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Employers
Higher costs found at 24-7 operations

US companies with around-the-clock operations are losing $206 billion per year, according to a new study.

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The study by Circadian Technologies Inc., a Lexington consulting firm, found that companies with 24-7 operations have lower unit costs and shorter supply chains than traditional firms. They also have more job-related injuries, higher healthcare costs, greater employee turnover, and lower productivity, said the report.

The study said that lower employee productivity is costing such companies $79.4 billion per year. Higher absenteeism has led to the loss of $50.4 billion, and employee turnover is costing companies $39.1 billion a year. Additionally, companies with extended operations spend $28.2 billion on healthcare, and $8.5 billion on job-related injuries.

Employee productivity tends to decline during evening hours, dropping about 5 percent between midnight and the early morning hours, said the report. The annual cost of lower productivity at night: $3,309 per worker.

''Difficult economic times have resulted in understaffed and inefficiently staffed conditions in many extended hours facilities,'' said Alex Kerin, coauthor of the research report. ''This, in turn, leads to excessive and imbalanced overtime, higher absenteeism and turnover rates, increased costs of recruitment, and excessive employee health and accident costs. Workplace productivity and employee morale also suffer as a result of unmanaged challenges confronting extended hours operations.''

Circadian noted that shiftwork is increasing among US employees as more and more companies adopt seven-day, 24-hour scheduling and operations.

''Today, nearly one in five employees, or approximately 24 million Americans, regularly work irregular schedules, night shifts or extended hours positions,'' said the study. ''Often stereotyped as blue-collar manufacturing or transportation workers, 24-7 employees staff around-the-clock customer service call centers, retail establishments, information technology monitoring and support centers, hospitals, emergency response services, and 24-hour news operations.''

Circadian's findings are based on data compiled from its annual surveys and information provided by 10,500 employees from 60 companies. The company also polled managers at more than 1,000 firms with 150,000 workers. The participating firms represented a variety of industrial sectors, the report said.

''Average absenteeism among companies with extended hours operations is more than twice the national average, at 4.9 percent versus 2.1 percent,'' the report said. It noted that the average cost of bringing in temporary workers to replace absent workers or paying overtime to full-time employees who are filling in is approximately $2,102 per employee or $50.4 billion annually.

The average turnover at such firms is nearly three times higher, with an annual turnover rate of 9 percent in 2002 compared with the national average of 3.4 percent for all companies. The report also found that workers at 24-7 operations are more likely to suffer from obesity, gastrointestinal disorders, cancer, sleep disorder, and fatigue-related car accidents. According to the study, it costs 24-7 operations an extra $1,181 to insure each shiftworker.

DIANE E. LEWIS

Teachers
Local program offers summer employment

Teachers have long sought other employment in the summer.

Now, a new program is paying Massachusetts teachers to work for local firms when school ends.

Called MassFutures and sponsored by the Commonwealth Corp., a quasipublic agency that supports training initiatives, the program will offer externships to teachers who specialize in math, science, and technology. Under the program, the teachers will be tapped this summer and next summer for work at local corporations. Each will receive a $4,000 stipend from the Center for Youth Development and Education, a subsidiary of the Commonwealth Corp.

In all, $48,000 has been set aside to fund 12 stipends. The teachers selected for the program will be placed at healthcare organizations or hospitals, insurance companies, financial services firms as well as at firms representing the biotechnology, telecommunications, and computer industry. Thus far, 140 teachers from around the state have expressed an interest in the program, according to Jonathan Raymond, president of the Commonwealth Corp.

According to Raymond, the goal of MassFutures is threefold. ''The Commonwealth Corp. created MassFutures to increase the number of quality math, science, and technology teachers in Massachusetts, to improve teachers' effectiveness in the classroom and to increase awareness and understanding of their students' career needs,'' said Raymond.

''Our impetus in creating this model is to really engage industry as partners with the school system,'' added Raymond. ''We want to deepen the pipeline of teachers with strong mathematics and science credentials. We also want to keep our best teaching talent in the schools. This gives the teachers an extra stipend in the summer and it gives them a chance to broaden their horizons and expand their knowledge of how math, science, and technology really relate to the world of work. We are hoping that they will be enriched by the experience and will bring that back to the classroom.''

DIANE E. LEWIS

Travel
Firms cutting costs; security concerns fall

US companies are spending less on travel.

Such are the findings of the National Business Travel Association. In a survey of 204 travel managers last June, the association found that 58 percent had decreased corporate spending on business travel. About 31 percent said their travel spending increased. Additionally, 40 percent said they probably booked more hotel rooms in 2003 than in 2002. Thirty percent said hotel room reservations were still flat.

One encouraging finding in the study: Concerns about security and complaints about inconveniences caused by increased security have decreased. Sixty-one percent of the travel managers said they have not heard complaints from their business travelers about security inconveniences or inconsistencies. Last year, 45 percent said improving security was the second most important factor in improving the level of business travel in the United States, the study found. This year, by contrast, security is second-to-last, with only 8.6 percent commenting on its importance in improving the business travel climate. Instead, 74 percent of those polled said the economic well-being of their own company and others is essential to increasing business travel.

Because of the economy, corporate travel managers are implementing various strategies to save on travel costs such as requiring senior executives to fly coach, using alternative airports to save on airfare, booking flights on discount airlines, and using more mid-priced hotels instead of luxury hotels.

DIANE E. LEWIS

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