Category: Workplace Culture

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Dear Workforce How Do We Help Employees Achieve Better Work-Life Balance?

Dear Worried About Burnout:

Corporate culture is the most critical driver of successful work/life balance. Some cultural issues, as well as personal life issues, might differ from country to country. But there is some common ground that typically transcends global boundaries. For example, employees often need work schedule options that give them the flexibility to accommodate their personal and family needs, whether it’s child care, unexpected family emergencies, doctor appointments, personal time for school events and so on. So a flexible policy on work arrangements becomes the centerpiece of a work/life balance strategy.

But any flexibility policy your company puts in place will only be words on paper if the culture doesn’t exist to endorse and support the policy. When you have the right culture for flexibility, you know it right away, and so do your employees. Flexibility becomes a normal part of the way people work, rather than an enforced policy.

The type of work, the level of trust with employees and uniform guidelines are critical factors for granting any form of flexibility. In addition, it should be standard procedure to have a formal collaboration between manager and employee: a request proposal, for example. The proposals must be weighed on the basis of both professional needs and personal needs.

To gain managers’ support, it is important to develop a “what’s in it for me” business case for work/life balance. This will differ from manager to manager. For one manager, it might be a recruitment or retention issue. For another, it might be the additional productivity from enabling employees to work at their most productive times—early starters/finishers versus late starters/finishers, for example—or from their most productive work environment (office versus remote location). For another manager, it might be the reduction in unscheduled absences—it’s often easier to take the whole day off than to ask for a couple of hours to deal with a personal or family issue. In the end, managers have to see some return on investment, such as enhanced productivity.

The employer’s primary responsibility is to train managers to be sensitive to their employees’ personal needs and to break down traditional “face time” mentality: the attitude that employees can be trusted only when they’re within their manager’s line of sight. Employees’ primary responsibility is to maintain the productivity standards that are expected of them. A joint responsibility is to communicate with one another on these issues in an open and trusting environment. This concept of shared responsibility becomes a win-win by valuing both business success and personal fulfillment.

A culture of trust, combined with effective training and communication, provides the perfect environment for flexibility—and the work/life balance that comes with it.

SOURCE: Richard Federico, Workplace Innovation, Bridgeport, Connecticut, January 12, 2007. This response originally appeared in Dear Workforce on February 15, 2007.

LEARN MORE: Please read how Best Buy is giving employees more control in deciding how and when work gets done.

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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.

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Employers Preparing to Expand Wellness Efforts, Survey Finds

The costs of the health care reform law make it more important than ever that employers keep their workers healthy and motivated to adopt healthy lifestyles, a vast majority of employers said in a recent survey.


Not only did 78 percent of employers agree or somewhat agree with that statement, but most also said they are likely or very likely to create or expand corporate wellness programs as a result of an incentive provision in the new law.


Effective January 1, 2014, employers will be able to use employee wellness program rewards or penalties of up to 30 percent of the cost of individual health coverage, up from the current limit of 20 percent.


The survey conducted by the Chicago-based Midwest Business Group on Health in partnership with Business Insurance, found that 60 percent of employers are likely or very likely to create or expand their wellness programs as a result of the wellness provision, while 33 percent said they are unlikely or not very likely to do so, and 7 percent did not answer.


The survey of 1,300 employers, including MBGH members and the National Business Coalition on Health, gauged their intentions and perspectives concerning the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.


MBGH will present the survey findings this week at a health care seminar in Chicago.


Larry S. Boress, president and chief executive of MBGH, said the most significant finding of the survey is the recognition among employers of how critical the health of their employees is to the success of their companies.


“Employers have recognized that under health reform, more than ever, the investment in human capital is what they need to be looking at as opposed to thinking of benefits as just an expense of doing business,” Boress said.


The survey also found that when it comes to communicating information to employees, 52 percent are educating employees about how the law affects their benefits; 36 percent are describing what they, as the employer, plan to do; and 35 percent are explaining to employees what’s contained in the new law.


Conversely, 38 percent of the employers surveyed said they haven’t decided what to communicate to employees and 6 percent said they don’t plan to inform employees about the law.


Boress said he was not surprised by the lack of communication by employers.


“There’s so much confusion and uncertainty about what, in fact, is going on in health care and what do these rules really mean and how it’s all going to play out,” he said.


Employees are “running scared,” he said. “They don’t know if they’re going to have benefits” in the future. “In the immediate case … I think employers have an obligation to tell people what they know [about the law] and what they don’t know and start with that.”


Among other findings from the survey, “Employers Intentions and Perspective of the New Health Reform Law,” were:


• Fifty-four percent of employers said it is unlikely or not very likely that they will drop health care coverage and pay the $2,000 per employee fine as stipulated under the law. However, 18 percent said it is likely or very likely that they will consider dropping benefits.


• Employers were split as to whether they are likely to charge more for dependents as a result of a provision that extends coverage to adult children up to age 26. Forty-seven percent said they were likely or very likely to charge more for coverage, and 47 percent said they were not very likely or were unlikely to charge more.


• Seventy-four percent of employers said they were not very likely or were unlikely to reduce the number of employees working 30 to 40 hours a week as a result of the law’s requirement that they extend health care coverage to employees who work 30 or more hours a week or face penalties.


• Fifty-five percent agreed it is likely or very likely that employees will have more out-of-pocket costs or reduce their health care usage due to a $2,500 cap on employees’ annual contributions to flexible spending accounts that goes into effect in 2013. There is no limit currently, but employers typically impose limits between $4,000 and $5,000. Twenty-eight percent said the provision is not very likely or unlikely to cause employees to spend more, while 17 percent did not answer.


For more information, visit www.mbgh.org.


Filed by Sally Roberts of Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.


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Diversity Sorely Lacking in Advisory Business, Says Head of Minority-Run Firm

Financial advisors must work to add more diversity to their offices so that they can better serve a growing minority population, an industry leader said.


But too often, minorities don’t even consider the financial services industry as a career, said John Rogers, chairman and chief executive of Ariel Investments. Rogers spoke at the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors national conference in Chicago.


“You have to have the right products for this diverse clientele that you’ll be servicing and the right people on your team to service this clientele,” said Rogers, who leads the largest minority-run mutual fund.


He encouraged financial advisors to reach out to schools in their communities to teach young students about the financial services industry. Too often, Rogers said, children don’t learn about the stock market in public schools.


In fact, he became interested in the market when his father began buying him shares of stocks as birthday gifts when he turned 12.


Because his father’s interest in the stock market helped foster his own love for the industry, Rogers became an avid fan of money management. He said his firm works closely with schoolchildren, even giving them money to invest in the stock market.


Rogers concedes, however, that it’s a struggle getting minorities into the business. While the industry has made strides, the efforts will take years. He pointed out that it has been difficult for him to attract minorities to his firm—either as employees or clients.


“I had this hope that I’d have a whole lot of minority customers,” he said. “We probably have more than other mutual fund companies, but it’s still a long time in the process.”


He added that, after 27 years, “I’m still working at it.”


Filed by Lisa Shidler of InvestmentNews, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

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Dear Workforce What Are the Best Work-at-Home Guidelines

Dear Flexible to a Point:

Here are some ground rules to share with your remote and/or virtual workers.

Set yourself up for success at work
Meet with your manager to determine how your work and job requirements can be done remotely from your home either full time or certain days of the week.

• Consider the effect of working at home on your customers, co-workers and manager.

• Determine your 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 with your manager and co-workers to discuss how things are going and determine how to overcome challenges that may be identified.

Set yourself up for success at home
Set up an appropriate work space that is separate and distinct from your “home space” and conducive to working effectively without interruptions.

• Design your work space for efficiency, with all the documents and materials you need.

• Create a healthy work space—good light, comfortable temperature, ergonomic adjustable chair, computer keyboard and mouse suited to your needs, telephone headset, etc.

• Set boundaries with your family members

• Ensure your family members understand that although you are home, you are working.

• Establish ground rules for work hours, interruptions, noise, etc.

• Do not use working from home as a substitute for child care.

Focus on performance and results
Be clear on your priorities, focusing on the expectations, tasks and responsibilities you and your manager agreed upon as measures of success.

Be proactive in communicating regularly with your manager, co-workers and customers to stay connected and resolve issues as they come up.

Ensure that your accomplishments, project status, outcomes and deliverables are visible to your manager and co-workers as appropriate. Avoid being out of sight, out of mind.

Invite and encourage feedback from co-workers, managers and customers about how your virtual work arrangement is affecting them.

Be accessible, responsive and reliable 
Utilize appropriate communication methods to stay connected with your manager, co-workers and customers.

Update your e-mail, voice mail greeting, staff calendar and so on regularly with your schedule, availability and contact information.

Check your e-mail and voice mail frequently.

Demonstrate trustworthiness by being predictable and reliable, taking promises seriously and following through on commitments.

Manage your work and preserve time for your life
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 your 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.

SOURCE: Diane Burrus, senior consultant and flexibility expert, WFD Consulting, Newton, Massachusetts, April 27, 2010

LEARN MORE: Potential telecommuters should be screened the same way as employees considered for any other assignments.

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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.

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The Hive Mind at Work

When Michael O’Malley discusses the hive mind, he’s not speaking figuratively. A social psychologist, Yale University Press editor and longtime beekeeper, O’Malley applied his apiarian knowledge to management practices in The Wisdom of Bees: What the Hive Can Teach Business About Leadership, Efficiency, and Growth. O’Malley spoke recently with Workforce Management contributing editor Michelle V. Rafter about the book.


Workforce Management: A lot of the book pertains to bees’ labor practices. What can HR managers learn from studying how they work?


Michael O’Malley: Beehives foster lifelong development in their workforce, so average tenure and productivity are as high as possible.


WM: Hives have very high bee retention rates, what can companies learn from that to better train and hang on to employees?


O’Malley: Bees have a disciplined career development program. They start with simple tasks inside the hive and work their way to the periphery doing most complex tasks until they become foragers. By contrast, I did a study for a retailer who was replacing every sales associate three times over the course of a year. When that happens, the whole operation shifts to an internal focus, replacing lost workers, instead of external operations, like selling things—or in the hive, gathering nectar.


WM: You call annual performance reviews “loathsome.” What should companies do instead?


O’Malley: Bees are always assessing each other’s productivity. If a bee’s infected and will be detrimental to the hive, they remove it immediately. Organizations can naturally embed reviews into their operations. I recommend using recognition programs to foster ongoing awareness of who’s going a good job. It’s more spontaneous and then it becomes a part of what you do as a manager or supervisor.


WM: Bees don’t have to recruit; they just hatch new workers. What can the hive teach companies about hiring?


O’Malley: Sometimes a colony merges with another hive. If other bees are introduced, they mix the combs from the two hives. There is an enculturation process. In an organization, that enculturation process could be as simple as when a new person’s arriving, some kind of developmental program that makes them feel wanted. That’s probably the most important element, if they’re hired: making them feel like they belong and are wanted.


WM: Sick bees remove themselves from the hive. But bad employees don’t just voluntarily leave. How should companies handle them?


O’Malley: The first line for the colony is to save the bee. The hive doesn’t want to lose workers. Bees give each other a chance. They have a shaking signal that says, “Help me,” and they’ll pull off mites or anything that might be injurious to the bee. In companies, it’s finding the right fit. It’s not that the person is a poor performer; they’re a poor performer in this context, but they have a redeeming value that in the right context can be developed. Barring that, when I ask executives about their mistakes, they routinely say they didn’t remove someone with performance problems quickly enough. Like in the hive, the first instinct is to save and the second is to act.


WM: What can the hive teach companies with multigenerational workforces?


O’Malley: In the hive, older bees serve as mentors to the younger bees. That’s particularly true when they become foragers. Novice bees go into the field with veterans who show them how to navigate better, work a flower better, identify flowers better. When scientists measure nectar intake, they find that as the novice learns from the veteran, they get more efficient in bringing in more nectar per trip.


WM: Happy bees are productive bees. What can companies do so employees stay happy and productive?


O’Malley: Bees are susceptible to stress, and they get stressed when they’re working odd hours, not eating right and working hard. That should sound familiar. One way companies can improve productivity is to manage stress in their organizations. Give people sabbaticals or special projects. Another way is, sound communications about what’s going on so people aren’t thinking the worst. And companies do a pretty good job of wellness programs.


WM: You commend companies like Cisco for following hive-mind philosophies. How can other companies adopt these principles?


O’Malley: Bees protect the future. If conditions are poor, they ratchet up R&D investment through increased exploratory behavior. That’s the opposite of what a lot companies do. During the recession, Cisco maintained internal business development and R&D expenditures, so I gave them credit for protecting their future by continuing to make essential investments. They take hits for that. Analysts complain their earnings aren’t what they could be, but that’s the challenge of a chief executive, to make the company a lasting enterprise.


Workforce Management Online, May 2010 — Register Now!

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Report Dont Ostracize Temp Employees

Traditionally hired employees are less satisfied with co-workers and bosses when working with larger proportions of temporary workers, research from the University of Arizona found. However, companies can help fix the situation by not treating temps as a separate workforce.


“Using temporary workers can be a good thing for organizations,” said Joseph Broschak, associate professor of management and organizations at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. “But managers must think carefully about how they manage nonstandard work arrangements, such as temporary and contract work. Treating the population of nonstandard employees as a separate workforce can have unintended consequences for everyone.”


Broschak, along with Alison Davis-Blake of the University of Minnesota, studied the issue in a recent paper. The University of Arizona reported on the findings last week as the U.S. continues to add temp jobs.


Why are traditionally hired workers less satisfied?


“First, in many organizations the task of training and socializing temporary workers on company-specific processes is often delegated to full-time workers,” Broschak said. “Having more temporary co-workers makes full-time workers’ jobs more complicated, since they are always training new people. Second, regularly helping temporary workers can get in the way of full-time employees completing their work. Further, in the minds of full-time employees their jobs have diminished status when temporary workers occupy similar jobs.”


The effect is particularly strong among people at lower levels of an organization where traditionally hired and temporary workers are most similar.


Employers can improve the situation by encouraging social interaction among all workers and including temps in thinks such as formal and informal departmental lunches and holiday parties, according to the research.


“Allowing workers who are employed under different work arrangements to develop social ties at work is a key to developing a cohesive and well-functioning workforce,” Broschak said.


Another paper, published in 2008, by Broschak, Davis-Blake and Emily Block of Notre Dame University found that voluntary part-time workers tended to be more positive and temporary workers more negative about their work arrangements compared with standard workers. However, temporary workers who had opportunities to transition to standard employment had better attitudes and were better performers than their peers in standard work arrangements.


“Temporary workers want to work hard and want to fit in when they see a job as an avenue to getting ahead,” Broschak said. “This can be a real plus to organizations that use this as a method of finding standard workers.”  


Filed by Staffing Industry Analysts, a sister company of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.


 


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Why Corporate Success Depends on Invincible Employees

Are your employees invincible?


In my interviews with more than 1,000 leaders and their staff while guiding companies through turbulent change, I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon: Certain work teams not only survive chaos, they thrive. I call this group “the invincibles.”


Invincibles develop the powerful ability to vault over obstacles and bullet-proof their commitment to succeed, despite extreme changes in their organizations. Where their colleagues perceive adversity, they see opportunity. Where others hang back to “see what’s going to happen,” these employees prepare and take action.


In the current economic climate, invincible employees provide a competitive advantage to lean organizations struggling to achieve business goals with fewer resources. They can do the work of more than one team member and uncover options that bolster the organization’s bottom line. Invincibles are not just found, however. Leadership must actively pursue them and nurture their development within the organization.


Indeed, in my experience, invincibles share one overriding similarity: They are nurtured by highly effective leaders. They might not always be an employee’s direct supervisor, but somewhere up the line there is strong leadership. My research from interviews and focus groups at Fortune 500 companies in various industries going through mergers, layoffs or new corporate procedures found five core leadership qualities that fuel the buoyancy of hardy achievers.


1. Empower your employees to make a difference. When you give your team members the ability to take advantage of opportunities and address issues on their own, you send a powerful message: You trust them. They, in turn, will return that trust in spades, serving as top-flight ambassadors to your customers.


Ritz-Carlton president and COO Simon Cooper has been reported as saying the key to his company’s success is training the staff well, then trusting them to do their jobs. Every Ritz-Carlton employee can spend up to $2,000 to improve any guest’s stay without seeking managerial approval—whether it’s used on Champagne for a guest’s birthday or on carpentry costs to make a place wheelchair accessible.


Employee empowerment doesn’t have to be expensive. Actions that allow employees to feel they are making a difference might include permitting them to issue discount cards to disgruntled customers, or encouraging managers to offer spot bonuses for outstanding team performers.


2. Demonstrate empathy. Did you happen to catch Lawrence Summers, President Barack Obama’s chief economic advisor, on ABC News’ This Week a few months ago? Summers said employment figures showed “only 11,000 jobs lost.” From his perspective, this was an improvement over 700,000 jobs lost earlier in the year. But from the point of view of those in his audience struggling with unemployment, his words sounded harsh.


Corporate leaders often must talk about numbers in terms of productivity, cost cutting or staff reductions. In order to connect with employees, it’s important to never let numbers take the place of human beings.


3. Involve employees in a higher purpose. Employees need to understand what the organization is trying to do and clearly see their role in this objective.


Here’s a quick quiz. Which employee would you guess is invincible? Three brick-layers working side by side are asked what they are building. One says he is laying mortar, another says he’s building a wall, and the third says, proudly, “I’m building a cathedral.”


Workers like the third employee don’t just happen. Just like the invincible brick layer, every employee needs to understand the company’s mission and where his or her job fits in to accomplish it.


4. Have the courage to communicate. The first meeting I ever had with a Fortune 100 CEO was supposed to last 15 minutes. Instead, we spoke for two hours about his career, the difficult choices he had been forced to make and the challenges of communicating those decisions to his staff.


As we talked about how to engage his employees in a new initiative, I was struck by two thoughts: One, while company leadership is certainly exhilarating, it can also be very lonely at the top. Two, it takes courage to communicate the toughest decisions.


Leadership communication is absolutely critical to creating invincible employees. Employees don’t want to hear about organizational changes and the direction of the company from colleagues. They want to hear it from leaders.


It’s important to communicate about organizational changes on two levels: One, the changes taking place within the company at the macro level, and two, what these changes mean for the employees. This combination of communications from company leadership goes a long way to soothing uncertainty and fueling productivity.


5. Get out of your office. Within the confines of the executive suite, it can be easy to lose perspective and unintentionally alienate the very people you need for success. (Remember the auto executives who took corporate jets to Washington to ask for funding?)


Circulate and spend time talking with rank-and-file staff and read (and respond to!) employee forums on the intranet. In short, get input from the people you lead so that you can inspire them to deliver on your promises. If you do this regularly, your team members won’t let you down. In fact, they will become invincible.


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10 Tips for Helping Employees With Aging Parents

1. Encourage difficult dialogue. Encourage every employee over age 40 with parents over age 70 to have the “difficult conversation” with parents about their future. Even if the employee’s parents are perfectly healthy now, they need to know what plans their parents have, if any, for taking care of themselves if they need help and can’t manage independently at some point in the future. Adult children need to know their parents’ medical, financial and legal information.


2. Be a link to community resources. Know your community’s resources for aging adults so that your employees won’t be lost in a sea of information overload or feel lost not knowing where to start getting information. Your community’s listings for your closest Area Agency on Aging, senior centers, legal aid for elders and social services agencies are often available in community-based directories. Have one in your office and know where to find directories online.


3. Have a lending library. Keep good resource books on hand for your employees should they face crises with aging parents. Frequent questions regard legal, financial and health care options, as well as communication with elders and other family. The best books shorten research time and reassure employees they’re on the right track. Audio books are particularly good for busy employees.


4. Outline legal options. Urge employees to ask their parents if they have a durable power of attorney (for finances) and a health care directive. These are documents everyone needs in case of emergency or if they become disabled in handling finances. If parents don’t have these things, adult children need to urge and help them to get them done. They are the absolute basic essentials. Having a will or trust is also an essential and can save a lot of time and grief later.


    5. Help employees ask the right questions. Employees need to ask their parents about their financial health so that they will know what to do if the time comes when they need to have help at home or can’t take care of themselves. The responsible adult child should have a record of where the parents’ bank accounts are located, what other financial institutions are connected to them, and where one could find the account numbers and passwords for banking online, if a parent becomes suddenly disabled by a fall or stroke. Advice from a qualified and established financial planner can help parents make responsible plans for their own financial well-being in older age.


    6. Plan for long-term care. Counsel employees not to assume that Medicare will take care of their parents in the future. It doesn’t pay for home care, nor for much nursing home care. Many people are shocked to discover this. Know that long-term care insurance is generally not available if you’re already ill or have certain chronic conditions. Employees need to get it for themselves before they turn 70; after that point, rates can become exorbitant, and many will be denied coverage.


    7. Support caregivers. This is one area where an ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure. Caregivers can easily experience burnout, which frequently leads to physical illness and poor work performance. Offering mental health support to stressed-out caregivers can help keep workers on the job. If your company can build mental health counseling for caregivers into the benefit package, employees can be retained even if they do have great responsibilities for parents. If professional support is not an option, make sure you help connect employees to resources that ease the stress of caregiving.


8. Make relief possible. Encourage employees who are caregivers to take advantage of respite opportunities and to avoid “martyr syndrome.” Female employees, especially, often try to be a good daughter by caring for aging parents, taking care of their own families and still staying on the job. Taking time away from everything should be encouraged. Develop an “escape hatch” list of places your workers can get away, relax and recharge. Encourage employees to ask for help from friends, community and religious organizations, and teach them how to do it.


    9. Create an informed process. Consider setting up a streamlined approach to dealing with employees who are frequently absent because of having to help an aging parent. A system in place will help you help them most effectively. Perhaps routinely recommending a visit to a counselor, elder law attorney, care manager or other expert whom you know could make your job easier. If your company is facing increasing problems with absenteeism over aging parents and Family and Medical Leave Act needs, consider building consultations with experts in the aging field into your company’s bank of resources available as employee benefits.


10. Help leave the worry behind. Encourage your employees to use professional helpers if they are distance caregivers for parents who do not live in the area. We recommend professional geriatric care managers, often nurses or social workers skilled in being a family’s “eyes and ears,” who can look in on an elder regularly and report to the family, easing stress and worry. Some companies are now offering the services of care managers as a part of their employee assistance program to reduce absenteeism and loss of employees.


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Keeping Your Diversity Program Legal

Congratulations! Your diversity program is up and running, and it’s the crown jewel of the company’s Web site. The leadership is pleased, and you are having measurable success in recruiting a diverse workforce, attracting diversity suppliers and connecting with key community leaders and outreach programs. Maybe you’ve even won an award or two.


Everything is great, right? That is, until someone gets unhappy and challenges your program as being slanted toward minorities or “making the numbers” to the disadvantage of non-diverse applicants, employees or vendors. One headline lawsuit with bad facts can undo all of your success and stop your program dead in its tracks. How do you avoid this nightmare?


One way is to make sure that the program you create is the same one you implement. Typically, it’s fine for an organization’s program to tout goals of diversity and inclusion. But putting the plan into play is where you can draw criticism and legal challenges. The key to legally defensible diversity initiatives is to concentrate your diversity efforts on expanding the pipeline of candidates to include as many diverse candidates as possible.


Even after last year’s landmark case Ricci v. DeStefano, in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that employers’ “race-based action[s]” are not permissible under Title VII unless there is a “strong basis in evidence” that they would have been liable for disparate impact had they not taken the action, the Supreme Court has endorsed efforts to expand the pipeline of candidates. So have high-ranking representatives at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.


However, a distinction must be made between aggressive efforts to ensure a diverse candidate pool and the selection decisions made from that pool. Under Ricci, other Supreme Court precedents and lower court cases, broadening the pool to include diverse groups is permitted. Using “protected group status” as a criterion in the selection process is not.


There is some question after Ricci as to whether the traditional distinction applied to “remedial” affirmative action plans under Title VII will remain viable. Under those cases, “protected status” may be taken into account to remedy past statistical imbalances (or past discrimination) as long as the plan:


1. Is temporary;


2. Is designed to attain (not “maintain”) a nondiscriminatory balance; and


3. Does not “unnecessarily trammel” upon the rights of non-diverse individuals.


Particularly in light of expanded statute-of-limitations decisions and statutory initiatives such as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, many employers understandably do not wish to base their diversity plan on past imbalances, which might be construed as an admission of discrimination. Thus, under a non-remedial initiative, diversity efforts must be directed at expanding the pool of applicants to select the best-qualified candidate on a nondiscriminatory basis.


Diversity and inclusion efforts should focus first and foremost on expanding the pool of candidates for selection, and ensuring that actual decisions do not take race, color, religion, sex or national origin into account. Instead, the actual employment decision should be based on who is best qualified for the selection in question.


Permitted diversity and inclusion efforts to “broaden the pipeline” can include the following:


• Broad media advertising (not just in minority newspapers and journals) is the most widely recognized way to get the word out. However, creativity is a plus: A large state university recently extended its outreach to diverse students by passing out information at church and community events and programs.


• Trade organizations for women and minorities also maintain online job boards and placement listings that can provide no-cost or low-cost advertising for both your company’s diversity program and your available opportunities.


• If using an executive search firm, quiz its representatives not only regarding their familiarity with diversity initiatives but also on their existing pool of diverse candidates and their success in placing diverse candidates in your industry. Ask them what specific steps they would take to cast as wide a net as possible for each of the available positions.


As with any employment or promotion decision, employers should make efforts to negate individual subjective decision-making, which can allow prohibited bias to influence employment or promotion decisions. In particular:


• Discourage those involved in the selection process from being influenced by any inclination to “make the numbers” in a diversity plan or initiative.


• Develop objective criteria for selection and a methodology for observing and evaluating the interviewee’s behaviors and conduct demonstrating such criteria.


• Create an interview plan. Develop interview questions that are job-related and develop an “ideal candidate” profile. Interviewers should focus on applicants’ skills and qualifications. Employers may also create a numeric score based on applicants’ answers so they have concrete data to point to in making their decisions.


• Train and provide written guidance to those involved in the selection process to focus upon the objective criteria and objective manifestations of conduct and behaviors exemplifying such criteria. The goal here is to ensure that the selection process focuses on objective criteria and observable conduct in making decisions.


• Counsel those involved in the selection decision against having their assessments as to individual criteria influenced by the “halo” effect (i.e., allowing one characteristic, whether good or bad, to dominate their assessment of a candidate). Additionally, for currently employed candidates, advise those involved to be wary of prior written performance reviews that might compromise the objectivity of the decision-making process (For example: “Mr. X had terrible reviews, but he is the best for the job” or “Ms. Y had great reviews, but everyone knows the evaluations were inflated, and she is not that great.”)


Furthermore, the selection process should be structured to avoid the appearance that just one person—who may have manifest or hidden biases—is the decision-maker. Ideally, the employer should form a committee composed of diverse personnel capable of discerning and avoiding stereotyping and who also understand the specific skills and traits needed to perform successfully in the position. This committee should review selection recommendations, thereby providing practical validation for the selection criteria made. Alternatively, a committee such as the one described above may rank the final candidates or it may make the selection decision itself. If the result of that process is the selection of a diverse candidate, there should be no basis to question the decision.


Workforce Management Online, April 2010 — Register Now!


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.

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Contingent Confusion in Tallying Workforce

Large companies struggle to get a handle on the fundamental question of how many people make up their total workforce, says Edward Jackson, CEO of Provade, which makes software to track contingent workers.

Employers today may be making use of workers who are not actually employed by them, such as staffing agency temps, independent contractors and workers at outsourcers such as IT services provider Infosys Technologies.

“It was a lot simpler 20 years ago,” Jackson says. “Ninety percent of the total workforce was permanent, where today it is probably down to 60 percent or even lower in some companies.”

Jackson comes to that striking conclusion in part because of the significant number of employees who may be dedicated to a firm at professional services outsourcers. Such workers not only are not counted by firms in their traditional company headcount figures, but they historically haven’t been treated as part of their contingent workforce either. As a result, Jackson says, a company’s employee base may be shrinking or staying flat but its overall workforce may be expanding.

In many cases, Jackson says, outsourcers are asked to add workers for items above and beyond the outsourced function.

At that point, they are acting like staff augmentation firms.

“The resource may actually report directly to a company manager and be directed by them just like an employee,” Jackson says.

Provade is among the makers of contingent workforce management software that can account for workers at outsourcing providers.

Without a true tally of the people plugging away on its behalf, a company can lose the ability to optimize its operations, Jackson says.

“Where is your talent?” he asks. “Where is your productivity coming from?”

Workforce Management, April 2010, p. 28 — Subscribe Now!