Msnbc.com’s John W. Schoen wrote a great piece this week about the recent surge in U.S. business productivity corresponding with a drop in labor costs (“Americans working much harder – for less pay.”) The explanation is that fewer employees are carrying more of the workload at reduced salaries.
The news, which is likely to appeal to business leaders at first blush, may have a serious dark side: employee burn out, inability to attract top talent, and a looming loss of productivity when employee retention drops.
Productivity is a good thing, and something that Perspectives helps organizations achieve by providing workplace resources. But at the moment, many employees are working their tails off out of fear of losing their jobs – and that type of productivity won’t hold long.
Consumers are already strapped with the rising costs of living on a reduced income, impacted by layoffs and salary cuts. Employee stress levels are rising at work and at home. And, life goes on… the usual health, life and family issues continue to unfurl regardless of people’s inability to manage all the pieces at once.
It’s a recipe for organizational failure.
Layoffs and salary cuts may have been the right decisions for businesses to make to survive the downturn. But this is the moment for businesses to look forward and ask themselves: “How are we going to survive through the recovery and come out strong?”
The reality: You need your top employees, and that’s all you have left. You need them to stay healthy and productive, and they probably won’t be able to sustain this pace for long.
Short of hiring new staff and handing out pay raises (which would be fantastic for morale but difficult at this point) there are smart, affordable steps that businesses can take to keep employees productive while maintaining job satisfaction and creating long-term loyalty to your organization. Employee assistance programs (EAPs) that have fully integrated work/life services aren’t just sunny-day fluff for your recruitment brochure. There are great programs out there that provide benefits that employees and their families need right now, like:
- Financial Education. To provide a better understanding about how to manage bills, mortgage options, budgeting, sending a child to college and other financial challenges.
- Legal Help. Access to a lawyer and initial no-cost counsel can be invaluable if someone is about to lose their home, go through a divorce or deal with other life issues that take their focus away from your business.
- Child and Elder Care Resources. Finding daycare can take up to 12 hours a week during business hours, and elder care may be even more time consuming and difficult. Good programs will do the research for employees and provide them with the best resources and recommendations to follow up on.
Integrated EAP and work/life services that provide confidential stress counseling and resources to employees are a powerful way that businesses can support the workforce with a minimal investment. And, adding wellness services to keep employees healthy doesn’t hurt either.
So, how much does it cost? Pennies on the dollar compared to your other benefits.
Consider the cost of losing just one employee, which, according to an article on WebProNews costs 30-50% of the annual salary of entry-level employees, 150% of middle level employees, and up to 400% for specialized, high level employees! Then factor in the loss in productivity if employees have to leave work to handle personal issues and you don’t have anyone to support their job when they’re away, or the impact on your overall operation if employees begin to jump ship for better situations.
You’ll begin to see that work/life programs pay for themselves.
We all hope and believe that the economy will turn around. What remains to be seen is how competitive your business will be when it happens.
Tags: child care, counseling, EAP, elder care, Employee Assistance Program, financial education, legal help, Perspectives, Stress, work, Work Life, work/life, working harder, workplace, workplace resources
Leave a Reply