Companies that provide support in the area of child and elder care are ahead of the curve and perhaps the competition. There’s new evidence such company-sponsored work life benefits have an impact on employee health and well being which might lead to higher productivity and lower health care costs. The obvious story here is that when employees have one less burden to distract their attention, they’ll likely be more engaged at work and more productive. This is a very basic principle of cause and effect, but is it enough to ignite interest towards change?

A study done by Bright Horizons Family Solutions (which offers such employer services) in conjunction with Dr. Jamie Ladge of Northeastern University, found that employees who work for companies that offer child and elder care support reported less stress and health issues. The study reviewed data from 4000 working parents to compare health, wellness and stress outcomes.

The study “revealed that there is a clear link between employer-sponsored dependent care supports and decreased stress and stress-related illnesses as well as decreased incidences of physical health issues such as headaches and digestive problems and more serious health issues like high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.”

This study sheds light on the benefits of employee wellness not just from a physical standpoint, but from a birds eye mental view as well.

Workers with employer-sponsored dependent care benefits were less stressed and:

• Were 31%  less likely to report lost productivity
• Reported 25%  fewer personal health concerns

Paying attention to the well being of an employee is not just about perks, it’s about a holistic approach to their needs. Family issues are playing more and more of a role at the intersection of the work life merge. And some companies are starting to wake up to that. But the issue of bottom-line marketplace needs plays a role here.

Until corporations can see the results of such benefits on the spreadsheets, are the results of such studies less the harbinger of things to come, and perhaps more of a pipe dream. What are your thoughts?

The capital was the meeting place as the American Psychological Association honored companies which have risen to the occasion, making the workplace a bit more manageable in a time of tumult. It’s Psychologically Healthy Workplace Awards were handed out to five organizations for their efforts to “promote employee health and well-being while enhancing organizational performance.”

I look forward to the awards and the fresh statistics from the APA every year on this topic because I think it’s a needed reminder that we are human beings at work, and not just cogs in the wheel of the corporate machine. Since I started blogging on programs, people and companies three years ago that are making “the work life merge a more positive journey of exploration,” the APA has been one of the more consistent streams of information connecting the human experience to the working experience.

With cash-strapped companies looking for a helping hand rather then generally lending one to employees, work life initiatives and wellness programs have a hard time carrying much weight. But as the business imperative is revealed more and more in the spreadsheets, and in employee retention, engagement and productivity, perhaps we have reason to be more optimistic that companies will take notice.

The five organizations honored this year reported a turnover rate of just 9%, in contrast to the national average of 41 % as estimated by the U.S. Department of Labor. That’s cash in the bank for those companies which can concentrate more on growth and productivity rather than just struggling in the arena of recovery.

The proof was often in the bottom-line and/or positive employee productivity for the companies that scored high on the APA benchmark scale for A Psychologically Healthy Workplace. Here’s a sampling of some of the outcomes in companies that implemented a variety of work life initiatives:

• American Cast Iron Pipe Company:  Positive health outcomes. Hundred of employees have quit smoking, more than a thousand began an exercise program and hundreds more lowered their blood pressure to within normal limits.
• Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare: Employees have made significant strides in morale, job satisfaction and work efficiency and the company has seen major improvements in its customer relations, operating margin, turnover and productivity.
• Leaders Bank: Since the roll-out of its wellness program, sick day utilization has decreased with employees now using an average of only 1.4 sick days per year.
• Advanced Solutions: Voluntary turnover dropped from 7.9 percent in 2008 to 4.1 percent in 2009 and measures of employee engagement have steadily increased.
• The Toronto Police Service: Improvements in equipment and training provided to uniformed employees have led to a decline in the average number of days lost to workplace injury, keeping officers on the job and contributing to their families and communities.

Read more about the topic at the Good Company Blog.

In this weeks WorkLife Nation Webisode, you’ll hear about the inner workings of the Psychologically Healthy Workplace.

The most valuable commodities are no longer just money or time; more specifically, it’s your attention. And in a workplace that is overloaded with stimulation, as we morph into digital natives, employers face daily new hurdles to engage an employees attention.

Part of the challenges are mounting health care issues leading to stress in the workplace. As we recognize National Work & Family Month, workplace wellness is grabbing headlines. Congress is turning up the heat on the health care debate and H1N1 is boiling up a storm on the front burner. If an employee is not well, their attention will be diverted and they’re just not going to perform as well. Common sense.

The Wellness of the American Workforce – NOT!

In a recent report from the Families and Work Institute on the State of the American Workforce, data shows the health of the employed American worker is spiraling downward.

• Only 28% of employees today report that their overall health is “excellent,” down from 34% just six years ago
• Two-thirds of the American workforce is overweight
• 41% of employees report experiencing three or more indicators of stress
• One in three employees experiences one or more symptoms of clinical depression

The report calls for reform in creating more “effective workplaces” which is based on six measurable criteria. The findings indicate that a more effective workplace makes a difference for an employees health and well being. Kathie Lingle, Executive Director of the Alliance for Work-Life Progress echoes this idea in a recent article on The Huffington Post, “Seven Ways you Can Win the Battle to Control Your Own Life:”

“Workers should use this time to take steps to strengthen their physical, mental and financial health. Companies, meanwhile, should take stock of their management strategies in order to maintain productivity and alleviate the burden on their employees.”

In our 24/7 economically challenged environment, workplace wellness initiatives aren’t carrying enough weight even in the face of the healthcare debate. Such workplace wellness initiatives like nutritional counseling, financial advising and programs like flextime and shorter work weeks are too often seen as “perks” as opposed to long term strategies. But only sustainable long term programs will act as incentives toward changing behavior, leading to healthier more attentive and engaged workers.

How do you measure wellness?

This conversation is not given the airtime it deserves and the overarching quandary seems to be metrics, even with non-profits like the Families and Work Institute, Alliance for Work-Life Progress and Corporate Voices for Working Families leading the charge. Companies want the hard figures to reflect in their spread sheets which makes quantifying. Wellness programs must yield financial benefits.

When employee attention is diverted due to health issues and/or stress, both employers and employees end up losing. Solution? More emphasis on wellness programs at work. Not just the fluffy on-site gym kind, but behavioral and environmental modification.

Changing Behavior @ Work

Changing behavior is an uphill battle unless you have buy-in and participation from employees and employers. As we are living with an “attention crash” mentality, we’ve got to first understand the value of that attention. Rick Jarow Ph.D is a Vasser College professor and one of my cherished mentors in everything work-life who is a progressive career counseling. Here’s what he shared recently on his thoughts of attention:

“Your greatest asset is attention. Everyone is vying to control your attention because that’s what creates reality. Where ever you place your attention is where your life will expand. Engage it.”

Many companies are educating their employees and offering wellness programs, but how serious are they about follow-through and quantifying the results? If companies do not offer the experience in an appetizing way, modify the programs, and create a wellness culture in an organization – a new model of workplace wellness, health and employee engagement will not emerge. (Please check out Maggie Jackson’s Balancing Act post in the Boston Globe for more on this including a success story)

Bringing attention to workplace wellness is a prerequisite to fostering changes in behavior. An evolution of sorts is called for. But how can we ignite the interest of the employer and engage workers long enough to capture their attention? Oddly enough, thoughts on this poured into my head at a recent public discourse on online marketing hosted by the Center for Communication at The New School in NYC.

The conversation focused on competitive marketing in a digital age. But whether you’re marketing a new product or workplace wellness – you’re still vying for attention. Here’s what digital visionary Mark Ghuneim, CEO of Wiredset, said at the discussion with media business guru Jack Myers (Jack Myers Media Business Report & MediaVillage.com)

“How do you engage? You can change behavior – based on engagement.”

Mr. Ghuneim gave the example of a recent YouTube video which shows how people better engage when they are enjoying an experience. It’s part of a site called TheFunTheory.com, an initiative of Volkswagon. Here’s the idea:

Something simple and fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.

When employees engage in an experience they enjoy – perhaps they’ll be more likely to change their behavior. It might sounds simple but the video is telling. In the interest of stress reduction and workplace wellness, perhaps we can start with a healthy dose of fun and serenity. Enjoy!

It’s been eight years since our world changed in an instant on September 11th 2001. Our world perspective was suddenly viewed through a new expanded lens courtesy the internet, globalization, international security and economic concerns. As a reporter for the national radio program, Marketplace Morning Report, my world was turned upside down as I reported from the rubble of the World Trade Center and Wall Street.

But from the chaos of 911 emerged a new passion for me: to identify and report on the drastic changes, dynamic innovations, and demons in our work life culture. Nearly three years ago I started blogging on the topic, then came podcasts (you can hear these at my Judy Martin Speaks site) and now I’m taking it up a notch into my comfort zone of television. This is the first episode of WorkLife Nation. Here’s the back story:

911 brought many painful but rich memories which will forever be etched into my heart and mind. Learning that my friend, News 12 Photographer and NYC Police Officer Glenn Pettit was killed in Tower 2, was deafening to the soul. But the camaraderie we all experienced always rings through this time of the year. I had the gift of volunteering with the children of the victims at Pier 94 where the families were offered services.

Our lives would never be the same again, nor would our work lives and careers, which fascinated me. 911 stirred the pot and had us questioning how we live our lives and how we work. Did we live to work  - or work to live?  Economic setbacks and shifts in our social structure continued to fuel a blur between work and life.

Furthermore, the idea that passion and profit were mutually exclusive was dealt a seismic shift in my brain regarding career and work. “It doesn’t have to be that way,” I thought, “We can rebuild him, we have the technology to make him better (theme song from The Bionic Man, The Bionic Woman) we have the capability to create a happier and more satisfying working experience – a vocation.”

911 catapulted me into a world where I felt compelled to examine and report on our work life culture from a more human perspective: from the post-911 workplace fears, to corporate malfeasance, to family leave, to the Americans with Disabilities Act, to employee engagement, to work life flexibility and the elusive work life balance debate. From the ashes of chaos during 911 emerged a passion to figure out how the work life merge might be navigated with more awareness and consciousness. Thus, WorkLife Nation was born.

WorkLife Nation Episode One: The Great Merge!

In the first episode of  WorkLifeNation Success, Serenity & Significance 24/7 –  you’ll hear about how the internet as a catalyst is changing the way we work and do business in a challenging new economy.  We’re more connected, and our workplace is evolving, entrepreneurs abound and many work from home. Be it baby boomer, Gen X or Gen Y, many thirst for more meaningful work,  but demand more family and me time. The lines have blurred in the quest for success, serenity and significance in our worklife .

We’re redefining success in terms of values, passion and profit. You’ll hear from author and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuck of WinelibraryTV.com. Passion is the underlying theme in his book: “Crush It.” Social Media Guru Chris Brogan who wrote “Trust Agents“ with colleague Julien Smith, talks about the core value of trust, when doing business on the internet.

But to succeed -we have to keep the flame going and that means Serenity: cultivating resilience while navigating sensory overload. Exercise, Yoga and mediation are gaining speed at work. That’s where  Andrew Newberg M.D shares from his book, “How God Changes your Brain.”

From there you’ll hear from Cali Williams Yost – CEO of WorkLIfeFit Inc. We’ve done some work together  and she’s got her finger on the pulse of worklife flex. The more flexible we are the easier it will be to make a difference -and that’s where significance comes in. Conscious work toward a greater purpose. Deepak Chopra weighs in on his thoughts.

In these radically changing times people are clamoring for more humanity in work and in business. Question is, how can we have more meaningful work and master success, serenity and significance  in the chaotic waters of a world that changes in an instant. You’ll hear a lot more from these pioneering voices in future episodes of WorkLifeNation.

“Take a deep breath and count to three,” I told a colleague who stormed into my office with a justifiable complaint about her manager. She answered, “It’s about respect, she’s not even giving me her ear.” Listening to her rundown of what had occurred, I suggested she speak with her manager after she blew off some steam to diffuse her anger.

It was one of those final-straw episodes where someones ego was about to be eviscerated. No telling at this point who’d be going down this time in an ongoing conflict between two strong personalities, which had erupted a number of times. After work however, these two well-mannered conscious beings talked things out. But it took that moment of chaos to address what had been months in the making; an ego battle which refused to die between two stressed-out talented colleagues who were also friends.

Sometimes the pinnacle of a chaotic episode triggers change for the better. In this case a stressful situation had been brewing for some time and these two colleagues chose to handle it in a polite manner.

Most inspirational or leadership philosophies teach us to look at the chaotic challenges around us at work and in business, as for opportunities for growth. But let’s take it a step further and look at them as opportunities to identify what triggers stress in our lives – and raise our “stress awareness” at work to better tackle it.

April is Stress Awareness Month. It’s time for spring cleaning, so it’s a good time to detox our working and business lives. I wrote about this in my post, Work/Life Detox helps to Cultivate Resilience.

Here are  a few ways to first identify the stressful elements so you can detox and face them head-on. It’s an opportunity to form some new healthy habits around managing stress.

1. WorkLife Flexibility Patterns: Keep a daily log of the places where your working situation intersects with your family needs. Examine the conflicts that arise and your solutions to them. Is there a plan B in place when things don’t go as planned? It may be as simple as adapting new protocol to getting the kids off to school, helping them with homework or making arrangements to come to work earlier  - to leave later. If your work/life flexibility practices are causing you stress, is there a solution that you and management can agree upon?
2. Working Relationships: Do an inventory of your relationships at work or in business. Have any of them reached a boiling point? Grab a piece of paper and draw two columns. In the first column write down the names of the colleagues who you find to be most supportive at work. These are the people who you view as generally positive and energizing. In the second column, write down the names of the people who are not positively contributing to your working experience. Everyone has a bad day, but you’ll start to see patterns. Consider the people in column two. Are any of those relationships triggering stress for you? Only you can decide if that particular relationship needs work on your part, or whether you should simply detach as best as you can.
3. Work/Life Burnout: Many of us are burning the midnight oil to keep our jobs, or stand out in a challenging job market. There is an enormous amount of pressure to perform and produce efficiently. If the chaos of burnout is ignored it can lead to health issues. Keep a running log of your working hours and then examine them at the end of the week. Are you working more hours on certain days than others? If so, try to identify the days which appear to be most stressful and for what reasons. Try to schedule some downtime on particular days or at particular times throughout the day that are less chaotic, to help alleviate stress.
4. Information Vigilance: We’re bombarded by many mediums of information. Too much information can trigger stress. Sometimes we get caught in the loop of surfing the Internet or having to answer every email the moment it comes in. The e-mails count can be overwhelming and cause stress because we’re now living in a real time climate of instant gratification. Our clients and colleagues expect immediate responses. If you commit to checking and responding to e-mail that are not time sensitive – just a few times a day – be sure to let your clients and colleagues know of your patterns if you make a radical departure from the way you used to do things.

Huffington Post: Men and Women deal with Stress Differently

Reuters UK: Worker’s Tune out Stress with Music

 USA today: Donna Karan makes Room for Yoga at NYC Hospital

The U-S Government: A mental health guide to get through Recession Stress

The Evening Star, U-K: Workplace Stress in Spotlight

Tampa Bay: Walking to Reduce Stress

CBC News, Canada: Good Health is Good Business

The Guardian, U-K: Workplace Stress Management

In an exceptionally healthy workplace  in the 90′s,  an on-site gym, cleaner organic food in the company cafeteria, and the occasional chair massage might have been the norm. These days, since workers are more concerned with keeping their jobs than putting on a few extra pounds, it’s a different story. One could argue it ‘s just as important to feel good – as to look good – mentally and physically.

Progressive companies, fully aware of our 24/7 stressful work environment, understand burnout is not sustainable for workers or their careers. In fact, some have found that Employee Assistance Programs that support policies such as flexible working arrangements, skills training, leadership development and programs that promote healthy lifestyle and behavior choices – will lead to more productive and mentally healthier talent. 

This week the American Psychological Association honored five companies for “their comprehensive efforts to promote employee health and well-being while enhancing organizational performance.”

According to the American Psychological Association, psychologically healthy workplace practices fall into five categories: employee involvement; health and safety; employee growth and development; work-life balance and employee recognition. Chosen for the APA’s 2009 Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award:

1. W R Systems, Ltd. – Engineering Services Division (Virginia), 
2. Replacements, Ltd. (North Carolina), 
3. Teledyne Brown Engineering – Huntsville Headquarters (Alabama), 
4. WorldatWork (Arizona) 
5. Sandia Preparatory School (New Mexico)

These companies were not targeted for their feel-good approach to mental health, but instead on the return on investment. When big business can look at the numbers or concretely understand the philosophy behind what makes these companies tick, it makes for a better case to keep funneling money toward EPA’s.

Let’s deconstruct:

1. These 5 organizations reported an average turnover rate of just 11% in 2008, compared to the national average of 39% (Dept. of Labor)
2. Employee surveys from these companies showed 25 % experienced chronic work stress, compared to 39% nationally.
3. 85% of employees reported being satisfied with their jobs, compared to only 61% nationally.

Efforts to promote employee well-being cannot simply fall under the auspices of physical health. You can’t measure how happy someone is, or their mental stability, by taking their blood. If you’re going to do that, you may as well test for cholesterol. It’s a better indicator of an impending stress attack from burnout.

Greetings folks! Here’s some of the work life stories and sites that caught my eye in our WorkLife Nation this week and abroad. Hot this week: stress, career training, jobs, workplace health, working dads, the economy, and health care.

Chicago Tribune: Career Education showing signs of recovery

Cleveland Jewish News: The business of healthcare and staying healthy in the workplace

India’s Express Computer: Promoting fun at work

Working Dad: Work Life Balance suffering from economic loss

Science News: A little stress might keep cells youthful

Medicine.net: Job losses carry high stress tag

Jobradio.fm: Most and Least Stressful Professions

Link of the week: The Lattice Group

The Lattice Group is a grassroots campaign working to spark a dialogue about work-life issues. How is Generation Y approaching the tenuous balance of work and personal life? Connecting with university students and young professionals in the USA, Spain, France, Sweden and Russia.

We run at a pace unimaginable 10 or 15 years ago. Remember when computers were a luxury? Now they are a necessity. You must recall when getting a cup of coffee meant filling a pot with water, and running it through the coffee maker at work – instead of heading to Starbucks. And there was a time (perhaps you were a toddler back then) when you’d have to wait for your colleague to return back to the office before knowing whether your company nailed the deal or not, cause there was no BlackBerry.

Our work life culture is running a bazillion miles an hour as if every moment is fueled by steroids. Here’s the problem, the faster we go, the quicker we produce. And the more our bosses and clients get used to it – the higher the expectation in our jobs and careers. Not only are we becoming a society of “yes, I’ll have it yesterday,” but also, “of course It will be thorough and top notch.”

This model of behavior sets a scary precedent. Soon we not only fall at the feet of others , but of our own pride and determination to succeed. It might have us sacrificing health, exacerbating an already stressed-out family life and toss us into a never ending desire to do more. We become super-humans at the risk of losing our status as mere human beings.

There are those of us who love our jobs (and I am one of them). I greatly enjoy being a broadcast journalist. But even in the throws of breaking news during our recent historic election, I made the time – for downtime. I’ve not always done this well, and in fact was completely blindsided yesterday when I managed to get so caught up with work and family drama’s that I didn’t call one of my best friends in the whole world to wish her a happy birthday. I beat myself up to no end.

Work life balance went out the window a long time ago.  Our working and living experience is merging, but integrating at that intersection has become more and more difficult. And at a blurry intersection, there’s bound to be accidents and mistakes made because you can’t see all that well. Mired in the need for survival sometimes we just go on autopilot -and life might not be so productive in that mode.

It takes discipline to navigate our work life culture which is so infused with steriodial behavior (made it up). And what’s more – there’s no National Work Life Association that’s going to monitor our insane addiction to the speedy need for success. It’s up to us as individuals,  to track our own brand of insanity and have the discipline to “just say no,” while designing some sort of stress-busting routine so we don’t burn out. When you continually raise the bar on expectation, the skies the limit. The highs will be high – but the low point – practically inconceivable. 

We are working and living in a 24/7 info-overloaded attention deficit culture. The question is – how do we navigate all the sensory overload while cultivating resilience so we can be successful? That my friends is the question for 2009 and beyond.