Best of the week news roundup

November 15, 2024 12:00 PM

Employees — Caucasian woman team leader mentor teach staff multiethnic workers at corporate group briefing explain work results analyzing financial report together, planning project, brainstorming process concept

Our coverage this week is chock full of useful advice for employers. Editor Lee Hafner writes about how to create a supportive workplace for employees in recovery, and how to go beyond the resume when interviewing for a new hire. Senior reporter Deanna Cuadra reveals a list of surprising products employees can purchase with their leftover FSA funds, and explains why it's time to stop vilifying people who job hop. And freelance writer Keith Button writes about how companies of any size can learn management lessons from the Boeing workers strike, and the steps employers can take to encourage workers to save for emergencies and for retirement.

With open enrollment season upon us, opinion writer Matt Durula advises employers to rethink and communicate how their benefits package can support the overall well-being of your workforce, while Wesleigh Roeca opines that employers should recognize and address the importance of holistic hormonal health for women of all ages within the workforce.

Read more about these important topics in our weekly roundup.

The case for becoming a recovery-friendly workplace

Part two of a series

In 2018, Mark Bonta was among a group of business leaders introduced to a new, government-funded approach to substance use disorders (SUDs) for employees: become a designated recovery-friendly workplace, offering resources to those who need help. Now, he is on a mission to help other employers do the same.

At the time, Bonta was a plant director in New Hampshire, where governor Chris Sununu launched his Recovery Friendly Workplace Initiative. During an orientation about the program, his perspective on how to deal with employees struggling SUDs in the workplace shifted.

Hiring the right people requires more than just a resume

Resumes are important, but they don't reveal who a person really is. If employers want to know what kind of a worker they're considering hiring, they need to dig a little deeper.

This is the philosophy that helps Jim Rowley, CEO of gym franchise Crunch Fitness, make good hiring decisions. While exactly what he's looking for in a candidate depends on the role being filled, every interviewee seeking a junior management to executive-level position will hear him say something along the lines of, "Your resume looks great. Now, let's talk about you."

"The first thing [when hiring at] any level is not the resume, it's the DNA," he says. "The truth is not always what it seems. You can have outstanding resumes with exceptional academic performance from great schools and everything else. That is not a strong indication for me. Past experience, even in a related field, is not necessarily a qualifier. I'm interested in the person's ideology — how they think and what they think about."

10 unexpected FSA-eligible purchases you can make before the year is up

Anyone with a flexible spending account, or FSA, knows that if they don't use what's in their accounts before the annual deadline, they lose it. But too many employees forget or can't remember their deadline, and that can cause them to lose out on money they've already set aside.

Unless an employer offers a deadline extension (typically to March 15), most FSA users must use all their funds by December 31. In fact, the FSA Store, a shopping platform specifically for FSA-eligible products, estimates that nearly 70% of FSA users have the earlier deadline, and consumers forfeit $3 billion in unused funds each year.

"An FSA can deliver valuable savings for individuals and families, but if funds aren't used by the plan deadline, that money can be forfeited back to the plan," says Rachel Rouleau, chief compliance officer for FSA Store. "The last thing HR teams want is to see employees leave their hard-earned healthcare dollars on the table, which is why education about deadlines and eligibility is so crucial."

It's time to stop dismissing job hoppers

Career coaches and mentors have often told job seekers that job hopping — staying at a company for less than two years — looks bad on a resume. But it may be time for hiring managers and recruiters to change their tune.

Younger professionals continue to keep their employee tenure low, with Gen Z staying an average of two years and three months at one company and Millennials staying two years and nine months, according to CareerBuilder. On the flip side, Gen X tends to stay as long as five years, and Baby Boomers last an average of eight. While this means the average worker, regardless of age, isn't technically job hopping, Gen Z talent seems to be staying just long enough to avoid raising red flags with potential recruiters who are looking at their job history.

Management lessons from the Boeing workers strike

Even companies without Boeing's massive employee numbers can draw lessons from the machinists' strike at the aerospace giant that ended last week, according to a Cornell University labor relations expert.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union members voted to approve the company's third contract offer, increasing wages by 44% over the next four years and ending a seven-week strike for the 33,000 workers. The biggest lesson from the strike: Long-term labor contracts are risky, says Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at the Buffalo office of Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

How employers can promote financial security

Is there bipartisan support for the concept of financial inclusion, for all people in the U.S. to have access to basic wealth-building tools like retirement accounts?

The answer should be "yes" based on the results of the presidential election, according to a leading proponent of the new National Strategy for Financial Inclusion. Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department said that household financial security is a national priority deserving of coordinated action between the government and private-sector entities.

"We saw pretty clearly in the election last week that people's individual financial security and economic issues are on the top of people's minds because their budgets—their personal household budget—s what drives a lot of their interest in the things that they would like leaders in the country to focus on," says Tim Shaw, financial security policy director for the Aspen Institute thinktank in Washington, D.C. Aspen led a coalition of 117 organizations that first appealed for a federal strategy in 2022.

How employers can rethink workplace benefits to better support Americans' well-being

American workers' well-being remains alarmingly low.

According to Guardian's most recent Mind, Body, and Wallet® report, only one-third of workers said they are doing well. In looking at key inputs that influence overall well-being, just 36% reported very good or excellent mental health, 37% indicated very good or excellent physical health, and only 32% said they had very good or excellent financial health. While each of these factors is important, the study found that financial wellness accounted for an outsized portion — about 40% — of overall well-being, whereas physical and mental wellness contributed 33% and 27%, respectively.

The importance of holistic hormonal health for women at every life stage

In today's competitive business landscape, organizations continuously strive to attract and retain top talent. Yet, many fail to address one crucial aspect of employee well-being: hormonal health support.

Our hormones affect nearly every aspect of our well-being — mood, hunger, energy and fertility. Prioritizing nutrition in this context is vital, and it is essential for employers to recognize and address how nutrition impacts hormonal health to create a more inclusive and supportive work environment.

Workplace support benefits everyone, enhancing both performance and well-being. Hormonal health plays a key role in overall wellness, affecting mood, energy, and cognitive function. By fostering hormonal balance through nutrition, flexible policies, and wellness resources, employers can help all employees thrive and perform at their best.