Share The Knowledge: Forward this newsletter to a colleague.

Subscribe to AHI's Free E-Mail Newsletters: • HR Soapbox • Benefits Alert • Employment Law Today View samples and subscribe by visiting our website.

1. FEATURE STORY:
SAFEGUARDING YOUR STAFF FROM STAPH INFECTION
AND FLU INFESTATION

As if employers didn't have enough to worry about in the midst of flu season, which can potentially sap attendance and productivity, there's another infectious disease to worry about that you may not have ever considered before. Up until recently, you probably only heard about staph-related deaths on TV shows like House and E.R. But staph made real-life news when a high school student in Virginia died from a form of staph called Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureas (MRSA, for short). Other student deaths from MRSA occurred in Mississippi, New Hampshire, and New York.

News of those deaths should have employers thinking about the risk of MRSA infection in the workplace right along with the risk of the flu this season.

Cleanliness Is The Best Defense

What the flu and MRSA have in common is that, above all, practicing cleanliness both on a personal and workplace level best prevents infections. Here are two things your organization can do.

1. Promote frequent hand washing and good hygiene. Restroom and lounge facilities should have an abundant supply of soap. It's not a bad idea to also stock the workplace with hand sanitizers for extra insurance.

Employees should use a tissue when coughing/sneezing, cough/sneeze into their sleeve (versus their hand) if there are no tissues, and use a paper towel to open doors. Use the company newsletter and bulletin boards to spread the cleanliness word.

2. Ensure equipment and surfaces are routinely cleaned, giving extra attention to shared workspaces and locations where employees gather. MRSA-contaminated areas should be cleaned with detergent-based cleaners and EPA-registered disinfectants.

Make sure the cleaning crew wipes down door handles, phones, buttons on fax machines, computer keyboards and mice, and anything else that employees touch throughout the day that may get overlooked (e.g., water cooler knobs, the microwave door). Encourage employees to routinely wipe down shared equipment after using it. Stock the worksite with disinfecting wipes, cleaning products, and sprays so they can do this.

Let's Talk About MRSA

MRSA is most frequently transmitted by direct skin-to-skin contact, or by contact with shared items or surfaces that have come into contact with someone else's infection. In the workplace, employees may share office and protective equipment that has come into contact with staph bacteria.

The best ways to prevent MRSA are to practice good hygiene and cleanliness, cover wounds, and avoid skin-to-skin contact. Your organization can get involved in preventing MRSA by doing the following.

• Have a supply of bandages available. Covering infected wounds helps prevent the spread of staph, so, if clean bandages are readily available, employees will be more likely to keep their wounds clean and covered.

• Make sure there are trash receptacles throughout the facility for employees to dispose of bandages. According to the Centers for Disease Control, bandages can be discarded with the regular trash.

• Train employees on the proper use, care, and disposal of personal protective equipment (e.g., uniforms, goggles, gloves). Monitor and retrain if necessary. Stress that employees should not share protective equipment. If an employee does become infected, inform any co-workers from whom the employee may have borrowed protective gear so they can get tested.

• Launder uniforms and the like that may have been contaminated. Dry them in a hot dryer, rather than air-drying, to help kill bacteria.

• Discourage employees from sharing personal items, such as towels or toiletries, whether in the company's own restroom or shower, or at an outside gym.

It's Flu Time

The federal government estimated that up to 60 million people each year get the flu, amounting to as many as 70 million missed workdays. This may mean the shutdown of a whole department or an entire company, depending on the size of the organization. Lessen the likelihood of the flu affecting your workplace in this way by:

• Providing flu shots, either on-site or off-site. On-site: Let employees know what cost you will cover (full or partial); they need to sign up in advance; and participation is voluntary. Off-site: Inform employees whether you will provide full or partial reimbursement; and where they can get the vaccine, such as local health centers or retail pharmacy chains and supermarkets that have started providing flu shots to the public.

• Permitting online shopping during non-work time to help employees avoid exposure to germs in crowded shopping centers.

• Preparing employees to work from home. Send sick workers home to avoid infecting everyone else. Each department should have a plan for employees to work from home. This applies to not only the individual who is contagious, but also to healthy employees in the event of an outbreak and management decides they are better off staying home, too.

2. CATHIE'S CORNER:
BRACE YOURSELF FOR OPEN ENROLLMENT MISUNDERSTANDINGS

Here it is December, and for many of us that means one thing: it's open enrollment time. And for many HR and Benefits professionals, open enrollment is the work equivalent to "hell month."

No matter how well we think we've communicated the choices, the plans, the due dates, and the procedures to our employees, there is sure to be a certain percentage of them who either didn't understand, didn't read the memos, or for some other reason didn't complete the paperwork. As a result, those employees go to you with complaints that they didn't get the coverage they wanted, and what are you going to do about it?

If you're anything like me, your first instinct is to say, "I'm not going to do anything about it. You got the same notices that everyone else did and if you didn't read them, it's just too bad." But before you do, take a step backward and think it through.

First, if you get a number of similar complaints, it might be that your instructions were not as clear as you thought they were. If a third of your employees didn't understand that they had to fill out an enrollment form for the new dental carrier even if they were not changing their family status or changing from the DMO to the PPO (or vice versa), then maybe you need to look at your instructions. They may seem clear to you, but remember, you've been working on the plan for months. If they weren't clear, you might want to reconsider the drop-dead date that forms need to be turned in by, and allow a few extra days.

Second, you also might want to check the employee's hire date. Sometimes a new employee who only completed enrollment forms a matter of days or weeks ago may not understand that they were required to do so again. If that's the case, you might want to explain to them again exactly what their options are and be a little flexible on the forms.

Finally, if there are any special circumstances in the employee's life, such as a pending birth or a marriage on New Year's Eve, you might want to see if you can hold off submitting their forms until after the qualifying event (QE), rather than require them to complete the forms twice — once for open enrollment and once for the QE.

But if you've looked at all the circumstances and the instructions and you can't find any valid reason to cut the employee some slack, then there's nothing stopping you from using a slightly more polite version of the response I suggested above.

I believe in personal responsibility, and I don't buy into the idea that we owe the employees extra time because they didn't follow instructions. Nor does anything in the law require it. But there are times when a little flexibility is a good employee-relations move, even if it is not legally required.

Catherine Bannon is the President of HR by Request, Inc., in Marshfield, MA (catherine.bannon@gmail.com). Bannon worked for 10 years in HR management before starting her consulting firm.

PROTECT YOUR CUSTOMERS FROM EMPLOYEE BIAS

A manager's duties under anti-discrimination laws extend past your staff members; you are also responsible for protecting your customers, clients, and other third parties...View the full story on our website.

FREE REPORT

Check out the new Free Report, "Turning Negativity Into 'Positivity'," which provides strategies for encouraging job satisfaction; suggestions for dealing with negative employees; and steps for preventing a negative attitude from becoming a legal issue.  You also get a sample behavior-at-work policy, and an employee satisfaction survey to measure your employees' satisfaction at work.