Give employees more control over their work schedule.

A systematic review of 10 studies by The Cochrane Collaboration assessed the health effects of various work arrangements — and found that employees who have more control over their schedules see improvements in both physical and mental health, which lead to fewer medical claims.

Overall, the research found that workers with flexible work schedules:

• have fewer incidences of high blood pressure
• sleep better
• have better mental health, and
• are more alert than those working more rigid schedules.

Do you think creating more flexible schedules would improve employee health? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

1. Think ‘10 words or less’

Most employee audiences have short, selective attention spans, so avoid making anything too complex.

One way: Work on summing up each key point in 10 words or less, and state the point both at the beginning and end of each section.

If the employees take away nothing else, they should retain those short sound bites.

2. Use direct language

The keys to an effective benefits presentation are sounding enthusiastic about the program and using direct language.

Specifically, try to avoid:

• phrases that convey impatience, such as “like I said before” and “as you should know”
• buzzwords such as “value added” and presenteeism,” and
• words that weaken your point — like “maybe” and “possibly.”

3. Put visual cues on handouts

It’s always good to have some bullet points and numbered lists on handouts. Just be careful not to overdo it. Visual cues can begin to clutter pages very quickly.

Tell us in the Comments Box below what’s worked for you when it comes to giving presentations.

A new McKinsey Quarterly study revealed the following actions can help improve performance as much as (if not more than) cash incentives:

• praise from direct supervisors
• attention from company leaders, and
• opportunities to lead projects.

In fact, the study found that the supervisors getting the most from their workers in this economy are the ones praising workers, delegating responsibilities and staying in constant contact.

But the study also made sure to point out one thing: These actions only work for employees who are satisfied with their current pay.

By now, it’s no secret that the recession has killed employee job satisfaction and productivity. The No. 1 reason: Payroll budgets have dropped off a cliff.

But employers are determined to find ways to keep talented employees happy and working hard, without increasing payroll, found a recent CareerBuilder survey.

What did the survey of more than 2,700 employers uncover?

Pay worries

Employers’ top five concerns are:

1. Providing competitive compensation (34%)
2. Maintaining productivity levels (33%)
3. Retaining top talent (31%)
4. Worker burnout (30%), and
5. Providing employees with opportunities to move up in the organization (25%).

Becoming more flexible

Despite their concerns, many employers feel as though they have the power to keep employees happy and productive without breaking the bank.

Here’s how they plan to do it:

• Offer more flexible work arrangements (28%)
• Provide more training (21%)
• Promise future benefits, like raises or promotions, when the economy picks back up (18%)
• Offer more performance-based incentives, like company-paid vacations (16%), and
• Provide a higher title without a salary increase (7%).

The story is compiled from court documents and reports in the Chicago Tribune and Inc. magazine.

Now, don’t get us wrong. We fully believe that employers have the right to fire under-performing employees who don’t follow the rules. After all, business is business.

But the case of Dena Lockwood, a 39-year-old single mother of two, seems a bit outside the boundaries of a run-of-the-mill termination (and the Chicago Human Rights Commission thought so, too, as we’ll see).

Lockwood applied for a sales position in 2004 with Professional Neurological Services, a Chicago-area company that sells medical tests to doctors. Lockwood said when she was interviewed for the job, she mentioned having children. Mistake #1: The interviewer asked if being a parent would interfere with getting the job done. Lockwood said no.

Still, the company remained skeptical — as reflected in their compensation offer to the woman. Mistake #2: While others in her position routinely started as $45,000 a year plus 10% commission, the company offered Lockwood just $25,000 a year base pay. After some back-and-forth, the woman and the employer agreed she would be paid the usual $45K, but that her commission rate would be only 5% until she hit $300,000 in sales. Then the commission rate would jump to the standard 10%.

Lockwood also tried to negotiate the standard vacation policy, which gave employees five days off a year. Her hiring manager responded that the company was pretty loose about the policy, so Lockwood shouldn’t worry about it.

Turns out, Lockwood was pretty good at the job, because she was getting close to the magic $300K sales figure needed to double her commission rate from 5% to 10%. That’s around the same time, in 2006, that her 4-year-old daughter came down with a highly contagious case of conjunctivitis — pinkeye.

Lockwood called in, explained the situation and saying she’d have to miss a day to stay with her daughter. Mistake #3: She got a call back summarily firing her because she “just wasn’t working out.”

The Chicago Human Right Commission found that the employer had discriminated against Lockwood because of her family situation. Among the bits of evidence that swayed the commission was a report that a colleague of Lockwood’s, in a similar situation, had been given the day off to deal with a home repair.  (We’re editorializing here, but that part of the story seems to indicate that the employer placed plumbing problems ahead of health problems.)

The commission ordered the employer to pay Lockwood $300,000. The employer is appealing the decision.

All together now: What were they thinking?

Assuming it’s truly an either/or situation, most financial planners say it’s better to focus on creating a retirement nest egg.

Why? Because holding assets like 401(k)s and IRAs don’t affect a student’s eligibility for financial aid. In fact, participation can help cut out-of-pocket college costs, because it reduces net income.

Secondly, there are plenty of unknowns that could affect students’ needs for funds. Will they attend a public or private school? Will they receive a scholarship? Will they attend a trade school or community college?

And unless the employee or spouse is in line for an old-fashioned pension, retirement savings will largely fall on the employee’s shoulders.

Social Security may help a bit. But unless employees participate in 401(k) and/or an IRA, most will someday be faced with three unpleasant options:

• delay retirement
• don’t retire at all, or
• retire to a lower standard of living.

5 helpful funding sources

As expensive as college can be, there’s at least the potential for some wiggle room in paying for it.

Some sources:

• Low-interest loans for tuition, books, etc.
• The student may qualify for a scholarship or grant
• The employee’s parents (the student’s grandparents) may be in a position to offer assistance
• Cheaper state schools or community colleges, and/or
• The student may work and contribute to his or her own expenses.

With all the concerns about lawsuits, trying to get other employers to give meaningful reference information on candidates was becoming nearly impossible.

It’s easy to see the problem. The company gets a call out of the blue asking about someone who worked there three or four years ago.

Why should they open up to us with any more than name, rank and serial number?

That’s the problem. Coming up with a solution was another matter – until we figured out how to involve the candidates and our own supervisors in the reference process. Here’s how we pulled it off:

You make the call

As soon as we decided a candidate might be a good fit for us, we wanted to talk to past (not current) employers who might give us some further information on the candidate.

We knew the out-of-the-blue call wasn’t working and that we needed some type of ice-breaker. So, why not let the candidates be the ice-breakers?

Our instructions to the candidate went something like this: “We’d like to talk to a few of your past employers about how things worked out for you there. Please give your old boss a call explaining why we’re going to call and that you’re OK with it. Let us know when you’ve made contact and when it’s OK for us to call.”

Smoothing the way

Of course, some candidates never contacted us again. That was OK, however. We figured if they couldn’t work something out with their old bosses, then there was some sort of red flag and we were better off ending the process.

A lot of people did get back to us with the news that they’d arranged an entrée for us with their old bosses. That smoothed the way for the reference call – the old boss was prepped for the call and had the candidate’s approval to talk.

The next thing we needed to do was structure a conversation that got the information we needed to make a sound hiring decision.

Boss- to- boss

To get the right information, I brought in a third party – the person who would be supervising the candidate if hired. Why the supervisor?

I figured the person on the other end of the phone would be a lot more comfortable with talking to someone on the same level who probably worked in the same field.

For instance, if we were hiring someone in accounting, the talk went a lot better if it was between our accounting manager and another accounting manager – instead of HR manager to accounting manager.

The results: Our reference calls are a lot more like casual conversation than grilling sessions between me and some faceless manager who doesn’t want to talk in the first place.

Further, we get a lot of excellent information on which to base the hiring decision.

(From a presentation at the Annual SHRM Conference by Paul Falcone, HR director, Paramount Pictures, Hollywood, CA)

Here are some strange and unique things nine benefits pros said their companies offer employees to keep them happy:

• Dogs. Each day, a different employee is allowed to bring his or her dog into the office.
• Heartache leave. Employees are given six days to cry and come back refreshed after suffering some form of heartbreak.
• Laundry service. Employees can drop off their laundry at the office for cleaning and pick it up the next day.
• Car washes. Employees can have their cars taken to be cleaned while they are in the office.
• Movie nights in the office. One night a week, the company provides a movie and refreshments.
• Interest-free computer loans. When employees want to buy a computer, the company loans them the cash (up to a set amount), and employees have interest-free payments deducted from their paychecks.
• Paid community service. During regular work hours, employees can volunteer in the local community — and get their regular pay.
• On-site massages. Once a month, a masseuse is brought into the office to give everyone a free massage.
• Free snacks. Employees can help themselves to soda, coffee, bottled water and vending machines snacks.

What are some unique employee benefits your company provides? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Why? The beginning of a new year is typically when even the most reluctant staffers are receptive to change.

To help boost participation, pass along these facts about direct deposit to skeptical workers:

• They get their money faster. Employees enrolled in direct deposit get their checks in their accounts faster — usually around 12 hours faster. That’s a very convincing point for employees who are living paycheck to paycheck.
• They get to save without thinking about it. Many employees want to put money aside, but simply don’t have the discipline to do it themselves. With direct deposit, employees can elect to automatically put a set amount of money into a savings account each pay period.

To convince its employees direct deposit was a smart idea, a southeastern manufacturing company presented it’s workers with real-life examples of how the system would benefit them personally.

Example: During a hurricane in the area, some of its employees weren’t able to get their paper checks on time — and direct deposit would prevent that problem from happening again.

What are some ways you convinced employees to switch to direct deposit? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

For starters, the median award for all employment-related claims in 2009 skyrocketed by 60% over 2008.The median amount last year was $326,640.

That scary stat comes from the latest survey by Jury Verdict Research. Here’s more from the survey:

• The claim where your company will most likely pay the most: retaliation. Judges and juries are especially tough when they perceive than a supervisor got tough with an employee who filed a complaint about discrimination or other unfair treatment.
• The claim your business will pay the most for if it goes to a jury: age or disability discrimination.
• The claim your company is most likely to get hit with: sex or race discrimination. They remain the most common.

The new year is a great time to review your policies with all supervisors to ensure everyone understands what’s OK and what’s not in terms of managing people.