Another effect of the lagging economy: Recent research shows cash-strapped employees are cutting back on preventive healthcare measures.

More people are trading nutrition for processed and fast foods, and scaling back the amount of time they spend exercising.

So now’s a great time to refocus on preventive health care. If your company already has a wellness program (or is thinking of starting one), it’s a good idea to consider adding these features:

Claims checks and on-site screenings

Some wellness programs pinpoint at-risk employees by relying solely on the employees’ honesty in responding to health assessments. But let’s face it, employees aren’t always honest with themselves when it comes to their health. As a result, their answers on health assessments aren’t exactly accurate.

A better way to gauge workers’ health: Use a combination of data to determine who is at risk for chronic conditions. Example: Some companies use on-site health screenings and past claims history to assess if an employee is at-risk.

This approach has been found to significantly increase the amount of at-risk employees who are spotted.

Wellness consultants

Wellness program consultants are assigned to a company to help develop its wellness strategy, plan promotions, interpret reports and gauge the overall success of the wellness program.

Benefit: By keeping a close eye on a company’s wellness program, consultants can tweak and fix problems before they become out-of-control cost drivers.

Cross-trained coaches

Wellness coaches take a big-picture approach to helping employees with various lifestyle-related health issues.

Example: Smoking. There are a significant number of people who won’t try to quit smoking simply because they’re concerned about gaining weight.

But a cross-trained coach will help an employee quit smoking, while also making sure he or she makes smart nutritional choices to avoid the all-to-common weight gain that immediately follows kicking the habit.

What’s worked to improve your company’s wellness program lately? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

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%).

Reason: 55% of workers say they are not satisfied with their jobs, which could lead to them abandoning their employers once the economy rebounds, according to a report released last week by The Conference Board.

Only 45% of the workers surveyed in the report where happy in their current jobs, down from 61% in 1987, the first year the survey was conducted.

The group of workers with the highest level of dissatisfaction? Those currently under the age of 25 — only 35% said they are satisfied with their job.

But no age or income group was immune. Satisfaction levels are down across the board. And the drop spans all categories in the survey, too — from interest in work (down 19% from 1987) to job security (down 17%).

Workers also expressed lower levels of satisfaction among key drivers of employee engagement, such as job design, organizational health, managerial quality and extrinsic rewards.

Why? Many are concerned that as the economy rebounds, competition for their jobs will get tougher, and they could get left behind.

True, training isn’t cheap. That’s the reason 48% of companies don’t currently provide ongoing education or skill training for their employees.

But with so many workers hungry to learn more, it’d be a mistake to not consider providing training in one form or another.

Here’s how to address the top concerns workers have that’ll help you make the most of your training investment:

• Make it flexible. Try offering training year-round and at times that are flexible enough to accommodate staffers’ work schedules — or offer self-paced computer-based training.
• Make it meaningful. People are also looking for reassurance that training and education will pay off for them in the future. With the way people’s jobs have been changing, some don’t want to spend time learning skills they won’t need when their duties shift again.

Not according to recent trends. 401(k) participation over the past year has remained strong despite the fact that 71% of American workers are now living paycheck to paycheck, a new survey by the American Payroll Association has found.

In fact, 82% of workers with access to a 401(k) say they’re still making contributions.

Of those still contributing, 19% have raised their contribution level and 19% have lowered it since Sept., 2008.

Employees happy with their plans

More good news: The majority of employees (54%) are satisfied with their company’s retirement plan, and 61% say they view their employer’s plan as the primary vehicle to save for retirement, according to recent research from Watson Wyatt.

Another 29% admitted they wouldn’t save for retirement without it.

Some other findings from the Watson Wyatt survey:

• More employees (62%) with a defined-benefit (DB) plan are satisfied with their retirement plan than those with only a defined-contribution (DC) plan (51%)
• 46% of employees say they’d be willing to pay a higher amount out of their paycheck to ensure a guaranteed retirement benefit, and
• 52% of employees with a DB plan say their company’s retirement plan is a key reason they continue to work for their employer — only 33% of those with a DC plan say the same.

Currently, the number of Americans who approve of unions is at an all-time low, and the majority of people are now saying unions hurt the economy.

Only 48% of Americans approve of labor unions — down from 59% a year ago, found a recent Gallup Poll.

That’s the least amount of support unions have received since Gallup started the annual poll in 1937 — just after Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act, giving most private-sector workers the right to join unions.

The highest approval rate unions ever received: 75% in 1957. The lowest — until now: 55% in 1979 and 1981.

News gets worse for unions

In another knock against unions, the percentage of people saying unions hurt the company where workers are organized rose to 46%. In nearly every other poll opinions were heavily skewed to the positive for unions.

There was an even larger jump in the percentage of people (51%) who said unions mostly hurt the U.S. economy. This marks the first time more Americans have said unions hurt the economy more than help it.

Signs of hope for some employers

These results come as a breath of fresh air for employers feeling threatened by the prospect of the EFCA’s passage.

But even if it makes it into law, there appears to be a dwindling number of Americans who feel unions are playing a positive role in the economy.

The inspiration for this revolutionary strategy: British Airways suffered its greatest full-year loss since being privatized back in 1987 — a loss of $595 million in U.S. dollars.

Employees are being urged to sign up for unpaid leave or unpaid work to help the company save cash and fight for its survival.

Despite BA CEO Willie Walsh’s magnanimous offer to “lead by example” and forgo his own monthly paycheck in July ($100K), the reception to BA’s proposal hasn’t been all too warm.

The union that represents thousands of BA ground and cabin workers, UNITE, said that even though Mr. Walsh could get by after working an entire month for free, its members didn’t have the same luxury.

We’ll keep you posted on the success of British Airways’ strategy.

You don’t need to listen to a debate to know life is going to be tougher for a lot of people, including those who come to your workplace every day. People are edgy about it, too, and they’re likely to show that edge in the way they behave and perform. And people on edge are more likely to sue or file other complaints against their employers.

Employee-relations specialists say HR can expect that dealing with stressed workers will become a big part of the job over the next several months. Some suggestions for helping people through tough times:

• If you have layoffs, cutbacks or other bad news: Don’t let it dribble out. If possible, let people know all at once and as soon as possible about the bad news. That won’t make anyone happy, but it will create less stress and avoid an atmosphere in which people are always looking over their shoulders.
• If you hear rumors: Jump on them right away, and let employees know the truth. It’s not that you’re ever going to stop the rumor mill from grinding, but at times like this, you have to address them with employees immediately. People are expecting the worst these days, so the longer a rumor lives, the worse it will get.
• If you sense negativity: Be positive. Sure, that’s easy to say, but there are a hundred little ways you can create a positive atmosphere. Example: When you hear someone say something good about another employee, pass it along to that employee — “Hey, Bob mentioned what a great job you did on that rush order.”