Working mothers are working more hours or taking on second jobs to balance layoffs and less household income available during the economic downturn. In its annual Mother’s Day survey, CareerBuilder reports that 30 percent of working moms, whose companies have had layoffs in the past 12 months, are working longer hours and 14 percent of working moms have taken on second jobs in the last year to help make ends meet. One-third stated that they are burned out. The survey was conducted from Feb. 20 to March 11, 2009. Approximately 496 women who are employed full-time with children under the age of 18 were interviewed.

Working moms are feeling increased pressure to be able to continue providing for their households and are spending more time on work. Forty percent of working moms fear losing their jobs today more than they did one year ago. Forty-three percent work more than 40 hours per week, while 16 percent of working moms reported bringing work home at least two days a week. Six percent said work comes home with them every workday.

Increased workloads are impacting the quantity and quality of time spent with their families. Nearly one-in-five working moms said they spend two hours or less with their children each day. One-in-four reported they had missed two or more significant events in their child's life in the last year.

"More than anything, working moms want the gift of time this Mother's Day," said Mary Delaney, President of CareerBuilder's talent management and recruitment outsourcing division, Personified, and mother of three. "Nearly one-third say that despite it being one of the toughest economies in the nation's history, they would even consider taking a pay cut to spend more time with their kids. If you're struggling with work/life balance, talk to your manager. Working moms who communicate their need for flexible time, job sharing or something in between will find that most companies are receptive to these kinds of policies."

Many working moms choose to work alternative schedules so they can spend more time with their kids. Fifty-five percent of working moms say they take advantage of flexible work arrangements at their organizations, with the vast majority reporting that work style adjustments have not adversely affected their career progress.

 

Poor health among workers is far costlier to U.S. employers than medical and pharmaceutical spending alone, impacting their profitability and undercutting the nation's overall productivity. According to a multi-employer study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (JOEM), employers who focus only on medical and pharmacy costs in creating employee health strategies may misidentify the health conditions that most impact the productivity of their employees while underestimating the impact of other factors.

One such factor, "presenteeism," occurs when employees with health conditions are present at their jobs but are unable to perform at full capacity. The study concluded that impaired employee performance typically creates a greater drain on a company's productivity than employee absence.

The multi-year study of organizations employing more than 150,000 workers also found that when considering medical and drug costs alone, the top five conditions driving costs are cancer, back/neck pain, coronary heart disease, chronic pain and high cholesterol. However, when health-related productivity costs are measured along with medical and pharmacy costs, the top five chronic health conditions driving these overall health costs shift significantly to depression, obesity, arthritis, back/neck pain and anxiety.

Coordinated by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM), the Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI) and Alere LLC, the study suggests that many employers miss an opportunity to improve productivity and their bottom-line results by failing to recognize and prioritize these health conditions when they develop integrated employee health strategies and related interventions.

The following are other highlights of the study:

• Health-related productivity costs are significantly greater than medical and pharmacy costs alone. On average, every $1 of medical and pharmacy costs is matched to $2.3 of health-related productivity costs and that figure is much greater for some conditions.

• Employees with multiple chronic health conditions drive the largest effects on productivity loss. The study calls for further research to better evaluate the impacts of co-morbidities by conditions and combinations of conditions.

• The impact of poor health on productivity affects all levels of an enterprise. Executives/managers seem to suffer high presenteeism productivity loss related to specific health conditions along with those in non-managerial jobs.

To fully gauge health-related productivity costs, researchers measured medical and pharmacy spending along with lost-productivity costs related to absence and presenteeism. The study notes that employers have not historically assessed costs in this way, limiting themselves instead to a "siloed" approach that seeks to manage single health-cost categories, such as medical visits or pharmaceuticals, through benefit-package design.

"The transformational opportunity for employers is to look beyond healthcare benefits as a cost to be managed and rather to the benefits of good health as an investment to be leveraged. Ultimately, a healthier, more productive workforce can help drive a healthier economy for our nation."

WP