Training Archives - Page 2 of 13

July 15, 2019June 29, 2023

Comic Book Defines a New Line in Workplace Harassment

harassment, define the line, sexual harassment training comic book — Nikki Larchar and Tina Todd

It was a conversation amongst colleagues at happy hour that sparked Nikki Larchar’s idea for Define the Line, a comic book training tool used to educate employees about workplace harassment and how to work through it.

“It started with a margarita, as many good stories do,” said Larchar, a co-founder of Define the Line along with Tina Todd. The two also co-founded HR consulting firm simplyHR.

“It just kind of came up in conversation that we had all taken trainings on sexual harassment in the workplace, but we all had stories of it happening and more importantly, a lot of stories of regret: regret that we didn’t speak up, that we didn’t report, that we didn’t do something about it,” Larchar added.

Define the Line goes a step beyond traditional sexual harassment training.

The idea sparked out of the need to provide people with the tools and resources to actually step in during harassment scenarios, rather than just a list of definitions.

“It doesn’t even have to be something that qualifies as sexual harassment but something that makes us feel awkward or uncomfortable,” Larchar said.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission defines sexual harassment as “unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.” In 2017, the EEOC received 26,978 claims of harassment, of which just over half were sex-based and roughly a quarter of which were specifically designated as sexual harassment.

It’s important to note that these are just the cases that are fully reported and documented. These figures do not capture the incidents that go unreported, mishandled or perhaps fall into other categories of harassment that are less clearly defined.

Thus, with the utmost enthusiasm, Larchar and her business partner, Tina Todd, began spreading the word about their project through Kickstarter.

Larchar and Todd pooled their own funds into the initial launch of the project and then moved to crowd-sourcing.

“The Kickstarter campaign did two-fold ー it helped us fund the project and [we] also wanted to see if people thought our crazy, wild idea was cool,” Larchar said. “Of course we were like, ‘This is amazing!’ But until you start telling people, we weren’t really gonna’ know if it was amazing.”

Soon after the Kickstarter launch, the team got their affirmation.

Larchar said that their feedback has been positive, and many buyers have specifically noted Define the Line’s appeal to younger members of their organization.

Todd spoke to the energy and ambition that Larchar has brought to the inception of Define the Line.

“Although Nikki and I came up with the concept of Define the Line together, she really spearheaded most of that project. It takes a lot of courage to step out of your comfort zone and do something that it different than the norm, especially as a young professional,” Todd said. “Myself and our community have been really impressed with the bravery and courage that she’s had. She’s taken a risk to create something so different.”

The comic deals with harassment as it truly exists in the modern workplace ー one that is increasingly diverse, mobile and undeniably tied to technology. It highlights how harassment can take place over text or target someone’s sexual orientation and how to deal with these interactions at every level of an organization.

Some of the most important feedback that the comic has gotten, Larchar said, has been in the way it approaches scenarios that can’t be easily categorized in the way traditional sexual harassment trainings have always defined.

Also read: How to Avoid The 3 Mistakes L&D Leaders Make When Addressing Workplace Harassment

“We’re really tackling the gray areas,” Larchar said. “What happens if someone asks about another person’s sexual orientation? What happens when after work, it’s decided that we’re gonna’ go to a strip club? How is the HR manager supposed to handle something if I come forward with a complaint?”

For Larchar, Define the Line is just as much of a journey of personal growth as it is professional. It’s been a lesson in finding her own voice as much as it has been helping others find theirs.

“For me Define the Line was really a transformation and helped me to grow,” she said. “I can also support people and say ‘Hey, if you’re like me and it’s awkward, we can still do it and find our voice and help people find theirs as well.’”

Also read: Training Not Enough to Prevent Sexual Harassment

May 7, 2019June 29, 2023

Your Employees Do Not Understand Their (Lack of) Free-Speech Rights

Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech….

So reads the 1st Amendment of the Constitution.

Take note that it does not say, “You have absolute freedom of speech in all things at all times.” It only prohibits government-imposed restrictions on speech.

Yet just last week, President Trump tweeted the following:

I am continuing to monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms. This is the United States of America — and we have what’s known as FREEDOM OF SPEECH! We are monitoring and watching, closely!!

I promise you that if the president of the United States does not understand how the 1st Amendment works, your employees don’t understand it, either.

Indeed, according to one recent survey, only 28 percent of American workers understand that getting fired because of a social media post does not violate their 1st Amendment free speech rights. Clearly, employees do not have free speech rights at work.

There are four key exceptions to this rule.

1. Public-sector employees. Government employees are the only employees the 1st Amendment actually protects. Still, their free speech rights are not absolute. The 1st Amendment only protects them as private citizens speaking on matters of public concern, and only then if the employee’s interest in speaking freely outweighs government employer’s interest in efficiently fulfilling its public services.
2. Protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act. Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects the right of employees to, between and among themselves, discuss wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. While the Board has attempted to narrow these protections over the past year, their scope is still fairly broad, even extending to obscene pro-union rants and racist picket-line threats.
3. Protected activity under anti-discrimination laws. If an employee’s speech is in complaint about unlawful discrimination or harassment, various anti-retaliation provisions protect their speech from retaliation.
4. Specific state laws that either protect employee speech or other lawful off-duty conduct. Several states have specific laws that protect an employee’s political speech, or, more broadly, speech in general. Even more states protect an employee’s right to engage in lawful off-duty conduct. Ohio has neither. Regardless check your state laws if you intend to regulate your employees’ speech, or otherwise take action against an employee for something that employee has said.

These exceptions not withstanding, your employees need to understand their lack of free speech rights as employees. I make this lesson a key point in my workplace social media training programs.

If so many of your employees operate under a misconceived and misunderstood notion of “free speech,” then I believe that it is your responsibility as their employer to educate them. After all, if you are going to hold them accountable for what they say, it’s only fair that they understand their responsibilities and the related consequences.

April 23, 2019June 29, 2023

Employees Learn Gardening Basics Through Workplace Program

Fresh fruits and vegetables may be a luxury for certain people and communities, but some organizations are taking a proactive step by creating companywide gardens on their campuses.

Intuit Inc. and PayPal are two companies that use StartOrganic in their workplaces. Founded by Josh Levine and Troy Smothermon in 2011, StartOrganic is a California-based company that brings organic gardening education to employers, schools and private residences.

For organizations with larger locations like Intuit’s Silicon Valley campus and PayPal’s campus in San Jose, employees can plant and harvest their bounty at work. For smaller organizations or high-rise offices, there are educational programs so employees can start gardening at own home.

The art and the science of growing one’s own food has been lost, Levine said, and companies can carry the social influence needed to promote that.

“If they’re able to provide growing space or if they champion a cause like, ‘It’s important for people to know how to grow their own food,’ then they’ll influence the community around them,” he said.

Even on campuses with a lot of space for corporate gardens, that’s not necessarily the end goal of the program, according to Levine.

“We’re there every week to teach them the ins and outs of practically growing their own food so that they can take that home and start their own home garden,” he said. StartOrganic provides gardening tools on site, from trowels to cutting utensils.

Smothermon or Levine will hold a monthly class for all the growers to prepare them for the next month of their garden. Additionally, one of them goes on site once a week to answer questions and provide guidance to growers.

Also read: Green Thumbs and Living Walls in Urban Areas

Robert Scontrino, developing engineering manager at PayPal, is one employee who has taken his gardening skills back to his home, where he has a 2-year-old daughter and two garden plots. “That’s something that I might not have done if I wasn’t part of this program,” he said.

It also allows Scontrino to carry on a tradition that he grew up with as a boy. His grandfather did a lot of gardening. While Scontrino didn’t do very much in his grandfather’s garden, he spent a lot of time in the garden itself, observing what was going on and eating the food.

“[The PayPal garden] does bring back some of those memories,” he said. “There’s a lot of rosemary in the garden, and smelling that rosemary actually brings back some very fond memories of me spending time with my grandfather in his garden.”

Scontrino also enjoys the campus garden because it allows him to meet people with similar interests. The overall experience has been “quite the learning experience,” he said, and he’s picked up knowledge like what plants grow in what seasons, how to grow them and when to pick them.

Also read: Workplace Gardens Taking Root

He also appreciates gardening as a way to help relieve the stress of the work day. He tries to find the time to walk to the garden a couple times a day to unwind and see what’s going on.

Gay Jacobs, executive assistant to VP, general counsel, at PayPal, also participates in the program. As someone who appreciates organic food and has a plant-based diet, this is one way for her to access healthy, fresh organic food. “It’s been eye-opening just to see the process and to see how long it takes to grow [vegetables] and how much fresher they are.”

She typically spends time in the garden twice a week, on Tuesdays when Levine is there to answer questions, and on Fridays before the weekend starts. During growing season, she can check on her plants before the weekend, then in harvest season she’ll pick food that she can use the following Sunday to meal-prep for work. She starts out each day with a protein-packed green smoothie and eats salads every day.

Jacobs also appreciates the social and community aspect of the garden. “You see everyone else out their tending to their gardens, and we talk about what’s going on,” she said. If she and other gardeners are growing different things they sometimes will share with each other.

Also read: Consider Fresh Air and Relaxed Hikes to Combat Work Stress

Loved ones in her life also give her ideas on what to do with her harvest. “One time, I had a foot-long zucchini. I didn’t know what to do with it!” she said. A friend suggested she make zucchini bread, and after experimenting with the recipe, it’s now one of her favorite things to make. She’s looking forward to zucchini season this year so that she can further perfect her recipe.

Gardening has allowed her to add new elements to her go-to dishes and soups. For example, while she was growing broccoli, she noticed how big the leaves were and wondered if they were edible. After some research, she confirmed that they are edible and chops them up for soups.

PayPal has 56 plots, up from 15 plots when the program began in 2013, and generally two employees share a plot, said Julie Vennewitz-Pierce, director of PayPal Gives. All employees are welcome to sign up and there’s usually a wait list that gives employees a spot on a first-come, first-served basis.

“The goal was, and still is, to provide an opportunity for employees to grow fresh vegetables, herbs and flowers in the spirit of environmental sustainability and employee wellness,” Vennewitz-Pierce said.

Moving forward, this year PayPal is working with StartOrganics to launch a composting program. Employees can learn how to compost scraps for their plots and how use that compost in their gardens.

PayPal also has a garden with 40 plots at its offices in Omaha, Nebraska, Vennewitz-Pierce said. This one isn’t managed by a vendor but by the company’s facilities team.

Currently, StartOrganic operates in California, Smothermon said. California works best from a logistical point of view. Growing seasons are different in various geographic areas of the country, and there are certain plant diseases that happen in some parts of the country but not others.

But its founders are open to working other places, he added. For example, a company in New York requested its services for an educational program.

“No matter where you’re growing, there are some basics that are universal,” Smothermon said. “Even in New York, once the weather warms up a bit, you want to have the same sort of infrastructure.”

April 15, 2019October 18, 2024

Successfully Communicating Across Cultures

In early 2016, Emma Seddon picked up her life in the U.K. and moved across the world to China on a three-year international secondment in her role as talent development manager at Jaguar Land Rover. Her colleagues who had previously completed long-term assignments in China warned of “shang-highs and shang-lows,” and gave her as much advice as possible.

Of course, some things must be learned on one’s own. Seddon recalls trying to order noodles without meat in her best Mandarin and the server responding with a stream of Chinese she couldn’t understand, to which she said she was left noodle-less, hungry and frustrated. At work, language differences also posed challenging. Seddon said meetings would often slip into Chinese, which put her at a disadvantage if she missed chunks of the discussion. “I’ve found that making an effort to learn the language really helps; local colleagues appreciate this, and it can be a good way to break back into the conversation,” she said. For example, she might say “I heard you say ‘yi bai wu,’ is that 150?” “Then they will laugh as I will have undoubtedly got it wrong, and switch back to speaking in English,” she said.

While language is a clear barrier in those situations, Seddon encountered many nonverbal cultural differences at work. One challenge she didn’t anticipate was that many decisions are made outside of formal meetings. “Lunch is a big deal in China; everyone leaves the office between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. and goes to the canteen or a local restaurant and the in-meeting discussion will continue during this time,” she said. “As a foreigner this can leave you one step behind, and so it’s incredibly important to develop some close relationships with colleagues who can help to keep you in the loop.”

Seddon said even when employees do understand and appreciate cultural norms, there is always a risk that they default to their natural style when under pressure, which is common in a fast-paced work environment. She said she often sees this around meeting etiquette. “In China, it’s not seen as impolite to continue a conversation on your phone during a meeting, while Western colleagues see this as a lack of respect,” she said. “Similarly, I often hear Western colleagues using technical or colloquial British terms or speak rapidly, which can make it difficult for Chinese colleagues to follow the discussion.”

Seddon said companies with a global footprint can gain a competitive edge if they are able to harness and leverage the international diversity inherent in their global markets, but the challenges are significant. Language and social norms change across the globe and employees need targeted training to successfully communicate across cultures.

Companies with a global footprint can gain a competitive edge if they are able to harness and leverage the international diversity inherent in their global markets, but the challenges are significant.

Cross-Cultural Training

Before Seddon relocated to China, she had a two-day intercultural awareness training that included topics such as “stepping out of your cultural bubble,” which focused on how behaviors are value driven, and how values are derived from our cultural background. She said the training also discussed potential barriers to intercultural communication and culture shock, both from a business and personal perspective. Other cultural training programs do the same thing, though they vary.

Berlitz Corp. is a global leadership training and language education company that aims to help individuals within an organization understand how cultural values drive behavior in other countries.

“We’re trying to help them to become better communicators, better observers,” said Diana Anderson, director of cultural training solutions at Berlitz. “Once they understand more about the values that drive behaviors, they are then able to modify their personal styles, their interaction styles, their communication styles, to work more successfully with those individuals in other countries.”

Anderson defines cultural competence as the ability to navigate, communicate and interact effectively when encountering cultural differences. “The goal is to make sure people get the kind of information they need, have the practice in these different cultures and then once they have this ability to recognize differences, to then react in a way that mitigates those differences,” she said. “Then organizations can take that individual and put them in any culture around the world.”

Berlitz offers group-oriented programs that focus on global cultural competence and cultural diversity and inclusion. For example, there is an intercultural business skills program that focuses on developing cross-cultural business communication skills that are practiced by building relationships, teamwork and exercising leadership across cultures. The diversity and inclusion programs focus on how bias shows up in or outside of the workplace and the dynamics of unconscious bias, Anderson said.

Anderson said understanding one’s own national culture and how one sees themselves is vital to being culturally competent. “Culture is central to how we make sense of what we see and how we express ourselves,” she said. “When we embark on a cultural journey toward cultural competence, it’s incredibly important that people understand how they’re showing up in the world — how the national culture, how the corporate culture they’ve been working in, how all of that influences who they are and how their personal preferences really drive behavior.”

She said the first step in all the programs is self-awareness and helping people understand themselves. If someone knows they are a hierarchical person, for example, they will look at the way people answer emails in a certain way, or they may be more likely to look to a manager to make more decisions than someone who is more equality-oriented within their corporate culture, Anderson said. “It’s identifying where you show up and then where there might be some potential obstacles,” she said.

In China, Seddon said being aware of her natural style and how her behaviors may be interpreted by others has been critical in working with people of a different culture. “When developing a learning solution, my preference would be to seek input from a range of stakeholders in line with my preference toward collaboration,” she said. “In the U.K., I may pull together a mixed-grade focus group. However, in China I’ve learned that the lower-grade employees won’t offer any feedback if higher-grade managers are in the room, as this would open them up to the risk of losing face or being humiliated, if for example the manager disagreed with them.” Instead, Seddon said having one-on-one offline conversations provides a safe environment and is more productive.

Communication Culture Clashes

Anderson said a lot of challenges arise between direct communicators and indirect communicators. “Your direct communication or your way of speaking might seem like you’re yelling at an individual or that you are being overly emotional or rude when you are giving direction or having a conversation,” Anderson said. “We focus on helping you understand what you’re bringing to the table and how you’re being perceived by others and finding ways you can modify your behavior to communicate in a more successful way.”

Another challenge, especially for managers, is communicating in a face-saving culture. For example, Anderson said there are certain things an American managing someone in Japan wouldn’t want to do in front of others. “In a meeting you wouldn’t want to give feedback that’s negative, but you also might not want to give feedback that’s positive because Japan is a more collectivistic society,” Anderson said. “You would want to give that negative or constructive feedback to that individual in a private setting.”

Anderson said meetings in many Asian cultures are not for brainstorming as they often are in America; rather the meeting is to give a message, then the conversation or clarification of what happened in the meeting happens outside the formal meeting. “Getting information about the norms of other cultures, identifying how other people communicate and show up is going to help you modify your style in order to fit better into that environment and keep your integrity and dignity,” Anderson said.

“ Culture is central to how we make sense of what we see and how we express ourselves.”

— Diana Anderson, director of cultural training solutions at Berlitz

Cultural clashes can also happen when one person is used to taking initiative and the other is used to asking a manager to make the decisions, Anderson said. “The person who wants to take initiative is assuming that person is going to jump right in and begin the work. And that person is assuming that the other person understands that they need to go to their manager to get a sign off which might take longer,” Anderson said. “All these little nuances create cross-cultural clashes that those who are not as culturally competent look at as a front against them. But in the cultural field, you need to ask questions, analyze specific situations and assume good intent.”

Coaching Multicultural Employees

“The communication challenges are what typically hold back progress for multicultural employees,” said Nadia Nassif, founder and CEO of Springboards Consulting, which offers career development and leadership coaching programs for native and nonnative English speakers.

Springboards Consulting has a team of cross-cultural and professional communication coaches who helpa multicultural workers develop and advance their careers. Nassif began Springboards in 2008 after working in Tokyo for almost two years. During her time in Tokyo, a few people mentored and supported her and helped her practice language skills, gain a cultural understanding and receive feedback. “For that reason, I had a better experience and ended up staying longer in Japan in my role,” she said. She kept her experiences in mind as she came back and saw multiculturl employees experiencing similar challenges in the U.S.

Nassif said an important part of Springboards’ coaching is peer feedback, as multicultural employees often do not get constructive feedback at work. She said the feedback they receive from peer reviews or annual performance reviews is often limited and lacks clarity. That feedback often comes from upper management and is missing more information and context from a specialist who can dig deep around the cultural issues, she said. “Our peer review process uses a careful collection of peer input before, during and after the coaching, which helps to create a target for the learning and keeps it fresh,” Nassif said. “It gives multicultural individuals the advocacy they need for an equal playing field.”

Feedback is especially important for people who come from cultures where it isn’t appropriate to ask for feedback, said Debora Bloom, an independent organization development consultant and a Springboards coach. Bloom said having a mentor is helpful for multicultural employees to feel comfortable in the American business context. “When learning a new language, it’s hard to always know the best way to put things,” she said. “It’s helpful to have someone to ask, ‘Can I use this phrase? What’s the best way to say this or that?’ ” She added that reading biographies and novels is a great way to gain a cultural understanding.

In additional to verbal communication, physical communication can also be different across cultures. “In our American culture, we really evaluate the firm handshake,” she said. “When people are coming from Asian countries or some African countries, they are not used to that kind of handshake and have to learn it.”

Multicultural employee Nicolle Campa is the director of human resources for Fox News bureaus. In her view, the best way to learn how to successfully communicate across cultures is simply to communicate and interact with others.

“I don’t think there’s some actual training you can go to. I don’t think that this is the situation where you can just go to a training and an hour and a half later, you come out saying, ‘Alright, I got it,’ ” Campa said. “There may be some cultural awareness training that one can go through that can start sparking that level of attention and awareness, but I think interacting with people that are different from you is a better way to be able to get that — for lack of a better term — training.”

A Twofold Approach

Springboards’ Nassif emphasized that addressing communication challenges is a twofold approach: helping individual employees be successful and helping management communicate. “Not everything is an accent or a speech communication issue. Not everything is a remedial developmental issue,” Nassif said.

Nassif said even if there is a great coach, if there is not support, infrastructure and validation from a manager, it’s hard for a multicultural employee to know they are doing well. “If they’re not getting routine validation or feedback throughout the process, then it doesn’t stick,” Nassif said. “It doesn’t help them validate and understand where there’s career growth.”

Campa, who is originally from Puerto Rico, said the best managers she has encountered in her career are the ones who take the time to ask her questions. For example, “if I were interacting with somebody with your background, with your culture, what would be an ideal way that I could communicate better?” Campa said. “Those type of questions that are coming from a good place — that are curious but at the same time respectful — I think that makes a difference.”

Nassif said developing cultural awareness and understanding in management is vital to creating an inclusive environment that is supportive and moralizing for multicultural individuals, who are becoming a much larger part of the workforce. She said diversity and inclusion efforts and awareness around unintentional bias can help managers become more globally and inclusively minded for a stronger workforce.

Employee experiences are still largely shaped by managers. Nassif said if management lacks the cultural awareness or sensitivity, and developmental needs are viewed as remedial, it’s not going to be a motivating environment that’s conducive to growth. “Their whole developmental journey is often set on course by a manager who would advocate for their growth or invest in them,” Nassif said. “For multicultural individuals often unfamiliar with all the rules of the game, or the internal politics, it’s really critical to have the right infrastructure.”

April 10, 2019June 29, 2023

When Workplace Training Goes Very, Very Wrong

A few months ago I participated in active-shooter training.

I presented harassment training for a local manufacturer and at its conclusion the company played a 10-minute video explaining to its employees what to do in an active-shooter situation.

Generally I’m not a fan of training videos. They tend to be boring, poorly acted and ineffective. This one, however, was quite effective. It was not only chilling to watch, but, a few months out, I still recall the ABCs of what to do during an active shooter (Avoid, Barricade, Confront).

An Indiana school district, however, had a different idea of how to train its employees to prepare for an active shooter.

This employer had its employees shot in the back, execution style, with plastic pellets.

Vox offers the details.

Local law enforcement carried out the drill with the teachers of Meadowlawn Elementary School in Monticello, Indiana, in January, the Indiana State Teachers Association said in a meeting with state legislators on Wednesday. The drill involved dividing the teachers into small groups and instructing them to face a classroom wall and kneel. Then, deputies with the White County Sheriff’s Office fired plastic pellets into the backs of more than 20 teachers without warning. Several teachers were injured, a representative for the district’s union said, though none have publicly come forward about the incident.

The employees’ union further detailed on Twitter the mental anguish its members suffered.

Indiana State Teachers Association@ISTAmembers

· Mar 20, 2019

Replying to @ISTAmembers

During active shooter drill, four teachers at a time were taken into a room, told to crouch down and were shot execution style with some sort of projectiles – resulting in injuries to the extent that welts appeared, and blood was drawn.

Indiana State Teachers Association@ISTAmembers

The teachers were terrified, but were told not to tell anyone what happened. Teachers waiting outside that heard the screaming were brought into the room four at a time and the shooting process was repeated.

This is NUTS.

We all want our teachers to know how to keep our children safe in the event of an active shooter. I can’t believe I’m typing this … but mock executions are not the answer. To look at this another way, we want to end sexual harassment, but we’re not molesting our employees either.

Sometimes, a training video is all you need.

February 22, 2019February 21, 2019

Focus on Entry-Level Employee Development

Employee development is a buzzword that human resources professionals and business owners alike are accustomed to hearing. It’s also a powerful and critical success strategy. When executed properly, its benefits are fruitful. Employers will find that development fosters loyalty among their team, inspires engagement and cultivates an attractive workplace for prospective new hires.

However, there is an overlooked group in professional development: entry-level, nonprofessional workers.

According to a report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 78 million Americans — or nearly 59 percent of the U.S. workforce — are hourly workers. Encapsulating such a substantial percentage of the workforce, it’s vital that companies implement employee development programs that will focus on this underserved sector of the American workforce.

There are many reasons organizations should enact employee development programs that serve entry-level, nonprofessional positions:

Benefiting from your untapped workforce

Too often, development programs are slanted toward people in professional careers. These individuals are groomed for higher-level positions, which lead to higher salaries and increased responsibilities. Left behind are those who are overlooked by upper management: entry-level workers.

While the backgrounds of these individuals vary, more often than not they have less education and less experience than those already in professional positions — one reason why they often get passed over for promotions and development opportunities. Typically, individuals in these roles serve in jobs such as customer service representatives or manual laborers.

To offset this problem, employers should create professional development programs that are offered to everyone — regardless of position, title or experience. By changing the professional development program to a deliberate effort rather than a checkbox exercise, those who wouldn’t typically raise their hand are able to opt-in more readily. Programs that everyone can participate in push all employees to focus on professional and personal growth.

It will also help prepare the organization to pivot and shift focus as needed in order to improve efficiency. Being a forward-thinking organization that focuses on what’s next, through means such as employee development, can have a positive impact on the team.

Reduced turnover rates

When training is offered from the bottom-up, employers will see a reduction in turnover rates. According to Accenture, 56 percent of those in entry-level jobs don’t plan to stay in their positions for more than two years. Since recruitment takes time and money, investing in lower level employees can greatly benefit a company in the long term.

Moreover, employees who are offered opportunities to be trained and grow are more likely to be engaged in their role and want to stay in the organization. This is a great perk for selling employee development programs to those in upper management who are always watching the bottom line. To some, a program of this sort may not seem beneficial enough to financially back it. However, over time, the impact is evident through advantages such as higher retention rates.

Becoming an employer of choice

When a company places an importance on development and caring for their employees, they inevitably become the employer of choice for individuals looking to grow professionally. In turn, this benefits culture, engagement, hiring and retention. It will help companies become highly sought after and will attract top talent.

Even when development doesn’t appear to directly benefit the company, showing team members that their employer cares can be extremely impactful.

By implementing a robust employee development program that emphasizes the growth of entry-level and nonprofessional workers, companies will witness reduced turnover rates, inspire a generation of underserved workers, and develop into a highly sought-after employer.

Also read: It’s Time to Rethink the Value of Training and Development

Also read: J&J Human Performance Institute Banks on the Science of Behavior Change in the Workplace

December 7, 2018June 29, 2023

How Leaders Can Improve Their Emotional Intelligence

Building a company is hard. But the most successful founders and CEOs have one thing in common. In fact, this characteristic is so important that I have never seen a leader be truly successful without it. That characteristic is emotional intelligence, or EQ.

EQ is the intangible asset that lets a leader be self-aware of his/her own strengths. It’s the characteristic that enables a leader to hire a high-powered team of thinkers and doers. Without this intelligence, leaders hire people who are “smaller” than they are.

As an entrepreneurial adviser and venture capitalist, emotional intelligence is one of the most important things I look for when evaluating promising companies. And I’m not the only one who does this. A study of important workplace skills found that EQ was the strongest predictor of a person’s performance, explaining 58 percent of success in all types of jobs.

If you present your business to me and your story doesn’t touch upon your own growth in some way, or if you attribute your company’s success to no one but yourself, you’ve lost me. It isn’t because such stories are less interesting — it’s because they usually aren’t true. If a CEO or founder believes that he or she alone is responsible for a company’s success, it’s usually an unfortunate sign of a large ego and poor emotional intelligence.

EQ is your ability to understand people, maintain your own self-awareness and work with others. It encompasses skills such as the ability to motivate, emotional awareness, self-control, adaptability, empathy and communication. It has the greatest impact on investor relations, customer success, leadership and company growth — far more than the past success a person has had. Ultimately, EQ is the biggest factor in whether a CEO succeeds or fails.

Also read: The Business Case for Emotional Intelligence

If you’re a CEO or leader looking to grow your business or attract new investors, it’s time to leave your ego at the door and focus on growing your EQ. Here are a few key elements for improving your emotional intelligence:

Self-Awareness Above All Else

When I’m evaluating a company’s CEO, that person’s emotional awareness is just as important as his or her business acumen. If owners don’t focus on the personal lessons learned from past companies, they aren’t self-aware enough to learn and grow through future endeavors.

For people who have never founded a company before, I’ll look for a full, honest account of your strengths, your weaknesses and your plan to overcome the latter. People who are real about the challenges they face are the ones you can work with. Investors can see right through fluff. Be honest with them and yourself about your positive as well as your negative qualities.

Expand Your Worldview

As a CEO, your worldview can limit you in many ways. The biggest mistake I see is CEOs closing themselves off to new perspectives by only working with people who look, talk, speak, come from the same background and worship the same way they do. One of the single most important job requirements of a CEO is the ability to see multiple sides of an issue. Allowing biases to restrict your business environment prevents you from putting the company’s best interests first.

Also read: Spotting Emotional Intelligence in Candidates

CEOs must be comfortable engaging with diverse backgrounds and skills. You’re responsible for communicating with stakeholders, employees at all levels and customers. It’s essential to treat them all with equal respect and open-mindedness.

Listen Up

The other huge thing I listen for in CEO stories is acknowledgment of the other people required for a company to succeed. This shows a leader who is open to hearing input from other people.

Never think you’re above anyone else in your business. Your name might be at the top of the org chart, but listening to and connecting with your employees and customers can bring a huge advantage.

It takes intelligence and talent to start a business, but that isn’t all that will determine your success. Your ability to work with people, keep an open mind and improve your own skills will take you a lot further than ego ever can.

November 27, 2018June 29, 2023

Tuition Reimbursement Appears to Be Paying Off

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

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

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

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

Also read: Sample Tuition Reimbursement Policy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 22, 2018August 3, 2023

AMB Group: Optimas 2018 General Excellence Winner

Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened Aug. 26, 2017, with a preseason football game between the hometown Falcons and the Arizona Cardinals.

The clock for hiring, training and prepping some 4,000 employees to open the $1.5 billion domed palace started ticking just four months prior. In short, there was no time for a fumble.

The stadium needed to staff virtually every function — ticketing, food and beverage services, security, leadership, finance and beyond. More importantly, the 4,000 workers had to embody the organization’s core values, and culture building efforts had to be highly impactful.

The AMB Group — the stadium ownership organization in charge of hiring and training — knew the importance of finding quality staff in a short amount of time. But they also strived to do so in a way that benefited Atlanta’s nearby Westside neighborhood, according to Karen Walters, director, training and associate engagement at AMB Group.

AMB Group is the 2018 Optimas Awards winner for General Excellence, an award given to the organization that has excelled in at least six out of 10 Optimas categories. AMB’s efforts to hire and train its Mercedes-Benz Stadium workforce showed excellence in corporate citizenship, innovation, managing change, partnership, recruiting, training and vision and place it among this elite group of organizations.

AMB Group: Optimas — Karen Walters, director, training and associate engagement at AMB Group, LLC, and Kali Franklin, director of human resources operations at AMB Sports and Entertainment at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“Arthur believes the stadium project will be a failure if the transformation of the Westside communities around the stadium is not a success. The team was challenged to proactively collaborate with community partners to weave Westside residents into the stadium family,” Walters said in her Optimas application, referring to Arthur M. Blank, chairman of the Blank Family of Businesses. Blank, 75, the co-founder of Home Depot, leads this family of businesses made up of the AMB Group, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta United FC of Major League Soccer and PGA Tour Superstore, among others.

The Westside community partners include Westside Works, a neighborhood program focused on creating employment opportunities and job training for Westside residents, and the Center for Working Families, an organization whose mission is to ensure economic success for Atlanta’s families and which provides job training, work support and financial literacy.

The stadium is a catalyst for transformative change, said Alison Sawyer, director of foundation communications at the Arthur M. Blank Family of Businesses. “For us, what that has meant is the power of the many and the collective in creating long-term, positive change in the Westside communities,” she said.

Blank leads his businesses by six core values: give back to others; lead by example; innovate continuously; put people first; listen and respond; and include everyone. Although financial success is important to the company, equally important is following these six values to attain that success.

These six core values were present in the recruiting process for the stadium from the start. The AMB Group HR team partnered with Utah-based software company Hirevue, which uses video interviews and artificial intelligence to help companies make hiring decisions. Blank was involved, asking values-based interview questions, as was Falcons head coach Dan Quinn and running back Devonta Freeman.

Also read: Webasto, Optimas 2017 General Excellence Winner

Also read: AbbVie, Optimas 2016 General Excellence Winner

Candidates who passed the video interview attended a Draft Day Hiring Fair at Mercedes-Benz Stadium where they participated in a group interview with more values-based questions. In these group interviews, candidates got the opportunity to show their “smile on the face and smile in the heart,” according to Walters.

“The interviews are fairly light-hearted because we want to see who lights up the room with their energy, care and warmth,” she said. “We ask candidates to get to know each other, introduce each other to the group in a fun way, and seek to understand times in the past when they have positively impacted the lives of others.”

After AMB made its hiring decisions, it invited the new associates to an onboarding event in which they were warmly greeted by the HR staff and then got the chance to take an “I’ve Been Drafted!” picture with the Falcons NFC Championship trophy. This experience also included a personal, one-on-one onboarding process between an HR associate and the new hire, which was enabled through a partnership with Workday.

After onboarding, the 4,000 new employees participated in an eight-hour training program called Welcome Home. HR designed this training in partnership with professional training and coaching company LDR Worldwide, and much of the training involved building trust and family bonds, as well as instilling the six core values in trainees.

New staff watched a video detailing Blank’s career, then met in small groups to have more intimate and personal discussions.

During the training, “trust-based connections formed, and the organization continues to benefit from these early, positive interactions,” Walters said. “We are reaping the benefits of this strong start through daily accolades given to Mercedes-Benz Stadium associates.”

Meanwhile, stadium supervisors had their own two-day Welcome Home training program in which they also learned more about the core values and the importance of building that culture among their employees.

“The energy in the building from the staff and fans was palpable,” Walters said of that first preseason game. “The guest-services associates were electric as they welcomed guests to their new home and the fans seemed to be in awe.”

Fans were enthusiastic to experience the game in the new stadium, she added, saying that there was an aura of excitement as they engaged with stadium staff and explored the concourses and concessions.

Beyond that first game, the hiring and training initiative has sparked positive feedback from NFL fans, according to the fan surveys conducted by the NFL. In the 2017 survey, the Falcons earned “Most Improved” club. The team also ranked in the first quartile among all NFL clubs for fan satisfaction.

Meanwhile, thanks to its community outreach efforts, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium has hired more than 150 Westside residents, and through the youth-centric Westside Ambassadors Program, more than 100 internship positions were filled by Westside neighborhood youths.

Also, each of founding sponsors of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium has committed to transforming the Westside in some way, “whether it is time, talent or treasure,” said the Arthur M. Blank Family of Businesses’ Sawyer. Financially, that has resulted in more than $15 million committed by sponsors, she added.

The supervisors’ Core Leader training continues, and HR has selected 30 of these core leaders to act as culture builders, Walters said. In this role, they continuously and strategically try to instill the Welcome Home spirit from the initial training. This could be by including that spirit in event-day huddles or by rewarding employees with a Values in Action award when they exhibit that Welcome Home spirit.

For its workplace initiative, which demonstrates excellence in the Optimas categories of corporate citizenship, innovation, managing change, partnership, recruiting, training and vision, AMB Group is the 2018 Optimas Award General Excellence winner.

Go here to read about the rest of the Optimas winners for 2018.

Go here to learn more about the Optimas Award program.

September 4, 2018September 4, 2018

Training Won’t Fix Stupid in a Hostile Work Environment

A fast-food restaurant fired a recently hired employee after its manager learned she was pregnant.

How do we know this was the manager’s reason for the termination? Because he texted it to the employee (which she later posted on Facebook).

Hello, I’m sorry to inform you but it’s not going to workout with Jersey Mikes. It’s not a good time for us to have someone who is leaving for maternity leave in several months anyways. You also failed to tell me this during our interview. Good luck to [sic]

According to KIRO, the franchise owner offered the employee her job back (she refused), and the offending manager has since resigned.

A spokesperson a Jersey Mike’s corporate told Inc. that this termination “does not reflect our history or values,” and that “additional training is being provided.”

Excuse me, but how will training help ignorant managers avoid discrimination or mend a hostile work environment? Sex discrimination has been illegal since 1964, and pregnancy discrimination expressly since 1978. If a manager does not know that you can’t fire a woman because she’s pregnant, no amount of training in the world is going to help that manager not discriminate.

“We are going to institute more training” is the stock corporate answer to any workplace discrimination crisis. Don’t get me wrong, training is important and necessary. But training would not have resulted in this employee keeping her job. Lack of training of the manager was not the failing here. The failing was that the employee did not have a clear path to complain, other than taking her grievance pubic via Facebook.

Manager training may stop some discrimination, but it’s not a magic pill. Instead, train your employees on how to complain if they feel they are victims of discrimination, and train yourself to be open and receptive to such complaints, to fully investigate them, and to take appropriate corrective action. That’s how we root out discrimination.

Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.