leadership – Page 10

January 22, 2019June 29, 2023

Labor Relations in the Public Sector, Part 2

Despite the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting that 10.7 percent of all wage and salary workers in the U.S. are union members in both the private and public sector, union membership of public sector employees at the federal, state and local levels is well above that at 34.4 percent.

Just in local government, the rate of union membership is 40.1 percent and includes teachers, police officers and firefighters. In contrast, only 6.5 percent of private sector employees belong to unions. That number is significant because average private sector compensation costs average $34.19 per hour, compared to an average of $49.23 per hour in state and local government — a 30 percent difference in private to public employment costs.

So how do public sector unions achieve such important gains when some of these same unions don’t have the ability to strike? First, let’s take a quick history lesson.

The New York state Legislature was one of the first states to pass labor laws protecting women and children. Labor unions continued to gain strength in the subsequent decades, resulting in the passage of the Railway Labor Act in 1926, allowing railroad employees to unionize, and the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, which guaranteed basic rights of private sector employees to organize into labor unions and encourages collective bargaining — generally defined as the negotiation between an employer and a labor union on issues of wages, hours and working conditions.

Notably, the NLRA did not extend those protections to employees in the public sector for fear that public employees would strike, leading to paralysis of government until their demands were met. In 1943, the New York Supreme Court in Railway Mail Ass’n. v. Murphy, said, “Nothing is more dangerous to public welfare than to admit that hired servants of the state can dictate to the government the hours, the wages, and conditions under which they will carry on essential services vital to the welfare, safety and security of the citizen.”

Please read: Labor Relations in the Public Sector, Part 1

Today, most states have laws that formalize the bargaining process for some or all public employees, and some states permit only “meeting and conferring” on work-related issues. Only 11 states allow public employees to strike. Of those, most prohibit striking for essential employees and in cases where striking would endanger public health and safety.

For example, New York’s Taylor Law grants public employees the right to organize and elect union representatives, but also makes work stoppages punishable with fines and jail time. Some states prohibit collective bargaining for teachers while others prohibit all public sector collective bargaining.

The Power of Public Sector Unions

Without either limited or no ability to strike, public sector unions may try to leverage their power to help elect the very politicians who sit across from them at the bargaining table and influence legislation that affects public employees’ wages and availability of jobs. According to the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the California Teachers’ Association spent more than $211 million from 2000 to 2009 on political campaigning — more than any other donor in the state and as much as the pharmaceutical industry, the oil industry and the tobacco industry combined. In 2005 alone, the CTA spent $54 million to defeat initiatives intended to cap the growth of state spending and make it easier to fire underperforming teachers.

Politicians who attempt to limit the power of public sector unions and their lobbying arms need to come to the table prepared to make realistic changes. A case study of how not to negotiate with a public sector union is the Chicago Teachers’ Union strike in 2012, which was in response to some of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s initiatives. Emanuel campaigned to improve the education of Chicago schoolchildren and used his political might to pass an aggressive education-reform bill without consulting the teachers’ union.

The CTU brought other public unions to their cause and engaged in a 10-day strike. After an unsuccessful attempt to get a court order to force teachers back to work, both sides reached an agreement. While Emanuel did get a longer school day and longer school year, the teachers got an average raise of 17.6 percent over four years, health insurance increases, seniority pay increases and raises for additional education.

In jurisdictions where striking is prohibited, there are ways to reach final resolution of negotiations if parties disagree. These include arbitration, mediation, fact-finding and bargaining without a final resolution mechanism.

In arbitration, a neutral third party facilitates discussions, examines the facts and makes a binding determination. In mediation, the parties agree on a professional who facilitates discussions and proposes solutions that both parties can accept or decline. In mediation/arbitration, the parties jointly choose a mediator and if both parties fail to come to an agreement, the mediator becomes the arbitrator. Fact finding is a labor dispute resolution measure where an independent “fact finder” examines the arguments of both parties and offers a nonbinding resolution. In the public sector, as many state and local governments are in poor financial health, the fact finder generally sides with the employer and finds the unions’ proposals unreasonable to allow the employer to control costs.

Unions strive to secure good outcomes for the employees they represent during the initial stages of negotiations. Allowing a dispute to lead to arbitration takes the decision away from management and labor. Since arbitrators must adhere to certain standards, the awards are somewhat predictable. Generally, arbitrators reach decisions that neither labor nor management view as the best solution. In a world where labor-management cooperation has become so important, having someone with no vested interest in the outcome decide a union and agency’s fate is a poor outcome that can take years for the parties to repair.

It is encouraging to see that some state and local governments and unions are using tools borrowed from the private sector that help lead to voluntary agreements. The following are important methods that increase the likelihood of fair, voluntary agreements:

• Engage employees at the workplace.

• Use interest-based bargaining techniques in contract negotiations, where both sides declare their interests and then work together to draft agreements that align common interests and balance disparate interests.

• Share information and consult with unions on long-term strategies. Since most labor agreements are in effect for at least three years, a government’s labor relations strategy should align with its own short- and long-term financial planning and overall strategy. Given the repetitive nature of the bargaining process, successful labor-management relationships have management communicate with and involve stakeholders regularly, not just during negotiations.

Bargaining involves transparent communication between labor and management regarding terms and conditions of employment. Effective bargaining is usually measured by whether labor and management can reach an agreement without involving a third party. By demonstrating interest in building rapport, exploring alternatives, refusing to put limits on the number of topics for negotiation, and coming to the table with the goal of a solution, management can maximize the chance of a favorable outcome without compromising the operations of government.

January 11, 2019June 29, 2023

Public Sector Workplaces Turning to the Cloud

When Alex Smith was hired as the chief human resources officer for the city of Memphis in 2016, she had never previously held a public sector job — one of the reasons she was selected.

City leaders wanted to bring fresh eyes to the team to address the ongoing problem of how to attract and retain the best talent to city jobs. Smith found that many of the city’s human resources processes were still paper-based and data was stored in siloed databases, which added time and confusion to hiring and talent management.

“I knew we needed to automate some of these processes,” said Smith, who previously held private-sector HR jobs with Brightstar Corp. and Target Corp. One of her first suggestions was to implement a cloud-based HR technology system that would streamline hiring and better manage candidates and employee data. After some negotiating, the chief information officer and head of finance agreed, and they adopted a cloud-based human capital management system from workplace software giant Oracle.

“It was a huge win,” Smith said.

The technology eliminated many of the manual tasks like copying addresses into multiple databases and producing monthly trend reports.

“Now I can focus on tasks that matter the most and I can track hiring data in real time,” she said. It also streamlined the candidate experience and helped her expand the city’s social recruiting and brand recognition. “It is helping us to be more proactive in attracting talent,” she said.

A few years ago, this kind of story — of a public sector agency investing in cloud-based HR technology and social recruiting platforms — would have been unusual. The public sector has a reputation for being slow to adopt HR technology to empower workers and streamline HR tasks, said Sean Morris, a principal at Deloitte covering human capital trends in the public sector. “There is a history of under-investing in human capital by government due to limited budgets.”

Public sector HR people also don’t have a seat at the funding table, which means there is no one to champion their cause, said Sean Osborne, vice president of product management for public companies for Acendre, a cloud-based talent management software company that serves the public sector. “We often find that HR doesn’t have the budget or authority to effect real change.”

Even when these agencies have funding for technology upgrades, the siloed nature of government agencies and opposing funding priorities can quickly push HR investments to the end of the line, Smith added. “If HR is competing with the police or fire departments for project funding, police and fire will always win.”

This lag effect is about more than just money. There is also a change management challenge. In government, many senior leaders and IT staff have been in those roles for years and they have a set way of doing their jobs and making decisions. Moving to the cloud is a completely different way of managing technology and data, and there is a lot of resistance to change, especially from employees who fear their jobs will be at risk.

Technology and Talent Are Getting Old

These delays have had a long-term impact on recruiting talent management trends across the public sector. Many public sector agencies still rely on paper-based recruiting and onboarding steps, which are cumbersome and can add weeks to the hiring process. “Millennials and Gen Z don’t understand why it would take that long,” Morris said, noting that the negative experience may cause them to look elsewhere for work. These organizations also lack tools and transparency to effectively support career development, or to use people analytics as part of business and talent decisions. All of this is making it difficult for public sector agencies to attract and retain talent, said Morris. “That has put them in the situation they are in now.”

That situation is a rapidly aging workforce and a recruiting environment that makes it difficult to attract and retain young talent. Data from the Office of Personnel Management shows that less than 7 percent of the federal workforce is millennials, even though they make up 35 percent of the workforce nationwide; and 44 percent of federal workers are over the age of 50, which means they are inching ever closer to retirement with few younger staff ready to take their place.

“If HR is competing with the police or fire departments for project funding, police and fire will always win.”

— Alex Smith, CHRO, City of Memphis

This combination of aging talent and outdated technology is making it difficult for them to compete for young talent, said Daniel Torrens, global public sector HCM strategist for SAP SuccessFactors. “Candidates have a lot of choices today, and public sector organizations haven’t been building their brand or engagement strategies.”

These pressures are forcing public sector agencies to shift their attitude about cloud-based HR technology and to prioritize these transitions as they consider their future talent development and workforce management needs.

“Government CIOs no longer question whether they should move to the cloud, it’s all about, ‘How do we get there,’ ” Torrens said.

That’s good news for vendors. Torrens noted that four years ago, these agencies were still paying off their on-premise solutions and wouldn’t even consider a move to the cloud. But in the past 18 months that has changed. “We are having a lot more conversations about how to build a business case and get funding to adopt the cloud.”

Talent Needs Force the Issue

Fully 81 percent of public sector respondents now consider the cloud to be one of the top three technologies for ROI potential, according to the 2018 SolarWinds “IT Trends Report.” Almost as many (79 percent) see cloud as a top three solution to achieve productivity and efficiency benefits.

To support these interests, many public sector organizations, including government, education and health care, have adopted a cloud-first policy to replace legacy systems and design new more agile service-based solutions, said Sherry Amos, director of market development for education and government at Workday.

HR is also gaining more visibility in decision-making as public organizations acknowledge that talent management is a strategic issue that needs to be addressed. “In the past, finance drove all of these acquisitions,” Amos said. “But HR now has a seat at the table.” This is giving public sector HR leaders an opportunity to shape the future of workforce management and the technologies their organizations will use to support them.

This is where the challenge of moving public sector HR into the cloud shifts to the vendors, Morris said. The decision to move to the cloud is only the first in many steps for public sector clients. “If a vendor wants to support customers in the government cloud space, they have to federalize their tool.”

FedRAMP and Title 5

The majority of government organizations have to meet a very unique set of rules and requirements for adopting any cloud-based solutions, and they rely on vendors to adapt their systems accordingly. These include ensuring all data centers meet FedRAMP, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program requirements, which include an extensive list of rules for security assessment, authorization and continuous monitoring of cloud products and services.

“Meeting FedRAMP is a high barrier to entry in this space,” Osborne said. Vendors also have to adapt their platforms to meet Title 5 rules regarding administrative personnel, which cover issues such as pay schedules, job titles and priority hiring for veterans and people with disabilities. It can take months and a significant financial investment to adapt current HR platforms for a public sector workplace environment.

The majority of civil government organizations have to meet a unique set of rules and requirements for adopting cloud-based solutions.

Vendors also face a ton of pressure to get it right — because if they screw up things like data security it could result in national security risks. “Any time you move a large swath of data to a new environment you have to do your research because no system is foolproof,” Morris said.

The challenges are significant, but the effort to meet regulations and cater to this clientele is clearly worth it. “The federal government is the largest employer in the country,” Osborne said. And since most of these agencies are only just now considering cloud-based HR technology solutions, the commercial opportunities are bountiful. “The time is ripe right now for public sector organizations to move to the cloud,” said Eva Woo, global vice president of solutions management for SAP SuccessFactors.

Public Sector Tipping Point

The enormous sales potential is causing vendors across the HR technology industry to pay closer attention to the needs of public sector clients and to prioritize meeting regulatory requirements and adapting their customer management processes for a public sector environment. That includes adapting their sales and marketing strategies for longer procurement cycles.

“It can take two years just to secure funding and execute procurement,” Amos said. Public sector clients also tend to pursue a phased approach to their transition to the cloud, starting with low-risk systems to demonstrate safety and performance before moving to more mission critical systems that support HR and finance.

Morris noted that SAP and Oracle were among the first HR cloud-based solution providers to embrace public sector clients and their regulatory and procurement needs, though other vendors have been quickly following suit. He believes that the next three to five years will see a flurry of cloud-based HR projects across the public sector, including local and federal government, education, health care, and other agencies that need a better, faster and more transparent HR solution to deal with their recruiting and talent management needs.

Morris encourages vendors to make the continued investments in meeting regulations and to hire people with experience in public sector HR and IT who can help them navigate the complex procurement process. “The public sector is a massive market, but you have to play the long game,” he said. These agencies know they have to make investments in cloud-based HR solutions, but they will need vendors who can help them get there.

Vendors may also need to provide more IT support and education. City of Memphis’ Smith noted that many public agencies don’t have the head count or expertise to manage a cloud transformation on their own, so they will rely on vendors to fill gaps. “Having partners who will support training and change management needed on these projects is very important.”

These clients may have more needs than private sector companies, but the vendors who can support them and prove they understand how the public sector environment works will be will be best positioned to win these clients in the future.

January 10, 2019June 29, 2023

Human Resources Gets Its ISO Approval

The first-ever ISO standard for human capital reporting was passed in November 2018. Officially titled the “Human Resource Management — Guidelines for Internal and External Human Capital Reporting,” it was scheduled for publication Dec. 18.

Some background: ISO is the International Organization for Standardization. It is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies — the ISO member bodies.

The member body for the United States in the ISO is ANSI — the American National Standards Institute. The work of preparing international standards is normally carried out through ISO Technical Committees. In this case, the work was done by Technical Committee 260.

In 2011-12, there was an ANSI effort to create a human capital reporting standard for the United States. Those of us involved in the early ANSI work were disappointed when it failed to progress; we had hoped that an ANSI standard would eventually lead to an ISO standard. Although the ANSI effort was ultimately tabled, a subsequent ISO group formed to tackle the issue, resulting in the standard that was finalized Nov. 22.

Having an ISO standard is a much bigger deal than merely having an ANSI standard. Here’s what Jac Fitz-enz, who is often referred to as the Grandfather of HR Analytics, has to say about standardization: “An ethical code, a body of research, specialized education and performance standards are the basis of a profession. The adoption of ISO standards supports human resources’ claim to be a profession. It’s been a long, difficult journey from the founding of the American Society for Personnel Administration by 28 far-sighted people in 1948, but now the goal is within reach.”

Why Standardization?

We’re willing to guess that HR professionals are asking some variant of one or more of the following:

• I work in a small firm, nonprofit organization or government agency; how can this possibly be relevant to me?

• Can I just ignore this?

• Is this standard a threat to me (and/or my employer)?

• Is there some way that I (and/or my employer) can benefit from this new development?

In order to answer these concerns, let’s first discuss some additional background that helps put this standard into context.

Why Has This Standard Emerged?

The fundamental source of value creation in advanced economies such as the United States has shifted from tangible assets to intangible assets. Tangible assets have a physical form — machinery, buildings, land and inventors — whereas intangible assets are nonphysical, such as patents, goodwill and brand recognition.

Financial services firm Ocean Tomo reported that in 1975, 83 percent of the market value of S&P 500 firms was accounted for as tangible assets, with the remaining 17 percent of assets attributable to intangible assets.

Also read: Human Capital Disclosure May Soon Be Mandated By the SEC

A mere 40 years later, this ratio had flipped: In 2015, only 16 percent of the market value of S&P 500 firms was accounted for as tangible assets and the remaining 84 percent was attributable to intangible assets.

Since human capital is the fundamental source of most intangible assets, there is a much greater need today for measuring, monitoring, tracking and understanding how well people are being managed and developed. A broad array of stakeholders — executives, investors and employees themselves — want to know more about the people side of the businesses with which they are involved.

In light of this, “Workforce reporting is rethinking how organizational value should be understood and evaluated,” said Stefanie Becker, HR project director, HR strategy and planning for SAP SE. Becker also convened the working group initiated by the German Mirror Committee in the ISO Technical Committee 260 and oversaw the drafting of the human capital standard.

“The new ISO standard about workforce reporting assists organizations to move toward a more data-driven decision-making process across all facets of workforce management,” Becker said. “By using it for the public reporting, organizations can also fulfill the requirements of investors and other stakeholders by offering more transparency on their most valuable resource, human capital.”

And, indeed, investors are beginning to demand more insights on the people side of business. For example, the Human Capital Management Coalition, which is led by the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust and includes 26 influential institutional investors representing more than $2.8 trillion in assets, “engages companies with the aim of understanding and improving how human capital management contributes to the creation of long-term shareholder value,” according to the coalition’s mission statement.

Cambria Allen, corporate governance director for the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust, said, “The Human Capital Management Coalition filed its rule making petition with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2017. We presented the investor case for more effective disclosure of human capital information from our portfolio companies and urged a multi-stakeholder effort to develop reporting standards that would provide shareholders critical access to relevant and reliable quantitative and qualitative data.

“This data will allow us to better understand and assess how well portfolio companies are managing their talent,” Allen said. “The work of the ISO represents an important contribution to this dialogue.”

In short, if there was doubt previously about demands in the investor community for reporting on the people side of the business, it is now clear investors view such information as central to their work. The time has more than come for a standard for reporting on the people side of the business.

Overview of the Standard

Before getting into the details of the standard, a high-level view reveals some key facts that inform answers to the previous list of questions. First and foremost, the standard is about guidelines. There is nothing mandatory or compulsory about it, so there’s no need for anyone to get up in arms about it.

Second, the standard provides guidelines for both internal and external reporting and for large and small businesses, so there is something here for everyone. Some components are more appropriate for internal reporting or more relevant only to larger businesses.

Third, it represents the culmination of a tremendous amount of effort by a large and well-informed group of HR leaders from a wide range of backgrounds. There is a lot of wisdom, free advice and counsel built into it.

And fourth, the standard is very broad. So there may be parts of it that seem irrelevant for your organization. Our advice is not to be tempted to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Use what you can and what will be most valuable for your organization.

The standard provides guidelines on the following core human capital reporting areas:

• Compliance and ethics.

• Costs.

• Diversity.

• Leadership.

• Organizational culture.

• Organizational health, safety and well-being.

• Productivity.

• Recruitment, mobility and turnover.

• Skills and capabilities.

• Succession planning.

• Workforce availability.

Lee Webster, who served as the secretariat of the ISO Technical Committee 260 that created the standard, said, “This document is a first step. It will evolve, and additional definitions and formula will be added in future versions. We’re only at the 50-yard line. There’s still lots more work to do.”

What the Standard Suggests for Internal and External Reporting

The standard is a 44-page document that contains lots of narratives, definitions and background discussion. Most useful for beginning to understand what it’s all about is Table 2 of the standard, which provides a summary of the recommendations for both internal and external reporting for both small and large organizations. The table on this page summarizes the standards’ recommendations for external reporting.

What This Means to Your Organization

The demands for better management, accountability and transparency with regard to human capital will only continue to grow in the coming years. This is the inevitable result of the increasing role that human capital plays in the creation of economic value. Within that context, the standardization of human capital measurement and reporting is a natural development.

This is good news, we believe, for those HR professionals and employers who have a good story to tell. But there is no getting around that this is not a happy development for some: those who would prefer to be able to keep stakeholders in the dark regarding their “people track record.” So this is not a universally positive development for everyone. But it is certainly one that will benefit the “good guys.”

Our advice is to give the new ISO Standard careful consideration. There may be components of it that are not relevant to your organization (at least currently). But it is also the breadth of the standard that ensures there is something for every type of organization, including yours.

November 23, 2018June 29, 2023

Kronos CEO Aron Ain Urges Companies to Inspire Employees With a Strong Workplace Culture

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.

November 15, 2018June 29, 2023

Handling the Workplace Holiday Rush

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 to midyear 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.

November 8, 2018June 29, 2023

The Automation of Performance Measurement

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.

Also read: How Do We Use Performance Tools Including Performance Measurement to Keep Employees Motivated?

“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.”

November 7, 2018June 29, 2023

Finding the Way of the HR Warrior

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.

November 21, 2016June 29, 2023

TCS: Optimas Gold Winner for Managing Change

Tata Consultancy Services has a proven track record of developing leaders internally. Even today, 98 percent of the information technology firm’s current leaders are individuals who have been with the company since graduation.

But global CEO and Managing Director N. Chandra knew that the nature of IT consulting was growing more diverse. To better serve clients and stay competitive, TCS needed business leaders with the right experience in consulting and strategy to match those with technical expertise. In 2012, he created a way to funnel fresh talent straight from the source.

The TCS Accelerated Leadership Program recruits MBA students from top business schools for a two-year immersive, hands-on experience at the company. The students — known as TALPers — work in several areas of the company while preparing to take on future leadership roles at TCS.

The TALPers rotate between three to four different business units where they assess market dynamics, develop and implement strategy, respond to challenges and learn from current leaders. Recognizing the need for global perspectives in the workforce, TCS also sends TALPers to its headquarters in India for six months.

The program model emphasizes 360-degree feedback, so TALPers receive structured assessment and guidance from designated coaches and mentors throughout the two-year duration. TCS also hosts a monthly meet the leaders forum that allows TALPers to share their ideas and challenges with senior leaders who can provide advice and inspiration.

For TCS, the program has been largely successful in bringing diverse skill sets to its workforce. Graduated TALPers have gone on to hold important leadership-track positions at the company.

Initially launched in North America, TALP has since expanded to include the United Kingdom, and the company hopes to bring the program back to India and the Asia Pacific region as it moves forward.

For creating a unique leadership pipeline that reflects an evolving industry, TCS is the Gold Optimas Awards winner for Managing Change.

Read about the rest of our 2016 Optimas Winners.

September 12, 2016June 29, 2023

Developing an Effective Financial Wellness Strategy

Financial wellness is a trendy phrase nowadays in the wellness space. People don’t want to worry about money, and companies want employees not to worry about their finances, either. It makes sense that employees will be more productive at work, and employers can get the most out of their workers if they’re not fretting about their finances. But let’s take a step back for a moment and consider what financial wellness even means.

The whole definition has changed within the past 10 years, said Dorothy Miraglia-King, strategic benefits consulting expert and executive vice president at Engage PEO, a company that provides HR solutions for small and mid-sized businesses. Ten years ago, financial wellness meant retirement savings. But the idea of what retirement looks like has changed dramatically in the past decade. It’s not as realistic for people to retire at 65 anymore, for example. People are living and working longer. What about all the life that happens before retirement that requires financial health?

Another dramatic change? The multigenerational workforce: baby boomers, millennials, Gen X and Gen Y, all working together.

I recently wrote about how, at the basic level, employees in every generation want the same thing. They’re interested in the same benefits and life-long financial goals. However, they’re at different steps in obtaining those goals. Their immediate financial needs are dependent on where they are in life. Based on these more short-term differences, I spoke with Miraglia-King about how a company can develop a successful financial wellness program.

The first step, she said, is to create a measurable objective. For example, “I want employees to understand their 401(k)s better.”

Financial health objectives may be dependent on the employee demographic. One company’s workforce is not the same as the other. A millennial who needs to learn how to manage credit card debt or how to acquire a mortgage or how to put together a financial plan has a different objective than someone in their 50’s who’s figuring out if they can retire in 10 years.

The employer has to ask, “What do my employees look like?” when defining financial health.

In general, millennials may be interested in things like paying off student debt and managing basic living expenses. Also: balancing a checking account. This is one example of a financial skill that certain generations never learned because of how quickly technology took over everything.

“You’d be surprised at how little people know about balancing a checking account,” Miraglia-King said. “We don’t use paper anymore, so balancing a checkbook is a skill that’s gone away. A financial wellness objective could be learning how to manage money online.”

Once the employer has developed the need (the objective), Miraglia-King said, they should develop the communications strategy that identifies the audience and looks at method of delivery. How do employees prefer to get their information? Something electronic or written? In an email campaign or through access to an adviser? Maybe a weekend workshop?

Employers should also consider how will they measure what’s occurring and what changes happen as a result of the initiative. They could, for example, use a survey at the beginning and the end to see if they’ve met the objectives.

This should be a continuous process: Financial well-being, like physical and mental well-being, is something that needs to be constantly worked on and improved. There’s no easy fix. As employees age or face different hurdles in their lives, there’ll be something new to learn.

One final topic we spoke about in creating an effective financial wellness program: the importance of having high-level support.

“Lead by example,” Miraglia-King said. “Your upper management must set the tone for any campaign you do, and financial wellness is no exception.”

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

January 13, 2012March 12, 2020

SAP Hires Executive Julie Roehm

Former Chrysler marketing executive Julie Roehm is the new senior vice president of marketing at business-software company SAP.

Roehm, 40, whose last full-time marketing job ended with a stormy legal battle five years ago, is known in the auto industry for her tenure as marketing communications director at Chrysler. In 2004 she was in the middle of a controversy for signing up Dodge as a co-sponsor of the “Lingerie Bowl” as part of a pay-per-view program during the Super Bowl’s halftime show. Under pressure from the public and from dealers, Dodge scrapped the program.

Roehm also initiated several innovative marketing efforts at Chrysler and in 2005 was named sister publication Advertising Age‘s first Interactive Marketer of the Year.

Roehm joined Chrysler from Ford Motor Co., where she orchestrated the successful U.S. launch of the Focus small car in 1999.

More controversy followed her in 2006 when she left Chrysler to become senior vice president of marketing at retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Her tenure ended there less than a year later after she was fired over an ethics dispute. She later filed a walsuit against Wal-Mart for breach of contract and she alleged the company engaged in a smear campaign against her.

At SAP, Roehm will report to Jonathan Becher, the chief marketing officer. A spokeswoman at SAP told Advertising Age that Roehm will be based in New York. Roehm declined to comment when contacted by Advertising Age, saying only that she was in the “midst of several changes.”

Advertising Age is a sister publication of Workforce Management. Automotive News, also a sister publication of Workforce Management, contributed to this report. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Auto

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