In search of benefits . . .

You have to wonder what the insurance companies were thinking. Many, maybe most, small businesses are struggling with cash flow issues; and we all know that. One might expect the insurance executives to be sending out the word to agents and brokers that in light of the “predatory government regulatory atmosphere,” there shall be no premium increases for small business clients. Apparently that hasn’t happened. Instead, monumental premium increases are hitting small businesses.

One small business owner I know, a staunch conservative and very pro business, was adamantly against ANY government intervention in health care. The only thing she felt was useful was to have government remove the interstate barriers to competition among insurance companies. Then the bill came to renew the insurance benefits for her employees. The increase was 32%. She is now all for some kind of intervention, not just more competition; maybe not too much public option, but something to help drive down costs. Many small businesses are finding that they cannot afford to be in the insurance benefit program.

On the other hand, you might think that in light of the administration’s goals of putting in place more regulations and also initiating a “public option” for insurance, that they would try and keep any perceptions about government interference with health care out of the headlines. Again, the word hasn’t gotten to the committees making recommendations on women’s health. And so we get the news that one of the more effective programs for breast cancer screening is to be deemphasized. The public, helped by the media, interprets this new recommendation as proving that indeed big government wants to get between you and your doctor.

In similar fashion to the business woman above, another woman with whom I have had conversations around the health care issues was pretty much convinced that a public option was the only sensible way to contain health care costs. Otherwise, the insurance companies will continue to reap huge profits at the expense of policy holders. And, she claimed, the government isn’t really who we need to worry about. It’s the insurance companies who hang us out to dry with fine print and denial of coverage due to trumped up pre-existing condition claims. Needless to say, she’s having second thoughts now based on the mammogram flap.

So neither side on this argument seems to be paying attention to the public sentiment or the “customer’s issues.” Arrogance is a word that comes to mind.

The major reason that companies are in the benefit business is to have something other than salary on which to compete for good employees. With the increasing cost of drugs, medical insurance and other mandated insurance such as worker’s compensation now going through the ceiling, it may be time to look for some other kind of benefits with which to attract employees. I know this is heresy, and I’m sure I’ll get a bunch of “hate mail,” but I’m thinking it’s time to hope that the government does take the health insurance monkey off the backs of our businesses and we can go find other benefits to supply our employees. It’s a chance to maybe level the field again – if costs are really reduced for employees.

The “big boys” will be able to afford the usual benefits for employees. If small businesses can’t, then they won’t be able to attract top notch employees; unless they can offer something else. One idea has surfaced in a new book called the Dream Manager. I’m sure we could come up with other ideas, including paying higher salaries so our employees can take care of their own insurance (if effective, low cost insurance becomes available). Wellness programs are much needed. The trick will be to greatly reduce the amounts spent on employee health insurance by business and use the savings to fund other innovative benefits.

How about you? What will you do about employee benefits? Are your health insurance premiums sky-rocketing? Will you have to cut back on benefits this year? Do you have other benefits, or plans for new benefits?

Download a Cost Of Hire Calculator to help you know the true cost. CLICK HERE to get it.

About the author

Dave Kinnear is a sought after Business Advisor and Mentor. He works with highly successful executives through one-to-one mentoring and coaching meetings. Individuals who are presently running successful businesses and executives in transition work with Dave to ensure meeting corporate and/or career goals. Through his affiliation with Vistage International, Dave convenes and facilitates Advisory Boards comprising of Business Owners, Company Presidents and Chief Executives dedicated to becoming better leaders who make better decisions and achieve better results.

Too Much of a Good Thing?

How do we “balance” work hours, career advancement, family and relationship needs? This seems to be a perennial topic of discussion. We want it all. Despite our technology, things don’t seem to be getting any better on the time management front. Now, instead of one partner trying to balance demanding activities, we have both partners in a family struggling with time management.

And here’s the confession: I’ve never really had a problem with balancing work and life demands. I believe this attitude, one of not feeling out of balance, is due to the fact that I’ve been lucky enough to always enjoy my work. As a result of loving my work, I can count on just two hands the number of days I’ve wished I could stay home; and that’s out of more than 32 years in the semiconductor industry at four different companies. Those “bad days” were either because I had to discipline one of my employees or because I had “messed up” and expected to be in trouble myself. In short, the only days I didn’t want to go to work were the days when there were personnel issues.

I’m convinced that if we are doing the work we love, then there is no such thing as imbalance between work and lifestyle from our own point of view. Now that’s not to say that we shouldn’t be aware of and perhaps adjust the time spent between career work and time needed to attend to important personal relationships. There can be too much of a good thing. And that’s also not to say we won’t feel some pressure to prioritize a bit differently than we want to. What I am saying is that we won’t feel the need to escape to some exotic retreat to regain our energy. Work is not a burden when you love what you are doing.

I don’t want my comments to be misunderstood. I’m pretty sure my family would say that I spent too much time working and that I didn’t get the priorities right much of the time. Also, I do believe in vacations, sharing parenting and home responsibilities – I’m sure I didn’t get that time allotment totally right either. Still, I don’t see the problem with not wanting to leave for vacation because work is exciting, interesting and challenging. Once on vacation though, it’s time to wind down and be fully present for loved ones.

So in my mind, this “life-style” versus “work focus” balance thing is more of an issue of being fully present in the moment than forcing an arbitrary segmentation. It’s about making sure we don’t overdo a good thing. When at work, be fully present to work. When at home, be fully present to home and family. When at play, be fully present to play.

I’m still at it today. I have no intention to retire in the normal sense of that word. I hope to continue working until I can no longer physically and/or mentally do so. I love what I do and can’t imagine not contributing to the business world in some meaningful way. For me retirement is doing what I want, when I want and with whom I want. I guess I’m retired! How about you? Will you retire to the rocking chair? The golf course? The tennis court? Or will you keep on working at what you love?

Finding life balance starts with hiring and retaining top talent. Download our FREE chapter on sourcing top talent from our best selling book, “You’re NOT The Person I Hired.” CLICK HERE to download.

Is your culture a culture that top talent will thrive in? Download our FREE culture assessment tool to determine if all of your team would describe your culture the same. CLICK HERE to download.

About the author

Dave Kinnear is a sought after Business Advisor and Mentor. He works with highly successful executives through one-to-one mentoring and coaching meetings. Individuals who are presently running successful businesses and executives in transition work with Dave to ensure meeting corporate and/or career goals. Through his affiliation with Vistage International, Dave convenes and facilitates Advisory Boards comprising Business Owners, Company Presidents and Chief Executives dedicated to becoming better leaders who make better decisions and achieve better results.

Productivity. . . How far do we push?

A long time ago, before many executives reading this blog were born, I was in my first position after graduating from Engineering School. I was working in the aerospace industry on a military program. About three years into the project, things started heating up. We were “asked” (required really) to work six days a week to meet the contract obligations.

The company was very fair about this, paying time-and-a-half for the overtime hours even though we were salaried employees. And, in my opinion, they did not get anywhere near what they were paying for. After about three months of continuous overtime, I noticed that I and my colleagues were all putting off a bunch of stuff for “Saturday when it is quiet.” I don’t have hard data, but I’m pretty sure it’s accurate to say that it is likely that in the beginning, 48 hours of work was done in the 48 hours. But then it dropped to perhaps 40 hours of work done in 48 hours. I’m convinced that by the end of the twelve months of overtime, about 35 hours of work was being done in the 48 hours (even though we were being paid for 52 hours when you consider the time-and-a-half). This happened in a professional, white-collar workforce, not a unionized production line. While some of us enjoyed the extra pay, most of us would have rather had our weekends, so we did not intentionally slow down. We were simply burned out – not enough down time.

Today, in many companies, we are not asking or paying for overtime. However, we have asked those employees still with us to pick up the slack for those we’ve had to furlough, layoff, or force into early retirement. This has resulted in a steep increase in national productivity statistics. Many people seem to think that’s really great. I don’t.

While our employees may only be asked to work the standard 40 hours, they are either putting in extra time on their own to keep up with the load, or they are at the very least working quickly with little thought to quality or priorities. They just want to get the job done. The result, predictably, will be the same as it was in the ancient times when I was in aerospace. Burnout is bound to happen and productivity will take a dive – unless we, as forward thinking leaders, move to improve things.

There are many ways to make things a bit better. My favorite is to insist that people stop doing things – help them figure out what tasks they can safely let go without jeopardizing quality of products and services delivered to customers. Another might be to take this opportunity to move to a 4 day 40 hour work week. This is very attractive to many employees since it gives them a three day weekend. I know all the excuses for not doing this, but in general, they are simply excuses for not going through a change. We can make greater use of telecommuting so that folks can take small breaks between tasks. Another way is to begin hiring in part time folks to lessen the load (make sure you understand your state’s labor laws with respect to part time and independent consultants before moving forward with this). When things pick up, and the recovery is assured for you and your business, then you can increase the hours up to full employment.

It is best to address this challenge now rather than wait for your team to start burning out (if that hasn’t already begun). So what are your ideas? How can you make sure you avoid the difficult problem of rebuilding productivity after burnout?

You can download a free chapter on sourcing top talent from the best selling book, You’re NOT The Person I Hired, by CLICKING HERE.

About the author

Dave Kinnear is a sought after Business Advisor and Mentor.  He works with highly successful executives through one-to-one mentoring and coaching meetings. Individuals who are presently running successful businesses and executives in transition work with Dave to ensure meeting corporate and/or career goals. Through his affiliation with Vistage International, Dave convenes and facilitates Advisory Boards comprising Business Owners, Company Presidents and Chief Executives dedicated to becoming better leaders who make better decisions and achieve better results.