employee engagement – Page 15

January 22, 2019June 29, 2023

Labor Relations in the Public Sector, Part 1

Animosity and being at odds no longer have to be the norm when coming to the table to negotiate public sector union-labor agreements.

By creating an environment that supports greater collaboration and problem-solving, the needs of both labor and management can be better understood. A climate of trust will grow when collaboration includes opportunities to increase employee engagement. Based on the input of three labor-relations experts, there are multiple ways to increase employee engagement and improve the effectiveness of labor relations.

Jeff Ling, executive vice president of human resources consultancy Evergreen Solutions LLC, suggests three best practices that sustain a culture of engagement: transparency in communication, allowing employees to partner with you and asking for assistance to finding solutions to organization problems.

Labor relations that are built on trust and open dialogue create lasting partnerships that are more meaningful and focused on mutual results. Employee engagement flourishes in an environment of transparency where knowledge and organization information is frequently shared. For labor relations to remain strong, communications must be ongoing, transparent and meaningful.

Ling, who has worked in HR consulting for more than 25 years and leads Evergreen’s HR consulting practice, has devoted a majority of his career to advising public sector clients in all HR areas including employee engagement.

He said that transparency can only be achieved when leadership is willing to engage in ongoing communication. It is also important to share successes (what the organization is doing right) and failures (how the organization has learned from its mistakes).

Also read: Labor Relations in the Public Sector, Part 2

Ling added that it is important to openly share the reasons behind changes in key leadership roles and the overall strategic direction. At the municipal level of government, public-safety budgets can garner a larger portion of the organization’s overall financial resources. Establishing trust between organization and labor union leaders is the key to having a sustainable long-term financial outlook.

Ling also added that transparency in communication is key to having strong levels of engagement.

“It’s necessary to provide future direction and strategic outlook during non-negotiating years,” Ling said.

Engaging Employees in Key Decisions

Including represented groups in organization focus groups on employee matters helps fuel ongoing collaboration. Offering employees the opportunity to influence changes in employee benefits or policies actively involves them in organization decisions and increases overall engagement.

Jackie Wehmeyer, human resources director for the city of Margate, Florida, described a time when an economic downturn resulted in decreased revenues as the city’s health care costs continued to rise. It was important to educate the union representatives on the drivers behind the cost of insurance and invite them to be part of a working group to evaluate plan design options, she recalled.

Although the design of the insurance plan isn’t a subject of labor negotiation, the act of asking for input demonstrated the organization’s commitment to employee engagement and willingness to seek their input on matters of importance.

Involving union representatives in other key decisions such as procuring new technology, vehicles, equipment and employee insurance coverage also is important to the organization’s ongoing commitment to employee engagement.

“It’s all about trust,” said Wehmeyer, who has 15 years of labor-relations experience representing management in multiple successful collective bargaining processes. “When employees and union representatives have the freedom to provide input, they feel more compelled to work together effectively.”

Collaborating to Find Solutions

Leaders from both sides need to challenge the status quo and begin to lean on employee groups to creatively solve problems and develop solutions to increase collaboration. International Association of Fire Fighters Union President Brian Powell experienced this firsthand when a prolonged recovery from an economic recession resulted in some cities not being able to deliver meaningful pay increases that were needed to motivate union employees.

Powell, who is president of Local 3080 of the IAFF in Broward County Florida, said that instead of making unrealistic requests, union representatives collaborated with city leadership to identify other sources of funds (including the use of state funds for benefit enhancements) that could help subsidize the cost of the pay increases.

“The union has to be willing to sit down and listen and the city’s leadership needs to do the same,” Powell said. “It’s important for each side to prove the request is fair and have ongoing dialogue to develop possible solutions.”

This strategy helped both sides meet existing challenges and enabled pay increases to be delivered sooner.

Without collaborative labor-management relations, productive dialogue is limited and results in longer, less effective negotiations. When labor unions are willing to develop a broader understanding of financial limitations, such as the need to have adequate financial reserves for unforeseen emergencies, the dialogue can become more solutions-oriented.

Based on these shared experiences, human resources professionals who are seeking a more effective labor relations strategy should consider opportunities to increase employee engagement levels.

“Building relationships needs to begin long before the start of labor negotiations,” said Powell, who has more than 15 years of collective-bargaining experience. As a union leader, he negotiates collective-bargaining agreements with multiple municipal organizations in South Florida. “Collaboration and open dialogue help build trust and increase mutual understanding,” he said.

Focusing on communication, involving employees in key decisions and collaborating to solve organization problems are all best practices for building a foundation of trust that leads to stronger employee engagement.

Positive outcomes will increase during labor negotiations when organization and union leaders seize opportunities to collaborate, learn from each other and remain committed to open and honest communication.

January 15, 2019June 29, 2023

Matt Hayes: An Employee Engagement Guru

employee engagement tips — Matt Hayes, CHRO, Feeding America

Matt Hayes has been working in human resources for a quarter century. Some 18 of those 25 years were spent with Ingredion Inc., a for-profit ingredient provider. Two years ago, he made the shift to the nonprofit organization Feeding America. From providing volunteer opportunities to conducting employee surveys, Hayes, Feeding America’s CHRO, has excelled in all aspects of employee engagement.

Workforce: What got you interested in being a leader at this organization?

Matt Hayes: For quite a while in my career I thought about working for a mission-based organization. When Feeding America came along, I learned more about hunger in America and the impact it has in every community. Seeing the work Feeding America does to respond to that challenge, I wanted to join the fight. I’ve gotten to know the organization better and these people are very passionately committed to what we are doing. It’s a fun environment to work in as a regular employee and HR leader.

WF: What equals employee engagement for a nonprofit versus a for-profit?

Hayes: Thinking about Feeding America, we have volunteer opportunities at our 200 food banks and 60,000 agencies nationwide. On the for-profit side, understanding the value proposition you’re bringing your employees is critical to attracting, motivating and retaining talent. Even at Feeding America, where we think our mission is a major differentiator, we developed a model where we have seven factors that looks at employee engagement. It’s things like career advancement and work-life balance.

WF: Is there a new engagement strategy from when you first started?

Hayes: Employees now force-rank what matters most to them among seven focus areas. For example, where does career advancement rank versus work-life balance? Is it a 10, being fantastic, or a 1, this is missing right now? Then the manager and employee discuss the results. We found it helps promote transparent discussions about what matters most to each employee and what managers can do for those employees.

Also read: Debunking the Major Myth of Engagement

WF: When natural disasters occur, how do you engage employees through volunteer opportunities?

Hayes: We have a senior leader who’s focused on leading disaster response and we engage a cross-functional team to coordinate that effort. The team works to move food to impacted communities. We raise funds nationally to support disaster relief and advocate for federal disaster support in Washington when that’s needed. With Hurricane Florence, we provided 5 million pounds of food to communities in the Carolinas. We raised almost $2 million in funds to support that work. With Hurricane Michael, even in the early stages we worked with Florida’s Office of Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency before the hurricane made landfall. We had water and meals staged in critical places. Disaster response is an integral part of our organization and mission.

January 14, 2019June 29, 2023

Public Sector Employers Facing People Problems

At a time when careers in government are increasingly underscored with public and political pressure, Kirsten Wyatt is sounding the alarm about the public sector workforce.

“The government needs to wake up and realize there’s a talent war,” said Wyatt, executive director of the Oregon-based Engaging Local Government Leaders, a nonprofit promoting diversity, education and networking among local government employees on a national level. “If you’re going to be competing for entry-level or jobs you want to fill with talent you can then nurture, you need to put in more effort.”

Public sector agencies from the massive federal government to tiny rural townships face unique challenges when competing with private businesses for talent. Recruiting and retention is a recurring concern for the skill set often associated with public service employees. And it’s no secret that private sector companies typically offer substantially higher wages and more flexible work schedules. And there are other factors coming into play.

Prime among them is the so-called silver tsunami, a wave of baby boomers exiting the workforce into retirement. Studies show some 10,000 boomers retire every day, leaving a huge gap for public sector employers to fill.

According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the average age of a full-time federal employee is 47.5 years, with 45 percent of the workforce over 50 years old.

The Congressional Research Service indicates 52 percent of public workers are age 45 to 64 compared to 42.4 percent in the private sector.

Federal workers are older than state and local government employees, too, studies show. Of those age 45 to 64, 56.7 percent are federal, 52.1 percent are local, and 49.7 percent are state employees.

In a 2018 survey by the Center for State & Local Government Excellence, public sector HR directors report higher numbers of retirements in 2018 over 2017.

Another challenge: Public agencies depend on tax base or bond-measure revenues to create new jobs and rehire for open positions. Hiring freezes are not uncommon even in flush economic times.

Nannina Angioni

“When taxpayer dollars are on the line, protections and processes come into play that an untrained, private sector employee would not even consider,” said Nannina Angioni, a labor and employment attorney and partner of the Los Angeles-based law firm Kaedian LLP.

Angioni said it can be costly and time consuming to find employees with public sector experience for entry-level positions given the increased ethical considerations, regulatory issues and legal obligations that typically don’t apply to private sector workers.

Still another challenge: enticing people to technology jobs. While millennials exhibit technological advantages being digital natives, it’s also one reason they are scarce in government workplaces with antiquated systems where they can’t sharpen their skills, said Kris Tremaine, a senior vice president focusing on the federal public sector at ICF, a global consulting and technology services company.

Although millennials will comprise 75 percent of the workforce by 2025, they currently make up only 10 percent of the federal sector technology workforce, said Tremaine.

Eighty-two percent of the Center for State & Local Government Excellence’s survey respondents indicated recruitment and retention as a workforce priority. They’re finding it difficult to fill positions in policing, engineering, network administration, emergency dispatch, accounting, skilled trades and information technology.

“When it comes to recruiting talent, you need to go where the talent is,” said ELGL’s Wyatt, adding that while many public sector HR departments continue to advertise jobs in newspapers, potential talent is hanging out on social media.

While Wyatt calls many job ads “boring,” she also notes successful efforts such as one produced by the city of Los Angeles for a graphic designer. The ad appeared as if a child drew it with a crayon. It went viral.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, human resources professional Jody Blake posts jobs on social media featuring eye-catching images of palm tree-lined beaches or building plans.

To fill vacancies in Fort Lauderdale’s 2,500-member workforce, Blake uses Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter and Indeed.

She’s had the most success with LinkedIn, especially for stormwater and wastewater engineers. She posts jobs on engineering group sites at no cost and uses LinkedIn’s Recruiter Lite program to maximize her efforts.

“I believe in getting the word out any way you can,” she said. “Even if people aren’t interested themselves, they may know someone who is.”

The public sector should take a page from the private sector in hiring practices, including internships, career fairs, meet-ups, events, social activities and using more technology, said Tremaine. Blake, meanwhile, also seeks people with a passion to make a difference. Jobs emphasizing social good attract millennials who want to be part of making a difference “such as in helping Americans stop taking opioids or climate change issues,” Tremaine added.

Wyatt said, “You can work in sustainability, be a librarian, police officer or an engineer and all work for a local government with that public service ethos at the core of your job every day.”

Millennials Embrace Collaboration

Human-centered open plan designs supporting teamwork where employees of different skill sets gather is important, said Tremaine.

While millennials skip from job to job often for higher pay, “some want clearer paths to growth and an understanding of where they fit in the organization,” Tremaine said, adding they prefer a coaching-mentor relationship to a boss.

Streamlining onerous paperwork and a protracted timeline involved in public sector employment may attract more employees, Tremaine said.

So too would the ability to leave a job and return “and not lose all of your benefits while drawing private sector best practices into the government,” she added.

Fort Lauderdale attracts many people looking for a switch after many years working in the private sector. While they made more money in private industry, they seek the security of the public sector, Blake said.

The city of Weston, Florida, took a different approach 21 years ago by outsourcing most positions per its charter.

“Probably 70 percent or more of a government budget is the cost is to pay employees,” said City Manager John Flint.

Only 10 positions for the city of Weston are in-house: six department directors, a city manager, two assistants and a clerk. An assistant city manager handles necessary HR functions such as insurance and payroll contributions.

Law enforcement is provided through the Broward County Sheriff’s Department. Other city jobs are filled by government outsourcing services such as C.A.P. Government, Calvin, Giordano & Associates, Municipal Technologies, and Weiss, Serota, Helfman, Cole & Bierman.

“All of the people here are by invitation and not by right. If the people assigned to us don’t meet our expectations, it is easier for us to replace them. I don’t have to spend my time managing people. I can manage the city and spend more time with our elected officials and residents,” said Flint, adding Weston’s approach offers greater flexibility and efficiency.

Some outsourced employees have been with the city before its incorporation in 1996 when it was a community development district, said Flint. When the city changes service providers (which hasn’t happened in a decade), Flint ensures the incoming provider retains the current employees and keeps their salaries and benefits at least equal to the previous provider.

Kaedian LLP’s Angioni said that once they are hired, many public sector employees stay in their job for decades for the perks of consistent work hours, minimal demands outside of their set schedules, union benefits, rights to reinstatement, pensions and appeal rights to disciplinary actions.

Career Moves

The public sector also offers the ability to try different careers while retaining benefits in one organization.

An agency might consider moving someone who’s been an analyst in community development for a few years into public utilities for another few years to increase their knowledge base and broaden their skills.

Such moves keep employees “engaged, excited and continually learning” while also giving departments “a fresh set of eyes,” Wyatt said. That’s important to retention, given the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on employee wages, benefits, training and development over a five-year span, she added.

To retain employees in one of the most difficult public sector jobs — solid waste collection — Greenville, South Carolina, Solid Waste and Recycling Manager Mildred Lee treats a crew to lunch monthly to show her appreciation and elicit their input.

She’s retained employees by leading an effort to convert solid waste collection from five to four days. A supervisory mentoring program for all frontline solid waste employees has transitioned two into management.

A 2018 survey by the Center for State & Local Government Excellence noted that more than 45 percent of the respondents offer flexible scheduling, 65 percent support employee development and training reimbursement, 37 percent host wellness programs or on-site fitness facilities, and 34 percent provide some form of paid family leave.

Wyatt said she receives increasing feedback about the value the midprofessional generation places on paid family leave.

Kansas City, Missouri, recently finished a one-year paid family leave pilot program. It was utilized primarily by male police officers. It’s the hardest job for which to recruit and is typically dominated by young men, said Wyatt.

“You look at the long-term impact that has on employee morale and loyalty and who you choose to work for with everything else being equal,” she added.

As the public sector starts to see the dismantling of retiree benefits, one useful tool may be adopting the Individual Medicare Marketplace for retiree health care programs, “a model generally far more affordable for retirees while offering cost savings for employers,” says Marianne Steger, director of public sector strategy at Willis Towers Watson and former health care director for the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System.

Retaining employees has meant offering low-priced health insurance, a generous retirement plan, educational incentives, annual reviews typically with pay increases and the ability to start off at a good rate of vacation time accrual, said Fort Lauderdale’s Blake.

Blake offers advice to new hires on how to improve their profile to increase their promotion chances. Employees are surveyed on the work culture. Employees are called community builders while residents are called neighbors.

Wyatt and her husband Kent — both former public sector employees — founded ELGL after noticing local government education, training and networking was siloed based on job title. Its 4,000 members nationwide represent a cross-section of entry-level employees to mayors and city managers.

“It helps when librarians can learn from planners and cops can learn from finance directors,” said Wyatt.

Their organization provides collaboration and cross-departmental training through a technology network connecting public sector employees in one part of the country to others elsewhere to help deal with problems for which others have found solutions.

It also provides online content, monthly webinars, regional pop-up conferences and a national conference. Informal meet-ups are held on college campuses to introduce local government careers to college students.

Further, it focuses on increasing the number of women and people of color into local government leadership to reflect U.S. community demographics.

While there is much focus on age demographics in public service, Wyatt said what most people in a public service career want is no different than anyone else: “feeling recognized for a job well done, independence and learning something that takes them to the next step in their career.”

Wyatt has seen some members go through a career crisis as they contemplate a move to the private sector for more pay and better fringe benefits.

“They choose to stick with government,” she said. “They built a network that supports them and reminds them it’s work worth doing and that’s powerful.”

December 17, 2018June 29, 2023

New Trends in Health and Wellness Benefits

This past year we’ve reported on many aspects surrounding employee benefits, from the shifting retirement landscape to workplace stress and beyond. As we approach 2019, several employee-benefits experts shared with Workforce what trends they’re expecting next year.

Encouraging employees to map out their individual work-life balance strategy:

Employees should make a point to consciously create a harmonious balance between their work and non-work lives, according to Rick Hughes, head of service at the University of Aberdeen’s Counselling Service and a co-author of the book “The Wellbeing Workout,” along with Andrew Kinder and Cary L. Cooper. Their work life can have a positive influence on their non-work life and vice versa.

“For example, a walk or fresh-air break at lunchtime can boost energy and generate a feel-good factor to aid afternoon productivity,” he said. “Or managing problems before leaving work may help to prevent thinking about the issues at home. It’s about getting things into perspective.”

Becoming more holistic in your wellness approach:

One trend that is emerging now is the need to incorporate all dimensions of health into well-being programs, according to Joyce Young, managing director for the High Health Network. Research has found that to achieve the highest level of total well-being, one must focus on physical, mental and emotional wellness as well and one’s purpose in life.

In practice, this means that just focusing on an illness isn’t enough. For example, depression screening has value is some ways, but, ultimately, it’s just a disease search, Young said. It’s not a holistic approach.

“We need to provide the techniques and methods for the everyday person who’s not seeking treatment to be able to build their capacity and strength in the mental, emotional and purpose in life directions,” Young said.

Cecile Alper-Leroux, vice president of human capital management innovation at Ultimate Software, agreed that this is a major trend for HR leaders to be aware of and gave some practical suggestions on how to pursue it.

Employers should design work with overall employee well-being in mind, she said. They can also offer transformative technologies to help monitor and interact with employees to support and reinforce positive behavior.

Also read: Is Wellness Just an Employee Perk?

Creating a workplace where people feel like their total well-being is supported is no easy task, she said. But it will “increasingly set apart the workplaces where employees will want to stay and be their most productive selves, and those that will struggle to retain the best talent.”

Reconsidering your conceptual understanding of health:

According to early trends in a survey she’s involved with, Joyce Young said, 90 percent of people find that the messaging of health frames it as a problem, not a resource. That is, when people see health-related communications, most of it is about getting treatment for an existing problem rather than general self-care.

“It’s not a surprise, but if the mindset is that way, then we don’t have as much motivation to cultivate [health as a] resource because we’re thinking more, we need to get this treatment or solve this problem,” she said.

Alternatively, if people thought of health as a resource, they could benefit in several ways. One, the health care system will deliver more for them. Also, the risks of the kinds of health problems by which people are preoccupied will decrease.

“We must bring our conceptual understanding into the 21^st century,” Young said. “If we think differently, that will help us act differently as well.”

Considering onsite health care:

This year saw a few Silicon Valley powerhouses like Apple and Tesla develop their own worksite health centers, and these weren’t the only organizations bringing health care onsite, said Michael Huang, national medical director of Marathon Health. In 2018, one third of organizations with 5,000 or more employees provided a general medical clinic at or near the worksite, up from 24 percent in 2012, according to Mercer’s “2018 Worksite Medical Clinics Survey.”

The onsite health care model has proven results, with employers who measured their ROI last year reporting “returns of 1.5 times or higher,” Huang said. He expects momentum to continue in this area in 2019, with companies of all industries and sizes working with providers to create customized plans and programs that fit their budgets and the unique needs of their employee populations.

“By inserting the health system into the existing workplace, physicians are better able to forge lasting relationships with patients through face-to-face, personalized interactions,” he said. “This individualized care encourages regular visits to the health center, allowing employers to better track health trends, and improvement on those trends, by an employee population.”

Mental health is one area in which onsite care can be particularly beneficial, he said, as employers can utilize onsite care to give employees direct access to resources like counseling and therapy from licensed counselors, addressing barriers to mental health care like long waits for appointments and poor quality of care.

In addition to streamlining access to quality behavioral health care, “bringing these resources onsite signals that employees’ needs are understood and supported, reducing the mental health stigma in the workplace,” Huang said.

Providing cancer support services as an employee benefit:

The number of cancer patients and survivors will reach almost 18 million in the next decade, according to the CDC. And according to a recent survey that nonprofit Cancer and Careers commissioned The Harris Poll to conduct, 79 percent of the respondents said that patients/survivors that receive support from their employer are more likely to thrive in the workplace.

The poll — which surveyed 882 cancer patients/survivors who were either employed or unemployed but looking for work — also found that 53 percent of respondents feel that resources or support programs are needed to address cancer survivors’ workplace concerns, and 64 percent believe that working through their cancer treatment helped them cope.

Penn Mutual Life Insurance is one example of an organization seeking to expand its cancer care services. It began offering services this October through Cancer Guardian’s Comprehensive Cancer Support Program, which includes advanced DNA testing, dedicated cancer support specialists and digital medical records management.

Penn Mutual President and Chief Operating Officer David O’Malley said that a year before the launch of this program, the company began talks with Wamberg Genomic Advisors to learn about the changing genomics landscape and from there spent the next year deciding how to best leverage the cancer benefit.

What the company ended up deciding was offering the benefit to its 1,000-plus associates as a supplemental, employer-paid benefit, available to associates regardless of if they’re on Penn Mutual’s health plan. Also, the company does not track utilization. “Privacy is important to us,” O’Malley said, adding that the company didn’t want employees to feel as if their medical privacy was being infringed.

“We saw this as the opportunity to have a leading benefit,” he said. While benefits surveys have data on cancer insurance at organizations — the Society for Human Resource Management, for example, found that 33 percent of organizations offered cancer insurance in 2018, up from 28 percent in 2017 — the percentage of organizations offering comprehensive cancer support benefits is not as readily available.

December 11, 2018June 29, 2023

The 1st Nominee for the Worst Employer of 2019 is … the Philandering Pharmacist

While I continue to tally votes to name the Worst Employer of 2018, I have an employer to kick off the nominees for 2019.

Meet Joyce Fogleman, the president, pharmacist and sole owner of J&S Professional Pharmacy, who is, along with her pharmacy, the defendant in a sexual harassment suit in Blades v. J&S Professional Pharmacy.

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Judge J. Philip Gilbert of The United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois describes the employer as “your typical pharmacy.”

Typical, that is, until you read the allegations levied by Wendy Blades and her co-workers:

Joyce Fogleman demanded kisses on her mouth by employees as a prerequisite to receive their paychecks.
Fogleman gave employee spankings as a form of discipline and sexual gratification in front of other employees and customers.
Fogleman went nude both in the workplace and at company-sponsored events.
Fogleman made comments about the physical attributes of employees in front of other employees and customers.

Two thoughts:

1. What the hell kind of pharmacy is this?

2. Employers, the bar for 2019 is set. How will you top it?

December 4, 2018June 29, 2023

Forced Hugs at Work Sound Like a REALLY Bad Idea

Ray Kelvin, CEO of UK fashion retailer Ted Baker, is a hugger.

According to an online petition seeking to end his practice, “he greets many people he meets with a hug, be it a shareholder, investor, supplier, partner, customer or colleague.”

And, it doesn’t stop with hugs. He asks young female employees “to sit on his knee, cuddle him, or let him massage their ears.” He strokes employees’ ears. He takes off his shirt in the workplace and talks about his sex life. Even worse, when employees go to HR to complain, they are told, “That’s just what Ray’s like.”

Well, they’ve had enough “of what Ray’s like.” More than 2,600 people, including over 300 current or former employees, have signed the online petition calling on Ted Baker to “scrap the forced ‘hugs’ and end harassment.”

Let’s deal with low-hanging fruit first. Stroking employees’ ears, talking about your sex life and walking around work shirtless are all creepy and wrong. Period. And, no, HR cannot pass it off as, “Well, you know Ray… 😉”

The employer has an absolute duty to investigate and take corrective action to ensure that the harassment stops. And the fact that the alleged harasser is the CEO is not a justification to do nothing. In fact, if #MeToo has taught us anything, it’s reason to do more, not less.

As for the hugs, they are a symptom of the larger problem. In a vacuum they might be innocuous, but in this case they are a symptom of a deeper culture of harassment.

Indeed, one person’s hug is another’s creepy gesture or, worse, inappropriate advance. Where is the workplace line?

In the words of one court:

There are some forms of physical contact which, although unwelcome and uncomfortable for the person touched, are relatively minor. Cumulatively or in conjunction with other harassment, such acts might become sufficiently pervasive to support a hostile environment claim, but if few and far between they typically will not be severe enough to be actionable in and of themselves. A hand on the shoulder, a brief hug, or a peck on the cheek lie at this end of the spectrum. Even more intimate or more crude physical acts—a hand on the thigh, a kiss on the lips, a pinch of the buttocks—may be considered insufficiently abusive to be described as “severe” when they occur in isolation.

On one extreme you have this case, in which an employee was sexually caressed and hugged, and even had fingers poked in his anus through his clothing. Yet, on the other extreme, you have this case, in which a manager hugged a subordinate to lift his spirits during a rough work day.

So, employers, what’s the answer? How about some good old-fashioned common sense. If you have a close enough relationship with someone to greet with a hug, then hug it out. If someone complains about your hugs, stop. It’s just that simple.

December 4, 2018June 29, 2023

3 Behaviors for Leadership Skills for the Digital Age

It’s not enough for business leaders to merely be “the man (or woman) behind the curtain” anymore.

In a world that’s rapidly becoming more technology driven, managers and executives must put in extra effort to create human relationships with their people — connections that are necessary for any organization to thrive in a complex and competitive marketplace.

The more your business is centered around artificial intelligence, robotics or other digital technologies, the more effort you have to make to be human and to create human relationships, to pry people away from their smartphones, to have face-to-face conversations, to appreciate people and to be honest.

Sure, digital awareness skills and abilities are important, but the more tech-focused we get, the more human leadership there has to be. Otherwise you’re just “behind the curtain.” Plenty of executives lead that way anyway, but in this environment you have to take greater steps to be more real — and effective — than the Wizard of Oz.

These are three behaviors that will help leaders make more meaningful connections with their people.

Be trustworthy and fair. Whether your people see you regularly in person or you stay “behind the curtain,” your team has to be able to trust that what you say is the truth. That doesn’t necessarily mean you always share everything you know, but everything you do say has to be true. If you can’t share an answer to a question or some other information for a legal or strategic reason, then be upfront about that. Don’t make something else up, dance around it or shade the truth. You could say something like: “Because of FCC rules, because of a board vote, because of competitive pressures, I can’t go into this right now, but rest assured we are working on it and at the appropriate time we’ll share everything you need to know and everything you want to know.” When you speak you should tell the truth, and if the truth changes you should go back to your people and explain why.
Be personal and approachable. The second vital behavior for leaders is that even if you stay “behind the curtain” and all anybody sees is the smoke and the floating face of the “wizard,” you still have to figure out how to be personable and approachable. Your people still need to feel that you’re a human being — and that they’re being treated as human beings. That means if you bump into each other in the hallway, you stop, look him or her in the eye and talk directly to that person. Don’t look down at your mobile device, mumble something and keep going. Don’t be that leader who’s going to the penthouse 40 floors up but doesn’t say anything in an elevator full of employees. If you struggle to make human connections with your team, consider holding office hours in the cafeteria two times a month for a few hours and announcing it to your team by offering to chat or answer questions. Maybe just two people will show up the first time. But the next time four people will attend, then eight. Before long you will have made real strides in changing the vibe in your organization.
Provide and acknowledge meaning. This can be a hard one for baby boomers, who, broadly speaking, are often happy just to have a job. But today’s reality is that there are younger generations in the workforce who, while certainly happy to have a job, care more about the values that they hold and the meaning they derive from their work than previous generations have. In this case, the CEO will rarely be the person who regularly acknowledges meaning for low-level employees, but they can still do it periodically. Managers, however, can absolutely help in this regard by building this behavior into their regular interactions with direct reports. These acknowledgments of meaning can take place in performance conversations, weekly catch-ups or conference calls. They could be as simple as saying “Here’s how the work that you’re doing ties to our mission. Here’s how the work that you are doing is enabling our customers to do X, Y and Z. Here’s how what you’re doing, Bob, is moving this project forward exponentially.” Everybody wants to know that what they’re doing is not only important and appreciated, but fits in with the values and the mission of the company.

Increasingly complex times demand dynamic leadership, which calls upon business leaders to step out from behind the curtain and connect with their people on a genuine human level.

December 1, 2018June 29, 2023

Taking Office Gossip Off the Lunch Menu

With millions of American workers eating lunch at their desks, in a car or not taking a lunch break at all, one startup is going all in to make lunchtime more engaging for its staff.

Nikki Sucevic, head of recruiting and training at online children’s clothier Mac & Mia, said the company provides lunch for four randomly chosen employees from different departments. There’s just one request of the staffers selected to go to lunch together: Do not talk about work at all; instead get to know each other.

“When you start to create bonds beyond work, you feel more empathy for your co-workers, and want to work harder for them,” Sucevic said.

Sucevic said her office hasn’t collected formal feedback on the program, which was implemented this fall. Anecdotally she noticed a more positive atmosphere in her workplace of 30 employees. Sucevic thinks lunching with colleagues can work for other companies as well.

“A lot of times, companies have happy hours or one-day events, and this is a quick Band-Aid,” Sucevic said. “Instead of doing one big thing now and then, we want to create a culture of this and start to make little adjustments every day. [Our] lunch lottery plan is one of our cultural shift plans to build relationships, empathy and cross-functional respect.”

Also read: A Desk for One for Lunch

According to a May 2018 survey conducted by workplace hygiene brand Tork, employees can have multiple reasons for not taking their lunch break. Nearly 20 percent of North American workers worry their bosses won’t think they are hardworking if they take regular lunch breaks, while 13 percent worry their co-workers will judge them. Some 38 percent of employees in the study also said they don’t feel encouraged to take a lunch break.

Making a lunch program with co-workers or even just eating with someone voluntarily can go a long way, said Laura Hamill, chief people officer at employee engagement company Limeade.

Also read: Give ’Em a Break: Employees Want Their Lunch Break Back

The Bellevue, Washington-based company, aside from sharing a similar program with Mac & Mia, has another program where they have new hires start their first day at lunch time and have a meal with their new co-workers. Hamill said this program has received exceptional feedback.

“I had someone who just started on my team and she wrote an email to me sometime this week and she said she felt like a welcomed part of the team and felt like she had another family now,” Hamill said.

Limeade’s marketing team wrote an article last year about the benefits that come from having lunch with co-workers. Those benefits include boosting productivity, building better relationships, making leaders more accessible and improving well-being.

“It’s about being a human being, not talking about work and learning what your co-workers are up to and what their lives are outside of work,” Hamill said. “It has to do with the idea of relationships. The more I think we get to know each other as human beings, we begin to trust each other more and understand the perspective people are bringing to work.”

David Chasanov is a Workforce editorial associate. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

November 28, 2018June 29, 2023

The 4 Keys to Being a Best-in-Class D&I Professional

“How can I do what you do?” asked a bright young woman on the phone one spring morning. She enthusiastically described how she’d studied and experienced various cultures and was inspired to do work that makes a difference.

She’d read some of my articles, saw me speak and felt a spark of connection. She wanted to turn her passion and values into a career, like I had. And because she was resourceful, she reached out for advice.

One of the joys of being a mid-career D&I professional is that I often get inquiries like this. One of the burdens, however, is providing a helpful response to new professionals facing a world that’s quite different from the early ’90s landscape I navigated, yet troublingly similar.

What’s different is our technology, our demographics, our polarized politics and a resurgence of overt white supremacy and bigoted violence. What’s the same is the lack of credibility many D&I professionals command relative to other professionals and organizational functions. I believe one of the reasons is insufficient rigor in developing the necessary skillset to garner results that matter and exude excellence.

Here are four keys that will equip D&I professionals at any career level to embody excellence and establish themselves as best-in-class D&I professionals, indispensable to those we serve.

Identify and live from your personal “business case.” I’m struck by D&I practitioners who have no substantive answer to the question: “Why do you do this work? (How do you benefit?)” “New school” D&I isn’t just about helping others. It’s about creating a world that works better for more of us and attaining meaningful results that matter. Best-in-class professionals work from their heart, mind and soul, and have personal skin in the game. Being grounded in the heart balances intellectual rigor, and adds depth, integrity and authenticity to our work. A personal business case provides motivation and inspiration when we’re weary. My personal business case is that from a very young age I experienced and witnessed firsthand how traits over which people have no control (sex, race, nationality and social class) can cause other people to treat them as less than they are, thwarting their happiness and ability to contribute.

A personal business case requires not just knowledge of self, but clarity of values and vision. I deeply value integrity, authenticity, excellence, connection and expression. My vision is a world where everyone has access to all the knowledge and resources necessary to live their happiest, healthiest life, contributing their brilliance for personal fulfillment and collective benefit. I stand for a world where we get out of each other’s way — and our own way.

Do your personal work. Having personal skin in the D&I game and caring about people means that the work can be emotionally triggering and exhausting. Those of us who are especially sensitive and empathic can experience second-hand trauma or be re-traumatized by interpersonal dynamics in a workshop or workplace. I’ve witnessed how a facilitator can injure workshop participants through ineffective behaviors driven by their unresolved anger or guilt. I’ve seen how leaders driving organizational D&I initiatives can subvert their own efforts through counterproductive behaviors stemming from exhaustion, mistrust or shame. Many of us who do D&I work do it because we (or a loved one) have been wounded in some way. Do not allow the impact of this important work to be diluted or tainted by you trying to resolve your personal pain through the work alone.

There’s a saying: “If you don’t heal what hurt you, you bleed on those who didn’t cut you.” While it’s true that if we all waited to tackle D&I work until we were fully healed that the work would never happen, it’s critical to be on a path of personal growth. Become intimately acquainted with (and honest about) your motivations, triggers, weaknesses and sore spots. Build keen self-awareness and be in ongoing curious dialogue with yourself about what’s going on with you and how you can develop. Build your emotional intelligence and resilience. If you’re a facilitator, hone your ability to self-manage, and develop a superpower around being present, relaxed and extremely attentive to the subtleties of human communication. Engage difficult questions — in the classroom and the field — with curiosity and courage. Establish healthy boundaries in all areas of life, practice radical self-care, and invest in your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellness. And forgive yourself for your shortcomings and bad days!

Be highly competent in multiple areas of D&I. D&I professionals who seek to be expert trusted advisers should be able to effectively answer a broad array of “diversity” questions. At the very least, you should have sophisticated knowledge about the history, terminology and practical applications of: (1) race/ethnicity (including racism), (2) sex and gender (including sexism), (3) LGBTQQIA+, (4) disability, and (5) major local racial/ethnic/cultural groups (in the U.S.: African Americans, Latinos/Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans). You must also be well-informed about the growing body of research establishing the organizational business case for diversity and the myriad tangible benefits of inclusion. You should know the basics of the latest brain science that impacts our current understanding of bias and interpersonal communication. You should read widely, listen to podcasts, attend conferences and lectures and stay informed about local and global current events. As a bonus, become familiar with the decades of theory and knowledge amassed in intercultural communication, a field similar to D&I.

Be highly competent in an area outside of D&I. Best-in-class D&I professionals are well-versed in at least one additional area outside D&I, such as organization development, leadership development, human resources, professional coaching, training facilitation/design, adult learning, assessment, business administration or international management. Many have first-hand leadership experience, have worked abroad, and/or speak more than one language. These skills equip the D&I consultant to accurately assess a client’s current state, identify strategic opportunities, and make impactful recommendations (read this article for more guidelines for consultants). They also equip the D&I facilitator to establish credibility, better understand their workshop participants and serve them where they are.

“Some think my standards are too high,” I told my caller that morning. “It’s true these are high expectations,” I added, “but they’re not unreasonable.” No one says the professional standards set for attorneys or accountants are too high, and we’re just as necessary. Expecting anything less than these four keys from D&I professionals is to diminish the quality of our expertise and its crucial importance to the success of organizations and the societies they shape and inhabit.

November 27, 2018June 29, 2023

Tuition Reimbursement Appears to Be Paying Off

Health care giant Abbott Laboratories launched its Freedom 2 Save program in June, which helps employees save for retirement while paying off student loans. Employees contribute 2 percent of their pay toward their student loan debt, and Abbott contributes 5 percent of their pay into the employee’s 401(k) plan.

This benefit, along with Abbott’s long-running tuition assistance benefit, contributes to the Chicago-area company’s mission of taking care of its workers.

With Abbott’s tuition assistance benefit, employees — including new hires with at least one year of full-time business experience — get reimbursed for business-related classes they take in college. Abbott supplies reimbursements as high as $7,000 per year for undergraduate classes and $10,000 per year for graduate classes.

Abbott Divisional Vice President Mary Moreland said her company’s role is to understand what their employees need, as well as coming up with innovative ways to address them. Moreland addressed both programs and how they factor into getting the job done.

Also read: Sample Tuition Reimbursement Policy

“Our tuition reimbursement program supports our goal of allowing employees to continue to grow and develop while they’re working here,” Moreland said. “With our student loan program, we discovered that the people we hired straight out of college were struggling with the amount of debt they were bringing into the workplace, which is on average about $40,000 for the typical graduate.”

Rariety Monford, 27, utilizes the tuition reimbursement program at Abbott Labs.

Rariety Monford, a 27-year-old engineer at Abbott, takes advantage of both programs.

Since Monford has in-state tuition in the state of Texas, her master’s degree from the University of Houston-Clear Lake will be fully covered by Abbott’s tuition assistance program. Monford has roughly $60,000 in student loans. With Abbott’s Freedom 2 Save program, she can put her earnings, that she normally would use for her 401(k), into her student loans. Monford appreciates having both programs in her back pocket while she takes classes online.

“It really means a lot to me,” Monford said. “It shows me that Abbott cares about me as a person and as an employee. It definitely factors into me building a long-term career here.”

Tuition.io works with companies including Hewlett-Packard and Staples and public entities such as the city of Memphis to offer student loan repayment assistance and financial wellness tools as an employee benefit.

The company has saved employees with these benefits approximately 30,000 years of student loan payments and helped employees save $42 million, according to CEO Scott Thompson, including the amount of loans principal paid down by their employer and the interest they save over time by having the loan paid down faster. The average turnover is 40 percent lower for workers who receive the debt assistance compared to those who don’t, Thompson added.

Thompson also said he has received positive feedback from people he’s unfamiliar with.

“I once got an email from a single mother who has two children and has been struggling for years with student loan debt,” Thompson said. “She said that now that her company has a benefit, she can see the light at the end of the tunnel. She thanked me for helping her and convincing her employer to do this.”

Also read: Verizon Wireless Gets a Strong Signal on Tuition Reimbursement

According to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, 3.8 percent of corporations offer tuition reimbursement, marking a 1.1 percent increase from 2016. Even though there has been a 1.4 percent decrease in public employers offering student loan repayments, there has been a 0.9 percent increase in overall offered student loan repayments, according to the foundation’s research.

While the number of companies participating in student financial aid is low, certified employee benefit specialist Julie Stich believes the number will increase in the coming years. Stich cited employees paying student loan debt being called a common financial challenge by 43 percent of employers in the International Foundation’s “Financial Education for Today’s Workforce” survey report. In 2016, it was 21 percent.

“As long as [student debt] financial challenges exist for employees and continues to impact employer hiring and retention, I think we’ll continue to see an increase in employers offering student loan repayment benefits,” Stich said. “It will be interesting to see how companies may get creative in designing their plans.”