Wow.  It’s been two weeks since I have last posted.  I wish I could tell you that I have been busy with work, life, extra-curricular activities and the like, but that would be a big fat lie.  I’ve been lazy.  Fell off my “good eating and exercising” wagon, and somehow, the blogging followed the same path.  So now I’m back, from outer space, I just walked in to find you here
with that sad look upon your face…

OK, sorry about that, I grew up in the Disco era.

Anyways…

Looking For That Silver Lining

My mom always told me that there was a silver lining around any dark cloud.  I was six until I realized it was a metaphor.  OK, I wasn’t the brightest kid when I was little.  I learned to read by the time I was three, but that was about the extent of it.

So, I’m reading the Journal the other day, and the title of an article jumped out at me…

“Nursing Shortage Eases with Recessions’ Help“.

About time.  As I have written before, one-third of folks that have a nursing degree don’t use it.  If just one-third of those folks would get back into the nursing fold, we would alleviate much of the nursing shortage.  Cities, states, universities, and hospitals have spent the last ten years trying to figure out how to stem the tide of nursing defection, and have created processes to increase the supply, whether by employing foreign-born nurses or recruiting more heavily in high schools and colleges… most to little avail.

Remember, only half of all nurses would  recommend the profession to friends or family members.

However, nearly a quarter-million hospital nurses were added to the workforce in 2008, the largest increase in ten years.  Projections of a nursing deficit in 2020 have been cut by seventy-five percent, now at two-hundred and sixty-thousand less nurses than will be needed, but a lot better than the million nurse deficit projected just a few years ago.

I guess that would be the silver lining

of the recessions dark cloud.

Saving Dollars While Not Making Cents

Sales are down.  Revenue is down.  Profitability follows the trend.

Cost-cutting becomes a “must do”, not a “nice to do”.  Employees are downsized, wages are decreased, 401k contributions are cut out entirely.  Every penny saved goes to the bottom line.  Everything is reviewed… including wellness programs.

And wellness programs ain’t cheap.  Not only do many companies pay for the health-care programs themselves, but many incentivize participation in the programs by lowering insurance premiums or direct payments to the employees themselves.

About 60% of companies with ten thousand or more employees said they had a wellness program in 2008, up from 47% in 2005. In 2008, the median health care cost per employee was nearly $7,200 according to the National Business Group on Health.

In 2004, IBM introduced financial incentives for employees to participate in initiatives such as a 12-week physical fitness program.  Results showed that it saved about $80 million in reduced health claims, says Joyce Young, IBM’s director of well-being.

And healthier employees are more productive, less likely to take sick days, and tend to be more satisfied and engaged in their jobs.

But money talks.  Costs are easy to determine, but it takes years to see the benefits.  And in today’s financial environment, money talks… Loud.  Even when it doesn’t make cents.