ASHHRA eNews Pulse

Dear ASHHRA Members,

ASHHRA just completed its 12th Annual Chapter Leadership Conference at the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel in Chicago. In attendance were many ASHHRA chapter leaders from around the country, joined by the ASHHRA regional consultants and the board of directors.
 
The event was primarily aimed at in-coming chapter presidents, and one initial goal of the meeting was to help them and others have a better understanding of how the chapters connect to ASHHRA and how ASHHRA connects to the AHA. But then the meeting shifted gears, and the chapter leaders and regional consultants spent a great deal of time comparing notes, swapping ideas, challenging each other, encouraging each other, and generally providing mutual support and guidance that each chapter leader can take back home with them.
 
This year's event was particularly well done, and much credit goes to board members Karmen Reid and Barry Lindeman as well as to the regional consultants. The regional consultants have a challenging role, so it was very nice from the board's perspective, to meet them and see them in action. They are good!
 
ASHHRA and its affiliated chapters are all feeling the pinch from the lingering effects of what has been called "The Great Recession" and probably will continue to for a while. My observation is that given the quality of chapter leaders I saw, plus our own regional consultants and board members, I am confident in the continued success of ASHHRA and its chapters. Our 2010 annual conference theme includes the tag line "Preparing for a New Decade of Success." The chapter leadership conference helped us do just that.
 
 
Jeff Payne, SPHR
Vice President, Human Resources
Lakeland Regional Medical Center
1324 Lakeland Hills Blvd
Lakeland, FL 33805-4500
863-687-1045
863-284-1971 (fax)

 

The American Hospital Association (AHA), the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) and IRI Consultants have partnered to administer a survey to assess and analyze recent labor activity and trends in the health care industry and, based on member responses, provide you with an up-to-date report to keep you informed and to guide decision making. The report will be distributed by ASHHRA and posted on its Web site.

Visit https://www.iriconsultants.com/forms/Ashhra_2010/welcome.htm to view the full article online.

 

The American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA), a personal membership group of the American Hospital Association (AHA), and HealthcareSource®, the leading provider of talent management solutions for the health care industry, are partnering to provide financial support to human resources practitioners who are new in their careers.

Visit http://www.ashhra.org/ashhra/learning/new_to_the_profession.html to view the full article online.

 

New York became the first state to pass legislation that provides domestic workers with basic labor protections. The state Senate passed the legislation, S 2311, also known as the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights, in a 33-28 vote. The bill sets out the responsibilities of employers and employees as well as rules for paid holidays, paid vacations and standard overtime, as well as other labor standards common in other federally protected industries.

Visit http://hr.blr.com/newsAlternate.aspx?category=5&topic=95&id=82427 to view the full article online.

 

A Maine insurance employee asked for a promotion, but the higher-level job was given to someone else. The employee sued, citing several remarks made by the decision makers about her family responsibilities.

Visit http://hr.blr.com/newsAlternate.aspx?category=3&topic=155&id=82405 to view the full article online.

 

If you want your employees to eat healthier as part of your overall wellness plan, don't let them get scammed by this common "health food" lingo. Here's a cheat sheet of words and phrases compiled by the folks at The Washington Post that your workers should be wary of. Consider printing it out and passing it along to your employees.

Visit http://www.hrmorning.com/health-food-traps-that-may-have-snared-your-employees/ to view the full article online.

 

A good relationship can help both mentor and protégé. Here's how to make sure that happens.

Visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703699204575016920463719744.html?mod=WSJ_mgmt_LeftTopNews to view the full article online.

 

Many U.S. employers are planning to use compensation incentives to limit "post-recessionary employee flight," according to a survey of HR decision makers by Workscape, a provider of employee performance, compensation and benefits administration services, conducted at the end of March. According to the survey report, Managing Employees and Total Rewards during the Economic Upswing, 65 percent of respondents are considering or strongly considering pay increases to drive retention as the economy recovers, while only 46 percent will consider benefits increases.

Visit http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/compensation/Articles/Pages/LimitFlight.aspx to view the full article online.

 

Hiring someone can be a time-consuming and nerve-wracking task. In an ideal situation, you find the perfect person for the position — someone who hits the ground running, increases your unit's performance and eases your workload. In the worst-case scenario, your seemingly perfect hire turns out to be far from it and you spend months dealing with the aftermath, including finding a replacement. Either way, it can feel like a referendum on your judgment. So how can you be sure your experience is more like the former than the latter? If you outline and adhere to a disciplined process, you can greatly improve your chances.

Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2010/05/how-to-prevent-hiring-disaster.html to view the full article online.

 

With warm weather and the summer season quickly approaching, the potential for employment law problems heat up in the workplace from companies operating with lean staffs and finding vacation requests challenging to grant, to skimpy summer fashion that could prompt sexual harassment claims to hiring teenagers looking to land a summer job.

Visit http://hr.blr.com/newsAlternate.aspx?category=5&topic=130&id=82371 to view the full article online.

 

The passage of the health care reform package brought a chorus of large employers saying the legislation would cause companies to abandon their employee health plans. That sentiment seems to have softened, at least among the respondents to a recent Towers Watson survey — 74 percent said they expected to continue offering the key benefit.

Visit http://www.hrmorning.com/theyre-not-happy-but-employers-plan-to-hang-in-on-employee-health-care-plans/ to view the full article online.

 

COBRA health insurance continues to be a mess for laid-off workers.

COBRA is a provision of federal law that allows most workers to keep employer-based health insurance up to 18 months after a layoff. But such policies are expensive, so a subsidy of premiums was enacted as part of the 2009 stimulus bill pays for 65 percent of costs.

Visit http://retirementrevised.com/money/cobra-health-insurance-muddled-despite-health-reform-law to view the full article online.

 

At least a third of U.S. companies offer financial incentives, or are planning to introduce them, to get their employees to lose weight or get healthier in other ways. "There's been an explosion of interest in this," said Kevin Volpp, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Health Incentives.

Visit http://ihrsa-industry-news.blogspot.com/2010/06/employees-earn-cash-for-exercising-more.html to view the full article online.

 

Patients with acute kidney injury who are admitted to the hospital on a weekend are more likely to die than those admitted on a weekday, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Visit http://news.nurse.com/article/20100514/NATIONAL02/105170005/-1/frontpage to view the full article online.

 

What makes a boss great? My readings of peer-reviewed studies, plus my more idiosyncratic experience studying and consulting to managers in many settings, have led me to identify some key beliefs that are held by the best bosses — and rejected, or more often simply never even thought about, by the worst bosses. Here they are, presented as a neat dozen.

Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/05/12_things_that_good_bosses_bel.html to view the full article online.

 

Leaders can sometimes communicate more without words than with them. What matters is poise and conviction.

Visit http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/05/how_to_lead_without_saying_a_w.html to view the full article online.