Marc Alifanz and Kate Bischoff are two of my favorite people. They also happen to host one of my favorite podcasts, Hostile Work Environment. I promise that I’m not just dishing out these high praises because Marc and Kate invited me to guest on this week’s episode to discuss the 10 nominees for this year’s Worst Employer poll.
You can listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you choose to get your podcasts. (And while you’re there do us all a favor and click that subscribe button if you already haven’t.)
This post also serves as your final warning to get in your vote for this year’s nominees. Polls close at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 16. Over 1,000 of you have already voted (thank you!), and the margins (at least in the COVID-19 category) are razor-thin. A few votes either way could literally decide this year’s winner. Make sure your voice is heard. No whining about the results if you don’t vote.
Voting is available at this link. Remember that this year’s vote is different than years past in that we have two categories — Worst Employer and Worst Employer COVID-19 Edition. In each category, you rank each of the five nominees from 1 (worst) to 5 (least worst). Ranking all five is important because the relative rankings count in the final tally.
The polls are open until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 16, and I’ll announce the winners (err … losers) early next week. Continued bad luck to all of this year’s very worthy nominees.
“I wish I could see your pretty lips if they match ur eyes.”
“Come on, sweetie. Lemme see that pretty face under there. Take it off for me, will you? Just a quick flash.”
“I can be covid and make you short of breath.”
“I don’t wear a condom; I sure as hell aren’t going to wear a mask!”
“Social distancing? My pocket rocket can still reach you.”
“I’ll take your mask off and stick my tongue down your throat.”
These are just a few of the hundreds of awful and offensive comments to which service industry workers reported being subjected while working during COVID (report here).
As I recently pointed out, unlawful harassment is unlawful harassment, regardless of the alleged perpetrator. An employer cannot treat sexual (or other illegal) harassment of an employee by a non-employee any differently than harassment between employees. Indeed, in the words of the Ohio Administrative Code:
An employer may also be responsible for the acts of nonemployees (e.g., customers) with respect to sexual harassment of employees in the work place, where the employer (or its agents or supervisory employees) knows or should have known of the conduct and fails to take immediate and appropriate corrective action. In reviewing these cases the commission will consider the extent of the employer’s control and any other legal responsibility which the employer may have with respect to the conduct of such nonemployees.
What should an employer do when a customer is harassing an employee? Take the same five steps it takes when an employee is harassing another employee:
Separate the victim from the alleged harasser.
Promptly and fully investigate the allegations.
Evaluate the evidence and make a reasoned conclusion as to what happened.
Take prompt and effective remedial steps, if necessary.
Use the complaint as an opportunity to retrain employees about your anti-harassment policy.
“The customer is always right” still holds true for most things, but not if the customer is unlawfully harassing your employee.
The Society for Human Resource Management describes itself as “the foremost expert, convener, and thought leader on issues impacting today’s evolving workplaces.” Physician, heal thyself!
According to a recent lawsuit filed against SHRM (as reported by The New Yorker), SHRM may have a huge whistleblower retaliation problem on its hands.
Here are the key allegations, which SHRM denies:
Bailey Yeager, a former director-level employee with a history of glowing performance reviews and promotions, expressed concern when the organization asked her in May for feedback about its proposal to return employees to the office after two months of working from home.
Expressing concern about potentially infecting her two daughters, she requested that she be allowed to continue working remotely “until returning to work is both more widespread regionally and there is a decline in the metrics regarding cases/hospitalizations.”
She also asked to see SHRM’s plans for reopening safely.
Two weeks later she, along with three other employees who had expressed similar concerns (including two with pre-existing medical conditions), were fired.
According to her OSHA complaint, SHRM CEO Johnny C. Taylor Jr. held a conference call during which he outlined plans to “outsource” job functions in departments in which employees had expressed resistance to returning to work in person.
Yeager’s complaint also alleges that Taylor bragged that he had spoken to his friend Eugene Scalia, the Secretary of Labor, and that an OSHA representative contacted Yeager to implore her to withdraw her complaint. (To be fair, it unclear if there is any nexus between Taylor’s call to Secretary Scalia and OSHA’s call to Yeager, but it is definitely implied in her complaint).
If you fire employees who reportedly dare ask for the ability to continue working from home, and potentially wield your influence with the federal government in an attempt to leverage the dismissal of the resulting lawsuit, while at the same time holding yourself out as the “foremost expert on issues impacting today’s evolving workplaces,” you might be the worst employer of 2020.
Over the weekend I got into an interesting discussion on Twitter with a couple of my favorite musicians, Brendon Benson and Caitlin Rose. Here’s the question:
I’d like to expand this topic further and ask, Would you boycott a business based on the candidate whom it (or more accurately, its owner) supports for president in this election?
COVID-19 is rapidly changing how businesses operate. We recognize that organizations need an extra helping hand right now. So we’re offering our platform for free to new sign-ups over the coming months.
Sign up today and our Workforce Success team will gladly provide a personal, online walkthrough of our platform to help you get started.
Set your team up for success:
Managers should meet with employees to determine how work and job requirements can be done remotely from home either full time or certain days of the week.
Consider the effect of working at home on customers, co-workers and management.
Determine technological needs and agree on securing the tools and appropriate training to ensure productivity at home.
Establish measurable performance goals and expectations.
Discuss concerns and potential challenges of working virtually and ways to address these issues.
Determine a process for regular check-in meetings to discuss how the virtual work arrangement is working – for you and the business.
Check in frequently to discuss how things are going and determine how to overcome challenges that may be identified.
Set employees up for success – at home
Help employees set up an appropriate workspace that is separate and distinct from their “home space” and conducive to working effectively without interruptions. Make sure:
Employees design their workspace for efficiency, with all the documents and materials they need.
Urge them to create a healthy workspace – good light, comfortable temperature, standing desk, ergonomic adjustable chair, computer keyboard and mouse suited to their needs, telephone headset, etc.
Make sure they set boundaries with family members.
Ensure family members understand that although they are home, they are working.
Establish ground rules for work hours, interruptions, noise, etc.
Be clear on employee priorities, focusing on the expectations, tasks and responsibilities agreed upon as measures of success.
Managers and employers should be proactive in regular communications between managers, coworkers and customers to stay connected and resolve issues as they arise.
Ensure that your accomplishments, project status, outcomes and deliverables are visible as appropriate. It’s important to avoid being out of sight, out of mind.
Invite and encourage feedback from co-workers, management and customers about how a virtual work arrangement is affecting them.
Remote workers should be accessible, responsive and reliable
Utilize appropriate communication methods so employees can stay connected with managers, co-workers and customers.
Update their email, voicemail greeting, staff calendar etc. on a regular basis with a schedule, availability (or not) and contact information.
Checking all communications platforms and voicemail frequently is imperative.
Both employers and employees can demonstrate trustworthiness by being predictable, reliable, taking promises seriously and following through on commitments.
Managing work and preserving time for life is crucial
Remote workers should find ways to “disengage” from work and have quality personal time when traditional boundaries between work and home life are no longer clear.
Set reasonable limits to work hours and determine how to meet work requirements and still preserve personal time.
Build in short breaks and work during periods of peak energy.
For Workforce.com users there are features on our platform available to keep communication lines open during this difficult time. Chat with your staff, schedule according to operational changes, manage leave, clock in and out remotely, and communicate changes through custom events, among other things.
Source: Diane Burrus, WFD Consulting, Waltham, Massachusetts, April 4, 2013.
The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.
The Cleveland Indians have sent pitcher Zach Plesac back to Cleveland from their current run of road games for breaking the team’s COVID-19 protocols.
According to Cleveland.com, MLB security personnel caught the pitcher returning to the team’s hotel early Sunday morning after he had gone out with friends. The team has its own coronavirus code of conduct, which in part required Plesac to obtain permission before leaving the hotel. According to ESPN, the Indians hired a car service to return Plesac to Cleveland so that he would not share an airplane with his teammates and potentially place them at risk. The team’s management has said that he will remain quarantined until he receives two negative tests.
Bravo to the Indians for doing what they feel they have to do to keep their employees safe and the team playing games.
Your business may not be able to dictate how your employees spend their free time, but you can hold them to consequences if they choose to act irresponsibly when “off the clock.”
We are living through a pandemic. Every employee has a responsibility to their employer, their co-workers, and the business to make sure that they do what they can to avoid brining COVID-19 into the workplace, and every employer has the same responsibility to take reasonable steps to prevent an at-risk employee from entering the workplace when it’s discovered.
These are strange times for sure, and I will not fault any employer that errs on the side of caution in how it manages its employee respective to mitigating workplace coronavirus exposures. I’m not advocating for, or in favor of, employer monitoring of employee off-duty conduct. If, however, irresponsible, reckless or dangerous behavior comes to an employer’s attention, it shouldn’t ignore it in the name of privacy either.
A recent survey of businesses reveals a variety of trends about COVID-19 in the workplace.
Nearly 6 out of every 10 employers has had an employee test positive for COVID-19 (double the number from April).
92 percent require on-site employees to wear masks in common areas and mandate physical distancing.
93 percent have enhanced cleaning protocols.
More than 1 in 2 are taking employees’ temperatures and performing other daily health screenings, while only 2 percent are requiring (legal but impractical) COVID-19 diagnostic testing and 1 percent (illegal) COVID-19 antibody testing.
73 percent are allowing employees to work from home based on a fear of contracting COVID-19 without any risk factors.
20 percent are discouraging domestic travel, and nearly 45 percent are requiring employees to work remotely or take a leave of absence for a 14-day quarantine upon their return.
Despite all of these measures, 21 percent of employers have received a COVID-19 related complaint from employees.
What has your experience been? On track with this survey? Or different? Please share in the comments below.
Like many companies Shawmut Design and Construction faced the dilemma of protecting the health and well-being of its employees as the COVID-19 pandemic tore through the U.S. workforce.
While the safety of its 900 employees was Shawmut’s top priority, no one-size-fits-all solution was evident. Shawmut’s staff includes in-office employees as well as workers in the field at sites across the country.
With a diverseportfolio of jobs including cultural and historic buildings, academic institutions, commercial properties, luxury homes and Major League Baseball stadiums, Shawmut’s executive team had to act quickly and decisively to assure that their workers could function safely while still productively maintaining their commitments to hundreds of clients.
Les Hiscoe, CEO, Shawmut Design and Construction
“We experienced added complexities on many projects that continued to work right through and were not impacted by shutdowns,” said Les Hiscoe, Shawmut’s CEO since 2015. “We had to make real-time adjustments on the fly to keep our people safe first and foremost and to make sure we continued to deliver for our clients.”
One of Shawmut’s core values even before the pandemic struck was “find a better way.” Company leaders realized early on during the pandemic that making decisions on the fly was not sustainable and determined the “better way” was developing solutions internally.
Initially partnering with trade unions, industry peer groups and other construction companies, Shawmut developed its COVID-19 safety plan to minimize coronavirus exposure and risk across all job sites. The company soon rolled out safety protocols as well as a COVID-19 risk assessment and response plan to project sites across the country, Hiscoe said.
Shawmut’s leadership looked inward to develop a technology-driven solution that addresses worker safety as well as on-site productivity. Built in-house, Shawmut’s IT, safety and marketing teams developed Shawmut Vitals, a custom technology platform designed to track COVID-19 symptoms and manage contact tracing to minimize and control infectious disease spread.
Implementing a vital technology solution
Shawmut staff quickly took the platform to market, transforming the idea from concept to rollout in under two weeks, Hiscoe said.
“The platform allows employees and subcontractors to self-certify daily health screenings by scanning a job-specific QR code that pulls up a health survey to fill out,” Hiscoe said. “If an individual is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or has been exposed to someone who is either infected or at risk, the individual is flagged for further care and action.”
The platform reduces friction points as people enter a site. Shawmut Vitals alsofrees a site superintendent’s time since the data is integrated into Shawmut’s systems, resulting in thorough recordkeeping and generating reports that previously had been done by hand.
Virtual communication in the office and on site
Frequent communication played a huge role in Shawmut’s safety response andemployee engagement when offices began reopening, Hiscoe said.
“We held daily executive team huddles that begin with conversations around the best ways to keep our people safe, sharing successes and lessons learned across our job sites and regions,” Hiscoe said. “This also includes connecting with our Virtual Crisis Command Center, a COVID-19 crisis team that is constantly monitoring developments and helping to guide actions. We can provide constant guidance to our on-site client and office teams and ensure we are following all federal, state and CDC recommendations.”
Shawmut’s Future of Work Task Force also evolved out of their meetings.
Created to implement the best processes, systems and technology as employees began returning to the organization’s 10 offices, the task force is made up of cross-region, cross-department staff members.
The team meets virtually every week to develop thorough office-specific plans that adhere to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state and local government guidelines to keep everyone as safe as possible. Each office has a core team that examines the specific needs of that space and workforce to ensure every detail is taken into consideration, enabling staff to work safely and efficiently.
Hiscoe added that before entering the office, employees complete a health screening using Shawmut Vitals. This not only prevents those exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms or may have been exposed from coming into the office but also helps with contact tracing. Offices are also clearly marked with signs including traffic flow, conference room capacity limits and common-area closures.
Those who are not ready to come back to the office utilize Shawmut Flex, Hiscoe said, a flexible work program allowing teams to work remotely.
“Having flex options is rare in the construction industry so Shawmut was uniquely positioned to be able to transition to work from home arrangements,” he said.
Following the rules
The pandemic has had a significant effect on how Shawmut employees work together on their job sites, Hiscoe said. They identified several new requirements:
Self-awareness
“We encourage any individual who is feeling sick or who is presenting any symptoms of a cold, flu, or COVID-19 to stay home and/or seek medical attention. We enforce a 100 percent zero-tolerance policy that does not allow for anyone showing symptoms to be on the job site.”
Hygiene
All projects provide access to hand washing stations, which are spread at least 6 feet apart to maintain social distancing. Hand washing stations have corresponding signs with proper hand washing and hygiene techniques.
Personal protective equipment
All standard requirements apply. When two workers are operating near each other, face shields, safety glasses, hard hats and face masks are mandatory. PPE is disinfected before brought in personal vehicles or to homes.
Site safety requirements
A COVID-19 officer is on site 100 percent of the time to enforce all site safety rules, including the twice-daily cleaning of high-contact and common areas, pre-task planning meeting, health screenings, limiting of only essential personnel on the site and frequently cleaning high-traffic areas, equipment, and tools and devices.
Communication
The team hosts toolbox talks related to COVID-19, distributes regularly written communications on best practices to job-site teams and reinforces all messages with signs in English and Spanish.
Emergency procedures
In the event of possible COVID-19 exposure, Shawmut teams will strictly follow CDC regulations.
Hiscoe added there is no wiggle room with Shawmut’s procedures either in office or on a job site. “Alongside my executive leadership team and virtual crisis team, we’ve made our enhanced safety protocols mandatory for both our staff on site and in our offices,” he said. “We’ve shared our enhanced protocols virtually with our partners and any guests who may need to access our offices making them fully aware of our mandatory procedures.”
Keeping in contact with all employees
Hiscoe said the pandemic has severely disrupted his own schedule and halted all travel for him.
“As a quintessential extrovert, this has been a challenge in an age of social distancing, both professionally and personally. As a leader, I pride myself in making connections with our people, projects and partners.”
Hiscoe’s limited travel schedule established unforeseen ways to manage his stress.
“I made sure to regularly work out, which helped immensely. And during quarantine, I have really enjoyed being home with my family and having dinners together.”
Knowing who is where and when is crucial to their safety and well-being. With staff working in an office, remotely or in the field, automate how your employees clock in and out withWorkforce.com’s GPS-enabled time clock app that works everywhere in the world.
There was a time in the very recent past when the biggest worry about a workplace time clock was whether the employee arrived on time to punch in and remembered to clock out when their shift was over.
That has changed in recent months. It is understandable that employees’ anxiety levels are high, and the thought of having to touch an unsanitary time clock adds some unnecessary concern. While the specter of returning to work among customers as well as co-workers frays the nerves of some employees, about the last thing they need on their minds is whether the time clock on the wall was sanitized after the previous employee punched in for their shift.
Ease their fears
There are obvious sanitary solutions for cleaning workstations and countertops. A mobile time clock app is a software solution that allows employees to bypass touching the grimy surface of a physical time clock.
Cleanliness should always be a concern in any workplace. Employers wouldn’t set out boxes of dirty tissues. So why should a time clock that’s constantly being touched be the lone option for employees to start and end their shift?
And don’t be fooled into thinking that a biometric time clock is a cleaner option. That fingerprint left by the previous employee? Do you know where that person’s digit was before tapping the pad?
It just makes sense to offer employees a mobile solution to cleanly and effortlessly clock in, safe in the knowledge that their employer is vigilant in maintaining a healthy workforce and concerned about accurate time management.
Safe, sanitary and simple
Automating how a staff clocks in and out is not only the sanitary option, it also is the simple solution to cutting back hours of burdensome administrative work each week. With such a keen focus onpredictive scheduling laws and regulations, an automated time clock system featuring a mobile app can communicate schedules that help companies remain in compliance. Employers can communicate scheduling in advance and explain the flexibility needs of the business at the same time, creating an open line of communication between employer and employee.
Employer advantages
Buddy punching has existed practically since the invention of time clocks. A time-clock mobile app assures that the correct person clocks in for the right shift through electronic photo verification and unique passcodes.
Automation eliminates repetitive processes that can lead to miscalculating payroll, which is among the fastest and easiest ways to get burned by a wage-and-hour lawsuit. According to Internal Revenue Service statistics,about one-third of employers make payroll errors. The American Payroll Association separately reported that such errors range between is up to 8 percent of total payroll.
A mobile clock-in solution also helps assure that staff is paid correctly according to time worked and is in compliance with local, state and federal laws.
Here are some advantages employers will find by using mobile clock-in software:
React immediately to curb or cut overtime.
Automation saves time and effort.
Save money as buddy punching is regulated.
Avoid costly lawsuits by complying with all regulations.
Employee advantages
Eliminating a physical time clock eases in-office cleanliness concerns. Companies with staff located in multiple locations who are working remotely allows them to clock in via a mobile app whenever and wherever they are. A time clock app is GPS-enabled and works everywhere in the world. Employees can:
Easily and simply clock in and out with one swipe on their phone and not touch a time clock.
Request time off remotely.
View current and past timesheets.
Communicate while on the go.
Ask yourself: Do you really want your employees touching the same time clock? It’s a cesspool of germs waiting to pollute your workforce with every touch. Clean up your physical workplace and tidy your workforce management processes by integrating the Workforce.comTime Clock App.
Employee engagement is an elusive goal that organizations constantly strive to attain. Despite these efforts, though, polls consistently show that only about a third of employees are engaged at any one time. Experts say it could take years to see significant change in engagement scores.
Even so, it’s worth the long-term efforts to increase employee engagement. According to a 2018 Gallup poll, higher engagement rates are correlated with higher productivity, better retention, fewer accidents and 21 percent higher profitability.
Here are some employee engagement tips and how technology can make a workforce management professional’s life easier and more streamlined as they try to increase engagement.
Cultivate a sense of purpose among employees: One reason employees may feel dissatisfied with their jobs and plan on leaving is because they feel a “lack of purpose” at work. A recent Deloitte study found that only 37 percent of millennials think business leaders “make a positive impact on the world.” A separate Deloitte report clarified that the workforce as a whole, not just younger generations, appreciates when a company adopts a higher purpose — “moving beyond profit to a focus on doing good things for individuals, customers and society.”
Part of showing employees what the values and mission of the organization are includes showcasing workplace examples via the company’s communication channels. Employers can share stories of employees embodying the company’s mission or values, and technology-enabled communication platforms can help employers spread the message to as many employees as possible.
Ask for feedback on a regular basis: If employers want to identify their engagement issues, they have to listen to what employees are saying. There are many ways to get this feedback, experts say. Employers can conduct both annual surveys and periodic pulse surveys, host employee focus groups and monitor social media posts. Further, they can communicate with employee teams about what they like about working for the organization versus what needs to change.
“Approach employees as true partners, involving them in continuous dialogues and processes about how to design and alter their roles, tasks and working relationships,” advised Boston University Professor William Kahn — who coined the term “employee engagement” 30 years ago — in a 2015 Workforce.com Q&A. “That means that leaders need to make it safe enough for employees to speak openly of their experiences at work.”
Give employee feedback on a regular basis: Similarly, employees also want to receive feedback about their own performance. They want to see that the company they work for is invested in their
career. According to a 2019 LinkedIn survey, 94 percent of employees say they would stay at a company longer if the organization invested in their career growth and development.
This is also an area in which technology can help. As more employees work remotely at least part time, continuous feedback doesn’t always have to be delivered in person. The right tech tool can allow those conversations to happen even when a manager and employee aren’t regularly in the same office.
Workforce.com software is one platform that allows managers to communicate with employees any time, anywhere via a mobile app, helping provide remote feedback. In addition, managers can use it as a shift-rating tool to evaluate their teams and share feedback.
