“Tech Neck”: Employee ailments that derive from use of technology tools apparently is fueling a growing business at upscale spas, at least in
Smoke-Free Marriott Moves to Help Workers Kick Habit
Marriott International Inc. went cold turkey in October, banning smoking in its guest rooms and work areas. But the global hotel chain took a step beyond most other companies by instituting a program designed to help employees drop their nicotine habit.
In a poll released in mid-December, employers ranked smoking as one of the top three health problems afflicting their workforces, along with obesity and high blood pressure. The survey, which was sponsored by the National Business Group on Health, also showed that 82 percent of companies want to support employees in their effort to quit smoking.
But one of the most popular solutions—creating a smoke-free workplace—only addresses part of the problem, according to experts. An edict to snuff out puffing won’t prevent a worker from finding alternative places to smoke.
The poll by the National Business Group on Health found that 78 percent of employees who work in a smoke-free office say that the prohibition has not inspired them to quit. The survey consisted of interviews with 508 companies and 510 employees.
To help its employees kick butts, Marriott augmented its no-smoking policy November 1 with a comprehensive smoking cessation program. Only 4 percent of companies offer such benefits, according to the business group.
Marriott provides a free anti-smoking package to all its employees and their dependents who participate in a medical plan. The initiative, which Marriott runs in partnership with the American Cancer Society, consists of 24-hour “quitline” telephone counseling and two eight-week non-prescription nicotine replacement therapy treatments each year.
Currently, a majority of Marriott’s employee health plans cover prescription smoking cessation products. By 2008, all of them will.
Marriott’s smoking ban was announced in the middle of July and put into effect October 16 to meet customer demand for a smoke-free environment. Smoking is now forbidden in all 400,000 guest rooms as well as restaurants, lounges, meeting rooms, public spaces and work areas.
In addition to pleasing guests, a no-smoking policy may lower Marriott’s health care bill. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that direct medical costs related to smoking total more than $75 billion annually.
About 44.5 million adults smoke, according to the CDC. As those people drop the habit, they may become more productive. Ron Finch, vice president for the National Business Group on Health, says that cumulative lost time due to smoking breaks can add up to one day per week.
For Marriott, however, the motivation to ban smoking wasn’t based on the bottom line. “We weren’t focused on ROI,” says Karen Graham, Marriott manager of health plans. “It was more of ‘This is the right thing to do for our guests and associates.’ It was more of a philosophical decision to go smoke-free and offer this program.”
Companies seeking to emulate Marriott should recognize that smoking is an addiction, and employees may have to make several attempts to quit, according to the CDC.
The agency recommends that cessation benefits include at least four counseling sessions of 30 minutes each, cover both prescription and over-the- counter medications, cover at least two cessation attempts annually and limit—or eliminate—co-pays or deductibles related to smoking programs.
Employers Shorten 401(k) Waiting Periods
The survey of 427 profit-sharing and 401(k) plans by the Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America in
Among plans with at least 1,000 employees, 85 percent offer eligibility within three months, up from 79 percent a year earlier.
“Shorter eligibility periods are good news for workers,” PSCA president David Wray said in a statement.
Shorter eligibility periods mean, among other things, that employees will have a smaller gap between the time they stop contributing to a 401(k) plan when they leave one company and when they can start contributing to the plan of their new employer.
Reduced waiting periods for 401(k) plans also take on greater importance as more companies close their defined-benefit plans to new employees, making corporate 401(k) plans the only company-sponsored plan in which employees can save for their retirement.
Jerry Geisel is a reporter for Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management.
Employer Liability for ‘Hyper-Sexualized’ Workplace
A jury was confronted with deciding whether to hold an employer liable for maintaining a “hyper-sexualized” workplace in EEOC v. Custom Cos. Inc.
Three former Custom Cos. saleswomen claimed that the company tolerated officers and employees who regularly groped them, made lewd sexual comments, sexually propositioned them and displayed pornography in the office. They also claimed that the company had required them to entertain customers at a strip club owned by the company president and to participate in company-sponsored golf outings where strippers entertained customers.
Despite testimony, photographs and documents confirming these practices, the company claimed at trial that it had been falsely accused of sexual harassment and that the saleswomen complained only to obscure their own poor work performance.
A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois awarded $2.3 million in compensatory and punitive damages to the three saleswomen. The jury found that the company was liable for maintaining a sexually hostile work environment and for retaliating against the three female employees who complained about such treatment. EEOC v. Custom Cos. Inc., N.D. Ill., No. 02 C 3768 (11/17/06).
Impact: When faced with sexual harassment claims, denying that the sexual harassment occurred and blaming women for being sexually groped may not be the best defense, particularly in the face of evidence to the contrary.
5 Questions for Craig Barrett, Intel’s Chairman
Intel chairman Craig Barrett is the public face of his company’s effort to reduce health care costs—not just for the microprocessor manufacturer but throughout the health system. On December 6, Barrett announced the formation of Dossia, an employer-sponsored group aimed at creating a system of personal, portable electronic health records for member companies’ employees. Intel launched Dossia as a nonprofit organization founded with four other large employers—Wal-Mart, BP America, Pitney Bowes and Applied Materials—in order to give employees a way to manage their health care in a manner that would promote greater efficiency, lower costs and improved health. Though many details have not been worked out, the health records would be owned by employees regardless of whether they stay with the member companies. Barrett recently spoke with Workforce Management staff writer Jeremy Smerd.
Workforce Management: Why did Intel take the lead to get employers involved in creating personal health records?
Craig Barrett: Somebody had to! [Barrett laughs.] There are a number of industry organizations that have been focusing on this. The high-tech industry has looked at [rising] health care costs as a competitive issue. We bounced the idea around about doing something but somebody had to take the lead, so we picked up the project and ran with it.
WM: Have you been working on Dossia since you launched the digital health group last year?
Barrett: The thought came to us before that, while looking at health care costs. But the formation of the digital health group [launched in 2005 as part of an Intel reorganization] gave us some increased impetus. So it’s being managed out of that group but it’s really more of a corporate effort rather than a digital health group and Intel effort.
WM: Are you looking at any possible business opportunities to come out of this?
Barrett: We’re not looking for any business opportunities for Intel, per se, to come out of this. The business opportunities that the digital health group has are all involved in using IT in health care, providing either standard products to the health care industry or providing remote diagnostic-type capability. Those are not specifically related to Dossia. The point I’m trying to make is there is not a direct business relation between the digital health group and anything we’re trying to do with this program. It is a corporate effort driven to try to control health care costs on the one hand and to provide a benefit to employees on the other hand.
WM: How much has Intel spent on Dossia?
Barrett: Well, each one of the founding companies is committed to put in over a million bucks into the initial formulation of Dossia—the plumbing, the infrastructure—to make it happen. That’s just to get the program going. And the expectation is that once it’s going it will be supported by subscription basis, where companies will pay a nominal fee per employee to subscribe.
WM: How are you going to get your employees to use the personal health records?
Barrett: Well, we will put a sales program on fully explaining the program to them. But I think most employees recognize the benefit of having an electronic health record for themselves and their family members. I’m sure that every time you go to the doctor you recognize the benefit of having that health record, and all employees are in that same boat.
Exclusion of Deaf Job Applicants Under ADA
Five deaf job applicants brought a class-action suit against UPS and claimed that the company had excluded them for consideration for jobs driving trucks with a gross vehicular weight of less than 10,001 pounds. The U.S. Department of Transportation requires that drivers of vehicles weighing at least 10,001 pounds pass certain hearing standards. Drivers who drive trucks less than 10,001 pounds are not subject to the regulation.
UPS argued that to prove disability discrimination, deaf workers were required to demonstrate an ability to drive safely.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit agreed that UPS violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by using qualification standards to screen out deaf individuals. The court held that UPS did not satisfy the burden of proof to show that application of a Department of Transportation hearing standard for jobs driving smaller vehicles was job-related and consistent with business necessity. Bates v. United Parcel Serv. Inc., 9th Cir. Ct. App., No. 04-17295 (10/10/06).
Impact: Employers are advised to carefully examine any broad qualification standards for particular jobs and to individually evaluate workers’ abilities to perform their jobs.
C-Suite December, 2006
People moving into key executive positions | |
| Greg Thompson has joined Saba Software as senior director of strategy and product management. Thompson previously was principal consultant at Knowledge Infusion and director of strategy at Oracle. He also worked at PeopleSoft for 10 years in the human capital management, technology and education areas. | |
| Akanksha Malik has been named director of process, quality management and training at RPOworldwide. Prior to her new role, she was responsible for setting up the Center of Excellence for Training Development for a division of Intel India. Before that, she managed the e-learning business practice at QAI India. | |
| Michael Boese has been appointed group vice president of corporate business development at Taleo. Boese most recently was vice president of corporate strategy at SAP. He also has served as vice president of corporate business development at PeopleSoft and held various leadership positions at Quantum Corp. and Oracle | |
| Rene DuBose has joined Wesley, Brown & Bartle Co. as senior vice president and managing director. DuBose served as global human resource director at McGraw-Hill Cos. Prior to this, DuBose was senior HR partner of global industries at IBM. She also served as director of HR at the World Wrestling Federation | |
| Thomas White has joined the Chicago law office of Chapman and Cutler as partner. White comes from the law firm of Schwartz Cooper, where he was a principal of the labor and employment group. | |
| Mel Gadd has been named global vice president of quality at TomorrowNow. Previously Gadd managed customer satisfaction and quality programs at PeopleSoft. | |
| Dan Twing has been appointed COO of Enterprise Management Associates. Prior to joining EMA, Twing was president and CEO of NetDelivery. | |
| James Stewart has been named executive vice president of Kopos & Baker. Stewart has more than 10 years of experience in business development | |
| Henry Janssen has joined F&H Solutions as director of talent management. Prior to joining F&H, Janssen served as project manager at IBM. | |
| Lorraine Hack has joined Heidrick & Struggles as partner. Hack has served as CFO of Fathon and was senior vice president of executive operations for Sesame Workshop. She spent a decade with Viacom n various financial positions. Most recently she was executive director at Russell Reynolds Associates. | |
| Dan Ward has joined SRA as vice president and human capital officer. He was chief architect, organization and transformation design, at EDS. | |
| Jeannie Criddle has joined BeneTrac as regional sales director for the East Bay and Central Valley regions of California. She most recently was sales manager at Opening Technologies. | |
| Marie Avren has joined ERC Dataplus as vice president of client services. Avren’s experience includes serving as project manager in the organizational development and learning center at Yale University. | |
| Jeffrey K. Cordes has been appointed managing director of CareerBuilder.com’s new human capital consulting division. Cordes was president of Human Capital Results and has held positions with IBM, Xpedior, Apropos Technology and NCI. | |
| Bradley Savoy has been named director of strategic development at Bernard Hodes Group. Prior to joining Bernard Hodes, Savoy worked with Taleo as client executive, Bank of America as vice president of staffing and at Andersen as director of recruiting. | |
| Clark D. Handy has been named senior vice president of human resources at Convergys. Handy previously served as vice president of human resources in the global supply chain division and in the global research and development division at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Before Wyeth, Handy held senior management roles at Georgie-Pacific, James River and Hallmark Cards. | |
| Keith Dunnell has joined ZeroChaos as COO. | |
| Edwin C. Hendrick has joined CorVel Corp. as vice president of sales. He was vice president of sales and marketing for USLABS/Esoterix. | |
| Kurt Dunn and Todd Richman have joined PeopleFilter as regional sales managers. Dunn most recently was vice president of global services at Vurv Technology. Richman served was senior director of professional services at Vurv. | |
5 Questions for Christian Marchetti, Managing Director, Accenture HR Services
Accenture HR Services made headlines in June when it won a seven-year HR outsourcing contract with consumer goods giant Unilever. The deal, which has been valued at $1.1 billion, is the biggest HRO contract ever, analysts say. Under the agreement, Accenture will oversee HR administration, recruiting, training and performance management for Unilever’s 206,000 employees in 100 countries.
Christian Marchetti, who works in Accenture HR’s Paris office, recently spoke with Workforce Management staff writer Jessica Marquez about the deal and the overall HRO market during a November meeting in Brussels, Belgium.
Workforce Management: How did you first hear that Unilever was looking to do HR outsourcing?
Christian Marchetti: Unilever has been an important client of Accenture for a long time through a lot of consulting work. About two years ago, we started these C-level discussions around how HR can contribute to their strategic agenda. They had some identified objectives on how they wanted to transform the company, and the question became how to transform HR as part of that. Through those discussions, they became convinced that outsourcing and HR transformation were the best way to go. It was not something that jumped into our face through a request for proposal. It was an ongoing discussion based on an existing relationship. Then they decided to put out the RFP.
WM: In the Unilever deal, as well as several of your deals, Accenture is partnering with other providers to offer services like payroll and benefits. Will that continue to be part of your strategy, or will you build or buy more capabilities?
Marchetti: The HR domain is quite wide, and I have no intent to do all capabilities. Partnering will continue to be our strategy. We may adjust this strategy at some point to build some parts of capabilities ourselves, and we may end up doing some pieces that are currently subcontracted. But in terms of technology and specific processes, there will always be a domain where we will have to partner.
WM: When we spoke a few months ago to Michelle Adelman, a senior executive at Accenture HR Services, she mentioned that Accenture might do its own benefits administration. Is that still a consideration?
Marchetti: This is ongoing thinking. This is not something in progress. To ensure that we have a structure of alliances, we know who are the players and we know who we want to work with. Benefits [administration] has been a longstanding question. It’s still open.
WM: Does Unilever’s decentralized structure present challenges in implementing HRO?
Marchetti: We will see. Decentralization isn’t a challenge by itself. The challenge is that they have a decentralized organization and a decentralized culture, which is requiring more standardizing and consistent processes. So the decision-making process is happening despite the decentralized nature of the organization.
WM: What trends are you seeing in the HRO market overall?
Marchetti: This market has been very aggressive over the last few years, so we will see the consequences of some providers going through difficult deals. At the same time we will see very big transformational deals like Unilever. It can have a huge impact on the momentum of the market if we are successful. I think the lift-and-shift transactions are having so many problems that there will be less and less of them. I don’t know if there will be consolidation. I think there are too many players saying they will play. Maybe some of them will just continue other businesses they are in and not stay in HR outsourcing.
Watson Wyatt Eyes Brans & Co
Watson to Reacquire Partner: Washington HR consultancy Watson Wyatt Worldwide plans to acquire its partner in the Netherlands sometime during the first quarter of 2007, according to the Washington Business Journal. Although declining to release details of the proposed transaction, Watson Wyatt’s acquisition of Watson Wyatt Brans & Co.—created when its Dutch office merged with Dutch actuarial consultant Brans & Co. for $37 million in 1999—continues a string of deals. Last summer it bought boutique compensation company Briggs & Sands, while in 2005 it acquired Davis, Conder, Enderle & Sloan, a Chicago-based actuarial and retirement benefits consulting firm.
Employment Losses Not as Great as in 2005
The Sky May Not Be Falling: Despite seemingly weekly notices of huge layoffs, a new research report said 2006 cutbacks were not as severe as in 2005. Chicago consulting firm Challenger Gray & Christmas reports that overall job cuts in 2006 were 22 percent lower than in 2005, coming in at less than 1 million for the first time since 2000. Ironically, the slowdown in job cuts coincides with record cutbacks in the automotive industry, a bellwether of the economy. Automakers slashed nearly 159,000 positions in 2006, with industrial goods manufacturers the second-hardest hit (about 78,000 jobs). Other sectors that absorbed huge hits were government, nonprofits, computing, retail, media, chemicals and real estate. However, Challenger’s monthly research covers a small number of those who actually lose their jobs each month.