1. Sleeping in – Employees should treat a day of working from home the same as a day of working in the office. That means getting plenty of rest and getting up ready to work.
2. Unstructured breaks – When telecommuting, it’s much easier to step away from the desk at any time. But workers should stick to their normal break routine when they’re home.
3. Entertainment – Let telecommuters know: Just because they’re working near a TV doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to work with the TV on.
4. Family – This can be the toughest distraction to avoid, but telecommuters need to politely tell family and friends that they’re “at work” even when they’re home.
5. Chores – Seeing a pile of unfolded laundry can make it tempting to stop working, but employees need to learn to save household tasks for after business hours.

Adjusting your office’s thermostat.

One-third of employees say temperature can affect their productivity, according to a recent CareerBuilder survey. Most problems come from turning the dial too high — 22% of employees said it’s harder to work when the office is too hot, while 11% said the same about a workplace that’s too cold.

Not sure about the best temperature for employees at your company? CareerBuilder recommends the person in charge send an e-mail to each department to take a survey about preferred thermostat settings. Not everyone will agree — but the answers could be close enough to make a compromise.

Today’s Web surfer now spends nearly two full workdays (13 hours) a week on the Web, according to a new Harris Interactive poll. That’s compared to an average of seven hours  back in 2000.

Usage varies greatly, however; one in five (20%) of adult Internet users are online for only two hours or less a week while one in seven (14%) are spending 24 or more hours a week online.

Some background on the study: Harris polled 2,029 adults by telephone between July 7 and 12 and October 13 and 18, 2009.

Over the years the average hours spent online have increased from seven hours in the years 1999 – 2002, to between 8 and 9 hours in 2003 – 2006.

In 2007, it jumped to 11 hours.  Last year (in October, after the financial crisis broke and before the presidential election) Internet users were online for 14 hours a week, double the usage from 1999 – 2002.

Possible reasons for the increase: a greater reliance on the Web for news and entertainment (vs. TV and newspapers), and the increased popularity of social networking sites.

If your employers are online that often, how much surfing is going on during office hours? Previous surveys have said workers spend as much as one fifth of their workdays surfing the Web for personal reasons.

This year, 32% of employees say they’ll get a lot of their shopping done during office hours, according to a recent survey by CareerBuilder. That’s up from 29% last year.

And as most managers and HR pros know, if 32% admit to it, the actual number will likely be higher.

What should employers do about it? Well, most are probably used to it by now and will let all the visits to Amazon and other online stores slide. In a survey conducted last year by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, 55% of IT managers said their company wasn’t doing anything to stop online shoppers.

Best bet: Treat productivity issues in December the same way you would any other time of the year.

Your managers probably think it’s great that employees can juggle several things at the same time and still get their work done. But a new study says they should hold their applause.

Many employees, especially younger ones, see no problem with listening to an iPod, reading e-mail and browsing the Web while working. Managers may call it time-wasting, but the employees refer to it as multitasking.

Turns out that multitasking might be horrible for productivity.

That’s the word from a recent study out of Stanford University. Researchers had students fill out a questionnaire asking them how many tasks they usually perform simultaneously, then observed them taking three cognitive tests. They found that multitaskers:

1. were much more easily distracted than others
2. had more trouble remembering certain things, and
3. were even worse than others at switching from one task to another.

That’s bad news for many departments these days, when over-taxed employees could try to use multitasking as a way to get all their work done.

But as this study shows, that strategy could backfire — and that’s before you even factor in all those non-work distractions, which can only multiply the problem.

Bottom line: Multitasking may not be the efficiency answer or desirable skill we all thought it was. Managers might want to recommend staffers get into the habit of focusing on one job at a time.

Are you a multitasker? Do you agree with the researchers’ conclusions? Let us know in the comments section below.

Just how big is the blow to employers? One study by Challenger, Gray and Christmas, Inc., estimates a nationwide productivity loss of between $275 to $435 million each week of the season. With 17 weeks of football, those numbers really add up.

Another study by the Sporting Goods Marketing Association says fantasy footballers spend an average of 45 minutes every day managing their teams.

That’s a lot of time in the week, much of which is likely done between 9 and 5 — especially considering leagues are often formed among co-workers. What’s HR to do?

Experts warn against blanket bans. Allowing participation can help build camaraderie, and there are plenty of responsible folks who can play the game and still get all their work done.

Your best bet: Have managers tackle productivity problems on a case-by-case basis. There are infinite ways employees can waste time, and you can’t ban them all.

On average, employees spend about 1.5% of their working hours updating, friending, messaging, etc., according to a new survey of office workers by Nucleus Research.

Some of the other findings, which may or may not come as much of a surprise:

• Nearly two-thirds of employed Facebook users go on the site during work
• Of that number, employees spend an average of 15 minutes a day on Facebook, and
• 87% of those who use Facebook at work can’t articulate a clear business reason for doing it.

Does this mean it’s time to cut off access to social networking sites once and for all? The folks at Nucleus recommend companies consider it, suggesting it could result in a 1.5% productivity gain.

Some employers take that road, while others allow employees to take those (on average) 15 minute breaks for themselves each day, arguing that short breaks can actually boost productivity.

What’s your company’s policy on Facebook? Let us know in the comments section below.

Chances are migraine headaches are pretty far down on the list, if you included it at all. But perhaps it should be a higher priority for employee education and risk-management.

An estimated 28 million Americans are afflicted by recurrent migraines. Some projections place the annual indirect cost to U.S. employers at $13 billion. That’s debatable, but there’s no doubt that an employee with a migraine is probably not too productive.

Mixed news

A study by HSM Group concludes that people who suffer from chronic migraines miss on average one day of work every three months.

Even when they come to work, employees admit they have virtually zero productivity on days they have flare-ups. Depending on how successfully the migraine is treated, the attacks can last four to 72 hours.

But there is good news. It’s gotten easier to pinpoint your company’s risk and raise awareness among employees most likely to be migraine sufferers:

• Females are higher risk than males. Stats show 18% of women get frequent migraines, versus 6.5% of men. Female sufferers also tend to get more flare-ups; they occur nearly eight days every three months, and
• Age is another key factor. The most likely sufferers are age 30 to 49.

It’s also possible to put a dollar figure on your own company’s risk that’s more meaningful than the national estimate. A free migraine cost calculator – which takes into account company size, gender mix and age breakdown – is available here.

Best practices

Migraines are a tailor-made topic for targeted educational mailings to high-risk employees, articles in your benefits newsletter and for inclusion in a disease/care management program.

The odds of success are good. Unlike other health issues, migraines are fairly easily treated. Education pieces can focus on recognizing common triggers for attacks:

• lack of food or sleep
• anxiety or stress, and
• hormonal changes for women.

Over the last five years, there’s been a reported 69% jump in employee EAP use related to personal financial concerns. The trend is not all that surprising.

Statistics show that, for the first time since the Great Depression, the average American has negative savings — in other words, the person’s monthly bills exceed his or her income. This includes rent, transportation, credit cards and other expenses.

With salaries frozen in many organizations and many employees racking up higher and higher credit card debt, the problem may continue to get worse.

Troubling trends

Here are some ominous numbers from a recent employee survey:

• 27% of respondents said they were “one major setback away from financial disaster”
• 22% say they were “worse off than last year, with less take-home income and more debt”
• 40% say their employer is “insensitive to their employees’ financial needs,” and
• only 6% said they felt comfortable with their current financial situation and ability to manage their debts.

The majority of personal-finance related EAP use arises from concerns over debt management, household refinancing and/or failed investments.

But evidence suggests that eating at work stations is only a short-term productivity booster and can do more harm than good if it’s a regular habit.

One report found that people who routinely eat meals at their desks at work are twice as likely to be exposed to germs that can cause serious illnesses. Long-term result: Higher absenteeism costs.

Roughly 70% of Americans with desk jobs say they take working lunches at least three days a week. Most employees – and their supervisors – mistakenly believe that eating at their desks makes people more productive during the work day. In the short term, it may. But it the long run, the behavior often leads to higher absenteeism and lower productivity via preventable illnesses.

Unappetizing facts

A study conducted in 2006 found that the typical office workspace contains 400 times more germs than a toilet seat. The biggest bacteria colonies are usually found on telephones, computer keyboards and desktop surfaces.

In the real-life workplace, it’s a losing battle to try to convince most supervisors and employees not to eat at their desks. But the study says employers have seen lower absenteeism/presenteeism by taking three simple steps:

1. Give employees mini-bottles of instant hand sanitizer to keep at their desks.
2. Provide people sanitizing wipes for their work spaces (damp napkins and cloths just spread the germs around the surface).
3. Educate employees about the need for frequent hand washing with warm water – not hot or cold. Even in healthcare settings, this message often takes awhile to set in anding and requires frequent repetition. But the end results are worth it.

Increased obesity risk

There’s a second hidden danger that can affect your company’s costs: higher risks of overweight and obese employees.

People who frequently eat at their desks are less likely to be careful about the portions they consume, less likely to choose healthy foods and somewhat less likely to exercise during the day.

Wellness programs can help employers cut these risks, but it all starts with workplace culture and employee education.