employee engagement – Page 10

September 16, 2019June 29, 2023

Love, Life and Career — Chasing the Trifecta

Stefanie Coleman

As I think about the workplace issues faced by my clients, I can’t help but reflect on my personal life and how there might be some parallels. Supervising a toddler’s play date through the corner of an eye, holding my newborn in one arm while typing this opinion piece with the other and a light bulb switched on for me. To authentically reflect this chapter of my life and the workforce issues that matter most to me right now, I have to blog about flexibility. For me, there is nothing else so top of mind.

Since 2007, I’ve advised firms around the world on all kinds of workforce issues including flexibility. Over the course of my travels, I’ve had world-class mentors, both men and women alike.

Within this group, there is a set of common traits that I strive to emulate. They successfully balance the three important attributes of the trifecta: love, life and career.

If you are career-oriented, balancing the three components of the trifecta is an important condition for living a happy and fulfilled life. And, when done properly, it improves your chances of success in the workplace.

In the United States alone, despite relatively low levels of violent crime and unemployment, coupled with steadily rising income per capita over the last few decades, general happiness within the population is declining. The 2019 World Happiness Report describes this relationship as the Easterlin Paradox, where despite rising standards of living, happiness levels trend inverse. This is attributed to a variety of factors, one of which includes digital advancement — ironically, an urgent business opportunity for most executives.

Another reason for the Easterlin Paradox could be the growing workload faced by many employees in today’s workforce. In fact, HR leaders (particularly in North America) consider unmanageable workloads a key risk to their people experience. In response, several firms have prioritized wellness strategies as a means to remediate. To do so, establishing the link to flexibility is key. Wellness and flexibility cannot be decoupled. They go hand-in-hand.

Good flexibility programs help employees balance the trifecta.

Empower employees to spend meaningful and undistracted time with their loved ones and to invest in starting and/or growing loving relationships.
Give employees adequate opportunities to enjoy their lives by engaging in leisure activities, pursuing personal passions and participating in social and/or community networks.
Create a professional environment where love and life are celebrated and where making investments of time in these two components of the trifecta will enhance an employee’s career, as opposed to harming it.

The equation is pretty simple: Organizations that offer flexibility are more likely to have engaged workers. Engaged workers are more likely to be productive. Productivity leads to heightened levels of business performance. Performance strengthens the employer brand. Top talent likes top brands.

In a job seeker’s market where, at least in the United States, there are more open positions than available talent, firms cannot afford to be inflexible if they want to gain the competitive advantage in a growing war for talent.

But where to start? Consider these five tips for paving the way to a flexible future:

Establish flexible HR policies. Consider a work from home or casual dress policy. Think about an unlimited or mandated vacation policy and how this might impact well-being. Offer flex-time so employees can adapt their work hours to complement their lifestyle (to honor family, health and spiritual commitments).
Lead by example. Flexible HR policies are meaningless when not adopted. Sometimes, workers do not take advantage of these policies in fear of retribution if leaders do not walk the talk. It’s important that leaders give employees permission to partake by taking advantage of these policies themselves.
Consider diversity. Flexibility means different things to different people. For example, what might flexibility mean to a parent? How about someone transitioning to retirement? A caregiver? Someone with standing religious commitments? A single person?

With more diversity in the workplace than ever before, it’s important to take into account diverse needs when designing flexibility programs. A one-size approach to flexibility could offer an inflexible result.

Invest in technology. If the goal is to free up more time for employees for their personal use, offer state of the art technology that enables efficient work from home and mitigates unnecessary travel to the workplace or to meetings (particularly, where distance/air travel is required).
Monitor well-being and flexibility. To understand the return on investment in flexibility, establish a correlation to well-being metrics and other business outcomes and monitor this over time. Also, review the unintended consequences of “unsupervised” flexibility and put the necessary controls in place. For example, monitor patterns in remote working periodically to make sure people are still coming on-site to work and collaborate when necessary, while taking advantage of the policy when it’s not.

There are many ways to bring more flexibility to the workforce. However, as is sometimes the case with people programs, efforts to enhance flexibility will be futile when leadership support is not in place. While these are best enabled by HR, visible C-suite sponsorship is critical. Remember this before getting into tactics, as getting the leadership team on board first will be a worthy and very important next step.

September 16, 2019June 29, 2023

Remote Employees: Out of Sight, Out of Their Minds?

Barbara Fisher recalled a time one of her remote workers traveled to Hawaii yet called in to four meetings over two days.

“I asked, ‘How are you recharging? Why did you even take your computer?’ As a remote worker, it’s an extension of what she does,” said Fisher, chief operating and people officer for digital health company Aduro Inc. who previously was a vice president for Intel Corp. working in human relations and talent management.

“The reality is that weighs on you. You’re never able to refuel.”

Remote work has become the new normal for companies responding to workers’ desire for flexibility. In its “State of the American Workplace” report, Gallup polling found 43 percent of employees worked remotely in 2016 compared to 39 percent in 2012.

In its 2019 “Employee Benefits” report on leave and flexible working released in June, the Society for Human Resource Management noted that remote work continues to rise in popularity as a benefit. Telecommuting of all types is increasing as a result. Part-time telecommuting — now offered by more than 40 percent of organizations — is up 5 percent from 2018 and demonstrated the greatest increase.

Ad-hoc telecommuting is offered by 69 percent of organizations while full-time telecommuting is offered by more than one-quarter of organizations, SHRM reports.

“From a remote worker’s perspective, some of the positive aspects are flexible job schedules, work-life balance and the freedom to work from almost anywhere,” said Tina Garrell, director of the annual HR Florida Conference for the HR Florida State Council, a SHRM affiliate.

For companies, it means extending a footprint beyond its headquarters, saving on office space costs and keeping employees happy.

“But employers are sometimes faced with different challenges arising with their remote workforce, such as the health and well-being of those employees who do not come to the office every day,” said Garrell.

Studies show remote workers struggle with loneliness, isolation, an inability to unplug and ongoing distractions.

“Global Work Connectivity,” a recent study commissioned by Virgin Pulse and HR advisory and research firm Future Workplace, concludes many remote workers feel isolated.

“While remote workers gain freedom and flexibility, the study found they are disengaged and less likely to want a long-term career with their company because of their lack of human contact,” said Dan Schawbel, a partner with Future Workplace.

The survey of more than 2,000 managers and employees in 10 countries found almost half of an employee’s day is spent using technology to communicate. Slightly more than half always or very often feel lonely as a result.

Men, introverts and younger generations indicated a greater need for work companionship. Leaders can support employee relationships by encouraging connection in person over online, researchers said.

“Remote workers in some organizations are among the most stressed, which can seem counterintuitive. The perception is they have more time and are free from office politics, getting dressed up and commuting,” said Mary Marzec, senior health strategy scientist for Virgin Pulse, a part of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group that designs technology cultivating positive employee lifestyle habits.

With most employees’ waking hours spent on work, the work culture has a significant influence on adopting and sustaining healthy habits, Marzec said. While technology has paved the way for more employees to work remotely, it also has contributed to that sense of isolation, leading to mental and physical health challenges.

“Technology has created the illusion that workers are connected when in reality they feel isolated, lonely, disengaged and less committed to their organizations when overusing or misusing it,” said Schawbel, who also authored “Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation.”

“Most remote workers have the flexibility to work in different areas — a coffee shop or the beach — and they still choose to work at home,” said Fisher. “The convergence of work and home into one space underlies the struggle to unplug.

“You have to be able to recharge. Not doing it definitely weighs on an individual’s health and how they show up.”

Remote workers can feel left out of key decisions, leading to stress, frustration and unhappiness, said Fisher.

Distractions are another challenge.

One of Fisher’s employees who asked to work remotely later expressed frustration that home tasks were distracting her from work.

“When you are a remote worker, it actually is more work because you have to think about how you balance your time to get things done and make sure you’re still connected,” said Fisher.

That necessitates discipline in meeting work milestones and personal goals, she added.

Air in the at-Home Schedule?

The perception that remote workers have more time at home to take care of family responsibilities essentially is false, said Marzec.

“Drawing boundaries can be very difficult,” she added. “If somebody sends you an email, there is internal pressure to answer that right away to show you’re working. Somebody in the office can be in a meeting for two hours, go to lunch, and even stop at the bank on the way back. A remote worker doesn’t feel that freedom.”

Lack of face time with team members is another challenge.

“You can’t just stop over to somebody’s desk or bump into someone in the hall and ask them if they’ve followed up,” Marzec said. “Emails and communications have to be constructed much more clearly because you’re not there to back it up in person. Communication can start a downstream spiral of lack of productivity.”

Remote workers don’t have the feeling of support one gets by standing around the office water cooler and soliciting ideas on how to deal with professional and personal struggles, Marzec added.

Feelings of isolation and lack of social support are linked to anxiety and depression, she added.

“Even though you think remote workers are not working longer hours, often that sense of being present at work is on their mind and can contribute to depression and anxiety,” she added.

Remote workers also don’t feel they have the freedom to work out or take a walk, said Marzec.

“When you work remotely, you’re not getting in the extra energy like walking from a parking lot to work,” said Marzec. “Someone who works remotely could have as few as 1,500 steps in a day. Whereas in normal workday walking, you’re going to put in 5,000 to 6,000 steps. It isn’t the 10,000 recommended steps, but it’s a lot more than 1,500.”

Health implications depend one’s go-to for dealing with stress when working alone and not able to walk over to peers to get advice on how to move a project forward, said Fisher.

“Whatever your vice is to manage stress is where you’re going to go. That’s just human nature. When you’re alone, going to that vice is likely easier than when you’re in an office where you can reach out quickly to the person sitting in the cube next to you, tell them you’re having a rough day and try to figure the problem out.”

Companies have a responsibility to take care of the workforce and remote workers have to put themselves out on the radar more, said Fisher. That entails remote worker access to wellness initiatives.

“Part of that responsibility if you decide to have a blended workforce is figuring out how what you offer at your headquarters is also what you offer to your extension sites as well as to your remote workers,” Fisher said.

While remote workers may not be able to access the gym at company headquarters or enjoy a healthy lunch at the in-house cafeteria, inclusive team challenges such as walking or drinking enough water “are a lot of fun and help everybody feel included no matter where they work,” said Marzec.

Technology makes implementing wellness programs for remote workers easier, said Garrell.

“These programs offer a variety of options both remote employees and employees who physically come to the office can participate in,” she said. “An example of a program that would work well for a remote workforce is providing partial or full reimbursement for various fitness activities in which they choose to participate.”

That can include sports leagues, gym memberships, yoga classes and other activities available in the remote worker’s area that keeps the employee active and engaged. By allowing them to choose activities in which they are interested, it helps ensure higher participation rates and long-term engagement, said Garrell.

Brian Rhonemus, CEO of Sanford Rose Associates — Rhonemus Group, said he encourages everyone on the recruiting firm’s remote team to manage distractions by being as disciplined in their work hours as they would if they physically drove to an office with a more structured schedule.

Rhonemus also said some of his company’s remote workers use stand-up treadmill desks to address the struggle with scheduling fitness time.

“We also schedule blocks of time out of the office to meet people face-to-face to fulfill the need for social interaction,” he said. “We encourage participation in coaching and other outside activities and allow time for that away from the office. We share our personal and professional success in our weekly update call.”

Joey Frasier, CEO of Shortlist, a San Francisco-based freelancer-management platform, suggested that hosting events in remote locations can ensure remote workers feel connected to the office community.

“We constantly remain in contact with our remote staff to make sure they are happy and have all of the support they need,” he said.

Frasier said his company helps its customers manage about 70,000 workers, nearly all of whom are remote.

“Remote workers are encouraged to participate in wellness programs in their areas or online using apps like Calm or MoveWith. HR managers also can provide access to places like One Medical, which provides wellness and mindfulness services.”

Management support is critical. A manager can discuss with a remote employee how to set up their work schedule in such a way they can block off time to engage in physical exercise, said Marzec.

“It relieves that pressure that if I take a walk and don’t answer that email within an hour, I’m not going to be punished for it,” she added.

Virtual Teamwork

Garrell said she ensures that the three remote workers in her business are included in as many office activities as possible through daily sales team conference calls, video conferencing training programs and a group messaging chat program to communicate with management throughout the day.

“This helps make them feel like they are truly a part of our organization as well as having a positive impact on their mental health, productivity and overall wellness,” she said.

Fostering a strong work culture that helps remote workers feel supported can be done through team-building activities, social events and workstations where workers can get to know each other on a personal level, said Schawbel.

An investment in the remote workforce yields positive returns.

“When you give greater autonomy, flexibility, responsibility but also greater support for employees, they feel it,” said Fisher. “We talk a lot about ‘I want to have a loyal employee who doesn’t want to leave.’ It’s a balance. The company needs to show how invested they are in the person and the person shows how invested they are into the company based on that relationship between the two of them.

“There is so much research that employees are looking to be heard and valued. When an employee feels that, they’re able to reach full potential because they’re being challenged and rewarded in ways that inspire and motivate them. The impact to productivity and the bottom line starts to improve.”

When a company addresses physical and mental health challenges faced by its remote workers, those workers stay committed, Marzec said.

“The manager doesn’t have to replace that talent,” she added. “Many times, companies focus on health care costs when it comes to health and well-being and overlook the important factor of employee satisfaction and intention to leave the company.

“Once somebody leaves, that impacts other people on that team who now need to work more to fill the gap of the person who left. The manager needs to put in time to hire somebody else. The training may take up to a year before a new person is really folded into the organization. In some cases, knowledge is lost when somebody leaves and we have a very knowledge-based economy. There can be client loss. Protecting against unwanted turnover is an important goal of health and wellness programs.”

September 10, 2019June 29, 2023

What Color Choice Can Do for Your Workforce

Color choice can help enhance the mood of an office setting.

Boosting productivity and wellness is a challenge for which organizations are looking to more creative solutions.

Color choice of the office is one relatively simple yet impactful tool that organizations from hospitality to tech are implementing to elevate the level of productivity, wellness and experience in their spaces.

“People are starting to see the psychological effects that color has on us, especially in the workplace,” said PPG Color Design Manager Vanessa Peterson. “It can really spark certain emotions and spark certain responses from people because they’re integrated into a space for so many hours.”

This reaction, Peterson said, has to do with what certain colors communicate in a space and how that communication works with other elements of office design to create an overall atmosphere. For this reason, blue is often chosen over others for interior design.

“Many of the colors that we find in nature, specifically blue, have caused a lot of really great health and mental benefits because of its serene and peaceful nature,” Peterson said. “It reminds people of the sky, or it reminds people of the ocean, in a very calm and tranquil space.”

Even within the color spectrum of blue, slight variations in shade can communicate different things, which in turn affects how people might feel in a space.

“One of the great things about blue is that for the most part, each version of blue has an identity of its own but also reflects the idea of either calmness or wellness. That idea of wellness can be integrated into an atmosphere where it gives you this feeling of power and it can feel very regal,” Peterson said. For example, a stronger blue such as cobalt is often used in sports companies’ marketing and darker shades of navy that exude a sense of maturity are used by universities.

The design industry is also seeing a heightened interest in color choices for products, Peterson said.

“Not only are you having desk and wall colors and furnishings go into this more serene setting, but you’re having tech companies do this with their products as well,” she said. “They’re going into a lot more beiges and a lot more soft corals, mints and blues, even into the actual technology to give that overall feel.”

The search for the equilibrium of office color and design is also about more than just improving productivity. Creating a sense of serenity in a space that people go to everyday can improve mood, too.

A study conducted by the University of Texas found that more bland colors such as beige, gray and white induced feelings of sadness and depression, particularly among women. This was in contrast to colors like blue and pale green, which produced feelings of productivity and peace in study participants.

PPG also named “Chinese Porcelain” its color of the year, which is a rich, natural blue and was selected with the idea of serenity and clarity in mind.

“With everything that we’ve been seeing happen socially and culturally around the world, we really felt that that shade of blue emoted that sense of serenity that people are looking for in this day and age,” Peterson said. “They want to have that sense of wellness, that sense of peace and they want to see a color and feel something that’s outside of that idea of intensity or anything that would make you feel disturbed.”

August 5, 2019June 29, 2023

Workplaces Becoming a Stage for Corporate and Social Movements

In an era in which making your voice heard is more possible than ever, employees are empowering themselves and one another to incite real change in their workplaces.

A recent study conducted by global communications firm Weber Shandwick, in partnership with United Minds and KRC Research, delved into the recent phenomena of employee activism and how it is shaping workplaces and relationships between employees and their companies.

The genesis of the study, according to Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist at Weber Shandwick, is tied to recent activist movements by employees at Amazon and Wayfair.

“We firmly believe this is a movement that’s going to capture people’s imagination and their voices going forward, especially amongst the next generation who believe that they can make a difference,” Gaines-Ross said.

The study explores various facets of employee activism, identifying which demographics of the workforce are most likely to participate in social movements and gauging the impact that employees see their actions having.

One of the more significant findings was that millennials were the most likely to be employee activists at 48 percent, as opposed to Gen Xers at 33 percent and baby boomers at 27 percent.

Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist, Weber Shandwick

“[Millennials] have grown up with technology. [They] see that when you connect and are a part of a network that you can create change [and] that you can make a difference,” Gaines-Ross said. “They’ve seen that in their lifetime.

“I also believe that they are very passionate about the role of institutions in society. The rewarding thing to me was to see that many of these millennial employees who are speaking out want to work for companies that have a purpose. That’s what they’re looking for, and employee activism fits right in there.”

The idea that employees want their companies to be purpose-driven comes through in how they view their own activism, too — 38 percent of employees replied that they were speaking up about company-related and social issues, indicating a sense that their impact can be widespread.

“In the study we asked them who they were hoping to influence, and I think there’s a cynical sort of attitude like, ‘Oh, they’re just trying to get media attention or something.’ But that’s not the case,” Gaines-Ross said.

The study also indicated that the end goal of many of these employee-led movements is to create more equitable, sustainable workplaces across policy areas.

Prominent workplaces issues today include income disparity, gender equity, climate change and racism, Gaines-Ross said. “All of these things that are on people’s minds — they’re trying to change their own organizations where they spend so much time to reflect properly what’s happening in the greater world,” she added.

And for human resources leaders, this means keeping an ear to the ground and adopting more nuanced ways to communicate between employees and leadership.

“It takes a different kind of approach than a traditional employee engagement survey that goes on every year,” said Kate Bullinger, president of management consultancy UnitedMinds. “We need to start prepping leaders for how to be more proactive and transparent in their thinking. That’s the job of HR to start coaching leaders in how to think differently about it.”

Bullinger again cited the employee activist movement at Wayfair, where approximately 10 percent of the company walked out in protest of the company’s decision to sell $200,000 worth of furniture to immigration detention camps at the United States southern border. She noted that feelings of resentment for that decision were likely percolating for a while among employees, and both HR and communications teams could have been more in tune with those sentiments earlier.

“It’s really got to be a close partnership between HR and communications,” Bullinger said. “It’s sort of a multi-pronged issue. You’ve got to have the right stakeholders involved.”

People and ideas are becoming more widely connected every day, and so employee activism is projected to be a phenomenon that only keeps growing.

“The number one thing that [employees] wanted to influence was their employer’s policies and actions,” Gaines-Ross said. “They are aiming to influence the culture, the structure and purpose of their organization.”

July 31, 2019June 29, 2023

A Blog to Change the Game

Hey, Game Changers!

Yeah, I’m talking to you, Pritika Padhi (Game Changers Class of 2019), and you, Jason Hite (Class of ’16) and you too, Monica Sauls (Class of ’13) and Tiffani Murray, who was among the 11 recipients in our inaugural class of Game Changers in 2011.

We are launching a blog specifically dedicated to you, for you and by you! It will be a community blog that all Game Changers can post to. And it can be on any topic under the people management umbrella.

We now head into a decade of Game Changers, our awards program recognizing workforce management professionals under 40 who are pushing the field forward with innovative people-management practices.

For the first time in the program’s history, our judges selected 40 Game Changers in 2019. While the majority works in the United States, numerous winners also span the globe, from Nigeria to Norway to Bahrain, as well as several winners from across India.

The thread that ties this year’s winners with all past recipients is that their efforts engage employees and help their respective companies succeed.

And while Game Changers is a 40-under-40 program, our first couple of classes are pushing 50 years old now. Crazy to think how time flies.

No matter what year you were named, consider your area of game-changing expertise as a starting point. Think broadly about how HR affects the workplace, and how the workplace affects HR. What is unique to HR practices in your geographical area? Are there news issues affecting HR? Are there big-picture workplace issues you’d like to address? These are all topics to blog about.

Now, we have lost touch with a number of our past winners. Job changes, shifting from one content management system to another, lost Excel docs(who uses Excel anymore right? All about Google docs in 2019!). Whatever the reason we want to reconnect and maintain you as a Workforce thought leader.

We want to ask you, our vast audience, to help. If you have a colleague who was recognized as a Game Changer please let them and us know! Our contact information is below.

You Game Changers can blog up to once a week if you’d like, or as often as time allows, or even never. It’s just that as young, up and coming thought leaders in your field, this is an opportunity to engage and enlighten our readership (and do a bit of personal brand-building, as well!). As of right now we’re planning to title the blog simply “The Game Changers.”

international HR Game Changers Pritika Padhi and Dharshana Ramachandran, India — Pritika Padhi, left, and Dharshana Ramachandran, 2019 Workforce Game Changers.

The parameters are simple. Word count is between 450 and 850 words (if you have an amazing idea worth more words, just ask; we’re pretty lenient); no outright promotion of a company or product; write in a persuasive, op-ed style (first person is fine if you’d like); and have fun with it! Blogs are supposed to be engaging and spur discussion, so engage and spur some discussion!

When you file your blog, please send it to me, Rick Bell (rbell@humancapitalmedia.com), and my Workforce colleague Andie Burjek (aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com). In the email subject line please use: Game Changer blog post: (your name) and a 4-6 word descriptor of the content (i.e., mentoring can be beneficial to recruiting). Andie or I will edit and post as quickly as we can.

Oh, and please include tagline similar to this: Jennifer Benz leads Segal Benz, a national leader in HR and employee benefits communications. She was honored as one of Workforce’s Game Changers in 2013. Contact her at jbenz@segalbenz.com or follow her on Twitter at @jenbenz. Yes indeed, our esteemed “Benefits Beat” columnist is a member of the Class of 2013.

And by all means, we ask that you please share it on all of your social media channels once it posts.

We are planning to launch the blog the week of Aug. 10. Feel free to contribute in the next couple of weeks so we have a well of content going into the launch.

Any questions, comments or thoughts just drop a note to Andie and me.

Thanks, good luck and happy blogging!

— Rick Bell and Andie Burjek

July 30, 2019June 29, 2023

Pack Mentality: How Dog-Friendly Policies Might Improve Company Culture and Engagement

Imagine it’s a typical, hurried, tired Monday morning.

You rush out the door, coffee in hand, and by the grace of green traffic lights, make it to the office just in time. The ride up the elevator is a familiar feeling — to-do lists and meeting agendas already running through your mind.

Upon opening the office doors, you’re greeted by your coworkers and their smiling, tail-wagging dogs.

This is a reality in a steadily increasing amount of workplaces across the country. According to a 2019 benefits survey by Society for Human Resource Management, 11 percent of workplaces allow dogs, a 3 percent increase from 2015.

In June, Rover, an in-home dog-walking and pet care company, released a list of the 100 Best Dog-Friendly Offices in the United States, which was topped by the likes of widely known organizations such as Amazon, Airbnb and Uber. In forming the list, Rover considered dog-related benefits such as dogs being allowed in the office, pet stipends, paid time-off for pet bereavement and other pet-related amenities, such as green spaces to walk your dog and treats.

For many, the idea of having a furry friend tag along from nine to five is ideal. However, creating a space that is both dog-friendly and people-friendly takes time and thoughtful planning, said Jovana Teodorovic, head of people and culture at Rover, where people can bring their dogs to work every day.

dogs in the workplace — Jovana Teodorovic, head of people and culture at Rover, and Riley.

“That doesn’t work in every environment. It depends on what building you’re in, how dog-friendly they are and how much space you have,” she said. “We have been very proactive in how we design our spaces, and that allows a large number of dogs in the office every day.”

Teodorovic said that allowing dogs in the office has positively impacted company culture at Rover as well as the productivity and happiness of individual employees. Dogs often serve as a point of conversation and connection between employees.

“Taking a break during the day to play with your dog is a great way to feel better throughout the day and to feel more engaged with the work you’re doing,” she said.

However, introducing dogs into the office requires proactive planning and open communication between all levels of an organization’s structure.

“The first thing is to have employee buy-in regarding these policies,” Teodorovic said. “[Make] sure that the majority is comfortable with being pet-friendly and then having mechanisms in place around the folks who have allergies or have a fear of dogs.”

Rover also has thought out policies regarding all the “what ifs” that come with being a pet-friendly office, from potential altercations between dogs to the inevitable need for “doggy bags.”

“We offer free dog-walking for our employees so that the dogs are walked and quiet and satisfied,” Teodorovic said. “The dogs are in a safe space every day and we have dog gates as well.”

Creating a safe, regulated and familiar environment for dogs also helps reduce any incidents.

“Of course our employees being very dog-oriented and great dog owners and training their dogs from the beginning creates a really great workplace,” Teodorovic said. “But it’s different for any company and it really should be an evolving process.”

Ultimately, Teodorovic said, an organization may determine that dogs-in-the-office policies simply aren’t for them, whether that’s due to allergies, building policies or the wants of employees.

There are other ways for employers to be dog-friendly without actually having dogs in the office. Many of the companies on Rover’s list as well as Rover have benefits that support pet-owners. These benefits range from “pawternity” leave (an extra week of paid time off after getting a new dog), providing $500-$1,000 toward adoption fees, and free dog-sitting services.

Teodorovic said that dog-friendly policies and benefits can not only be a tool in increasing retention and recruiting, but improving employee’s everyday experience at work.

“If a company is struggling to create their culture or having a positive culture, it’s a really great way — without having a ton of policies and meetings and work — to accelerate the quality of their interactions and the quality of their company culture,” she said.

July 29, 2019June 29, 2023

#MeToo Hasn’t Killed the Office Romance, Just the Inappropriate Ones

According to the National Review, #MeToo killed the office romance.

It must be a brave soul who dares to strike up a flirtatious conversation at the workplace microwave these days. Only ten percent of Americans report having met their mate at the office, a level that is half what it was in the 1990s.

The article goes on to quote Ella Whalen, writing for Spiked.

But in the post-#MeToo office, unless you send a memo to the guy you fancy, signed with your consent at the bottom, it is understandable that he wouldn’t want to make the first move for fear of being hauled before human resources. While most normal guys are able to tell whether a woman likes them or not, the erasure of any ‘grey area’ in workplace interactions means more and more people are feeling nervous about taking the first step.

At Spiked, Ella adds

Companies are responding to the sexual-harassment panic by banning alcohol from office parties and instituting policies on how long and how close personal interactions should be. Bosses who hug their employees are even making headline news. …

It’s time to rebel against these attacks on workplace romance. So wear your lowest top to your next board meeting and linger too long by your colleague’s desk. We need to make the workplace a humane environment where sparks can once again fly.

Clickbait headlines aside, #MeToo hasn’t killed the office romance; it’s just killed the inappropriate office romance. The boss dating his (or her) subordinate. The co-worker that won’t take “no” for an answer. The improper or otherwise improper texter or emailer.

There’s nothing inherently illegal about co-workers dating each other. In fact, according to a recent survey, 31 percent of people who met and started dating while working together ended up getting married (to each other).

Still, there’s a lot that can (and sometimes does) go wrong when employees get romantically involved.

Conflicts of interest.
Extortion and blackmail attempts.
Uncomfortable conversations with HR and company attorneys explaining your love life.
Have to describing your employee’s private affairs in a deposition or, worse, to a jury.
Office gossip.
Love contracts.
The loss of respect from co-workers and management.
Facing termination for not disclosing a romance.
Harassment and retaliation lawsuits when someone other than an employee’s paramour gets passed over for a promotion, fired, or otherwise thinks you are playing favorites.
Harassment or retaliation lawsuits by a jilted partner when the relationship goes south.

Which doesn’t mean that employees shouldn’t date; it just means that employers need to understand that permitting office romances amplifies the risk of claims of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, especially when the parties involved are a manager or supervisor and his or her subordinate.

The question, then, isn’t whether these relationship are illegal (they’re not), but how much risk you, as an employer, want to assume in the event a relationships sours, or other employees feels shunned or mistreated as a result.

Ban them outright?
Ban them only between a manager/supervisor and his/her subordinate?
Permit them with a signed agreement (the “love contract”)?
Do nothing and permit them across-the-board?

I recommend avoiding the first option and not banning them outright because of a knee-jerk reaction to #MeToo. That’s just lazy employee management. Not all workplace relationships are toxic or unlawful, and if you’re diligent in your anti-harassment training and other efforts, you’ll be able to spot, catch, and handle the ones that are.

July 24, 2019October 18, 2024

Employee Suicide Is the Next Big Workplace Safety Crisis

A recent headline at businessinsurance.com caught my eye:

Suicide seen as “next frontier” in workplace safety risks. It’s a pretty dramatic headline, but when you drill down into the statistics, it has a lot of weight.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S.
Between the ages of 10 and 34, however, suicide is the second leading cause of death, and the fourth leading cause of death between the ages of 35 and 54.
In 2017, 47,173 Americans died from suicide (more than double the number of homicide victims), and another 1.4 million attempted suicide.
Between 2000 and 2016, the U.S. suicide rate among adults ages 16 to 64 rose 34 percent, from 12.9 deaths for every 100,000 people to 17.3 per 100,000.
In 2016, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics hit a record in its 25-year tally of workplace suicides at 291, with the number gradually climbing over the prior decade.
The highest suicide rate among men was for workers in construction and mining jobs, with 53.2 deaths per 100,000 in 2015, up from 43.6 in 2012.
The highest suicide rate among women was for workers in arts, design, entertainment, sports and media, with 15.6 deaths per 100,000 in 2015, up from 11.7 in 2012.

The numbers are stark and scary and show a nation in the midst of a mental health crisis. What can employers do to recognize and mitigate this risk, and provide a safe workplace for employees in crisis?

For starters, educate yourself. There are a lot of free resources available online.

Suicide Prevention Resource Center (workplace specific resources)
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
Centers for Disease Control
OSHA (focused on the construction industry, but still of general use for all employers)

Next, employers need to increase awareness and reduce the stigma that surround mental health issues. Stigma and silence are the two biggest reasons why those that need help don’t receive it. What can employers do to recognize and help an at-risk employee?

1. Be aware of individual risk factors for suicide. You cannot always prevent suicide, but you can understand some of the risk factors so that can recognize when an employee might be in crisis and in need of help.

Mental disorders, particularly mood disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and certain personality disorders.
Alcohol and other substance use disorders.
Hopelessness.
Impulsive and/or aggressive tendencies.
History of trauma or abuse.
Major physical illnesses.
Previous suicide attempt(s).
Family history of suicide.
Job or financial loss.
Loss of relationship(s).
Easy access to lethal means.
Local clusters of suicide.
Lack of social support and sense of isolation.
Being victimized by discrimination, harassment, or bullying.
Stigma associated with asking for help.
Lack of healthcare, especially mental health and substance abuse treatment.
Cultural and religious beliefs, such as the belief that suicide is a noble resolution of a personal dilemma.
Exposure to others who have died by suicide (in real life or via the media and Internet).

2. Provide mental-health awareness training to managers and supervisors. They spend the most time observing their employees, and are often in the best position to observe behavioral changes and risk factors, and hear from co-workers that someone might be in danger. Some of the warning signs for everyone to look for include:

Talking about wanting to die or to kill themselves.
Looking for a way to kill themselves, like searching online or buying a gun.
Talking about feeling hopeless or having no reason to live.
Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain.
Talking about being a burden to others.
Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs.
Acting anxious or agitated; behaving recklessly.
Sleeping too little or too much.
Withdrawing or isolating themselves.
Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge.
Extreme mood swings.

3. Consider implementing a comprehensive psychological health and safety management program to help improve overall workplace culture and resolve issues more effectively. This program would include eliminating stigma related to mental health issues; developing an inclusive working environment for all; and ensuring that you have a confidential Employee and Family Assistance Program (EAP) that offers support and counseling services and that your employees are aware of it.

4. Educate all employees and support those are struggling. This effort includes mental-health awareness and suicide prevention education to employees; reducing stigmas relating to protected classes, mental illness, substance use disorder, and suicide; expanding awareness of mental illness and addiction; encouraging help-seeking for those at-risk; creating a caring and supporting work environment, including the promotion of listening and interpersonal skills to help all employees.

If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts or exhibiting suicidal behavior, help is just a phone call away via the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, 800-273-8255. One phone call can save a life.

July 16, 2019June 29, 2023

As You’re Aware … Self-Awareness Is Critical to Your Company’s Success

The research indicates that more self-aware individuals understand others better, enabling them to lead more effectively.

However, while most people believe they are self-aware, a study by The Eurich Group shows that the quality of self-awareness is actually in short supply.

There are a number of reasons to believe that greater general levels of self-awareness at organizations lead to positive business outcomes. For example, studies such as those by Bass & Yammarino, Atwater & Yammarino, and Church showed that people with more accurate self-conception tended to perform better.

At the top level, the relationship between self-awareness and flexibility is demonstrated by a study of the Royal Navy, which found that more self-aware leaders were better able to tailor their leadership style to the needs of the situation at hand. Better employee performance plus more agile leadership typically leads to a better bottom line.

There’s also reason to believe that it might influence retention. My team at the Myers-Briggs Co. recently researched workplace well-being with over 10,000 global respondents, and found that individuals with a higher level of well-being — which can stem from self-awareness — had significantly higher levels of job satisfaction and were significantly less likely to look for a new job.

What Is Self-awareness, and How Does It Help You?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary self-awareness is “Conscious knowledge of one’s own character and feelings.” Researcher Anna Sutton further elaborates on this to describe it as, “The extent to which people are consciously aware of their interactions or relationships with others and of their internal states.”

Think about a time you took your car in for a tune-up. Nothing major was fixed, but afterward it drove like a dream. Similarly, increasing your self-awareness can help you perform better — by discovering how you operate, you begin to understand how to adjust your behaviors for better results.

You also begin to understand other people’s approaches too. In our own recent research on self-awareness, survey respondents reported that increased self-awareness led to improvements in confidence, decision-making, people-management and stress management. When we asked people about the advantages of being self-aware, the top responses were:

. Understanding of reactions and motivation.
. Management of self and others.
. Ability to adapt behavior.
. Relationship improvement.
. Personal growth.

Additionally, people said that self-awareness was particularly helpful when:

Working with others in a team (mentioned by 58 percent of survey respondents).
Coping with stress (mentioned by 54 percent of survey respondents).
Acting as a coach (mentioned by 53 percent of survey respondents).
Dealing with change (mentioned by 50 percent of survey respondents).
Managing and leading others (mentioned by 45 percent of survey respondents).
Dealing with clients (mentioned by 33 percent of survey respondents).
Receiving coaching or feedback (mentioned by 28 percent of survey respondents).

How Is Self-awareness Measured?

A number of models and assessments can be employed to measure self-awareness in individuals, but one particularly useful one comes from a 2015 study by Sutton, Williams and Allinson which identified four facets of self-awareness: Reflection, Insight, Rumination and Mindfulness. In our own research, here is a sampling of the included questions designed to measure these facets:

Reflection

I often reflect on my thoughts. I do not often think about the way I am feeling.
I enjoy exploring my “inner self.”
I often reflect on my feelings.
Others would benefit from reflecting more on their thoughts.

Insight

I am interested in analyzing the behavior of others.
I value opportunities to evaluate my behavior.
It is important to understand why people behave in the way they do.
When I’m feeling uncomfortable, I can easily name these feelings.
I usually know why I am feeling the way I do.

Mindfulness

I am often on autopilot and do not pay much attention to what I am doing.
Sometimes I am careless because I am preoccupied, with many things on my mind.
I often dwell on the past or the future, rather than the present.
My mind often wanders when I am trying to concentrate.

Rumination

I often find myself thinking about past negative events.
When things go wrong, I often ruminate on them for long periods of time.
I tend not to look back and think about how I could have done things differently.

How Can a Workplace Professional Promote Self-Awareness?

There are many ways to develop self-awareness, but a mix of methods will probably work best. Here are some of the most popular, based on responses to our survey.

Feedback from peers.
Completing personality questionnaires.
Feedback from family, managers, clients, subordinates and a wider network.
Training to become a coach.
Professional training.
360-degree tools.

However, the most popular methods aren’t necessarily the best. We looked at a number of commonly used approaches and found that the best methods, in order of effectiveness, were:

Training to be a coach.
Being coached.
Having structured feedback from your peers.
Completing personality assessments.

It wasn’t too surprising that “training to be a coach” topped the list, as this involves many, many hours of learning to understand oneself before being allowed to coach others. Of course, such training is also time consuming and expensive and not a realistic route for most employees.

On the other hand, “being coached oneself” as a way to help senior managers, is something that many organizations may invest in. It does, however, come with a significant cost and time commitment, so companies might want to look into having ‘structured feedback from your peers and completed personality assessments, which may in fact be the most cost-effective approaches in terms of providing the biggest payoff for a relatively low monetary investment.

Similarly, journaling, the practice of keeping a diary or journal that explores thoughts and feelings surrounding the events of your life, offers a low-cost way to effectively promote self-awareness.

However, companies should note that one of the interesting findings of our research was that “feedback from your manager” was seen to be one of the least effective methods. This is an important point because, as noted earlier, this kind of feedback was also listed as one of the most common methods of promoting self-awareness that organizations leverage.

Though we cannot say exactly why manager feedback was not seen as especially effective, there are a number of possible reasons. Some managers may be less close to their subordinate’s work than peers, seen to have particular agendas or as too busy with other aspects of their job. Whatever the reason, this is a troubling finding for managers.

You’re Self-Aware, Now What?

Self-awareness is really just the first step. Once individuals become more aware of their own personality preferences and have a structure to understand and describe them, they can start to recognize how their co-workers are similar to or different from them and begin to devise strategies to work with them more effectively. Linked to this greater understanding, managers and workplace professionals can put in place systems to help people work together more effectively. This could include approaches such as:

Establishing a modus operandi for working together that takes account of the rights and the responsibilities of different personality types.
Ensuring that important information is communicated in a range of different ways (rather than only in a style that suits the personality of the sender).
Allowing time for reflection during or after meetings.
Considering personality preferences when reorganizing office layouts.

Regardless of whether some or all of the approaches are taken, the key to successfully implementing any of these is the realization that we are different from others in ways that can be identified and described, and the harnessing of this diversity of personality in a positive way.

July 16, 2019June 29, 2023

Playing the Game of Baby Boomer Bingo

It’s no secret that the retirement of baby boomers is contributing to a shortage of workers.

Recent reports show that the United States is predicted to see a 38 percent increase in the over-65 population between 2015 and 2025, while the U.S. population of those between ages 18 and 64 is only expected to rise by 3 percent. Baby boomers are estimated to comprise 15 percent of the total global population, according to a resource on website employmentcounselor.net.

Around the world, employers are trying to retain these tenured resources with creative incentives. Some countries are increasing wages, and others are increasing retirement ages.

At the same time, companies are finding that the work styles of baby boomers are changing. After long careers spent largely working as traditional, full-time employees, many in this generation are shying away from retirement and are instead looking for smaller, more flexible work as contractors or consultants. In a tight labor market, this shift can be a significant opportunity for employers desiring the deep level of subject matter expertise, hard and soft skills, and management experience that boomers carry.

Boomers’ preference to continue working can be a big win for any company. To keep this generation in the workforce, however, companies will have to embrace several basic approaches to improve worker engagement. These approaches include creating flexible schedules and engagement models, partnering with senior workers in their career progression, and empowering senior workers with technology.

Embrace Flexibility

As baby boomers find their own balance between easing into retirement and staying productive, employers can aid the transition by providing flexible work options and alternative engagement models. For example, consider the sales executive who looks forward to cutting the hourlong commute from her morning or evening schedule.

For the employee, retirement may be a big, drastic step, but the personal and lifestyle benefits of removing the commute, even if just a few days per week, outweigh the anxieties of not working. By engaging that worker in meaningful dialogue around her real needs and proactively offering remote work as an option, the employer can dramatically alter the equation, often resulting in the employee staying on board for several valuable years. Similarly, flexibility in scheduling may include four-day weeks or alternative hours.

Along with schedule adjustments, an open mind about engagement models is also an advantage. Talent may come in the form of consultants or contractors, allowing a more flexible engagement model.

Hiring managers need to become comfortable in looking at both traditional employees and flexible workers when considering talent needs. That level of comfort requires an environment that enables the employer to quickly and easily identify and access all available talent, including permanent employment candidates and contractors alike.

Become a Career Partner

When employing baby boomers, it is critical to partner with them in their career progression and understand what they want from the position, as well as their overall career goals. For example, they may be interested in expanding their skills.

From technology to processes and new fields of expertise, workers of all generations value learning, and employers would do well to meet their needs with appropriate resources and learning programs. Likewise, visibility into job openings across the company is also valuable to pre-retirement workers. What the boomers desire in development (or increased flexibility) may come simply in the form of a role in a different department or functional group.

Along with traditional training opportunities and job visibility, boomers can benefit greatly from the give and take of knowledge transfer among workers in the organization. Mentorships are an obvious option for knowledge sharing from pre-retirement workers to those of other generations. Less obvious, but just as important, are reverse mentorship arrangements that give pre-retirement workers a chance to learn from younger generations.

Provide Up-to-Date Technology

Employers wishing to continue working with highly skilled baby boomers should not only provide them with workplace flexibility but also enable them to do that work with easy and transparent digital interactions. While baby boomers may have lived a substantial portion of their lives before the rise of digital communication, they also have grown accustomed to the consumer experience of using applications for everything from shopping on their phone to using Facetime to connect with distant family members.

In the workplace, baby boomers can benefit from the same level of technology enablement. For example, the use of cloud-based technologies for collaboration should make workflow, documentation, feedback, and approvals on projects transparent and accessible any time, any place.

Likewise, telecommuting tools like videoconferencing are no longer new, but many organizations have not fully adopted the concept in their core business. As more boomers opt to avoid or reduce the number of days spent commuting to onsite locations, use of these tools will become more widely accepted as part of corporate cultures and more widely sought after by generations approaching retirement.

Make Workplace Accessibility a Priority

Regardless of age, employees need to believe that their employer is committed to their well-being, and removing barriers to access is an important part of that commitment.

For workers with disabilities, an employer’s commitment to improving employees’ ability to utilize physical and virtual resources can be instrumental to a positive work experience. Considering that the percentage of the U.S. population with a disability jumps from 10.6 percent for those between 18 and 64 to more than 35 percent for those over 65, according to research by the University of New Hampshire, the importance of access and accommodation for baby boomers is clear.

The most obvious example of accessibility is the corporate website. Captions with audio and video, along with visual options such as larger formats and contrasting color schemes, can help to ensure that the employer does not place unnecessary barriers to work and interaction for employees.

Many organizations can help companies assess their accessibility and provide paths for improvement. At the same time, employers should consider that accessibility often leads to a better experience for everyone and not just workers with disabilities.

Engaging Talent of All Ages

Organizations will continue to compete for valuable baby boomer talent. The competition may come from different employers, or it may come in the form of competing life choices, from full retirement to relocation. In all cases, core principles that drive great talent engagement will make the difference between employers that successfully engage baby boomers and those that miss out on the opportunity these workers present.

These commitments — being flexible, empowering their careers, and providing the right tools and technology to get work done — are more than strategies for recruiting senior workers. They are basic paths for any company to become a better employer to the people it hires and aims to retain, whatever their age and experience group. When it comes to attracting and retaining talent of any age, what’s good for people is good for business.

Keep Looking Ahead

Companies face persistent challenges in attracting, finding and retaining critical talent. They are struggling to get work done in a market where demographics are shifting, and the technology is constantly evolving.

When positioning a talent acquisition strategy to better engage the workforce, regardless of generation, an open mind for change is essential. A new solution may supplant the technology that works today for virtual work.

The model that engages pre-retirement professionals as consultants may evolve as part of a total talent approach. Amid such conditions, the leaders, today and in the future, will be the employers that continually question how work gets done, who needs to do it, and how they will go about securing that talent.