Employees are stressed caring for aging parents. How can employers help?
As many employees are caring for parents and close relatives, a balancing act on both physical and mental well being has impacted their work productivity. Read this blog post to learn more.
A growing number of employees are caring for aging parents, parents-in-law and relatives while working full time. One report puts the number of employees caring for aging family members at one in six, while other sources put the number even higher — 73% of employees caring for older family members, with 80% of those employees reporting that they struggle to balance their work and caregiving responsibilities.
This balancing act not only has an impact on employees’ physical and mental wellbeing, it also has a significant impact on their employers. But researchers at Harvard Business School found that many employers are not aware of the extent to which caregiving responsibilities are affecting employee performance, productivity and costs.
Support strategies for employee caregivers
Employers can offer several resources and benefits to help reduce the stress and physical and mental health impact on employees who are caring for aging family members. These strategies can also decrease the negative effect that caregiving can have on productivity and costs.
- Flexible schedules and remote work options: Offering flexible schedules and the option to work from home can help employees fit caregiving responsibilities, like taking family members to doctor’s appointments, preparing meals and helping with other activities of daily living into their day with less stress and less missed work time.
- Eldercare information and referral resources: These services can help employees find eldercare in their community, connect with other caregivers for support and advice, and learn about financial, health, legal and housing issues they may face as they provide care for aging family members and plan for the future.
- Self-care resources for caregivers: The stress of caregiving can increase the risk of health problems including heart disease, diabetes, migraine headache, gastrointestinal problems, substance misuse, anxiety and depression. Employers can help employees better manage stress by offering access to free stress management resources including exercise and meditation classes, caregiver support groups and referrals to online and in-person mental health providers.
- Medical second opinions: Managing the healthcare for an aging family member living with complex or serious medical problems such as dementia, cancer and heart failure can be especially difficult, stressful and time-consuming for employees. Access to second opinions can help employees make informed choices about their family member’s care and provide peace of mind about their decisions.
- Specialist guidance and support: Employers can offer access to navigators and advisors who can help employees ensure that their aging family members’ healthcare is coordinated to lower the risk of medical errors, inappropriate care and missed follow-up care. These services can also ensure that their medical records are reviewed and consolidated, which is especially important when people see several physicians. Navigation and advisory services can help employees research medical treatments for their family member, find and connect with experienced specialists and build a plan to address the potential progression of their family member’s health issues. Advisors can also help with appointment scheduling, insurance issues and problems with medical bills, all of which can be exceptionally time-consuming and frustrating tasks.
- Expand telehealth access: By expanding employees’ telehealth benefits to include aging parents and parents-in-law, employers can make it easier for employees to be involved in their family member’s care, even if they don’t live nearby. Telehealth can also make getting care easier for family members because they don’t need to arrange transportation to appointments.
- Subsidize back-up care: Consider providing employees with subsidies to help pay for in-home back-up care for aging family members. With this safety net in place, employers can decrease the number of hours employees are absent from work due to caregiving responsibilities.
SOURCE: Varn, M. (28 October 2020) "Employees are stressed caring for aging parents. How can employers help?" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/opinion/employees-are-stressed-caring-for-aging-parents-how-can-employers-help
Offices struggle with COVID-19 social distancing measures
Across the nation, many are beginning, if they have not already, are allowed to work from their offices, instead of having to work remotely. Now, due to the coronavirus pandemic, there are several new protocols that many may struggle to maintain. Read this blog post to learn more.
Millions of workers in recent months have returned to offices outfitted with new pandemic protocols meant to keep them healthy and safe. But temperature checks and plexiglass barriers between desks can't prevent one of the most dangerous workplace behaviors for the spread of COVID-19 — the irresistible desire to mingle.
“If you have people coming into the office, it’s very rare for them consistently to be six feet apart,” said Kanav Dhir, the head of product at VergeSense, a company that has 30,000 object-recognition sensors deployed in office buildings around the world tracking worker whereabouts.
Since the worldwide coronavirus outbreak, the company has found that 60% of interactions among North American workers violate the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s six-foot distancing guidelines, as do an even higher share in Asia, where offices usually are smaller.
Most people who can work at home still are and likely will be until at least mid-2021. But as some white-collar workers begin a cautious return, it’s becoming clear how hard it is to make the workplace safe. A bevy of sophisticated sensors and data are being used to develop detailed plans; even IBM’s vaunted Watson artificial intelligence is weighing in. In many cases the data can only verify what should be evident: The modern office, designed to pack in as many workers as possible, was never meant to enforce social distancing.
To date, the coronavirus has infected more than 8 million Americans and is blamed for 220,000 U.S. deaths. So far, efforts to get large numbers of workers into the office haven’t worked out very well. Some workers at Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase tested positive after they returned to work and were sent home. With infection rates rising again nationwide, many companies have told most employees to work from home until next year, or even forever. Michigan’s governor approved new rules last week that bar employers from forcing workers back to the office if they can do their job at home.
For those employers pushing ahead with a return to the office, sensors that measure room occupancy are proving to be a necessity, said Doug Stewart, co-head of digital buildings at the technology unit Cushman & Wakefield, which manages about 785-million-square feet of commercial space in North and South America. Most offices are already fitted with sensors of some kind, even if it’s just a badging system or security cameras. Those lagging on such capabilities are now scrambling to add more, he said.
The systems were used before the pandemic to jam as many people together in the most cost-effective way, not limit workplace crowding or keep employees away from each other, Stewart said. With that in mind, companies can analyze the data all they want, but changing human behavior — we’re social creatures, after all — is harder, he said.
“Just because technology identifies it, and the analytics is flagging it, doesn’t mean the behavior will change,” Stewart said.
Because office crowding can show up in air quality, proper ventilation has replaced comfort as the focus for building managers, said Aaron Lapsley, who directs Cushman’s digital building operations with Stewart. Measuring the amount of carbon dioxide or the concentration of aerial particles can determine if airflow needs to be adjusted — or whether some people need to be told to leave a specific area. Employees are now more likely to use smartphone apps to receive alerts and keep tabs on the health and safety of the building, he said.
Something even as trivial as a trip to the bathroom or coffee machine has to be re-examined, said Mike Sandridge, executive director of client success at the technology unit of Jones Lang LaSalle, which oversees about 5-billion-square feet of property globally. Some restrooms have had to be limited to one person, and a red light will come on to let others know whether it’s occupied, based on stepping on a switch. When it’s free, the light turns green. Companies can also monitor whether the snack area is getting crowded, he said.
To help get some of its 350,000 employees back to its 150 offices around the world, International Business Machines is using its problem-solving Watson AI to analyze data from WiFi usage to help design and adjust office occupancy, said Joanne Wright, vice president of enterprise operations.
Understanding worker habits is more useful if you have a way to nudge them into new patterns. Since the pandemic began, Radiant RFID has sold 10,000 wristbands that vibrate when co-workers are too close to each other. The technology was originally designed to warn workers away from dangerous machinery, not other people. So far, the wristbands are responsible for reducing unsafe contacts by about 65%, said Kenneth Ratton, chief executive of the company, which makes radio-communication devices. At this point, the data on more than 3 billion encounters shows the average worker has had about 300 interactions closer than six feet lasting 10 minutes or more.
“The biggest problem is we as Americans haven't really been socially distanced, ever,” Ratton said.
Nadia Diwas is using another kind of technology: a wireless key fob she carries in her pocket made by her employer, Semtech, which tracks her movements and interactions, making it useful for contact tracing if someone gets sick, which is as important as warning people they are too close. The technology originally was developed by Semtech to help devices such as thermostats communicate on the so-called internet of things.
The reality is that people still need to work together, and if you’re back in the office, that means face-to-face interaction, said Diwas, who works in an electronics lab with two and sometimes three other people. She said she comes in contact with more people at the grocery store than in the office.
“It does make me more aware and more careful,” Diwas said in an interview. “The way I picture it in my head is that if both of us stretch our arms out, we should not touch each other.”
For most office workers, the best way to keep a safe distance from colleagues for the foreseeable future will still be on Zoom.
SOURCE: Green, J. (26 October 2020) "Offices struggle with COVID-19 social distancing measures" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from employeebenefitadviser.com/articles/offices-struggle-with-covid-19-social-distancing-measures
Just 28% of Americans expect to return to the workplace before 2021
According to a recent study from a Conference Board Survey, only 28 percent of Americans expect that they can return to the workplace before the year 2021. Although that percentage has increased, many are still uneasy about the idea of returning to public spaces. Read this blog post to learn more.
Just 28% of Americans say they already have or expect to return to workplaces before the end of the year, indicating the coronavirus pandemic is making remote work more mainstream, a Conference Board survey showed Thursday.
Nearly one-third of respondents said they would be uncomfortable getting back to offices, shops and factories, while half said their greatest concern was contracting the disease at work, according to the Sept. 16-25 online survey of more than 1,100 workers. Only 17% of employees said they were very comfortable or even wanted to return.
The coronavirus continues to spread across the U.S., with 34 states recording higher seven-day averages of new cases compared with a month ago. While progress is being made on a vaccine, it will be months before it’s available to the general public. Even when it is ready, the Conference Board’s survey showed just 7% expect a return to their workplace.
“For knowledge workers and others where remote working is an option, you’re going to see more of a remote or hybrid working arrangement become the standard way,” said Rebecca Ray, executive vice president of human capital at the Conference Board.
A cultural shift to working from home and the pause or stop in business reopenings have upended the commercial real estate market. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren warned that a resurgence in the virus could lead to troubles in the financial sector via commerical real estate.
The “commercial real estate sector is going to be impacted in the long term as we now need much less space for offices, retail, and probably higher education,” said Gad Levanon, head of the Conference Board Labor Markets Institute.
The Conference Board’s survey echoed with a recent poll of company executives by Cisco Systems. More than half plan to downsize their offices as remote working will become commonplace after the pandemic subsides, according to the Cisco survey.
The Conference Board survey also showed that lower-ranking employees are more concerned about returning. Some 20% of rank-and-file workers and 21% of front-line managers indicated they feel pressure to return in order to keep their jobs, compared with just 4% of executives. Individual contributors are also the least comfortable coming back to job sites.
Some 29% of respondents said they had little faith that their colleagues would adhere to safety protocols and guidelines upon return. One-third questioned the wisdom of going back to workplaces because they said productivity has remained high when working remotely, the survey showed.
SOURCE: Ren, H. (15 October 2020) "Just 28% of Americans expect to return to the workplace before 2021" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/articles/just-28-of-americans-expect-to-return-to-the-workplace-before-2021
Every dollar counts in today’s zero-interest-rate environment
It’s no secret that interest rates have been at historically low levels for quite some time, but the recent announcement by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicates that rates will stay near zero for the foreseeable future. Chairman Powell stated in his address last month that the Fed would tolerate above-2% inflation instead of attempting to preemptively control inflation by raising interest rates.
With rates likely to remain low, investors, and especially participants in sponsored 401(k) plans in the U.S. retirement system, need every dollar they can save to achieve their goals in retirement. This is particularly true this year, with the COVID-19 pandemic having inflicted significant disruption, uncertainty, and volatility on our nation’s workforce as well as the financial markets.
Even before the pandemic, low interest rates were already hitting Americans enjoying or nearing retirement very hard, because lower rates for annuities and money market accounts require people to save more when trying to convert savings into income. The indexing of Social Security benefits at lower rates also decreases income in retirement.
Stop automatically cashing out terminated participants’ small-account balances!
Since every dollar counts for plan participants in our pandemic-disrupted, zero-interest-rate environment, why are sponsors (who have a duty to adhere to the fiduciary standard) continuing to cash out small, stranded accounts with less than $1,000?
The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) estimates that a total of $92 billion in hard-earned savings leaks out of the U.S. retirement system every year because 401(k) plan participants prematurely cash out their accounts when they switch jobs. Conducting automatic cash-outs for terminated participants adds to the already sizable leakage of assets from our nation’s retirement system.
As we have noted in previous articles in this space, the primary driver of cash-out leakage is the lack of seamless plan-to-plan asset portability for participants at the point of job-change — and the resultant costly and time-consuming nature of DIY portability.
Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research has reported that, on average, premature cash-outs decrease participants’ total 401(k) assets for retirement by 25%. Cashing out 401(k) savings early is perhaps the worst blunder that a retirement-saver can make. But when sponsors automatically cash out small accounts, they potentially open themselves up to new fiduciary liability down the road.
After all, if a terminated participant has moved to a new house or apartment in the years since working for a former employer, and the new mailing address has not been updated in the files of the plan sponsor’s recordkeeper, then the check for the cashed-out small balance may not reach the accountholder. If that occurs, and the accountholder finds out the assets in their former-employer 401(k) account were lost, the employer could be sued, or the plan could be the focus of a regulatory inquiry.
Auto portability can eliminate the need for automatic cash-outs and rollovers
By adopting the technology solutions which enable auto portability, sponsors can potentially avoid having to conduct automatic cash-outs and automatic rollovers to keep their average account balances and related metrics at healthy levels.
Auto portability — the routine, standardized, and automated movement of a retirement plan participant’s 401(k) savings account from their former employer’s plan to an active account in their current employer’s plan — is powered by “locate” technology and a “match” algorithm. Together, these innovations locate lost and missing participants, and kick-off the process of moving their savings into 401(k) accounts in their current-employer plans.
Auto portability also has the power to make automatic rollovers of small accounts into safe-harbor IRAs a redundant practice. Placing terminated participants’ assets for retirement into safe-harbor IRAs in a low-interest-rate environment isn’t exactly benefiting them, since the only default investment options allowed in safe-harbor IRAs are principal-protected products. The combination of low yields and high fees in too many safe-harbor IRAs can deplete accountholders’ assets over the long term.
The capability to begin the movement and consolidation of 401(k) assets as participants change jobs, as well as reunite lost and missing participants with their 401(k) savings, can help decrease cash-out leakage — and savings depletion — at a time when every dollar in the U.S. retirement system counts more than ever.
EBRI estimates that the widespread adoption of auto portability by sponsors and recordkeepers would preserve up to $1.5 trillion (measured in today’s dollars) in our nation’s retirement system over the course of a 40-year period, primarily for the benefit of low-income workers. Based on EBRI data, Retirement Clearinghouse estimates that widespread adoption of auto portability would preserve $619 billion in savings for 67 million minority participants in the U.S. retirement system — including $191 billion for 21 million African-Americans.
Fortunately, auto portability has been live for more than three years, and it’s available to help sponsors make every dollar count for participants during these extraordinary times.
SOURCE: Williams, S. (07 October 2020) "Every dollar counts in today’s zero-interest-rate environment" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/opinion/every-dollar-counts-in-todays-zero-interest-rate-environment
Here's your employee checklist for open enrollment
The COVID-19 pandemic has focused consumer attention on health care, germs and the impact a single illness can have on their lives, livelihoods and loved ones. With the fall open enrollment season almost here, you have the opportunity to think more critically about the specific plans you choose for yourself and your family, as well as any voluntary benefits that may be available to you, including childcare, elder care and critical illness. In a world where it feels like health is out of the individual’s control, we all want, at the very least, to feel control over our coverage.
As we know all too well, there’s a lot to consider when it comes to choosing and using health care benefits. The most important piece of becoming an informed health care consumer is ensuring you have access to — and understand — the benefits information you need to make smart health care choices.
While open enrollment may seem daunting, devoting an hour or two to reviewing your plan options, the programs available to support you and your family physically, mentally and financially, and how to get the most from the coverages you do elect, can go a long way towards providing peace of mind as we face the unknowns of 2021. Here are five tips to keep in mind as you prepare for and participate in open enrollment.
Don’t forget that preventive care is covered by most plans at 100% in-network regardless of where that care is received. Schedule your appointments as soon as possible (and permissible in their area), and research other venues for receiving care, such as pharmacies, retail clinics and urgent care facilities. Most are equipped to provide standard vaccinations and/or routine physicals.
Unfortunately, there are also the long-term implications of COVID-19 to consider. Research suggests that there are serious health impacts that emerge in survivors of COVID-19, such as the onset of diabetes and liver, heart and lung problems. And many who were able to ride out the virus at home are finding it’s taking months, not weeks, to fully recover. As a result, you should prepre for the possibility that you, or a loved one, may be ill and possibly out of work for an extended period of time. Be sure to evaluate all of the plans and programs your employer offers to ensure your family has the financial protections you need. For some, a richer health plan with a lower deductible, voluntary plans such as critical illness or hospital indemnity insurance, and buy-up life and disability insurance may be worth investigating for the first time.
As hospitals reopen, it may be difficult to schedule a procedure due to scheduling requirements and pent up demand. A second opinion may be in order if your condition stabilized, improved or worsened during the delay; there may be other treatment options available.
A delay in scheduling also provides an opportunity to “shop around” for a facility that will provide needed care at an appropriate price — especially if you are choosing to go out-of-network or have a plan without a network. Researching cost is the best way to find the most affordable providers and facilities with the best quality, based on your specific needs.
Many medical plans offer second opinion and transparency services, and there are independent organizations who provide “white glove,” personalized support in these areas. Read over your enrollment materials carefully, or check your plan’s summary plan description, to see what your employer offers. If nothing is available, ask your employer to look into it, and don’t hesitate to do some research on your own. Doing so can often result in substantial cost savings, without compromising on quality of care.
Be sure to check up on your preferred health care providers — especially those you might not see regularly — to confirm they are still in business and still in network (if applicable). If you live in a rural area, you may have to travel farther to reach in-network facilities. If you’re currently covered by an HMO or EPO, you may want to evaluate whether that option still makes sense, if your preferred in-network providers are no longer available.
When was the last time you changed your medical plan? If you’ve been keeping the same coverage for years, it might be time to look at what else is available. Your employer may have introduced new plans, or you may find that a different plan makes more sense financially based on how often you need health care. Don’t forget — the cheapest plan isn’t always the one with the lowest premiums.
You may also want to consider setting aside funds in a health savings account or health care flexible spending account (if available). If your employer offers a wellness program, this might be an opportunity to start adopting better health habits to ensure you’re better equipped physically and mentally to deal with whatever lies ahead.
3 tactics to navigate company culture in a remote world
In many respects, COVID-19 reframed our thinking about worklife balance. While this was already a fatigued concept, the pandemic and resulting quarantine fully demolished the fourth wall that stood between work and the personal lives of our team members.
In the early weeks, given our technology enablement already in place, a near immediate shift to fully virtual didn’t seem like a huge shift for many. As the weeks wore on, working parents and those with different challenges at home felt the effects almost immediately. As a working mom myself, I have first-hand experience around what it means to be a mom and an employee at the same time and in the same space, along with my partner also working from home. In fact, my daughter may or may not have “Zoom bombed” a session with our board. Of course, none of them were bothered by it and it probably embarassed me more personally than anything.
As the chief people officer of SailPoint, I’ve seen how balancing continuing to educate our children from home while working full time has taken a toll on many. Half of our workforce have children under the age of 18 living at home. To move forward as a distributed workforce in a way that is sustainable and productive, HR teams need actionable steps to empower today’s working parents.
By implementing specific guidelines that help employees navigate these waters, HR teams can better instill confidence in their employees and provide them with the resources required to drive successful and productive engagement. Small changes, simply starting with an acknowledgement of this issue, helps teams to get their work done on the terms they’re able to design to best fit their needs.
Give employees the formal gift of time
When the pandemic began earlier this year, SailPoint’s approach was centered on “returning to normal.” It’s clear now that a return to normal is not in the cards, and organizations should look at this time as an opportunity to rebuild and create lasting culture changes through new programs and initiatives.
One strategy we’ve found successful at SailPoint is implementing a 2-hour block twice a week when employees have no meetings and can focus on what is most important to them individually. This could range from taking care of their children to getting a presentation done that they haven’t had time for, or even scheduling personal appointments. Whatever it may be, this block we call ‘Free2Focus’ is about giving our crew space to balance the personal demands with the work demands. So far, the response to this time block has been very positive and it allows SailPoint crew members to use their time during the day how they wish in a flexible but formal way. Some crew members are using this time to focus on helping their children with school work, others have used it to have lunch with loved ones. Given that much of schooling from home may fall to women, we also look at this as an inclusion initiative to ensure that part of our workforce isn’t faced with a choice of one or the other.
Restructure your physical office
One aspect of corporate culture that was long overdue for restructuring is the use of the physical office space. At SailPoint, we’ve always offered our crew members flexibility, and this extends to trusting them to decide where they work. We believe that work is our identity, not our cubicle, and COVID-19 has presented us all an opportunity to rethink the office space.
As of September, we have allowed crew members to voluntarily return to the office if they wish at 25% capacity. Moving forward, we’re asking the crew to think of our offices like they would a college library. In college, you would likely go to the library for a place to focus or a place to meet with otehrs. This is how we want the SailPoint offices to operate because we know our crew makes the most impact when they have the autonomy to make their own decisions that work for the individual, their family and their work. There is not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to working styles and personal situations, which is why we want our physical office space to be as flexible as our remote office space.
Commit to community
While this time may have brought us closer to our families, it can be isolating from an employee culture perspective. Some of us are lucky enough to have family support at home, but many do not. It’s crucial that those looking for companionship and emotional support are able to find it, within our community.
Having a strong culture in place is not only invaluable for the individual’s well-being but also vital in keeping employees engaged and motivated. One strategy to achieve this is taking advantage of the technology that connects us. At SailPoint, we have several Slack channels that aren’t related to work to keep our community connected. We have channels for parents, pet lovers, beauty gurus, Texas Longhorns and more, but we also have a channel called SAIL ON. This particular channel is a place for people to post supportive messages, or to just have fun and connect with their community of crew members. So far, this initiative take on a life of its own, as we’ve seen our crew organize fitness competitions, build standing desks for each other’s homes, share their thoughts on "Feel Good Fridays.”
SOURCE: Payne, A. (23 October 2020) "3 tactics to navigate company culture in a remote world" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/list/3-tactics-to-navigate-company-culture-in-a-remote-world
3 small business leaders on what it takes to survive the pandemic economy
Now more than ever, business leaders are having to take the roads less traveled when it comes to allowing their businesses to succeed. The pandemic economy has caused many to struggle, and many are stepping out to talk about what they've learned. Read this blog post to learn more.
Building a business is never easy, but 2020 has been a unique calamity. In the U.S., which has suffered more COVID-19 deaths than any other nation, the economy entered its worst downturn in generations. Although central bank stimulus and government programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program have helped cushion the blow, a return to growth will depend on the creativity and resilience of millions of entrepreneurs and business managers.
Lindsay Gibson, COO, TextNow
Over a decade, TextNow built its business, an app that allows users to send and receive calls and text messages for free, by hosting ads for hotels and airlines and the like. Within weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the U.S. and Canada, one-quarter of TextNow’s revenue disappeared. The company closed its Waterloo headquarters, as well as offices in Portland, Ore., and San Francisco. All employees started working from home.
Lindsay Gibson, the chief operating officer, stayed relatively calm. A 16-year career at cellphone maker BlackBerry taught her how to navigate an organization on “a downward slope,” as she puts it. At BlackBerry, she once had to cut 250 jobs on her first day in a new role. She remembers it as the beginning of five years of doing more with less.
Her strategy then, and now, was to make plans. Plan A at TextNow was to slash revenue targets and cut expenses. The company eliminated 19 jobs, froze hiring, and ended employee perks such as personal trainers and free lunches. Biweekly companywide Zoom meetings were instituted to keep staff up to date and fortify plunging morale. For three months the mood became “very conservative, very heads down, and very focused,” Gibson says.
The company quickly found opportunities for growth. With so many people unable to visit friends or relatives, TextNow started testing a video chat function. Amid the economic downturn, hundreds of thousands of people could no longer afford to pay their AT&T or Verizon bills, so TextNow’s appeal increased. As school moved online, teachers began using TextNow to communicate with parents and students.
By July, TextNow was growing again. It lifted the hiring freeze and recruited a chief growth officer to beef up marketing and help win customers. TextNow is on track to meet or exceed its new revenue targets, Gibson says.
Brian Butler, president and CEO, Vistra Communications
Brian Butler is used to dealing with disaster. The Gulf War veteran — who still suffers from injuries and hearing loss sustained during his Army service — oversaw a munitions plant in Virginia at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, helped coordinate Hurricane Katrina relief from the Pentagon, and started his marketing and communications business just before the 2008 financial crisis.
So in January, when he first read about a virus sweeping China, he started to prepare. In February he ordered five laptops for a core group of employees and by March had purchased 35. When other companies found themselves struggling to find equipment, his staff was settled and working from home. “I was a planner in the military,” Butler says. “I heavily rely on my ability to think and plan before I do.”
Still, in just a few months, Vistra lost two clients and three major contracts, including a hospital, a large beverage company, and a tourism agency that canceled events, contracts, or big projects. The company responded with an online campaign it called “V Positive.”
“We put up positive messages on a weekly basis,” Butler says. “That generated more good leads for us, just by doing that. So while in some areas we lost a few customers, in some areas we gained a few.”
In late May, the video of George Floyd’s death led to worldwide protests against police killings of Black Americans. Butler is Black, and 48% of his employees are people of color. Vistra started a new business line that offers tailor-made diversity training to customers.
As the months of working from home passed, Butler says he focused more on his staff’s well-being. He gave each employee $150 to “buy something that will help them work better.” The company, which already holds weekly and monthly video calls for staff, started including more informal Thursday morning coffees and Friday afternoon sessions with his father, a chaplain. Butler says the idea stemmed from his experience in the Army, where every battalion has its own chaplain. “And I thought, Hmm, why does it have to be different in the workplace?”
By late August, most of the clients the company had lost in the early days of the pandemic were back on Vistra’s roster. Butler says he’s working from his home for the foreseeable future, just a few miles from the office — and a few feet from the bedroom where he founded his company 13 years ago.
Melissa Wirt, founder, Latched Mama
Melissa Wirt thought she knew about juggling responsibilities. She founded Latched Mama to provide affordable, functional clothing for nursing mothers six years ago, when she had just two children. Today she’s the mother of five.
Then in February, the coronavirus shut down the factories of some of Latched Mama’s suppliers in China. It took a few more weeks before it hit her team — most of them working mothers — in Virginia. “So many moms’ lives, within a 24-hour period, were turned upside down,” she recalls. “Kids stopped going to school on a Friday and didn’t go back on a Monday.”
Wirt’s mother came up from Florida to help take care of her kids. Another mom couldn’t come to the office anymore when school and day care closed. “So her husband is now coming into work” and is on Latched Mama’s payroll, Wirt says, and the woman is doing social media work for the company from home.
In other ways, the work-from-home lifestyle proved a boon to Latched Mama’s business. Women are treating themselves to more comfortable clothes, boosting sales from last year, Wirt says.
Her staff, many at home or working half-shifts, weren’t able to pack and ship fast enough to meet the elevated demand. One of her employees got COVID-19 during the summer, and fear of the virus remained high.
So Wirt recruited teenagers, including a 16-year-old neighbor, to work part time. She also hired two people to manage shipments and warehousing, scooping them up from a nearby distribution company that went bust during the pandemic. “In some ways it’s an amazing problem to have,” Wirt says. “But it’s also hard as a small business because you also have to keep your employees safe. It’s just a lot of balls in the air at the same time.”
Productivity has ticked down. But Wirt says she feels that’s a small sacrifice in an unprecedented year.
“If we need to cut some profit to be able to make sure that people can relax and take a deep breath and be there for their kids and get through this pandemic together, then that’s what we’re going to do.”
SOURCE: Dmitrieva, K.; Kazakina, K.; Greenfield, R. (07 October 2020) "3 small business leaders on what it takes to survive the pandemic economy" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/articles/3-small-business-leaders-on-what-it-takes-to-survive-the-pandemic-economy
Pandemic Causing Many to Lose Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage
Many small businesses have suffered due to the implications that the coronavirus pandemic has placed on them. Many of those struggles are rooted in financial instability during this time which has caused many to stop paying health insurance premiums. Read this blog post to learn more.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many small businesses to stop paying health insurance premiums to insurers, leaving their employees without group health care coverage. Even more workers could find themselves without health insurance if businesses can't afford to renew their group plans for 2021, when premiums are expected to trend slightly higher.
If the coronavirus spikes again across the U.S. and a "second wave" further restricts business operations, more employees could find themselves uninsured.
We've rounded up articles from trusted news sources on the loss of employer-sponsored health insurance and what might be coming.
Employers No Longer Able to Afford Coverage
Health insurance coverage is a major expense for employers, especially for small businesses. As they struggle with the economic fallout of the pandemic, many may face end-of-year renewal deadlines that are harder to afford.
Thousands of small businesses that had always expressed difficulty in providing employee health insurance under the Affordable Care Act are now in far worse trouble because of the pandemic.
While estimates vary, a recent Urban Institute analysis of census data says at least 3 million Americans have already lost job-based coverage, and a separate analysis from Avalere Health predicts some 12 million will lose it by the end of this year. Both studies highlight the disproportionate effect on Black and Hispanic workers.
"The odds are we are on track to have the largest coverage losses in our history," said Stan Dorn, the director of the National Center for Coverage Innovation at Families USA, a Washington, D.C., consumer group.
(New York Times)
Race-Based Disparities in Coverage Loss
Overall, 8 percent of Americans reported in September that they had lost their health insurance specifically due to the pandemic, according to a series of surveys conducted by data research firm Civis Analytics and global communications firm Finn Partners. That figure was higher among Black Americans, with 10.4 percent reporting they had lost their health insurance because of the pandemic. In contrast, 6.8 percent of white Americans said in September they had lost their health insurance because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Overall, among Black Americans, 26 percent were uninsured in September, up from 17 percent in February. Among white Americans, 12 percent were uninsured in September, up from 11 percent in February.
(ValuePenguin)
Small Businesses Under Pressure
Small businesses, defined as those employing fewer than 500 workers, are under extreme pressure to cut costs. But in spite of across-the-board cost-cutting, a survey of small U.S. businesses in late June found only 5 percent had resorted to cutting health insurance benefits for their employees.
However, nearly one-third of survey respondents indicated they were not sure they could keep up with premium payments beyond Aug. 15.
To examine whether federal financial assistance enabled businesses to maintain health insurance coverage, researchers compared health care offer rates to employees by businesses reporting they had been approved for federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds with rates for those not approved, as of June 15. The firms that received PPP funds were much less likely to drop coverage than firms that did not.
The PPP stopped accepting loan application requests in early August.
(NEJM Catalyst)
Indiana's Experience
In April, Indiana saw about 560,000 residents losing employment, according to Mark Fairchild, director of public policy at the nonprofit Covering Kids & Families of Indiana. At the start of September, the number had fallen below 400,000 and is trending downward.
"We've recovered dramatically, but that still is going to leave over 10 percent of Hoosiers without a job," Fairchild said. "And related to that, of course, the insurance that goes with that impacts not just them, but their family members, too."
Counting the spouses and children who may have been covered by family plans, he estimates that upwards of a million Indiana residents may have lost employer-sponsored health coverage during the pandemic.
The loss of health insurance doesn't fall equally on everyone, as some sectors of the economy, like hospitality and service jobs, have been hit harder than others.
(Side Effects/WFYI Indianapolis Public Media)
DOL Temporarily Extends COBRA Sign-Up Deadlines
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) temporarily extended the period in which eligible employees can elect COBRA health insurance continuation coverage and the deadline for them to begin making COBRA premium payments.
The final rule extended most COBRA deadlines to beyond the "outbreak period," defined as from March 1, 2020, to 60 days after the end of the declared COVID-19 national emergency, or another date if provided in future guidance.
"Any COBRA premiums due during the outbreak period will not be considered delinquent if the COBRA premiums are paid within 30 days following the end of the outbreak period," said Paul Yenerall, a Pittsburgh-based attorney with Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott.
Employers may require individuals to pay for COBRA continuation coverage. The premium that is charged cannot exceed the full cost of the coverage, plus a 2 percent administration charge. That cost is not affordable for many newly unemployed workers.
During the pandemic, however, some employers are choosing to pay for a former employee's COBRA coverage if the person has been laid off, or to do so for current employees who lost group health plan coverage when they were furloughed or had their hours reduced.
(SHRM Online)
SOURCE: Miller, S. (01 October 2020) "Pandemic Causing Many to Lose Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/pandemic-causing-many-to-lose-employer-sponsored-health-coverage.aspx
3 Ways to Motivate Your Team Through an Extended Crisis
Another month of working remotely has passed, and many employers are beginning to flag a lack of motivation, performance, and well-being coming from team members. It's important for managers to re-energize their teams and to identify the struggles which are holding them back. Read this blog post to learn more.
As we flip our calendars to yet another month of our large-scale Covid-19 remote-work experiment, it's no wonder that motivation, performance and well-being are flagging for many. Months in, managers need new tools to reenergize their teams, to accurately identify and diagnose recurring struggles and to empathetically help employees address their problems.
A large part of a leader's responsibility is to provide structure, guidance and regulation; yet many workplace studies point to the fact that the most important gauge for a healthy work environment isn't a strong external framework, but whether individuals can foster internal motivation.
Using a well-established theory of motivation called self-determination theory, or SDT, we have identified three main psychological needs that leaders can meet to help their employees stay engaged, confident and motivated.
1. Relatedness
This means that your employees feel cared for and that you've fostered a sense of belonging. Make time to listen to your employees' perspectives and make them know that they are heard and valued. A few simple practices may help:
- Acknowledge and validate your employees' emotions as well as their reactions. ("I know it can be tough to stay focused right now, but we'll figure it out together!")
- Don't let people get lost in the crowd: Reduce team size and acknowledge each member's work and achievements to the extent possible.
- When problems arise, make sure to get full feedback from those involved. This helps you identify the biggest issues and obstacles, while strengthening connection and encouraging communication.
- Emphasize that people's contributions are unique and necessary; do not let good work go unacknowledged.
- Communicate that you care about employees' well-being, not just their productivity.
2. Competence
This refers to when a person feels effective and experiences growth. Research shows that holding employees accountable for achievable goals can improve performance, and motivational science also suggests that trust begets trust. Try these approaches to help ignite your team's internal motivation:
- Involve your employees in decisions where their input could be valuable. Asking for suggestions to optimize an ongoing process, for example, can help maximize a sense of empowerment, progress and ownership.
- To demonstrate their mastery of a particular task or skill, ask an employee to explain to their colleagues what they're working on or why they chose a particular strategy.
- Set up check-ins to regularly discuss progress on individual goals and create strategies to meet them.
3. Autonomy
Effective leaders foster internal motivation by empowering employees' sense that they are the authors of their actions and have the power to make choices that are aligned with their own values, goals and interests, as well as their team's. Leaders should encourage autonomy and be genuinely caring while also recognizing that each employee carries responsibilities for achieving team objectives. To help foster a sense of autonomy we recommend that leaders:
- Encourage self-initiation and participation. Perhaps ask, "What part of this project can you see yourself leading?"
- Avoid controlling language ("Get this to me by tomorrow!") and minimize coercive controls like unrealistic deadlines and constant monitoring of your employees. Instead, find ways to motivate them through encouragement and positive feedback, such as, "I know it's a tight deadline, but having your skills on this team will be so helpful to our client."
- Be transparent by providing the rationale behind demands. People are more willing to put in their full effort when they understand why a given task is important.
A person's work environment plays a big role in whether these three channels surge or jam, so it's no surprise that motivation is especially at risk in these pandemic times. No matter what the circumstances are, we are most energized and committed when we are internally motivated by our own values, sense of enjoyment and growth — in short, internal motivation inspires us to be our best selves. By meeting the three psychological needs, leaders help employees be engaged and feel valued at work (relatedness), feel motivated by growth (competence), and feel empowered and confident in their skills (autonomy). Employees who feel unappreciated or coerced will, at best, often half-heartedly comply with a boss's orders without whole-heartedly committing to excellence. At worst, they will lose all sense of motivation and fail to meet goals and deadlines.
SOURCE: Bradford, A.; Ryan, R. (02 October 2020) "3 Ways to Motivate Your Team Through an Extended Crisis" (Web Blog Post). Received from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/3-ways-to-motivate-your-team-through-an-extended-crisis.aspx
Companies to shrink offices as work stays remote after pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has taught companies many things, one of those being that it may be time to allow employees to work remotely full-time when the pandemic ends. Read this blog post to learn more.
More than half of companies plan to shrink their offices as working from home becomes a regular fixture after the COVID-19 pandemic ends, according to a survey by Cisco Systems.
Some 53% of larger organizations plan to reduce the size of their office space and more than three quarters will increase work flexibility. Almost all of the respondents were uncomfortable returning to work because they fear contracting the virus, the poll found.
Cisco, the largest maker of networking equipment, recently surveyed 1,569 executives, knowledge workers and others who are responsible for employee environments in the post-COVID era. The findings suggest many of this year’s radical changes to work life will remain long after the pandemic subsides.
The poll, conducted for Cisco by Dimensional Research, concluded that working from home is the “new normal.” More than 90% of respondents said they won’t return to the office full time. 12% plan to work from home all the time, 24% will work remotely more than 15 days of each month, while 22% will do that eight to 15 days every month.
Cisco’s Webex video conferencing service has benefited from lockdowns that have kept millions of people working and studying from home. It’s also faces rising competition from Zoom Video Communications.
For employees who do return to the office, Webex is adding environmental sensors that plug into its current video-conferencing gear. That will help companies identify over-used and under-utilized spaces, while complying with room capacity limits and checking if workers are wearing masks.
SOURCE: King, I. (06 October 2020) "Companies to shrink offices as work stays remote after pandemic" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/articles/companies-to-shrink-offices-as-work-stays-remote-after-pandemic