In his blog Mindful Matters, consultant George Altman writes that the Gallup organization found only 30% of U.S. workers are truly engaged in their work. As he points out, that means 70% of the workforce are not meeting their full potential. Gallup estimates this lack of engagement costs U.S. businesses about $500 billion per year.

Workers’ compensation fraud can be a major expense and therefore a significant risk to any employer. However, it is easier to prevent than you think. With a few easy steps, you can help prevent fraud from happening within your company.

Monitor The Trends Of Workers’ Comp Claims

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel to China. We spent time in Beijing, Qingdao, and Shanghai. Specifically the incredible history in and around Beijing, the entrepreneurial spirit in Qingdao, and the electricity of Shanghai were really amazing.

Effective communication plays a central role in every successful corporate initiative. When we first created the GESOP in late 2010, we intended to do a great job of communicating its benefits with all our employee-owners. Unfortunately, we got busy running the business, and frankly didn’t work on the communication of our GESOP. We got serious about communication in late 2012, and established our GESOP Communication Committee.

As the Trustee, I work directly with the committee to establish a plan for increasing everyone’s interest in the GESOP and their knowledge of the plan and how it works. When we established the committee, we strategically planned representation from the various areas of our business. We started meeting in early 2013, with our first task to establish a game plan for the year, culminating in a lot of activity in October -National ESOP Month.

When constructing a wellness program within your organization, creating a solid wellness team is critical to your program’s success. Teams lead the way for other employees to transform their lives and make positive, healthy choices. Consider the following suggestions for developing a wellness team and getting your wellness program off to a good start.

Formally Appoint Team Members And A Leader

My friend and coach, Larry Linne, was in town recently. Larry spoke to a group of area employers about brand and reputation risk. We were fortunate enough to get him to spend a few hours with our sales team after the event.

A company’s success or failure is often determined by the quality of its employees. Offering an attractive benefits package can be a key to attracting and retaining the highest quality employees. Long-term care insurance is a growing trend in the employee benefits arena. According to research by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 22 percent* of companies now offer long-term care insurance to their employees as a voluntary benefit.

What Is Long-Term Care?

Effective December 1, 2013, your company will need to meet more stringent standards established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for training its employees on the handling of hazardous substances in the workplace. This new OSHA training is necessitated by the revised Hazard Communication Standard that OSHA put into place starting in March 2012.

Recently I read a column in Forbes magazine by Rich Karlgaard. It was about legendary Stanford women's basketball Tara VanDerveer. Many may not realize that Vanderveer spent much of her time as a student at Indiana University in the 70s watching, observing, and learning from Coach Bob Knight. She says one of her secrets to success was "hanging around" the best and brightest in her business.

November is American Diabetes Month. For those of you who know me well, you are probably aware that diabetes prevention and education is a subject about which I am very passionate.