10 signs your workplace culture is toxic (and how to fix it)

Having a positive work environment is vital to the success and engagement of your employees. However, mainting that positivity, especially during busy quarters, can be dificult or even forgotten about. Today, we wanted to provide you with an informative article on staying away from toxic environments. From HRMorning.com, here are 10 signs your workplace culture is toxic (and how to fix it).


It’s a hard thing to admit … that your work culture may be toxic. But identifying the symptoms and finding the antidotes for them can quickly improve morale, engagement, retention and productivity. Let’s get started. 

Here to help is Ross Kimbarovsky, founder and CEO of crowdspring, who has some unique insights into the signs of a toxic workplace and how to remedy them.

Are your employees tired? Discouraged? Burnt out?

If the answer is yes, you may have a toxic culture at work.

That’s a problem.  Unhappy workers are less productive, make more mistakes, and are more likely to seek employment elsewhere.

Work culture exists on multiple levels. It isn’t just behaviors. It’s also an infrastructure of beliefs and values. To create real and lasting change, your business must tackle cultural issues on all levels.

You must act quickly to improve a negative work environment before productivity lags and employees abandon ship.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you turn around a toxic work culture:

1. Identify problem behaviors

Every company is unique. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for repairing a damaged work culture.

The first step is always to examine your business’s culture to identify your specific challenges.

Start by taking a critical look around you. Before you can change for the better, you have to face uncomfortable truths head-on.

Ten common warning signs a workplace is turning toxic are:

  • gossiping and/or social cliques
  • aggressive bullying behavior
  • poor communication and unclear expectations
  • dictatorial management techniques that don’t embrace employee feedback
  • excessive absenteeism, illness or fatigue
  • favoritism and imbalanced working conditions (discriminatory policies/wage gaps)
  • workaholic behavior that sacrifices healthy work/life balance
  • unrealistic workloads or deadlines
  • little (or strained interaction) between employees or employees and management, and
  • unsafe or morally questionable working conditions.

You probably won’t find all of these, and you may find problems not listed here. But whatever problems you find – take note. Those issues will inform your plan to rescue your work culture.

2. Evaluate the underlying support network

A toxic culture can’t take root without a fertile environment, and its symptoms can’t survive without a supportive infrastructure.

So, it’s time to dig deeper. What shared values and actions are helping to support those behaviors?

Examine your company’s leadership and their values. Then work your way from the top of the ladder to the bottom looking for issues like:

  • discriminatory beliefs
  • treating employees as assets, not people
  • information guarding (poor communication/unclear expectations)
  • aggressive or hostile leadership styles
  • belief that employees are lazy, stupid and/or expendable
  • resentment of Authority
  • contrariness
  • lack of accountability
  • lack of appreciation for (or recognition of) good work

All of these are problematic and set the foundation for a negative work culture.

3. Plan your repair strategy

With a clear understanding of the illness, you can now strategize your treatment plan.

And remember – change is hard. Don’t try to fix everything at once. Prioritize.

Tackle the problem behaviors that have the biggest impact first, and smaller issues will likely begin to right themselves. Here are some strategic antidotes to many of the most common workplace problems:

  • Listen to your employees. Hear their grievances, validate their experiences and make the changes necessary to address their issues. This can come in the form of one-on-one conversations, a town hall meeting with HR, or simple blind surveys. Listen, validate, and work together to find solutions.
  • Assign realistic workloads and deadlines. This means taking the time to learn what your employees actually do. What are they responsible for, and how long do those tasks take? Remember that there are only 60 minutes in every hour and assign tasks accordingly.
  • Communicate transparently. Employees can’t do their jobs well without understanding the context. Having the information to do one’s job reduces confusion and frustration, making employees happier and more efficient. Hold weekly meetings, and send frequent memos or a company newsletter. Share the information they need to know.
  • Acknowledge work well done. A study by the Boston Consulting Group reports “appreciation for your work” as the most important factor to job happiness. Find ways to show appreciation. Tell employees what they’re doing well – they’ll feel appreciated (and be more likely to continue doing it). Build a supportive environment by sharing employee successes and make positive encouragement a group activity.
  • Treat all employees by the same rules. Playing favorites breeds resentment. Examine your company policies – do they unfairly benefit one group over others? Be open to feedback; employees may see problems that you don’t. Then even the playing field, and require all employees to follow the rules.
  • Foster emotional intelligence. The BCG Study included good relationships with colleagues and superiors among the top five elements leading to job satisfaction. Banish bullying, disrespect and dismissive behavior. Prioritize emotional intelligence. Provide resources to help employees expand their emotional intelligence. Improved emotional intelligence can cure a number of ills.

While these are all great suggestions for every company, be mindful of your business’ challenges, and choose your action items accordingly.

4. Implement your plan

John Kotter of Kotter International asserts that leaders are catalysts for workplace change. If you’re in charge, you have a powerful platform for motivating change. But, be prepared to live the changes you want to see if you want anyone to take those changes seriously.

Making change easy, rewarding and socially acceptable are the keys to success. Humans have a strong drive to be a part of the group. Normalize the behaviors you seek by asking the social influencers in your business to promote those behaviors, too.

Make it easy for your employees to implement positive changes by removing barriers to success. This, again, will require that you listen to your employees to know what those barriers are.

Finally, help your employees see how the changes you’re proposing will reward them with a more positive workplace.

5. Reflect and adapt

Give your new policies and practices time to take root. Change won’t happen overnight.

After a few months, take stock. What has changed? What hasn’t?

Meet with the influencers you enlisted to help with your implementation. Reflect on how things have gone. Different perspectives can offer useful insight.

Assess your progress, and adapt your efforts as needed. Keep the lines of communication open.

Cultural change is a big undertaking; but well worth the effort. Perseverance will lead you to success.

You can read the original article here.

Source:

Guest Author (6 October 2017). "10 signs your workplace culture is toxic (and how to fix it)" [Web Blog Post]. Retrieved from address https://www.hrmorning.com/10-signs-your-workplace-culture-is-toxic-and-how-to-fix-it/


Wellness: Get a Lunchtime Workout, Even if You Can't Leave the Office

Original post washingtonpost.com

It can be one of the most exhilarating things you do during the workday, but nailing the lunchtime workout can be tricky. Should you eat before or after? How much should you pack? Shower? No shower? And most important, how much exercise can you pack in during a lunch hour?

The good news is that there are all sorts of tricks for getting the most out of your midday workout and several products that make it easier to navigate.

How to prepare

The key is to have a plan. The night before, pack a light bag of just the essentials: a change of underwear, travel-size deodorant and wet wipes — if you won’t have time for a shower.

Need to shower no matter what? Consider throwing in a bottle of dry shampoo to cut down the amount of time you spend away from your desk, said Tami DeVitis, an instructor at Vida Fitness in the District. She also recommends (if your hair is long enough) wearing a ponytail that requires no maintenance post-workout.

Another way to stay prepared is to keep a pair of sneakers and toiletries in your desk at work. That way, you can just grab what you need and go. Personal trainer Lee Jordan has noticed clients bringing no more than what can fit into a rolled-up T-shirt. In other words, pack light.

You also should consider arriving at the office a little early just in case it takes you longer than expected to get ready, said DeVitis, who teaches several lunchtime classes.

What to eat

Scarfing down a hoagie right before a run might not be the best idea, but you should eat something, said Nancy Clark, author of “Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook.”

“The goal is to enter into your workout with a normal blood sugar level,” Clark said. “If you’re exercising at a pace you can maintain for a half-hour, your body can digest the food and use it during the workout. You could eat five minutes beforehand; it all depends on your tolerance level.”

If you’re planning a high-intensity workout of burpees or jump squats, she recommends eating a hearty breakfast. For less strenuous exercise, Clark said, it’s perfectly fine to eat a banana or half of your lunch before getting started.

What you eat post-workout is also very important. To recover from a tough routine, Clark says, down a smoothie, peanut butter sandwich, chocolate milk or any other mini-meals with a balance of carbohydrates and protein.

“Protein builds and repairs muscles, but it does not refuel muscles. Carbs fuel, so you actually want three times more carbs than protein,” Clark said. “The mistake people make these days is just having a protein shake after the workout, but you’d be better off having a fruit smoothie to get carbs andprotein.”

Where to work out

If you’re lucky enough to work near a park or somewhere with good trails, going for a run outdoors is a great way to break up the workday. Too cold? Hit the treadmill at the gym and add in some intervals — one minute of sprints followed by a 30-second jog for several rounds could help you get the most out of your run.

Circuit training is another option for burning calories that could also build muscle if you throw some weights into the mix. Jordan recommends four to five sets of compound exercises, the kind that work two or more parts of the body. You could, for instance, grab a pair of dumbbells for a squat with a bicep curl or lunges with a lateral raise.

“You can either time your reps, say 45 seconds or a minute, or do a set number, say 10 or 15 squats with a curl,” said Jordan, an American Council on Exercise-certified health coach.

If designing your own routine is a lot to ask, there are apps for that. Nike Training Club, Sworkit, Spitfire Athlete and a host of other apps have cardio and strength-training routines that you can do in 30 minutes.

Even Fitbit, the wearable fitness monitor, is getting in on the act. This month, the company released Fitbit Blaze, a touch-screen tracker that comes with access to the workout app FitStar. The app offers diagrams that show you how to execute the moves in each routine.

Game for a class? Just about every gym has a variety of ­45-minute classes, allowing you enough time to get in, get to it and get going.

“Consider classes where you don’t get as sweaty, a barre class. You’re going to sweat, but you can clean yourself off and go,” DeVitis said.

Leaving the office in the middle of the day is a no-go for some folks. In that case, Jordan recommends heading to a stairwell, one without traffic, for a quick workout. All you need is a pair of sneakers, if that much, to do a few sets of calf raises on the stairs. Or you could do high-knee runs or squats or sprint up two flights for eight-to-10 minute intervals.


Are Your Workers Stretching to Prevent Ergonomic Injuries?

Originally posted by Jennifer Busick on May 6, 2015 on safetydailyadvisor.blr.com.

Overexertion, slips, trips, and falls cause 60 percent of lost-time occupational injuries in the United States and cost employers over $30 billion in direct workers’ compensation costs in 2013. One strategy you can use to control these costly injuries is an effective worksite stretching program.

The aging workforce is one factor that increases the likelihood of falls: the U.S. workforce is aging. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one out of three individuals over age 65 will fall every year, and the incidence rate of falls begins to accelerate at age 45. You can improve the work environment—lighting, flooring, housekeeping—to prevent these types of injuries, but if you’re already on top of all of that, the next step to take may be to address worker factors like poor motor coordination and balance problems that increase the risk of falling.

Increased flexibility can decrease MSDs

An inverse relationship exists between flexibility and risk for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)—that is, as flexibility improves, employees reduce their chance of developing an MSD. Improved flexibility and range of motion in these three body parts will have the greatest impact on workers’ ergonomic risk:

  • Hamstrings. Hamstring flexibility relates closely to the ability to lift properly without injury. Individuals with flexible hamstrings can use the powerful muscles in their legs to bear the brunt of lifting heavy objects, while those who are less flexible often lift with their backs, putting them at greater risk for injury.
  • Shoulders. A larger range of shoulder rotation can help workers avoid injuries from reaching and pulling.
  • Trunk. Restricted trunk rotation is a common cause of chronic lower back pain, and a larger range of motion helps workers bend and twist without injury. Employees who have a range of motion less than 90 degrees are at increased risk for injuries, as are those with more than 30 degrees of difference in range of motion between left and right trunk rotation.

Tips for a successful stretching program

These three tips will help you establish a successful workplace stretching program.

  • Measure and provide feedback. Evaluate employees’ shoulder rotation, hamstring flexibility, and trunk rotation before the program begins, and compare their results to averages for their age and gender. Periodic reassessment can help them see their improvement.
  • Increase the challenge. As employees improve their flexibility and range of motion, the exercises in a stretching program should become more difficult; try for 3-month intervals. Not only will this encourage employees to keep improving their fitness, it will also stave off the boredom that can ensue when people repeat an exercise routine.
  • Make it mandatory. If you make stretching part of your voluntary wellness program, you may get limited participation. But stretching is value-neutral—it’s not likely to be seen as punitive or discriminatory, like weight-control programs or some other wellness initiatives—so you can require workers to stretch before their shift, during required “stretch breaks,” and at the end of their shift in order to ensure that they receive the benefits of stretching.

Millennials want healthier workplaces--10 things companies can do to develop a workplace wellness program

Originally posted March 19, 2014 on https://hr.blr.com

A lot has been written about the impact of Millennials—those born between 1980 and 1995—on America’s workforce. Companies seeking to engage them often focus on their tech savvy, their teamwork bias, and their desire for work/life balance.

A new Aon Hewitt study reveals another way to create a Millennial-friendly culture—help them manage their health. Dr. Carmella Sebastian, also known as “Dr. Carm” and “The Wellness Whisperer,” says smart companies will heed this advice in light of the coming workplace demographic shift.

“Millennials are very comfortable with the idea of employers being involved in their health,” says Dr. Carm, a WELCOA (Wellness Council of America)-certified expert in workplace wellness. At Florida Blue, Dr. Carm oversees the National Committee for Quality Assurance-accredited wellness program “Better You from Blue” and manages over 100 client consultations per year.

She maintains “as Boomers retire and Millennials surge in the door, the demand to integrate wellness into the workplace will continue to grow. Best to get on top of this now.”

Workplace wellness may be defined as any workplace health promotion activity or organizational policy designed to support healthy behavior in the workplace and to improve health outcomes. Participating companies might offer health education and coaching, medical screenings, weight management programs, on-site fitness programs, smoking cessation counseling, etc. They might also allow flex time for exercise, offer healthy options in vending machines, provide incentives for participation, and more.

“Harder to quantify, but just as impactful, is the fact that your investment in your employees’ well-being will jump-start their morale, loyalty, and engagement—all of which is good news for their productivity and your bottom line,” adds Dr. Carm. “And since the Millennials who are driving the wellness movement will be in the workforce for quite some time, think of proactively engaging with them as a smart long-term investment.”

Dr. Carm shares 10 components to include as your company develops its own company’s workplace wellness program:

1. Designate a wellness champion. As human beings, we learn by watching others and patterning our behavior after theirs. That’s why Dr. Carm recommends designating a “wellness champion,” someone visible and well known throughout the organization that is willing to be in the vanguard of implementing new wellness initiatives. Be sure to choose a person who has the authority to make decisions for the program and who can obtain the necessary funding to turn ideas into reality.

“In most cases this will be your CEO or chief medical officer, but not always,” Dr. Carm says. “I once had a CEO who hated to exercise and loved desserts. If your CEO is not game for becoming a wellness champion, have them appoint someone who is. (In this case, that was me!) It’s hard to tell 6,000 people, ‘Do what I say and not what I do.’ Remember, people will be watching their wellness champion. I had someone come up to me in line while I was buying a bagel to ask me why I was eating carbs!”

2. Form a wellness committee. Your wellness champion can’t be everywhere all the time, so find others who share the same vision and who are also willing to carry the wellness torch forward. Make sure to include all age ranges—Millennials included—in this group. Organize them into a committee with a charter and a budget. They will be empowered, and their excitement will be infectious.

“Don’t choose a group solely composed of ‘health nuts’ who are running marathons,” advises Dr. Carm. “Be sure to also pick some people who have struggled with their wellness behaviors. They will be easier for most people to relate to. For example, when my company went smoke-free, we had a committee made up of current smokers, prior smokers, and those who had never smoked. When we convinced the current smokers that we were on the right path, the news spread through the organization, and implementation of the program was that much easier.”

3. Know your population. If you’ve seen one company, you’ve … seen one company. The fact is healthcare and its associated costs differ dramatically from industry to industry and from organization to organization. (Think about how truck drivers differ from teachers, or how short order cooks differ from lawyers.) Before you get the wellness ball rolling, you need to know what you’re up against. Are your employees mostly sedentary? Are there a lot of smokers? Does your company provide a gym where the majority of employees exercise on a daily basis? All of these things will affect your healthcare costs.

“One key aspect of knowing your population is reviewing your claims with your health insurer on a quarterly basis,” comments Dr. Carm. “You also need to find out the reasons for absences (often, your worker’s comp provider can give you this information) and how many employees are accessing behavioral health providers (check with your employee assistance program vendor). But that’s not enough. By the time claims are filed and employees are absent, the proverbial horse is out of the barn.

“That’s why it’s especially important to assess the current status of your employees’ health,” she continues. “How do you find that out? Use the health risk assessments provided by your insurance provider and consider holding a health fair where you can have biometrics done (blood pressure, cholesterol level, height and weight, etc.). This will give you real-time information about your population and will reveal what your wellness program should focus on. Since Millennials place a high value on quantifiable health data, you’ll probably have an especially enthusiastic response from them.”

4. Assess your company’s culture. Dr. Carm suggests doing a cultural assessment (also called an environmental assessment) before you begin any wellness program. This will tell you what your employees really think about how health-friendly your organization is (which is often very different from what you think they think). The assessment should answer questions such as: Are the stairs available and easily accessed for use? Is every celebration accompanied by a cake or a veggie tray? What kinds of snacks are in the vending machine?

“As part of the cultural assessment, find out what health topics and initiatives interest your employees,” Dr. Carm recommends. “Putting together a great outdoor walking program won’t really be successful if you live in a place where the average temperature is 10 degrees and your employees would rather be bowling. Ask what your employees would like to do and how interested they are in improving their health. Make the survey anonymous, and you’ll get their honest answers.”

5. Go for the low-hanging fruit. As you begin to look at the data, a picture of your company’s wellness challenges will start to form. Your biggest problems will stand out. For instance, maybe 25 percent of your employees smoke, or there’s a high rate of obesity in your workforce. These numbers might actually be the easiest to move, so focus on the issues they represent first.

“At one company I worked with, smoking numbers were very high, and the rate of bronchitis and lung cancers were also higher than average,” recounts Dr. Carm. “So the wellness committee decided to grasp this low-hanging fruit and go smoke-free. In other words, no more smoking in front of the building or on any company property. This was a good strategy because studies have shown that going smoke-free can decrease smoking rates in a company by 6 percent. People who are smoking socially or for stress relief won’t put up with the hassle of having to walk off the property or giving up their lunch hour to find a suitable place to light up. We had 10 people quit smoking in the first month!

“When you are starting a workplace wellness program, you really want a successful first year,” she adds. “You need a win to let employees know that this program is not just a ‘flavor of the month,’ but is something that your organization believes in and will invest in.”

6. Don’t be afraid to ask for freebies. Paying for a wellness program can be costly, but not if you know where to go for discounted services and freebies. First, make sure that you are getting all the help you possibly can from your health insurance carrier. It is in their best interest to keep your employees healthy and you happy, and that means low claim costs. At the very least, your insurer should be able to provide a health risk assessment, and beyond that, most will cover the cost of having a health fair with biometrics. The labs can run through the medical claims so that should not be an extra charge.

“If your insurer isn’t willing to help with a health fair, or if you are a small employer, health risk assessments are available free of charge online—and you can collate the information yourself,” points out Dr. Carm. “Another great source is Welcoa.org. The Wellness Council of America provides all kinds of free stuff for the asking.” She also recommends looking for help in the following areas:

◦                     Ask local healthcare providers to perform biometrics. Doctors who are new to the area can get established by spending a couple hours of doing blood pressure checks, and health fairs are a great way for hospitals and group practices to market themselves

.

  • Weight Watchers® will come to your office and do a program at lunchtime as long as you have 15 people to participate.
  • The American Lung Association can provide assistance with a smoking cessation program. And as a result of a smoking litigation settlement that occurred several years ago, various states have great—and free! — online resources for smoking.
  • The American Diabetes Association may be able to assist with a diabetes education program or free screening.

 

“The bottom line is, don’t be afraid to ask,” says Dr. Carm. “The worst a person or organization can say is no!”7. Give your facilities a health makeover. For instance, if you have stairs, make sure they are safe and brightly lighted. Place signs by the elevators encouraging your employees to use the stairs rather than the elevators. If you provide food on-site, ask the cafeteria to load up on fruits and vegetables and avoid heavily processed foods.

“The same goes for the vending machines—ask the vendor to pack them full of pretzels and nuts rather than cookies and chips,” Dr. Carm notes. “And regarding food in general, remember that if you make the healthy items cheaper, they will be purchased.

“If your company is situated on a large enough plot of land, think about starting a walking program,” she suggests. “I often see companies’ outdoor spaces going unused, which is a shame! Pedometers are really cheap, and people love to get out and walk. Some companies have even instituted walking meetings, which I think is great. Walking is a terrific form of exercise, and all you need is a good pair of sneakers. Just be careful about walking off-site for liability purposes.”

8. Be sure to incentivize. It’s important to start your workplace wellness program gently and to reward employees for participating. You want people to understand that this is not a heavy-handed company and that your first priority is their health. So to begin with, Dr. Carm simply recommends making participation in the program your goal. Be sure to communicate that personal information will be kept in the strictest confidence no matter the size of your company. As employees get used to the program, which can take a couple of years, you can move to outcomes as a barometer of success. And in the meantime, incentivize early and often! Remember, Millennials cite tangible benefits as a big motivator.

“The good news is, incentives don’t have to break the bank,” she assures. “You can get employees to participate in a walking program for as little as the cost of a pedometer and a water bottle. A t-shirt can also be a great motivator. And nothing beats a plum parking space for a month to get someone thinking about good health habits!

“As your program advances, you will want to tie the incentives you offer into the benefit plan,” Dr. Carm continues. “One way is to offer a higher cost share by the company for certain outcomes. Another is to require employees to complete a health risk assessment in order to get healthcare coverage. Some companies even mandate participation in a disease management program in return for health benefits. You will want to consider mandates only as your program advances into years three through five, though.”

9. Celebrate your successes. As your workplace wellness program advances, transparency is important. Your employees need to know about setbacks and challenges, certainly…and they definitely need to celebrate successes! Whenever your organization focuses on and eventually reaches a goal, make a big deal about the achievement in order to maintain and increase morale.

“Take every opportunity to share participation numbers, statistics on progress, or best of all, human interest stories,” advises Dr. Carm.

“When a company I worked for went smoke-free, we let everyone in the organization know when someone successfully quit smoking (with the individual’s agreement, of course). We also held a celebration for the ‘quitters,’ during which each person told his or her story. This helped not only the smoking cessation program, but the wellness strategy overall, because everyone could see and enjoy the program’s tangible real-world benefits.

“Remember, everyone enjoys celebrations and rewards,” she adds. “Even your most health-resistant employees will put forth a little more effort when they know there’s something in it for them!”

10. Evaluate your outcomes and PLAN, PLAN, PLAN. When organizations start workplace wellness programs, a common complaint from employees is that the programs are only another “flavor of the month,” and that they will be short-lived. That being the case, you need to show that good health is part of the fabric of your organization—not a passing fad. Nothing does this more effectively than scheduling a yearly review of your program’s results and proactively planning for the coming year.

“These two activities are critical when incentives become part of the benefits plan as this is communicated to employees during open enrollment,” she adds. “Regardless, your wellness committee should formally review the outcome of the previous program year, as well as compile goals and suggest a budget for the next year. And, of course, their conclusions and recommendations should be communicated to all employees as a continuous quality process.”

"Over time, these programs create a “culture of wellness” that’s good not only for your company and employees, but for the entire community, asserts Dr. Carm.

“With the Affordable Care Act (ACA) aiming a spotlight on preventative care, it’s time for the business world to increase its role in helping people change their lifestyles,” she says. “In fact, the legislation includes a $9 million national initiative designed to establish and evaluate workplace wellness programs. As you focus on your own organizational health initiatives, know that Millennials are the perfect partners to help develop and roll them out. Young, health-conscious employees can be your staunchest allies and wellness ambassadors for years to come.”

 


The Perfect Workspace According to Science

Originally posted by Christian Jarrett on https://99u.com

The spaces we occupy shape who we are and how we behave. This has serious consequences for our psychological well-being and creative performance. Given that many of us spend years working in the same room, or even at the same desk, it makes sense to organize and optimize that space in the most beneficial ways possible.

When it comes to building your workspace you can aim for the trendy look and flick through some interior design mags, or you can let science guide the way. Based on recent psychology and neuroscience findings, here are some simple and effective steps you can take once to improve your productivity for years:

 Take ownership of your workspace 

The simple act of making your own decisions about how to organize your workspace has an empowering effect and has been linked with improved productivity.

Craig Knight, Director of the Identity Realization workplace consultancy, showed this in a 2010 study with Alex Haslam involving 47 office workers in London. Those workers given the opportunity to arrange a small office with as many or few plants and pictures as they wanted were up to 32 percent more productive than others not given this control. They also identified more with their employer, a sign of increased commitment to the team effort and increased efficiency.

If you are an office manager this suggests you should give your staff as much input into the design of their office and immediate workspace as possible. Many companies even give their employees a small amount of money to furnish their space. Alternatively, if you’re a creative in an open-plan office, try to find ways to make your mark on your immediate environment. Even the simple use of a pin-board to post your own pictures and messages could help you feel that the space is yours with consequent benefits for your work.

Choose rounded furniture and arrange it wisely

If you have the luxury of designing your own workspace, consider choosing a layout and furniture that is curved and rounded rather than sharp and straight-edged. Creating this environment has been linked with positive emotions, which is known to be beneficial for creativity and productivity (added bonus: there’s also less chance of knocking an elbow or knee on a sharp corner).

In a 2011 study, hundreds of undergrads looked at computer-generated pictures of room interiors and rated those filled with curvilinear (rounded), as opposed to rectilinear, furniture as more pleasing and inviting. Another study out this year found that people rated curvy, rounded environments as more beautiful than straight-edged rectilinear environments and that the rounded spaces triggered more activity in brain regions associated with reward and aesthetic appreciation.

This contrast between straight edges and curves also extends to the way we arrange our furniture. Apparently, King Arthur was on to something: sitting in circles provokes a collective mindset, whereas sitting in straight lines triggers feelings of individuality – something worth thinking about at your next meeting if you want to encourage team cohesion.

Apparently, King Arthur was on to something: sitting in circles provokes a collective mindset.

Take advantage of color, light and space

Choosing the right color and lighting scheme for your office is one of the simplest ways your environment can enhance your performance. Different colors and light levels have different psychological effects, so the ideal situation is to install a lighting system that allows you to alter the hue and brightness of your room to suit the kind of work that you’re engaged in.

For instance, exposure to both blue and green has been shown to enhance performance on tasks that require generating new ideas. However, the color redhas been linked with superior performance on tasks involving attention to detail. Another study out this year showed that a dimmer environment fostered superior creativity in terms of idea generation, probably because it encourages a feeling of freedom. On the other hand, brighter light levels were more conducive to analytical and evaluative thinking.

Not as easy to modify, but ceiling height has also been shown to have psychological effects. A 2007 study found that a higher ceiling was associated with feelings of freedom, together with a more abstract and relational thinking style that helped participants see the commonalities between objects and concepts.

Make use of plants and windows

If you only do one thing to optimize your workspace, invest in a green plant or two.Research has repeatedly shown that the presence of office plants has a range of benefits including helping workers recover from demanding activities and lowering stress levels. As a bonus, there’s also evidence that plants can reduce office pollution levels.

Another feature of an optimized office is a window with a view, preferably of a natural landscape. This is because a glance at the hills or a lake recharges your mind. Obviously a view of nature isn’t possible for many people who work in cities, but even in an urban situation, a view of trees or intricate architecture have both been linked with restorative benefits. If you can’t negotiate a desk with a view, another plan is to choose an office in your building that’s the shortest stroll from an urban park. A visit here will revitalize your mind and compensate for your lack of a view.

If you only do one thing to optimize your workspace, invest in a green plant or two.

The benefits of a messy desk

There’s a lot of pressure these days to be organized. How are you supposed to get your work done if you can’t even find a clear space on your desk to roll a mouse or place a plant? But new research suggests Einstein may have been onto something when he opined: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

Kathleen Vohs and her colleagues at the University of Minnesota found that participants tested in a messy room at a desk covered with paper came up with more imaginative uses for a ping pong ball than participants tested in a tidy room. This matches the views of consultant Craig Knight who has argued against the modern trend for “lean” workspaces. “We don’t understand psychologically why putting someone in an impoverished space should work, when it doesn’t work for any other animal on the planet,” he said recently.

It also fits with the advice from Eric Abrahamson – co-author of A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder – who says people with highly ordered desks oftenstruggle to find things because their filing systems are so complicated. He also points out a key advantage to a mess – you can find things in it that you didn’t expect. Discovering that ground-breaking idea you scribbled on a piece of paper two years ago could be just the spark to get your next project off the ground.

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It’s easy to neglect the importance of your workspace, especially if you’re under pressure of deadlines and not so into interior design. But hopefully this review has convinced you that the spaces we occupy really can affect us psychologically. It’s vital that you choose an office space that you feel happy and comfortable in. If your freedom is restricted, shape the space as much as you can to make it your own. Get your surroundings in order and the rest is sure to follow.


Training Is the Key to Effective Wellness Programs

Original article from safetydailyadvisor.blr.com

By Chris Kilbourne

Many employers turn to wellness programs to manage healthcare costs and improve employee productivity. However, recent research shows that educating employees about the programs is critical to their success.

"Well on the Way: Engaging Employees in Workplace Wellness," a white paper released by Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company, explains that strong communication drives the effectiveness of wellness programs. The company has found that more than half of workers do not know enough about their company’s wellness programs to participate in them. In fact, 52 percent of workers whose employers offer wellness programs say they are only somewhat or not at all knowledgeable about them, and the lack of knowledge is highest among young workers, less-educated workers, and lower-paid workers.

"Just offering a wellness program and expecting a majority of employees to participate—the 'if you build it, they will come' scenario—is prone to failure," says Steve Bygott, assistant vice president of marketing analysis and programs at Colonial Life. "Communication that clearly delineates the benefits of participation to employees is the first step to long-term engagement in wellness programs."

Case Studies

Winners of the National Business Group on Health's 2012 Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles awards, for example, have demonstrated a commitment to promoting wellness and educating employees about it.

Cardinal Health received an award for its Healthy Lifestyles program, which is part of the company’s overarching benefits strategy to support the well being and development of its employees. Cardinal Health incorporates work/life effectiveness initiatives, programs, and incentives that emphasize wellness and prevention. Among other offerings, the company provides its employees with education and awareness programs, as well as health coaching.

NextEra Energy, Inc. is another award-winner. Its NextEra Health & Well-Being initiative provides a wide variety of health and productivity management programs—with services in five primary categories: health promotion, fitness, nutrition and weight management, health centers, and an employee assistance program.

Other award winners include American Express® and HP.

American Express's Healthy Living corporate wellness program encourages preventive care and healthy lifestyles. Developed in 2009, the program was introduced in an effort to help employees achieve greater physical, psychological, financial, and social wellbeing through superior resources, enhanced access to care, and incentives to foster healthy changes, including health coaching, on-site medical clinics, and lifestyle and disease management programs. The company also received a Best Communication Tactics award for its global communication efforts to engage employees and develop a strong culture of wellness.

HP has created a global culture of wellness with its Winning with Wellness initiative. The program, which was implemented in 33 countries over the course of 1 year, equips employees with user-friendly tools and resources to take charge of—and be accountable for—managing their personal wellness, according to Aon Hewitt, which worked with HP to, among other things, articulate its wellness strategy and create a plan to implement and communicate the initiative globally.

Why It Matters

  • More organizations are realizing the connection between wellness programs and the productivity of employees and the profitability of their companies.
  • More organizations are, therefore, instituting wellness programs of various kinds ranging from gym membership subsidies to weight loss programs and smoking cessation plans.
  • As today's Advisor indicates, however, merely starting a wellness program isn’t enough; wellness training and education about the programs are critical steps to making wellness programs effective.

 


HealthyWage puts a little betting in competitive weight loss

Source: https://ebn.benefitnews.com

By Tristan Lejeune

Jon Whicker had a weight-loss problem. The finance manager and father of two from Utah, who at his heaviest weighed in at about 400 pounds, had joined a dieting competition with some family members. Several weeks in, things were going great until Whicker, 37, encountered an unusual dilemma: He had lost too much too quickly.

HealthyWage is a weight-loss initiative with an interesting twist — participants have bet their own money and stand to gain considerable payouts — but for health and safety reasons they place limits on shed poundage in a given timeframe, limits Whicker had broken. For the $10,000 prize Matchup competition, rules cap loss at 16.59% of starting weight over a 12-week period.

“I maxed out,” Whicker says. “I was 1% above that, like 17%.” Many people would call that an enviable problem, and indeed Whicker could sense success.

“Once that competition was over, I wanted to keep going; I wasn’t ready to stop yet, so I actually got a group of people from my office to do it with me,” he says. “So we competed in a second challenge in which I lost 16.4% of my body weight.”

That’s of his new starting body weight. All told, Whicker has lost 125 lbs. and gained $2,200 through the HealthWage programs, and he’s not done — he wants to get rid of another 50.

“Having some skin in the game encourages you not to give up, that is for sure,” Whicker says. “I could see teams giving up if they really hadn’t put any money out there. For me, just the competition keeps me motivated.”

That “skin in the game,” HealthyWage officials say, is significantly more of a motivator than the traditional incentives that employers offer with weight-loss programs. The wagered risk (and competitive nature) of betting on your own diet and exercise is seeing marked success, they report. HealthyWage officials says they offer a 49% and 29% success rates, respectively, for 5%+ and 10%+ weight loss.

HealthyWage offers three basic competition formats, all of which it says suit the workplace perfectly: The Matchup, in which teams of five compete together to lose the most weight (again, up to 16.59%); the 10% Challenge, where participants can double their money if they lose 10% of their body weight in six months; and the BMI Challenge, which rewards achieving a healthy body mass index.

 

 


Fight Back Against Workplace Stress

Source: https://safetydailyadvisor.blr.com

Stress is a big problem in the workplace, and the signs are everywhere.

Ever awaken at 3 a.m. in a sweaty panic over a work problem, a presentation you have to make, or looming deadline? Maybe you've lost your temper with the kids when the real problem was related to work.

The signs and symptoms of job stress are many and diverse—from a racing pulse to skipped meals, headaches, weight gain, depression, and lack of energy.

Whatever the cause, and however it manifests, workplace stress continues to be a problem—one that can cause reduced productivity, increase in accidents, and a spike in costs.

Stress Stats

The American Psychological Association (APA) observes that, "While stress levels appear to be balancing out, they remain high and exceed what Americans consider to be healthy."

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According to the APA and other sources:

·         69 percent of employees say work is a significant source of stress, and 41 percent say they typically feel tense or stressed out during the workday.

·         51 percent of employees report that they have considered or made a decision about their career (such as leaving a job or declining a promotion) based on workplace stress.

·         While more than half of adults say they are doing a good or excellent job of knowing when they feel stressed, half of them aren't doing as well at preventing stress.

·         Although 94 percent of adults believe stress can contribute to the development of major illness, a sizeable majority still thinks that stress has a slight or no impact on their own health.

·         More employees are reporting that their employers provide sufficient opportunities for them to be involved in decision making, problem solving, and goal setting—one hopeful sign, since these are all steps believed to reduce employee stress.

Signs of Stress

As if life outside of the workplace isn't stressful enough for most people, when they come to work, they often encounter more stress—lack of control over work, heavy workloads, productivity demands, tight schedules, conflicts with co-workers, and worries about job stability.

When workers are stressed for any combination of reasons, the effects can be insidious. Dr. Albert Ray, physician director of Patient Education and Health Promotion for Kaiser Permanente in southern California, points to common signs and symptoms of stress:

·         Acting angry and having a short temper

·         Dealing with others in a curt, inhospitable manner

·         Being present, but not fully productive

·         Transformation from a friendly team player to an introvert

·         Mocking the organization's strategies and visions

·         Physical symptoms, ranging from itchy skin to chest pain, fatigue, abdominal cramping, and ringing of the ears, among many others

·         Emotional problems like depression, anxiety, compulsive behavior, and substance abuse

And, of course, another symptom is carelessness. Workers may be too tense or worn out to pay attention and take proper precautions. That's when stress can lead to accidents and injuries.

 


3 simple programs to incorporate wellness into the workplace

The biggest challenge facing HR professionals looking to devote resources to wellness initiatives in their organizations is responding to the question, “What’s the ROI?” It seems intuitive that if you create a healthier workforce, your cost for health insurance should go down. But intuition only goes so far these days when it comes to expending corporate resources, and quantifying ROI continues to be a somewhat elusive target.

Sure, there is lots of evidence to support the notion that health management programs do pay off. Mercer's National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans has found that employers that demonstrated a greater commitment to wellness and health management experienced annual cost increases that were two percentage points lower, on average, than those of other employers. But, as compelling as that data is, it still doesn’t constitute scientific proof.

A recent study published in the American Journal of Health Promotion did provide some hard data on the ROI of a “comprehensive” health and productivity management program. Start-up costs led to negative ROI for the first year, but strong ROI in years two and three produced a combined 2.45:1 ROI for all three program years of the study.

The study represented the results of over 20,000 program participants each year and identified the following components for what researchers considered a “comprehensive” program: comprehensive program design, management support, integrated incentives, comprehensive communications, dedicated onsite staff, multiple program modalities, health awareness programs, biometric health screenings and vendor integration.

Whew!

Clearly, the study benefitted from the law of large numbers. When you have 20,000 participants, virtually any health management program you install is going to benefit somebody. But not every company has that luxury. Also, not every company will have the resources to incorporate every single aspect of a comprehensive program as outlined above.

Does that mean you shouldn’t even start down that road? No, absolutely not. Wellness and health management programs can be scaled to fit the needs of companies of almost any size, as long as you have the data to help identify what the needs are. But even without a lot of data or a lot of money to spend, a walking program, a healthy eating campaign or a “know your numbers” program will not only heighten awareness of health issues, it will send employees a message that their employer’s concern for them extends beyond what’s included in their job description. A healthier, more engaged workforce should be a more productive workforce, and everyone benefits from that.

Many clients may think that all this wellness stuff is a bunch of “hooey”; but with health costs continuing to escalate faster than wages, and employees’ increasing difficulty to afford cost shifts, savvy advisers will be prepared to discuss the many advantages of a well-designed health management program.

By George Lane