Poor internal communication can have some seriously negative impacts on a company — poor morale, high employee turnover and lower employee productivity, to name a few. Worse yet, these can lead to a lasting effect on a company’s bottom line.
Statistics show that plenty of businesses could stand to improve in this area. According to a 2018 Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. study, 60 percent of companies don’t have a long-term internal communication strategy, though about half said they wanted to make improving leadership communication a top priority.
Additionally, replacing a worker can cost a company 33 percent of that worker’s annual salary. And lower morale leads to actively disengaged employees, which results in reduced productivity. Productivity loss costs the U.S. a whopping $550 billion each year, according to a Gallup report. Turnover and lower morale can also make it more difficult for a company to attract the talent it needs to move forward.
These problems should give businesses powerful incentive to improve communication with employees.
Three Internal Communication Problems to Avoid
Here are some of the most common communication problems companies face and how to avoid them:
Using outdated communication methods. With many companies going paperless, email has become the primary form of communication because it’s quick and efficient. However, it can also be a source of decreased productivity, as employee inboxes can quickly get cluttered with frivolous emails that hide important messages. The constant influx of new messages can also be a distraction from completing important tasks.
Companies can try focusing on mobile-driven communication instead. Company apps such as G Suite, Asana and Slack offer a new way to communicate and engage employees via their smartphones or tablets. This is especially ideal as the workforce demographics are changing to include nontraditional employees like remote workers, contract-based workers and freelancers.
An employee app provides workers with easy access to corporate information and workplace tools while cutting out the clutter of irrelevant messages and keeping all employees on the same page. Many employees also prefer the use of apps over email. For example, our clients and even some vendors prefer communicating via Slack channels rather than email to touch base quickly and share relevant documents.
Not having an internal communication strategy. Many times, companies place their focus on putting a solid strategy in place for external communications with their customers, but developing an internal communication strategy is just as important. In fact, poor internal communication, along with poor coaching of frontline workers, can result in poor communication with customers. This limits a company’s ability to build a sense of loyalty among customers. Here are some tips to help you start building an internal communication strategy that works:
Assess your current internal communication and where you want to be. What has worked successfully and what hasn’t?
Identify and track key metrics. What data points matter to you? Is it how many people access your intranet, social media shares and comments from your staff, or customer service issues? Identifying and setting goals that align with your business objectives will be important.
Identify and segment your internal audience. Not all communication needs to go to everyone.
Identify your communication tools. This can include email, face-to-face meetings, social media, an intranet, company apps and more. Pick the channel that works best for the audience and the type of message you are communicating.
A lack of feedback. A lack of feedback can cause employees to feel like their voices aren’t being heard and can have a significant impact on employee turnover. HR professionals and managers often communicate with employees about policies and procedures without taking the time to listen to them. If you want to implement a comprehensive communication strategy, it should include two-way communication.
Not only does listening to employee issues and concerns improve productivity and build loyalty, but it’s also an opportunity to learn about issues or concerns before they escalate into a formal complaint.
Start a feedback loop process through authentic and consistent communication between managers and employees. Providing feedback benefits a company by increasing engagement and helping to move the company forward. Up to 80 percent of an organization’s opportunity for improvement comes from frontline employees.
Now that you understand what’s at stake when a company has poor internal communication, you can begin taking the necessary steps to avoid these pitfalls. If you don’t take the time to develop a solid strategy, you’re putting your company at risk of losing touch with employees in addition to losing money.
A recent survey conducted by HR consultancy Korn Ferry revealed that 55 percent of employees prefer a raise with no promotion. However, 45 percent of them are just fine with a new title and no salary bump.
The survey, conducted in December and released in January, collected 1,327 responses from professionals. The key components of the survey could offer employers insight to how their employees consider which reward matters most.
Dennis Baltzley, global head of leadership development solutions at Korn Ferry noted, “Appropriate compensation is key to a professional’s job satisfaction, but at least as important as recognition for a job well done. One of the most visible forms of recognition is a promotion.”
When asked what the most likely action would be if they wanted to attain a promotion, 77 percent of respondents said they would have a conversation with their supervisor directly and identify areas of growth. When asked what they would do if they were passed over for a promotion, 66 percent said they would identify the reason(s) and work to improve while 20 percent said they would take on more responsibility.
Professionals are saying that they are willing to improve their workplace performance in order to be recognized. However, bottlenecking, or having nowhere to go, were the biggest likely reasons respondents said they were passed over for a promotion. If passed over, 31 percent of respondents said that they would start searching for other job opportunities.
In order to retain and motivate talent, Baltzley advised that, “Organizational leaders must set expectations of constant learning, and this means development and career plans at all levels, so employees see a path broadening, deepening, or advancing.”
In the next 12 months, half of the respondents said that they will ask for a promotion.
The other half, if they haven’t already received a promotion, said that they are afraid or don’t know how to ask, or they admit that they are not ready to be promoted.
Some 90 percent of respondents said they expected a promotion in one to five years. Of that, 44 percent were in the two- to three-year range. Employers need to be prepared for both cases while also considering how long an employee expects to stay in a role before being promoted.
“They key to job progression is ongoing development and coaching to ensure professionals are receiving feedback in terms of how they are doing in their current role and what they need to do to be ready to take on added responsibility,” Baltzley said. “And even if an employee is not yet ready for the next role, knowing that there is a potential for a promotion to a more challenging role is an excellent way to retain top talent.”
Law.com recently pronounced, “The Emojis are Coming!”
That article got me thinking, are they coming to workplace litigation, too? After all, emojis are a form of communication, and work is all about communication. Which would suggest that we would start seeing them in harassment and discrimination cases.
According to Bloomberg Law, mentions of emojis in federal discrimination lawsuits doubled from 2016 to 2017. Let’s not get crazy. The doubling went from six cases to 12 cases. But, a trend is a trend.
While harassment cases dominate these filings, it’s not just employees who are using 🍆 to establish a hostile work environment. Employers are using employees’ use of emojis to respond to alleged acts of harassment (such as 😄, or 😉, or 😉) to help establish that the alleged hostile work environment was either welcomed or subjectively not offensive.
On the flip side, consider the salacious sexual harassment lawsuit filed against celebrity chef Mike Isabella. According that lawsuit, Isabella referred to attractive female customers as “corn” after one of his chef’s commented that one woman was “so hot, [he’d] eat the corn out of her shit.” The lawsuit alleges further acts of harassment via text messages with with corn emojis 🌽.
Most employers already have an emoji policy. It’’s called your harassment policy. You do not need a separate policy to forbid your employees from using what is becoming an acceptable form of communication … .
We can have a healthy debate over the professionalism of emoji use in business communications (like this one). Indeed, according to one recent survey, “nearly half (41%) of workers use emojis in professional communications. And among the senior managers polled, 61% said it’s fine, at least in some situations.” My sense is that your view of this issue will depend on a combination of your age, your comfort with technology, and the age of your kids.
As for me, I use emojis all the time, even at work. Email is notoriously tone deaf. It’s easier for me to drop a 😊 into an email to convey intent than to tone down my sarcasm.
In other words, 😁. Emojis are 👌, and it’s perfectly fine to ❤️ them at work 👍.
At a time when careers in government are increasingly underscored with public and political pressure, Kirsten Wyatt is sounding the alarm about the public sector workforce.
“The government needs to wake up and realize there’s a talent war,” said Wyatt, executive director of the Oregon-based Engaging Local Government Leaders, a nonprofit promoting diversity, education and networking among local government employees on a national level. “If you’re going to be competing for entry-level or jobs you want to fill with talent you can then nurture, you need to put in more effort.”
Public sector agencies from the massive federal government to tiny rural townships face unique challenges when competing with private businesses for talent. Recruiting and retention is a recurring concern for the skill set often associated with public service employees. And it’s no secret that private sector companies typically offer substantially higher wages and more flexible work schedules. And there are other factors coming into play.
Prime among them is the so-called silver tsunami, a wave of baby boomers exiting the workforce into retirement. Studies show some 10,000 boomers retire every day, leaving a huge gap for public sector employers to fill.
According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the average age of a full-time federal employee is 47.5 years, with 45 percent of the workforce over 50 years old.
The Congressional Research Service indicates 52 percent of public workers are age 45 to 64 compared to 42.4 percent in the private sector.
Federal workers are older than state and local government employees, too, studies show. Of those age 45 to 64, 56.7 percent are federal, 52.1 percent are local, and 49.7 percent are state employees.
In a 2018 survey by the Center for State & Local Government Excellence, public sector HR directors report higher numbers of retirements in 2018 over 2017.
Another challenge: Public agencies depend on tax base or bond-measure revenues to create new jobs and rehire for open positions. Hiring freezes are not uncommon even in flush economic times.
Nannina Angioni
“When taxpayer dollars are on the line, protections and processes come into play that an untrained, private sector employee would not even consider,” said Nannina Angioni, a labor and employment attorney and partner of the Los Angeles-based law firm Kaedian LLP.
Angioni said it can be costly and time consuming to find employees with public sector experience for entry-level positions given the increased ethical considerations, regulatory issues and legal obligations that typically don’t apply to private sector workers.
Still another challenge: enticing people to technology jobs. While millennials exhibit technological advantages being digital natives, it’s also one reason they are scarce in government workplaces with antiquated systems where they can’t sharpen their skills, said Kris Tremaine, a senior vice president focusing on the federal public sector at ICF, a global consulting and technology services company.
Although millennials will comprise 75 percent of the workforce by 2025, they currently make up only 10 percent of the federal sector technology workforce, said Tremaine.
Kris Tremaine
Eighty-two percent of the Center for State & Local Government Excellence’s survey respondents indicated recruitment and retention as a workforce priority. They’re finding it difficult to fill positions in policing, engineering, network administration, emergency dispatch, accounting, skilled trades and information technology.
“When it comes to recruiting talent, you need to go where the talent is,” said ELGL’s Wyatt, adding that while many public sector HR departments continue to advertise jobs in newspapers, potential talent is hanging out on social media.
While Wyatt calls many job ads “boring,” she also notes successful efforts such as one produced by the city of Los Angeles for a graphic designer. The ad appeared as if a child drew it with a crayon. It went viral.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, human resources professional Jody Blake posts jobs on social media featuring eye-catching images of palm tree-lined beaches or building plans.
To fill vacancies in Fort Lauderdale’s 2,500-member workforce, Blake uses Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter and Indeed.
She’s had the most success with LinkedIn, especially for stormwater and wastewater engineers. She posts jobs on engineering group sites at no cost and uses LinkedIn’s Recruiter Lite program to maximize her efforts.
“I believe in getting the word out any way you can,” she said. “Even if people aren’t interested themselves, they may know someone who is.”
The public sector should take a page from the private sector in hiring practices, including internships, career fairs, meet-ups, events, social activities and using more technology, said Tremaine. Blake, meanwhile, also seeks people with a passion to make a difference. Jobs emphasizing social good attract millennials who want to be part of making a difference “such as in helping Americans stop taking opioids or climate change issues,” Tremaine added.
Wyatt said, “You can work in sustainability, be a librarian, police officer or an engineer and all work for a local government with that public service ethos at the core of your job every day.”
Millennials Embrace Collaboration
Human-centered open plan designs supporting teamwork where employees of different skill sets gather is important, said Tremaine.
While millennials skip from job to job often for higher pay, “some want clearer paths to growth and an understanding of where they fit in the organization,” Tremaine said, adding they prefer a coaching-mentor relationship to a boss.
Streamlining onerous paperwork and a protracted timeline involved in public sector employment may attract more employees, Tremaine said.
So too would the ability to leave a job and return “and not lose all of your benefits while drawing private sector best practices into the government,” she added.
Jody Blake
Fort Lauderdale attracts many people looking for a switch after many years working in the private sector. While they made more money in private industry, they seek the security of the public sector, Blake said.
The city of Weston, Florida, took a different approach 21 years ago by outsourcing most positions per its charter.
“Probably 70 percent or more of a government budget is the cost is to pay employees,” said City Manager John Flint.
Only 10 positions for the city of Weston are in-house: six department directors, a city manager, two assistants and a clerk. An assistant city manager handles necessary HR functions such as insurance and payroll contributions.
Law enforcement is provided through the Broward County Sheriff’s Department. Other city jobs are filled by government outsourcing services such as C.A.P. Government, Calvin, Giordano & Associates, Municipal Technologies, and Weiss, Serota, Helfman, Cole & Bierman.
“All of the people here are by invitation and not by right. If the people assigned to us don’t meet our expectations, it is easier for us to replace them. I don’t have to spend my time managing people. I can manage the city and spend more time with our elected officials and residents,” said Flint, adding Weston’s approach offers greater flexibility and efficiency.
Some outsourced employees have been with the city before its incorporation in 1996 when it was a community development district, said Flint. When the city changes service providers (which hasn’t happened in a decade), Flint ensures the incoming provider retains the current employees and keeps their salaries and benefits at least equal to the previous provider.
Kaedian LLP’s Angioni said that once they are hired, many public sector employees stay in their job for decades for the perks of consistent work hours, minimal demands outside of their set schedules, union benefits, rights to reinstatement, pensions and appeal rights to disciplinary actions.
Career Moves
The public sector also offers the ability to try different careers while retaining benefits in one organization.
An agency might consider moving someone who’s been an analyst in community development for a few years into public utilities for another few years to increase their knowledge base and broaden their skills.
Such moves keep employees “engaged, excited and continually learning” while also giving departments “a fresh set of eyes,” Wyatt said. That’s important to retention, given the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on employee wages, benefits, training and development over a five-year span, she added.
John Flint
To retain employees in one of the most difficult public sector jobs — solid waste collection — Greenville, South Carolina, Solid Waste and Recycling Manager Mildred Lee treats a crew to lunch monthly to show her appreciation and elicit their input.
She’s retained employees by leading an effort to convert solid waste collection from five to four days. A supervisory mentoring program for all frontline solid waste employees has transitioned two into management.
A 2018 survey by the Center for State & Local Government Excellence noted that more than 45 percent of the respondents offer flexible scheduling, 65 percent support employee development and training reimbursement, 37 percent host wellness programs or on-site fitness facilities, and 34 percent provide some form of paid family leave.
Wyatt said she receives increasing feedback about the value the midprofessional generation places on paid family leave.
Kansas City, Missouri, recently finished a one-year paid family leave pilot program. It was utilized primarily by male police officers. It’s the hardest job for which to recruit and is typically dominated by young men, said Wyatt.
“You look at the long-term impact that has on employee morale and loyalty and who you choose to work for with everything else being equal,” she added.
As the public sector starts to see the dismantling of retiree benefits, one useful tool may be adopting the Individual Medicare Marketplace for retiree health care programs, “a model generally far more affordable for retirees while offering cost savings for employers,” says Marianne Steger, director of public sector strategy at Willis Towers Watson and former health care director for the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System.
Retaining employees has meant offering low-priced health insurance, a generous retirement plan, educational incentives, annual reviews typically with pay increases and the ability to start off at a good rate of vacation time accrual, said Fort Lauderdale’s Blake.
Blake offers advice to new hires on how to improve their profile to increase their promotion chances. Employees are surveyed on the work culture. Employees are called community builders while residents are called neighbors.
Wyatt and her husband Kent — both former public sector employees — founded ELGL after noticing local government education, training and networking was siloed based on job title. Its 4,000 members nationwide represent a cross-section of entry-level employees to mayors and city managers.
“It helps when librarians can learn from planners and cops can learn from finance directors,” said Wyatt.
Their organization provides collaboration and cross-departmental training through a technology network connecting public sector employees in one part of the country to others elsewhere to help deal with problems for which others have found solutions.
It also provides online content, monthly webinars, regional pop-up conferences and a national conference. Informal meet-ups are held on college campuses to introduce local government careers to college students.
Further, it focuses on increasing the number of women and people of color into local government leadership to reflect U.S. community demographics.
While there is much focus on age demographics in public service, Wyatt said what most people in a public service career want is no different than anyone else: “feeling recognized for a job well done, independence and learning something that takes them to the next step in their career.”
Wyatt has seen some members go through a career crisis as they contemplate a move to the private sector for more pay and better fringe benefits.
“They choose to stick with government,” she said. “They built a network that supports them and reminds them it’s work worth doing and that’s powerful.”
In August 2017, Patrick McMullan and more than 50 of his employees had microchips inserted in their fingers live on NBC’s “Today Show.”
McMullan, the president of Three Square Market, a Wisconsin-based company that sells self-service break room vending machines, said it was one of the most exhilarating and nerve-wracking experiences of his life.
An employee who was to be chipped approached him 10 minutes before he was going on air and asked, “Should I do it today or not?” McMullan said “No,” to the employee’s surprise.
“If you’re asking me, it means you’re not certain about it,” he said. “And the answer is ‘No’ until you can be at peace that it’s something you want to do.”
Three Square Market received a lot of media attention after its chip party — both negative and positive, McMullan said — but in the past year Three Square proved that it’s possible to be forward-thinking with technology while also contemplating and respecting employees’ privacy.
“What that has done is inspired our employees to be far more innovative in finding solutions,” he said. “It’s helped all of our businesses in the past year. We’ve had a phenomenal 12 months.”
As more monitoring devices — phone or video recorders, wristbands, microchips, and wireless sensors that measure employees’ brain waves — are developed, and as these tools become more powerful, there’s greater potential for invading employees’ privacy.
Perceptions toward monitoring devices depend on what type of analysis is being done — an issue that becomes more complex as devices with elaborate capabilities enter the market, said Laurel McNall, associate professor at The College at Brockport, State University of New York. Her research interests revolve around employee attitudes, specifically around perceptions of fairness in the workplace.
“I do think there is a danger of setting up an electronic sweatshop,” McNall said.
What once appeared a dystopian, futuristic theory is a reality, at least from a technology perspective.
It would be naive to believe that companies will curb their use of monitoring devices that they think will improve business. But it would also be naive to assume that there aren’t organizations or managers that would take advantage of surveillance technology — and the lack of oversight — and cross a line when monitoring employees. In many cases workers are stuck in the middle, feeling as if they don’t have a choice in the matter or any sense of privacy at work.
As employers face the scattered legal landscape of employee monitoring and the often-skeptical reaction of their employees — Three Square Market workers notwithstanding — they must tread carefully and respectfully to find success.
Employee Comfort Levels Toward Monitoring
Most employees find it unacceptable to monitor personal, non-work-related activities, according to a 2018 survey conducted by the HR Metrics & Analytics Summit, “Workplace Privacy & Protection: Is Your Employer Watching Your Every Move?” It’s inappropriate to monitor physical movements around the workplace, for example through wearable technology such as a Fitbit, said 57 percent of employee respondents, while 56 percent said it’s inappropriate to monitor personal interactions with these devices.
The survey also found that 48 percent of employees don’t trust their company to protect their data.
Contextual factors are important in how employees will likely react to monitoring, said Dave Tomczak, an industrial-organizational psychology doctoral student at George Washington University who researches electronic monitoring in organizations. One of his most recent studies analyzed workers with highly complex jobs requiring a lot of creativity and whether they respond the same way as employees with less autonomy in their role.
“When someone has a flexible job, they expect the organization is going to give them the discretion to carry out their work,” he said. “Some of these people will see monitoring as hindering their ability to do their job. They perceive less autonomy in their day-to-day operations.”
It has the opposite effect on people with low-complexity jobs, like cashiering, he added, where it’s more likely that people will feel as though it helps them perform better.
“When monitoring gets in the way of people doing their jobs, that’s where the problems come in,” he said.
People find monitoring that is close to the body — for example, devices underneath employees’ desks that sense body heat to tell how long employees are away from their desks — as the most invasive, he added.
Tomczak’s adviser, Tara Behrend, associate professor of I-O psychology at George Washington University and an expert on privacy and ethical implications of workplace monitoring, said that not all surveillance is equal, and not all people respond similarly to it.
“Talking about what those variables are that make the difference is really critical,” she said. “We don’t want to give into hysteria, we also don’t want to ignore the potential dangers of doing this the wrong way.”
Three Square Market has tried to keep a healthy balance between taking advantage of the new chip technology while respecting the boundaries of some employees, McMullan said.
The radio-frequency identification, or RFID, chips that were implanted don’t track employees’ movements or location but do store data that allows employees to open doors, unlock computers and make payments. The next iteration of this chip technology will store medical and health data, and Three Square is conducting beta testing on that technology. Religious and privacy concerns are two major reasons employees express disinterest, McMullan said, and such objections can’t be ignored.
“Our mission is not to tell people to go get chipped,” he said, adding that one of his key staff members is adamantly against it and keeps him in line.
“Having that voice that said, ‘I’m not comfortable with this,’ has been one of the most valuable pieces because we’re in constant communication, talking back and forth, how would you do this?” McMullan said.
The Privacy Legal Landscape in the U.S.
Policymakers are likely to face confusion on how to deal with the challenges that arise from emerging technology, according to the 2018 “Emerging Tech Trends Report,” written by Amy Webb, founder of The Future Today Institute. The report explores emerging technology trends that will likely impact business, government, education, media and society in coming years.
As this tension between privacy and security continues, the report states, both large tech companies and small tech startups could face problems with “rules and legislation that are either too restrictive or don’t acknowledge that science and tech are in constant motion.”
While this is the prediction, though, and while that might have some truth in Europe with the advent of GDPR — General Data Protection Regulation — the current landscape in the United States is relatively devoid of regulations.
There’s no federal law regarding employee privacy, and if there are any rules, they’re on a state-by-state basis, said employment law attorney Jeffrey Dretler, partner at the Boston office of law firm Fisher Phillips. The closest federal law is the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. While the act protects wire, oral and electronic communications in transit, it does not protect privacy and was not intended as a privacy protection regulation.
Across the country, if an organization gets an employee’s consent, especially in writing, it can monitor anything. When there’s no consent, that’s where employers run into risks.
Many states have two-party consent laws, meaning both parties have to agree, while others have single-party consent laws, in which an employer could essentially monitor without notifying employees. Still, Dretler advises that best practices dictate that employers get consent no matter the state they’re in.
“It’s not always necessary to get consent, but it’s better to because it insulates the employer from potential cause of action an employee might try to bring,” he said.
Certain states have created explicit laws for specific types of monitoring. States including California, Missouri and North Dakota have passed laws prohibiting the use of microchips, while Illinois and Washington state have protections on employees’ biometric data.
“As tech advances, certainly states pass laws regulating what can and can’t be done,” he said. “But for the most part, the laws focus on informing employees of what the company wants to do, informing employees on how the data will be used and getting employees’ consent for it. They’re not express prohibitions. The prohibition is on doing it without telling anybody or doing it without consent.”
This poses a challenge for privacy-concerned employees, who can’t bring a claim saying they want to work at a company but not have their data collected. The idea is that, as long as an employer tells a potential employee what it intends to monitor, the employee can agree and work there or not agree and find another job.
“As more and more companies start to collect and use this kind of data it becomes harder and harder for employees to find a place to work that doesn’t do it,” Dretler said.
Best Practices for Employee Monitoring
Just like the technology itself will continue to advance, ethical concerns among employees also will increase. Organizational psychologist McNall said there are steps an organization can take to reduce this idea of an electronic sweatshop.
Psychologists are interested in people’s emotional needs and how to develop a workplace environment that meets those needs, said McNall, who studies employee attitudes specifically around perceptions of fairness in the workplace. Two major needs are autonomy — the ability to have freedom and independence over how to do something — and competency — the ability to do something successfully or efficiently.
Technology is supposed to help employees be more productive at their jobs, thus increasing their competence. But they still want autonomy at work, McNall said.
“Autonomy is at risk; competence potentially could be enhanced,” she said. “How do you help make people feel like they’re still autonomous, that they still have some degree of control?”
Employers can provide that independence by giving employees the ability to turn the monitoring on and off in a protected space in the office, which helps deter feelings of invaded privacy. The caveat is that employees often need to take home and use some tracking devices — like wearables to count steps or track health data — so there may not be a truly protected time or space for employees to disconnect.
Employers can also be smart about communicating the technology, how it works and its ultimate purpose, she said. The decision to monitor employees requires thoughtfulness and strategy, and organizations should not track for the sake of tracking but because it brings value to both the employer and employee. Employees should know that the potential value is for them.
“Make sure you spend time,” she said. “Be intentional and deliberate in how you word it. Have an adequate, well-thought-out explanation.”
Employers should tell employees what they plan to do with their data and give them a voice in the process, allowing them some level of participation, George Washington University’s Tomczak said. If employers aren’t giving their workforce this information, employees may be skeptical about what’s going on in the background.
“If it’s not transparent, if it’s not feedback-based, then it’s authoritarian,” he said.
McNall also emphasized the importance of building this trust. Although monitoring technology is itself neutral, there’s potential for of privacy invasion and lack of fairness.
“There’s no way monitoring is going away,” she said. “So how can we take an issue like that — this is reality; this is where we are right now — and still make the workplace a better place using science?”
Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.
I recently had an eye-opening generational experience while at a Slovenian picnic a few weeks ago. The crowd was varied (made up of the Slovenians who had immigrated to Chicago in the early 20th century and their descendants): 80-something-year-old immigrants who sit on picnic benches the whole time and have long conversations in their Eastern European tongue, 50-somethings playing bocce ball with a beer in hand and the 20-somethings like me.
The people in my parents’ generation undoubtedly talk about work or when they can finally retire. Where should they invest? Will retirement be in 10 or 15 years? Will they retire in Arizona or Texas or Asia? They speak like they’re one of those persnickety couples on House Hunters International, saying things like, “I really don’t care where we live as long as we’re five minutes from the beach,” and “But we could get a much better deal if we’re willing to move further from the beach!”
The people in my grandparents’ generation also bring up work and retirement, like when my grandfather shows off his construction union retirement gift (a gold watch that’s probably fake, he points out) and tells stories about his job.
Meanwhile, my similarly aged cousins and I have different thoughts on the same topic. Like on the evening news, my cousin and I both had a minor panic attacks when the anchor said something along the lines of, “College graduates today may not be able to retire until age 75.” That’s a big jump from 65. I’m hoping that’s a case of exaggeration for the sake of ratings.
In any case, it hit me that despite this huge generational divide between my parents and grandparents, we care about the same thing: security. The only difference is, we’re in very, very different places.
Much like my large, extended family, the workforce is multigenerational. That can seem daunting to a company managing employees in five different generations, but it’s less daunting when you consider that ultimately most people want the same thing. They’re just in different places in their lives in terms of attaining it.
Acclaris’ Carlos Hernandez
“Millennials don’t necessarily look at benefits in a wildly different way than the other generations. They’re worried about base pay, bonuses, retirement,” said Carlos Hernandez, vice president of strategic alliances at Acclaris, an information technology and services provider that manages health care plans. As an employer, “you have to offer the basics.”
Where there may be a difference, though, is the messaging itself, added Hernandez, who has more than 25 years of experience in the health care industry advising employers on how to best meet their benefits goals. Companies, when considering benefits offerings, have to use different messaging to different groups — like age groups — to show the value points they have. But it’s still the same program underneath that skin.
One way to facilitate the access to information, for example, is bring a financial firm to a lunch and learn every month and let employees sign up to speak to an adviser, Hernandez noted. This could be appealing to a baby boomer who’s retiring in 15 years, or someone just starting out their career who wants to get on the right path.
Also useful to facilitate access is a creating a touchpoint, like a mobile app or portal or private conference room, he added. Companies could use something like this to deliver services and guidance in private.
Finally, in terms of managing a multigenerational workforce, he suggested creating a committee or a strategic forum made up of employees of every generation. These representatives of the company could talk about issues, like financial or health benefits, from their own points of view.
“That sense of involvement cannot be understated,” he said.
Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at@workforcenews.
It starts out with good intentions to celebrate diversity, ensure equity and practice inclusive leadership. You implement employee resource groups for historically underrepresented groups like LGBTs, start a mentoring program for women of color, and equip leaders to coach millennials on workplace norms and professionalism. But after a while you revisit your D&I metrics and find you haven’t met your goals. In fact, your results are slightly worse than when you started.
What’s going on?
The problem may be an incomplete or misguided sense of what inclusion is. Like the rest of your leadership team, you’re smart and well intended and have a commitment to D&I grounded in supporting employee brilliance and excellence, which generate tangible results for your organization. You believe one way to accomplish this is to help certain identity groups feel more a part of things, supported in their professional development and generally brought into the fold.
The problem with this approach is that it’s an assimilation model based on the notion that “they” must be more like “you” to succeed and add value. It subtly communicates that “you” are superior and “they” are inferior and need fixing.
This presents a power imbalance that doesn’t leverage the real reason diversity plus inclusiveness gets better results: multiple brains contributing their unique brilliance to form a bigger combined brain that generates more ideas and makes better decisions. True inclusion or inclusiveness isn’t just about hearing all voices and taking them seriously; it’s about ensuring shared power and equitable involvement in decision making. True inclusiveness means that “you” too are open to exploring what “they” bring and changing how “you” do things.
Consider the way millennials are commonly viewed and treated in the workplace. I often hear negative, even emotional opinions expressed about millennials’ supposed lack of work ethic and poor workplace habits in stereotypical terms, which if used to discuss a group of color would likely result in serious outcry and lawsuits.
The dominant belief is that these young people must be taught how to behave correctly. However, there isn’t anything inherently correct or superior about leaving earbuds at home, staying off phones in meetings, following orders without giving feedback or insisting on personal benefit.
Behaviors are assigned meaning within a particular set of beliefs and norms, also known as culture. Common behaviors exhibited by millennials and other identity groups can actually add value if explored with curiosity and commitment to win-win solutions. New, even odd behaviors can provide tremendous positive results, especially within the context of their cultural frame, which — like it or not when it comes to millennials and people of color — is the future. If you have doubts, read this article about how millennials are doing exactly that in organizations, including Starbucks, that listen and adapt.
At the same time, there are new or different behaviors that don’t add value, and the old way is demonstrably better in terms of business impact, productivity, results, engagement or just plain workplace awesomeness. Perhaps a certain dress code, work station layout, schedule or set of meeting norms really are the best fit to support your organization’s vision, mission, goals and objectives.
The key to success is taking the time to explore, engage and devise creative solutions that maximize benefit to all parties, not just you. This includes gathering data to determine what is true and not based on assumptions. For example, is it really true that your customers fear employees with tattoos or don’t take them seriously if they don’t wear ties?
Creating an inclusive culture isn’t “either-or”: either requiring “them” to adapt and assimilate to you or you offering everything up for debate and input by “them.” The answer is “both-and,” which requires time, effort and intentionality at first, but pays huge dividends over time and allows “you” to ensure your sustainability and relevance into a future dominated more by “them.”
Susana Rinderle is president of Susana Rinderle Consulting LLC. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.
Children are often told that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up. It’s a lovely idea that is meant to encourage kids to dream big and try new things. But when the time comes to realize those dreams, the tools to discover and realize a satisfying career aren’t always available.
At least that was Kathryn Minshew’s experience.
After receiving her bachelor’s degree in political science and French from Duke University, Minshew began working as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co. But when she began contemplating the next steps in her career path, she struggled to find a resource to guide her.
“I began having these conversations among small groups of close friends, and we came to the realization that there needed to be a resource that addressed millennial needs in particular,” Minshew said. “This group wants and needs something different from the career experience than in years past.”
That frustration led to inspiration and the eventual creation of The Muse, an online career resource that offers a behind-the-scenes look at job opportunities with hundreds of companies, expert career advice and access to personalized career help. Unlike traditional career sites, The Muse creates photo and video profiles of companies that provide in-depth insight into a company’s culture and mission.
“Job hunting is like dating,” Minshew said. “I’m not romantically compatible with every person in the world. In the same way, a single applicant is not compatible with every company. These photos and videos are meant to provide insight into how an applicant will fit in at a company. It’s about more than the ability to perform a job task.”
This focus on culture has made the site wildly popular with millennials, who value culture highly when making career decisions. The company has helped over 50 million people in their job searches and career planning. While that number and the company’s subsequent success is impressive, Minshew, 30, said she is more concerned with the individual lives her efforts are changing.
“Being satisfied with your career path is such a huge part of a person’s life,” Minshew said. “Career is paramount to how people see themselves. I see the job search as a human problem, so it’s exciting to build tools to help people find satisfaction in their lives.”
Review these 50 common interview questions and think about how you would answer them. After the questions are listed, you’ll find some strategy suggestions.
(Excerpted from the book The Accelerated Job Search by Wayne D. Ford, Ph.D, published by The Management Advantage, Inc.).
Tell me about yourself.
The most often asked question in interviews. You need to have a short statement prepared in your mind. Be careful that it does not sound rehearsed. Limit it to work-related items unless instructed otherwise. Talk about things you have done and jobs you have held that relate to the position you are interviewing for. Start with the item farthest back and work up to the present.
Why did you leave your last job?
Stay positive regardless of the circumstances. Never refer to a major problem with management and never speak ill of supervisors, co-workers, or the organization.If you do, you will be the one looking bad. Keep smiling and talk about leaving for a positive reason such as an opportunity, a chance to do something special, or other forward-looking reasons.
What experience do you have in this field?
Speak about specifics that relate to the position you are applying for. If you do not have specific experience, get as close as you can.
Do you consider yourself successful?
You should always answer yes and briefly explain why. A good explanation is that you have set goals, and you have met some and are on track to achieve the others.
What do co-workers say about you?
Be prepared with a quote or two from co-workers. Either a specific statement or a paraphrase will work. “Jill Clark, a co-worker at Smith Company, always said I was the hardest worker she had ever known.” It is as powerful as Jill having said it at the interview herself.
What do you know about this organization?
This question is one reason to do some research on the organization before the interview. Find out where they have been, and where they are going. What are the current issues, and who are the major players?
What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?
Try to include improvement activities that relate to the job. A wide variety of activities can be mentioned as positive self-improvement. Have some good ones handy to mention.
Are you applying for other jobs?
Be honest but do not spend a lot of time in this area. Keep the focus on this job and what you can do for this organization. Anything else is a distraction.
Why do you want to work for this organization?
This may take some thought and certainly should be based on the research you have done on the organization. Sincerity is extremely important here, and will easily be sensed. Relate it to your long-term career goals.
Do you know anyone who works for us?
Be aware of the policy on relatives working for the organization. This can affect your answer even though they asked about friends not relatives. Be careful to mention a friend only if they are well thought of.
What kind of salary do you need?
A loaded question. A nasty little game that you will probably lose if you answer first. So, do not answer it. Instead, say something like, “That’s a tough question. Can you tell me the range for this position?” In most cases, the interviewer, taken off guard, will tell you. If not, say that it can depend on the details of the job. Then give a wide range.
Are you a team player?
You are, of course, a team player. Be sure to have examples ready. Specifics that show you often perform for the good of the team rather than for yourself are good evidence of your team attitude. Do not brag, just say it in a matter-of-fact tone. This is a key point.
How long would you expect to work for us if hired?
Specifics here are not good. Something like this should work: “I’d like it to be a long time.” or “As long as we both feel I’m doing a good job.”
Have you ever had to fire anyone? How did you feel about that?
This is serious. Do not make light of it or in any way seem like you like to fire people. At the same time, you will do it when it is the right thing to do. When it comes to the organization versus the individual who has created a harmful situation, you will protect the organization. Remember firing is not the same as layoff or reduction in force.
What is your philosophy towards work?
The interviewer is not looking for a long or flowery dissertation here. Do you have strong feelings that the job gets done? Yes. That’s the type of answer that works best here. Short and positive, showing a benefit to the organization.
If you had enough money to retire right now, would you?
Answer yes if you would. But since you need to work, this is the type of work you prefer. Do not say yes if you do not mean it.
Have you ever been asked to leave a position?
If you have not, say no. If you have, be honest, brief, and avoid saying negative things about the people or organization involved.
Explain how you would be an asset to this organization.
You should be anxious for this question. It gives you a chance to highlight your best points as they relate to the position being discussed. Give a little advance thought to this relationship.
Why should we hire you?
Point out how your assets meet what the organization needs. Do not mention any other candidates to make a comparison.
Tell me about a suggestion you have made.
Have a good one ready. Be sure and use a suggestion that was accepted and was then considered successful. One related to the type of work applied for is a real plus.
What irritates you about co-workers?
This is a trap question. Think “real hard” but fail to come up with anything that irritates you. A short statement that you seem to get along with folks is great.
What is your greatest strength?
Numerous answers are good, just stay positive. A few good examples:
Your ability to prioritize.
Your problem-solving skills.
Your ability to work under pressure.
Your ability to focus on projects.
Your professional expertise.
Your leadership skills.
Your positive attitude.
Tell me about your dream job.
Stay away from a specific job. You cannot win. If you say the job you are contending for is it, you strain credibility. If you say another job is it, you plant the suspicion that you will be dissatisfied with this position if hired. The best bet is to stay generic and say something like: “A job where I love the work, like the people, can contribute, and can’t wait to get to work.”
Why do you think you would do well at this job?
Give several reasons and include skills, experience, and interest.
What are you looking for in a job?
See answer #23.
What kind of person would you refuse to work with?
Do not be trivial. It would take disloyalty to the organization, violence or lawbreaking to get you to object. Minor objections will label you as a whiner.
What is more important to you: the money or the work?
Money is always important, but the work is the most important. There is no better answer.
What would your previous supervisor say your strongest point is?
There are numerous good possibilities:
Loyalty
Energy
Positive attitude
Leadership
Team player
Expertise
Initiative
Patience
Hard Work
Creativity
Problem solver
Tell me about a problem you had with a supervisor.
Biggest trap of all. This is a test to see if you will speak ill of your boss. If you fall for it and tell about a problem with a former boss, you may well blow the interview right there. Stay positive and develop a poor memory about any trouble with a superior.
What has disappointed you about a job?
Don’t get trivial or negative. Safe areas are few but can include:
Not enough of a challenge.
You were laid off in a reduction.
Company did not win a contract, which would have given you more responsibility.
Tell me about your ability to work under pressure.
You may say that you thrive under certain types of pressure. Give an example that relates to the type of position applied for.
Do your skills match this job or another job more closely?
Probably this one. Do not give fuel to the suspicion that you may want another job more than this one.
What motivates you to do your best on the job?
This is a personal trait that only you can say, but good examples are:
A challenge
Achievement
Recognition
Are you willing to work overtime? Nights? Weekends?
This is up to you. Be totally honest.
How would you know you were successful on this job?
Several ways are good measures:
You set high standards for yourself and meet them.
Your outcomes are a success.
Your boss tells you that you are successful.
Would you be willing to relocate if required?
You should be clear on this with your family prior to the interview if you think there is a chance it may come up. Do not say yes just to get the job if the real answer is no. This can create a lot of problems later on in your career. Be honest at this point and save yourself future grief.
Are you willing to put the interests of the organization ahead of your own?
This is a straight loyalty and dedication question. Do not worry about the deep ethical and philosophical implications. Just say yes.
Describe your management style.
Try to avoid labels. Some of the more common labels, like “progressive”, “salesman” or “consensus”, can have several meanings or descriptions depending on which management expert you listen to. The “situational” style is safe, because it says you will manage according to the situation, instead of “one size fits all.”
What have you learned from mistakes on the job?
Here you have to come up with something or you strain credibility. Make it a small, well-intentioned mistake with a positive lesson learned. An example would be … working too far ahead of colleagues on a project and thus throwing coordination off.
Do you have any blind spots?
Trick question. If you know about blind spots, they are no longer blind spots. Do not reveal any personal areas of concern here. Let them do their own discovery on your bad points. Do not hand it to them.
If you were hiring a person for this job, what would you look for?
Be careful to mention traits that are needed and that you have.
Do you think you are overqualified for this position?
Regardless of your qualifications, state that you are very well qualified for the position.
How do you propose to compensate for your lack of experience?
First, if you have experience that the interviewer does not know about, bring that up. Then, point out (if true) that you are a hard working quick learner.
What qualities do you look for in a boss?
Be generic and positive. Safe qualities are knowledgeable, a sense of humor, fair, loyal to subordinates, and holder of high standards. All bosses think they have these traits.
Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute between others.
Pick a specific incident. Concentrate on your problem solving technique and not the dispute you settled.
What position do you prefer on a team working on a project?
Be honest. If you are comfortable in different roles, point that out.
Describe your work ethic.
Emphasize benefits to the organization. Things like, “determination to get the job done” and “work hard but enjoy your work” are good.
What has been your biggest professional disappointment?
Be sure that you refer to something that was beyond your control. Show acceptance and no negative feelings.
Tell me about the most fun you have had on the job.
Talk about having fun by accomplishing something for the organization.
Do you have any questions for me?
Always have some questions prepared. Questions involving areas where you will be an asset to the organization are good. “How soon will I be able to be productive?” and “What type of projects will I be able to assist on?” are examples.
Statistics show that plenty of businesses could stand to improve in this area. According to a 2018 Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. study, 60 percent of companies don’t have a long-term internal communication strategy, though about half said they wanted to make improving leadership communication a top priority.
Most employees find it unacceptable to monitor personal, non-work-related activities, according to a 2018 survey conducted by the HR Metrics & Analytics Summit, “Workplace Privacy & Protection: Is Your Employer Watching Your Every Move?” It’s inappropriate to monitor physical movements around the workplace, for example through wearable technology such as a Fitbit, said 57 percent of employee respondents, while 56 percent said it’s inappropriate to monitor personal interactions with these devices. 
