Employee-Health Books

To meet and exceed continuously evolving customer, shareholder, and employee expectations, and cope with a variety of forces continuously shaping industry competition, every organization - including the Fortune 500, the middle market, privately held, and the public sector - must focus on sustainable value creation.

In almost all instances, the source of value creation is people, and industry research has shown there is a direct correlation between health and productivity.

In the Total Rewards arena, and more specifically in employee benefits, average healthcare costs have increased at least 50 percent over the past five years. Employers can no longer accept the standard practice of absorbing the increases or reducing the costs by increased employee contributions and/or reducing benefits. Facts show these standard practices only provide for short term cost relief, increased employee dissatisfaction, deterioration of the plan experience, and reductions in health and employee productivity. Good health is vital for employee productivity and organizational effectiveness, and employer's focus should be on managing health instead of disease.

To increase health and productivity, new healthcare strategies have evolved to improve bottom line results, increase employee productivity, enhance employee satisfaction and improve retention. A value-based health benefit strategy for individual and organizational health - centered around wellness - has emerged for a healthier and more productive workforce.

In this seminal work by Jack Mahoney, M.D., and David Hom, the authors present a value-based health benefit strategy for individual and organizational health - centered around wellness - leveraging strategies and results already proven from Fortune 500 organizations to the mid market.

The value-based design approach brings superior results over the traditional approach in a number of meaningful ways, through three fundamental sources of success, and seven core principles.

The three fundamental sources are:

1. A healthy corporation
2. A healthy work environment, and
3. Personal responsibility.

The seven core principles of the value-based design are:

1. The Health of your organization begins with your people
2. To realize total value, you must understand total cost
3. Higher costs don't always mean higher value
4. Health begins and ends with the individual
5. Avoid barriers to effective treatment
6. Carrots are valued over sticks.
7. Total value demands total teamwork

For execution, the best results occur with a sound benefit design that is Fact based, Integrated, and Targeted to need (FIT).

The authors lay out the approach to help employers design benefits that provide incentives that change employee behavior, resulting in reduced risk that will improve health. Improved health will impact medical costs which can translate into enhanced worker productivity.

Education and utilization by employees and their dependents may ultimately be the best solution to rising health care costs.

The author is a human resources and health care management consultant. The book has six parts and 41 chapters. The Parts are 1. Planning and Organizing; 2. Leading People; 3. Health Care Cost Control; 4. Developing Employees; 5. Special Supervisory Skills; and 6. Self-Enhancement for Supervisors. This book has a lot of practical suggestions for solving people problems. It is rich with management content. Chapters begin with an appropriate quote followed by the chapter objectives. Chapters have bolded divisions, numbered and bulleted points. They end with think about it, questions for review and discussion, exercises, case studies, references, and recommended reading. References are often old publications but the recommended readings are more recent. There is an index at the end of the book. This is a good resource for teaching nursing management and for nursing managers to use on the job.

What a super book! If you have stress at work, you know it can cripple your workday. As a writer-editor, this book has helped me look stress right in the eye and get control. The author, Valerie O'Hara, Ph.D., founded the La Jolla Institute for Stress Management. She shares her experience in training others in such stress management areas as: Conscious Breathing, Deep Relaxation, Meditation, Office Exercises, Nutrition, Reframing Your Thinking Patterns, and much more. In this era of road rage, office shootings, and abuse in the workplace, this is a must read. It will show you how to lower your stress, if you follow the easy instructions.

This book lays out the laws for worker's comp in an easy to read chart. The information in the charts and text of the book is priceless. If you are serious about reducing your work comp costs, this book shows you how.

Alcoholism, violence, addiction, depression. Not your typical topics in the corporate boardroom.

Until now.

In his new book "Workplace Intervention," James Fearing, Ph.D. brings these issues out of the shadows and boldly presents a wake up call to corporate America: it's their problem, but it's your business.

Ignore employee addiction, et. al., at your own risk, because it's your business that has the most to lose when these [diseases] are left untreated. Dr. Fearing convincingly informs us that "the terrible waste of human potential...the loss in productivity, profits, and overall performance is staggering -- topping $102 billion in 1995."

"But we have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) onsite", the HR Director exclaims, "and we've been conducting brown bag seminars on these topics for years. Ah, if only it were that easy.

Dr. Fearing ("America's Crisis Doctor") compellingly suggests that companies need to take more immediate ownership and action in this area. "They need to become better informed about employee problems, intervention strategies, and the treatment and recovery process."

That is basically what his book is all about: "preparing companies to recognize the problem of addiction, learn effective intervention techniques, and help addicted employees reclaim their lives and livelihoods."

In clear and consise language, Fearing teaches the reader to recognize various forms of addiction and related illnesses. He then describes, in great detail, the intervention process and helps dispel many of its myths and mysteries. I especially liked his unique "carefrontation" approach, designed to educate and empower the employee's significant others, allowing them to adopt an informed, firm, and fair stance in the face of extreme adversity and resistance.

"Workplace Intervention" also discusses the treatment and recovery process in a way that will help concerned persons make intelligent choices all along the continuum of care.

I also found the discussion of legal issues, additional mental health concerns, and preventing workplace violence especially informative. And I have yet to come across a more extensive resource guide consisting of groups, agencies, organizations, and associations that can be contacted for further assistance with these matters.

Bottom line: If you are a business executive, director or manager, I strongly recommend that you read this book. And please do it soon, before yet another one of your troubled employees bottoms out.

Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment should be the first stop on your path to better management of employees. The concepts presented in this book are prerequisites for manager training and I highly recommend all managers and supervisors to buy it and study it. Don't be put off by the fairy tale story line. It does a great job of teaching basic skills that most other books and programs fail to provide.

Not the issue I thought when ordered but still useful for general message of the ZAPP theroy

I used this in training sessions with my managers. Great book and worth reviewing/re-reading from time to time.

The reason I like this book is that it breaks many management and supervisory roles into very simple actions that create perfect coaching goals. As a Leadership Coach I am able to use samples of this book to assist in drawing a picture of the behaviours that we want our managers and supervisors to perform; (Much more fun than our current list of competencies.) The book is not quite as strong when discussing organizational change but it does demonstrate that all organizational change must start at the base of the organization with support from the Top. A simple read with great messages.

According to Susan Heathfield, editor of About: Human Resources, Your Guide to Human Resources Newsletter: This continuing favorite may be hard to find but it's worth the search. Join a supervisor who is transported to a state in which he can suddenly "see" the real impact his actions have on whether staff is enabled to think, contribute, and find meaning in work. Experiment and learn with him as he changes.

This tape was my first experience of the Chicken Soup series. I had heard of Mark Victor Hansen from the One Minute Millionaire book.
The first thing that struck me was how awfully - there's only one way to put this - American the tape is. Beneath the slightly patronising (perhaps only to non-American ears) delivery the stories are indeed worthwhile even though some suffer from being over-sentimental.
Recommended.

Nice, inspiring little book. I work for an elected official who is a tyrant. I wish I'd seen this book 3 yrs ago! But, fortunately, it's cheered me up enough to get through the next 2 months as he was just defeated in his bid for re-election. (Yippeee!)

I noticed this book at the airport bookstore and picked it up. I couldn't put the book down as I read one touching story after the other. It's a great colletion of stories to inspire us to add "heart" to the workplace. Kudos to all the authors.

First of all, just to get things off of my chest (and believe you me, I usually LOVE getting everything off of my chest right off the bat!) Item! Jack Canfield is an excellent and gifted motivational writer. Golly, he has motivated me to write a review, right? However, this time around old Jack's soup could use a little salt or herbage to his advice. If you ask anyone where I work, I am always promoting Chicken Soup for the Soul stories however I didn't find these all that courageous or creative. I mean, what is creative or daring about a woman who builds an entire miniature of her office environment in her cubicle using Beanie Babies for each of her coworkers. And what bigger point was Jack trying to point out about the manager who tried to motivate his daily reports by having them act out scenes from "A Room With a View" before they started their shift each day? Kind of lost me this time, Mr Canfield!

I'm a huge fan of the Chicken Soup books, and bought them all (even the Jewish, although I'm Christian, the prisoner's, although no one I know has ever been arrested, etc.). However, this one just arrived, but is already packed to be returned. I skimmed it, but was horribly disappointed. The stories all appeared long-winded (actually, verbose), boring, and non-inspiring. Although the other books are all wonderful to read and reread over and over again, containing countless inspirational stories (many short enough to print out and frame, and virtually all worthy of displaying on one's wall), these weren't even worth wading through the first time. I hate to say it, but this one seems to have been written solely to make a buck, padding out the most boring experiences to compile a book.
They aren't inspirational and aren't interesting -- period.

All this book is is a collection of ideas the author got from her time working with high schools. Most nearly every example is from a high school setting which does not directly apply to business settings. Many ideas are so ridiculous and obvious that you will go crazy thinking why you spent [the money] on this book.

I saw Dr. Hodges present ideas from her book at a national conference and she was FABULOUS! She uses her trademark humor and unfailing sense of what matters and what works. She combines her experiences as a Human Resources Director and school administrator and presents ideas on how to show recognition and appreciation and create a fun environment for staff members. Both she and the book are Great!

I use to start worrying about going back to work on Sunday. It could ruin 1/2 of my weekend. Now thanks to this book I really do look forward to going to work on Monday. I look at things differently now. Thank you for this book!

As a professional trainer, "Looking Forward to Monday Morning" is a marvelous addition to my collection of icebreakers and team building exercises. The book is full of a wide range of straightforward ideas to show appreciation for employees. Organizations that implement even a few of the ideas in this book will find they have happier, more productive employees who enjoy coming to work. I strongly recommend this book to managers, supervisors, and others who are responsible for the esprit de corps of their work environment.

Regardless of your occupation, everyone can relate to having a case of the "Monday's." Looking Forward to Monday Morning provides an excessive amount of activities to not only keep employees motivated, but to promote positive attitudes within yourself. It can give anyone in today's workforce an ethusiatic outlook on their career. This book targets a large, diverse group of people. It can turn any dreadful work place into a lively, fun, and exciting environment.

Friendship is an enormous issue in elementary school...kids form cliques and do their best to fit in and feel like they belong. Opportunities to have dialogues about what true friendship means are few and far between. This book is the perfect opportunity. The Friend will show children what a good friend is and how valuable friendship can be. Tears came to my eyes at the end of this story and I don't doubt that you'll be touched by this semi-autobiographical tale as well.

The illustrations are delightful, I agree. But, I have reservations. First, unlike the plethora of books sharing the theme: Mommy-loves-you-even-though-she-has-to-work-and-leave-you-in-others'-care, this little girl's parents are rich gadabouts who don't give a hoot about wasting time on "mundane" chores and quality moments with their child. Why plant that seed of doubt in a your child's mind? And, readers are supposed to believe that Belle doesn't even CARE about her own parents' neglect and indifference; she has this wonderful NANNY to take their place, see? "Caregivers" are apparently interchangable.

The book starts out "telling," rather than showing, Belle's odd personality and character; telling is one of the author's primary narrative techniques. The rhyme and meter are pedestrian, with twisted syntax, strained and inappropriate rhyme. The best thing in the story is Belle'S near-drowning incident; it may convince children NOT to try to go off and swim by themselves.

As for the gorgeous illus, which in fact convey most of the beautiful and "touching" aspects of the book, children are inundated with IMAGES, tv, movies, cd's, computer, videos. They need to be exposed early to examples of excellent LANGUAGE, I believe. Book publishers know that the average parent is too busy to educate himself about children's literature. Parents, on average, buy books by the illustrations; they haven't time to read through all the books in the store. Riveting pictures are easy to absorb and relate to; words, on the other hand, exercize a child's mind and broaden his horizons as well as give him a lifelong advantage in school and the real world. I posit that images, accesible as they are, encourage developing brains to become lazy when they are expected to speak and understand complex language and, especially, to learn to READ it. Children right from the start need WORDS, well-chosen, well-used, WORDS that create memorable images and memorizable poetry, WORDS to stretch imaginations and enable intelligent thinking. WORDS! And it's never too early to begin exposing a baby to the BEST of children's literature. After all, today's BABIES are no different from the babies born thousands of years ago; get them interested in WORDS before they are bombarded with those irresistible images. If you start early, you won't have difficulty later presenting a wonderful book with gorgeous WORDS and minimal gimmicks or illustrations. Only you can give your young child WORDS; he'll absorb plenty of images without your even trying.

My three year old loves this story! The story is about a little girl, Belle, who is cared for by the house keeper because her parents are too "busy." It describes their day to day lives that are full of fun for Belle. Then one day something terrible almost happens. Bea rescues Belle. It teaches a wonderful lesson of not going near water alone. My daughter is fascinated with Belle being submerged and then being pulled out. It opens up a great opportunity to discuss water safety with kids. I make a point to do that after every read. But besides that it is a great touching story.

This is a wonderful and touching story! It reminded me of my childhood and gave me peace to know someone had written about it in such a caring way. This book has become one of my favorites!

This award winning husband and wife team (The Gardener and The Library) has created a beautiful, moving tribute to "all the people across the world who have saved the lives of children by paying attention when others did not." Stewart's lyrical rhyming tale is apparently an ode to the African-American housekeeper, Ola Beatrice Smith, who took loving care of her as a child when her parents were too busy to give her the devoted, day to day, loving attention she needed and wanted. Small's gorgeous, colorful watercolor illustrations reveal the playful, loving relationship between the slight, red-haired young Belle and her strong, hardworking, loveable caretaker Bea. A visual delight, they perfectly illuminate the close relationship between two by showing Belle "helping" Bea with her household chores, as well as their late afternoon playtimes at a stunning beach. Criticism directed at the stereotypical rich white child taken care of by an African American servant whose outside life is completely ignored should be considered in light of the book's autobiographical and historical context. (Small's illustrations suggest the post WWII era). Recommended for all children aged 4 to 8 and highly recommended those who spend significant time in the care of caretakers other than their parents.

This book is phenomenal. I highly recommend it. It approaches stress from an entirely new perspective. It's easy to read, easy to understand and it's message is easy to integrate into your life. I run stress management workshops as a part of my private practice and this book has
provided me with much insight. If you're looking for a book on stress management, this is the book to buy. You'll be happy you did! Linda Myers

As a successful consultant I work to continuously improve my game - at work, at home and in life. Often we know *what* we need to do, but the *doing* gets thwarted. Why? What are the secrets to consistent, ongoing top performance? I encourage you to read this book and find out! This is likely the best investment I have made in personal development, and I invest continually. Kudos!

The message is clear -- face the issues that are stressful for you. I enjoyed this book because it is realistic. If you have problems with stress, this book will help you.

James Loehr convincingly puts forth the argument that, instead of avoiding stress, you need to learn to embrace it and improve yourself by learning to adapt and effectively recover from stress.

An admittedly interesting concept. After reading this book I tried to make myself immune from headaches by banging my head against the wall for progressively longer periods of time. After two weeks I was admitted to the Emergency Room here at El Camino Hospital and diagnosed with a minor concussion. The attending ER doc, Dr. Lee, tried to pursuade me not to continue with this project. I told him about this book, but he was not familiar with it. I was afraid his ignorance would be detrimental to my project, so once I get my doctor's approval to go back to work, I'm going to try this again.

James Loehr tells us the key is not how to get rid of stress, but to learn to perform well under pressure. He has helped many professional athletes and corporate executives get into what he terms the Ideal Performance State (IPS). This zone is achieved by a balance of stress and recovery. IPS is characterized by calmness, relaxation and confidence.

Loehr explains how to learn to take a break from stress and identifies the different types of stresses that lead to certain downfall if not regularly abated. He applies the stress/recovery theory to both physical and mental realms. Also, too much recovery is erosive. The happiest and most productive people have a proper balance and oscillation between stress and recovery in their activites.

Here is a ritual that could help: Get up in the morning and merge your thoughts and actions together in the present by watching your breathing. Then ask yourself why you should fight today. You need a reason to rise your emotions. Then create a vision for the future and contrast it witht the present. Use affirmations to overcome weaknesses. Then, visualize how the day should go.

Many practical techniques and suggestions are offered to help achieve IPS such as affirmations, exercise, nutrition and humor development. Guard your sleep, eating schedule and recovery tactics. Every day is a battle for control of your response to life.

It may be true that you deserve a break today! Use these techniques to come back stronger.

Five Stars