Business

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Mike Benbow, Business Editor benbow@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, February 1, 2008 Tips for helping struggling employees What to do if stress from the housing downturn threatens morale or productivity. By Joyce Rosenberg In small businesses across the country, employee stress levels are rising along with talk of recession and the stock market's latest plunge. Problems can also come from a reality that's painfully close by: a co-worker whose home is undergoing foreclosure. Trying economic times can create uneasiness and tension at even the healthiest companies, forcing small-business owners to deal with productivity and disciplinary problems, or they might find themselves approached by a struggling employee who asks for a loan. Attorneys and human resources professionals say owners need to be sure that in handling any issues that arise from the increased economic problems, they treat staffers equally, not favoring one over another. Owners might also want to sign on with an employee-assistance provider that can supply financial and emotional counseling. Some workers at Quality Float Works Inc., a maker of hollow metal balls and valve parts, are clearly under stress, although the company is doing well, vice president Jason Speer said. "We noticed some employees who have been having some problems I imagine are due to some housing issues," said Speer, whose company is in Schaumburg, Ill., near Chicago. So, he said, "we've given them loans interest-free that we deduct every week out of their paychecks." The company's reasoning is simple: "When we can help their home life be easier, it makes them more productive and easier to work with." What if the problems start intruding into the workplace? An employee with debt or mortgage problems is spending an entire morning on the phone with creditors. Or staffers are short-tempered and there's friction between co-workers. If the problem is too much time spent on personal issues, an owner needs to set limits -- but shouldn't outright prohibit phone calls. For one thing, it won't work -- employees will feel compelled to make the calls anyway. For another, clamping down completely sends a bad message to the entire workplace: that the boss doesn't care about an employee in trouble. When employees have a concern, "they don't check it at the door when they come in," said Jennifer Blum Feldman, an attorney with Wolf Block Schorr and Solis-Cohen LLP in Philadelphia. "They're going to be distracted and they may have a decrease in productivity because they're not focused," she said. If one worker is spending an inordinate amount of time on the phone, you probably need to tell everyone that occasional calls are OK, but if they have to do a lot of calling, it should be done at break or lunch time. Or, Feldman said, an owner might want to allow employees flex time to take care of their problems. Setting limits will not only aid productivity, it will help other staffers know the boss is making sure no one takes advantage of a difficult situation -- and that the company will be flexible with them, too. "A sense of fairness in the office is something that goes a long way," said Gus Stieber, a media representative for Bensinger, DuPont & Associates, a Chicago-based employee assistance provider. If someone ignores the rules, "treat it as any employee performance situation with progressive discipline," Feldman said. In progressive discipline, an employee is given a series of warnings that could end in dismissal. Many owners may decide to loan employees money. If you do, "have the employee sign a promissory note that's legally binding," Feldman said. "Make sure you're going to get paid back." Feldman cautioned that owners should be aware that wage and hour laws may limit how much can be deducted from an employee's salary to repay a loan -- even if an employee wants to pay it off quickly, an employer can take out only so much from a paycheck. Employers who are seeing signs of stress in the workplace can ease the situation by letting staffers know help is available. They can contract with an EAP that can refer staffers for financial or emotional counseling, or they can give them information about resources available from groups such as the United Way. Stieber, who is also a licensed social worker, said his company has seen a 78 percent increase in calls over the past three months from employees with financial problems. "I was a little dumbfounded" by the increase, he said. Owners can also defuse some of the angst in the workplace by being upfront about how their own companies are doing. Richard Rabins, co-founder of Alpha Software, a Burlington, Mass., maker of database applications, said his company is doing well, but that staffers are still uneasy. "People are going home and watching stories about plunging stock markets and foreclosures. It just makes everyone in big and small companies nervous," he said. Rabins can't change what people hear on the news, but he can give them reassurance about their own jobs. "The best tactic for owners or managers in a small business during times like this is increasing the amount of communication that goes on within the company and being very open and transparent," he said. Joyce Rosenberg covers small-business issues for the Associated Press.

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