Here are three pitfalls to watch out for:

1. You get what you pay for

By and large, the cost savings from a wellness program will be driven by how much you’re willing to spend. Generally, you get what you put into them — both in time and money.

In addition, the program has to be tailored to your specific needs. What works at another company may be a giant flop with your workforce.

2. Tough to administer alone

Most employers find that it’s more effective to outsource wellness. Three reasons:

• Experience. Outsourced vendors have the expertise. They’ve been there, done that — and vendors that’ve been around for a while know how get results.
• Employees’ trust. Many employees are more involved in wellness programs when there’s no fear their employer is looking over their shoulders.
• Legal protection. Outsourcing helps insulate you from later claims that the company fired an employee because of his or her health risks.

3. Tax problems

Some of the most popular incentives offered to employees in wellness plans (think subsidized gym memberships) are taxable as compensation.

If you offer wellness participants discounts on their premiums, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) caps the incentive at 20% of the total cost of coverage. Beyond that, Payroll has to withhold taxes or you could run afoul of the IRS.

Consider that (a) the EFCA isn’t dead yet, (b) the White House is busy reorganizing the National Labor Relations Board to reflect the administration’s pro-labor stance and (c) labor leaders have set a goal of increasing union membership by 1.5 million a year for the next 15 years.

Those factors should lead to more vigilance about labor organizing.

Labor attorneys from the firm Fisher & Phillips say there are five major mistakes  complacent companies make that lead to union organizing:

1. Favoritism. It’s the No. 1 reason employees cite for joining a union. The term can mean a lot of things, but here’s what it amounts to:  inconsistent disciplinary action. When some employees feel they’ve been hit with discipline they didn’t deserve, while other employees got a break, expect to seen union sign-up cards floating around.

The solution is twofold: (a) clear policies and (b) managers who follow the policies. One without the other will lead to trouble.

2. Ignored complaints. A main union selling point is “giving employees a stronger voice.” Employees feel they need that voice when they perceive that no one is listening to them. The opposite of ignoring complaints: listening to them and acting on them. That doesn’t mean every complaint is valid, of course. Still, you have to give employees the feeling that at least someone is looking into it and taking some action if needed.

3. Lack of respect. Here’s the recipe for giving employees the idea they’re not respected: Disciplining them in front of others, assigning blame before reviewing the facts and  playing favorites. Those traits give employees the feeling that their managers are enemies, not advocates.

4. Lack of concern about safety. Another weak spot that unions probe: “Your employer only cares about making money, even if it puts you in danger.” The employers’ antidote: safety training, appropriate equipment and clear, uncomplicated guidelines and procedures for responding to and reporting workplace accidents. An extra gold star for employers: Willingness to help employees through the complicated workers-comp process.

5. Noncompetitive pay and benefits. Many are aware of the union promise to “put more money in workers’ pockets.” True or not, it attracts workers who feel they’re being shortchanged.

Now, that doesn’t mean opening up the wallet to every employee who complains about pay and benefits. What you can do:

• Participate in wage-benefit surveys where you can and make sure you are competitive in your industry and your location.
• Be prepared to explain why you’re not at the top of the scale, including the tradeoffs of the other nonmonetary advantages of working at your company — flexible schedules and so on — which employees may not always focus on.
• Be honest with your employees. For instance, if business is down, explain that as the reason for flat wages. The first place a union will attack is perceived dishonesty about pay and benefits.

An arbitration agreement is supposed to be designed to keep everyone out of court. Then why is it that so many end up being settled in a messy and expensive lawsuit?

The answer comes in examining a series of court cases that explain:

• Why a supposedly buttoned-up agreement ended up in court in the first place, and
• Why the employer lost.

Looking at those cases reveals the main flaws in some arbitration agreements, according to the law firm of Baker Donelson:

1. The agreement was part of a general handbook. When companies try to blend an agreement with other policies, some courts see that as an attempt to camouflage the terms of the agreement from employees. The lesson: Arbitration agreements should be free-standing documents.
2. The agreement didn’t clearly compel both parties to waive their right to sue. So a faulty agreement might say the employee is waiving the right to go to court, but places no such stipulation on the employer. That’s one-sided and a legal no-no.
3. The agreement stipulated that employees will have to pay excessive costs  as a condition of arbitrating their claims. An agreement that places a heavy financial burden on an employee is often seen as coercion to keep the employee from actually filing for arbitration. Courts have ruled that employees are expected to pay some reasonable costs or fee. But the key word is reasonable.

For a full review of the relevant court cases and rulings, go to Baker Donelson’s Web site.

One option: Consider a flu prevention rewards program.

Incentives can take the form of:

• Contests. One company doubled participation by putting everyone who signed up for a flu shot into a drawing for an iPod.
• Merchandise. A school district in Minnesota got more teachers to get vaccinated by giving away winter hats with sports teams’ logos on them.
• Healthy rewards. Many companies tie flu shots into promoting overall wellness by giving away pedometers, yoga kits, workout videos or electronic scales.
• Gift cards. There’s always the popular standby of providing small gift cards (worth $20 or so) for department stores, restaurants or movie theaters.

Benchmark participation

Not sure if offering incentives will make enough of a difference to justify the added cost? Try this:

Benchmark your past sign-up rate for flu shots against a new drive using an incentive. Compare both the change in participation and the number of sick days taken during flu season by all employees.

Managing workers’ online activity is always a headache, but it gets worse this time of year — and when everyone’s being asked to do more with less. How big a problem is it?

A new study by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) found that:

• 63% of workers will do at least some of their gift buying on the job using their workplace computers and systems.
• 46% of IT bosses said company loses an average of at least $3,000  in productivity per employee from online holiday shopping at work.
• 55% of IT bosses reported that their company permits workers to shop online, but has no strategy for educating them about the risks.

Do you need a policy?
Lost productivity during the holiday season is a major concern for many businesses – from employees who take time off from work to shop in person to those who shop during working hours from their company PC, especially during “Cyber Monday,”  — the Monday after Thanksgiving and the biggest online shopping day of the year.

Now might be the time to re-state the organization’s policy about acceptable computer usage.” There are also software tools that can help your IT team monitor which sites workers are visiting.

If you’re considering monitoring technology, here’s data from CareerBuilder that may help you decide:

• $580 million: the estimated amount employers lost in productivity on Cyber Monday in 2008.
• 43% of those planning to shop from work on Cyber Monday will spend at least one hour doing so and 23% said they shop two hours or more from their workplace computer.

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One retention tool: pet health insurance.

Surprising, we know. But the number of companies offering pet insurance as a voluntary benefit has doubled since 2004, according to the Society of Human Resources Management’s Employee Benefits Survey.

Reason: Most pet owners think of their pet as a family member, and employers want to show they care about employees’ entire families.

In total, 7% of all the HR managers surveyed said they offer pet insurance.

Of the companies that said they offer pet coverage:

• 5% are small (1-99 employees)
• 4% are medium-sized (100-499 employees), and
• 10% are large (500+ employees).

No one’s going to throw a bunch of money at wellness these days. But there are benefits to be gained without spending a small fortune.

Try something new

There is no shortage of ways to steer employees toward healthier choices on the cheap.

Examples:

• Some companies are starting walking challenges where employees track how many steps they take each day toward a certain goal or prize
• Others are selling inexpensive fruit in the breakroom, and
• Some have started company softball or tennis teams to get folks moving.

Push something old

You don’t even necessarily have to launch a new series of efforts to get employees to live healthier.

One idea that’s worth a try: calling new attention to under-used benefits your company already has.

Examples:

• Does your insurance company offer a 24-hour nurse line? Remind workers.
• Will it reimburse gym memberships or Weight Watchers? Play it up.

What are some inexpensive ways your company has improved employee health? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Most importantly, if your firm bans the use of marijuana — medical or otherwise — as a straight safety precaution, such as for vehicle drivers or employees who work around dangerous equipment, you’re probably OK with the ban.

There’s no definitive court ruling on that, but there is a federal directive regarding a Department of Transportation ban on medical marijuana for drivers. In summary the DOT, responding to inquiries resulting from the DOJ ruling, has announced, “DOJ guidelines will have no bearing on the Department of Transportation’s regulated drug testing program. We will not change our regulated drug testing program based upon these guidelines to Federal prosecutors.”

Translation: If it’s a safety issue, we’re still enforcing the regs against marijuana use. (Under DOT’s regs, the ban extends to a wide range of transportation employees, such as pilots, school bus drivers, truck drivers, train engineers, subway operators, aircraft maintenance personnel, transit fire-armed security personnel, ship captains  and pipeline emergency response personnel.)

Employers in states that allow medical marijuana probably can take their cue from that ruling: When safety’s involved, you can test and ban.

The effect of the ruling is less clear if you routinely drug test — with no safety issue attached — in a state that allows medical marijuana.

There are 13 states that allow medical-marijuana use: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Two states — Arizona and Maryland — don’t fully allow medical marijuana but have laws favorable to its use, such as allowing it as a defense in court.