The debate over sick leave in Madison left a few scars, especially in the allegedly “uncaring” Madison business community.
A proposed ordinance backed by the Healthy Families, Healthy City Coalition would have required all employers in the City of Madison to provide their workers with at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, or about 8.3 days for full-time workers, for their own or a family’s members’ care. Some contend the nation as a whole should have mandated paid sick leave for workers to more effectively contain the H1N1 flu virus, but that’s another debate.
The ordinance was not passed, but one of the offshoots of that argument is the soon-to-be-unveiled Healthy Workplace Initiative, which will feature a Web-based evaluation program for employers. The program, which still is under development, was germinated three years ago during the paid sick leave debate. When the business community objected to the proposed ordinance, Daniel Guerra, Jr. recalls accusations that businesses did not care about their employees and that they were not interested in investing in the Madison community.
That was news to him and other members of the Small Business Advisory Council, so they decided to take a proactive step. “In any industry, you’ve always got your cast of bad characters,” Guerra said, “and I think the Healthy Cities Initiative, which was about paid sick leave, was saying that all employers were bad.”
As a result, Guerra is among a group that is developing a new program — not as a product but as a public service.
“What we wanted to do is take a positive approach to recognizing small businesses that are proactive and caring for their employees,” he said. “That’s where it originated, and that’s what the intent is — to highlight small businesses that are going out of their way to take care of their employees.”
Online Service
Guerra is president of the Madison-based Argus Ventures, LLC, an Internet consulting and development firm. Since his business is immersed in Web solutions, perhaps it’s no surprise that he is leading a group effort [including IB] in a new online approach to help Greater Madison companies determine whether they have a healthy workplace. It is the group’s intent to establish a baseline and then to help other companies build toward that goal.
The program’s initial point system will be subject to change over time, but it’s based on criteria related to a full range of employment benefits associated with a “best-place to work for,” as determined by a group of business people. It can be described as a self-rating sheet for a business to evaluate the extent to which their workplace is attractive to prospective workers in a down economy.
Even though he’s no longer with the Small Business Advisory Council, Guerra believes it’s significant that the initiative is being developed by representatives of Greater Madison’s smallest companies. “They care about the community that we have, which is why health care, community investment, transportation, and living wages are all heavily weighted items that relate to the Healthy Workplace Initiative,” Guerra commented.
Guerra and other entrepreneurs have devoted their time to developing the benefits categories and the associated scoring criteria. The benefit categories and the maximum number of points assigned to them thus far include: health insurance (30); dental insurance (5), retirement benefits (10), child care (10), life insurance (5), living wage (20), flex benefit concepts, like paid time off (20), profit sharing (5), transportation options (10), disability insurance (10), spouse/domestic partner benefits (10), community investment (10), and educational benefits (5).
Companies can earn up to 150 points and there are three recognition tiers: Gold level, 110 or more points; silver level, 90 to 109 points; bronze level, 70 to 89 points.
According to Guerra, the Healthy Workplace Initiative was developed to reflect the city’s character. “We’re trying to be very progressive with this program,” Guerra reiterated. “Once again, it’s about investing in people.”
For health care insurance, a company can earn a maximum of 30 points based on whether it offers full-time health insurance (10 points), the percentage paid by the company (percentage multiplied by 10 points), and whether family coverage is provided (10 points).
In addition, the City of Madison’s living wage formula is used to evaluate the living wage benefit, so the percentage of employees receiving the city living wage is embedded in the scoring system. Guerra noted that the question — do you offer a living wage? — “directly speaks to some of the concerns the Healthy Families Initiative had a couple of years ago.”
In terms of transportation options, the criteria includes whether a company subsidizes a bus pass or provides community car access.
“One of the discussions we’ve had in this community is how do we better use the bus system and our transit system?” noted Guerra, a board member of Centro Hispano of Dane County and the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce. “One of the biggest barriers that we’ve had, and this directly goes to the transit system, is that there is a barrier for small businesses to provide transit solutions to their employees — unlike the university, St. Mary’s Hospital, Meriter Hospital, and American Family Insurance.”
Grain of Salt
The information generated will be part of a self-reporting Web presentation accessible to the public, including job seekers who will be in the same position that companies are when reviewing resumes: How will they know the information is on the level and that companies aren’t embellishing, as some job seekers do?
“In the age that we’re in, we have to be realistic,” noted Guerra. “We’re promoting people doing this online, doing the research online. That being said, and being in the Web 2.0 era of developing transparency within organizations and outside of organizations, employers that are less than truthful are frankly going to be called out. I think where you’re going to see that is on discussion forums and in the court of public opinion.”
That can be both good and bad, he concedes, because much like commentary in a newspapers’ online product, some people will tend to distort things. “That’s a real issue, but I think businesses, by and large, that are good with their employees will not see that kind of behavior online,” Guerra predicted.
“I think that when people do show that behavior, you always have to look at it from the other side because there are, from time to time, disgruntled people that walk away and do not have a good separation from their employer. So yes, read it, follow up, and take everything with a grain of salt.”
No Barriers
Since Guerra has no need to monetize the program, other than getting sponsorships to help offset costs of development, marketing, and recognizing the businesses that participated in program development, he said charging fees to companies that use the program would send the wrong message. He said the program would seek to engage area business organizations, not build barriers to entry.
“I think creating financial barriers,” he said, “is something that we don’t want to be a part of. I’m not in it for the dollars, I’m in it to make a positive contribution.”
For the time being, organizers are looking at businesses in the local market. “Right now I see this happening in our local area and if there is a movement afoot to take it to other areas, I think it’s an opportunity that we can easily export,” Guerra said.
He also said the initial scoring criteria would be subject to change, and he noted that area business representatives probably would be convened annually to make any necessary modifications. “It’s part of having good stakeholders there and knowing that the concept you’re looking at is not just a fixed program, but really a living program that changes from year to year.
“I think that makes it very easy to take the concept and export it to different regions and different parts of the state. I think there is a lot of opportunity there. It’s really about where do we want to go with it? How do we want to see it grow?”
The program is not designed to be a form of online marketing for participating companies, but Guerra does not deny the promotional aspects of scoring highly, thereby promoting yourself to prospective employees, especially as the economy turns a corner.
“That’s not the intent behind it, but I think in a world that really highlights businesses that are looking to take care of their people and retain and find talented people that help grow their business, I think it’s a nice add-on,” he said.
“I don’t think that people will say, “Oh, my gosh, it’s a healthy workplace, so I’ve got to work there.” I think people, when they are looking at an opportunity for employment, will say, ‘I’m going to Google my employer list and see what comes up.’
“I think you have to be realistic that at this stage, in this day and age, that just like people get Googled, companies get Googled to see what people say about them.”
Site Launch
Evaluating the health of workplaces is hardly a trivial exercise. National magazines devote annual presentations to their best 100 or 200 companies to work for, using categories like size, diversity, and training opportunities to evaluate national powerhouses like Google, Texas Instruments, Cisco Systems, Qualcomm, and Quicken Loans, and also Wisconsin stalwarts like Robert W. Baird and S.C. Johnson.
Closer to home, Guerra prefers to stick to important employment benefits as a best-workplace measure. He hopes to get the mechanical pieces worked out so that Healthy Workplace can be launched on a Web site (watch for voluntary business rankings to appear on IBMadison.com) by early 2010.
Looking back on the entire sick leave debate, Guerra returned to the frustration that many business leaders felt at the criticism directed at businesses of all sizes, knowing that so many of them already invested substantial sums to offer attractive benefits packages.
“I think the solution [suggested] was very punitive,” he repeated.
“I think by and large, small business owners are people that have big hearts and that’s why we go into business — because we have a passion and a desire to do something to invest in the community and the people.
“As a practical point, when you’re investing in your staff, you’re investing in your business and you’re better able to serve the public. I think it’s something that helps everybody as a whole.
“The way the Healthy City Initiative was framed is that you were one sneeze away from being homeless, which is why you needed paid vacation. I start with the premise that that’s a fallacious argument. If you’re one sneeze away from being homeless, there is a bigger issue.
“I think we should be looking at tackling the biggest issue, whether it’s access to education, access to health care, access to child care.
With all the inherent Web advantages and disadvantages factored in, Guerra believes the Healthy Workplace Initiative will be beneficial to business organizations and workers alike, provided they both use it in the spirit intended.
“We believe in this mission,” he said, “and we believe it’s a worthwhile thing.”
