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Back to School: Keys to a Successful YearThe wonderful thing about school is that it starts fresh every year. Here are some ways to help make it a success. Reading is vital. Turn off the TV for 30 minutes in the evening and allow everyone to read or work on a project. Subscribe to magazines you think your children would enjoy. Encourage creativity. At the dinner table ask open-ended questions that stimulate learning. For ideas, read Is Your Bed Still There and Other Playful Ponderings: How to Have Intelligent Conversations with Your Kids, by Jane M. Healy, Doubleday 1992. Use praise freely. Find positive, specific things to say to your children every day to help instill good self esteem. You’ll find that compliments are contagious; your children may even say nice things to you once or twice. Instill self discipline. Give responsibility for routine jobs around the house. Set limits and have consequences for behavior. Be an active parent. Attend Open House, PTA meetings if possible, and all parent-teacher conferences. If you see problems on the horizon, contact the teacher. Don’t wait for the teacher to call you. At conference time, remember that if the teacher brings up a problem she is asking for your help, not being critical of you as a parent. Don’t do their homework. But do provide a place and time for your child to do homework, and help with directions and logistics. Monitor school progress. Set up a file of school work and discuss grades as children get older. Don’t put intense pressure on children, but let them know you are concerned and care about what is happening at school. Plan the mornings. Pick out clothes the night before, pack lunches ahead of time and have a place by the door for everything that needs to go to school, or be signed by, the next morning. Source: Workplace Options, Inc., an associate of Fauecast, that helps companies design and establish dependent care programs.
Back to Work: Keys to Successful Re-entryVacation’s over. It’s time to return to work. For most of us, this is a time for relief, as we return to the same routine with its familiar faces and tasks. But there are times when returning to work demands more than questions about the weather and did you have a good time. When staff returns from workers comp, disability or sick leave, some special efforts can bring great rewards. Work is an important part of any rehabilitation. Outcomes are better when workers are brought back to work as soon as possible and gradually returned to full duty. Both employees and supervisors need to see the value of this approach. Employees need to know that early return is the best way for them; it is important to emphasize that this is not a punitive effort. Supervisors need the directive that returning workers may have special situations, but should not be patronized. Injured employees, whatever the cause, need a flexible arrangement. The plan should include returning the employee to the job site and a time frame to reach full participation. Human resources needs to facilitate this process. HR has the information necessary to protect the organization from irrational fears, to accommodate the special needs of the returning worker, and to help the supervisor balance the requirements of getting the job done and humanely reintroducing the employee to the workplace. When an employee returns to work, there are always many stakeholders and interested observers. A successful return benefits everyone, saves the firm money and is the right thing to do. HR should take the lead in coordinating the process to ensure its achievement.
Big Gains in Family Friendly BenefitsA recent study by Hewitt Associates of 1,050 large firms finds them increasingly likely to offer family friendly programs. The majority (97%) of firms providing child care benefits restrict their offering to dependent care spending accounts that allow employees to earmark pretax dollars for child care. Four in 10 major companies offer resource and referral services that can help with child care, but only about one in 20 provides a subsidized on-site center. For elder care, resource and referral services are the most popular, provided by 8 in 10 respondents, but one in four firms now offers (but probably does not pay for) long-term care insurance. Flexible scheduling, too, is gaining in popularity. Nearly three out of four large employers allow flextime and almost two out of three offer part time work. Three out of four companies help pay legal fees associated with adoptions, with most capping expenditures at $2,000. Reprinted with permission from Business & Health, Medical Economics Co.
To Save the Organization: Personal Time SacrificedIn the ever increasing pressure on one’s personal time, fall brings a special poignancy. While the children are returning to school, it’s also time to register them for their rounds of fall activities. At work, there are all kinds of meetings that were delayed by the summer. The workload itself has changed, with white collar employees working more hours to stay ahead. Despite the benefits of e-mail and fax, these tools add to the time pressure, and make it harder for people to get away from business. Even when individuals recreate, it’s not unusual to see them with cell phones, beepers and portable computers. What is the cost of this extended day? People are wearing out under the pressures. They are resentful. Pressure to keep up, no matter how unrealistic, encourages if not forces, people to cope, sometimes in inappropriate ways. HR professionals can help distraught employees cope in appropriate ways. HR can help them rationalize their time and resolve time conflicts. They can enforce vacations; people need time off. They can help people set priorities and learn the complex ability to say no. They can help people master the new technologies through training. From these solutions can come employees rested and enriched through their revived personal lives and ready to be challenged, but not by their limited time
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