"I Love Mondays!" Are You Kidding Me?
"I Love Mondays!" Are You Kidding Me?
What about all that “I hate Mondays” talk? You know: “How’re you doing?” “OK for a Monday,” or “Oh, I’m having a Monday.” Everybody knows that every worker hates Mondays... I guess not. Have we gone so far as to articulate a cliché that no longer proves true?
Are you ready for this one? 21 percent of U.S. workers "are excited to be going to work."(1)
Here’s another stat from the Adecco USA “Workplace Insights” survey of 2,158 U.S. adults—1,206 who are employed full- or part-time that took place earlier this month (Feb. 2009):
• More than three-fourths say they love what they do as much or more than before the recession.
Now that makes sense to me: In fact, they’d better at least act like they do. Now is the time to be indispensible and make sure your boss knows it.
Here’s another statistic from the survey that surprised me, until I realized we don’t really know what it means:
• 90 percent of workers overall have the same level of confidence in their company’s executive team since the economy has worsened.
My point in regaling you with these numbers is that (another number) we HR professionals are spending about twice as much time reassuring and calming our employees than we were a few months ago.(2) Do you think that reflects a hit to your company’s productivity? And stress has a direct impact on job satisfaction, which has a direct impact on workers comp claims.(3)
So while you peruse your bottom line and your cash flow and search every nook and cranny for places to cut, don’t cut anything that affects morale. Keep spending the money for Pizza Fridays or handing out the candy on Valentine’s Day. Think about adding a few more “voluntary benefits” (that only cost you the time to set up the payroll deduction) and give your employees access to things like long-term care insurance, accident and disability insurance; critical illness insurance is very popular right now. 44% of workers are interested in getting a wider array of voluntary benefits through their employer.(4)
Talk with your workers; let them “feel the love” as you ask them what you can do to assist them in accessing more benefits through payroll deduction. They know they can get it cheaper through you. And how great would that be? Knowing that even though we’re all scared about our jobs and our businesses, you took the time and effort to help them feel more secure.
Now, I can believe they appreciate their jobs on Monday morning.
(1) Adecco USA “Workplace Insights” survey, February, 2009
(2) Society for Human Resources Management survey, October, 2008
(3) Hosegood Martin, Pat, Doctoral Dissertation: An Exploration of Job Satisfaction and Workers' Compensation Costs Among Auxiliary Employees in Higher Education, 2007
(4) Prudential, Study of Employee Benefits: 2008 and Beyond, 2008
I Love Mondays Are You Kidding Me - To learn more about this author, visit Betsey Nash's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
This may come as a surprise to you, as it did to me. After 20+ years in the human resources field I never thought I’d hear that 41 percent of U.S. workers say "appreciation for their job" dominates their Monday morning emotions.(1) Just knock me over with a feather.
What about all that “I hate Mondays” talk? You know: “How’re you doing?” “OK for a Monday,” or “Oh, I’m having a Monday.” Everybody knows that every worker hates Mondays... I guess not. Have we gone so far as to articulate a cliché that no longer proves true?
Are you ready for this one? 21 percent of U.S. workers "are excited to be going to work."(1)
Here’s another stat from the Adecco USA “Workplace Insights” survey of 2,158 U.S. adults—1,206 who are employed full- or part-time that took place earlier this month (Feb. 2009):
• More than three-fourths say they love what they do as much or more than before the recession.
Now that makes sense to me: In fact, they’d better at least act like they do. Now is the time to be indispensible and make sure your boss knows it.
Here’s another statistic from the survey that surprised me, until I realized we don’t really know what it means:
• 90 percent of workers overall have the same level of confidence in their company’s executive team since the economy has worsened.
My point in regaling you with these numbers is that (another number) we HR professionals are spending about twice as much time reassuring and calming our employees than we were a few months ago.(2) Do you think that reflects a hit to your company’s productivity? And stress has a direct impact on job satisfaction, which has a direct impact on workers comp claims.(3)
So while you peruse your bottom line and your cash flow and search every nook and cranny for places to cut, don’t cut anything that affects morale. Keep spending the money for Pizza Fridays or handing out the candy on Valentine’s Day. Think about adding a few more “voluntary benefits” (that only cost you the time to set up the payroll deduction) and give your employees access to things like long-term care insurance, accident and disability insurance; critical illness insurance is very popular right now. 44% of workers are interested in getting a wider array of voluntary benefits through their employer.(4)
Talk with your workers; let them “feel the love” as you ask them what you can do to assist them in accessing more benefits through payroll deduction. They know they can get it cheaper through you. And how great would that be? Knowing that even though we’re all scared about our jobs and our businesses, you took the time and effort to help them feel more secure.
Now, I can believe they appreciate their jobs on Monday morning.
(1) Adecco USA “Workplace Insights” survey, February, 2009
(2) Society for Human Resources Management survey, October, 2008
(3) Hosegood Martin, Pat, Doctoral Dissertation: An Exploration of Job Satisfaction and Workers' Compensation Costs Among Auxiliary Employees in Higher Education, 2007
(4) Prudential, Study of Employee Benefits: 2008 and Beyond, 2008
I Love Mondays Are You Kidding Me - To learn more about this author, visit Betsey Nash's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. |
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Betsey's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Fortune Small Business Goal Setting Networking Challenges Meditation Guide Increase productivity |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Blogs For Startups
Top Blogs To Watch In 2009 | |
 |
The Top 10 ProBlogger Posts
Best Posts for Bloggers | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
