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Small-business owners in
search of new ways to get organized, work
together, and grow their business can achieve
tremendous benefits by adopting server technology.
A server can act as one central place for
employees to store company files, business
information, e-mail messages, calendars and
mailing lists. It can also help filter out junk
e-mail, which means individuals spend more time
managing important messages than dealing with
annoying spam. Adopting a server with e-mail and
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| Maryland has taken the
lead in passing legislation that requires
employers to pay medical benefits for their
employees. Their ‘Wal-Mart bill’ will require all
employers with 10,000 or more employees in the
state to spend at least 8% of their payroll on
employee health care. If they don’t meet that
requirement, the employer will have to pay into a
state fund for the uninsured. Of course, Wal-Mart
isn’t mentioned in the legislation but it just
happens to be the only employer that will be
impacted by the new law. Labor is joining forces
with an array of Wal-Mart enemies pushing for
similar legislation in other states. A bill has
already been introduced in Missouri setting the
healthcare spending level at 15% of payroll for
employers of 10,000 or more. If this picks up
support across the country, you can bet it will be
extended to more and smaller
employers. |
| |
| An interview with
Leonard D. Schaeffer in McKinsey
Quarterly examines the potential for
information technology to bring solutions to
current healthcare cost and quality problems.
Schaeffer knows something about the subject. As
chairman of WellPoint, the largest publically
traded U.S. health benefits company, he has
wrestled with ways to improve evidence-based
medical delivery toward the objective of a ‘pay
for performance’ system. In one major project
Wellpoint spent $40 million to encourage
‘in-network’ physicians to use IT and
‘e-prescribing’ to improve the standard of care.
On a ‘no strings attached’ basis, Wellpoint
offered a free desktop or e-prescribing unit for
connection to the Internet to each in-network
physician. Of their 26,000 physicians, only 19,500
wanted the free gift. The results? Only 2,700
accepted the state-of-the-art e-prescribing
package and a disappointing 150 continue to use
the technology with any consistency. Click
here for the full interview. |
| |
| When Robert Kaplan talks
about measuring performance, it’s usually a good
idea to listen. In a recent article for Working
Knowledge the leader of the Balanced
Scorecard Collaborative at Harvard Business School
cautions against some common misapplications of
benchmarking. While it may seem intuitive that
comparisons of costs and results must be of
essentially identical processes, there are many
‘best practice’ services that can easily entice
comparisons that are ‘apples and oranges’. Kaplan
also makes the point that for support units,
strategic differentiation should be the management
objective, not comparison with competing entities.
Thus, management of HR should not focus on
spending the least. It should instead work to
produce the greatest outcomes from its services
making the enterprise more competitive and
creating greater value. A focus on benchmarking
without strategic differentiation will always lead
to seeking lowest cost alternatives and
outsourcing to low cost providers. Internal units
should follow a ‘customer intimacy’ strategy –
knowledge of the enterprise and its business – to
maximize their contribution to value. Click
here for the full discussion by
Kaplan. |
| |
Believe it or not,
employees become bored and dissatisfied when they
don’t have enough work to do. According to a new
survey released by Sirota
Survey Intelligence, those with too much time
on their hands report a job satisfaction rating of
only 37 on a 100-point scale (compared to 32 last
year).
Conversely, those who had just the
right amount of workload felt the most rewarded,
expressing overall job satisfaction at 68. Even
those whose in-box was overflowing ranked job
satisfaction as 60 out of 100 total points.
“Over-worked people in a sense get feedback from
the organization that their contributions are
important,” said CEO Jeffrey Saltzmann.
But accomplishing little has the opposite
effect. “The most recent survey results confirm
one of the timeless truths about employee
satisfaction. 95% of employees don’t want to just
‘get by’ in their jobs,” Saltzmann explained.
“Most people come to work enthusiastic and want to
make a real contribution. Those who feel they have
too little to do – and possibly feeling not
appreciated by their employers – have lower levels
of overall satisfaction and a waning sense of
enthusiasm,” he added. For more survey results, click
here. |
| |
After years of
Scrooge-like bonuses and raises, 51% of hiring
managers plan on increasing initial offers to
prospective employees in 2006, according to a new
study conducted by CareerBuilder
and America Online. While 42% of hiring
managers anticipate a six-week application to
hiring time line, others plan to shorten the time
frame in order to keep key applicants out of the
hands of their competitors. MORE
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| |
| Healthcare
Summit - Save the Date! April 4,
2006 |
What: The
Illinois Chamber of Commerce Healthcare Summit
Where: Drake Hotel Chicago
Hosted by: The Illinois Chamber
Presenting Sponsor: CIGNA HealthCare
The Issue: The impact of healthcare
costs on mid-size and large companies.
Who
should attend: Leaders of mid-size and large
companies, healthcare providers and insurers,
government officials and elected officials.
Speakers include:
- Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the
US House of Representatives
- Dr. David Brailer, Technology
Director, Dept of Health & Human Services
Registration information coming
soon! |
| |
Looking back it is easy
to laugh at such dreams as the ‘check-less
society’ thought to be just around the corner as
long ago as the late 60’s. The lag time between
concept and reality is consistently more than we
imagine. Even overnight rages like the Internet
took 30 years to realization. But things are
moving faster and longer-term success requires an
understanding of the global forces that will shape
the future of virtually every enterprise.
Anticipating and acting on the threats and
opportunities they represent is crucial today like
at no other time.
MORE
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| Current
Economic Indicators |
For the latest on the
economy, visit the Chamber's ECONOMIC
INDICATORS website.
- Illinois
Coalition for Jobs, Growth & Prosperity:
For the December 2005 Illinois Job Index, the
Coalition issued a POSITIVE Rating. Illinois
added jobs for the last 11 months but the growth
has declined significantly in the last three
months.
- Illinois
Unemployment Rate: Illinois recorded its
11th consecutive month of job growth with 400
new jobs in December 2005, bringing the total
for the calendar 2005 to 64,200 new jobs, the
highest number in five years. The preliminary
2005 annual average unemployment rate is 5.7%,
which is the lowest since 2001.
- Illinois
Metro Unemployment Rates: In November, the
unemployment rate fell from year ago levels in
all 12 metropolitan areas.
- U
of I Flash Index: Index rose slightly in
December to 106.6 from its 106.4 level in
November. The Index has remained in a tight
range since last June which indicates that the
state economy is growing at a moderate to strong
rate. Despite a number of concerns in 2005,
including high oil prices and the loss of
manufacturing jobs, the Illinois economy
performed well, operating well above the 100
mark, the dividing line between economic growth
and contraction, during the year.
- National
Unemployment Rate: Total nonfarm payroll
employment increased by 108,000 in December and
the unemployment rate was little changed at
4.9%. The December increase in payroll
employment followed a gain of 305,000 in
November (as re- vised). Several industries
added jobs over the month, including food serv-
ices, professional and business services, health
care, and manufacturing.
- Consumer
Price Index (CPI): -0.1% in December.
- Producer
Price Index (PPI): +0.9% in December.
- Employment
Cost Index (ECI): +0.8% in 3rd Quarter of
2005.
- Productivity
& Costs: +4.7% in 3rd Quarter of
2005.
- U.S.
Import-Export Price Indexes: -0.2% in
December.
- Gross
Domestic Product: GDP increased at an annual
rate of 4.1% in the third quarter of 2005. In
the second quarter, real GDP increased 3.3%.
- Conference
Board - Consumer Confidence: Index, which
had rebounded in November, improved further in
December and now stands at 103.6, up from 98.3
in November.
- Conference
Board - Help Wanted Index: Index edged up
one point in November and now stands at 39, up
from 38 last month. It was 36 one year
ago.
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| Illinois
Chamber HELPLINE |
| Knowing what you can and
can't do will help you prevent costly mistakes.
Call Howard Parker, our Chamber HR expert. He will
help you deal with problems safely and avoid
disputes. You can reach the Helpline toll-free at
800-322-4722. |
| |
SAVE 20% OR MORE ON YOUR
PAYROLL PROCESSING!
The
Illinois Chamber is offering a NEW Exclusive
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Check out some of our other
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Illinois Chamber:
Learn more about these programs
and how they benefit your company when you Join
the Leaders! |
| |
 The Chamber urges
all Illinois employers to recognize their Guard
and Reserve employees by signing and displaying
the ESGR Statement of Support. To get yours,
simply complete
an online form and you will receive a
personalized certificate that demonstrates your
support. Also visit the SBA Veteran's Business
Development web site for assistance to small
business owners that have employees activated in
the Guard or Reserves. Click MORE
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The Exec
Report - Susan
S. McComb, J.D., SPHR, Editor
Copyright © 2006
The Illinois Chamber
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