Bill O’Reilly’s (alleged) lewd comments and inappropriate come-ons may have finally caught up to him and his employer, Fox News. I don’t, however, want to focus my attention on the salacious allegations, which are just that, allegation. Instead, I’d like to focus on Fox News’s response to the allegations, as to why it has so dragged its feet to do anything in response.
Notwithstanding the fact that no current or former Fox News employee ever took advantage of the 21st Century Fox hotline to raise a concern about Bill O’Reilly, even anonymously, we have looked into these matters over the last few months and discussed them with Mr. O’Reilly. While he denies the merits of these claims, Mr. O’Reilly has resolved those he regarded as his personal responsibility. Mr. O’Reilly is fully committed to supporting our efforts to improve the environment for all our employees at Fox News.
Yes, Fox News did ultimately investigate these allegations, but it appears not until way after the fact.
Readers, is it appropriate to ignore workplace harassment just because no one has brought it HR’s attention? I’ll give you two choices — “no” or “no.”
Under no circumstances should you ever bury your corporate head in the sand in the face of workplace harassment. You must not ignore harassment that you know about or should know about. It is not a defense for you to close your eyes and hope that it will all be gone when you open them. Just ask Fox News (which, according to The New York Times, has settled the claims of five women for $13 million) how that strategy has worked out for it.
When one of the little eateries in our food court is completely dark on a Monday morning it’s normally for the wrong reasons.
When it’s an outlet of a chain of popular quick-serve restaurants — and one I occasionally patronize — my mind instinctively goes for the jugular.
“Whoa, I must’ve missed the news; I didn’t know Pret A Manger shut down,” I thought as I passed the Starbucks and neared the restaurant that in my book makes a damn fine tureen of Moroccan lentil soup.
If you’ve ever visited a Pret, you know that its staff is bubbly to the point of “you can’t possibly be in this good of a mood” obnoxiousness, loud, happy and always there with a kind word even if you’re not stopping for a bite or a coffee. Which is likely why it was even more obvious that something was terribly wrong.
On one hand I’m glad to report that Pret A Manger in the food court of 225 N. Michigan Avenue is not permanently closed. On the other, however, a sign in the darkened window near the coffee read:
“Our shop is closed today.
“We are so sorry to let you know that Dante Colloly, a much-loved member and manager of the Pret team, passed away following a motor vehicle accident on Saturday night.
Fast casual restaurant Pret A Manger closed its stores in Chicago after the unexpected death of co-worker Dante Colloly. Photo by Rick Bell
“Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and his many friends.
“The entire Pret team mourns the loss of our wonderful colleague. He will be forever missed.”
Pret A Manger
I walked away stunned — stunned initially about the news of the death of someone who very likely offered me a friendly howdy and rung me up. But as I passed the other chain establishments both large and small — Dunkin’ Donuts, Jaffa Bagels, Potbelly, McDonald’s, Burrito Beach — I wondered if they would do the same if a team member suddenly died. Really, would any company in the entire Illinois Center complex — literally thousands of businesses, ranging from international consulates to FOX 32 to well-heeled law firms to Human Capital Media — shut down for a day if someone died?
The answer is, probably not. And that’s OK. Every business has to evaluate what a death in the workplace family means to the organization — personally, professionally and financially.
Mr. Colloly was 29 when the motorcycle he was driving Saturday afternoon struck a guardrail on South Lake Shore Drive. He was thrown onto the bike path, according to the Chicago Sun-Times and died at a hospital a short time later.
When our co-owner Norm Kamikow died suddenly in the summer of 2014 there were many heavy hearts and tears shed, but the doors remained open as we worked through our grief. I didn’t think it was wrong then, and even after today’s shocker, I still don’t think it was.
We later discovered the store closures extended beyond our food court. My colleague Bravetta Hassell passed by another Pret A Manger during a midday walk Monday and it, too, was closed. We found this Twitter post:
“We regret to inform you that our Chicago shops are closed today to mourn the loss of a dear colleague. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
I can’t begin to calculate what one Pret A Manger location brings in on a Monday in April. But multiply that by the dozen or so in the downtown Chicago area alone and it has to be a sizeable chunk of change.
Also, consider that in roughly 24 hours Pret team leaders came to the conclusion to close not just one store but locations across the city. Dante Colloly died on Saturday afternoon and by early Monday morning a well-thought out, clear, passionate message about a beloved colleague was posted at all its locations. Credit Pret corporate executives for ceding a lot of control to managers on a local level. A gofundme page has been posted for Mr. Colloly, too.
True, Pret has been maligned in the past for manufacturing its air of employee happiness. But it’s clear that in the wake of Mr. Colloly’s death, the British-based chain has developed a deep culture of trust and concern for its workers’ well being.
As people passed the sign during a busy Monday lunch hour, one woman commented to her colleague, “That’s so sad; they are all such nice people there.”
Not an unexpected refrain when you put your people ahead of profits.
Rick Bell is Workforce’s editorial director. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.
There’s no need to rehash the recent Pepsi ad seen ’round the world. The commercial that featured Kendall Jenner handing a can of the pop to a police officer as the healing balm for the day’s pressing social issues was tone-deaf, a reach and a failure. Did I mention it was also cheesy?
Plenty of marketing experts — and tons more people in the Twittersphere and other social media spaces — have taken the company to task for doing more things than I care to go over in this post. I hope the following covers it all when I say Pepsi attempted to reach as wide an audience as it could by, oddly, attempting to conflate its branding of being free-spirited, happy and whimsical with the energy of discontent, dissatisfaction and injustice that has prompted people across the country to demonstrate and protest.
You just can’t mix the two.
There’s no shared space for what looks like a block party and what is a protest against police brutality. But Pepsi attempted to create such a place. The ad instantly raised questions about the state of the advertising industry, how Pepsi’s half-baked concept even got off the table in the first place, and who was and wasn’t at the creative and decision-making meetings for this ad but should have been.
Whenever completely offensive pieces like the Pepsi ad see the light of day, the assumption is that “the table,” wasn’t diverse enough. Surely, with a wider range of cultural and life experiences at the table, the ad concept would have been axed right out of hand:
“Kendall Jenner? Modeling? During a protest that alludes to Black Lives Matter? With police? With her handing an officer a Pepsi and everyone cheering? What?” Awkward silence. “Um, are there some other ideas … better ones? Team?”
Sadly, African Americans made up on 5.8 percent of the ad industry in 2014. In 1978, just 5 percent of the ad industry was made up of black and Hispanic employees. So there’s a decent chance that Pepsi’s creative was more on the homogenous side than it was, well, like that ad, to be honest.
But I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on that for the moment. I don’t work there. I’m not in their HR department. Maybe there were diverse voices at this table. But then I ask, were those diverse voices heard? Was space made for these employees to share their ideas and opinions? Was the environment they contributed to one where they were treated like equal team members or dismissed as tokens?
Because diversity is one thing, but inclusion is quite another. By way of the Pepsi ad, a gift from the blog gods, I’ll take the time to encourage learning leaders to — in the midst of supporting their organization’s strategic diversity and inclusion efforts — work with managers on being inclusive leaders.
In Harvard Business Review, HBR Guide to Office Politics author Karen Dillon reminds managers to recognize the dangers of playing favorites — whatever favorites might look like. “If you’re narrowly focused on always picking your dream team, you’re putting your eggs in one basket.” Plus by not playing fair, managers are undercutting what their team could accomplish when everyone’s abilities and contributions are utilized. Playing favorites limits team development and that of the excluded individual, and it holds back the manager’s own professional development, too, Dillon told HBR.
Dillon also encourages managers to keep track of who is doing what on the team. That way they are consciously making an effort to delegate work more equitably. People who aren’t picked for the best assignments are keenly aware of it, Dillon said. So managers should keep tabs on whose turn it is to do things like run team meetings and so forth.
Of course, in behaving inclusively, managers need to think inclusively. They should be looking for ways to make sure everyone is included in the group work even if it is by way of a minor role. Managers should also encourage their reports to speak up and to make sure team meetings are participatory.
The HR Council of Canada reminds managers about the importance of relationship building with all of their direct reports. In learning about employees’ backgrounds, lives and interests outside of work, managers can build relationships “through increased understanding and trust,” which helps to foster inclusion.
But pulling back from the few tips I’ve just shared, inclusion of diversity in all its forms is ultimately what drives greater innovation. Closer to the Pepsi story, inclusion of diversity will enable companies to do a better job of reaching and connecting with their customers. Because having underrepresented groups at the table is decent but becomes game-changing when leaders allow them the floor to contribute, to opine, to create, to challenge, to collaborate, to help decide.
Creativity suffers otherwise. Individual morale and productivity suffer, too. And companies like Pepsi scramble to salvage their image while apologizing for shoddy work.
Bravetta Hassell is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email editor@CLOmedia.com.
Getting crystal clear about your goals and intentions — personally as well as professionally — is the first critical step for diversity and inclusion practitioners and champions to obtain powerful results. Once goals and intentions are clear, D&I change agents should take two more crucial steps:
Step 1: Go out and have an impact!
1. Always stay centered and grounded in your intention or goal. Advocate, take a stand, make decisions, show leadership, and demonstrate behaviors that reinforce progress in D&I based on costs, benefits and your organization’s unique, mission-critical DROI (diversity return on investment).
2. Be realistic and honest with yourself about the required foundation for success. For D&I to work and for you to have powerful, positive impacts, you must have:
Leadership buy-in from the top, which goes beyond lip service to commitments in time, resources (human and budgetary), and meaningful action.
Political and personal will from formal and informal leaders and stakeholders.
A belief among leadership that change is possible, and within their power to co-create — an optimistic, proactive approach instead of reactive, apathetic, or victim mentality.
A belief that change is not only possible but necessary (per the costs and benefits and your DROI).
Courage and resources to endure the difficulties of change and the inevitable conflict and upheaval that will take place.
A crisis (hopefully not, but this is often a key motivator). Be prepared if you think this is imminent!
3.Celebrate, even tiny successes and triumphs. Remember that it took women over 100 years to get the vote. Many of the women who demonstrated, went to jail and endured beatings for a basic right now taken for granted never got to vote themselves because they died before it became a reality. Realize this journey may be a marathon. Pace yourself. Stop every mile and do a victory end zone dance and have a piña colada, then keep running until the next mile or pit stop! Don’t just trudge on to some distant finish line, endlessly in agony, unwilling to appreciate small miracles.
4. Be prepared to walk away, and know when that is. Don’t sap your brilliance and precious energy on a losing battle. There is much work to be done. Don’t waste yourself on an impossible or untenable situation — you’re needed elsewhere! And maybe someone else is a better fit for the current reality. Be clear about where your line in the sand is and let it shift, but don’t cross it. Having a clear sense of self and integrity will keep you from compromising or diluting the goals of the initiative, which are more important that you are (another reason to make sure to do your “personal work”).
Step 2: Call out misalignments of intent and impact and course correct!
1. Notice and record ways your organization or individual leaders are having an impact. Do they align with stated goals and intentions?
2. Assume good intentions. Unless you’ve gathered a significant amount of data over a long period of time to the contrary, assume others mean well. If you can’t assume good intentions, check your assumptions by tactfully asking what the intentions were. If you are certain there are bad intentions, go back to Step
3. Address impact.
Call out the misalignment of intent and impact (in the appropriate setting using emotional intelligence and political savvy) by stating facts: (a) here is what we said we would do, or who we say we are, (b) this is what happened, or this was the impact. Observations are facts. Data (like employee or customer satisfaction survey results or employee retention data) are facts. Stories and emotions are also facts, because they are true accounts of a person’s experience. Avoid questioning intention or an individual’s motivations. Terrible impacts can be had with noble intentions. Always stay focused on the goal at hand and whether or not it’s being met. Addressing the problem this way is effective even when there is little trust and respect. It can also serve to build trust and respect, which may lead to deeper conversations (perhaps about intent). Consider using a model like PNDC or Crucial Conversations.
Apologies may be necessary, but insufficient. You must still address impact, correct behaviors and make amends. Here’s a metaphor: “You stepped on my foot and broke my toe. You’ve apologized for breaking my toe (thank you), but now what are you going to do about getting me to the hospital and paying for my medical care?” You might need input on what kinds of amends and corrections you need to make.
Collaborate and problem-solve with ALL stakeholders to find ways to course correct and create better impacts. Make a plan. Agree on action items, a timeline, who is responsible for what, and when/how there will be follow up, and how all parties will be held accountable.
Following these steps will better align intent and impact for you and your organization to experience more powerful results around D&I. Please share your triumphs, challenges and further questions below!
Susana Rinderle is president of Susana Rinderle Consulting and a trainer, coach, speaker, author and diversity & inclusion expert. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.
So much potential, energy, talent, time, and money are wasted because we aren’t clear. When it comes to diversity and inclusion in particular, many of us lack clarity about our goals, the impact we want to have, or even our intentions.
Sometimes we have clear intentions but no idea how to get there. Sometimes we have clear intentions and goals for desired impact, but we don’t believe we can get there. Other times, we have positive, clear intentions, but negative or unintended impacts.
To align intent and impact for more powerful D&I results, first get crystal clear about your goals and intentions. Diversity is a means to an end. Inclusion is a means to an end. They are not the end! “Doing diversity” for its own sake — to look or feel good, comply with regulations, avoid lawsuits, or do the right thing are old school reasons that are incomplete at best and misguided at worst. Having only “old school” motivations are why many internal D&I initiatives, offices, and professionals aren’t taken seriously, and aren’t given the same power, recognition or resources as other departments. Thus such initiatives, offices and resources can be easily eliminated in tough times; D&I is seen as icing on the cake instead of an essential ingredient for the cake. It’s seen as a nice-to-have, not the must have evidence now demonstrates it to be.
What to do? Three actions:
1. Answer these key questions to define your organization’s mission-critical diversity return on investment:
What does this organization value most? What are its highest, most urgent priorities? Don’t look at the vision, mission, or core values, or listen to what leaders say. What do they do? Where does the money go? That tells you what the actual values and priorities are!
What does not “doing diversity” cost us now? What could we have saved or avoided? Identify data that affect the organization’s highest, most urgent priorities. Think about quantitative data like dollars wasted due to staff turnover (including the costs of recruiting, training, hiring, onboarding, and new hire learning curves), low engagement, low productivity, absenteeism, low customer satisfaction and reduced market share. Think about the many costs of lawsuits and other crises. Think also about qualitative data like morale, brand reputation, team performance, stress levels, effective decision making, customer satisfaction, innovation, creativity.
What is not “doing diversity” going to cost us in the future? Use the same metrics to project your ongoing and future costs, taking into consideration projected trends for your industry, market, and geography. Consider the shifting demographics of the United States and beyond, increasing automation and the globalization of most industries.
How is “doing diversity” going to benefit us? What do we stand to gain now? In the future? Using the same metrics, articulate your organization’s unique, mission critical DROI (diversity return on investment)!
2. If you are a D&I professional or champion, take time to get clear on your personal motivations and vision for doing this work. What is your personal story? Your personal pain? What early or current experiences make you passionate about this? How does D&I benefit you personally? What are your deepest values? What is your vision for the future? What possibilities do you see? What kind of world do you want to live in? How are your choices, words, and actions aligned with your vision of that world? Being rooted and grounded from a heart center will provide balance to your intellectual clarity on goals. It will add depth and authenticity to your work. It will provide motivation and inspiration when you’re weary.
3. If you are a D&I professional or champion, invest time and effort in healing your personal trauma around this work. Your pain and values may drive your commitment, but you won’t be effective over time if you’re not adequately processing your anger, grief, or shame. Most of us who do D&I work do it because we (or a loved one) have been wounded or abused in some way. Do not allow this important work and its impact on future generations to be diluted or tainted by you trying to resolve your personal pain or anger through the work alone. Also:
Seek a qualified therapist you respect and trust. Consider a body-focused therapy like EMDR or somatic experiencing, or try working with the subconscious through hypnotherapy.
Seek coaching from a certified, and preferably also credentialed, professional coach.
Get together regularly (weekly or monthly) with colleagues or friends you can talk with openly about the challenges. Vent and be heard, but don’t stay stuck — move to insights and solutions. Find out how you can take radical responsibility for your experience. Commit to changing your behaviors in service of your healing and vision.
Pursue a spiritual practice that provides solace and connection — and also guidance, accountability, and support for your behavior changes.
Pursue a physical practice like a sport, vigorous gym workouts, yoga, or dance in your preferred musical genre.
Going out and having an impact, then course correcting misalignments between intent and impact, are the next steps in obtaining powerful D&I results — but crystalline clarity about goals and intentions must come first.
Susana Rinderle is president of Susana Rinderle Consulting and a trainer, coach, speaker, author and diversity & inclusion expert. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.
Whenever I see the word “victim” in a diversity context I always want to roll my eyes. Not because it’s completely false, but because historically discriminated against groups are already behind the eight ball in so many ways; why slap that pitiful label on us, too?
Labels have power. They prompt negative and positive associations — usually negative — and when it comes to diversity, labels can have layers of bias attached to them as well. The word victim inspires crappy adjectives and images around weakness, pain, suffering, helplessness. Ew.
So, when a release on new research from VitalSmarts crossed my desk this week, I paid attention. The leadership training company asked 500 victims of discrimination — their words, not mine — to share workplace experiences that made them feel excluded, unwelcome, discounted, etc. based on their race, gender, age and a host of other diversity-related criteria.
Now, I’m a journalist, so I always give the word research a gimlet eye. Many studies, even with participant pools this substantial, don’t always pass the sniff test when it comes to credibility or academic validity. You have to beware of agendas, hidden or otherwise, from the research hosts. I’m not saying this research is cracked — I’ve worked with VitalSmarts before — I’m just acknowledging there could be some bias here that I’m not aware of. For instance, I don’t know how these alleged victims were selected.
I talked to my colleague Sarah Kimmel, the director of research at Human Capital Media — home of Workforce magazine — and she said this research looked “fuzzy” and should certainly be considered anecdotal. But it’s not to be completely discounted because the resulting analysis from these vctims’ stories is confined to this particular survey pool.
After analyzing the stories, David Maxfield, vice president of research at VitalSmarts, and Judith Honesty, CEO of Honesty Consulting, found workplace bias to be pervasive, permanent and unmanageable for victims. Specifically:
Pervasive: 49 percent of victims said the discrimination happens regularly in their workplace.
Permanent: 66 percent of victims said it has a large impact on their engagement, morale, motivation, commitment and desire to advance in the organization.
Unmanageable: 60 percent of victims said they did not feel they could master incidents of bias in the moment or prevent them from recurring in the future.
Maxfield and Honesty used American psychologist and author Martin Seligman’s work on learned helplessness to measure the impact of discrimination on employee behavior: frustration, stress, depression and helplessness. They also identified seven themes in the stories indicating the most prevalent types of workplace discrimination. They are:
Don’t Be Yourself. Employees are warned to avoid showing who they really are — i.e. to avoid talking about her “wife,” to dress in a more “feminine” way etc.
You’re Not Credible. Employees are interrupted and discounted, excluded from meetings, passed up for high-visibility assignments or promotions, etc. Others hint the perceived lack of credibility is the result of race, sex, age etc.
Oops, Just Kidding. A manager or co-worker makes a blatant racist, sexist, intolerant comment to a colleague and then tries to walk it back.
Anything Goes After Hours. A manager or co-worker makes blatantly racist, sexist, or intolerant comments/jokes about others — customers, people in the news, etc. They feel it’s OK because they’re not at work or because they aren’t talking about an employee.
You’re Unwelcome. Employees are excluded from conversations at both work and social gatherings. Co-workers or managers “forget” to invite them to meetings or give them information they need to do their job. Others fail to socialize with them or change the subject or stop socializing when they join.
Gotcha. A manager or co-worker seeks to tear down their colleague or believes others, even when they aren’t credible; dishes out unequal punishments; finds faults to the extent of distorting the truth.
Unconscious Bias: Women, minority, or older employees are told they “lack executive presence,” “don’t fit our culture,” “are too aggressive” even though their performance would be seen as exemplary in a white, male or younger employee.
Whether this study is as sound as a drum or worthy of the side eye, there’s enough truth here to give HR and diversity leaders serious pause. These seven themes reveal a trend of subtle and harmful discrimination in the workplace that people you know or see every day on the job are experiencing. That’s not good.
“We catalogued hundreds of moments where victims were left questioning others’ intentions and their own perceptions,” Honesty said in the release. “The inner litany sounds a bit like, ‘I’m upset, but I don’t know if I should be, or if I have a right to be.’ At best, this shadowy bias is exhausting. At worst, it’s soul destroying to both the individual and the organization.”
Preach.
As much flak as diversity-themed training gets for its lack of effectiveness, it’s necessary to combat this kind of discrimination. Unconscious bias training, for instance — if done well — can help to root out the biases we all have but are often unaware of; building awareness is the first step on the road to positive behavioral and cultural change. Then comes the learning. Specifically, how to deal with and prevent the aftermath — low engagement, high turnover, poor retention, subpar performance.
There are no quick fixes to these kinds of problems, but if organizations are willing to make a long-term commitment to build an organizational culture that is not only diverse but inclusive, the business impact — more innovation, higher engagement, easier recruiting and greater performance — can make it all worthwhile. And “victims” becomes just another unfortunate word.
Kellye Whitney is associate editorial director for Workforce. Comment below or email editor@workforce.com.
I like to tell myself that I’m still a young man, and in many ways, I still am. I’m active, mentally sharp (just ask me) and some would say at the apex of my career.
But at night, on the highway of life, I see the mileage sign for a destination that’s creeping closer and closer. That destination? Let’s call it “Old Towne.”
It’s where older workers (we’ll loosely define that as those over 50) go to do the following — live in fear of being laid off from their companies, spend their modest severance when they are separated and commiserate about how rough the job market is on older workers.
Misery loves company. That’s why Old Towne is booming.
Older workers in America are underutilized and underappreciated. They’re among our most talented assets, but face multiple challenges, some of which are unfair and some of which are self-inflicted.
Let’s cover the self-inflicted wounds first. As the knowledge, talent and age of a worker rises, it’s often accompanied by a drop in perceived energy, change agility and professional passion. These perceptions, real or imagined, are recorded while total compensation for the same worker rises.
Those self-inflicted wounds provide great cover for companies to move to a younger workforce. If the asset becomes more expensive but perceived productivity is flatlining, the obvious choice to many is to go younger — and cheaper.
Age discrimination? Yeah, that’s illegal. But you won’t win chasing that as an older worker. The better plan is to look different than your peers related to energy, change agility and professional passion.
There’s a great scene in the movie “The Outsiders” where Johnny Cade (Ralph Macchio) utters the line “Stay gold, Ponyboy” to C. Thomas Howell (aka Ponyboy). It’s reference to the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost and a hat tip to the thought that all good things must come to an end.
Johnny Cade recites the line because he knows that Ponyboy is better than his companions and wants him to hold onto the golden qualities that set him apart from his peers.
If you’re an older worker, I want you to stay gold. Here’s my cheat sheet for how you can separate yourself from your AARP peers:
Do what you can to build a professional profile separate from your company. The biggest lie the devil ever told us is that we should pour all our energy into the company we work for.
You must treat your company fairly, but allocating 100 percent of your professional energy to your employer is a sucker’s play. I know it feels unnatural, but you have to find other avenues where you can become familiar with your work. Consider it a precursor to networking.
Be interested and passionate about what you do for a living. Closely related to finding outlets outside of your company is your passion for your profession.
You get judged by the world as an older worker by what you’ve done to stay current. More impactful than additional degrees or certifications is a portfolio of work that shows you’re chasing new ideas or emerging trends. The ability to chase new things also impacts how agile you’re viewed related to change.
Don’t be locked in that you can never go backward in pay. I know, you’ve got bills. Moving backward in pay never feels good, but it may be necessary.
Get as much money as you can when the time comes to change companies, but understand that earning 80 percent of your current salary at the right company with the right future is a superior position to being laid off and on a two-year “sabbatical” with no end in sight.
Stay one step ahead, and get out of town before the posse arrives. Do all signs point to the fact that your company is going to go through another round of layoffs? Do you find yourself digging a foxhole and hoping for the best without doing any of the things I’ve listed to this point?
The best time to get a job (at any age) is when you have a job. Be brave enough to understand your circumstances and jump if necessary if the situation is right. Risky? Yes, but you’re likely underestimating the risk of staying.
Look like the 2.0 version of yourself. You haven’t updated your look because you haven’t been threatened. Being proactive with your career prospects means you probably need to ditch double-pleated pants if you’re a guy. I’m no expert, so look into how to do this for your gender and drop some limited funds into a wardrobe refresh.
Life is tough in Old Towne. I’m going to visit soon, but before I get there I wanted to offer encouragement to you. I think you’re different than most of the people in Old Towne, but you’ve got to take action to prove it.
Stay gold, Ponyboy.
Kris Dunn, the chief human resources officer at Kinetix, is a Workforce contributing editor. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.
Snow day! Norah went to bed with PJs on backwards last night (and received her wish; now please use your time wisely to work on homework). Donovan is going to be pissed because tonight’s Mathmagic night at school (which he was really looking forward to) will be canceled.
And me? I’m enjoying some flexibility by working from the comfort of my kitchen island. If the storm forecast holds as predicted, however, I’ll be giving myself lots of extra travel time tomorrow morning for a court appearance. #lawyerlife
What about your business?
There is no law that governs whether businesses must, or even should, stay open during bad weather. Instead, it is simply a matter of policy for each company to decide for itself. Like all policies, communication is the key to ensuring that employees are all on the same page when it comes to whether a business is going to open or shut down to account for bad weather.
Bad weather will affect different employees differently. Commute times and distances, methods of transportation, and school closings will all impact whether a certain employee will be able to make it to work when bad weather hits. In drafting a policy for inclement weather, consider the following:
Communication. How will your business communicate to its employees whether it is open for business or closed because of the weather? Are there essential personnel that must report regardless of whether the facility closes? If an employee does not get word of a closure and reports to work anyway, will the company pay that employee for reporting?
Early closing. If a business decides to close early because of mid-day snowstorm, how will it account for the orderly shut-down of operations on that day? Which employees will be able to leave early and which will have to remain to ensure that the facility is properly closed? Is there essential crew that must stay, or is there an equitable means to rotate who can stay and who can leave?
Wage and hour issues. To avoid jeopardizing exempt employees’ status, they should be be paid their full salary when a company closes because of weather. For non-exempt employees, however, it is entirely up to the company whether to pay them for a full day’s work, for part of the day, or for no hours at all. Will employees have to use vacation or other paid time off if they want to be paid for the day, or will the company consider it a freebee?
Attendance. Will the absence be counted against employees in a no-fault or other attendance policy, or defeat any perfect attendance bonuses?
My two cents? Safety is more important than work. When in doubt, play it safe. Is it essential that your employees come to work in severe weather? If not, give them the day off. Must your business remain open? If not, close for the day. In my opinion, it’s not worth risking your employees’ safety for a few extra hours of work.
Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.
The need for speed in business does not excuse an organization from taking the time to create and execute a thoughtful, sincere and diversity-friendly talent strategy — not when your customers and employee base are potentially diverse.
Ask Uber. The company is finding that out firsthand given the rash of problems the once exalted startup is facing. Reports of sexual harassment, senior executives resigning for similar reasons, and then Uber CEO Travis Kalanick recently was caught on camera in a confrontation with one of his own drivers.
The company’s image is in the toilet. It even has a hashtag: #DeleteUber. Or, as Susan Wu cleverly stated in a recent article on backchannel.com, “We need a Chapter 11 for company culture and diversity. Uber needs to declare diversity bankruptcy.”
Her bio said Wu is an internet entrepreneur and angel investor, so I imagine she has firsthand knowledge of finance, technology and diversity. She was certainly clear about Uber’s missteps:
“How do companies incur diversity debt? Take a couple of cofounders and their cognitive biases, add a second seed round where they’re faced with the existential imperative of finding product-market fit, and whirl in the velocity of needing to “just get things done” in a very short timeframe.
Woman uses a transportation app to conveniently call a car
After all that, poof. Uber’s image goes up in smoke. But I was struck by her comparison between financial and diversity debt. With money, you borrow, accumulate interest, if you’re a good borrower, eventually you repay both principal and interest. If you’re not, you declare bankruptcy.
Wu wrote that the startup industry is primed to accumulate debt. It’s essentially the price of doing business very quickly. But when that debt is diversity debt, a toxic culture, pervasive bias, talent management and/or leadership issues — and in Uber’s case the length of time these issues go unchecked — not even a cultural makeover may help. Not when your reputation in the marketplace, what Wu calls a company’s “fundamental goodwill,” is deeply tarnished.
Like so many things diversity-related, when it comes to problems or challenges, it’s best to begin with the foundation. A company’s foundation is set with its first few hires. Wu agreed. “Nearly all startups choose to opt for speed, believing that hiring from existing friends-of-friends networks will be more effective than working hard to recruit candidates with a range of race, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds.”
I can understand that. In the name of speed to market, a congenial work environment, late nights and in the case of technology, like minds and skill sets, you go with the familiar. But what about after the foundational concrete has been set? Once things are up and running, it’s time to think strategically, and sometimes that means asking some tough, certainly direct, questions and finding the answers: Who are our customers? How do our employees treat them? Do our employees know them? If not, how can we get to know them? Who are our leaders? What do they know, and who do they know? How do we look to the global marketplace?
Of course, it makes sense that I would think like that. I’m black, I’m a woman, and I work in media with a focus on HR and talent management. I’m knee deep in best practices. The thing is, not being black or a woman or knee deep in HR best practices is not an excuse for ignorance or bad behavior. Not these days.
If you’re unaware, you can maybe leverage that excuse for one free pass. After that, the public, your employees, your investors and certainly your customers, they expect — no, they demand — that you wise up. That you see the flowers and the trees. Uber’s on pass, like, 70.
And leaders can’t try the old, ‘we don’t have time to look for diverse talent,’ complaint either. There are literally apps out there to help with diverse recruiting, not to mention niche staffing agencies, the Internet, social media, you can see why the excuses get old fast.
“Once you start to think of homogeneous hiring practices as a debt — one that limits your ability to cultivate a strong portfolio of diverse employees and diverse ideas that can yield greater potential upsides and serendipity for your company — then you’re in a much better position to choose which diversity debt you’re willing to live with,” Wu wrote.
Most adults owe something. Credit is akin to life for many of us. But if you don’t watch it, that interest will kill you. In that way, diversity debt is no different than its financial counterpart. You don’t attack the principal, you keep adding to it, you end up in a real pickle.
Uber hasn’t sufficiently addressed the fundamental workplace culture and diversity issues that have plagued it from the very beginning. HR and talent management, marketing, engineering, safety, these systems are all broken. And it likely will take some drastic action to fix them. We’re talking big time firings in order “to start cleaning house,” Wu wrote, and building a new, more inclusive culture. Then there’s the image to repair. It’s a big job. Huge. And that’s only if the company acknowledges that it has a problem to begin with.
It’s a dangerous position to be in; Uber’s main competitor Lyft seems to have none of its issues. I just tweeted out a link to a beautiful Lyft commercial with a strong, positive message that clearly states how valuable diverse talent is to the organization. I saw it as an ad on YouTube. Watch it. It’s one of the most compelling pieces of advertising I’ve seen in a long time, and I was late to the game. The commercial has been out for months.
Uber’s been on fire for a lot longer than that, and if it’s not careful the weight of its diversity debt is going to sink it without a trace.
Kellye Whitney is associate editorial director for Workforce. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com
Arianna Huffington, left, is seeking to thrive in the corporate wellness world. With her at the launch event is SAP President North America Jennifer Morgan at Thrive Global’s launch event .
For 11 years Arianna Huffington gained massive influence in media and rubbed elbows with A-list celebrities, international politicians and business leaders as president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post. Huffington, 66, had followed in the journalistic footsteps of her father but pivoted drastically in 2016 when she made the surprise announcement that she was stepping down from her prominent position as a media mogul to begin a corporate wellness startup. Thrive Global enters the crowded health and wellness space with a mission to end the workplace stress and burnout epidemic on a global scale using scientific solutions.
Huffington’s company, which officially launched in New York in November, offers workshops, e-courses and certification programs, as well as a host of wellness technology apps and an e-commerce store. The start-up also features editorial content on a range of topics like sleep, meditation and stress reduction and sends out weekly newsletters aggregating relevant health and wellness stories. And it’s partnered with companies like Uber, Under Armour and Accenture for corporate wellness training.
Huffington serves as CEO, alongside Thrive Global president Abby Levy, a former consultant to the consumer product and digital media businesses, and Maya Major, the “chief of stuff” who heads human resources, business operations and finance.
Thrive Global’s entry in the corporate wellness space marks an example of the changing industry, which has expanded from a focus on physical wellness to a broader focus on overall well-being. This allows new companies to specialize on one particular area of the well-being field.
Some 61 percent of corporate well-being companies specialize in fitness services, smoking cessation, nutrition and weight management, and alcohol and drug abuse services, according to the IBISWorld Industry Report from July 2016. Thrive Global is among the 11 percent that addresses stress management.
Huffington, who sees great growth potential for her stress- and burnout-focused company, responded to questions in an email interview with Workforce to offer her opinion on the wellness industry, the kind of impact she hopes Thrive Global will have and why this is the perfect time to combat the burnout epidemic in the workplace.
Arianna Huffington, CEO of Thrive Global, believes that work and life, well-being and productivity are intrinsically connected.
Workforce: What is your opinion of the corporate wellness industry? Where does Thrive Global fit in?
Arianna Huffington: Right now a lot of corporate wellness programs are focused on downstream harm reduction, working only on the symptoms. But 75 percent of health care costs in the U.S. are about treating preventable, often stress-related conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. So what we’re doing at Thrive Global is focusing upstream on the root causes — burnout and stress.
We’re also following the science to come at it from a different premise. It’s not about balance. Thrive Global is based on the truth that work and life, well-being and productivity are not on opposite sides — so they don’t need to be balanced. They’re on the same side and rise in tandem. Increase one and you increase the other, which is what the science clearly shows.
And finally, we’re also using science to drive behavior change that can be sustained and incorporated into people’s daily lives.
WF:Why start Thrive Global in such a crowded field? What will you do differently than other companies?
Huffington: For what we’re doing, the field isn’t crowded. In fact, I think we’re really the only player that brings together all of the elements we do. It starts with our commitment to following the science, and using that to inform the three interconnected pillars of the company. First, there are corporate trainings and workshops. Second is our media platform, The Thrive Journal, designed to be the global hub for the conversation on productivity and well-being. This features not just the latest science, but also commentary by new role models showing how you can be in the arena and be a successful leader without burning out. And third is our e-commerce platform, which offers our curated selection of the best well-being technology, products and services. All these elements work together to produce our menu of products, services and sustainability that we think is unique.
WF:Is the industry poised for consolidation or is there still plenty of room for growth? If so, in what areas is there room for growth?
At the Thrive Global launch event: From left, Sherry Turkle, MIT professor; Arianna Huffington; JPMorgan Chief Marketing Officer Kristin Lemkau; Accenture Chief Leadership and HR Officer Ellyn Shook; and SAP’s Jennifer Morgan.
Huffington: I think there’s huge room for growth. We’re really at an inflection point right now, coming out of an idea of work and success that dates back, really, to the Industrial Revolution. We’re also in the golden age of science in the fields of sleep, neuroscience, productivity and performance. And the results of the science are clear — that when we prioritize our well-being, our performance goes up dramatically, across the board. And yet, our work culture has only just begun to shift. And even as the business world begins to internalize these findings, the growth of technology and the pace of change in our lives makes ending this culture of burnout even more challenging. And though technology has made us feel more harried and distracted, one of the next frontiers of technology is technology that actually helps us disconnect, shut off the noise and reclaim time and space for ourselves. So, yes, there is a lot of opportunity for growth; we’re just at the beginning.
WF:In your opinion, what should HR and benefits leaders look for in a corporate wellness program?
Huffington: It’s important to intervene upstream, where the stress and burnout are created. This includes, of course, flexible schedules, email policies that discourage after-hours work, nap rooms or nap pods, and robust vacation policies. And because work and life are integrated, it should also include training and assistance in helping employees prioritize their sleep at home.
But most important, even the best wellness plans won’t be maximized if there’s not buy-in from senior management to change the incentive structure. If HR is saying one thing, but senior management is still incentivizing burnout culture, we know which message most employees will listen to. So along with great plans to prioritize well-being, companies need the culture shift to be modeled at the top, so it’s those employees who prioritize their well-being who are celebrated and promoted instead of those burning themselves out.
WF:You’re a big advocate of proper sleep. Why?
Huffington: Because sleep, as the latest science shows, is connected to virtually every aspect of our physical and mental health. From heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity to depression and anxiety, the dangers of inadequate sleep are nearly endless. And when we sleep well, we increase our creativity, productivity and make better decisions.
WF:How does nutrition fit into corporate wellness?
Huffington: Nutrition is very important. But as with other aspects of our well-being, it can’t be considered in isolation. Nutrition, stress, weight management and sleep are all deeply connected, and so it’s not enough to just advocate good nutrition or provide healthy snacks, though those are important. Nutrition is just one part of the overall well-being discussion.
WF:Are you a fan of the carrot-and-stick approach to wellness involving financial rewards and penalties?
Huffington: I think carrots are more effective than sticks. Most people want to add more well-being to their lives; they want to do well in their jobs and they want to feel happy and fulfilled. So what’s needed is to lower the barriers, offer institutional support and set up a culture that incentivizes all of these.
WF: Some critics say corporate wellness doesn’t save money or improve health. Your response?
Huffington: They’re simply wrong. And it’s not a matter of opinion; the science and data are clear. If well-being programs are instituted successfully, the benefits on health and the bottom line are clear in case after case.
WF:Is ROI important while measuring success of a corporate wellness program?
Huffington: Definitely. And with the right program, you’ll see it. At Aetna, when CEO Mark Bertolini offered well-being programs that included meditation and yoga to his employees, the result was a 7 percent drop in health care costs in 2012, and 69 minutes of additional productivity per day for the employees who participated.
WF: Where do you see the wellness industry in five years?
Huffington: I think it’s going to continue to grow and grow. But the true mark of success will be when we don’t actually see these programs as “wellness programs” per se, but just how business is done.
Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at@workforcenews.
Fox News’s full statement (via CNN):
I like to tell myself that I’m still a young man, and in many ways, I still am. I’m active, mentally sharp (just ask me) and some would say at the apex of my career.
