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Yale Center for Faith & Culture at the Yale Divinity School and author of the forthcoming book God at Work: The History and Promise of the Faith at Work Movement.

Faith-friendly organizations go beyond adhering to relevant laws on religious discrimination, he explains. These companies take into consideration the specific needs and sensitivities of many practices, including those that are outside of the traditional Christian-Jewish canons, encompassing Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and other traditions that immigrant employees from all over the world are brining with them to the workplace.

Issues around wearing hijabs, a type of headscarf worn by Muslim women; ablution, a ceremonial washing before prayer; and accommodating praying practices are coming up more often as the workforce becomes more diverse, Miller says.

He draws an important distinction between having a faith-based company, which lends preference to a particular tradition, versus a workplace that is faith-friendly, which treats all religions on a level playing field.

There are various paths toward fostering faith-friendliness, including allowing employees to form affinity groups. Some companies allow workers from each religion to create their own group, while other organizations have opted for an affinity group of various faiths under one umbrella.

Whatever approach a company decides on, Miller stresses the importance of establishing formal guidelines. Lack of rules could be a significant factor in the rising number of complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The EEOC received 2,340 charges of religious discrimination in 2005, s a 30 percent increase from five years ago and a 50 percent jump from a decade ago. The crux of the complaints were made against employers accused of not adequately accommodating the religious beliefs of workers.

A joint study from the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding and the Society for Human Resource Management surveyed 550 HR professionals in 2001 and found that less than a third of them had written policies on religion in the workplace.

Creating formal policies on religion in the workplace is particularly important in today’s environment. Studies have revealed that religion is becoming more important to the aging baby boom generation, which makes up 20 percent of the workforce.

“Religion plays a more central role as people get older,” Miller says.

Furthermore, the workplace is becoming more diverse and employees don’t want to have to put a muzzle on their traditions.

Studies have shown that Gen X employees are not keen on parting with their personal identity once they march into the workplace.

“They want to be who they are at all times,” Miller says. “If they wear tongue rings outside of the office they want to be able to wear it to work as well.”

The same logic applies to religion.

Miller urges companies going down the faith-friendly path to give critical thought to the type of language they use. Terms like religion could have pejorative meaning to certain individuals. Words like “faith,” however, are general and inclusive, which makes them less thorny to use.

—Gina Ruiz

Increased engagement among airport transportation security officers helped achieve an efficient launch to the holiday travel season, despite the challenges posed by recent changes in carry-on restrictions, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The TSA has deemed “very reasonable” the 12-minute average wait time at screening checkpoints at the nation’s 40 busiest airports over Thanksgiving.

“Everything seemed to be working smoothly,” says David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, which represents the traveling public.

A TSA official gives much of the credit to the more than 40,000 security officers, formerly known as “screeners.”

The new nomenclature is one of several workforce management changes that the agency has implemented over the past year to improve performance and morale, says Gail Rossides, TSA associate administrator of business transformation and culture.

The word “screener” was dropped from the security workers’ title so that their role could be better integrated into the Department of Homeland Security’s law enforcement system, expanding career options for employees and deepening their sense of belonging.

Other improvements in the $20 million initiative included programs to reduce attrition and injuries and improve training for the officers, whose salaries range from $23,600 to $56,400. The TSA also is implementing a pay-for-performance program, despite problems with getting it approved elsewhere in the DHS. An August survey showed that job satisfaction has increased 24 percent.

The TSA says it bolstered recruiting by placing hiring authority at the local level, where officials can find a better fit between candidates and jobs. Over the past year, attrition among part-time employees has dropped from 70 percent to 41 percent. For full-time workers, it has decreased from 24 percent to 15 percent.

London authorities broke up a terrorist plot to detonate liquid-based bombs in flight, the TSA had to change carry-on rules instantly.

“They responded phenomenally,” Rossides says of security officers. “They were ready.”

Stempler was also impressed. “It was an extraordinary achievement that they were able to make the changes overnight on these new rules,” he says. “Usually it takes weeks or longer.”

But a Capitol Hill skeptic says the four-year-old agency—which was created when the DHS was formed following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks—has yet to prove itself.

Rep. John Mica, R-Florida and a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, says the private sector could better handle airport security. He favors using more technology and fewer people, while training those who remain to better identify potential terrorists.

“We need to reassess the whole system,” Mica says. “I’m going to be calling for a pretty dramatic overhaul. The check­point is one of our weakest points now.”

Rossides says that even as technology is integrated into the process, human officers will have to interpret the machines. And they will have to remain vigilant—and motivated—whether confronted with a summer threat, holiday travel or a routine day.

The challenge for the TSA remains consistent. “It is about hiring the right people, continuously training them and then giving them the incentives to excel at their jobs and the incentive to have a long-term career … in TSA or DHS,” Rossides says.

—Mark Schoeff Jr.

U.S. employees do not realize that their personal computer activities at work may wind up as business records—records that could be revealed in a lawsuit.

The report, from employee training firm WeComply, found that 39 percent of U.S. workers incorrectly believe a message sent from their personal e-mail account on a work computer remains a personal record. And two-thirds of all workers did not understand that personal instant messages to friends could become business records.

The findings take on particular significance given new rules for disclosing electronically stored information during lawsuits. The report said those changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which took effect December 1, make it more likely that inappropriate e-mails, Web searches, IMs and other electronically stored data will surface in pretrial discovery.

WeComply president David Simon says the stakes are high for employees to know how to keep their electronic noses clean at work.

“Anything you do today on your computer may see the light of day,” he says. “If you’re not careful, it could expose you or your company to legal liability.”

Many companies today are peeking in on their employees at the computer. A study last year on electronic monitoring and surveillance by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute found that about 75 percent of U.S. companies monitor workers’ Web site connections. Fifty-five percent of companies retain and review e-mail messages, and 36 percent track content, keystrokes and time spent at the keyboard.

About a quarter of employers have fired workers for misusing the Internet, according to the AMA report.

A desire to cut down on workplace slacking and comply with government rules may be prompting companies to monitor computer use. But employers who do so should be careful, says Brian Hengesbaugh, an attorney with law firm Baker & McKenzie.

Depending on the promises the company has made, employees may reasonably expect to have a degree of privacy at work, he says. As a result, Hengesbaugh says, employers that plan to monitor electronic activities should notify workers that their computer use on the job is not private.

In addition, he says global companies that have a policy respecting privacy rights in Europe could inadvertently post that statement to a company Web site. American employees might then expect similar rights.

“They may reasonably interpret that those rules apply to them,” he says.

The WeComply report involved a survey of 1,000 U.S. workers. Younger workers tend to be less aware of computer-use realities than older ones are, according to the report. More than half of those under 55 did not understand that sending an e-mail to a friend created a business record, compared with 39 percent of those over 55, the report says.

—Ed Frauenheim

2007 Talent Wars: Competition for top talent is fierce and expected to heighten in 2007, according to a new survey.
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Boards Failing: About half of all corporate boards concede to doing a poor job of planning for CEO succession, with an even greater proportion failing to develop talent and future leaders.
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Workplace and Heart Attacks: Almost half of U.S. employers plan to spend more time and money on training and developing supervisors and executives in 2007, according to a recent survey.
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What Work/Life Balance? Although 90 percent of employees surveyed say achieving work/life balance is a high priority, only 15 percent claim to be anywhere close to attaining it.
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2007 Talent Wars: Competition for top talent is fierce and expected to heighten in 2007, according to a new survey. Applicant tracking system maker Cytiva Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, found that HR directors are viewing three potential solutions: 27 percent say they’ll improve retention programs, 20 percent will concentrate on improving their applicant tracking systems, and 15 percent plan to rely more on employee referrals. Less than 2 percent plan to outsource their recruiting function. The survey should be read with some caution, however: Cytiva is a vendor of applicant tracking software.

—Garry Kranz

What Work/Life Balance? Striking a balance between professional responsibilities and personal obligations continues to be an elusive goal, new research suggests. Although 90 percent of employees surveyed say achieving work/life balance is a high priority, only 15 percent claim to be anywhere close to attaining it, according to research from Opinion Research Corp. and Work+Life Inc. of Madison, New Jersey. Stereotypes appear to be holding most people back, including fears they will make less money, be viewed as less hardworking by bosses, or even lose their jobs.

Boards Failing: About half of all corporate boards concede to doing a poor job of planning for CEO succession, with an even greater proportion failing to develop talent and future leaders. Also, roughly half have no succession plan in place. That’s according to series of surveys of public, private and nonprofit organizations published by the National Association of Corporate Directors in Washington and Mercer Delta Consulting, part of HR consultancy Mercer. The surveys found that about 50 percent of corporate boards “consider themselves less effective” in aiding CEO succession. Also, less than 15 percent of directors believe their boards are effectively managing and developing future executives. The findings are in stark contrast to the intensifying scrutiny and oversight given to corporate boards in light of recent financial scandals.

The information comes on the heels of a study by Novations Group of Boston that found organizations may be rethinking their approach to succession. In its Internet survey of nearly 2,050 senior HR executives, Novations found that companies plan to devote 46 percent of their budgets to grooming future leaders.

—Garry Kranz

In the new IBM, not only are blue suits optional, but fairy wings are possible. IBM’s recent move to conduct employee orientation and mentoring in simulated computer worlds puts Big Blue on the cutting edge of corporate learning.

It’s also likely to give the nascent field of training in virtual environments such as Second Life a major boost, says Mark Oehlert, an associate at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

Oehlert works with corporate clients to explore potential uses of technologies such as Second Life, which is a three-
dimensional virtual space where someone could choose to appear as normal as a buttoned-down businessperson or as far out as a fairy with flapping wings.

“The importance of this is going to go far beyond IBM,” Oehlert says. “It’ll definitely be a major spur for companies to at least begin looking at virtual worlds.”

India, China and the U.S., and company interns in China, will use “avatars,” or representations of themselves, in either of two Internet virtual worlds, Plane­Shift or Second Life.

The idea is to expedite orientation, as well as improve mentoring relationships. “New IBM employees separated by thousands of miles will be able to mingle, interact and share ideas in the virtual world before their first day on the job,” Ted Hoff, IBM vice president of learning, said in a statement. “They can learn real-life working skills such as signing up for benefits, developing code as part of a global team, and ramping up sales skills before they meet with IBM clients.”

Hoff says video game play adds a dimension to training because people don’t perceive it as learning. That makes them more willing to take risks and be more flexible in their thinking.

IBM is also looking into creating its own “virtual world” technology for employee training.

Thus far, online virtual worlds for training represent just a drop in the bucket of a corporate training market that reached $55 billion last year in the U.S., says Josh Bersin, CEO of market research firm Bersin & Associates. But he says the technology could help engage a generation of workers who grew up playing video games with 3-D graphics. “It might be very attractive to young employees,” Bersin says.

Most IBM users of Second Life have chosen avatars that resemble the way they look in real life, says Chuck Hamilton, a learning solutions leader at IBM’s learning organization. Company CEO Sam Palmisano, for example, appeared in Second Life wearing a business suit. Still, Big Blue is loosening up on the new frontier. During a tour of IBM’s Second Life facilities, Hamilton appeared in a kilt.

But for a recent meeting that took place in Second Life, IBM officials took pains to make sure avatars weren’t too distracting, Hamilton says. “They asked us not to wear anything moving or shaking or beeping,” he says.

—Ed Frauenheim

Google has a launched a new stock option program that will help its employees better realize the value of their stock option grants, experts say.

By doing so, however, Google has taken away the pay-for-performance nature of stock option grants, they say.

Under the transferable stock option program, which Google announced Tuesday, December 12, employees can sell their options once they vest. Through a partnership with Morgan Stanley, Google has set up an online auction marketplace whereby financial institutions can bid for employees’ options.

The new options have a 10-year life span and the same vesting schedule as existing options, with some vesting after a year and all vesting within four years. The program is not available to executives.

“In addition to increasing the value of every option employees receive, the TSO program makes the value of their options much more tangible,” the Mountain View, California-based company said in a statement on its official blog (googleblog.blogspot.com). “By showing employees what financial institutions are willing to pay for their options, it is made clear that the value of their options is greater than just the intrinsic value.”

Given the value of Google’s stock, which closed at $482.12 per share Thursday, December 14, it might be hard for employees to appreciate the value of their options—particularly prospective employees who can’t fathom that the price could continue to go up, says Mark Reilly, a compensation consultant.

The new program addresses that issue. But at the same time, by giving employees the ability to sell their options so soon the company is no longer aligning the options with company performance, says Russell Miller, practice leader at Korn/Ferry Executive Compensation Advisors.

With traditional options, an employee loses money if the value of the stock decreases. But with the transferable stock options, the stock could remain flat or fall and the employee will still get the value of the grant.

“That’s the tradeoff,” he says. “The new program enhances employees’ perceived value of their options at the time they are granted, but diminished the pay-for-performance orientation of the grant.”

The new program also weakens the ownership culture that has defined Google, Reilly says.

“This doesn’t encourage employees to be partners in the business; it encourages them to cash out,” he says. “If they were going to do that, they could have just offered a bonus program.”

But stock options are too core to Google’s industry, and besides, creating a completely new stock option program for employees is “much cooler” than just offering a long-term incentive program or restricted stock, says Bill Coleman, president of Salary.com.

“It’s a trademark Google move,” he says. “They are saying, ‘We aren’t going to do what everyone else is doing. We are going the think through this and come up with something clever and creative.’ ”

Now that Google has made the move, it will be something that all technology companies will look at but only a few will be able to do, experts say. For one, the administrative costs to create such a program are high, Meltzer says. It also takes a special kind of company to attract financial institutions to want to engage in something like this, he says.

“This kind of program isn’t going to be available to everyone,” Meltzer says.

—Jessica Marquez