2018 - Page 8 of 18 - Best Money Moves

Know the Warning Signs of Employee Burnout

by LizStevens | Jul 25, 2018 | Blog

There’s a fine line between employee engagement and burnout. Know the warning signs of employee burnout for higher retention and productivity.

Employee engagement drives productivity and retention, but it’s not all good news. Research from Yale University revealed 50 percent of moderately to highly engaged employees are burnt out. They’re passionate about their work and show high skills acquisition, but they’re also the employees most at risk for turnover.

Dr. Jochen Menges, a co-author of the study, claims his research can help employers. “By shedding some light on some of the factors in both engagement and burnout, the study can help organisations identify workers who are motivated but also at risk of burning out and leaving.” A shortfall of Menges and his colleagues’ research is its inability to pinpoint when engagement stops being productive and starts exhausting valuable employees.

The challenge is to find the fine line between engagement and burnout. It’s different for everyone. One way to tell is to watch for signs like frustration and anxiety.

The study measured engagement, burnout, demands, resources and how they interact and influence each other in over 1,000 U.S. employees. Employees that were ‘optimally’ engaged reported high resources and low to moderate demands. They had support from their supervisors through rewards and received recognition without having to struggle with cumbersome bureaucracy, demands for concentration, or heavy workloads. On the other hand, 64 percent of employees experiencing burnout reported high demands and high resources. Finding the right balance between resources and demands might be the key to productive engagement.

Look for common symptoms like exhaustion, frustration, anxiety, and inability to keep up with daily tasks. Monitor workloads to find out when it’s time to dial demands back and expand resources. Wellness programs can ease stress and help employees manage work-life balance, but if demands are too high employees will still burnout.

Research from Business Point Innovation Network and Pollfish found that 60 percent of working mothers and fathers experience burnout. Employees with children might be more likely than others to experience burnout, but there isn’t enough research on demographics to confirm which employees are most at risk.

Until there’s more research, it’s best for employers to assume any employee could be at risk for burnout.

Want to Reduce Your Employee Healthcare Costs? Start by Reducing Employee Financial Stress

by Josh Watkins | Jul 19, 2018 | Blog

Smart employers know that being proactive about the flu season can aid the bottom line by keeping employees healthier and reducing sick days. But they may not realize that becoming proactive about employee financial stress can also boost productivity and profitability.

“The latest studies show that when you’re stressed you get sick. And, when you get stressed about money, you can get really sick,” notes Best Money Moves Founder and CEO Ilyce Glink.

A Propeller Insights study of more than 1,000 U.S. adults found that 30 percent reported feeling “constant stress” about money, while 85 percent were “sometimes stressed.”

The American Psychological Association reported similar results in its latest “Stress In America” report. About one-third of respondents fear unexpected expenses. Thirty-percent experience stress when thinking about saving for retirement, while 25 percent find the ability to pay for life’s essentials stressful.

“The impact of financial stress is pervasive, negatively affecting not only the employee’s financial well-being, but also their physical well-being, engagement, productivity, absenteeism and even loyalty,” PwC wrote in a special 2017 report on stress and the bottom line. “All of these factors can come at a considerable cost to the employer.” For a company with 10,000 workers, the productivity cost of such distractions is estimated at $3.3 million per year.

It is well known that stress harms people via negative reactions on the body, mood and performance. Issues can be as short-term like a headache or more involved, such as sustained drug and/or alcohol use.

The APA reported more deeply on how stress affects each body system:

Musculoskeletal. Muscles tense up as almost a reflex reaction to stress. Chronic stress can possibly trigger other reactions such as a migraine.
Respiratory. Stress can make a person breathe harder, possibly leading to asthma or panic attacks.
Cardiovascular. Stress can cause an increase in heart rate and stronger contractions of the heart muscle. Eventually blood pressure can rise and, in serious cases, this can lead to an increased risk of hypertension, heart attack or stroke.
Endocrine. When the body is stressed, so-called stress hormones can affect the adrenal glands, cause the liver to produce more glucose, a potential issue for those vulnerable to Type 2 diabetes.
Gastrointestinal. Stressed individuals may eat more or less than normal. Stomach aches become more likely and chronic stress could lead to the development of ulcers.
Reproductive. In men, chronic stress can affect testosterone production and sperm production and maturation. For women, stress can affect menstruation, fuel PMS or cause fluctuating hormones.

Employers have long offered on-site gyms or discounted membership to help reduce stress. Others have enhanced employee benefits with boosted vacation time and emphasized work-life balance.

But more are offering financial wellness platforms that go beyond helping plan for retirement.

PwC suggests that employers look to “change both money attitudes and everyday behaviors that have lasting effects.” When this mantra becomes part of company culture, employees see their peers facing similar challenges and benefiting from a company support system that, according to PwC’s study, helps get spending under control, pay off debt, save more for major goals, better plan for retirement and/or better manage healthcare expenses.

This post was written by guest author, Chris Hardesty, who is a financial writer.

Open Offices Are Trendy, But Are They Effective?

by LizStevens | Jul 17, 2018 | Blog

In the Best Money Moves Roundup, we run down the latest news on open offices, paid leave, and keeping employees engaged during summer.

Supposedly, open offices improve communication and collaboration. However, a recent study published by The Royal Society indicates that the open office may be doing the exact opposite.

According to the study, face-to-face communication takes a 70 percent dive in open offices. Instead of fostering collective energy the study found that “open architecture appeared to trigger a natural human response to withdraw from officemates and interact instead over email and IM.”

The research also found that productivity declined after eliminating spatial boundaries. Considering 70 percent of Americans work in open offices, this is an issue companies are going to have to tackle in order to recoup possible productivity losses.

See more on effects of open offices and what you can do about it here.

What we’re reading:

What paid leave program works best for you? Paid absence policies are valuable to employers and employees, but they require a balance to make sure it’s beneficial for both sides. Ask yourself these 3 questions.

Help avoid the summertime slump. Summertime weather and activities mean there are a million things your employees would rather be doing than work. Use these tips to keep employees happy during summer.

“Ghosting” at work. The term “ghosting” that Millennials traditionally apply to relationships is also relevant to work. Learn more about new hires ghosting and the challenges facing HR.

Navigate the many options for employee well-being. There are endless employee benefits and with low unemployment you want to make sure you select the right one’s for your staff. Here are 4 tips to help build an effective wellness program.

Get ahead of termination. Problems that eventually result in termination can be prevented. Given the costs of turnover, it’s advantageous to try. See if any of these 11 strategies to prevent problems resulting in termination can help.

Amazon’s unconventional “Pivot” program. Underperforming employees can have a courtroom-style video conference with a jury of peers to make evaluations more fair and communicative. So why are some employees are protesting it?

Custom medical plans. Each employee has different healthcare needs and some new companies are offering the ability to customize their medical plans. How this trend is developing and its implications.

Have something to add? Email info@bestmoneymoves.com.

The Truth is Open Offices Aren’t Really Collaborative

by LizStevens | Jul 17, 2018 | Blog

Open offices should encourage collaboration between employees. But the truth is they aren’t really collaborative after all.

Supposedly, having an open workspace improves communication and collaboration. However, a recent study published by The Royal Society indicates that the open office may be doing the exact opposite.

According to the study, face-to-face communication takes a 70 percent dive in open offices. Instead of fostering collective energy the study found the opposite. “Open architecture appeared to trigger a natural human response to withdraw from officemates and interact instead over email and IM.”

Do You Work in an Open Workplace?

Lower Job Satisfaction Reported in Open Offices

A study published in SAGE Journals found that employees are irritated most by the sound of conversations, ringing phones and machines in the office. Noises like these are unavoidable in most open offices. They hinder productivity and are frustrating for employees who can’t tune out unless they isolate themselves further by listening to headphones.

Another study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health found that employees who work in open offices take an average of 62 percent more sick days versus other layouts. This is because viruses and bacteria spread more easily. But it could also be because the lack of privacy in open offices is stressful and stress makes sickness more likely.

Designing Around the Open Office Challenge

Although there are a number of challenges with open offices, they can be done right. Harvard Business Review determined what makes certain floorplans successful. They found that employees are more likely to respond positively to an open office layout when an employer conveys the vision for the space beforehand, is enthusiastic about the transition and encourages employees to adapt the space to their needs. The report notes, “When leaders encouraged adaptation and teams felt comfortable claiming the space as their own, they reported more place identity and generally felt better about the objective features of the space, like privacy, noise, and lighting.”

Work With Your Employees To Improve Open Offices

Communicate changes in office layouts, be enthusiastic about the space and allow flexibility so employees can make their office space more comfortable. While open floorplans have drawbacks, it’s still possible to create an environment tailored to the needs of your employees. Take back productivity, job satisfaction, and reduce absenteeism by making your office space work.

Your Millennial Employees Aren’t Buying Homes Now. Here’s Why:

by ryanwangman | Jul 16, 2018 | Blog

A recent study from the Urban Institute shows that many Millennials are forgoing home buying due to student debt and high rental costs.

The data is in: With a different socioeconomic makeup and different living preferences than generational predecessors, your Millennial employees are less likely to be homeowners than Gen Xers or baby boomers.

A recent report from the Urban Institute found that Millennial employees are more likely than their counterparts in older generations to delay marriage and childbearing, life milestones that often lead to homeownership.

And while Millennials as a whole are owning less homes, black and less educated Americans are falling even further behind. Minority households have homeownership rates close to 15 percentage points lower than white households. Additionally, there is a gap of about 10 percentage points in the homeownership rate for households with high school or less education versus those with some college education or more.

High rental costs and increasing student debt haven’t helped Millennials who are looking to save money for a down payment. In a recent federal survey, 53 percent of renters said a barrier to homeownership they faced was “I can’t afford a down payment to buy a home,” and 33 percent said “I can’t qualify for a mortgage to buy a home.”

The report also noted that Millennials prefer to live in high-cost cities with inelastic housing supplies. These cities — like the East Coast’s Boston and New York City and the West Coast’s San Francisco and Los Angeles — tend to have greater urban amenities and more job opportunities, making them more desirable for Millennials to live in.

To address these issues, the Urban Institute offered four key policy recommendations:

Increase homeowner awareness and financial knowledge by providing online training as well as education in high school and college
Utilize financial technology for a more efficient mortgage process
Include rental and utility payment history data in Millennials’ creditworthiness evaluation
Adapt land-use and zoning regulations to increase the housing stock

Whatever the next steps forward, it’s clear something has to change to enable a greater number of Millennial employees to set down more permanent roots and purchase homes.