At The Forefront

2004-10-27T11:23:00.000-04:00

One Flu Over The Employer's Nest

2004-10-26T23:04:00.000-04:00

Ah.....Ah.....Ah.....choooo! So it begins. Sniffles and a scratchy throat. You feel like you're burning up, and then the fever breaks and you start to shiver. Your muscles ache. You have the flu.

You want to burrow under the covers with a quilt pulled up to your chin. Instead, you chauffer the kids, running errands in between pick-ups and drop-offs. Staying at home, in bed, isn't an option. Your sick days went to taking care of ailing children. Missing work means losing vacation days to the flu. Sullen, achy and miserable, you drag into work. Maybe you can close your office door, turn off the phone, tell your assistant you don't want to be disturbed, and put your head down on your desk. If don't have an office, you tough it out, trying valiantly to concentrate.

Ah, the flu, a malady that strikes nearly 20 percent of Americans each year. To employers, this means absenteeism and lower productivity. Think of the havoc this causes for staffing, maintaining customer service, and meeting deadlines.The average worker misses up to 1.5 days a year because of the flu, says David Cutler, a health economist at Harvard.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that healthy workers who had been vaccinated against the flu reported 43 percent fewer sick days and 44 percent fewer doctor visits as a result of upper-respiratory illnesses. That is until this year. As a result of the flu vaccine shortage, that absenteeism rates could double.

What this means to employers is that yet another front is converging on the workplace, making The Perfect Labor Storm even more imminent. First, the number of sick employees will Flu Vaccine Shortage Increases Risk of Presenteeism

Background checks

2004-10-25T01:06:00.000-04:00

What evil lurks in the minds of men?
It was summertime in 1971 when the pop single, Smiling Faces Sometimes, hit the airwaves. Coming into popularity after the 60s, a decade of social turmoil and distrust, the lyrics resonated to listeners.

Smiling faces sometimes pretend to be your friend
Smiling faces show no traces of the evil that lurks within.
(Smiling Faces Sometimes by Undisputed Truth. )

These same lyrics resonate today, but for a distinctly different audience. It’s you - hiring managers, small business owners, human resources directors and generalists reading this newsletter - who understand what can be hidden behind a smile, a warm handshake and a friendly demeanor. Consider the interview candidate who dresses well, gives all the right answers, and practically oozes personality. Everyone is bowled over and reference checks confirm gut instinct. You hire the person, and suddenly events start to spiral out of control.

(Source: The Total View, October 20, 2004).
Go to Background Checks