The Advantages of Automation

The Advantages of Automation

As schedules continue to get more and more packed with work, health, and personal responsibilities, prioritizing and organizing our lives becomes increasingly crucial. When you look at your daily to-do list, some tasks are obviously more important than others, but the significance of other tasks may be less apparent. Automating certain things, like paying bills, is a no-brainer, but there are other areas of our lives that can benefit from automation as well. Consider the benefits of taking automation beyond your Netflix subscription renewal to other important parts of your daily life.

Automate Your Finances

So many of us have automatic drafts for various accounts that we don’t even bat an eyelash at automating our finances. But think about those other bills stacking up on your desk. Have you ever forgotten to pay a utility bill only to discover the lights don’t come on when you get home from work? Automate your finances by setting up payments for everything from utilities to credit cards. If you give out of the generous pocket of your heart, you can even set up autopayments for donations to your favorite charities. And don’t miss out on the regular deposit you make into your 401k at work. If your company matches your contributions, make sure you automatically deposit the amount that they agree to match so that you are maxing out this benefit. Not only do you avoid late fees and added charges, but you gain the peace of mind that comes from planning ahead.

Automate Your Health

Few things in life are more important than our physical health, but so many of us put off taking care of ourselves. Be proactive and schedule tasks related to your health. Get your annual physical and annual dental exams on the calendar early in the year. Women need to schedule their routine breast cancer exam, and doctors recommend everyone 50 years and older, having routine colon cancer screening. By automating these health exams, you aid in early detection of diseases and reduce the impact should concerns arise.
In addition to annual health exams, you can schedule your family’s weekly meals. Planning out your menu of meals for the week saves time in deciding what to fix as well as time running to the grocery store for just one meal’s ingredients. Having a meal-prep day can be a weekly task that may end up saving you time in the kitchen every single day of the week. If planning and cooking aren’t things you enjoy, consider a meal kit service that delivers all the ingredients, recipes, and instructions to your door. There’s a meal kit service for every palate imaginable from vegan to kid-friendly to family style!

Automate Your Relationships

The most important part of our lives is whom we spend them with, so automating time with people is a great way to make them a priority in your schedule. Try starting each new month by looking at your calendar and planning relationship-building time. For instance, once a month schedule date night with your spouse. Book the babysitter, make a reservation, or whatever you both enjoy. You’ll have the added bonus of anticipating the fun, plus the ability to plan around what really matters rather than trying to “fit it in” after the fact. Maybe once a month, or every other month, you plan a girls’ night or get together with the guys every Monday to watch the football game. If you’re a parent, try scheduling one-on-one time with each of your kids.
Don’t stop there, though. Schedule a set time each week or month where you unplug from electronics and do something you enjoy. Read, spend time outdoors, take a class. When you automate investing in your relationships—with yourself and others—you are able to prioritize how you spend your extra time each day. You’ll also re-evaluate which relationships are truly important to you so that you can give them the time they deserve.
Automating your life doesn’t mean that you are stuck to a strict schedule with every minute accounted for or planned out. Instead, it means that you are looking at the things that hold the most value to you and devoting the time and resources you desire to make that part of your life healthy. Whether it’s finances, health, or relationships, you can save time and money and build stronger connections by adding simple automations to your life. Now get your calendar and computer out and automate what you appreciate!

The Risks are Real

The Risks are Real

Even when you proactively anticipate all the people risks that have the potential to impact your workplace, it’s easy to convince yourself there is no risk to youthat it will never happen here.
You may think no one at your workplace will harass anyone, no one will sue you over an honest mistake made in administering workers’ comp, no one will accidentally cause a data breach, or no one will ever bring a weapon to the office. You might think managing people risk is extremely time consuming and not worth the effort. Rationalizations like this may lead you to believe you don’t need to do anything to prevent these risks.
However, these risks are very real and can happen anywhere, at any time. It’s imperative you cover all of your bases, and it’s actually very straightforward, especially if you have a partner on your side.

Ideally, you will integrate people risk management (PRM) with your business practices so it’s not something extra to do; it’s a way of doing things you already do. PRM can be a lens through which you look through when evaluating your policies, procedures, and other aspects of how you run your company.

Acknowledging and Preventing Risk: A Four-Step Plan

When you are anticipating risk, you are thinking about what might happen. Then you need to look at what you should do when something actually happens and it’s time to acknowledge the risk.
Maybe a law passes or regulation is finalized, you realize your pay policies are not in compliance with the law, or an employee informs you they have been prescribed medical marijuana but you have a very strict drug use policy. What tools to do you have to deal with that?
Once you acknowledge the risks inherent in these issues, there are four steps to putting a plan of action into place to prevent the risks from causing damage to your company’s bottom line, its reputation, or to its level of employee engagement:

  1. Understand when and how the risk will impact you. If it’s a law or regulation, when does it go into effect? Is it an ongoing issue or something that can be addressed and then set aside? What are the potential penalties or pitfalls presented by the risk?
  2. Determine the best course of action. Does the situation require simple changes to operations or a more complicated approach? Where do changes need to be implemented — in handbook policy updates, procedural documentation, or new training programs?
  3. Craft communication strategies around the risk. Who needs to know what, and how much information should be given to people at each level? What information should be held back to preserve confidentiality? What information is only relevant to a handful of people (such as when an OSHA report is due) and what information is relevant to everyone (such as who needs sexual harassment training in your state)?
  4. Decide what change management activities are required to get buy-in. It’s one thing to decide to do something but getting people ready to embrace the change is another thing. If change management is good, then the changes will take hold, the implementation will be smooth, and the risks will be lower.

by Larry Dunivan, CEO of ThinkHR
Originally posted on ThinkHR.com

Opioid Addiction in the Workplace:  Resources for Prevention and Treatment

Opioid Addiction in the Workplace: Resources for Prevention and Treatment

The opioid crisis has driven overdose deaths in America to all-time highs. By 2017, the opioid mortality rate was five times higher than the rate in 1999. This crisis is not limited to one socio-economic class or one geographic area. Opioid addiction affects those in suburban homes, high-rise office buildings, and schools in every state in America.  Employers must address this epidemic in their workplace through education and services for employees, so that the tide of this crisis can recede, and their workforce can march ahead undeterred by addiction.

Opioid Addiction Explained

Opioid addiction most often results from the misuse of and addiction to prescription pain medication. It has become an epidemic that affects not only the patient, with implications in the workplace, as well. Many patients who are prescribed opioids for chronic pain don’t believe they will become addicted to them. But, with prolonged use, their need for more medication to achieve the same level of pain-relief increases, as does their dependence on these drugs.

Education Is Key

Educating your employees on how opioid addiction happens and what can be done to overcome it is essential in the workplace. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have many resources to help you with education that you can post around your office and workplace. Their website is also a great resource on educating the employer on what opioid misuse looks like and how to address it with your employees.

Resources for Employees

With an estimated 1.7 million Americans addicted to opioids, you can be assured you will encounter someone in your workplace who has been affected by this crisis. How can you help your employees to overcome this addiction? Your company’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a wonderful resource to offer. Each EAP will be different based on the service to which your company has subscribed. According to a recent survey, 91% of work organizations offer some type of EAPs for their employees. Most EAPs offer assistance in matching employees to local treatment resources, as well as short-term counseling and support/recovery groups. Also, EAP professionals are knowledgeable on treatment options and suggested ways to intervene when abuse is suspected.
The opioid crisis is real—now, more Americans are likely to die from an opioid overdose than an automobile accident. This epidemic has sieged neighbors, co-workers, and family. The workplace is feeling this crisis through lowered productivity of employees as well as increased healthcare costs. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the total “economic burden” of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement. As an employer, you have the ability to help turn the tide of this addiction crisis by offering education and employee assistance programs for your workforce. The right resources can help your workforce become educated on and overcome this addiction.

The Right Information at the Right Time

The Right Information at the Right Time

We are all drinking from a firehose of news and information — all day, every day. With this deluge of information, it can be difficult to determine what’s truly important to know. But being reactive is not acceptable. You need to know what’s coming, what affects you, and how it affects you.
Take, for example, legislative changes — 80 percent don’t require your attention, but the 20 percent you need to act on can easily get lost in the noise. It’s the 20 percent that expose your business to risk, but how do you know which 80 percent of information you can safely ignore?

Paying attention to the right information at the right time and setting the rest aside – knowing what you need to know – is essential to anticipating and understanding risk.

Where People Risk Management Comes In

People risk management starts with anticipating and understanding what presents risks to your business. It’s the idea you can look at something, understand it, digest it, and know if and how you need to act on this information. It’s a complicated sequence that no one has time to do, which is why you need a trusted and knowledgeable partner who:

  1. Knows what’s in the pipeline, such as newly-introduced bills that have the potential to become law.
  2. Keeps an eye on at what’s actually happening that may affect employers, such as when bills pass, agencies issue directives, or courts rule on cases.
  3. Determines what presents any type of risk to employers – such as litigation, noncompliance, or reduced employee engagement – and what doesn’t require action.
  4. Communicates promptly, consistently, and effectively, so you can use this knowledge to update your policies, stay on top of compliance requirements, and incorporate best practices in a way that reduces risk for your unique business.

Understanding People Risks: An Example

Often, when we think about risks to employers, we focus on insurable risks because they are well understood and easily quantifiable. It’s important to address these risks with solid prevention plans and insurance products, but it’s the uninsurable categories of risks, particularly people risks, that can catch us off guard and unprepared.

People risks can result not just in financial loss, but damage to employee engagement and company culture. They tend to be more subject to interpretation and can be very abstract.

Take, for example, the consequences of hiring the wrong employee or losing a valued employee. When this happens, you bear the cost of lost productivity and the time and money invested in recruiting, hiring, and onboarding. You also risk litigation if policies are not adequately documented, communicated, and followed should the employee claim discrimination, harassment, or disability accommodation is to blame for their separation from the company.
Hiring the wrong employee or losing a valued employee also carries the risk of negatively affecting employee engagement, which is a well-documented predictor of business outcomes. If it happens regularly, or there is even one instance handled poorly, your employment brand can be tarnished. For example, it could result in bad reviews on recruiting sites, chipping away at your recognition as an employer of choice.

Be in the Know

Whether it’s knowing how legislative changes affect your business or what risks are inherent in day-to-day employee management issues, people risk management starts with a solid knowledge base that evolves continuously to keep up with the latest employment trends, news, regulation, and information.

by Larry Dunivan, CEO of ThinkHR
Originally posted on ThinkHR.com