by admin | Nov 8, 2022 | Hot Topics, Human Resources
“What gets recognized gets reinforced, and what gets reinforced gets repeated.”
-Unknown
In today’s ultra-competitive work environment, the companies with the winning edge are the ones that have the best-trained and well-skilled staff. However, even the best employees cannot perform well (or may even jump ship) when they are not motivated enough. Praise and recognition provide the kind of positive experience that can increase employees’ morale, motivation and engagement, and renew their commitment to their organization. This is why employee praise and recognition in the workplace has to be an innate part of any company’s culture.
What is Employee Recognition?
Employee recognition is the acknowledgment of a company’s staff for exemplary performance. It is the timely informal or formal acknowledgement of a person’s behavior, effort, or business result that supports the organization’s goals and values and exceeds normal expectations.
Why Employee Recognition Matters
One of the biggest motivators for employees is to be held in high esteem by their peers. The best way of earning this respect is to be acknowledged for being good at what they do.
An increasing number of businesses are becoming proponents of mutual recognition, claiming that asking colleagues to praise each other helps to create a genuine atmosphere of positivity and fuels a sense of belonging and purpose. Employees thrive off acknowledgement and praise. Especially in the age of hybrid and remote work, it is not uncommon to experience feelings of isolation, so knowing that your co-workers appreciate you and value your input can help to effectively combat this.
But don’t just take our word for it – there’s plenty of data to back up the value of employee recognition programs.
One of the benefits of recognition and praise is that it helps create employee engagement. Workers won’t be engaged if they feel like nobody cares. A manager who praises is one who’s paying attention to the work and the worker. That personalized attention is crucial for the creation of an emotional bond between employees and the organization. And the strength of that bond, in turn, is behind higher productivity, lower turnover, fewer mistakes and accidents, and ultimately, higher profits.
Another benefit of employee recognition and praise in the workplace is that it can be the foundation of cultivating a culture of self-improvement. One of the best methods for staff recognition is to provide them with opportunities to learn and make themselves better at what they do. To take it a step further, it is also ideal to incentivize learning – reward those who have taken the time to focus on self-improvement.
There are countless ways to put employee recognition in the workplace into action; however, it all begins with company culture. A winning employee recognition program starts with having a company culture that advocates appreciation for top performers. This can be the foundation for solid staff engagement, continuous employee development, and an integral part of the company’s retention strategy for the future.
by admin | Nov 1, 2022 | Health & Wellness
Diabetes is increasing at an alarming rate in the United States. According to the CDC’s (Centers for Disease Control) National Diabetes Statistics Report for 2020 cases of diabetes have risen to an estimated 37 million (or 1 in 10 people in the U.S.). November is National Diabetes Month and is a great time to bring attention to this disease and its impact on millions of Americans.
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a chronic health condition that affects how your body converts food to energy. With diabetes, the body either no longer makes insulin or the insulin that is made no longer works as well as it should. Either way, high levels of glucose (a form of sugar) build up in the blood. When this happens, your body can respond in some serious ways that include liver damage, stroke, heart disease, vision loss, kidney disease and damage to the feet or legs.
Most Common Types of Diabetes
- Type 1 – usually diagnosed in children and teens. Type 1 diabetics need to take insulin every day to survive.
- Type 2 – develops over many years and is usually diagnosed in adults (but is developing more today in children and teens also). With Type 2 diabetes, your body doesn’t use insulin well and can’t keep blood sugar at normal levels.
- Gestational Diabetes – develops in pregnant women who have never had diabetes.
7 Warning Signs of Diabetes
- Frequent Urination
- Increased Thirst or Dry Mouth
- Unexpected Weight Loss
- Persistent Hunger
- Foot Pain and Numbness
- Fatigue
- Blurred Vision
Type 1 Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes, occurs when the body does not produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone responsible for breaking down the sugar in the blood for use throughout the body. People living with type 1 diabetes need to administer insulin with injections or an insulin pump.
There is no cure for type 1 diabetes. Once a person receives their diagnosis, they will need to regularly monitor their blood sugar levels, administer insulin, and make some lifestyle changes to help manage the condition.
Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes, the most common type of diabetes, occurs when your cells don’t respond normally to insulin, which is known as insulin resistance. You can develop type 2 diabetes at any age but it occurs most often in middle-aged and older people and tends to appear gradually. In most cases, medication along with changes in exercise and diet can help manage type 2 diabetes.
Gestational Diabetes
Gestational diabetes is a condition in which a hormone made by the placenta prevents the body from using insulin effectively. Unlike type 1 diabetes, gestational diabetes is not caused by a lack of insulin, but by other hormones produced during pregnancy that can make insulin less effective. Gestational diabetic symptoms disappear following delivery but gestational diabetes increases your risk for type 2 diabetes later in life.
Outlook
There is good news for those living with diabetes – and those at risk. Experts are learning more all the time about lifestyle steps for diabetes control and prevention. New medications and devices can also help you control your blood sugar and prevent complications. For more information on diabetes and how to make good choices, visit the American Diabetes Association website.
by admin | Oct 27, 2022 | Workplace
There may not be an “I” in team, but there is an “I” in disengaged.
What does this have to do with leadership? Well, regardless of what, why and where you lead, you — as the leader — are directly responsible for the engagement of those who follow you. It’s up to you to decide whether you are leading positively or negatively — and whether you choose to focus on engagement or merely output.
Effective leadership results in increased employee happiness, engagement, and retention rates. But that’s not all. An engaged workforce leads to 17% higher productivity, a 10% increase in customer ratings, a 20% increase in sales, and 21% greater profitability.
Improving leadership is an idea that can be difficult to grasp in tactical or practical ways.
The first step to improving it is to define it.
Leadership is “the act of getting individuals aligned and moving in the same direction toward a desired outcome.”
A key to effective leadership is the ability to define outcomes, but then helping individuals put their talents to use to get there. The best leaders know their people and are aware of their strengths and also their weaknesses.
This level of leadership is achievable when you work at building the leader-muscles in you. Here’s a quick list of the traits that leaders possess so you can begin exercising these muscles in your next leadership workout:
- Self-manage: Make a list in your planner or phone that outlines your goals for the week and how you plan to achieve them. You cannot manage others if you cannot manage yourself.
- Good communication: Many of us have heard the phrase “You have two ears and one mouth so you can listen twice as much as you talk.” An effective leader “knows when to talk and when to listen.” Leaders can communicate company goals and tasks to all levels in the organization and can gather information from all levels by listening.
- Accountability: A successful manager gives credit where it is due and is not afraid to take responsibility for mistakes made by them or the team. Shifting blame does nothing more than undermine your team. Taking all the praise does the same thing. Leaders evenly distribute both in a respectful manner.
- Promote teamwork: When building a team, it is important for the leader to create a culture of teamwork. This is beyond the task of sharing workload, it is also the leader’s skill of team-led problem-solving, communication, and reliability.
- Set clear goals with vision: Good employees can follow instructions and complete tasks. Good leaders share vision and good employees are motivated by it. “Vision can be defined as a picture in the leader’s imagination that motivates people to action when communicated compellingly, passionately and clearly.”
Just as you cannot build strong muscles in your body by occasionally going to the gym, you cannot shape leadership muscles by sporadically flexing these traits—you have to work them out daily. By continually doing the hard work of leading a team, you will be able to effectively build your team’s culture of respect and cooperation.
by admin | Oct 19, 2022 | Cybersecurity
An unfathomable excess of online data is generated every day as the global economy churns; individuals take to social media; and modern life strives to keep pace with advancing technology.
Securing that data is rapidly becoming a necessity as companies recognize it as an asset and realize the potential value in collecting, using, and sharing it.
In recent years, many companies have learned the importance of data privacy through breaches and privacy failures. To avoid such calamities, having protective measures and strategies in place is crucial. From the smallest of businesses to major corporations, everyone is at risk. As the data economy continues to evolve, companies find the roles of data protection officers and similar professionals becoming a demand. This demand intensifies with new regulations and standards on information security.
WHAT IS DATA PRIVACY?
Also known as information privacy, it is a branch of data security involving properly handling the collection, storage, and dissemination of information — including to third parties. Currently in the U.S., there is legislation in place regarding data privacy and protection in many industries. One piece of federal legislature in health care is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). It was designed to protect patient information in health care and health insurance.
Another federal piece of legislature is in finance and is known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). This was passed to help protect nonpublic personal information — such as income, credit scores, and more. While there are several regulations at state and federal levels, consumer privacy is regularly compromised by companies and governments. We are poised to see a significant increase in regulation in the future. As data protection regulation grows worldwide, the demand for global privacy and requirements also increases.
FOR BUSINESSES
Integrating data privacy training into your onboarding process and general training programs is a first step. Implement free security tools available on the market such as VPNs, encrypted storage solutions, and password managers. You can reduce vulnerability with these tools that are relatively easy to install and operate. Next, be sure to monitor your network for suspicious activity and potential attacks. These breaches can happen to organizations of all sizes.
FOR CONSUMERS
On a consumer level, there are some steps to take to improve your privacy despite not having much control over how organizations store and secure your data. A good first protective measure to take is in line with businesses. Password managers and VPNs are available on an individual level to encrypt your Internet connection and keep sensitive information safe. Also, be sure to back data often to secure it in the event of a compromise. Lastly, ignoring click-bait content and strange requests via email or social media is a simple way to protect your network and data.
Originally posted on Stay Safe Online
by admin | Oct 11, 2022 | Employee Benefits, Open Enrollment
Choosing the right benefits during open-enrollment season is so important and can help save money. It can also give individuals and families broader support with their health. Benefits like medical coverage are particularly important with high inflation having such a big impact on people’s budgets.
A survey by UnitedHealthcare found that nearly 40% of employees devote less than one hour to the open enrollment process. It is crucial to carefully analyze your benefits during open enrollment as any decisions you make will likely be locked for the year until the next open enrollment period. Don’t rush into open enrollment without carefully considering your options!
Here are some tips to ensure you make the most of your open enrollment:
Be Prepared
Open enrollment typically lasts for a short period (2-4 weeks) so knowing what you need to do ahead of time can be a big stress reliever. A good starting point is to consider how your needs have changed since last year. For example, maybe you got married or received a raise. These changes may require a change in coverage, whether it be for life, health or disability insurance, and it is important to consider how these or any other expected life changes will impact your insurance needs.
Review Any Changes Made by Your Employer
It is common for employers make changes to plans and premiums to keep up with the times. When you receive your open enrollment packet to review plan options, it is important to consider all aspects of coverage and the total cost of coverage. The total cost is impacted by the deductibles, premiums, co-insurance and maximum out-of-pocket expenses.
Take note of whether your employer made any changes in providers. If this happens, your current physician or dentist may be out-of-network which will result in out-of-network costs or denied claims.
Review Your Insurance Options
The largest portion of employer benefits is health insurance so it is important to choose the plan that is best for you and your family. Important questions to ask are: how often do you have medical expenses? Are lower premiums or lower out-of-pocket costs more important to you? Do you take expensive prescription drugs? Can you afford hefty out-of-pocket costs if there is an emergency?
There are 3 main plan types:
- Preferred Provider Organization (PPO)
PPO’s are a popular choice since they allow you to see any doctor or specialist and don’t require a referral from your primary care physician (PCP) to see a specialist. However, PPO premiums are usually much more than other plans. To help reduce costs, remember that using in-network providers and specialists who are part of your PPO network will save you money.
- Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)
HMOs have lower premiums than PPOs but they require you to stay in-network. You will also need a referral from your PCP to see a specialist. The idea is that the PCP coordinates your care.
- High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP)
Another low-cost option is a high-deductible health plan. What sets HDHPs apart from other plans is their low premiums and high deductibles. That means you won’t have to pay as much each month for premiums but you will need to pay more of the healthcare costs when you need services. To help you pay for the bigger deductible, employers usually pair an HDHP with a health savings account (HSA), which allows you to save for medical expenses, including deductibles and copays.
Learn How FSAs, HRAs, and HSAs Differ
Many employers offer accounts that help you save for medical expenses:
- Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
You decide how much pre-tax money to put into the employer owned account through payroll deductions and then you can use that money to pay for out-of-pocket medical expenses. You lose that money if you change jobs or don’t use it by the end of the year.
- Health Savings Account (HSA)
Connected to a HDHP, an HSA lets you set aside money on a pre-tax basis to pay for qualified medical expenses. The account is yours, so you keep it if you change jobs. The money rolls over each year so you don’t have to worry about “using it or losing it.”
- Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA)
An HRA is similar to an HSA except that the employer owns the account so you can’t take it with you when you change jobs. You’re able to contribute money for medical expenses just like an HSA or FSA. Money can also be carried over to the next year like an HSA.
Open enrollment is an important time of year and is worth investing some time and energy to decide what is best for you and your family. Health insurance is one of the most important purchases you make. By doing your homework and taking the time to carefully consider your options, you’ll find the plan that is right for you!
