Aron Ain, the CEO of workforce management software company Kronos Inc., released his debut book, “WorkInspired: How to Build an Organization Where Everyone Loves to Work,” in October.
Ain discusses how prioritizing employees is beneficial for an entire company. Workforce Editorial Associate David Chasanov spoke with Ain and found out what workplace elements are most important to him as a leader.
Workforce: Where does building a workplace culture begin? Is it at the top, or is it employee-centric?
Aron Ain: At the top. If the CEO and leadership don’t believe, encourage or support [workplace culture], it’s not effective. [At Kronos], if people know it’s important to me, people take it seriously. There’s safety in making sure employees are looked after and encouraged to have the right balance in their life. There’s safety in giving active feedback about how we can do better. I can’t imagine you would have great engagement in your company if people at the top don’t believe in that deeply.
WF:The old saying about employee turnover is that “employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers,” do you believe that to be true and how do you prevent that from happening at Kronos?
Ain: Absolutely true. People join companies because of the company. They leave because of who they work for. At Kronos we’re deeply focused on making sure all managers know their impact. Twice a year, our managers are rated by people on their team and how effective they are. It’s a manager effectiveness index (MEI). MEI holds managers accountable and improves their leadership, so we don’t have situations where great people leave because they’re not happy about who they work for.
WF: What’s your philosophy on performance reviews and how do they play into employee engagement?
Ain: I deeply believe in it. At Kronos, managers with the highest effectiveness index scores have the lowest turnover and highest engagement and [vice versa]. We make sure we do what’s necessary to create an environment where people are engaged. We try to hire above-average people. We want people who will make a difference. If you hire great people you need an environment where people are engaged, or else they will leave because they are great people.
WF: Is employee engagement all about the money?
Ain: Absolutely not. What’s most important to us is that the workplace should be a place where people have a great career opportunity, where they feel they have a great manager who respects them and helps them grow. It’s a place where they have confidence in the future, where they’re learning and growing, they enjoy their co-workers, people are making a difference with customers. If a place is a fun place to work but they’re working for a miserable manager, they’re out of here.
WF: What’s the difference between an established company and a startup?
Ain: An established company has various processes and functions in place to do a lot of the work. At a startup … you’re learning as you go. You don’t have time and resources to have a dedicated HR group, a group focused on legal aspects, financial services or marketing. You don’t have resources for training programs or creating a good environment. Not that you can’t, but it’s difficult.
WF: Are you a rah-rah leader or lead-by-example type of leader?
Ain: Both. I’m very communicative. I do video blogs all the time with employees, I talk to people all the time, I make sure when I’m walking through the halls or on the elevator that I don’t have my nose in my cellphone and I have my head up and I’m saying hello and talking to people. I visit Kronos offices around the world, and the first thing I do is go and say hello to everyone in the office. In India, where there’s about 1,000 people, it takes me a whole morning to go shake hands and say hello.
WF: What’s your favorite element to implement in making the workplace culture a fun community?
Ain: Having a great place where great people can come to work and enjoy what they’re doing. A place where they can also have balance in their lives. I love when I tell people that if the most important thing in their life is working for Kronos, they have their priorities mixed up. People get uncomfortable at first when they hear that, but then they end up believing in it because I keep repeating it to them.
WF: Kronos is located in the Boston area. Talk about major sports franchises in Boston and how they’ve built a culture in their organizations. What can people learn from them in terms of building a successful franchise?
Ain: I’m not super familiar with the inner workings of Boston franchises. But look at what the Patriots have done. From everything I can tell from a distance, they appear to have a focus on the end game. I appreciate most how they deal with difficult decisions actively. If they need to make personnel decisions, they do it. They don’t sit on things. I think we’re similar in that way.
WF:What is a common misconception in the business world right now?
Ain: The whole thing about what makes a company successful or what impact people have on making a company successful. People think having the magic product will make all the difference. The problem is you can’t deliver great products without great people. People say what comes first, the chicken or the egg, and in my world, what comes first is great people. It’s crystal clear. Once you have great people, you must work hard to do all the components to motivate people to want to stay.
For some businesses beyond retail, the holiday season — November through February — is the busy season.
This means heavy workloads, tight deadlines and the need for collaborative teamwork more than ever as many companies are winding down. Research from my company’s research arm, the Limeade Institute, shows that burnout happens when employees have high stress but low well-being. So we’ve come together as a company to keep our people balanced, productive and healthy during this time.
Here’s what we found works best:
Reorganize annual events to alleviate employees’ schedules: Like most companies, we launched annual employee reviews at year-end. Now we’ve moved our annual reviews to February, so employees can approach them thoughtfully and reflect on all they’ve accomplished. We also pushed our holiday party tomidyear so our employees can spend their time with family and friends. And while most companies send customers holiday gifts in December, we send gratitude gifts just before Thanksgiving.
Push for real PTO: We encourage employees to use their vacation time by year-end. In fact, our research shows those who take all of their vacation days are more engaged. Some employees prefer to take a long break just after the busy season. Because of this, we roll over up to 160 hours of PTO per year.
Support employee well-being: Throughout the busy season, we developed a Refresh Yourself campaign that promotes employee well-being — something often neglected when the pressure is on. We’ve offered chair massages, fruit-infused water, smoothies, yoga and meditation sessions, stretching stations, brain games and had the leadership team cook breakfast for employees. An optional office decorating contest and ugly sweater competition brings spirit to the office. In the meantime, remote employees receive care packages so they feel included and supported.
Help employees manage stress: Stress is inevitable during the busy season, so we help employees feel energized and motivated versus run-down or overwhelmed. We coach managers on how to help their team deal with stress and bring in guest speakers on how to stay positive in stressful times.
Our advice to those whose holiday rush ramps up during the holidays? Test new ideas, measure success and improve every year.
— Laura Hamill is chief people officer at Limeade and chief science officer of the Limeade Institute.
This month, I spent a long weekend before the midterm election supporting my brother-in-law’s campaign for a state Assembly seat in rural Wisconsin.
We traveled to several campaign offices and spent the days knocking on doors in small towns. Approaching strangers’ houses to ask them about their political affiliations or their plans to vote can be an uncomfortable experience at first. But it quickly becomes energizing as you encounter incredibly interesting people and witness their reactions.
For me, being part of the boots-on-the-ground effort to motivate voters was deeply inspiring, and it renewed my appreciation for the tireless work that happens outside the cable news cycle.
I was struck by the varied examples of people stepping up and stepping into an opportunity to do something for their community. Whether actually running for office, as my brother-in-law did, or staffing a field office, managing a campaign, hosting an event or attending a town hall meeting, there are countless ways to engage in local issues. And it got me thinking about all the other ways I — and our industry — could be adding to important local and national dialogues.
Given the big challenges facing our country, I can think of no group more qualified or capable of influencing our political climate than HR and benefits leaders, who all have expertise in many of the areas being debated at the national level. HR leaders know all about balancing competing interests, creating equal opportunities and managing complex health and financial programs.
We know how to create policies and programs that can scale. We also know that a solid safety net benefits not only those who need it but also the community around them.
Katherine Eyster, deputy director of workplace programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families, agrees that HR leaders have valuable insights: “HR professionals have a key role to play in sharing their experiences with policymakers and advocates to ensure that legislation is thoughtfully and effectively designed with real companies and workers in mind.” Through her organization’s work, more than 75 companies and business leaders recently endorsed the need for a strong national paid family and medical leave policy.
“For too long the false narrative has endured that what is good for workers is bad for business, when evidence shows time and again that when workers thrive, businesses and the economy grow,” she said.
Adding our voices to the national debate is an idea gaining momentum among HR leaders. Rosemarie Day, founder and CEO of Day Health Strategies, has a forthcoming book about engaging in politics to protect access to health care. In it, she presents a “continuum of involvement” that shows the various ways to get involved.
She shares ways you can speak as a private citizen or spokesperson for your organization. The first step is getting (and staying) informed, followed by sharing information, supporting a cause, speaking up, showing up (at events, rallies and more), organizing people and even running for office.
“As a society, we need safeguards and safety nets,” she said. “Benefits managers can represent the human side of capitalism, and they know the limitations of what private companies can do and the gaps that are very critical for the government to fill.”
Renee Lutzen, director of health care product management at UMB Healthcare Services (one of our clients), is a member of the Employers Council for Flexible Compensation. In that capacity, she has been able to visit legislators and regulators and educate them about the issues we face every day.
“Legislative offices are interested in and very receptive to hearing real stories from real people — those of us who are working in the industry of health care, HR and benefits administration. We’re not just sitting at a desk crunching numbers against theoretical concepts. We have real-life examples we can share on how current health care policies are impacting individuals along with insights on the potential effects proposed policies will have,” she said.
This year, I’m vowing to get more involved and helping others do the same. As for my brother-in-law, he lost by a tiny margin, but I have no doubt he’ll have a fantastic career in public life. His efforts and the integrity and vision that guided his campaign inspired thousands of people in his district and beyond. I hope our efforts will do the same.
Performance measurement has long been viewed as a necessary but torturous part of the talent management process.
Historically, this process has been shaped by awkward and time-consuming end-of-the-year performance ratings that often feel more like criticism than coaching and rarely result in any meaningful changes in behavior. However, over the past several years the performance measurement process has been evolving.
“The big question today is, ‘Do we even need performance ratings?’ ” said Bhushan Sethi, performance management analyst for PwC. He noted that many Silicon Valley firms have done away with ratings all together, while other companies are rating employees behind the scenes. “They still go through the rating process to figure out raises and bonuses,” he said. But they are eliminating the annual sit-down review.
While some HR leaders applaud this evolution, others believe it is counterproductive. “Proponents of the ‘no ratings’ fad hyped the movement using selective company examples,” noted Marc Effron, founder of the Talent Strategy Group and author of 8 Steps to High Performance. However for every success story, he pointed to companies like medical equipment maker Medtronic, Conagra Brands Inc., and American Airlines, which reversed course and re-installed ratings after their financial performance suffered. Effron also pointed to a 2016 Gartner study that shows companies that eliminate ratings actually see a drop in employee performance because managers don’t know how to manage without them.
Let Robots Do It
While the jury may be out on whether ratings are a necessary part of performance measurement, most HR leaders agree that a once-a-year review on its own is not effective. Instead, they are encouraging managers to provide more real-time feedback throughout the year so employees can adapt their performance and identify opportunities for improvement before their output is affected.
“Employees who want to be higher performers benefit from clear goals and more frequent coaching,” Effron said. But only if it’s done correctly. “Leaders need to improve their capability to set a few, very big, very challenging, very aligned goals for themselves and their team members.”
The demand for more real-time performance measurement has sparked HR technology vendors to embed rating tools, social feedback loops, 360 degree reviews and other performance measurement features in their platforms, or as standalone solutions.
“The trend is toward slick, user-friendly mobile tools to provide real-time feedback,” Sethi said. He pointed to PWC’s own custom-built Snapshots tool, which lets employees provide and request rapid reviews on five performance characteristics, including leadership ability and business acumen. Many of the enterprise software vendors and smaller boutique firms are building similar performance feedback tools to expand their platform.
“It’s the next wave of HR technology,” he said.
Sethi predicts that the next evolution of performance measurement tools will be fully automated, artificially intelligent bots that use machine learning algorithms to rate employee performance based on data, such as sales results, projects delivered, and feedback from managers. An automated solution could take the human bias out of the rating process while freeing managers to focus on coaching their people to improve performance and close gaps on the team, Sethi said. “This would be a much better use of their time.”
Author Keri Ohlrich asks whether you’re an HR warrior or HR weenie in her new book, “The Way of the HR Warrior.” Workforce Editorial Director Rick Bell caught up with Ohlrich via email.
Workforce: Are HR practitioners viewed as second-class citizens in the corporate world?
Keri Ohlrich: Short answer: Yes. If we’re being cheeky here, we might wish to be second-class citizens, but we’re more like third or fourth class.
Long answer: It depends. There are wonderful leaders and cultures who adore HR, understand the value and expect high performance from the HR department. Unfortunately, the majority of businesses and employees do view HR as second-class citizens and a department that does not contribute to the bottom line.
Why second-class citizens? Let’s look at leadership, HR, and society. Leadership sometimes only wants tactical and administrative HR support. Why wouldn’t they want a strategic HR professional? A strategic HR person questions and discusses how to help their organization reach higher levels. There are leaders who don’t want dissent or to be challenged. They simply want HR to do compliance work and payroll. You can spot companies who view HR as second class when they have HR reporting to Finance or Legal. Or even worse, when they give HR responsibilities to anyone in legal or finance because let’s face it, they would rarely, if ever, ask HR to handle finance or legal matters.
There are some HR talent who are only at the level of tactical and want to stay that way. They crave checking off tasks on the to-do list and completing what is easy. They get a charge from accomplishing tasks. Creating strategy and pushing the organization takes courage and long-term thinking. There are some in HR who resist that level of responsibility and are comfortable being second-class citizens—it’s a safer position.
Lastly, let’s look at society in general. Professions that are human focused are often not given the respect and/or paid like technology-focused professions (think teachers, nurses, social workers versus engineers). Human resources already starts in a one-down position as the “touchy-feely job” and “you just listen to people all day.” Then, let’s consider that the majority of HR professionals are females. Do I need to discuss how females are often viewed as second-class citizens? Cue mic drop.
WF: Since the beginnings of the #MeToo movement there were a lot of questions surrounding, ‘Where was HR’? So, where was HR?
Ohlrich: Great question. First, let’s address a couple types of HR professionals. Yes, there are definitely the HR professionals that we can all point at and call low-performing. And yes, there are HR professionals who knew about harassment and did nothing. They likely did nothing because they were afraid for their job, afraid to speak out, or even worse, just didn’t care that much. That’s the typical story we hear about, but let’s talk about another type of HR professional.
There were amazing HR professionals who were horrified by the behaviors of their leaders. They brought issues to the attention of those leaders and—wait for it—nothing happened. This occurred for a number of reasons: “he brings in so much revenue,” “he has great customer contacts,” or one of my favorites, “we cannot do anything about it because the CEO does the same thing.” There are many HR professionals who had the courage to address hostile work environments, discrimination, and harassment, and if leaders or the board of directors don’t care about it, HR becomes stuck. I know many HR rock stars who have left, had their departments reduced in size, or been fired for their courage and commitment to integrity. It is much easier to fire the trouble maker than to address the issue.
So, here’s my question: where were the leaders?
WF: Your book in part is titled HR Warrior. But you also cite the HR weenie. How can it be both ways in one profession?
Ohlrich: Ah, just like in every profession there are low- and high-performers. There are great CEOs and weenie CEOs, wonderful IT professionals and weenie IT, you get my drift.
But I think there are two main reasons why there is a question of why HR weenies and why that low expectation persists. One, HR is very visible in companies and, two, they are involved in emotional events (hiring, performance issues, layoffs). Therefore, when they’re HR weenies, that behavior is magnified.
Employees and hiring candidates will tell stories to family and friends about what horrible thing HR did (“they didn’t call me back,” “my resume went nowhere,” “they gave me zero severance”). Almost everyone has looked for jobs, received merits, or left jobs. All these situations involve HR and if there is a bad experience during these emotional times, well, then the stories about HR weenies grow exponentially!
But just as there are HR weenies, there are HR warriors who can change the perception. HR warriors can counteract the negative image of the HR weenie one employee at a time. And the same HR warrior might have been an HR weenie in the past. Heck, we all develop and grow—it’s possible for each of us to start off as an HR weenie and grow into an HR warrior. However, a true HR weenie wants to stay in a static position — they refuse to do the hard work to become a resilient and exemplary member of their organization. There were times in my career when I was sure I was more on the weenie side than the warrior side!
WF: Does HR exist to represent the best interests of the organization or the employee?
Ohlrich: It is not a zero-sum game. HR needs to represent both but it is difficult to strike this balance. Oftentimes the best interest of the company and the employee are opposing sides (should we talk about employee health benefits?). This is what makes HR work a wonderful challenge and not for the faint of heart. Unfortunately, I’ve seen many HR Weenies only side with either the employee or the organization and stick to that side no matter what!
Additionally, I think employees want to feel we are there for them, but don’t truly believe that. There are managers who won’t coach or have difficult conversations with employees. Instead, they have HR do “the dirty work.” As an aside, oh how I wish HR would get out of the business of doing managers’ jobs of talent management! Consequently, the employees see HR as the police, because poor managers say, “let me tell HR.” Frequently, employees only see HR when something bad is happening (layoffs, terminations, performance issues). We have an exposure issue. For example, when you only take your dog for a car ride when it’s time to visit the vet, what does the dog think? Car = bad. If HR is only there for bad times, employees think HR = bad. At the same time, organizations tend to believe that HR is there to support only the business.
HR needs courage to balance that tension and understand that the job is a lonely one. Sometimes an HR professional works behind the scenes to get laid-off employees an extra month of insurance, but employees will never know that. Sometimes HR works with legal to figure out the quickest, most efficient way to terminate an underperforming employee and help the organization save on a potential lawsuit, but it isn’t fast enough for the organization.
An HR warrior maintains this tension, and they’re courageous for both employees and the business. An HR professional who only uses one lens (the business or the employee) just might be an HR weenie!
WF: Are HR practitioners afraid to speak up when they see inappropriate conduct by their superiors?
Ohlrich: Well, yes and no. If the inappropriate conduct is their direct supervisor that is a sticky wicket. HR at this point is just like any other employee who has an inappropriate manager. The questions are: What if I say something? Will I get fired? Will my job get worse? Will I need to quit? To make things a bit more complicated, employees have the option of talking to HR, but HR might not have that option for themselves.
It takes the utmost courage to speak out directly against your manager, especially if s/he is the CEO. Where do you go with the complaint: the board, your peers, the public? And as we’ve seen in the past, when victims speak out, it often does not end well for them. The stakes are often higher for HR to speak out because they know the impact that leader has on the entire organization.
If the inappropriate behavior is not caused by the direct manager, but others on the leadership team, then this falls into typical HR duties. Meaning, HR needs to call out these behaviors and try to change them. Again, like the direct manager, the politics of the situation get more complex as the leaders are usually in alliance with one another and will, therefore, protect each other. It can be very difficult for HR to break through the leadership clique when bad behavior is occurring.
WF: What’s an example of “HR speak” that HR professionals should try to avoid? How should they rephrase it?
Ohlrich: So much business and HR speak! I think the most cringe-worthy one that sticks out is “the policy says” or “according to the policy.” It’s better to say, “Well, we can do that, and let’s understand the consequences first.” Of course, if harassment is involved, it’s best to stop that behavior in the first place!
But I have heard HR professionals use “policy speak” on issues that are not as black and white as sexual harassment. Some HR professionals, when asked a question, have sent an email with a cut-and-paste description of the policy to managers. If we just make binary decisions, then we could be replaced by robots. We need to understand the goals and motivations of the audience. We need to tailor our message to them and avoid HR speak.
We bring so much more than just “the policy says.” We understand the business, the culture, and the people, and we can help leaders think through complex issues. It requires more than “policy,” it requires understanding the business and the people. Dare I say it? It requires an HR Warrior!
WF: HR practitioners will go to conferences like SHRM and WorldatWork and get all pumped up then go back and face the realities of their job. How do they carry forth and utilize that positive vibe?
Ohlrich: It’s exciting to hear great ideas and best practices at conferences! And it’s definitely tough to go back to the “real world.” In fact, it can be extra frustrating because an HR professional can visualize what a great organization can look like and realize, “Crud, we aren’t that — not even close!”
To avoid the “post-conference blues,” set realistic goals. First, focus on the big picture. What is a talent goal for the organization? Maybe the business needs to overhaul the way they approach performance. Then ask, where is the organization on its journey to this goal? The HR professional needs to meet the organization where it is and then push! Of course, we have to get leadership buy-in first and explain how we are pushing for good business reasons, and not just to push.
Now, the HR professional knows the overall goal and the maturity level of their organization. From there, create three mini goals to help move toward the overall goal. Consider three that can be achieved in the next six to 12 months. By creating mini-goals, the HR professional can channel the energy of the conference and accomplish great things.
WF: The 2005 Fast Company article ‘Why I Hate HR’ argued that HR is lazy, unhelpful, etc. Why do these arguments still seem to linger?
Ohlrich: Triple sigh. I could blame the media coverage, Dilbert comics, The Office TV show, and I could name more shows that depict HR as lazy losers and freaks (yeah, looking at some of my favorite shows like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and A Series of Unfortunate Events). It reminds me of the statistics on plane crashes: because they’re covered in the media more often than car crashes, people tend to believe air travel is less safe than cars, when the exact opposite is true. We need a great PR firm to help overhaul the image of HR!
Now, I can’t just blame the media for HR’s poor image. We absolutely have poor talent in HR—the HR Weenies. As I mentioned earlier, HR interacts with every employee at some point in their lifecycle at work (hiring, performance, termination) therefore, one bad HR Weenie experience is told to an exponential number of people. The HR Warrior stories aren’t shared as widely.
We can do more with our profession. Leaders can demand more from HR (as well as themselves). HR can demand more from our profession. HR is indispensable for organizations and employees, and we HR professionals need to tell stories that showcase us in a different light. We have HR Warriors in companies and their voices need to be heard and their stories told. When we accomplish that, our perception of HR changes.
These days, particularly in the United States, it feels like the divided nature of our politics makes it almost impossible to keep from choosing sides.
Whether you’re a person, a business or a politician, you almost certainly know what you support and what you oppose. For organizations and their leaders, that means the more difficult issue often becomes whether to say anything publicly about what you support or oppose.
From a business perspective, the issue of whether to make political statements is critical — and it’s more complex and risky than ever. In the past, CEOs, boards or businesses that took some sort of activist stand used to be able to draw a fairly bright line between social activism and political activism.
Today those lines are far more blurred. Whether we’re talking about the #MeToo movement, education policy, health care, immigration or trade issues, these debates frequently fall into both the social and political spheres.
These are deep and roiling waters for business leaders who personally feel obligated to communicate which side they’re on regarding hot-button issues. Given that there are essentially no people in the middle, coming out on one side or the other comes with significant business risk.
If you’re a business leader who represents a brand and you’re considering taking a public stand on a social or political issue, you should first think very carefully about these three constituencies.
The first group you have to carefully consider when mulling a public political stand is your employees. And here’s the first big question to ask yourself: Is your stand consistent with your stated and lived corporate values, or do those values just represent those of the CEO or some portion of the C-suite? If your stand is consistent with your stated and lived corporate values, and they’re not just the personal musings of a company executive, then you’ve got a check in the go-forward box.
Next, ask yourself if your stand will alienate employees and exacerbate the line between people on both sides of the issue in a more public way than already exists. Think about whether some employees will leave, or if they’ll instead stay and be more committed. Or perhaps they’ll remain but as alienated employees with reduced engagement and performance across the board.
An organization’s public political or social stand can bring employees together or can tear them apart. It can also significantly affect your ability to attract talent, for better or worse, particularly when the economy is strong. You have to carefully measure these potential impacts before you step into the political arena.
Next, it’s absolutely vital to consider how your stand will affect your customer base. Start by considering whether your public position will be received negatively or positively by customers — and also whether it will make it harder or easier for loyal customers to do business with you. The reality is that your stand could grow or diminish your customer base, while also negatively or positively affecting your brand promise.
Remember that you’re representing a business. If you feel compelled to make a political stand, think through how it will affect your actual business, what will the stakeholders will think about that and how or whether they will support you in the long term.
Finally, you have to weigh the impact of your action on your community. No organization exists in a vacuum, whether it’s a one-location business, has 20 locations around the country or is a global organization with hundreds of locations around the world. Consider how your stand will positively or negatively affect your standing in the communities in which you live and operate. Will the community be in agreement or will you alienate your community base?
Particularly if you’re a business with one or a handful of locations, you do business with other businesses in the community and you likely have relationships with policymakers. That means you have important relationships with the larger social environment in which you are living and working, and your business often relies on these connections in nontrivial ways. If your stand will make any of these harder, you need to think through truly what the ramifications are for that action.
When pondering a political stand, the bottom line is to remove the self from your decision and think only in terms of the business. If the stand you’re going to take will put your business at risk, put your employees’ jobs at risk or put your organization’s reputation at risk, then you need to think seriously about whether you’re willing to assume that risk.A
That doesn’t mean you don’t ultimately take the stand. It just means you have to be knowledgeable about what the effects will be and have contingency plans in place. As business leaders, we have to think through the ramifications for our organizations and the people that make them — and not just for the CEO.
Late Friday afternoon (when the Mega Millions was only a mere billion dollars), I received a phone call from Brian Duffy, a reporter from our local CBS affiliate.
“We are doing a story on office lottery pools. Are you the right person for me to interview about some of the legal risks?”
Two hours later, he was in my living room with a camera person interviewing me.
“Everyone is your friend until you’re looking at a billion dollars, and all of a sudden, that kind of stuff goes out the window because people get motivated by greed,” I told him.
As for office lottery pools, the legal risks (if you are lucky enough to win) fall into two major categories.
1. An employee claims the winning ticket for him or herself.
For example, in 2009, Americo Lopez quit his job after discovering that one of the office pool Mega Millions tickets he was holding won the $38.5 million jackpot. When his co-workers learned of his deception, they sued, and each collected their share of the jackpot.
2. An absent employee was not able to participate.
For example, in 2011, Edward Hairston sued his Youngstown cabinet-company coworkers, claiming they froze him out of their $99 million payout. His lawsuit claimed that he had participated in the office lottery pool for eight years, and his co-workers failed to cover his ante while he absent with a back injury. The parties reached a confidential settlement.
So, what can you do to mitigate these risks in your office pool?
The best, and safest course of action, is to draw up a written contract for each member of the office pool to sign. That said, as I pointed out during my interview, these are exceedingly rare.
Still, there are less formal measures you can take to limit risk:
Appoint one person to act as the point for collecting money, purchasing tickets and acting as custodian.
Collect all money up front before buying tickets, and only buy as many tickets as you have cash collected.
Keep a list of who has contributed to the pool, and if you want to be extra cautious, have each participant sign something evidencing their participation.
Distribute copies of the purchased tickets to all participants prior to the drawing, so that there is no dispute between a pool ticket and a personal ticket.
And, as for all of the talking heads who are suggesting that employers altogether avoid office lottery pools because of the legal risks, I say grow up and stop being such a killjoy. Lots of things have risk. I drive to work every day, even though my odds of dying in a car crash are 1 in 11,700. My odds of winning the Mega Millions are 1 in 302,575,350.
In other words, you are 26,000 times more likely to die on your way to work than win the lottery when you get there. So why not have a little fun, promote some office camaraderie, and spend a few dollars. And, in the extremely off chance that you actually win, the worst that will happen is that you might have a wait a bit for your pot o’ gold while some legal issues sort themselves out.
Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.
The Major League Baseball postseason is well underway with some games taking place during normal work hours.
The Chicago Cubs had their midday National League tiebreaker on a Monday, while Game 3 of Houston Astros-Cleveland Indians in the American League Division Series also was a mid-afternoon start. Games happening early in the day has both hurt and helped workplaces nationwide.
When sporting events occur during work hours, employers could face productivity issues, which can include employees calling in sick, leaving early or arriving late. But there’s an opportunity to flip that thinking and use such events as an employee engagement and retention tool.
Joyce Maroney, executive director of the Workforce Institute at workforce management software company Kronos Inc., studies workplace issues and ways to manage and engage workers. Maroney said one of the ways employers can avoid these issues is by making the sporting event available in the office, whether on TV in a break room or conference room, or an office-watch party with food provided.
“It can definitely be a tool to stimulate camaraderie, just as would be departments having gatherings during the holiday season, or doing a charity event together,” Maroney said. “All these things engage people at work and can make people feel like they’re part of something that’s a little bigger than just getting the job done.”
Maroney may be onto something.
A survey conducted in March 2018 by employee and recruitment agency Randstad U.S. said 79 percent of employees believe sporting events in the office “greatly improves their levels of engagement at work.” In the same study, 73 percent of workers say they look forward to going to work more when they participate in office sports bracket contests like college basketball’s March Madness tournament. Also, a 2017 study conducted by employee time-management app TSheets found that 68 percent of employees said watching games increases or has no effect on their productivity.
Chicago-based staffing and recruiting firm LaSalle Network embraces sports in its office. The big sporting events they consider as employee engagement and retention tools in the workplace are March Madness, the Olympics and the World Cup soccer.
Founder and CEO Tom Gimbel said doing this has resulted in better relationships with fellow employees and clients as they have a viewing party for the annual March Madness tournament.
“It empowers employees because they don’t have to sneak around to participate in something they enjoy,” Gimbel said. “It also makes our clients feel valued. We want them to know we appreciate our relationships with them. It helps builds trust.”
The Super Bowl, arguably the biggest U.S.-based sporting event every year, normally attracts over 100 million viewers annually. Even those who don’t consider themselves sports fans watch the Big Game.
Gimbel said companies that attempt to “squash the fun and energy” coming from a big sporting event are missing out on a great opportunity to engage their staff.
Looking at the current state of Chicago’s core sports teams right now, Gimbel might be planning a little something for his firm in February.
“We’re not ruling out anything for the Super Bowl,” Gimbel said. “If the [Chicago] Bears make it, who knows what we’ll do?”
Employees who receive backlash for listening to music while on the job finally have some credibility. Accountemps, a division of global staffing firm Robert Half, conducted a survey consisting of 1,000 workers in office environments, and the results are encouraging for music lovers.
Of those allowed to listen to music while working, 85 percent of participants said they prefer to bump tunes at work rather than listen to nothing. Further, eight out of 10 total survey respondents said they enjoy it, and 71 percent said it makes them more productive.
Meanwhile, employers themselves aren’t necessarily tone-deaf to these potential benefits. Ask Marie Tillman, founder and CEO of Mac & Mia, a curated children’s clothing service. Tillman believes music plays a beneficial role in helping her team of 30 employees at its Chicago headquarters.
“Happy workers are more productive workers,” Tillman said. “If music is something that makes someone happy, I think it makes them more productive.”
Music plays a solid role in making most employees better workers, and the type of genre that has this impact on employees varies by the individual.
According to the survey, out of the 85 percent of people who like listening to music at work, three genres topped the list in terms of popularity: pop, rock and country. Michael Steinitz, executive director of Accountemps, said this can be explained by generational preferences.
“It’s very much a product of the times where so many of the generations have changed in the workforce,” Steinitz said. “If you walk down the street or a college campus these days everyone has got headphones plugged in. That has transitioned into many cultures in the workplace.”
For these employees who are more likely to listen to music at work, these three genres are their favorites.
“Happy workers are more productive workers. If music is something that makes someone happy, I think it makes them more productive.” ~Marie Tillman, founder and CEO, Mac & Mia,
While music largely plays a positive role in a work environment, some people still won’t take kindly to it. Accountemps provided some do’s and don’ts of listening to music at work.
Among the list of do’s are to be respectful to one’s colleagues. Employees should wear headphones if they work in a shared office space to avoid disturbing their coworkers. If not, they should be respectful of their coworkers’ music tastes, as they may not be the same as theirs.
It’s also important for an employee to not play their music too loud. That way they can be attentive and hear their phone ring or a coworker calling their name.
“The only issue we have ever had is when someone is playing music for everyone to hear,” Tillman said. “Maybe someone doesn’t want music because it’s distracting, so that has caused some issues. Now we have employees wear headphones.”
Steinitz is familiar with instances of music being an issue in the workplace, too.
“I’ve heard of stories where people probably weren’t as mindful or respectful for people around them and just were playing music too loud or things that may have been inappropriate.”
There are many other things that employees shouldn’t do in the workplace, like sing along or tap their hands and feet. That will most likely bother coworkers sitting near them. If they have their music playing when coworkers request their attention, it shows a lack of care. Busting out the Beats by Dre headphones when a coworker is requesting attention isn’t the smartest or nicest move.
Steinitz hopes people learned a valuable lesson from this study: don’t be afraid to try new things. Doing the unordinary in the office shouldn’t be frowned upon any longer.
“In this day and age, when it’s such a tight market and you need to keep employees engaged, it’s good to be open-minded to different sort of avenues to keep people motivated.”
The first day of school is often compared to the first day of a new job, but the two are more different than they are alike. Sure, a new hire might feel a tinge of excitement and anticipation in advance of their first day with a new company, but more often one feels an overwhelming sense of uncertainty about new processes.
HR leaders can take onboarding tips from the school experience and apply them to the new-hire experience to create excitement rather than angst for the job.
Long before the first day of school, incoming students receive preparatory details lik school supply lists, notification of who their teachers are, and even assignments and materials to read in advance. Larger institutions might send campus maps and directories to incoming students.
When it comes to employee onboarding, don’t wait until a new hire’s first day to introduce him or her to your company. Share details such as directions to the office, where to park and an onboarding checklist of administrative tasks (like setting up payroll and benefits) that the new hire can complete before day one.
Arm each new employee with informative tools such as an org chart, making sure it reflects the new employee’s name and position in the organization and whom to contact for certain needs or questions. A detailed org chart can give new employees interesting and relevant details about their new coworkers, such as where they went to school, what their job responsibilities are and what interests them outside of work. Instead of walking into a room full of strangers, new employees will already feel a connection with their coworkers on the first day.
The First Day: An Assigned Seat
New students usually have an assigned seat and are provided with all needed supplies on their first day. Likewise, it’s critical to ensure that your new hire has a designated space in the office. It sounds simple, but it’s not uncommon for a new team member to show up and find him- or herself without a place to sit. Make sure the right processes are in place so this doesn’t happen.
It’s also important to provide new employees with the equipment they need to do their job well from the start. This usually means a designated desk and chair, a working laptop, and a telephone, at minimum; an employee handbook and background information on the company are also useful. It’s always nice to welcome new team members with a bag of company marketing collateral or “swag,” like a T-shirt, laptop sticker or branded earphones.
On the first day of school, no one wonders where to eat lunch. Students typically walk to the cafeteria together. But for new hires, the lunch routine is not so obvious. Do most employees eat out or bring their own? Do they eat together in a break room or café, or does everyone tend to eat at their own desk? Encourage your new hire’s team to take him or her to lunch on the first day, and communicate this to both the new employee and the team beforehand so there is no confusion.
The Days Ahead: Class Is in Session
Many universities have instituted the smart practice of pairing incoming freshmen with peer mentors during their first semester. These “buddies” are not teachers or leaders, but rather fellow students who have been at the university for a year or two and know the ropes.
This type of “buddy system” can be adopted in the workplace. Assign a new hire a peer — not a manager — who has been at your company for a while and knows how things are done. This buddy can help the new employee find out information that isn’t documented and meet people quickly. This system is also beneficial to the buddy, as it gives him or her a sense of ownership and responsibility.
Another way to help new employees get to know each other is to make a game of the getting-to-know-you process. If your org chart is interactive, use it to create a flash card–type game that makes it easy to put faces to names. You can also incorporate elements like job skills, fun facts, number of years with the company and even Myers-Briggs personality types.
Consider adopting these steps and implementing them in your new hire onboarding. Streamlining the process and making it easy for new employees not only makes their jobs more enjoyable, but also makes your job easier and more strategic.
Bill Boebel is a serial entrepreneur and is the CEO of Pingboard. He previously was CTO of Rackspace Email and also co-founded Capital Factory, which helps entrepreneurs in Austin, Texas, build their companies. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com
WF: Is employee engagement all about the money?
WF: Your book in part is titled HR Warrior. But you also cite the HR weenie. How can it be both ways in one profession? 
These days, particularly in the United States, it feels like the divided nature of our politics makes it almost impossible to keep from choosing sides.
