WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP

We’re proud to recognize the Women in Leadership at our Erie facility! More than 22% of our team members are women, many with subject matter expertise and in leadership roles. Many participate in our Women’s Business Resource Group, Peer W, to help highlight the value of women in the workforce. Increasing diversity, equity and inclusion at Parker helps our company to grow. And we’re the better for it.

A recent study in Nature Communications finds a long-lasting and positive impact of peer mentoring for female students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.

Participants included 150 women first and second year students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, all of whom were majoring in engineering. Student mentors — 32 women, 26 men — were also recruited to the study; they were third and fourth year undergraduate students in the same major as their mentee. Data was collected over the course of eight years, from 2011 to 2019.

With the continued rising cost of group health insurance premiums for employers, the Manufacturer & Business Association (MBA) is committed to finding ways to help our members with their benefit costs. Thanks to our long-term partnerships with industry-leading carriers, such as Delta Dental, Hartford, Eastern Alliance and VBA Insurance, MBA members have exclusive access to premium benefit plans at highly competitive rates.

VBA Vision Insurance

Extremely competitive rates (starts at just $3.48 per month) and great plans that are easy to use. Groups must have at least two participants. This benefit can be employer or employee paid with no contribution requirements on the employer’s part. There are no additional billing fees or administrative costs.

Delta Dental

Provides exclusive plans and discounted rates available to groups as small as two. Delta is the No. 1 provider of dental benefits in the United States with a large national network. There are no waiting periods for coverage or treatment. Six plans available including one that covers adult orthodontics

Hartford Life, Short-Term and Long-Term Disability

Provides exclusive rates for MBA members and is available to groups as small as two. These plans require no medical underwriting and have no waiting periods. They also include many value-added services such as preparing a will at no cost.

Eastern Alliance Workers’ Compensation

MBA members have access to workers’ compensation insurance through our partner Eastern Alliance Insurance Group (EAIG), which provides the opportunity for stable rates and competitive pricing. This program offers the potential of a group policyholder dividend for all participants, including small groups

Medicare

Through our partner, MPC Insurance, MBA members have experts available to help with navigating Medicare for your eligible employees — provided at no cost to MBA members.

Workpartners

As part of the MBA’s partnership with Workpartners, MBA members get an exclusive 10-percent discount off Workpartners’ employee assistance program (EAP) services, which are confidential for employees and members of their household.

Be sure to ask your broker about these great products available through the Manufacturer & Business Association or contact the MBA at 814/833-3200 or 800/815-2660.

Lori Joint is president and chief executive officer of the Manufacturer & Business Association. Contact her at 814/833-3200, 800/815-2660 or ljoint@mbausa.org.

The team found that being assigned to a female mentor was associated with a significant improvement in mentees’ experiences in engineering. Those without mentors and with male mentors showed a decline in confidence from entry to college through to graduation and beyond, while those with female mentors maintained their confidence without any decline. The same pattern also held for motivation.

Having a female mentor also influenced participants’ intentions to remain in the field: 82 percent of those with a female mentor participated in an internship during college, compared to 61 percent of participants without a mentor and 65 percent of those with male mentors.

A recent report from Gallup finds that large numbers of workers, especially Gen Zers and young Millennials, are not engaged with their jobs. And that could make their climb up the career ladder harder, as well as hurt companies’ overall performance.

The Gallup survey of roughly 67,000 people in 2022 found only 32 percent of workers are engaged with their work compared with 36 percent in 2020.

The share of workers found to be “actively disengaged” has risen since 2020, while the share of those in the middle — those considered “not engaged” — has remained about the same. Engagement had been rising in the decade before the pandemic, following the Great Recession, but started to fall in 2021.

Younger workers have seen a bigger drop in engagement than older ones. Those under 35 reported feeling less heard and less cared about at work. Fewer Gen Zers and young Millennials reported having someone at work who encourages their development and fewer opportunities to learn and grow.

“There’s a growing disconnect between employee [and] employer. You could almost equate it to employees becoming a little bit more like gig workers,” says Jim Harter, chief workplace scientist at Gallup and author of the new report.

Gig work by its nature doesn’t lend itself to loyalty or long-term relationships between employees and employers. Workers may feel less motivated to put their best selves forward.

This can be done through surveys, one-on-one meetings or a variety of other methods. WHAT

Don’t wait; draft policies so they will be ready well in advance of the new school year. Plan for these situations now and prevent turmoil later. Scrambling to draft policies later in the school year will only make them more challenging to implement and may force some employees to resign or take extended leaves to accommodate their families.

HOW CAN EMPLOYERS ENFORCE ACCOMMODATIONS FOR WORKING PARENTS?

Enforcement of those accommodates must be clear and consistent. This means holding employees accountable for the arrangements they agreed to.

HAVE AN HR QUESTION? GET ANSWERS!

At the Manufacturer & Business Asociation, we know that urgent HR and employment law issues can arise at a moment’s notice.

As a member, you can call our certified HR consultants and labor and employment law attorney anytime, at no charge for counsel on a broad range of workplace-related topics including:

• Hiring and firing practices

• Company policies

• Compensation and benefits

• Employment law

• Employment agreements

• Workers’ compensation

• Affirmative Action Plans

• Unemployment compensation claims

• Employee handbook policies

• OSHA compliance

Sexual harassment

• Family Medical Leave Act

• COBRA

Americans with Disabilities Act

Call the MBA’s HR & Legal Hotline today at 814/833-3200 or 800/815-2660, or email our HR & Legal team at hrservices@mbausa.org.

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employers are still embracing a variety of solutions to help working parents and retain top talent. Here are a few options to consider:

Telework Arrangements

Working remotely (telework) has boomed in popularity recently — obviously influenced by the coronavirus — but the trend began well in advance of the pandemic. This arrangement allows employees to work entirely remote. It can be a way for working parents to get kids to school without having to worry about an additional commute and spend more time with their young children.

Flexible Scheduling

Flexible scheduling is a step back from telework, focusing instead on when an employee works rather than where they do so. With this arrangement, employers set designated “core” hours that an employee must be working (location irrelevant) and otherwise let employees work whenever they like, setting their own schedule.

Another option is not having a core schedule, allowing employees to work any combination of a 40-hour workweek. This can be a great way to accommodate working parents who must also act as stay-at-home teachers or daycare instructors. It can also free up time for parents so they can work earlier and see their families more in the evening.

Generous Time-Off Policies

Some employers have generous policies related to paid time off (PTO), which is different than extended leave. Expanding PTO can be an excellent way to attract and retain working parents. The easiest method for implementing this would be to adopt a PTO bank policy where employees can use their time off for any reason (as opposed to having set categories, such as sick days and vacation days).

As the saying goes, “If you don’t know, ask.” Workplace policies are no exception. Before employers start drafting policies or begin devising worker accommodations, they should reach out to employees. Since the goal is to make life easier for working parents (and the rest of the workforce, to a lesser extent), employers should ensure the decisions are welcomed by employees.