Resolve to Better Your Career in 2012

It’s safe to say there is always room for improvement.

And while it’s possible that you’ve made (and already broken) a few goals or resolutions for personal development in 2012, (did someone say they were going to do 100 sit-ups every morning or cut back on caffeine?) you shouldn’t forget to focus on improving your job performance as well.

The job market is a tough one, so while valuable, hard-working employees remain on the payroll, employers also understand that there is a wealth of talent for them to choose from should their employees begin to fall short.

Instead of sitting by complacently, make 2012 the year you follow through on your boss’ suggestions from your performance evaluations and take the necessary measures to continue to improve professionally.

To help you get started, here are a few helpful tips, courtesy of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.:

  • Find opportunities for more responsibility, which shows your employer that you are up to the challenge, thus increasing your value for the company
  • Depending on the size of the company you work for, this one might already be accomplished – go out of your way to meet leaders at least two levels higher on the corporate ladder
  • Become a joiner; and by that we mean join a committee – help plan the next company outing on the Fun Committee or join in with healthy workplace policies on a Wellness Committee. It can help you bond with co-workers you don’t normally interact with and shows your willingness to be involved
  • Get a mentor or become one – the benefits are endless
  • If your company offers any professional development courses or career-enhancing programs, take advantage of them
  • Increase your efficiency while decreasing costs. Employers are looking for ways to tighten up the bottom line, so they’ll be happy to take your suggestions under consideration and make a mental note that you’re working on their behalf
  • Learn everything you can about something and be the go-to person on the subject at your company; it will make you the most valuable player for that particular topic.

Decided 2012 is the year for a career change? Be proactive about it – increase your skill set, remain positive and do whatever is necessary to improve yourself both personally and professionally.

How do you plan to grow and evolve in the workplace this year?

Wellness Proves to be Hot Topic

Chuck Gillespie, Wellness Council of Indiana program director, was "on fire" during a recent Policy Call discussion with Chamber members. I say on fire because Chuck offered excellent, easy-to-remember wellness advice for all.

It started with the fact that wellness, according to Chuck, has "gone from a nice thing to do to a stratgic business strategy." Well said, and important to remember. A few additional highlights:

  • Three key questions everyone asks: Where do I begin ?; what are others doing ?; how do I measure what we’re doing? The Wellness Council and other resources have the answers to help
  • "Keep it simple." Good advice to remember no matter the situation
  • Replace the word "health" with "healthier" (as in trying to become healthier than you were yesterday); in addition, sub "active" or "movement" for the word "exercise" and its negative connotation
  • Not enough emphasis is placed on the fact that wellness and safety should be tied together
  • Four key words for success: consistency, leadership, planning and promotion

Learn more about the Wellness Council. And if you’re looking to enhance your wellness efforts, purchase the Indiana Employer’s Guide to Workplace Wellness.

The next Policy Call for Chamber members on Nov. 11 will feature Indiana congressman Marlin Stutzman. Details coming soon online or call (317) 264-3793 to register.

Does NFL Put Your Staffers on ‘Fantasy Island?’

I’m what you’d call a fantasy football enthusiast. I never allow myself to join more than two leagues, however (normally one with money, and one just for pride), lest I lose focus. And I’m not one to be bragadocious, but I’ve won my paid league three out of the last four years — but whatever. Surprisingly, women never seem to be as impressed by that on first dates as one might think. But they soon change their tunes when that $100 first place check rolls in at the end of the season and I treat them to a romantic evening at Applebee’s. "Go ahead, get some dessert; you’re rolling with a champion tonight."

Challenger, Gray & Christmas sent a release that I’ll post in its entirety below conveying that while 21 million American workers indulge in the seductive temptress that is fantasy football, employers may not need to view it as a danger to productivity.

With less than two weeks to go before the opening kick-off in the National Football League season, fantasy football participants across the country are undoubtedly spending more time than usual fine-tuning their draft selections and rosters due to a lock-out shortened pre-season.  Unfortunately for the nation’s employers, some of the extra time spent on player research may come during business hours.

However, even with an estimated 21.3 million full-time workers participating in fantasy sports each year, with some spending as much as nine hours per week managing their teams, the impact on overall workplace productivity is negligible, according to the workplace experts at global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

“In an information-based economy, productivity is very difficult to measure.  And the same widespread access to the internet from our desks, phones and laptops that allows people to manage their fantasy teams from any place at any time, also allows work to be completed outside of traditional 9-to-5 work hours,” said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

According to statistics from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, the number of people participating in fantasy sports in the United States and Canada has grown 60 percent over the past four years to 32 million.  The Association’s research indicates that 19 percent of full-time workers in the U.S. have played fantasy sports in the past year. That comes to about 21,253,000 workers.

Football is, of course, the most popular fantasy sport, played by roughly 80 percent of all fantasy sports participants.  According to market research, players spend up to nine hours a week planning and plotting their strategies for weekly matchups in 70 million free and paid leagues (the average player belongs to 2.5 leagues).

“It is impossible to determine how much of that weekly prep time is spent during work hours.  It is even more difficult to determine how time spent managing teams during work hours actually impacts productivity or the company’s bottom line,” said Challenger.

“If you look at a company’s third and fourth quarter earnings statements, it is unlikely that you will find a fantasy football effect.  The impact is more likely to be seen by department managers and team leaders, who have a better sense of their workers’ day-to-day work flow.  Even at level, though, it might not be worth cracking down on fantasy football, unless the quantity or quality of an individual’s work drops off significantly,” he added.

A survey conducted during the 2010 football season by Challenger found that fantasy football had little to no impact on productivity.  Ranking the level of distraction on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being no noticeable impact, nearly 70 percent said four or lower.  Less than eight percent of respondents said the level of distraction rated a 7 or 8 and none of the respondents felt the phenomenon deserved a 9 or 10.

“An across-the-board ban on all fantasy football or sports websites could backfire in the form of reduced morale and loyalty.  The result could be far worse than the loss of productivity caused by 10 to 20 minutes of team management each day.

“Companies that not only allow workers to indulge in fantasy football, but actually encourage it by organizing company leagues are likely to see significant benefits in morale as well as productivity,” Challenger said. “In the long run, this may lead to increased employee retention.”

In a 2006 Ipsos survey, 40 percent of respondents said fantasy sports participation was a positive influence in the workplace.  Another 40 percent said it increases camaraderie among employees.  One in five said their involvement in fantasy sports enabled them to make a valuable business contact.

Furthermore, a more recent study by researchers at the National University of Singapore found that occasional non-work-related web browsing at the office can refresh tired workers and enhance overall productivity.

Despite evidence of fantasy football’s positive impact on the workplace, less than eight percent those surveyed by Challenger last season said their companies “embrace” fantasy football participation as a morale-boosting activity and none of the employers reported officially organized leagues.

And yes, for the first time, the Chamber is having an internal league for staff. Of course, it’s just for pride (and assuming pride is a zero sum game, I plan to acquire all of it by the end of the season).

Eat Right America CEO to Keynote Wellness Summit

Kevin Leville founded Eat Right America five years ago when he heard that the Center For Disease Control and Prevention had predicted that this generation of children would be the first in our nation’s history NOT to live as long as their parents. At the time, he was CEO of a successful marketing technology company whose clients included some of the most harmful consumer products. Instead of contributing to the problem, he closed his company and dedicated his career to developing nutrition programs for America’s families. As the keynote speaker at the Indiana Employee Health and Wellness Summit, Kevin’s presentation, "A Simple Solution to Your Company’s Health Crisis," will help you learn what employers and your community can do to make a difference. 

Summit Investment
$199 for the first person, or send two employees and the second receives a 50% discount! Call Sarah at (800) 824-6885 to learn more about group discounts.

Registration
You may register online or by contacting Sarah at (800) 824-6885 or seminars@indianachamber.com.

Sponsorship
Interested in sponsoring? Opportunities are still available. Please call Jim Wagner at (317) 264-6876.

Jumping on the Wellness Wagon

I read a recent national study that noted the quantity of wellness programs for employers is not the problem; it’s the quality that’s lacking.

Why are the initiatives not effective in some cases?

  • Not customizing the program to your workplace culture
  • A lack of commitment from senior leadership
  • Ineffective communication about elements of the wellness effort

The research is here; part of the solution can come from attending the Indiana Employee Health and Wellness Summit on September 1 at the Indianapolis Marriott East.

Gov. Mitch Daniels will be there to provide a dynamic opening; state and national experts will deliver keynote and luncheon addresses; and different education tracks will help show you how to successfully implement and improve your wellness programs. The bottom line: enhance your employees’ health and your organization’s bottom line.

Check out the details. A small investment could pay big dividends.

Billy Joel was Right; It’s a Matter of Trust

When the economy improves, do you expect your staffers to stay put? According to a new survey from Deloitte, many American employees may be searching for greener pastures. The reason? Lack of trust in leadership. You’d be wise to make sure that’s not the case at your company. The New York Post writes:

Just wait until the recession is over.

One-third of American workers claim they will look for a new job once the economy gets better, according to a survey released today.

A whopping 48 percent of those who want to change jobs are mainly motivated by a loss of trust in their employers, according to Deloitte’s fourth annual "Ethics & Workplace Survey."

“With lack of trust and transparency factoring into the employment decision of roughly half of the respondents who plan to job hunt in the coming months, business leaders must be mindful of the importance of both on talent management and retention strategies, as well as the bottom line impact,” said Sharon Allen, chairman of the board at Deloitte.

Forty-six percent also said a lack of transparent communication from their organization’s leadership was the reason why they were not happy at work.

“The survey shows that trust and flexibility are critical in today’s workplace," said Allen.

After all, you can’t go the distance, with too much resistance … and so forth.

 

When to Invest in Worksite Wellness

The following is a guest post from Sally Stephens, president of Spectrum Health Systems in Indianapolis (an Indiana Chamber member).

Do any of us really know how health care reform will affect worksite wellness in the future? With many things still left in the air, undefined and or not clearly explained, we are left to prepare the only way we know how: continuing to focus our strategies on keeping the healthy, healthy and targeted lifestyle interventions to help the unhealthy get well. Organizations that choose to invest in similar strategies during tough economic times recognize the health of their employees is as important as having the right people.

In the book “Good to Great,” Jim Collins made an analogy of having the right people on the bus. The preface of the analogy is that by having the right people in the right seats the bus will be more operationally sound and successful. I would like to take this a step further by adding tires to the analogy. Continue to think of the bus as the organization but now the tires on the bus are those employees with the primary responsibility of moving the bus forward.  Assuming the right people are in the right seats and the tires are healthy, technically your bus should be running optimally.  Now imagine you stop providing attention and care to the tires on your bus. How do you think this affects the performance of the bus? The tires on the bus are the foundation and any unhealthy changes to the tires will ultimately affect the rest of the people on the bus as well as the bus itself. Likewise, any improvement to the health of the tires will have a positive affect. Your wellness strategies should be designed to provide the attention and care needed to improve the life and performance of your tires.

Unfortunately, the value placed on wellness is not always associated with the health of an entire organization. Whether you believe health care reform is a good thing, or a bad thing…the bottom line is good health is always a good investment and even more so during tough economic times. Behavior change is closely related to the culture and the environment we work and live in. By lowering the priority placed on health we ultimately risk the healthy becoming unhealthy, and the unhealthy becoming sick.

Legislature Shooting in the Dark on This One

Do you want the factual or the emotional arguments against what has become an unfortunate Indiana General Assembly tradition in recent years — consideration of legislation to allow guns to be brought into the workplace? The Senate actually passed such a bill in 2009 (by a 42-8 vote) and it returns this morning in the Senate Corrections, Criminal and Civil Matters Committee (in the form of SB 25).

Yes, individuals have a right to bear arms. But property owners certainly have the right — and obligation — to provide a safe workplace for their employees. The consequences are bad, often deadly, when guns and the workplace mix. Some of the facts that Chamber issue expert George Raymond will share in testimony:

  • October 2009 study by University of Pennsylvania researchers that shows people in possession of a firearm are almost 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than people who are not in possession of a firearm. It cites a number of reasons why possessors of guns are in more, not less, danger.
  • A previous case study in North Carolina found that the "risk of a worker being killed at work was substantially higher in workplaces where employer policy allowed workers to keep guns … relative to those where all weapons were prohibited."
  • Texas, known for its straight and not-so-straight shooters, became one of the most recent states to "just say no" in 2009, rejecting bills that would have allowed guns in college classrooms and in cars in company parking lots.

If emotion is more your flavor, how about:

  • Last week’s St. Louis manufacturing company shooting that resulted in four deaths and five people being wounded.
  • The 2008 Henderson, Kentucky tragedy in which a disciplined worker retrieved a pistol from his car and proceeded to kill five people before shooting himself.
  • Two Northern Indiana incidents within four months of each other (in Goshen and South Bend in 2001 and 2002, which resulted in seven deaths and others being wounded).

Really, guns in the workplace? The goal should be to help Indiana companies and their employees prosper, not unnecessarily put them in the line of fire.