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Day: September 17, 2018

6 ways your company can adapt to an ageing workforce

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Many of today’s 10 year olds will live to be 120 and it’s not a stretch therefore to expect them to still be working at 100.

Workplace demands will change as people live and work longer and that the best time to adapt is now.

We are beginning to see clients asking questions on how to future proof workplaces so they remain appealing to an older and extremely valuable workforce that is rich with know-how.

Here’s how companies can adapt their workspaces:

Make the workplace age-neutral

Whether it’s training on office technology or a slick ergonomic overhaul, companies can help their older employees remain at the top of their game by making the workplace more comfortable. The workplaces demand of a say a 20-something single person vary greatly to that of a married person in their mid-50s with kids at home.

Simple changes can be made without catering to just one group. Rethinking of colours, making sure acoustics and audio technology makes provision for those harder of hearing and introducing and allowing easy access to mother’s rooms are some ion the easy wins which won’t impact the office overall but will cater to an ageing workforce.

See all that experience as a boon

Instead of viewing older employees as a burden, consider seasoned, experienced employees as a boon for your business. More older employees means more skills and wisdom in the workplace, which means more potential mentors for younger employees who’ll be inheriting leadership roles when older workers retire. If a company wants truly wants the best team for the job, the most effective teams are age diverse, especially when it comes to innovative ideas and ways to tackle challenges.

In addition to experience, older workers often tend to be more reliable, more loyal and have the confidence to speak their minds to senior people. 

Be more flexible

In recent years, employers have become increasingly flexible about when and where employees are working. However, studies show they’ve tightened up when it comes to employees working less than full-time.

But a fractionalised work week and phased retirement options would likely better suit a greying workforce. We need to be able to decelerate like we accelerate the work life. Like you climb up the corporate ladder, you should be able to climb down the corporate ladder. 

Offer training

Training is not only important for helping older workers learn new skills and master new technologies, but also for supervisors managing employees of varying ages. Creating cross-generational teams and encouraging collaboration can help to diffuse age bias. Collectively, this could improve culture in the workplace, while also helping older employees maintain a high level of performance.

Identify employees’ wants and needs

Use focus groups and outside consultants to conduct a comprehensive review of your company’s demographics and whether the workplace meets the ergonomic and cultural needs of your employees.

This is good practice for companies in general as employees sometimes find it difficulty to speak up to mangers for fear of being singled out or being seen as troublesome. But finding out certain age-specific needs will bring benefits beyond just helping older workers manage the more physical aspects of their jobs. 

Plan ahead

By studying your workplace demographics and planning ahead, you can develop policies that meet the needs of your workforce.

For example, if you have a large population of retirement-age employees who would like to keep working in a lesser capacity, then you might consider instituting flexible options that allow workers to ease into retirement. Additionally, this will help you get succession plans in place for when workers in leadership positions do begin to retire.

Richard Andrews is the Managing Director of Inspiration Office.

Why women should take advantage of career conversations

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Many organisations say they want to increase the number of women in leadership roles and close the “gender gap,” and while many factors play into this, a good place for these employers to start is to focus on engagement.

 

Ongoing discussions about women’s career development can give them a comfortable space to articulate their needs, blossom in their current roles, and give way to leadership opportunities.

The truth is that, although the world is waking up to the many challenges facing women in the workplace, women are still under represented in growing industries, over represented in roles threatened by automation and there is still a stubbornly low levelel of women in senior roles.

According to a Right Management survey of over 4400 associates and managers in 15 countries, a full 82% of today’s employees would be more engaged in their work if managers conducted meaningful career conversations with them on a regular basis. Not performance reviews that focus on “How did I do?”, but career coaching conversations that focus on “How will I develop?”, “How do I fit?”, and “What’s next?”.

Women could take advantage of these kinds of proactive career conversations to address their individual needs, articulate their value, and advance their careers. Employers could use these conversations to better understand their employees and align their strengths with what the organisation needs.

Self-discovery

While it can be hard for anyone to articulate their value to an organisation, women report more discomfort with this than men. Historically, many women have shied away from talking about their accomplishments and strengths because they fear they will be perceived as “bragging.”

Yet, to attain leadership roles, women need to answer these kinds of questions: “What do I add to my team?”, “What specific strengths do I have, and what are examples of those in action?”, and “How has the organisation benefited from my work in the last six months?”.

As an employer, these ongoing discussions can be a great place for you to draw out the answers to these questions and help your female employees become more comfortable in articulating their value in specific measurable terms. To be clear, career conversations need not be a parade of accomplishments, but there will be times when you, as a leader, will have to support and model ways that women can and should share how they have added value to the organisation.

Organisational alignment

Organisational alignment is a term used to define a time when an employee is doing work that is consistent with her values, talents, and interests, and that work is seen to be of clear benefit to the organisation. Ongoing career conversations are a great way to talk openly about alignment – addressing questions like what does the employee need? What does the organisation need? What value do they offer each other?

As an employer, a key path to higher engagement (i.e. retention and productivity) from your female employees may lie in fleshing out their needs, particularly those around flexibility. Since women traditionally bear the weight of family care giving – childcare and eldercare – the need for flexible work hours and work location top many women’s wish lists. However, these are not issues many women are comfortable raising for fear of being dismissed as not serious about their careers or roles.

If ongoing conversations are in place, this could be a path to establishing clear expectations and allowing more flexibility. When an employee understands what she needs to achieve, when and where the work happens may become less important. 

Action planning

Ongoing and intentional career conversations must also lead to action. Your job as a leader is to partner with your high potentials to be jointly accountable for identifying the next steps in their careers.

Whether you can help them identify new experiences internally, gain exposure to other leaders or lines of business, or promote an opportunity for them to learn new skills, you should plan to conclude every career conversation by soliciting a call to action from the women who work for you. Hold them accountable for contributing their gifts to the organisation in a meaningful way: plan the work, then, work the plan.

Organisations need to engage with female employees to create a platform where these employees are comfortable in freely engaging with their managers outside the mandatory employee review, and focus on how you as an employer can coach employees into leaders.

Lyndy van den Barselaar is the managing director at ManpowerGroup South Africa.

What your medical aid can do for you when you’re going into hospital

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Medical aid members can save themselves significant amounts of time, money and effort if they ask their medical aids the right questions, especially ahead of planned procedures.

The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) concurs that members’ lack of understanding regarding their medical aid plans is one of the biggest reasons for members’ unhappiness regarding their level of benefits.

The CMS recently told Parliament that the number of complaints from medical aid members has increased by 1 017, to 4536 or 29% during 2017-2018, compared to last year.

This is in line with our experience as healthcare consultants to various businesses: unfortunately the majority of members do not attend medical aid presentations nor examine their medical aid policy with enough care, even when they are aware of an upcoming procedure or specific treatment within the year. Members then realise – too late – that their medical aids do not cover certain procedures or costs.

Medical aid members need to change their behaviour towards their schemes and realise the onus is on them to establish the extent of cover they qualify for, ahead of their procedure.

Whilst members may only change their plan, within the same scheme, once per year, its advised that they can still protect themselves against unexpected expenses in the event of planned procedures and treatments.

Generally speaking, members should ask their medical aid or healthcare consultant the following ten questions to get a better grasp of their cover, and so avoid unexpected bills.

1) What type of plan am I on? 

Firstly, establish what type of plan you contribute to and communicate this to your doctor or specialist. This will give them an indication of the type of items or treatment you will be covered for, and whether this includes in and out of hospital cover.

2) What level of cover do I get?

In addition to knowing which plan you are on, it is also important to understanding what level of cover – ranging from 80% to 300% – your plan offers for the various line items of your procedure. Importantly, if your medical aid covers 100% of an item, this does not necessarily mean it pays for the entire cost of the item.

Medical schemes have set rates for treatments and consultations (representing 100% or the Scheme Rate), though practitioners and hospitals often charge fees that are higher than these rates, sometimes up to or even higher than 500%. It is therefore important to verify which rate your treatment and consultations are charged at, and whether your plan covers the entire cost. 

3) Am I responsible for part of the costs of my treatment?

Once you know what level of cover your plan offers, find out whether you need to pay for part of your procedure and what this cost would be, so that you are prepared for any co-payments which may be required prior to admission or any bills that follow.

4) Does my gap policy cover the shortfall of my medical aid? 

If you have gap cover, do not assume that this will necessary make up for the entire shortfall that your medical aid does not pay. Gap cover policies differ in scope and may only cover up to a certain level or multiple of the scheme rate. Members need to examine these policies to understand what, and at which rate, their gap policies will foot the bill.

Furthermore: members should be cognisant of the demarcation rules introduced by National Treasury last year, that limit gap cover to R150 000 per member per year. 

5) Does my hospital cash-back plan cover the shortfall of my medical aid?

Similarly to gap cover policies, members should remember that the demarcation rules limit hospital cash-back pay-outs to R3 000 per day, or a lump sum of R20 000 per year. This can seriously affect a member’s expectation of cover for their hospital bills.

6) Is my procedure covered by prescribed minimum benefits (PMB)? 

All medical aids are required to cover the entire cost related to PMBs, which are a set of 270 conditions defined in the Medical Schemes Act. If your procedure is one of these, find out which designated service provider(s) – these are a medical aid’s preferred doctor, hospital, etc. for various PMBs – you will be required to make use of to qualify for unlimited cover. If you are not using the designated service provider, be prepared to cover the additional costs yourself.

7) Do I have to go to a network hospital?

Depending on the type of plan you are on, your medical aid may only cover treatments at hospitals which fall within their network. You should also determine whether your preferred or referred surgeon operates at the network hospital.

8) Do I have to use a certain specialist covered by my medical aid’s network?

Medical aids often have selected doctors and surgeons in their networks, these are covered at the scheme’s full rate. If your practitioner is not on your medical aid’s network, you may be liable for payment of a portion of the bill, depending on the doctor’s rate. 

9) Will I need an anaesthetist?

This may seem like a small item, but the cost of an anaesthetist is often quite substantial, leaving a hefty portion for your back pocket, if this is not entirely covered by the medical aid. Find out whether you will require an anaesthetist and whether they are in your medical aid’s network, as well as the level of cover you will receive.

10) Will I need recovery treatment?

Lastly, find out whether you will need after-procedure treatment, such as a physiotherapist, and whether your medical aid covers all or part of this cost.

Members contribute to a medical aid to manage their healthcare expenses and avoid having to pay for costly procedures out of their own pocket. Similarly, medical aids need to constantly manage healthcare costs ensuring they remain viable entities and provide suitable and sustainable benefits to members. Changes to plans and benefit levels is a constant within this environment, which means members have to be more vigilant in ensuring that the level of cover provided by their plan continues to meet their requirements. Assistance from your professional healthcare consultant and your own diligent attention to changes within the medical aid environment are the only ways to ensure that your medical aid continues to do what you need it to.

Jill Larkan is the Head of Healthcare Consulting at financial advisory firm GTC.

Why you need to understand the risks related to unfair suspensions

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Employers need to think twice before they simply suspend an employee.

If the suspension turns out to be unfair, the employer may need to fork out more money than bargained for. 

There are two types of suspensions in the workplace, namely precautionary suspensions and punitive suspensions. A precautionary suspension is usually implemented when the employer embarks on an internal investigation or anticipates disciplinary action against an employee.

The purpose of the precautionary suspension is to avoid interference in an ongoing investigation or disciplinary process. Employers often suspend employees when they suspect there may be intimidation of witnesses or tampering with evidence.

A punitive suspension, on the other hand, is normally imposed as a sanction (punishment for misconduct). By way of example, an employer may opt to suspend – rather than dismiss – an employee who has already received a final written warning but commits the same offence again.

The main difference, however, between precautionary and punitive suspensions is that in the case of precautionary suspensions, employees are suspended with full pay and benefits. The reverse applies to punitive suspensions, with employees not receiving full pay or benefits.

So, where do employers get it wrong?

Many employers think they can suspend someone if they feel like it, especially in the case of precautionary suspensions. The reality is that employers should not suspend employees without considering the consequences.

When employers want to suspend an employee pending the finalisation of an investigation or disciplinary hearing, they need to ensure the suspension is done according to a fair process and for a fair reason.

Fair reason

A suspension is only justified in cases where the employer has reasonable grounds to suspect that the employee is guilty of serious misconduct such as dishonesty, assault or sabotage and provided that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the employee’s continued presence at the workplace may have a detrimental impact on the investigation or hearing.

Fair process

Employers must allow employees the opportunity to make submissions or representations as to why he or she should not be suspended before a decision is made to suspend.

When an employee is suspended, it has an impact on their dignity and inhibits the possibility of career advancement opportunities. No one wants to be suspended and suffer from the negative inferences that are drawn.

If suspension is affected without fair reason and process it amounts to an unfair labour practice. The employee then has the right to refer the matter to the CCMA. The CCMA, in turn, may uplift the suspension and award the employee compensation. This can result in much heavier cost for the company than it would have if they had followed due process.

Tertius Wessels is the Legal Director, Adv. for Strata-g.

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