Susan's Blog  
(Occasional comments by Susan Seitel)

February 24, 2009

Making life more livable for the survivors.

I've just returned to my day job after a soul-stirring event this morning produced by a wonderful committee I've had the privilege of leading for the past few months. More than 200 people came to a St. Paul hotel to have breakfast together and hear about workplace flexibility and When Work Works, the national project to help employers be more flexible and supportive. People were animated and excited. It was as if they were saying "enough of the bad stuff! We're ready to hear about how we can make a difference!"

The steps we were asking them to take? Give employees more control, more autonomy and more flexibility about how the work gets done. They heard from senior executives from General Mills and Best Buy about how flexibility was working for them. They heard from our out-of-town guests, Greg Roth from the U.S. Chamber and Patricia Kempthorne, founder of the Twiga Foundation (aptly named, Twiga means giraffe in Swahili, an animal with a huge heart) about how and why they'll want to apply for the Alfred Sloan Foundation Award for Excellence in Workplace Flexibility.

Minnesota Senators Steve Murphy and Terri Bonoff were there, and Sen. Murphy talked about the Urban Partnership Agreement, a new state program funded with a matching federal grant to reduce congestion on our highways by, among other things, encouraging companies to implement telecommuting and offering them free training and consulting to help them do so.

When I got back to the office, one of the e-mails in my inbox seemed particularly appropriate. The headline was Employees After Layoffs. It reported on new research by Sirota that focused on the problems facing the survivors – those for whom every meeting and closed door and rumor are sources of concern and stress. In many cases, they're facing increased restrictiveness from stressed managers, and heavier workloads because of those who are no longer there.

To summarize their findings, those survivors were more than three times as likely to be disengaged and 12% less likely to stay (especially when the recovery occurs). They were 13% less likely to be innovative and 33% more likely to be frustrated with the company's systems and processes.

I was privileged to sit behind glass a couple of weeks ago and observe a focus group of employees recently. They were from nine different companies, worked in different departments, had different family situations and had at least two things in common. One was that all of them were stressed, worried and concerned. And the other? When they were asked who among them would like to try telecommuting, every hand shot into the air.

Real flexibility isn't so easy to achieve. I mean the kind where your boss, or your boss's boss, doesn't take notice when you're not at your desk and think you're less important, less promotable. But this is the perfect time to try it – maybe start with a pilot and let the word carry. Let's call it a survivor's benefit.

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February 13, 2009

Looking for ways to avoid layoffs? Your state may offer one.

Minnesota, New York, Washington, Connecticut and 13 other states offer a program that’s helping employers avoid layoffs. It’s an alternative called the Shared Work Program. We recently wrote about it in the Work-Life Newsbrief. Here's more.

Those states want to avoid paying full unemployment benefits, and they also believe there’s a payoff for companies that hold on to skilled workers in a temporary slowdown. So they’re offering this as an alternative to layoffs during downturns.

In Washington state, for instance, participating companies can reduce employees’ hours by as much as 50% (in some states it’s 40%). Employees then receive a percentage of unemployment benefits to replace a portion of lost wages, and will still receive medical benefits from their employers. Participation can involve the entire workforce or just some business units. At least 10% of the employees in a work unit must be affected by a reduction in hours, but all employees may participate. The plan can be in effect for a maximum of 52 weeks and employees can receive a maximum of 26 weeks of Shared Work benefits during the benefit year. It means employers can hold on to skilled workers, save on payroll costs and forego the expenses of recruiting, hiring, and training new employees. Employees receive more net income than they would if fully unemployed and they avoid the hardships of full unemployment.

New York's Labor Department Commissioner says “Shared work is one of the best programs that struggling businesses can utilize to stay afloat in difficult times,” but it's also “one of the best-kept secrets, and we want to change that.” They're working to make the offering more widely known. In New York, employers with five or more full-time employees can sign up, and rather than laying off workers during down periods, they can reduce the wages and hours for all or a selected group of employees. The affected workers receive partial unemployment compensation benefits to make up for part of their lost wages. Employees’ health insurance, retirement pay, vacation pay and other fringe benefits are not reduced. Some unionized companies participate, but the union has to consent to it. And those workers that have been trained, who know the company inside and out, are not lost.

In Minnesota, for instance, it works this way.

A firm facing a 20% reduction in business may consider laying off one-fifth of its workforce. However, under an approved Shared Work plan, that company could maintain its total workforce while reducing each worker's scheduled hours by one-fifth or 20 percent. Employees would receive a partial unemployment insurance payment equal to 20 percent of their individual weekly unemployment insurance award along with the income earned for the week under the approved plan.

To be approved, an employer must submit a Shared Work plan that:

• Specifies five or more employees whose regular, full-time hours will be reduced from 20 to 25 percent.
• Specifies plan beginning and end dates.
• Certifies that fringe benefits will not be reduced more than the percentage of reduced hours.
• Is approved by the affected employees' bargaining unit, if any.
• Certifies that reduced hours are instead of a full layoff.
• Certifies that full or part-time employees will not be hired to supplement the affected employees.

Before you lay off any workers, check with your state to see if the program is offered there, and if it isn't, call your state legislators.

This response comes from Jessie Dicovitsky, Families and Work Institute . . .

Work flexibility and layoffs are such relevant topics when it comes to work life issues in today’s evolving workplace. I do work for the Families and Work Institute (a nonprofit organization dedicated to researching and studying the changing workplace, family, and community relating to businesses across America) so I am always glad to read these
kind of postings. If readers of this blog weren’t already aware, a wide range of topics such as the latest trends in addressing human resources, work life, and diversity issues, as well as presentations on new technologies and research geared towards business will be addressed at this year’s Work Life Conference on March 10-11 in New Orleans. Also,
three new workplace studies will be released at the conference, covering the link between gender differences and job alterations, the economic downturn and talent preparation, and generational factors relating to employment quality. You can register at: www.conference-board.org/worklife2 or by phone -- (212)-339-0345.

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February 10, 2009

Leave unemployment insurance improvement in the stimulus bill

In both the House and Senate versions of the stimulus package there's a piece that modernizes the way the unemployed get compensated. Here's hoping that piece doesn't get cut in negotiations before it becomes law.

You may not know that most people who lose their jobs – more than half, actually – don’t qualify for any unemployment benefits at all, even though their employers have been paying unemployment taxes on their behalf, maybe for years. The program that decides who gets those benefits was designed in 1935, in response to the great depression, when most of the millions who lost their jobs were married men.

The rules are different in different states. Some have updated and modernized their unemployment compensation rules. But in most states, low-wage workers are often ineligible for benefits when they lose their jobs, or only qualify for smaller benefits because the state doesn't count their most recent earnings. Only 19 states and the District of Columbia allow part-timers who are laid off and looking for another part-time job to qualify for unemployment. The rest insist that they now look for full-time work. 

The Senate version of the stimulus package would provide $500 million in funds to help states modernize their unemployment insurance systems and shore up their solvency, important, given the rising demand for UI benefits. The funds would come none too soon. Last month, the unemployment systems in Ohio, New York, and North Carolina crashed because of the crush of claims, and many more states are out of money.

The House has already passed the Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act, and it was folded into its version of the stimulus package. It would provide incentive grants to states that allow unemployed workers seeking part-time work, as well as those leaving work for “compelling family reasons” to qualify for unemployment benefits.

That means both versions would encourage unemployment benefits for workers who had to leave their jobs due to illness or disability of an immediate family member, the relocation of a spouse for employment, or domestic violence.

Neither the House nor the Senate version would come in the form of a federal mandate. Both offer incentives instead, and both would reward states that have already modernized their systems with funds that could be used to cover the cost of paying the associated benefits for several years. 

Estimates say that the workers who benefit from these reforms are more likely to spend that extra money than save it, given the strain that a job loss puts on a family’s budget. So helping states adopt these reforms will help boost consumer demand.

Call your Congressmen and women and let them know that you want this unemployment insurance reform to stay in the stimulus package.

P.S. This came in today (2-10) from Rep. Jim McDermott, who was responsible for the first UI modernization bill in Congress:

"Anyone who bothered to check the facts knows that many single mothers can face a crisis at home when an accident or serious illness threatens their child, forcing them to take an extended time away from their job to care for their loved one. And anyone who bothered to check the facts knows that under this legislation a single mother, or single dad, would only qualify to collect a UI benefit when they started a full time job search to return to the labor force and not before.

"The UI Modernization package in the stimulus legislation reflects the needs of the American people and the reality of the U.S. economy in the 21^st Century and it is about time people came first.”

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February 3, 2009

A guest blog by Ellen Galinsky

I was at the same time cheered and chagrined to read an article in the New York Times Sports Section last weekend (January 24) about WNBA star Candace Parker’s effort to balance career and family. I was pleased to read yet another example of a high achieving woman making choices about finding the right fit between parenting and professional life on her own terms. 

Over the past several months Americans have become familiar with a 40-something female candidate for Vice President who is the mother of five; a 30-something international film star and UN Goodwill Ambassador who is the mother of six; a newly appointed Senator from New York who is mother to two very young children; and now the 22-year old marquee star of the WNBA who is having a child in the early prime of her career. In all cases, we see that women can be successful at work and can find their own way to manage their family responsibilities. 

Yet I also felt a familiar pang of disappointment that when a woman wrestles with these choices it makes for headlines and feature stories, whereas a man’s decision on work-life is a footnote, if mentioned at all. When will it stop being news, but rather business as usual, that women and men alike make hard choices to pursue their careers in conjunction with a family? 

For those in the front office of the WNBA or Los Angeles Sparks who worry about the short-term challenge of losing Parker for several months, they might be heartened by lessons learned from the business world.   

Research conducted last year by our Institute and Catalyst shows that having the right fit between work and the rest of their lives was the third most important value to senior corporate leaders—both women and men. However, this study found that women were less likely than men to work in workplaces where their values were actually realized. When leaders worked in workplaces where they could manage their work and family life, they were much more likely to be engaged and to stay with their employers.   

The takeaway for an employer in professional sports: support your star employee in her (or his) life choice today and you have a much better chance of winning loyalty in the long term. In the world of multi-million dollar athletes who often switch teams for the highest bidder, higher loyalty may pay very quantifiable dividends down the road. Meanwhile, I look forward to the day when such everyday support plays out in private offices, not the media, as do most personal employment issues.

Ellen Galinsky
President and Founder
Families and Work Institute

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