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Work / Life Issues

Hiring relatives creates friendly culture at Ohio firm

11/01/2006

Nepotism doesn’t raise eyebrows at medical-billing service provider MBI Solutions. More than a dozen MBI employees have family members on the staff. The Kettering, Ohio-based company actively recruits employees’ relatives to create a family-friendly atmosphere and improve retention …

Adoption Benefit Spawns In-House Support Group

11/01/2006

A few years ago, the SAS Institute started reimbursing employees who adopted children up to $5,000 toward their expenses. The company also began covering adopted children as soon as the parent gained custody, rather than after all the legal wrangling was finished—a benefit popular with employees …

Don’t let desk work make your employees fat

11/01/2006

Employees are 14 percent more likely to gain weight after they start working at a sedentary job than those who work on their feet, according to CareerBuilder’s annual Work and Health survey …

Paying staff for volunteer work = lower absenteeism

11/01/2006

Want employees to take less sick leave? Consider letting them volunteer on company time …

8 N.J. employers named to ‘100 Best Companies’ list

11/01/2006

Looking for ways to boost your recruiting efforts and retain the best talent? Take a cue from the eight New Jersey companies chosen for Working Mother magazine’s list of the "100 Best Companies" for women to work …

Must we report employees’ domestic abuse?

11/01/2006

Q. As an employer, do we have an obligation to alert authorities about at-home physical abuse of an employee? We have an employee who has been open about abuse at the hands of a spouse, so we know it’s going on. —S. R., Wisconsin

Boring Benefits? Perk ‘Em Up With 10 Real-Life Solutions

11/01/2006

When you rattle off your employee benefit offerings to prospective employees, what raises their eyebrows? It’s probably not the basics: People have come to expect health/life/dental, 401(k), etc. What really catches a prospect’s attention are the creative perks that prove your organization has their interests in mind …

Employee: Leave! Encourage workers to use vacation time

11/01/2006

As the year-end approaches, take an inventory of employees who haven’t taken their vacations yet, and suggest they book a getaway. Vacation skipping has become an epidemic …

Web site helps managers evaluate telework requests

10/01/2006

The key to making telework and flextime part of an organization’s everyday business practices is making sure managers understand them, says Kathryn Oliver Kadilak, work/life program manager at the U.S. Department of Justice …

Call center staff belongs to same union as the callers

10/01/2006

Work/life professionals who staff the Workplace Options UnionSelect call center in Michigan have a special understanding of the unionized employees on the other end of the phone who are seeking help with child and elder care. Reason: They both belong to the same union …