News Bytes

Employers who provide vending machines stocked with junk food and fail to encourage staff to take exercise are being warned that they could be contributing to increasing levels of obesity and absenteeism.

Obesity can cause a huge financial drain on employers. Analysing the reasons for sickness absence in your organisation may reveal that the health and well-being of your employees can affect your bottom line. It's worth keeping an eye on.

50% of one-day absences in the UK cannot be attributed to colds and flus but according to a health consulting firm are more likely to result from work, personal or domestic issues.

Staff absenteeism and turnover are significant risks to business according to a Marsh study of 950 companies in Western Europe but respondents are not confident in knowing how to deal with them.

Stress costs organisations millions in sickness, absenteeism, poor morale and high staff turnover. A Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) behaviour consultant, Matt Hudson, believes that laughter is the great cure when it comes to combating stress, leading to more empowered employees & enhanced employee performance. So make time to laugh everyday!

Women who continue to breastfeed after returning to work have up to three times less absences from their jobs due to their child being sick than employee mothers who don't breastfeed. Breastfeeding mothers are also more likely to return to work following the birth of their babies and do so earlier if they are facilitated to continue breastfeeding after their return.

Workplace crèches are beneficial to both employers and employees and can have an effect on absentee and sickness rates among other workplace goals. A workplace audit that looks at absentee rates and punctuality can indicate whether childcare responsibilities are impacting on a company.

Today, some 84 percent of companies with 2,000 employees or more have a business-casual dress code, up from 79 percent two year ago, according to a survey of 1,400 companies by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

The Irish government has been advised by the Pensions Board to implement an increase in the state pension and create a new mandatory supplementary system.

But the government has appeared to reject the regulator’s ideas.

The regulator said in a report to the government that this report recommends that the most appropriate and practical approach to improving the position of pensioners in Ireland would be a combination of an increase in the State pension with a mandatory supplementary system for those at work who are not making supplementary provision. The system would be known as the Special Savings for Retirement (SSR) and individuals would hold Special Savings for Retirement Accounts or SSRAs.

A significant majority of global corporations currently have either a detailed avian flu pandemic readiness plan in place or are in the process of developing a plan, according to a Conference Board report, “Are Businesses Doing Enough to Prepare for a Pandemic?”, reported by Newswire. However, Amy Kao, co-author of the report, says the effectiveness of business plans and the quality of relationships necessary for their successful implementation in times of extreme public, private and social stress remains open to question.

Small and privately held companies represent the majority of those without an avian flu plan and are therefore the organizations most vulnerable to the risks of a pandemic, according to the report. Large and publicly held companies appear to be the most advanced in their preparations for a possible avian flu pandemic. The variability of business responsiveness to planning alone with large companies more willing and able to do so than smaller companies underscores vulnerability in the current state of pandemic readiness planning, says co-author David J. Vidal, The Conference Board’s Research Director, Global Corporate Citizenship.