Eight Great Questions to Keep Clients Healthy

presenteeism

1. Are you planning any in-home entertaining during the flu season?
2. How many domestic employees do you have and how many sick days on average do they take yearly due to cold and flu?
3. Do you have a contingency plan for resuming normal household operations in the event of widespread and prolonged absence of domestic staff due to flu?
4. Do any employees interact heavily with family younger than 10 or older than 65? Do they know the higher health risk flu presents for these groups?
5. Do you have a sick and/or personal time policy? If so, is it spelled out in a human resources manual that is provided to all workers?
6. Has your formal personal/sick time policy been vetted by an attorney or insurance professional?
7. Have you considered doing a cost/benefit analysis of the expense of providing paid sick leave versus the cost of employees coming to work sick?
8. Is a sick/personal time policy actively communicated and evenly enforced by the family or senior staff charged with supervising domestic employees?

Andrew McElwee is EVP of Chubb & Son and COO of Chubb Personal Insurance.

Read more Managing the Risk articles and blog posts:

Preventing H1N1 at Home March 22, 2010 Discouraging employees from coming into work when they have flu is good. Keeping them from catching the flu is even better. Insuring Satisfaction February 23, 2010 Want to know what makes insurance policyholders feel they've gotten their money's worth? It's something so obvious you just might miss it.