millennials – Workforce

February 7, 2020June 29, 2023

From boomers to Gen Z: How to engage a multigenerational workforce

Five generations are now represented in today’s workforce as millennials and Generation Z continue to make their mark.

Millennials will soon be the largest living generation in the U.S. labor force, while the number of people 65 years and older is expected to nearly double. At the same time, digital technologies are changing how these generations collaborate and work together, as well as how organizations engage, manage and retain employees.

Because of this, employee expectations across the board have evolved and no longer does a “one-size-fits-all” approach work when it comes to employee engagement. In fact, failure to meet these expectations can result in decreased productivity and high turnover in an increasingly competitive economy.

In a world of #okboomer memes and “Me Generation” stereotypes, organizations should explore ways to better unify employees and harness the power of a diverse workplace. Here are three ways that HR and communicators can accommodate employees across generations and gain a competitive advantage in the market.

Speak Their Language

First and foremost, HR and communications leaders must identify who their audiences are and what content will resonate the most, as the context and tone of a message can impact how employees receive and choose to engage with it. Even when providing the same information to all generations, communicators should explore ways to share that message to younger versus older employees.

For example, a more detailed email about new company policy might translate better with baby boomers, while it could be ignored by millennials and Gen Z who tend to prefer more informal, casual language. In contrast, a conversational tone may not translate for older demographics who might see it as blurring professional and personal boundaries.

In a multigenerational workplace, HR and communicators should find ways to personalize and distribute content based on employee types and preferences quickly and easily. This plays a major role in making workers feel more valued, drives feelings of inclusion and has a direct impact on productivity and satisfaction.

Once the content is in place, it’s important to consider the distribution strategy and the cadence or frequency in which content is shared. In the past decade alone, the workforce has become infinitely more connected with digital reminders, near-instantaneous updates, collaborative calendars and more. From intranet platforms to multidevice and direct messaging applications, each generation will find different methods better suited for them and employers need to adapt to this digital shift.

As digital natives, millennials and Gen Z are likely more comfortable and familiar with mobile and chat platforms, and may prefer receiving information and updates via mobile app. Conversely, Gen Xers and baby boomers may want to receive information via email or hard copy and hear feedback face-to-face.

Finding a balanced cadence of communications that appeases all employees can be tricky, but is foundational to building and maintaining a unified company culture. In this sense, it’s important to remember that every employee interacts with technology differently. When thinking about how best to disseminate the “nice-to-know” versus the “need-to-know,” evaluate consumption preferences and habits across all employees and tailor communication methods based on this assessment.

Keep Employees Motivated

A third factor to keep in mind when engaging a diverse workforce is that employees want different things from their employers and from their career paths, regardless of demographic. Internal communications directly impact employee motivations and their level of productivity, and leaders will need to invest in ways to empower everyone in their organization.

Research has shown that millennials and Gen Z value work-life balance more so than their older colleagues, and may not want to receive communications from work outside office hours. Gen Xers and boomers also don’t require constant feedback, while younger demographics are motivated by words of encouragement from superiors on a regular basis. Some employees might appreciate reminders to complete surveys or program registrations, while others might find anything more than a weekly reminder overwhelming.

And, while many see technology as a key divider among generations, that’s far from the case. Employee engagement tools and technologies can help managers, supervisors and the C-suite share their mission and messages with all employees in a personalized way. Providing channels to ask questions, share advice or collaborate on work can also energize employees and foster relationships between generations. With the right tools in place, HR and communications teams can measure and analyze the impact of their engagement strategies to adjust over time.

Employees of all ages seek workplace satisfaction and it’s up to HR and business leaders to provide the tools, resources and strategies that empower them to define their own experience. As workforce demographics evolve, organizations must create a space for a variety of work styles to flourish and ultimately position their employees – and the business – for success.

January 29, 2020June 29, 2023

Engaging a remote workforce requires some down-home hospitality

employee communication, hearing, talk, schedules

Out of sight and out of mind is far from the truth when it comes to maintaining engagement among a remote workforce.

Today’s business culture is much more open to hiring remote workers as it expands the playing field for hiring new top talent, allows for more flexibility in schedules and in turn creates a better work-life balance for employees. Working remotely has increased by 103 percent since 2005.

Currently, 3.7 million employees work remotely (2.5 percent of the workforce) at least half the time. However, this can make maintaining high employee engagement and retention rates a bit tricky due to the common feeling of isolation among remote workers.

Jason Patel, founder of Transizion, a college and career prep company, said that starting with the onboarding process is key and that it is best to treat onboarding as if they were in-office employees.

“It’s important to set the tone from the start, that remote employees are just as appreciated as office employees. If that tone is set in the culture, it will percolate,” Patel said in an email statement.

Maintaining a productive and successful remote team culture requires a strong communication line. Communication tools such as Slack, Workplace or Zoom make it easier for remote teams to communicate and feel as though they aren’t missing out on important information, meetings or celebrations. They should feel like they are in the office alongside everyone else, voicing their opinions, sharing their ideas and actively contributing to the conversations.

Making sure to include remote employees in meetings and scheduling regular check-ins is also vital for creating an inclusive environment and tracking progress, according to Carlos Castelán, managing director of business management consulting firm The Navio Group. If remote employees aren’t provided with clear expectations and direction, it can be easy to feel like they are stranded on an island. Those who work remotely need to feel a sense of purpose in order to stay motivated and passionate about the company’s goals. “One of the hardest parts of staying motivated as a remote worker is fully grasping how your contributions fit into the overall picture and mission,” Castelán said.

Although emails, phone calls, video calls and text messages are convenient, Deb Boelkes, founder of leadership development firm Business World Rising, suggests taking it a step further and planning in-person meetups as a best practice if the budget permits. Whether in the form of large company events or small team-bonding outings, it is essential to build a sense of camaraderie as this can be an obstacle for those who don’t see their co-workers five days a week.

Boelkes also recommends scheduling weekly team calls to update everyone on individual and team progress, asking and offering help, brainstorming approaches and recognizing major accomplishments and successes. “Really knowing each other and meeting face-to-face helps build trust. Try to meet in person at least occasionally,” Boelkes said in an email statement. “Otherwise use video conferencing technology whenever possible. Team members need to know the other members on the team, what they are doing, and how they can help each other.”

Gamification has also become more popular in today’s business culture as it creates a sense of collaboration, cooperation and a competitive edge to everyday work responsibilities. Gamification applies game-playing elements to nongame environments, which can be used as a tactic to encourage engagement in a fun way.

This can be implemented into the recruitment or onboarding and training processes as well to increase retention rates. According to a 2019 TalentLMS study, 61 percent of the 900 employees surveyed said they receive training with gamification. Some 83 percent of those who received gamified training claimed to feel more motivated, and 61 percent of those who did not receive gamified training said they felt bored and unproductive.

“Whatever you do with office employees is what you should be doing for remote employees. If anything, you should be more disciplined and clear when working with remote employees,” Patel said. “There are far too few touch points between you and the remote employee, which means there are plenty of intersections for miscommunication. That’s why agendas, metrics, and goal and mission articulation are so important. Make it seem as if they are in the office with you.”

January 26, 2020June 29, 2023

So, who says Generation Z and millennials are anti-leadership job-hoppers?

There are several stereotypes that have been placed on millennials and Generation Z that are just not true, according to new research.

Bellevue University’s Human Capital Lab partnered with Human Capital Media’s research and advisory group to conduct a study of more than 2,000 employees over a range of five generations to observe how their views vary regarding leadership in the workplace.

“With five generations in the workforce and a diverse range of perceived wisdom about what each generation expects from leaders and how they view their own prospects for leadership, this research set out to put some solid data behind how generational behavior and expectations related to leadership vary,” said Michelle Eppler, director of Human Capital Lab and dean of the College of Continuing and Professional Studies at Bellevue University, located in Bellevue, Nebraska.

When it comes to why companies are so obsessed with generational behavior variances, there are many potential contributing factors.

“One may be that it appears to be a convenient way to sort populations — and there is some evidence that experience, although not the same thing, does have a slight impact in how one views leadership,” Eppler said in an email statement. “In the current climate of nearly full employment, retention has become even more vital and companies are constantly searching for ways to enhance employee engagement, reduce costs and increase efficiencies by lowering their attrition rates.”

The leadership preferences survey was delivered online to 2,009 respondents through Survata, a brand intelligence research company. The sample was balanced by age, gender and educational attainment.

“We made sure that we had equal numbers of respondents from different age groups, and also that we had representation from respondents without a college degree, with a college degree and in addition, 20 percent of respondents had a master’s degree or higher,” said Sarah Kimmel, vice president of research at Human Capital Media. Some 60 percent of the respondents were women and 40 percent were men. All of the respondents were from North America, ranging in between 18 and 65 in age, Kimmel said.

Organizations have heavily focused on benefits and different generations with the assumption that generations have different requirements when it comes to benefits. The common stereotypical traits that millennials and Generation Z have been labeled with have been driving policy for some to prepare for future workforce needs. “The two big key takeaways were that, in terms of generational preferences, age is not actually as determining as you might think,” Kimmel said.

According to the study, the majority of employees — regardless of which generation — are actually driven by compensation, have leadership ambitions and want to stay and build or retain their careers with one organization. Eppler said that the study’s findings may serve as exciting consequences for employers.

“If millennials and Generation Z want to stay, but also want a career path that transitions to a leadership role, then adequate compensation, coupled with learning and development in the skills and behaviors they associate with good leaders should improve retention,” Eppler said. “Companies that invest in these areas are more likely to be more confident in the long-term benefits of adequate compensation and leadership development.

Every age group within the study all preferred the same top three qualities in a leader; they must be a good communicator, honest and respectful. “Communication is integral, according to the study,” said Kimmel.

It is often thought that younger generations aren’t as interested in leadership positions, but the study suggests the opposite. 45- to 54-year-olds are twice as likely (36 percent) to say that they are not interested in leadership positions than 25- to 34-year-olds are (13 percent). A total of 85 percent say that they would prefer to stay with their current organization for their entire career, and half of those say they are willing to stay under the right conditions. The only group that showed the most interest in leaving were those between the ages of 18-24 years old. “If you think about it, those are the people just out of school or just starting out in their career, so of course they might be leaving their organization — they’re kind of in their starter job,” Kimmel said. “Over the age of 24, its almost identical across every single age group. People want to stay.”

One thing that stuck out to Eppler about this study’s results was how women are less likely to currently be in a leadership position or ready for leadership (47 percent) than are men (60 percent). Eppler said that this could possibly be due to women being more likely to wait until they have the required skill sets for leadership positions or due to the amount of non-work responsibilities that function as career obstacles. Women were also 10 percent less likely to say that they expect a promotion at their current employer.

According to the study, 42 percent of men say that their employer provides on the job development times for them compared to women (35 percent). Women are more likely to say they are given stretch assignments (23 percent) than men (19 percent). However, they are equally likely to be given leadership training, coaching and mentoring and tuition reimbursement.

“That’s great news, as it points to there not being a lot of structural bias in leadership development programs,” Kimmel said.

Said Eppler, “The one thing the study tells us, is we need to do more to understand what is behind this lack of trust data point women have and examine what are effective approaches within the workplace that successfully address it.”

January 8, 2020January 26, 2021

A Notorious Workplace Warning About Employee Engagement

I’ve been hitting up a neighborhood eatery for several years now.

It’s adorned with funky artwork, airs an eclectic soundtrack and offers a menu featuring everything from a burger slathered in peanut butter to a tasty rotation of hand-made sausages. One week it might be venison, the next chorizo.

No matter the encased meat of the week, the Notorious D.O.G. is my go-to item.

I always feel comfortable stopping in. Not in a “Cheers” way where Norm and Cliff anchor one end of the bar and Frasier Crane holds down the other end and everybody knows my name, but instead for its casual neighborhood vibe.

As good as the food, drink and atmosphere are, what I’ve particularly appreciated is the staff camaraderie. It’s a talented young team that with few exceptions has worked together since my initial visit. I’ve often mused that it must be hard to crack this employee roster since the faces have been familiar for so long.

I even wondered whether there was profit sharing or an employee stock ownership plan to retain the team. In an industry where turnover is regularly 60 percent-plus, they were an employee-retention oddity.

Ultimately I concluded that this team just enjoys working together. So I wasn’t all that surprised to find out that they’re cool with sharing the wealth by pooling their tips.

What a novel concept that in our “Eff you, I got mine” working world, a group of 15 or 20 people pulling for one another’s success allowed them to share the work and reap the rewards.

It was not unusual to see one of them serving one night, hosting the next and behind the bar on another visit. As a collective they have each others’ backs.

If one server has a table that requires a lot of attention, another server or busser covers for their colleague by doing the little things — refilling water glasses or taking an appetizer order even though it is not their table. The team attitude provides amazing customer service, solves problems on the fly and perhaps most importantly keeps the locals eager to return.

About six months ago, though, I noticed a change at the restaurant. Some of the funky artwork disappeared.

The music went from eclectic to predictable. The weekly Notorious D.O.G. rotation went static. And most notably familiar faces were gone.

I discovered that my favorite little eatery had changed ownership.

I get it. Change happens. For those of us who take comfort in the familiar, we need to adapt. That, or find another restaurant that serves tasty, encased meat.

Over the next couple of visits it was clear that other changes were underway. New staff members were inexperienced, which is understandable, but they also seemed indifferent to the legacy of customer service that built up over the years.

Since the staff was still pooling tips, it presented the risk of a breakdown in trust between engaged longtime servers and indifferent new people manifesting itself in an atmosphere of apathy. The delicate dance of having each others’ backs, which had served employees so well, threatened to descend into a clumsy series of missteps that frustrated all staff members and irritated patrons accustomed to a high level of service.

Building a cohesive staff is a challenge all managers face. Engaging and retaining them truly tests that person’s ability to manage people but also speaks volumes for employees’ willingness to set aside their own interests for the good of the organization.

Even in the best of economic times a mere one-third of employees say they are engaged in their work.

That means you have a whole lot of your workforce who at best are indifferent about their work and a big portion of them who couldn’t give a rat’s tail about you, the company’s goals or mission statement.

What can you do? You can gamble on an exodus and hope to rebuild what likely has become a demoralized staff or worse, an ugly, toxic mess.

Or, realize and appreciate the current camaraderie and learn the nuances of what sustains it through employee engagement.

Sure you are going to make changes. It’s your shop now. But too many bosses make change just for change’s sake. Can I toss out a cliché? Why fix what isn’t broken?

Sadly, I still don’t feel that old level of comfort. I’m probably not the lone patron who noticed a swing in the employee engagement.

Swapping out wall hangings, reprogramming music and curbing the fare might be one thing. But a slippage in service is noticeable, and it’s also notoriously bad for business.

January 6, 2020June 29, 2023

Q&A With Jennifer Petriglieri: The Key to Thriving in Love and in Work

Jennifer Petriglieri, author of “Couples That Work,” talked to Workforce about the reality of making a dual-career relationship thrive in both the professional and personal aspect. In her book, she examines three transitions that couples commonly go through, the challenges they face and how to navigate each of these stages of their relationship. She recently spoke with Workforce Editorial Associate Yasmeen Qahwash.

Workforce: Struggling with work-life balance isn’t necessarily a new challenge for couples, so what motivated you to write this book now?

Jennifer Petriglieri: It’s true, couples have been struggling with work-life balance, but the way we’ve looked at work-life balance is really the interface between each individual’s career and their home life. We’ve never looked at how two careers interact together, and certainly, my research in many ways came from my personal experience. I’m in a working couple myself, and facing career transitions, and as every good academic does, when I face a problem, I go to the library. I was looking for research books, anything that could help me really understand how careers fit together, and all I found was the work-life balance literature, which is how do we divide the laundry and manage child care? All these stories of power couples, they seemed to have everything sorted, neither of which were really helpful. The more I looked, the more I realized there’s just nothing out there that looks at the interaction of two people’s careers over their lifetime. So, I thought, if that’s not there, I’m going to write that.

Workforce: What was the methodology for this research?

Petriglieri: Over the course of five years, I followed more than 100 couples across the globe and really tried to understand their lives as they unfolded. These couples were in different career and life stages, so, all the way from late 20s, 30s, 40s, right through to 60s, and even some in their 70s. They were from across the globe, gay, straight, intercultural, some had always lived in the same place, some had moved around — it’s a huge variety. When I started the research, the questions I had were, “What is the arrangement that makes this work? Is there a life structure that if people pursue, they get it right? Is it 50/50 or maybe one person with the lead career? Or maybe we should really stay in one place and not move around?”

Watch the video: Dual-Career Couples and the Balancing Act Between Work and Life

As I got into my research, initially, it was quite confusing. There were couples with all sorts of arrangements that could make it work, and there were couples with exactly the same arrangements who weren’t making it work. That’s when I started to realize, it’s not actually what a couple choose to do, it’s the way in which they go about making their choices, and that really unlocked the findings of the data.

Workforce: How are workplaces accommodating to these couples’ needs and lifestyles, and what are they neglecting?

Petriglieri: The bottom line is, organizations have a D-minus right now when it comes to thinking through working couples. This really stems from the logic we currently have in our organizations around talent management. When we think and talk about talent, we treat them as people with no strings attached. Now, we may say we recognize you have a personal life outside, but that is not the way almost all our talent management structures and processes are designed in organizations. This creates two main issues for working couples, one is a mobility issue and one is a flexibility issue. The mobility issue is that most career ladders are based on the logic of geographic moves. If you want to get to the top of this organization, you need experience in different geographic markets, perhaps you need experience on different sites of the business. This logic of geographic muse is really baked into the heart of our talent management processes. Now, it’s not that working couples are not mobile, that’s not what I found at all. However, they cannot be mobile in the same way that someone with a stay-at-home spouse can be or someone who is single. This is creating big issues for working couples, but also big issues in organizations. The few organizations who are really thinking this through well now are changing the logic from location to a logic of what skills they experience in the network that people need to develop.

The second issue is flexibility. The problem is that most companies are really looking at this in the wrong way. Most people, when you say flexible working, the image that comes in their mind is of a working mother with small children, and they think part-time working or two days a week at home working. The reality is for the vast majority of working couples, that is not the flexibility they want nor is it the flexibility they need, what they need is what I call marginal flexibility. They don’t actually want to work less hours, they just want the flexibility to work those hours when and where suits them best.

Workforce: Communication seems to be a key factor in navigating couples through their transition stages. Why is this so hard for couples to maintain?

Petriglieri: I think there’s one societal reason, and then one reason within couples. I think as a society, if we think about our careers, we have a logic of investment. We wouldn’t think twice to spend a weekend on a retreat thinking about career direction and career strategizing. And we think about careers in terms of investing effort to figure out where we want to go and what’s important in pursuing it. When we think about relationships, we have the Prince Charming logic — I meet the one, I kiss the frog and we live happily ever after. We may laugh at that, and we know in our heart of hearts it’s completely unrealistic. Yet time and time again, as a society, we think about having these deep conversations as something that should be done when we have an issue in our relationship. We don’t think about relationships through the logic of investing in them. If you ask someone, “What’s your vision for your relationship?” they probably look at you with a blank face, and I’ve done it many times, I can attest to that. But if you ask someone, “What’s the vision for your career?” they could likely tell you something. I think what this does is it puts couples in the mindset of the fairy tale of their relationship, that if something becomes challenging, maybe that’s a problem with our relationship, maybe we’re not meant to be together. No, it’s just about investment — it’s exactly the same view as your careers. The more you invest, the more you get out. This is true in every domain of life, but in our relationships, we tend to, as a society, have left that behind and really forgotten about that. Then for couples, if we’ve not been doing that investment, when we hit that first roadblock, we are like rabbits in the headlights. We think, “Whoa, what’s happening? Is this a problem with our relationship? Maybe we shouldn’t have gone down this path together.” Rather than thinking, “OK, this is the time we need to double down and invest in those conversations.” To be fair, many couples get to those conversations through a crisis point, and that’s OK to get there. The question is once you get there can you then use that insight to develop a habit of keeping working on that stuff together? The reason I use the term investment is because these can be difficult conversations, but they’re also incredibly rewarding conversations. Who doesn’t want to spend time thinking about what really matters to them? Who doesn’t want to spend time with the person they love most in the world? Thinking about, “Where do we want to go in life, what are the things that are important to us?” So, it’s not that these conversations are really painful to have all the time, it’s just that we’re not used to having them. One of my real ambitions for the book, is it changes the way we talk about our relationships, it changes the way we think about working couples and it changes the conversations we have with our partners, but also we have with each other, we have in our organizations, and we have as a society about what it takes to make a relationship and two careers work.

September 10, 2019June 29, 2023

What Color Choice Can Do for Your Workforce

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

September 6, 2019June 29, 2023

Facing the Caregiving Crisis

When Mani Mueller landed a plum job at a biotech firm in Wisconsin in 2013 she brought her parents from Pennsylvania to help care for her two young daughters while she found her footing at work.

The timing was perfect. Her mother had just retired and her father, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, was doing well and looked forward to spending time with his granddaughters. But what promised to be a dream scenario fell apart within a few months as her father’s condition declined and her mom couldn’t keep up with his care.

Parkinson’s is a progressive nervous system disorder that affects movement, and her father began falling frequently, requiring constant supervision. Soon, Mueller was tackling not only the demands of a new job, but also working a second shift as her father’s primary caregiver and power of attorney, shuttling him to doctor’s appointments, researching treatments, and learning to navigate the Medicare and Medicaid systems. Since her father, a Laotian immigrant, spoke little English she also became his translator.

At 37, Mueller had joined the ranks of 44 million adults in the United States who provide unpaid care for a loved one who needs support, according to AARP. She also became a member of the “sandwich generation,” caring for both a parent and children. Like many caregivers in the workplace, she never told her employer for fear of damaging her career. Instead, she used her vacation and personal days to meet the demands of caregiving.

In January 2018, five years after she placed her father in a nursing home, her company, Promega, introduced a caregiver leave benefit that provides employees with an additional two weeks of paid time off a year to care for a sick parent, spouse or child, or to welcome a new child. But even then Mueller was reluctant to come forward.

“I didn’t want to advertise that I was dealing with all of this or put on paper that my dad has this condition and my kids have that condition,” said Mueller, now 43 and a manager in supplier quality at Fitchburg, Wisconsin-based Promega. “I keep everything to myself. I thought sharing this information would negatively impact my career. I’m very quiet and private, but internally, I thought ‘How much more can I deal with?’ I was exhausted and stressed out.”

Mueller’s story illustrates the dilemmas faced by many caregivers who must choose between what’s best for their families and what’s best for their careers. It also sheds light on the complexities of caregiving in a time of great demographic change. Older people will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history by 2030, traditional family structures are changing with families getting smaller and more geographically dispersed, and thanks to medical advances people are living longer with disabilities and chronic conditions.

This is resulting in a caregiving crisis that many employers are failing to acknowledge or understand, according to a Harvard Business School study released in January. “The Caring Company” report highlights a disconnect between the kinds of supports caregivers in the workplace need and what most companies provide.

Fear Factor

One reason that employers don’t understand the impact of caregiving on their businesses is that many employees are afraid to tell them, according to Linda Roundtree, an HR consultant who specializes in the aging workforce.

“When people don’t feel free to come forward, they have to make an excuse for why things happen or why they’re distracted at work,” she said. “There’s fear about hurting their careers. You see that fear when women are afraid to disclose that they’re pregnant.”

Only 28 percent of employees who care for a loved one were willing to admit that their family responsibilities harmed their careers, according to the Harvard Business School report. Around half of caregivers surveyed were afraid of being overlooked for challenging assignments, or missing out on salary increases or bonuses. And while 80 percent of employees admit that caregiving has affected their productivity, less than one-fourth of employers said that caregiving influences employee performance.

Mueller said that if Promega had a caregiving benefit when she started there it’s unlikely that she would have taken it. But by 2018 Mueller had been a manager for two years and was confident in her position. So, when her dad’s condition worsened again that May and her daughter was diagnosed with a kidney infection she signed up for time off under the company’s caregiver leave policy. Her father died the following November.

“Exceptional caregiving” is the term that Roundtree uses to describe the new realities for caregivers who are caring for loved ones with a host of cognitive impairments, physical disabilities and chronic conditions.

“There is a huge chunk of the workforce that will be taking care of a child with special health care needs or an elderly parent,” said Roundtree, who co-authored a 2018 paper on the changing nature of caregiving for Boston College Center for Work and Family. “Today even young, single people understand that complex things will happen either to themselves or to a partner or spouse and they need employers that know how to support them.”

The Young Caregivers

While the typical caregiver is a white woman in her late 50s, about one-fourth of all caregivers are between the ages of 18 and 29, according to AARP. They are also the fastest growing and most diverse demographic in the workplace. Employers need to understand that caregiving affects workers of all ages, Roundtree said.

The scope of the problem came as a surprise to executives at Promega when the company surveyed its own workforce in 2017 to better understand the caregiving needs of its employees.

It looked at all kinds of situations from parents of newborns to parents of children with special needs to children caring for parents and adults caring for a spouse, according to Promega benefits manager Diana Clark. She said that everyone was surprised by the variety and intensity of the demands on employee caregivers. They discovered a hidden population of employees who were spending about 29 hours a week on caregiving duties, basically working a second unpaid shift.

Also a surprise was the average age of their caregivers: 33 years old.

Promega Benefits Manager Diana Clark caregiving — Promega Benefits Manager Diana Clark

“I would have thought three years ago that average caregiver is 55 or 60 years old and nearly retired, but it’s a parent with kids and an elderly parent who is struggling with cancer or some other health condition,” Clark said.

“When you talk to people in those roles they will tell you that’s just what they do and that it’s not a burden. They’ll say that ‘dad just needs me to get groceries, or he can’t drive, or I have to make sure that mom takes her meds.’ There so many tactile details involved that we couldn’t help but see the strain.”

This led Promega to launch caregiver leave benefits in January 2018 that provide employees with an additional two weeks of paid time off a year to care for a sick parent, spouse or child, or to welcome a new child. The benefit can be used in daily increments or all at once. So far, 120 employees, or 12 percent of Promega’s 1,400 employees, including subsidiaries, have used the benefit.

Employees Open Up

Clark said that the program has taken on a life of its own with employees coming forward to share their stories and even launching their own initiative called Circle of Caring. The initiative connects caregivers and employee volunteers willing to help with meals, shopping, lawn care, transportation and other errands. One group of volunteers even planted a garden for an employee who was an avid gardener but was unable to use his arm after a surgery.

This year, the company also began offering free onsite psychological counseling one day a week for caregivers and plans to offer health care navigation services, among other supports for caregivers, such as bereavement support and financial counseling.

Deb Notstad, 57, a complaint investigations specialist at Promega, is grateful for the benefits, even though they came too late to help her. In 2016 her elderly mother was dying and she was caring for her 28-year-old son Adam, who is physically and developmentally disabled. Notstad, a single mother, is also the legal guardian for her brother who is a critical diabetic and is developmentally disabled. While she thinks that two weeks of paid leave is great, it’s not nearly enough for those with complex caregiving needs.

“When they introduced the benefit I had already spent weeks in the hospital with my son,” she said. “My first reaction was, ‘Are you kidding? This is a drop in the bucket.’ But I don’t know too many businesses that offer something like this.”

While a growing number of companies including Starbucks, Cigna, Best Buy and Microsoft offer caregiver supports such as extended paid leave, long-term care insurance for parents and grandparents, and counseling, the vast majority do not offer benefits that are valued by caregivers, according to the Harvard Business School study.

The top reasons that caregivers quit their jobs is the high cost of paid help, the difficulty in finding trustworthy support, and the inability to manage the demands of work and home — all areas where employers could provide support, the study found.

Those that fail to address the problem will pay the price in “hidden costs” such as turnover, loss of institutional knowledge, absenteeism and other factors that are difficult to quantify, according to the study.

Katie Boer, 31, never thought that two years after landing her dream job as a broadcast journalist she would be quitting to look after her 71-year-old mother. In 2016, shortly after she began working at a Las Vegas television station, Boer’s mother, who lives in Seattle, was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, which can cause hallucinations and Parkinson’s-like symptoms such as body rigidity, tremors and balance problems.

At first, Boer handled things by phone and took paid time off for regular trips to Seattle, but as her mother’s condition worsened the situation became unmanageable. Her mother would call her at work several times a day confused and agitated, often minutes before she went on the air. Eventually, Boer installed a video camera in her mom’s apartment to keep a closer eye on her. But when she saw her mom lying on the floor in the middle of the night crying out Boer’s name for hours, she reached a breaking point.

“I’d be lying in bed watching her not sleeping with tears falling sideways down my cheeks,” she said.

“I’d cry all night and go to the bathroom and throw up. Even though I had a dream job I felt like I was selfish for not being there. So I sacrificed my job and moved to Seattle.”

For employees at smaller companies without caregiving supports or benefits like flex time or paid time off the burden of caregiving can be especially crushing.

Amanda Smith, 34, works at a small nonprofit arts foundation on the East Coast that is not required to provide leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. With a toddler who has cerebral palsy along with other disabilities and requires round-the-clock care, managing a career is an enormous challenge.

While her boss was initially accommodating, allowing her to work from home one day a week, he has become impatient with the lack of flexibility in her schedule, she said.

“He’d like me to come in without any warning but our lives our very, very choreographed because of all the doctor’s appointments, services and nursing care that my son needs,” she said. “We can’t just call a babysitter. My husband would have to call in sick or my mother-in-law would need to come because she’s the only one besides us who knows how to take care of him. I don’t think employers really understand how complicated caring for a child with a disability can be.”

But many are trying, according to LuAnn Heinen, vice president at the National Business Group on Health, a coalition of large employers.

“It’s definitely on their radar,” she said. “We did a survey in 2017 and 88 percent of employers think caregiving will be a big issue over the next few years. Paid leave is important but we know that it won’t solve the problem if you’re caring for someone over a number of years. There must be more supports like flexible work arrangements, health care navigation, and services to help employees find caregiving services. Employers realize this.”

For those that fail to address the needs of caregivers, Clark warned that companies like Promega will be happy to hire their employees away.

“Unemployment is low and there are great people out there who are not getting their needs met and will want to work for an employer who recognizes them as a whole person,” she said. “You lose so many aspects of what that person can bring to the table when they are trying to take care of their families and are not supported.”

August 5, 2019June 29, 2023

Workplaces Becoming a Stage for Corporate and Social Movements

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist, Weber Shandwick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 30, 2019June 29, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 16, 2019June 29, 2023

Playing the Game of Baby Boomer Bingo

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

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

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

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

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

Embrace Flexibility

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

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

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

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

Become a Career Partner

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

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

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

Provide Up-to-Date Technology

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

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

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

Make Workplace Accessibility a Priority

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

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

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

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

Engaging Talent of All Ages

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

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

Keep Looking Ahead

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

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

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