New York (PRWEB) -- Improving productivity by keeping employees healthy and working is emerging as the top business objective for employer-sponsored wellness programs around the world. The two exceptions are the United States, where reducing health care cost increases overwhelmingly continues to be the top goal, and Asia, where the most important objective is improving workforce morale.

These are among the latest trends identified by Buck Consultants' third annual global wellness survey, "WORKING WELL: A Global Survey of Health Promotion and Workplace Wellness Strategies," released today. The survey analyzed responses from more than 1,100 organizations representing 10 million employees in 45 countries.

"The heightened global focus on improving productivity is a significant trend," said Barry Hall, a Buck principal who directed the survey. "Business leaders around the world are increasingly recognizing the financial value of healthier workers and the need to better engage employees in reducing their health risks."

Stress is consistently cited as the top health risk driving wellness programs in all areas of the world, except for the United States and Latin America, where lack of exercise and poor nutrition are of top concern.

"Employers in the United States and Latin America seem to lag behind the rest of the world in addressing stress and its related conditions such as depression, anxiety, and fatigue," said Hall. "These are among the most significant drivers of productivity loss and absenteeism, as well as increased health care costs."

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Tags: wellness, benefits, workplace, productivity, morale, health care

Categories: News | Research

When it comes to the workplace, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y populations may be more similar than previously thought, according to a Conference Board of Canada study released Monday.

The study, entitled "Winning the Generation Wars: Making the Most of Generational Differences and Similarities in the Workplace," suggests ways to beat negative and inaccurate stereotypes that can dominate the office environment and hinder team performance.

"This research shows each generation includes workers with similar personality types, workplace motivations, and social behaviours. Workers from all three generations want respect, flexibility, fairness, and the opportunity to do interesting and rewarding work," Tim Krywulak, senior research associate on the study, said.

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Tags: canada, workplace, generations, baby boomers, generation x, generation y, diversity

Categories: International | News | Research

(From the New York Times) "I care about my colleagues, but there are things I don’t need to know. I’ve also found that if people know that you don’t gossip and that you don’t tolerate it, they won’t gossip around you. It might be human nature to think an unkind thought about a co-worker, but it’s a choice whether or not to actually say it.

"There’s a mix of personalities in any company, and rarely does everyone in a workplace like one another. But I believe that half the battle is in how people communicate.

"When employees are hired here, they’re given a communications assessment, a commercial program that the company uses to pinpoint a person’s dominant communications style. The styles are linked to colors that identify how each employee likes to communicate."

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Tags: workplace, behavior, teams

Categories: News

(From Anchorage Daily News) "If you want to become a hero in your workplace, you need to give more than you're getting and willingly travel beyond your job description. This means swimming against the tide of entitlement present in many of your co-workers. According to attorney turned HR consultant Andy Brown, 'employees in the 1980s and '90s have accustomed themselves to getting more and giving less. If we want to fix our damaged economy, we need to reverse this.'"

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Tags: productivity, workplace, development

Categories: News

If an employee tweets on Twitter or updates his or her Facebook status at work, should an employer cringe and put up a firewall — or congratulate the person for engaging in acts of social media?

Surprisingly, in Silicon Valley it’s increasingly the latter. But for many organizations the pathway is still unclear, as businesses navigate through the emerging world of going social.

Some companies, such as Safeway Corp., allow only a small number of employees to access social media tools at work. The company has run a successful Facebook site where it offers immediate coupons and discounts for fans.

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Tags: workplace, behavior, productivity, web 2.0, social media

Categories: News

Melbourne, FL (PRWEB) November 10, 2009 -- Social networking in the workplace is a major dilemma for today's businesses. The question is: "Does it help or hurt the organization?"

Although the general issue is always the same, the specific challenges vary. They range from productivity losses, to legal risks, to bandwidth drains and security problems. And even more specifically, these challenges are associated with various types of sites that employees often visit for personal reasons. A few years ago, pornography sites presented the greatest challenge, while today social networking sites seem to be 'number one' with Facebook being the most popular.

A survey conducted by Nucleus Research showed that 77 percent of workers who have a Facebook account use it during work hours. Of those who use Facebook at work, 87% said they could not define a clear business reason for accessing the site, and some reported using it as much as two hours per day.

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Tags: workplace, behavior, productivity, web 2.0, social media

Categories: News

Melbourne, FL (PRWEB) -- Social networking in the workplace is a major dilemma for today's businesses. The question is: "Does it help or hurt the organization?"

Although the general issue is always the same, the specific challenges vary. They range from productivity losses, to legal risks, to bandwidth drains and security problems. And even more specifically, these challenges are associated with various types of sites that employees often visit for personal reasons. A few years ago, pornography sites presented the greatest challenge, while today social networking sites seem to be 'number one' with Facebook being the most popular.

A survey conducted by Nucleus Research showed that 77 percent of workers who have a Facebook account use it during work hours. Of those who use Facebook at work, 87% said they could not define a clear business reason for accessing the site, and some reported using it as much as two hours per day.

Wavecrest Computing has been helping businesses and other organizations deal with Internet usage issues for more than twelve years. In general, these entities all face the same challenge, i.e., how can the organization maximize the benefits of social networking access while minimizing the risks of personal surfing at work?

Wavecrest Computing discusses these issues in their white paper "Social Networking or Social Not-Working?" They address the question "To what extent, if any, should workers be permitted to engage in social networking 'on the job,' and why?" and offer recommendations, such as a "well-designed Web-use policy."  

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Tags: social networking, workplace, productivity, security

Categories: News | Research

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Tags: social networking, linkedin, workplace

Categories: News

(From The Wall Street Journal) Because so many people in their teens and early 20s are in this constant whir of socializing—accessible to each other every minute of the day via cellphone, instant messaging and social-networking Web sites—there are a host of new questions that need to be addressed in schools, in the workplace and at home. Chief among them: How much work can "hyper-socializing" students or employees really accomplish if they are holding multiple conversations with friends via text-messaging, or are obsessively checking Facebook?

Some argue they can accomplish a great deal: This generation has a gift for multitasking, and because they've integrated technology into their lives, their ability to remain connected to each other will serve them and their employers well. Others contend that these hyper-socializers are serial time-wasters, that the bonds between them are shallow, and that their face-to-face interpersonal skills are poor.

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Tags: generational issues, workplace, gen y, web 2.0, social networking

Categories: News

Tags: workplace, stress, health, collaboration, flexibility

Categories: News