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This time of year, and particularly this time in history, it is seemingly impossible to keep politics, with its heightened passion and partisanship, out of the workplace. Friction imposed by emotionally contrasting viewpoints often leads to a corresponding decline in morale. Steve Bernstein, partner with Fisher & Phillips, a national labor and employment law firm, offers information to help ensure that productivity wins the race in your office. Most people are accustomed to a measure of division between co-workers during election season, though, for the first time ever, an African-American will lead the ticket for one of the major parties, while the other party offers the oldest non-incumbent candidate in history, and with a woman running-mate. Apart from the standard concerns about productivity and maintaining a neutral, cohesive work environment, this year even innocently intended comments about any of the candidates could be used as evidence to suggest a pattern of discriminatory behavior or harassment. The very nature of this campaign touches upon some of the most sensitive subjects in the office: race, gender, age, as well as usual ideological and religious points of contention.
Recent foreign exchange fluctuations—most notably the rapid decline of the U.S. dollar—affect all elements of compensation, and consequently the attraction and retention of key employees. However, most multinational organizations have not implemented solutions for mitigating the impact of currency fluctuations on current compensation programs for overseas employees, according to Mercer. Nearly half of responding multinational companies (47 percent) says the depreciating value of the U.S. dollar has had a moderate to significant impact on their compensation programs.
With the upcoming Presidential and Congressional elections, the public can expect candidates to focus on healthcare issues and reforms, including proposals that would fundamentally change employer-sponsored health benefits and potentially increase costs for companies and their workers. By wide margins—and regardless of their personal political affiliation—the people who design and administer employer health plans expressed concerns with both Presidential candidates' healthcare proposals, saying that Senator John McCain's proposal to repeal the tax exclusion for employer-provided health coverage and Senator Barack Obama's proposal to compel employers to "pay or play" would have strong negative impacts on American workers.
Employees who are anxious about their futures-especially during a challenging economy such as now-can adversely affect a company's profitability by delivering poor customer service, being less intellectually engaged in their jobs, and making plans to leave, according to research by Sirota Survey Intelligence. "While, in general, employees' attitudes will decline in uncertain economic times, there are major exceptions, depending on how management treats workers," said Douglas Klein, president of Sirota Survey Intelligence. "Businesses need to manage through this uncertainty and these business cycles—rather than from within them. They need to adopt strategies—before negative business events occur—that will mitigate the impact of uncertainty on employees. Employers need to avoid managing people as expense items in the budget so they can retain workers when times are good."
Consumer prices as measured by the Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers index (CPI-W) fell 0.5 percent in June, prior to seasonal adjustment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on September 16. The CPI-W, which is used as an escalator in union contracts and in federal entitlement payments, registered an August level of 215.247, which was 5.9 percent higher than in August 2007. Consumer prices as measured by the All Urban Consumers index (CPI-U) also decreased in August, by 0.4 percent, prior to seasonal adjustment. The August level of 219.086 was 5.4 percent higher than in August 2007. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the CPI-W fell 0.2 percent; the CPI-U decreased 0.1 percent.
Real average weekly earnings rose by 0.6 percent from July to August after seasonal adjustment, according to preliminary data released on September 16th by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This increase stemmed from a 0.4 percent increase in average hourly earnings combined with a 0.2 percent decrease in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Average weekly hours were unchanged.
As presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama push different plans to help cover more uninsured Americans, voters in Arizona, Colorado and Montana will have the chance to make dramatic changes to their own states' health care systems when they go to the polls Nov. 4. All three measures are unprecedented, but would affect these three states in very different ways.
You may be surprised by the large majority of participants in the August Online Poll who report that their organization has not made any changes to help employees manage escalating gas prices. Seventy-one percent of participants report no changes have been made. Of the remaining 29 percent, 7 percent offer telecommuting; 5 percent encourage use of public transportation, 11 percent offer four-day workweeks; 3 percent offer car-pooling assistance; and 3 percent provide financial assistance. There were 347 respondents to the poll.
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