area of holistic stress management. I have been following his work for a while now, so I am grateful I finally got to attend his Instructor Certification Program.

Following the training, I played tourist traveling around much of central Colorado. The weather was absolutely beautiful and warm the whole time I was there. The one day of rain we had brought snow to the higher elevations, so when I got into the mountains, they were snow capped. Coming from Maine, snow is nothing new, but the Rockies were even more impressive with their snow covering. The snow covered peaks definitely added to their majestic beauty.

Now it is back to the grind, ramping up for our flu shot clinics between now and the holidays. I also need to complete the "homework" portion of the certification program so I can begin teaching and facilitating holistic stress management workshops and programs.

And oh by the way, I did make it to the top of Pikes Peak, thanks to the Manitou Springs and Pikes Peak Cog Railway.

September 10, 2007 The Life-Work Balance Wheel

As much as I dislike the term life-work balance, it is the term in common use and accepted by the general public. While it is one thing to discuss life-work balance in theory, it is yet another to see it graphically portrayed.

To help us visualize a life - work representation, life coach Hazel C. Paluche, aka The Results Coach, has been kind enough to post online her version of a Life - Balance Wheel at http://www.theastonishingpowerofyou.com/resources/life_balance.pdf

Visit her site to see how the various aspects of your life - work life are graphically represented on the wheel.

September 10, 2007 Top Ten Causes on Millennials' Mind

I was reading this past weekend about the transfer of leadership to the millennials. According to a survey of 1,658, 15 - 25 year olds by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, the top 10 causes on the millennials minds are:
*Education - 47%
*Poverty - 38%
*Environment - 36%
*Health and Disease - 33%
*Drug and Alcohol Prevention - 32%
*Human Rights/Political Freedom - 31%
*Equal Rights - 30%
*Disaster Relief - 27%
*AIDS - 25%
*Hunger - 25%

September 4, 2007 - An Interesting Read

Recently, I came across the Career Journal Web site(www.careerjournal.com). The site is the Executive Career Site for the Wall Street Journal and offers a host of career development and management resources organized under a series of tabs. As I perused the various tabs, one article caught my eye. The article, "Can a Business Be Run As A Corporate Democracy" by Jaclyne Badal, was originally published on May 10, 2007. When I saw the title, I wondered if the article would add anything to the debate that government should be run like a business, which is another interest of mine.

While the article didn't add anything to the debate, it was still an interesting read. The article focused on Ternary Software Inc., a 19 person customized software development firm located in Exton, PA. At Ternary, all decisions must be unanimous. If one employee objects to a decision, the issue is revisited and reworked until all hands are satisfied or the idea/plan gets scrapped. Ternary is described in the article as growing and profitable, with annual revenues of approximately $2 million.

The article also identifies several other companies where employee input is strongly solicited, but even though they may be great at soliciting input, none uses the unanimous decision making model. My guess is that the larger an organization becomes, the more difficult it would be to implement and maintain a unanimous decision making model. Not that we shouldn't try. The larger the organization, the more opinions and philosophies one needs to consider. If you are a large organization CEO or Board Chair are you willing to volunteer your organization for an experiment?

Unfortunately, the article doesn't really address how employees feel about working in this type of environment or how it impacts their happiness or success. One clue we do have is a quote from Wade Lee, Director of Business Development at Ternary who states: "You don't have to fight and claw to be heard." From a work - life perspective, it would be interesting to study the Ternary employees. We know from research that the more control an individual appears to have over their work, the less likely they are to experience work related stress, but how about personal happiness and success?

August 27, 2007 - A Different Life/Work Balance Scale

I read in my August edition of the Wellcoaches Newsletter a commentary by Bob Tschannen-Moran about a February 14, 2006 article in the Washington Post by Douglas LaBier entitled "The Inner Outer Solution." Since I subscribe to and enjoy reading Bob's newsletter Life Trek Provisions (www.lifetrekinc.com/index.html), I read Bob's commentary and then located and read the original article.

LaBier, a clinical and business psychologist in Washington, D.C. believes that trying to balance work and life is the wrong approach. LaBier believes that the balance scale should reflect outer (work, life) and inner (personal private life) as the two sides of the scale. He believes "there is no way to balance work and home because they exist on the same side of the scale - what I consider the outer part. On the other side of the scale is their personal, private life - the inner person." LaBier therefore encourages his clients "not to think about balancing work life and home life but to balance outer life and inner life."

LaBier's reframing of the work - life balance issue, to one of outer - inner balance coincides very nicely with some of my other current and recent readings. These readings have caused me to consider the relationship of self awareness to my initiatives in work - life and employee health and wellness. These readings have included Zero Limits by Joe Vitale and Ihaleakala Hew Len, Ph.D. and Noble Purpose by Barry Heerman, Ph.D.

Our outer life consists of activities, tools, techniques, strategies and relationships. Our inner life consists of our thoughts, values, emotions, beliefs, openness and sense of purpose, or as Barry Heerman says, our Noble Purpose.

While our outer life is what others see, our inner life is invisible to others and often to ourselves. Our inner life resides in our unconscious mind, unless we work to bring it into our consciousness. This is what self awareness or personal growth and development is about, bringing our inner life into our conscious mind.

August 26, 2007 - Employee Fit

This past Thursday, I participated in a teleseminar led by Mike Jay. Mike describes himself as a developmentalist. (www.mikejay.com) By participating in several of Mike's previous teleseminars, I learned that not only is he conducting leadership and business coach training, he is also involved in the study and writing about resiliency and future related issues, both areas of study and keen interest to me.

On Thursday's call, Mike shared with us his learnings from three conferences he attended this summer:
* Freedom Fest
* World Future Society
* Requisite Organization Theory

Since I had not heard of Requisite Organization Theory before, after the call, I did a Google search and visited several of the Web sites listed. One of the sites I visited was People Fit (www.peoplefit.com)

I have previously read that the primary reason employees give for leaving an organization is a poor relationship with their immediate supervisor. My recollection is the figure is as high as 80%.

Therefore, the following statistics on the People Fit Web site caught my attention:
* An average of 35% of employees are mismatched to their role
* An average of 39% of employees are mismatched to their manager
* An average 17% of the organizations have a flawed organizational design resulting in misaligned roles and reporting relationships

Employee fit has a major impact on work - life success and happiness. As we move deeper into the knowledge based - creative innovation economy with its greater reliance on individual performance, poor employee fit will have even greater significance and consequence than it does today. Employee fit is an issue both organizations, managers and supervisors need to study and address.

Speaking of managers and supervisor......

August 25, 2007 - Hiring Manager Habits

As a manager, what are your hiring habits? How are you at hiring the best and brightest? As a manager who has done some hiring in my time, I was blown away by the story I read recently on Talent Management (http://talentmgt.com/talent.php?pt=a&aid=404).

The article talks about managers being their own worst enemy when it comes to hiring. According to the survey, The Selection Forecast 2006 - 2007 from Development Dimensions International (DDI), two-thirds of the job seekers responding indicated that the interviewer's behavior would influence whether the applicant would accept a position they were offered.

So what are some of the mistakes interviewers make? The most frequent irritating behavior identified by 70% of the respondents was an attitude of indifference on the part of the interviewer. This behavior was identified in the survey as "acting like has no time to talk with me."

Other irritating behaviors listed by survey respondents included:
* Withholding information about the position
* Turning the interview into a cross - examination
* Appearing unprepared for the interview

The article recommends that whenever you are interviewing candidates, while extolling the positive aspects of the job, don't forget to point out any challenges a new employee might face. It is important not to create false perceptions or expectations in candidates. Remember the importance of job fit to long term employee success and happiness.

Also, do not forget to ask what the candidate wants in a position. Remember, most applicants, especially the best and brightest, are seeking a position that is fulfilling and offers individual growth and career advancement opportunities. As the size and quality of the applicant pool continues to decline, organizations and hiring managers need to put their best foot forward during the hiring process. Keep in mind that in today's knowledge based environment, the best and the brightest applicants are interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them.

So, do you know what your habits are when it comes to interviewing and selection?

August 20, 2007 - Work Life Is for Dads Too!

When we think of work - life issues, we first think of the working wife with kids or the single mom trying to cope with work and life. But dads too struggle with work - life issues. Two recent surveys shed light on how work and life impacts dads.

From a poll at CareerBuilder.com:
* 48% of the dads reported they missed an important event in their child's life because of work
* 18% reported missing 4 or more events
* 24% reported believing that their careers have negatively affected their relationship with their children
* 36% reported that their company does not provide flexible work arrangements

From a survey by Adecco USA:
* 59% of the men responding stated that they would not accept the paternity leave offered by their company
* 46% of the men responding reported they believed that their time away from their job would hurt the family budget
* 31% of the responding men reported believing that their use of leave would side track their career advancement
* 70% of the men responded saying that they believe their being a father makes them a better employee

So it looks like that as males we might need to take a closer look at how we individually value work and life. It would also appear that organizations need to do a better job of implementing flexible work schedules and demonstrating that the use of paternity leave will not have negative career consequences.

Lydell Bridgeford. "Dads Struggle to Balance Work and Kids, yet Forgo Leave Options." Employee Benefit News, Vol. 21 No. 10, August 2007, p. 37.

August 17, 2007 - Interesting data on Remote Workers

Kenexa Research Institute's (KRI) 2007 Annual Survey of Worker Opinions reported the following:
* Employees who work remotely or from home outscored on-site employees on key engagement indicators.
* More remote workers indicated they intend to stay with their current employer
* More remote workers felt their organization had open, honest 2 - way communication
* Remote workers had more favorable opinions of their senior management and they felt that the senior management showed more concern for their employees
* Remote workers felt more favorably that their immediate manager did a good job managing people, treating people fairly and delivering useful feedback

The responding remote workers were more likely to have been with their organizations between 3 - 5 years, be between the ages of 36 - 45 and were more likely to be male. Responding remote workers were likely to be professionals and those in technical and sales positions. The responding remote workers were more than likely to be employed in the business services, financial services, real estate and healthcare services sectors.

The report released by KRI is based on an analysis of data drawn from a representative sample of more than 10,000 U.S. workers surveyed through WorkTrends%u2122, KRI's 2007 annual survey of worker opinions.

The results suggest to me that remoteness and the flexibility that often accompanies remoteness has a significant impact on how the employee feels about their job, their immediate manager and their organization.

The report of the survey results can be found at:
http://www.kenexa.com/en/AboutUs/Press/2007/07AUG15.aspx

August 16, 2007 - People Issues Most Important

As reported by Chris Silva, according to a 2007 Deloitte, Touche and Tohmatsu survey of 500 HR and non-HR exectutives, 88% of the respondents "believe people issues will become more important over the next three to five years."

Gee, no surprise here as we continue to transform into a knowledge based - innovation driven future. The future really will put people center stage. Given this high percentage, it is no wonder why work/life is taking such a prominent place in today's workplace. What are you doing as an employee, manager/supervisor or executive to enhance your personal and organizational work -life environment, policies and strategies?

Chris Silva. "Still Odd Man Out." Employee Benefit News. Volume 21. No. 10, August 2007, pp. 13 - 14.

August 15, 2007 - I Have Become Certified!

I have been notified by the Certification Program Manager at WorldatWork that I am the first person in the country to achieve certification as a Work - Life Certified Professional (WLCP). WorldatWork, in association with the Alliance for Work-Life Progress (AWLP), initiated the certification program in 2006. The focus of the certification program is the work-life components of a total rewards benefit structure.

The certification program was originally designed to be seven or eight courses and exams. Three courses were introduced in 2006, with the fourth launching in February 2007. WorldatWork staffers told me in February that I was the first person in the country to complete all four of the courses and pass their associated exams. Since February, I have been waiting for the additional courses to be released so I could continue along in the certification process.

Therefore, I was very surprised to receive the call saying that the decision had been made to cap the certification program at four courses and I would be the first person to be awarded certification by virtue of my having completed course four and its exam last February.

The WLCP designation is based on a body of knowledge that supports a comprehensive understanding of work-life effectiveness. To learn more about the WorldatWork/AWLP work - life certification program, go to:
http://www.worldatworksociety.org/society/
certification/html/certification-wlcp.jsp