Quality Care Options Announces New Employee Benefit SolutionWritten by Angel Kearney
Quality Care Options announces a revolutionary employee benefit that enables employers to be more competitive while saving expenses associated with caring for an employee’s elderly parent. Quality Care Options (QCO) is first and only organization to offer access to elder care services that have a 90% or higher customer satisfaction rating, derived from industry’s’ first independent customer-driven survey process.A recent study from AT&T showed that 28 percent of their workforce provides and coordinates elder care to their aging parents. The annual costs associated with this phenomenon, is estimated to be $1142 per employee due to absenteeism, workday interruptions, eldercare crises and additional supervisor costs. AT&T found that every elder care crisis caused an initial absenteeism of four to seven days with additional absenteeism throughout crisis. Barbara Mascio, Founder and President of QCO says, “We find that clients typically miss less than one day due to services we supply. They are less distracted at work and are comforted knowing that we take time to listen, and have expertise to connect these families to most appropriate services, based on individual’s needs, desires, geographical area and of course, budget. Our QCO Employee Benefit Solution offers relief to both employee and employer for less than one percent of cost that AT&T has estimated.” The number of employers offering elder-care benefits has soared from 20% in 1990 to nearly 50% in 1999, according to a poll by benefit consultants Hewitt Associates. One reason for growth: More than 80% of workers caring for an older relative say they have had to adjust their schedules – working fewer hours, for example, or quitting their job – based on a report by Metropolitan Life Insurance.
| | Four Easy Ways to Get a Book Written (Especially If You Don't Like to Write)Written by Michelle McGee-Jones
Becoming an author is probably a lot easier than you think. It’s time to get that book out of your head and onto printed page. Ready? Boot out your excuses. Here’s how to do it.Method One: Think Quality, Not Quantity. To be classified as a book – as opposed to a booklet or pamphlet – your work needs a mere 49 pages (excluding cover). Not only that but, depending on your topic, you can be liberal with photographs, charts, illustrations, bullet points, fill-in-the-blank worksheets, etc. Use them strategically in place of text. If it fits your theme, intersperse powerful quotations throughout your book, and give them a page of their own, even if it’s only a line or two. Ditch perception that you have to have a minimum number of lines on each page. Method Two: Start Talking. Invest in a tape recorder and shoot breeze. I must admit that this isn’t quite as easy as it sounds, but if you’re articulate and you have skill at organizing your thoughts and ideas, it’s doable. Don’t try to wing it. Break down your book into chapters. Then prepare a detailed outline of each chapter. If it’s fiction you’re writing, outline plot. For nonfiction, along with your outline, have any additional material handy that you want to refer to. After you’re done, have a typist transcribe tape. Save it onto a floppy disk and give it to an editor. She’ll polish content. A variation of this method is to use voice recognition software that turns your spoken words into text. Method Three: Do an Anthology. If you don’t want to go it alone – and you don’t mind sharing spotlight – have other writers contribute a chapter to your book. Then you’ll have only a chapter to write yourself. Whether it’s a collection of short stories or a manual of topics on your subject, this method really lightens your load. Be sure to place each writer’s name on their chapter’s byline.
|
