Contemporary Performance Issues
Commuting is a perfect example of a contemporary performance issue, "traffic congestion can steal valuable time from employees' personal lives" (Wells par. 1). The typical employee is concerned with the time lost in commuting to work and not spent at home with their family. The family could be spouse, children, pets, parents, siblings etc....If your everyday lifestyle started with the concern and time wasted just for commuting to and from work, you already started the day with a strike against you. In the past, this was not an issue with the employer. The employer was concerned with what they had control over at the workplace, if you had other problems, leave them at the door. Lately, it has been pointed out that more can be done for the employee in the field of Human Resources (HR). For example, instead of open parking for everyone at the work place, initiate a preferred parking area for those using some type of car pool. This encourages a social environment to and from work, as well as relieving some employee stress. If all of the employees are in some type of rotating pool, then an extra load of stress is being relieved from some of the employees all of the time, or all of the employee
Wells, S. J. (1999), "Using rush hour to your advantage." HR Magazine, March 1999. s some of the time. Either way you look at it, you can hope to see an increase in concentration and performance. As an added incentive, "The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), enacted in June 1998, allows employers to offer workers either cash or tax-free reimbursements for parking, mass transit fares and van pooling expenses" (Wells par. 3). This is further enhanced for the employer since the Clean Air Act of 1990. There are about 100 metropolitan areas that mandate air quality goals by reducing vehicle emissions that cause pollution. Some states like California have districts that require employers with 250 or more employees to adopt clean air measures to include trip-reduction programs. All of this results in employees no longer being concerned with traffic or parking or fuel expenses. This is an attractive incentive for retention and also as a recruiting tool. The advantages of adopting a strong program as part of an overall benefits package are clear. Here are some examples of how some organizations have put this to use: ? Company vehicles on site. Kaiser Permanente guarantees workers access to company-owned vehicles for business meetings during the day if they commute to work using mass transit or other means that leave them without a car, says Kaiser's Gerwig (Wells para5). ? At Kaiser Permanente, 50 percent of the company's 2,600 headquarters staff in Oakland, Calif., now commute five days a
Some common words found in the essay are:
Kathy Gerwig, Issue Commuting, Air Act, Calvert Ltd, Resources HR, Kaiser's Gerwig, JC Penney, TMAs TMAs, Kaiser Permanente, Century TEA-21, traffic congestion, contemporary performance issue, rideshare program, mass transit, transit fares, clean air, 25 percent, days week, par 5, par 4, kaiser permanente,
Approximate Word count = 1029
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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