MARCH 6 12, 2023 SPRINGFIELD BUSINESS JOURNAL 31 The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about many things, and two of them are big workforce issues packed into small acronyms. The immediate community shutdowns and public health precautions introduced many of us to WFH, aka work from home, and now, in the fourth year of pandemic waves, we have RTO – return to o ce. Work from home became a necessity for many. O ce environments have been shaped to emphasize flexibility, benefits and culture with current and prospective sta members in mind. But as pandemic concerns have cooled, return-to-o ce policies have become hot button. Here’s a temperature reading of the U.S. o ce worker from a February survey by ResumeBuilder.com: • 62% of workers are required to go into the office five days a week. • 37% of workers would prefer to work less frequently from the o ce. • 29% of workers who want to WFH more will quit this year if the RTO policy doesn’t change. • 22% say they would take a salary cut to WFH more. The company’s sampling was from 1,000 employees in full-time jobs that require them to work at least one day a week in an o ce. Those last two stats – on quitting and salaries – should be on the radar of employers. It means 3 in 10 employees surveyed could be leaving their employers this year based on the RTO policy. Says to me employees know what they want, and they’ll take strong actions to get it. But also, it’s a vote of confidence that another employer will meet those needs and desires. In fact, WFH is becoming more valuable than salary. In addition to those who would trade pay for WFH options, 34% say they would take a lower raise in exchange for working from home more days. But the underlying takeaway – and the survey summary headline – is “4 in 10 workers forced to RTO are unhappy.” An unhappy worker, in many cases, is an unproductive worker. Employers know that. Case in point is at The Walt Disney Co. The RTO topic bubbled up this year when Disney CEO Bob Iger issued a memo for sta to work on-site at least four days a week, citing sta creativity, culture and professional development. Employees responded by over 2,000 signing a petition for Iger to reconsider his RTO policy, according to media reports. Amazon is amid a similar push-and-pull RTO situation. Disney’s four-days-a-week idea brings up another hot topic: a four-day workweek that 61 U.K. companies tested for six months and recently reported as a success, according to The Wall Street Journal. With that in mind, Springfield Business Journal asked readers if they supported a four-day workweek and 76% of the 779 people who voted online said yes. In the WFH/RTO debate, there’s opportunity for employers and employees to meet in the middle. Maybe more WFH sta is not ideal for a business. But it could benefit the company financially to loosen up that RTO policy. I expect the topic to be a central theme this year in employer-employee relations – and one through which local companies can learn from the steps and missteps taken by national companies. Springfield Business Journal Editorial Vice President Eric Olson can be reached at eolson@sbj.net. As pandemic concerns cool, return-to-o ce policies heat up EYES & EARS Ryan Baker OPINION WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU Springfield Business Journal welcomes responses from readers. Letters to the editor should be brief, preferably under 300 words, and may be edited for clarity, style and length. No anonymous letters will be printed. Send letters to sbj@sbj.net. Please include your full name and the city where you reside. Dear editor, I am writing to express my concerns about the economic development and workforce readiness in Missouri, particularly in regard to our education system. We must have a workforce that is ready to take on the jobs and skills our employers need. We need the best people to make that happen. And that comes down to teacher pay. It is disheartening to see us falling behind in this crucial area. A recent study by the National Education Association showed that Missouri ranks at the bottom when it comes to starting teacher pay [$32,970]. Our average pay [$51,444 during the 2020-21 school year, according to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education] is also lower than most of our neighboring states. This is unacceptable, especially considering the critical role teachers play in shaping the future of our state and the economy. Our teachers can easily cross the border in any direction and increase their salaries by thousands of dollars a year. Why would we not fight to keep the best teachers here so Missouri is a destination for a highly educated workforce? Quality teachers are essential to the success of our children and workforce readiness in our state. Without quality teachers, our children will struggle to compete, and Missouri will fall further behind. It is important to stress the positive impact that our teachers have on economic development. When our children are well-educated and prepared for the workforce, they will be more likely to secure good jobs and contribute to the growth of our state. This, in turn, will attract businesses and industries to Missouri, leading to more job opportunities and economic prosperity for all Missourians. O cials in Arkansas are rightly debating teacher pay raises, including how large of a raise they are going to give their teachers. Meanwhile, it is frustrating to see Missouri is silent on the matter. We cannot a ord to ignore the importance of quality teachers and their impact on our state’s future. We cannot let our great teachers leave the state when our legislators can provide a solution. We need leaders willing to invest in our education system, support our teachers and ensure that our children are well prepared for the challenges ahead. It is simply unacceptable for our state to be behind all of our neighboring states in teacher pay. Let’s work together to prioritize education and teacher pay in Missouri. Let’s invest in our teachers and give them the resources they need to succeed. Our children, our state and our economy depend on it. Please contact your elected o cials to let them know we need to increase teacher pay. —Gearl Loden, Nixa Public Schools Missouri can give more pay to its teachers Dear editor, I’m often asked about my work in hospice, which many people misunderstand if they’re aware of it at all. Like my colleagues, I’m passionate about my work, and we continuously try to help educate patients, families and other health care professionals about the benefits of hospice. Recently, this discussion was brought to the forefront by the decision of former President Jimmy Carter to enter hospice. Our thoughts are with him and his family, and we would like to help our community better understand what entering hospice care means. Hospice is comprehensive team-based care focused on patient and family well-being. A team of health care professionals and trained volunteers works together to address symptom control, pain management, and provide emotional and spiritual support. The care plan for each patient is expressly tailored to their needs and wishes. Hospice can be provided where the patient lives with regular visits from the hospice team members and on-call, 24-hour access to support. Put simply, hospice focuses on caring, not curing. The goal is to make the time a patient has left as comfortable and meaningful as possible. For some patients and families, that may end the taxing cycle of repeated, unwanted hospitalizations and emergency room visits. Others may want an improved quality of life because aggressive treatments are no longer working, or the symptoms of their disease are getting harder to manage. Patients and families often say they wished they’d started hospice earlier. Hospice has been found to provide the greatest benefit and end-of-life patient satisfaction when it is initiated early. While patients are eligible for hospice when their life expectancy is six months or less, no one actually knows how you will live. Patients can continue to receive hospice as long as they meet Medicare program’s requirements. Hospice is not giving up. It doesn’t hasten death and it’s not for the last few days of life. As a society, we are so hesitant to talk about the end of life, but it’s such an important conversation. I encourage every family to discuss their needs and wishes in advance. Your wishes can only be honored if they are known. —Taynia Kisner, Compassus Consider patient preference at end of life LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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