Laurie Spraker

California increased the paid sick leave bar on 1/1/24, requiring employers to provide 40 hours (5 days) per year. Our FAQ guide can help clarify accrual methods and impact on your part-time workers. Check out the details! #sickleave

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Having a reasonable accommodation policy is crucial for employers because it ensures that employees with disabilities or special needs can perform the job effectively. This process involves working with the employee to understand their specific needs and finding ways to support them, which can lead to higher job satisfaction, increased productivity, and lower turnover rates. Essentially, it creates a more inclusive and supportive work environment for everyone. #ADA #ReasonableAccommodations #HumanResources

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Your behavioral health is just as important as your physical health. Read 10 questions to ask your behavioral healthcare provider in the AZ Blue blog! #AZBlue

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I try to keep my personal and professional life separate, but events in the last few weeks as well as similar posts I’m seeing across LinkedIn gave me pause. Mental health is so critical to our lives, whether it’s on the job, or at home. There have been multiple reports over the past several years on the increasing rate of suicide in the Millennial population. In 2019, a report published by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality found, “Between 2008 and 2016, mortality rates among those between 25 and 34 years old increased by more than 20 percent. These deaths were mainly driven by a rise in suicides and drug overdoses. . .” On June 20, my son, Cameron Joyce became a part of this statistic, throwing his family, friends, and colleagues into the increasing numbers of those impacted by suicide. My son developed a passion for computers in his teens, withdrew from high school and after securing a GED, he started down a professional path that led him into technology and finally, tech security. His unique ability to breakdown technical information and ‘translate’ it to everyday English, his ability to connect with people, as well as pursuing technical certifications, allowed him to advance within his chosen field; proving that not everyone needs a college degree to be successful in their profession. While successful in his career, clearly, there’s more to a person’s life than delivering on objectives and advancing in their industry. Over the years, as an HR professional, I’ve had my share of dealing with the outcome of suicide at my various employers. Employers do things like offering employee assistance programs (EAPs), designing ‘mental health breaks,’ implementing ‘well-being checks,’ and all kinds of benefits that try to address the mental health of our employees. However, the underlying issue of why individuals get to a point that they feel suicide is the only viable option cannot be addressed by benefits and time-off from work. It takes individuals reaching out to individuals, offering a helping hand, probing behavior changes or possible hints at greater stressors in life (whether it be financial, relationships, feelings of inadequacy or imposter syndrome, or anything that can undermine a person’s perception of their own self-worth). Ultimately, we will never know what it was that pushed my son down this path, but I do think it’s important to pause and look at what happens when we’re struggling ourselves - whether it’s reaching out to friends, family, EAPs, local charities that offer support; or accepting help when we need it, instead of going it alone; trying to recognize when someone in our lives seems to be having a hard time or retreats; as well as talking about mental health to make it as normal as talking about a physical injury or illness - all of this (and more I probably left out) can help us stop this growing statistic across all generations. #MentalHealth #Suicide #Depression #Anxiety The obituary: https://lnkd.in/eCPke6ER

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