The Rise of Wellness Benefits at Work

Here’s a troubling paradox: people are more health-conscious now than they’ve ever been, but the rate of lifestyle disease is rising alarmingly.

According to WHO, 17.7 million people died in 2015 from cardiovascular disease. Other conditions that are all too familiar are diabetes, high blood pressure, pneumonia, cancer, obesity, and malnutrition.

Even though the Philippines ranks 161 out of 224 countries based on life expectancy, we’re up at #11 for hypertension and we have the greatest number of breast cancer cases out of 197 countries.

While there has been an improvement in medical facilities and health awareness over the past few decades, the state of our healthcare isn’t that good. A single medical consultation comes at a steep price, and millions of people lack the financial resources to pay for medicine or even necessary hospital procedures such as life-saving operations.

Healthcare is expensive–and it gets worse when you have a chronic disease that requires regular treatment. This alone explains why the most sought after company benefit is medical insurance, which shoulders the costs up to a certain amount (e.g. P200,000).

Wellne

Health insurance has been around for a while, but employers all over the world are already venturing into more extensive wellness benefits–think exercise classes at work, healthy lunches, and gym memberships alongside your usual salary.

This is probably the result of a paradigm shift. A century ago, acute diseases such as typhoid were the main cause of death.

But now that medicine has progressed enough to combat them and extend our lifespan all the way to old age, the next challenge is chronic disease–and we can’t exactly treat them with drugs alone because they stem from complex causes and are hugely influenced by lifestyle and nutrition.

In order to ward off chronic diseases, people are becoming conscious that they should be mindful of their health.

Parallel to this is the evolution of HR and a thrust towards a more humane workplace. Companies are starting to see employees are more than cogs in a well-oiled machine.

Why Businesses Should Care

From a business perspective, they have good cause to care about their employees’ wellbeing and happiness. Healthier employees means more productivity and more KPIs obtained, leading to a win-win situation for everyone.

Because so much time is spent at work every day–nine hours, usually– there’s usually a negative impact on health: sleep deprivation, stress, the hassles of commuting, eyestrain, back pain from sitting for too long, fatigue. Mindful wellness policies or programs in the company can alleviate these, or at least make employees more aware of how they can take care of their health.

But it isn’t exactly a surprising trend. Even outside the workplace, fitness and nutrition are catching on, with shops selling organic food and fitness centers popping up everywhere.

However, rather than a sign that we’re becoming healthier, perhaps it’s only a counter-reaction to how much more hazardous the world is becoming. We’re eating more sweets and processed food than any of our ancestors ever did, and we’re much more stressed and sedentary than ever before, to name a few cases.

Final Thoughts

In recognition of this, the government has passed bills such as Department Order 178-17 (bans forcing women to wear high heels to work), the Mental Health Bill of 2017 (provides free mental health services to the public), and Department Order 184 (requires regular standing breaks for employees).

Because these have only been passed recently, the effects aren’t widespread yet, but the push towards employee health–and wellness benefits at work–is unlikely to die down soon.

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source https://sprout.ph/blog/the-rise-of-wellness-benefits-at-work/

How to Brainstorm the Right Way

The next time you need a killer idea, don’t dive straight into your usual brainstorming session.

Let’s assume the likely: you’ve got a team of bright, capable people.

When tackling problems together or drawing up a new strategy, the protocol—ingrained by years of school projects and not-so-different work projects—is to huddle together in a meeting room, throw out ideas on the spot, and emerge enlightened with the ultimate plan that will save the day, powered by the combined creative juices of the entire team.

It has the ring of common sense.

But it’s also a myth.

As the Story Goes

Brainstorming has existed for as long as people could talk civilly to each other, although it only emerged as a formal practice in the 1940s, thanks to an advertising executive named Alex Osborn.

He set it running with two principles: defer judgment (avoid rejecting your coworker’s idea right away, no matter how far-fetched or unreasonable) and reach for quantity (the more ideas, the better).    

To a certain extent, this does accord with what we know about creativity. The main point of these two principles is to shush the inner critic.

By prioritizing quantity over quality, you become free to come up with more out-of-the-box ideas. And when your ideas collide with that of other people’s, maybe they’ll combine into an innovative hybrid.

The studies say that brainstorming as we know it doesn’t work that well, though. A 1958 Yale study came up with the baffling finding that male students who worked by themselves solved twice as many puzzles as their peers in groups.

Solitude seems to be a necessary element for creativity, which seems to spring up more often when we’re alone rather than when we’re yelling enthusiastically at each other.

Creative geniuses like Albert Einstein and Picasso spent a great deal of time daydreaming on their own. “Without solitude, no great work is possible,” Picasso quipped.

The Pitfalls of Brainstorming

There are numerous reasons for this, with the biggest culprit being the unconscious tendency towards groupthink. Members in a group feel subconsciously pressured to go along with the dominant idea, and the thrust is towards narrowing down—honing in on a specific train of thought rather than genuinely considering multiple alternatives.

Compared to when you have to figure out everything by yourself, you also feel less compelled to contribute. There are, what, four or more other people with you? If you don’t have that great insight, it’s not too worrying—maybe they’ll get it.

On top of this, the first ideas tossed out are extremely crucial because they set the direction of the conversation. And the first ideas are rarely ever brilliant. They’re safe and err on the side of the obvious—people are testing the waters, and they’re wary of appearing stupid or invoking dead silence.

There’s a distinct bias towards being loud and vocal. Ideas that get endorsed the most enthusiastically may win out—and annoyingly, being bombarded with other people’s ideas can stifle rather than stimulate your own.

Another interesting finding is that criticism isn’t all bad—when it’s channeled into constructive debate. According to a study by Nemeth, groups that debated—thus breaking the principle of deferring judgment—came up with 20% more ideas.

Getting someone to challenge your idea can actually be fruitful because you get to elaborate on it—and the sparks of argument, more than simple acceptance, can give rise to more insights.

The Right Way to Brainstorm

As pointed out by Art Markan, brainstorming still does have its place: it’s primarily useful for convergent thinking—taking an existing set of ideas and filtering them, sorting out which can be the most useful. To harness its full power, it’s suggested that the actual idea generation be done on an individual basis.

Rather than lunging into full-blown debate right away, let everyone write down their ideas first, or come to the meeting with a list already prepared. Because the mind needs to incubate for a while before spitting out creativity, it might be better to give people a few days to prepare their list.

Curiously, the groupthink effect of brainstorming dissipates when done digitally—in other words, when people aren’t talking to each other face-to-face. In this case, the more people involved, the better.

You can see this in online forums, and replicate the effect by logging down everyone’s ideas and inspiration and putting them in a shared folder that can be viewed anytime by the team.

Conclusion

Creativity can be flighty and elusive—the Ancient Greeks chalked it up to Muses who could come and go on their own whims, and whom you had to court and not displease.

While you can’t control when exactly that flash of insight will strike, you can cajole it to visit more often by setting the right conditions. For groups, this means thinking both on your own and together: cultivate your own ideas first, then bring them to the table—and don’t give in to the noise.

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source https://sprout.ph/blog/how-to-brainstorm-the-right-way/

A Quick Guide to 13th Month Pay

What is 13th month pay?

The 13th month pay is a mandatory benefit provided to employees pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 851, which requires employers to grant 13th month pay to all its rank and file employees.

Who is supposed to receive 13th month pay?

All employers in the private sector are required to give 13th month pay to rank-and-file employees who have worked for at least one month during the calendar year, regardless of resignation or termination.

The following is a list of employers who are not required to give 13th month pay under PD 851:

• Government
• Employers already giving their employees 13th month pay or its equivalent
• Employers of household helpers and persons in the personal service of another
• Employers of those who are paid on commission, boundary, or task basis, and those who are paid a fixed amount for specific work

13th month pay should be given on or before December 24. Alternatively, it can be given in two batches: one half before the school year starts, and the remaining half before December 24.

What happens when employers don’t comply?

As proof of having handed out 13th month pay, employers have to submit compliance reports to DOLE on or before January 15 of the succeeding year.

Employees who don’t receive their rightful 13th month pay can file a formal complaint and even sue in court.

How do you compute it?

To calculate 13th month pay, get your basic salary for the entire calendar year and divide it by twelve.

For example, if your total basic salary is P50,000:

P50,000 / 12 = P4166.67

If you don’t know your total basic salary, you can come up with an approximation by taking your basic salary per month, multiply by how many months you’ve been working in the company, and divide by 12. So if your basic salary is P10,000 per month and you’ve been in the company for 3 months:

P10,000 * 3 months / 12 =  P2500

Getting the correct amount can be a source of confusion, mostly because people aren’t sure about what basic salary consists of. According to PD 851, basic salary consists of “all renumerations or earnings paid by an employer for services rendered.” However, it doesn’t include:

• Cost-of-living allowance
• Profit-sharing payments
• Cash equivalent of unused leave and vacation credits
• Overtime pay
• Premium pay
• Night shift differential
• Holiday pay
• Other allowances and monetary benefits that aren’t considered part of the basic salary

This graphic from the National Wage and Productivity Commission gives an example of how to compute for basic salary:

Based on the graphic, leaves without pay, undertime, and tardiness have a negative effect on your basic salary (and thus your 13th month pay); maternity leave benefits are also not included.

On the bright side, taxes are not deducted from 13th month pay, unless it goes past P82,000.  

Isn’t this the same as Christmas bonus?

Nope—13th month pay is mandatory, but employers can choose whether to give Christmas bonus or not. Additionally, Christmas bonus can be handed out anytime—there’s no strict deadline. It’s possible for (lucky) employees to get both 13th month pay and Christmas bonus.

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Redesigning Your Office for Extroverts and Introverts

Cubicles were the norm before. Now, it’s open-plan offices.

Neither is a perfect solution. Designing an office that’s conducive to everyone’s productivity is a daunting task in itself because people have different preferences.

A key personality trait that has been given a lot of attention recently is introversion-extroversion, which impacts job fit, preferred environment, and even working style.

Despite common usage, it’s not black-and-white. Introversion-extroversion is more like a spectrum—which side of the scale you lie on determines which one you are, regardless of whether you’re near the middle or at the far end.

Introversion and Extroversion                                     

We’re not quite using the terms correctly, though. Being an extrovert doesn’t necessarily mean you’re loud, noisy, or talkative, and being introverted isn’t about being shy and quiet.

The actual distinguishing factor is what gives you energy: if you get energy from being alone, then you’re an introvert, but if you’re energized by being around people, you’re an extrovert. This means that extroverts actually get drained when they have to spend too much time alone, while introverts can only handle being around other people for so long.

Delving deeper into that, introverts are much more sensitive to stimuli—what excites an extrovert might overwhelm an introvert. Cue the lemon test: if you squeeze a lemon on people’s tongues, introverts will salivate more than extroverts.

Accurate statistics can be hard to obtain, but it’s safe to say that a significant chunk of the population belongs to each group. This means that if you want a more productive workforce, then you have to cater to the needs of both—and a crucial part of this can be reconfiguring your office to be more accommodating and pleasant to work in.

What This Means For the Office

For introverts, it’d be great if you could have places in your office where they can work in solitude if they want to. Even though most companies are converting to open-space offices now, there are studies that say that these might be more distracting than collaborative.

Introverts naturally prefer having a lot of quiet time to think, and might get stressed if they get a seat right next to the door or have to deal with frequent interruptions. Another way that they establish boundaries is putting on earphones to block out noise.

On the other hand, extroverts probably feel uncomfortable when forced to stay inside a cubicle the whole day. Because interacting with other people gets their energy levels up, it’s second nature for them to engage in conversation and banter with coworkers, and they’d be happy to have a space where they can easily reach out to other people.

Unlike introverts who get their best ideas when thinking through something on their own, extroverts tend to come up with insights when talking to others.

Compromising

But regardless of whether they’re introverted or extroverted, people still need both privacy and socializing. The best office design, then, would have different rooms that cater to both of these needs.

This makes sense when you consider that the ideal workspace may also vary per department—teams such as sales need space to interact, while product-oriented teams like design and development require solitude for deep work.

The solution to this would be an office with open-plan rooms, but also with plenty of comfortable nooks and quiet spaces, as well as meeting rooms where people can gather. People generally feel happier when they can choose where to work: give people their own desks, yes, but let them have the freedom to move around and work wherever they want in the office.

It may seem like a lot effort to customize your office with introversion-extroversion in mind, but consider that employees will be spending most of their day inside your office. Physical environment will definitely have a huge impact on their productivity, and you’d rather get it right at once rather than having to remodel or redesign when feedback streams in.   

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source https://sprout.ph/blog/redesigning-office-extroverts-introverts/