Veterans at Work - How to Create an Inclusive Culture

How to Create an Inclusive Culture for Veterans at Work

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Recently, one of the soldiers in my reserve unit decided it was time to hang up the uniform and transition to the civilian world. During an “exit counseling” meeting, I asked him about his thought process behind this decision and the reasons he joined a part-time reserve unit after active duty. He responded in a way I believe reflects the thinking of many transitioning soldiers. He was concerned that, without the structure of full-time service, he might not be able to land on his feet.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long for an answer. Only a few months after moving on from active duty, he was applying his passion for graphic design in an organization that welcomes veterans at work.

Reintegration Realities

However, for many former service members, this gear shift isn’t nearly as fluid. It may seem odd that veterans face so many hurdles when seeking meaningful employment. After all, American corporations offer a plethora of opportunities, and civilian organizations generally view veteran culture in a positive light. For example, employers tend to associate military service with premier leadership acumen, dedication to working within a group, superior adaptability, and strong problem-solving skills.

These perceptions are on track. Former service members bring a wealth of skills, dedication, and a deep sense of duty to their corporate roles. Military responsibilities are rich in leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving. But these strengths sometimes get lost in translation during the civilian hiring process. With a more inclusive, accommodating environment for veterans at work, you can more easily recruit and retain candidates from this attractive talent pool. The following ideas can help:

Ways to Welcome Veterans at Work

1. Customize Your Onboarding Process

Recognizing the unique qualities veterans bring to the workforce is important for their success as they reintegrate. Effective employers acknowledge these distinct characteristics and tailor onboarding programs accordingly.

Imagine starting a new job and discovering that your military experience is not only acknowledged, but embraced. That’s the aim of tailored onboarding. You’ll want to show veterans their service is valued. It’s about demonstrating that an individual has a unique role to play within your company, and that role ties into a bigger vision.

  • Frame Your Culture in a Meaningful Way
    For successful onboarding, begin with a clear, complete introduction to your company and its culture. Focus on what’s expected, including organizational values, communication styles, and workplace norms. This kind of orientation equips veterans with the knowledge they need to assimilate more quickly and easily.
  • Fast-Track Assimilation With Relevant Tips
    Don’t forget to address the unique challenges veterans may face during their transition back into civilian life. For example, they will need to learn corporate lingo, adjust to a different chain of command, and understand how to operate effectively within existing teams.
  • Make the Most of Mentoring
    Mentorship within the organization can play a major role here. Pairing veterans with experienced colleagues is a natural way to help them establish valuable relationships while providing a reliable source of guidance during the initial stages of employment.

Bottom line: Effective onboarding isn’t just a gesture. It’s a commitment to help veterans succeed by ensuring they feel valued, clarifying how they contribute to your mission, and equipping them to grow and excel in their new role.

2. Provide Skills Translation and Training

After welcoming a veteran into the fold, your focus should shift to translating their military skills into the context of their civilian job. This critical process acknowledges a veteran’s unique talents and nurtures their abilities, so they integrate more seamlessly into the organization as a whole.

Veterans often possess years of experience in leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving in a military context, but these skills don’t always seem directly aligned with their civilian roles. Cultivating a work environment that allows these potential skills to shine can be a game changer.

  • Identify Transferable Skills
    Employers can bridge this gap by helping veterans understand how their expertise aligns with civilian job requirements, especially as it relates to organizational and leadership skills. Many military occupational specialties (MOSs) don’t transfer one-to-one with corporate skill sets. Identifying transferable skills in creative ways can boost a veteran’s work ethic while addressing your company’s specific needs.
  • Invest in Developing New Skills
    Upskilling opportunities also play a vital role in this process. Veterans bring a wealth of skills to the table, but their military experience teaches them there’s always room for further growth and improvement. By offering relevant training and development paths, you can ensure that vets remain confident about their professional capabilities and stay up-to-date with industry standards and practices.

At the same time, it’s crucial to recognize and leverage veterans’ unique abilities. Attributes such as leadership, teamwork, adaptability, and a strong work ethic are ingrained in their DNA. By acknowledging these strengths, you can honor veterans’ service while harnessing their potential to add value to your team.

3. Offer a Flexible Work Environment

People from all walks of life appreciate a flexible work environment. However, for people juggling multiple aspects of life as they transition from active service, the freedom to work without rigid clock-in/clock-out times is especially important. Employers can help in multiple ways. For instance:

  • Offer Self-Directed Scheduling
    Veterans often need to adjust their work schedule so they can accommodate medical, financial, and other crucial appointments. Also, participating in extracurricular lifestyle activities is essential. For example, veterans benefit from joining group workouts, taking time to re-establish bonds with family members, and engaging in other practices that support mental health. By accommodating these needs, you make it possible for veterans to take care of themselves without stress or conflict. At the same time, this demonstrates that employee health and wellbeing matter to you.
  • Provide Access to Helpful Resources
    Along the same lines, paying for fitness class memberships, health advisor services or a life coach builds yet another layer of resiliency and goes well beyond token gestures of care. Taking advantage of these lifestyle resources helps relieve a variety of mental health concerns, not just for veterans, but for your entire organization.
  • Encourage Work-Life Integration
    A flexible work environment naturally promotes work-life balance, which is a crucial factor in successful reintegration. Giving veterans the freedom to manage their personal responsibilities in tandem with work-related duties empowers them to be fully engaged and present during their working hours. Trusting them to do the right thing without an overbearing management culture enhances job satisfaction and productivity. This benefits your organization, as well.

Keep in mind that work flexibility for veterans isn’t just about convenience. It’s also a meaningful way to acknowledge individual needs and responsibilities outside of work. Offering a supportive atmosphere where individuals can flourish both professionally and personally is a powerful way to demonstrate your commitment to every team member.

A Final Note on Supporting Veterans at Work

Ultimately, ensuring that veterans transition successfully into civilian work life is a collective effort. It challenges employers to take a genuine, proactive interest in employee wellbeing. Those with successful veteran-centered programs are tapping into a highly talented pool of people with demonstrated skills, commitment, and work ethic.

In return, this creates an environment where veterans feel comfortable sharing their competencies, ideas, and lessons learned from their military experience. By developing supportive communities, offering a broader vision for growth, and providing a strong mission focus, supportive employers can leverage veteran talent to build a more diverse, skilled, resilient, and innovative workforce.

How Does HR Analytics Transform Workforce Planning?

How Does HR Analytics Transform Workforce Planning?

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With so many interesting new HR tools available lately, are you wondering if more modern HR analytics could improve your workforce planning capabilities? In a world where companies need data-driven approaches to define, deliver, and improve workforce strategies, exactly how can modern tools help?

Today’s HR tools offer exciting new capabilities. For example, these solutions can accelerate data gathering, provide predictive intelligence, assist with hiring decisions, streamline performance management, and much more. But to avoid becoming overwhelmed with choices, it’s important to define the people challenges your company needs to address.

This article is intended to employers consider multiple facets of HR analytics:

  • Historical context
  • Popular functionality
  • Key benefits
  • Real-world use cases

How HR Analytics Has Evolved

Initially, HR analytics focused primarily on helping organizations eliminate intensive manual labor. These tools were useful for complex data collection and spreadsheet management to help employers gain useful intelligence from HR metrics and KPIs.

However, technology is constantly evolving, and this has led to multiple breakthroughs in HR analytics. For example, innovative solutions now integrate advanced workforce planning tools for faster, easier employee data analysis.

Now HR professionals can much more quickly and easily identify meaningful workforce patterns and forecast relevant trends. Using these insights, HR teams can develop, implement, and measure strategies and programs with greater precision and confidence. This improves HR’s ability to work side-by-side with business leaders to align with organizational objectives and improve overall performance.

To see what exactly HR analytics tools can do to improve workforce management, let’s move on…

Key HR Analytics Functions

1. Data Collection and Aggregation

Collecting and aggregating huge data sets is a core HR analytics strength. These tools can integrate data from numerous sources for access through centralized storage.

For instance, imagine you need to verify that a staff member has signed an NDA. Or when preparing an annual review, you want to see how an employee’s performance metrics have changed over time.

When detailed data is structurally organized and highly accessible, HR and business managers can make better-informed decisions much more quickly.

2. Data Analysis and Visualization

Leading-edge HR analytics also provide powerful ways to analyze and visualize workforce data. By extracting actionable insights and applying high-end algorithms and statistical analysis, these tools can help HR teams uncover meaningful patterns, trends, and relationships.

In addition, these tools can make complex data more coherent and useful by translating information into visually rich charts and graphs that add context and improve understanding.

3. Talent Management

It’s crucial for HR analytics platforms to include talent management capabilities. These features are designed to help organizations improve employee engagement and retention throughout the employee lifecycle.

For example, some tools make it possible to assess individual and team skills and translate them into recommended learning paths and development opportunities. This helps HR build employee competencies and align career growth with company needs and goals.

4. Workforce Planning

HR analytics plays a central role in workforce planning because it directly supports strategic decision-making. With more timely, accurate, complete decision support insights, HR and business leaders can develop workforce strategies that are more fair, less biased, and better tuned to organizational realities and priorities.

These capabilities typically focus on resource allocation, employee recruitment, and workforce restructuring, among others.

5. Performance Improvement

Many newer platforms make it possible to analyze workforce performance data in a variety of ways. This helps HR pinpoint and resolve specific performance gaps, curate and deliver customized development plans, and acknowledge excellent performers.

Benefits of HR Analytics

1. More Effective Strategic Planning

Data-driven tools enhance strategic HR planning in several critical ways. For example, it becomes faster and easier to forecast future workforce requirements, facilitate succession planning, and avoid potential talent gaps.

These tools also help HR teams more quickly develop appropriate recruitment procedures to meet existing business needs.

2. Valuable Predictive Capacity

HR analytics tools provide powerful forward-looking capabilities that help HR teams operate more efficiently and effectively. By applying data from past patterns and trends, it’s possible to generate forecasts that more accurately anticipate and prepare for future needs.

This kind of advanced capability helps HR and business leaders take proactive measures and adjust on-the-fly. It also leads to more effective talent management practices and higher employee retention.

3. Better Understanding of Workforce Performance

The ability to more deeply analyze employee performance is beneficial at several levels. First, it helps organizations evaluate, motivate, and reward talent in the most effective ways. Also, it reveals the differences between high-performers and their under-performing colleagues. This can lead to more effective performance improvement roadmaps and results.

Ultimately, this not only helps individual employees grow but also elevates skills and competencies across the company.

4. Improved Hiring and Engagement Outcomes

When hiring, data-driven analytics is an exceptional sourcing tool. It can dramatically decrease time-to-hire by helping talent acquisition teams quickly assess any candidate’s suitability for a job.

Once an employee is onboard, retention becomes crucial. Workforce analytics can help HR continuously calibrate metrics like employee engagement, productivity, and burnout. By benchmarking these indicators, HR can take action when needed to reduce negative factors and boost positive results.

5. Stronger Diversity and Inclusion

Data-driven tools can also help employers build a culture of diversity and inclusion.

For example, HR teams can identify key factors that contribute to job satisfaction and engagement (and conversely turnover) among minorities. Then, by monitoring these indicators, they can identify potential issues and work proactively with recruiters and managers to support inclusion and belonging.

6. Optimized Costs

Analytics also helps HR leaders effectively allocate and manage workforce budgets and resources.

For instance, by benchmarking factors like headcount, compensation, benefits, or location strategy, employers can determine which costs are higher than comparable organizations. This can also be a foundation for calculating return on investment across various workforce-related variables.

Real-World HR Analytics Examples

The following examples demonstrate how world-class employers are using data-driven workforce tools to improve decision-making and HR operations.

1. Google

Google is an excellent example of how employers can apply HR analytics to enhance workforce planning and organizational culture.

Even though the company had been growing successfully for more than two decades, it became obvious in 2020 that workforce diversity and inclusion weren’t keeping pace. Historically, the company had struggled with gender and ethnic diversity in hiring. And by 2018, employee confidence in the company’s leaders was declining.

This issue began to cast a shadow over Google’s employer brand, which made it increasingly difficult to attract and retain top talent, especially among underrepresented groups.

Google’s People Analytics team recognized the need to improve workforce planning, so they turned to HR analytics for a solution. Relying on their workforce planning tools, the team gathered and interpreted relevant data and generated useful insights. As a result, they defined talent gaps, identified areas where diversity was lacking, and exposed below-average recruitment patterns.

How Google Tackled These Problems

To address these issues, Google turned to its annual feedback process known as Googlegeist. Launched in 2007, this survey captures employee opinions about multiple facets of work life and organizational culture.

By rigorously analyzing employee feedback data, the HR team easily recognized underlying factors that allowed DEI issues to persist. In response, they developed targeted recruitment strategies to provide more opportunities for employees, job candidates, and potential applicants from underrepresented groups.

One of the outcomes of this effort is Google’s partnership with historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The main purpose is to draw hidden potential from sources that have historically been overlooked.

In addition, Google now trains recruitment staff to avoid hiring biases and exclusionary hiring practices. The company also trains its leaders in methods for managing diverse teams more effectively. Over time, Google is building a more diverse and inclusive workforce, while simultaneously improving its work culture and employee experience.

2. IBM

Another company that relies heavily on data-driven employment tools is IBM. This particular case focuses on applying HR analytics to reduce employee attrition.

The HR team was concerned with the rate of job hopping across its employee base. By using Watson Analytics, they analyzed a variety of factors, including employee demographics, engagement data, and performance metrics.

How IBM Resolved This Problem

These findings helped the HR team develop a predictive prototype to identify employees who were most likely to quit their jobs. Next, the team created a multifaceted retention strategy to address the specific needs of high-risk employees.

This strategy included curated development programs, employee safety and wellbeing, workforce recognition, and mentoring.

After implementing this strategy, IBM’s employee retention rate improved. As a result, the company saved money on recruitment and training, while improving the work environment for everyone in the company.

Final Note on the Power of HR Analytics

Data-driven workforce planning tools are a game changer for modern organizations. They bring a new level of convenience and efficiency to HR professionals. No wonder employers everywhere are embracing these platforms. But is data-driven HR, alone, enough to change an organization’s culture?

These tools can’t replace the unique people and innovative spirit that set great employers apart. However, they can become a decision-making backbone and help keep any organization ahead of the competition.

What about you? What do you see ahead for your workforce? How will you put HR analytics to prepare for your organization’s future?

Where Does Workplace Diversity Belong Now? Meghan M. BIro takes a close look at key trends in diversity, inclusion and belonging since the early days of the pandemic and beyond.

Where Does Workplace Diversity Belong Now?

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Are you disturbed by news about organizations backtracking on workplace diversity and inclusion commitments? I certainly am. For example, a recent Wall Street Journal article declared “The Rise and Fall of the Chief Diversity Officer.” Is this just hyperbole, or is it cause for serious concern? Either way, we can’t brush it under the rug.

After all, only 3 years ago, employers were scrambling to advance DEI initiatives. For many, this included new C-level positions with sweeping responsibilities. According to LinkedIn, from 2019-2021, demand for senior workplace diversity executives grew nearly 170%. This easily outpaced hiring for every other C-suite role.

But now, the pendulum is rapidly swinging in the opposite direction, and workplace diversity leaders are taking the hit. In fact, C-level DEI hiring actually shrank last year at a rate of -4.5%. And DEI positions are the only ones moving in a negative direction.

Why such a swift, dramatic shift? Multiple factors are driving these decisions. But sadly, HR is getting caught in the middle. As a former Chief Diversity Officer at a major U.S. hospital system says, the hiring spree now feels like a “knee-jerk reaction” that didn’t create much impact and left both sides feeling disillusioned.

DEI at Work: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back?

So what’s really happening here? Is DEI frozen in time — or worse, losing ground? Here’s another top DEI executive’s opinion:

“Some employers may have neglected or even paused their diversity and inclusion programs. In the short term, this may seem understandable given the extraordinarily challenging circumstances. Long-term, however, it will come back to haunt you when the economy improves and you need to compete for talent again.”

Given current workplace DEI issues, this may seem like a recent statement. But surprise — it’s actually from a July 2020 article by LaFawn Davis of Indeed.

At the time, LaFawn was VP of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIB), where she led efforts to remove bias and barriers in the company’s products and its work culture. Since then, her role has expanded. She now serves as SVP of Environmental, Social & Governance, and her commitment to DIB is just as resolute.

Timeless Insights From a DEI Leader

With all the mixed news about workplace diversity lately, I decided to revisit a conversation I had with LaFawn late in 2020 on the #WorkTrends podcast. If you want a reality check, I invite you to join me. Despite different circumstances three years on, I think you’ll agree LaFawn’s wisdom still rings true today…

 

Lessons for Today’s Leaders

Here are several takeaways that continue to resonate:

1. DIB Isn’t Just One Standalone Thing

Too many companies attempt to lump diversity, inclusion, and belonging into one category, separate from other business functions. As LaFawn says:

Companies are trying to silo off diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Or they make one of the terms synonymous with the others.

2. How to Unpack DIB

What should we understand about the distinct elements of DIB? According to LaFawn:

Diversity is the belief that teams with different work styles, problem-solving techniques, life experiences, backgrounds, perspectives, and skill sets truly make innovation possible.

Inclusion is about actions and behaviors that create a culture where employees feel valued, trusted, and authentic.

And belonging is a feeling of community. It is the people and our culture that make us feel connected.

3. An Integrated View

When these three distinct elements of DIB are combined, we feel valued. LaFawn explains:

It’s not about looking like me or coming from where I come from. It’s about those common threads that pull us together in a broader work context.

4. The Pandemic Exposed Many DIB Weaknesses

Even now, we see Covid fallout that disproportionately affects some members of the workforce. For example, frontline workers endured extraordinary stress during the lockdown. This has led to a severe talent shortage in the services sector that is likely to continue.

But by exposing this and other issues of workplace bias and inequality, the pandemic has underscored fundamental changes organizations must make to ensure that marginalized people feel like they belong.

The Business Case for Workplace Diversity

Of course, business leaders must focus on business performance. So I asked LaFawn to share her thoughts about DIB’s impact on the bottom line. Not surprisingly, she served up some compelling statistics:

Will we be a better company 10 years from now? 15?

This question should keep every business leader up at night.

We know that businesses with a more diverse workforce are 36% more likely to be in the top tier of their industry. We know that firms with greater gender diversity are 25% more likely to be at the top in financial returns, market share, and retention.

So diversity, inclusion, and belonging do affect your bottom line!

That’s not all from LaFawn. For more of her DEI guidance, check this article: “How Belonging Differs From Diversity and Inclusion — and Why It Matters.”

Workplace Diversity Belongs With Us All, Especially Now

Like LaFawn, I believe DEI still belongs, today and in the future of work. And we’re not alone by any means.

Earlier this year, an in-depth Pew Research study of nearly 6,000 U.S. workers revealed some valuable insights about the state of workplace DEI. For example, while only 33% of respondents said their employer has a dedicated DEI leader onboard, 61% feel their organization’s policies ensure fairness in hiring, pay, and promotions.

Workplace diversity progress poll - TalentCulture July 2023That’s encouraging. But it’s not the whole story. Consider this small slice of DEI life from TalentCulture’s world:

Several weeks ago, we asked our community to tell us if their work culture has become more diverse and inclusive since the pandemic. Interestingly, only 37% told us the situation has improved at least somewhat, while 63% said it’s the same or even worse.

Clearly, there’s still work to do. But building a culture around workplace diversity is not about platitudes. That’s not a sustainable strategy. DEI is a process. And that process is not a sprint. It’s a marathon.

DEI Leadership Action Items

If you’re a leader who remains committed to creating a workplace around fairness and opportunity for all, keep moving forward. I’m right there with you. And if you’re uncertain about how to move forward, I suggest revisiting other ideas that have stood the test of time.

For example, consider practical advice DEI leaders shared in 2020 with one of our blog contributors, Laura Sabattini. Laura is another DEI expert on the move. In 2020, she was a Principal Researcher at The Conference Board, and she’s since joined Honeywell as Director of Inclusion and Diversity.

Clearly, Laura isn’t just passing along interesting ideas. She is actually walking the talk every single day. I think you’ll agree, the suggestions she curated are worth another look:

1. Create a Common Vision

Enhance communication and drive consistent messaging across the organization. Focus on helping leaders and colleagues understand how DEI improves the work environment and increases resilience during times of change.

Tips from DEI Leaders:

  • Define DEI in ways that directly align with your organization’s culture and values.
  • Identify measurable behaviors and clear expectations to hold people accountable for those behaviors.

2. Encourage Participation and Collaboration

Leverage trends and events to build awareness among those who haven’t been involved with DEI, to ensure that ownership doesn’t fall solely on underrepresented groups.

Tips from DEI Leaders:

  • Provide resources to help people engage, participate, and take action at work and beyond.
  • Build trust by encouraging dialogue over conflict and giving people latitude to make mistakes.

3. Invest in Developing Leadership Skills

Inclusive cultures don’t just happen by chance. They require intentionality and willingness to improve how we work and interact with others. This may require leaders to “unlearn” some management standards before they embrace new skills. The good news: This can improve leadership effectiveness and business results.

Tips From DEI Leaders: 

  • You don’t need to start from scratch. Leverage existing inclusive leadership models.
  • Work with formal and informal DEI champions to identify meaningful behaviors. Some organizations may focus on decision-making, while others may focus on innovation. The key is to align DEI skills with your business and culture.

4. Emphasize Accountability

To build buy-in, hold people accountable for their role in building a more inclusive culture. This includes specific team or leader behaviors as well as managerial metrics (for priorities such as engagement or representation among teams).

Tips From DEI Leaders: 

  • Gather input from leaders and regularly follow-up to discuss their accountability and progress.
  • Engage human capital analytics to identify DEI patterns, trends, and impact. (For example, compare promotion and attrition rates across functions and teams.)
  • Periodically assess what is and isn’t working, and provide stakeholders with updates.
Pay transparency is here. Are you ready to discuss it? Check this expert advice on how to develop an effective communications plan

Pay Transparency Is Here. Are You Ready To Discuss It?

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If pay transparency isn’t yet a hot topic in your organization, it soon will be. Recently, several states have passed pay transparency laws, and others are planning similar legislation. These laws require employers to post salary ranges in job listings. As a result, many employers are taking steps to get ahead of these changes — often disclosing pay range information before it’s required by law.

Sharing pay ranges externally has its own challenges. But it’s also likely to mean employees will start evaluating where they fit within the organization. Is their compensation at the top or bottom of the scale? How does their pay compare with others? Is it time to ask for a raise or search elsewhere for a better-paying job?

Benefits of Pay Transparency

For employers, this new focus on pay transparency may seem like a Pandora’s Box. Naturally, this kind of openness can cause some trepidation.

However, this is also a perfect opportunity to refresh how you share pay information with employees. Choosing to be more open about compensation can actually help your organization in multiple ways. For example, with thoughtful communication, you can:

  • Attract top candidates
  • Build internal trust and retain high-performing employees
  • Create a more inclusive culture
  • Support compliance with pay transparency laws

3 Steps for a Strong Internal Communication Plan

Before you jump into tactical action, it’s wise to take some time to be sure you’re thinking about this challenge from an employee’s perspective. Here are three steps to consider as you create your pay transparency communication plan:

1. Assess Your Situation

Compensation can be complicated. Many employees may not have a clear understanding of how pay works at your company. Baseline data about awareness and knowledge across your organization will provide powerful insights as you set objectives and create your internal communications plan. If you don’t have existing research to analyze, here are several suggestions:

  • Conduct a Brief Audit: Review your communication channels to understand how pay and compensation topics are currently communicated. Focus on tone, details, level of transparency, audiences (such as department managers), and frequency. Does information need to be more accessible? More coherent? More consistent? Do people managers have access to resources that can help them answer questions effectively? Use this as a jumping-off point when developing your objectives. This audit will also help you uncover communication priorities. For example, if pay-related information is not communicated regularly, you may need to build foundational knowledge into your plan.
  • Initiate “Reality Check” Interviews: Start with the HR team — your compensation specialists. What are they hoping to accomplish with their policies and programs? What changes are they planning, if any? Next, reach out to a few employees from various areas of your organization and ask high-level questions. Quick, casual interviews like these are an easy way to confirm how your workforce views compensation. You may even uncover issues that aren’t yet on your radar.
  • Research Other Companies: Because pay transparency is a trending topic, it’s easy to find examples of organizations that are effectively tackling the issue. Case studies from other organizations can be a great source of inspiration as you develop communication tactics and messaging.

2. Craft Your Compensation Story

Pay transparency isn’t just about the “what” (actually dollar amounts). It’s also about the “how” and “why” behind those numbers. Therefore it’s essential to help employees understand big-picture ideas about pay at your company. This is where a narrative helps. You’ll want to build a story or a set of key messages that:

  • Clearly explain your organization’s approach to pay — your philosophy and policies
  • Inform and focus communication so employees clearly understand your approach
  • Provide a roadmap for people who are responsible for communication, so they deliver consistent messaging

When creating your organization’s compensation story, start with these three questions:

  • What is our pay philosophy? This should describe your company’s decision framework for compensation. It should outline the pay structure and components, including overall cash compensation, benefits, and rewards. Consider how this approach aligns with company values and articulate the level of transparency you’re committed to when communicating about pay.
  • What are the benefits of pay transparency? Whether it’s attracting quality candidates or driving a more inclusive culture, find a way to weave in your value proposition. This will help stakeholders understand the “why” behind sharing pay information.
  • What actions (if any) do you want people to take? This is where you explain how employees can learn more about compensation, such as process changes, or new ways to access information. Note: Actions may differ by audience (for example, managers versus general employees).

Remember, this isn’t one-and-done. Your compensation story should be an ongoing part of communication about compensation and rewards. Consider embedding messages into onboarding, benefits discussions, performance management processes, and more.

3. Prepare Leaders and Managers

Once you’ve established your pay philosophy and developed a set of key messages, it’s time to put it in the hands of your spokespeople: leaders and managers. Employees often turn to them first with pay-related questions. Tools, resources, and guidance will not only help them deliver the message, but also prepare them to deal with potentially tough conversations.

Set up your leaders and managers for success with the support they need:

  • Provide answers: Everyone who fields questions from employees needs to understand their communication role. They also need to know how compensation works in your company: how base salary is set, how ranges are determined, and other factors that influence these decisions (including location, role, and experience). Create topline messages, FAQs, and detailed guides to provide answers that address a wide range of scenarios and concerns. Also, be prepared to update these resources on an ongoing basis. By empowering leaders and managers to discuss pay confidently with their employees whenever the need arises, you’ll ensure those conversations are informative, accurate, and productive.
  • Provide training: Host a workshop to help leaders and managers understand how to conduct effective compensation conversations. This also provides a forum for leaders and managers to discuss issues with their peers and expand their knowledge about this important topic.

A Final Note on Pay Transparency

Pay transparency is a powerful trend that can lead to a more equitable workplace, overall. But, as new external reporting requirements become a reality, employers should expect to hear many questions and concerns from employees. Organizations that prepare to address pay questions with more open and transparent internal communication are positioning themselves for success. Are you ready?

Diverse communication transforms work cultures. How about yours? Check this advice about why diverse communication matters now, and how to develop a strategy that works.

Diverse Communication Transforms Work Cultures. How About Yours?

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No question about it. Strong internal communication is critical to a strong business. But it’s not easy — especially when workplace dynamics are constantly fluctuating. For example, not long ago, Covid forced organizations to embrace remote work. Now, return-to-office policies and hybrid schedules are adding new layers of complexity. Change is a universal challenge. Yet, the most successful leaders keep everyone in the loop so their organizations can continue running smoothly. What’s the secret? Diverse communication.

Why Diverse Communication Matters

Every organization strives to build a work culture that attracts and retains top talent. Communication plays a key role in this process by helping employees feel recognized, valued, and supported.

When people feel more deeply connected with their employer, their work, and each other, morale and engagement naturally improve. But some ways of making this happen are more successful than others. This is where diverse communication shines.

At first glance, this strategy seems focused on tools. Certainly, access to useful tools is important. For instance, you’ll want to be sure employees can easily conduct video calls and informal digital conversations through collaboration platforms like Slack or Teams.

But the most powerful solutions reach far beyond tools like these. Diverse communication strategies look more expansively at how information flows within an organization — and what may be inhibiting that flow. For example, you’ll want to understand:

  • Job Roles: How do different functions and roles communicate? What’s the typical frequency and nature of these interactions? Where are the bottlenecks? What are the implications when communication isn’t effective?
  • Individual Styles: You’ll also want to consider various communication modes. Although people may behave similarly when performing similar tasks, each of us brings our own preferences to work.
  • Other Variables: Many other elements come into play. For instance, generational differences, cultural differences, and work environment differences. All these and more can influence the ways coworkers connect, interact, and share information.

Because so many variables are involved, trying to standardize communication is counterproductive. Instead, start by researching various communication needs, preferences, and styles. The more you understand your employees’ unique strengths, behaviors, and traits, the better you can serve them as individuals and teams.

Let’s look closer at several key factors…

What Shapes Diverse Communication?

1. Generational Differences

With four generations actively participating in today’s workforce, managing multigenerational teams is a growing challenge. Each generation comes to work with unique expectations and approaches to communication:

  • Baby Boomers grew up in an analog age, so they’re likely to appreciate direct, face-to-face communication more than virtual interaction.
  • Gen Xers weren’t exposed to digital devices until early adulthood, so their preferences tend toward a Boomer/Millennial blend of informal, flexible communication via phone, email, or text.
  • Millennials have relied on instant messaging and text communication since their teen years, so they tend to appreciate fast digital chat-style communication.
  • Gen Zers are comfortable with digital technology because they’ve been surrounded by it their whole lives. But interestingly, they also crave one-on-one feedback and authentic communication experiences, like those provided in team huddles and video calls.

Does this mean you should standardize communication based on what “most” Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials, or Gen Zs prefer? No. Age is only one part of the equation.

2. Team Dynamics

Each department in your organization has no doubt established distinct communication patterns and preferences. So, to communicate effectively across the organization, leaders must understand multiple group norms and provide various experiences that accommodate everyone, regardless of their department or location.

But departments can’t work efficiently in isolation. That’s why it’s also important to foster a sense of community and connection that spans groups, functions, and geographic boundaries. You’ll want to understand how individuals from across your organization consume and share information. By leveraging this insight, you can offer customized communications that also reach across differences to build a sense of shared identity and purpose.

3. Individual Work Styles

Which comes first — technology or work preferences? In the digital age, it depends. Sometimes technology leads the way. For example, mobile apps entered the workplace, not because employers drove adoption but because employees everywhere started bringing their smartphones to work.

At the same time, employees introduced another groundbreaking technology shift — the widespread use of social media at work. Now, according to the Pew Research Center, 56% of employees use social media during business hours for work-related purposes, such as connecting with subject matter experts.

Knowing where employees currently spend time communicating is helpful, because you can leverage those channels to improve other types of organizational communication. The more you rely on tools and channels employees already use, the more engaged and satisfied they’re likely to be with your strategy.

4. Technology

Weak communication only increases misunderstandings and unnecessary conflict. This erodes team cohesion and productivity. Ultimately, it jeopardizes company culture and business performance as well. Technology can help avoid these issues by letting people share information faster and more easily. But tools, alone, don’t guarantee successful communication.

For example, it’s possible to misinterpret a face-to-face conversation. But the likelihood of miscommunication increases dramatically when you rely on digital tools to conduct that same conversation. And the problem only multiplies when your entire team works remotely or on a hybrid schedule.

Another potential pitfall involves messaging itself. Although employees need and want timely access to information, it won’t have much impact without meaningful context. Do you explain how a news update is tied to your company’s vision and values? Why is it relevant for employees? What should they expect as a result of this news? Think strategically about how to frame content so it receives the attention and support it deserves.

To ensure company-wide news and information are highly available to all, many organizations provide collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams. These solutions make communicating with in-office and remote employees quick, easy, and reliable. Without these channels, people are not just less productive. They’re also likely to feel disconnected from colleagues and leaders, as well as company culture and goals.

And for in-office employees, one way to amplify communication is with digital signage displays. Their visual appeal engages people and helps them quickly digest news as they move through company spaces. Plus, you can quickly and easily update screens anytime to personalize the messaging for individuals, groups, or special events. Some companies even use digital signage to streamline their meeting room booking process or provide visual wayfinding cues to enhance the in-office experience.

These are just a few examples of endless tools that can enhance workforce communication. The tools you choose should reflect your organization’s unique needs.

Why Diverse Communication Beats Generic Methods

When budgets are tight and businesses are juggling multiple priorities, applying a one-size-fits-all approach to internal communication may seem tempting. But that won’t work. Here are several reasons why:

  • Digital Expectations Have Changed: Outside of work, modern employees are accustomed to receiving personalized content that fits their preferences. This shouldn’t stop when they clock in. Interacting with individuals in ways they prefer will improve engagement. Ultimately, it will improve operational efficiency and effectiveness, as well.
  • Leaders Can’t Afford Blind Spots: Organizations thrive when they include people from various backgrounds, cultures, and points of view. Yet many leaders struggle to accommodate others’ experiences. When communication ignores these unique perspectives, trust, team-building, and collaboration suffer. But a more customized approach can bridge these gaps and bring people closer together (without requiring them to be located in the same place).
  • Too Much is at Stake: Studies show that when employers tailor internal communications, their workforce is more responsive, productive, loyal, and engaged. In a tight talent market, why risk your relationship with employees by choosing not to address their unique perspectives?

Getting Started

A successful communication strategy begins with insights about the people in your organization. Rather than relying on hunches or third-party data about just one dimension of each employee’s identity, take time to gather and analyze intelligence about everyone’s communication preferences. The answers are only a few questions away. All you have to do is ask.

An internal communications survey can help you:

  • Identify and prioritize issues that need improvement
  • Reveal the most effective communication methods for various perspectives
  • Establish benchmarks, so you can measure progress over time

With this first-hand data, you can apply sophisticated targeting techniques to communicate with whole departments, or with individuals who are likely to be more responsive when they receive information packaged in a particular way.

By adopting a strategic approach to diverse communication, you can keep your organization running smoothly while eliminating roadblocks that hinder information access and knowledge sharing. It may take time, but if you commit to continuous improvement, you can create a more successful, inclusive culture that employees will love and others will admire.

 

 

9 Ways Organizations Can Become More Inclusive This Year - TalentCulture

8 Ways Companies Are Becoming More Inclusive This Year

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Is your organization striving to create a more inclusive work culture? If so, you’re not alone. Many HR and business leaders are committed to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). But some strategies are more successful than others. What methods are actually moving the meter these days?

To understand what works in the real world, we asked eight business executives to tell us about effective DEI changes they’ve implemented during the past year. Their collective answers read like a best practices playbook:

  • Improve Meeting Policies to Support Wellbeing
  • Review and Revise Job Offers
  • Establish Employee Resource Groups
  • Share Diverse Employee Experiences
  • Shift Pay Structure to Base Salary and Bonus
  • Introduce Mental Health First-Aid Support
  • Prioritize Leadership Paths for Women
  • Intentionally Redesign Teams for Diversity

For details about these ideas, read the responses below…

How to Become More Inclusive: 8 Examples

1. Improve Meeting Policies to Support Wellbeing

As part of our commitment to workforce wellness, we addressed recent employee feedback about excessive meetings and pandemic-related burnout. Specifically, we emphasized the importance of taking small actions to reduce meeting frequency and duration, so we could ease stress for everyone. For example:

  • We send regular calendar blocks so everyone can conduct brief “meeting audits.” This is when employees use our Meeting Decision Tree tool to review upcoming meetings and determine the necessity.
  • We’ve recommitted to scheduling meetings only within core business hours (9:00 am – 4:00 pm) to promote reasonable work-life balance and family time in the evenings.
  • We’ve designated Friday afternoons as meeting-free time. This enables people to focus on creative assignments, catch up on projects, and prepare for the week ahead.

Our new practices and resources are improving wellbeing. They’re also facilitating better collaboration, problem-solving, productivity, and innovation.

Natasha Miller Williams, VP, Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Ferrara

2. Review and Revise Job Listings

During the past year, we have intentionally revisited the way we write job ads. We’ve always made sure our offers are inviting, clear, concise, and accurate. However, we felt it was time to address other details so we could hopefully increase diversity among candidates.

The results are visible to the naked eye. Now, I am super happy to look at our diverse teams, knowing that our attention to rephrasing may have made it easier for people to join us.

These were our priorities when reviewing and improving job listings:

  1. We used truly gender-neutral language.
  2. We highlighted the importance of skills, so it’s clear that this is the decisive factor in our hiring decisions.
  3. We listed job requirements only if they were absolutely necessary. You never know if needless demands are unintentionally excluding people.
  4. Finally, we reviewed job titles and descriptions to ensure that they are truly inclusive and free of biased language.

Piotrek Sosnowski, Chief People and Culture Officer, Life And My Finances

3. Establish Employee Resource Groups

Our organization has been attempting to improve inclusivity by enhancing our approach to diversity and inclusion training. For example, we have created employee resource groups (ERGs) to provide a safe space for employees based on their identity or shared experiences. 

These ERGs serve as proactive networks that help members build communities, collaborate professionally, and work together on initiatives that promote inclusivity across the organization. They also help our organization understand uncommon experiences and points of view, while ensuring that everyone is respected at all times.

Michael Alexis, CEO, teambuilding.com

4. Share Diverse Employee Experiences

For any organization that wants to build a more welcoming culture where everyone feels they belong, raising awareness about inclusivity is vital. However, it’s not always easy to understand the difficulties that other people face — especially when those difficulties aren’t highly visible. 

This is why we’ve been providing opportunities for employees from across the organization to share their unique stories. Specifically, we invite everyone to discuss the unique difficulties they face, along with advice on how peers and managers can be more helpful. They also answer questions from others in the organization.

By sharing employee experiences, we’re spreading empathy across our organization. This helps team members build stronger bonds and creates a more positive, inclusive work environment.

Max Wesman, Chief Operating Officer, GoodHire

5. Shift Pay Structure to Base Salary and Bonus

Although our industry traditionally pays employees on a commission-only basis, we’ve adopted a compensation package that includes base salary plus a performance bonus. This gives employees better financial security and peace of mind. Also, we feel it helps ensure our clients receive the best impartial advice from every agent.

What’s more, this move promotes more inclusivity. That’s because sponsorship and mentorship are integral aspects of mobility for people of color and other underrepresented employees. But commission-only pay can derail vital team relationships and breed a culture of competition that further divides people.

We encourage our people to collaborate in establishing performance metrics that will promote better team cohesion and move us collectively toward our DEIB goals.

Anthony Martin, Founder and CEO, Choice Mutual

6. Introduce Mental Health First-Aid Support

During the last year, our organization has focused heavily on promoting employee mental health. In particular, we’ve focused on making our workplace safe for people with any kind of neurological difference, such as ADHD, dyslexia, or autism.

As part of this effort, two of our staff members completed mental health first aid training. Now, people across our organization know that if they’re struggling, they have somewhere to go where they will be heard and supported but not judged.

This effort has been very well received. In fact, it’s been so successful, we’ve recently trained two more mental health first-aiders.

Matthew Stibbe, CEO, Articulate Marketing

7. Prioritize Leadership Paths for Women

People expect modern organizations to provide an inclusive work environment. And this responsibility for creating a welcoming work environment for all falls on the management team. This is why we’ve essentially created a women in leadership program designed to help women from all backgrounds achieve their professional aspirations.

Unfortunately, many businesses don’t promote single mothers into leadership. That’s because they assume women won’t have the time or commitment to succeed. But in my experience,  these women tend to be more driven than average.

Long ago, I started my company as a single mother. I understand firsthand just how hard it can be to juggle personal and professional life. But I also know how committed women in this situation are to keeping their promises to customers, employees and family members.

Our organization wants to reward this kind of commitment. That’s why we assist women of all ethnicities and backgrounds as they work towards a degree or a leadership position in our company. We want to help women in our company shoot for the stars and reach them.

Kathy Bennett, CEO and Founder, Bennett Packaging

8. Intentionally Redesign Teams for Diversity

We recognize the value of diverse perspectives and experiences in driving innovation and fostering a more inclusive work environment. So, one action we’ve taken this year to enhance diversity involves remixing our teams.

Specifically, we deliberately redefined the composition of teams across departments and projects. Our goal was to better represent the diversity of our workforce within smaller groups. Therefore, when reassigning team members, we considered factors such as gender, ethnicity, age, and skill sets.

By intentionally rethinking the composition of our teams, we’ve aimed to break down silos, encourage collaboration, and promote the cross-pollination of ideas. By bringing together individuals with different perspectives, expertise, and life experiences, we hope we’re better positioned to harness the collective intelligence and creativity of our workforce.

Kimberley Tyler-Smith, VP of Strategy and Growth, Resume Worded

Is remote work failing Generation Z? What can employers do? Take a closer look with a diversity and inclusion expert.

Is Remote Work Failing Generation Z?

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When the pandemic arrived in 2020, everyone’s definition of work changed in a heartbeat. Most people headed home, leaving their offices, cubicles, water coolers, and daily commutes behind. After making it through that massive disruption, employers found an even tougher challenge on the other side. They’ve had to figure out how to sustain a positive, productive work culture outside of a shared space. Even now — more than 3 years later — many HR and business leaders still haven’t filled in the blanks. But the delay isn’t helping anyone, especially Generation Z.

What exactly is happening here? And what are the implications? Let’s take an in-depth look at what employers should consider…

Why Generation Z Matters

It’s not surprising to learn that what we know about Gen Z on the youngest members of our workforce.

Imagine starting your first adult job at home. You have no peer relationships or experience in how to navigate organizational life. Think about how overwhelming it would be to move through each day without knowing how to find context, where to look for the right resources, or who can most easily steer you in the right direction. But this has become a norm for all too many younger workers.

No one recruits people to fail. And despite a shaky economy, talent is increasingly hard to recruit and retain. So employers are understandably concerned about onboarding and upskilling Generation Z staff more effectively in today’s remote work environment.

What’s the Next Step for Employers?

Some organizations already had a head start on this new world order. For example, virtual teams have long been what we know about Gen Z. This company continues to improve remote work processes and systems. And recently, Buffer has focused on preventing issues that keep recent graduates from succeeding as new hires.

Buffer is the exception rather than the rule. Most companies had not considered challenges like these before the pandemic, so they were totally unprepared to support young hires in a remote climate. Now, organizations everywhere are actively seeking insights so they can make it work.

Unfortunately, useful data about key issues and best practices is still limited. But smart employers are thinking ahead, so they can minimize negative consequences. For instance, it’s especially important to consider how remote work potentially limits access to equitable opportunities for career growth and development among younger workers.

Here’s a central question to address: “Compared with recent generations, do our Gen Z employees have what we know about Gen Z and develop in their careers?”

Defining Generation Z

When talking about how young people are affected by remote work, we want to be clear. This group includes working-age people born after 1996. This aligns with Pew Research, which selected 1997 as the starting point. Before then, Gen Z was too young to be affected by political and cultural changes that notably influenced Millennials.

Currently, Gen Z and Millennials are experiencing very different life stages. Therefore, when researching these groups, it’s important to apply different measures of security, financial stability, and so forth.

For example, many Millennials are starting a family, buying a home, and settling down. Meanwhile, Gen Zs are finishing high school or college, moving out of their parent’s home, getting their first job, and becoming more independent.

Gen Zs are the definitive internet generation. All members of this cohort were born after the internet became widely available, and they came of age surrounded by the abundance and complexities of social media. Theoretically, Gen Zs are ready to thrive in a highly connected business world. But are they ready to thrive in a remote-first world? 

Remote Work Benefits for Generation Z

Remote work has created an unprecedented opportunity for people who want more autonomy because they can more directly manage their work schedule, location, office set-up, family time, and more. So understandably, remote work is popular among older workers who want to improve their work-life balance. But what about Gen Z?

Here are some reasons younger workers value remote work:

  • Lower commuting expenses
  • Less commute time (and more time for other priorities)
  • More professional opportunities for people with accessibility needs (when commuting is difficult or impossible)
  • More time/flexibility to pursue further education while earning an income
  • Potential to work for multiple employers at once (increase income and expand skills faster)
  • Likely exposure to a more diverse spectrum of people across roles and geographies (compared with onsite jobs)
  • Reduce the risk of toxic management (because behavior is captured in communication channels such as email, slack, and Zoom calls)
  • Freedom to reduce stress by taking breaks for self-care, or spending time with family/friends
  • Potential to start a family at a younger age (if desired) by leveraging flexible scheduling
  • Ability to take time for caregiving, if older or younger family members are at home

Remote Work Risks for Generation Z

Although Gen Z can benefit from remote work, there are downsides, as well: 

  • More obstacles to informal learning. Fewer chances to overhear and join relevant conversations, discuss questions in the hall and on breaks, or be invited to meetings and activities on-the-fly
  • Fewer 1-on-1 relationship-building opportunities
  • Lack of face-to-face community connections
  • Risk of isolation
  • Missed opportunities for on-the-job learning (skills and institutional knowledge)
  • More difficulty finding support networks and career networks
  • Threats to personal time (Digital days at home may start earlier and end later than normal)
  • Potential for increased stress if micromanaged from a distance
  • Zoom and screen fatigue
  • Pressure to create a proper workspace, even if it’s not affordable for a young person
  • Higher out-of-pocket expenses (equipment/workspace, internet, phones, hardware)
  • Regular remote office distractions that affect focus and concentration (for example, neighborhood construction, power outages, housemates)
  • Greater burnout risk (from a persistent lack of boundaries, unclear scheduling, or unrealistic expectations)

Long-Term Equity Implications 

Some of the problems noted above could have a serious, lasting impact on young workers’ professional and personal lives. For example, without in-office experience, Gen Z staff are more likely to suffer from a lack of mentorship, advancement opportunities, informal learning, and professional community.

In addition, remote and hybrid work models often blur the lines between home and work. If you’re home, you could be working. And if you’re working, you could be doing something else. Distractions are all around. Is this decision fatigue or a lack of discipline? When remote workers don’t separate these roles at the start of their careers, boundary issues can potentially follow them all the way to retirement.

That’s why it’s especially important for business leaders, managers, and older team members to understand why remote Gen Z workers need extra support to establish a foundation for success.

Remote Work FAQs

Why Do Employers Oppose Remote Work?

Some employers don’t support virtual teams because they have multiple business concerns. They may expect the worst: weaker productivity, collaboration, informal learning, and a loss of tribal knowledge. Or they may be concerned about employee wellbeing: increased isolation, stress, and disengagement.

Has Remote Work Decreased Productivity?

Depending on an organization’s workload and scheduling, remote work can lead to a decrease in productivity. Employees may be more distracted when working remotely, or if their workspace is chaotic they struggle to focus.

Many other factors can reduce productivity in a remote or hybrid work setting, so this is an important consideration to discuss openly on an ongoing basis.

Why Is Remote Work So Exhausting?

Remote work can feel exhausting, especially if you haven’t established a clear separation between work space and home space. Juggling these blurred lines can add a psychological load that increases stress and eventually leads to exhaustion.

Setting People Up for Success

Given what what we know about Gen Z and remote work, how can employers create a culture that helps young workers feel comfortable working at your organization? It may seem like in-office work is the best answer for anyone at the start of their career. However, some digital solutions can make remote-first teams feel more connected, supported, and included. For example:

  • Establish consistent office hours
  • Encourage everyone to rely on collaborative communication tools
  • Practice knowledge sharing as a way of working
  • Build and promote remote-first mentorship programs
  • Regularly ask Gen Z workers and managers open-ended questions about what is working (and what is not)
  • Schedule periodic digital water cooler chats and invite everyone to suggest agenda ideas

It’s important for leaders to build on what many of us have learned about remote and hybrid work over the past few years. Challenge yourselves and others to think outside the box. Put yourselves in the shoes of each employee — not just younger people — and think of ways to help everyone feel more connected and included. Experiment. Hold on to what works, and integrate it into your culture.

What's the Real Cost of DEI - TalentCulture

What’s the Real Cost of DEI?

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In today’s diverse, dynamic work world, employers increasingly recognize the transformative power of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Still, concerns often arise about the cost of DEI initiatives. The best answers consider benefits as well as costs. In other words, if you want to build a compelling case, focus on business value. But what exactly does that look like?

To make sense of it all, let’s dig deeper into DEI’s true value. This article sheds light on the remarkable return on investment you can achieve with a wholehearted commitment to DEI.

The Benefits of DEI

Consultants at McKinsey have conducted extensive research on the impact of gender and ethnic diversity on financial performance. They found that companies with diverse executive teams are 25% more likely to experience above-average profitability. This finding demonstrates a clear link between DEI and financial success.

Another example underscores the impact of diversity on customer experience. Salesforce, a leading customer relationship management platform company, is known for its strong commitment to DEI. But this didn’t happen by accident. In 2020, Salesforce revamped its talent acquisition strategy and training programs to reduce bias and expand minority employment opportunities.

Within a year, the company more than doubled its hiring rate among marginalized communities. In addition, internal research revealed that employees from these diverse groups became more engaged and contributed to higher customer satisfaction ratings.

How much should your organization invest to become more ethical and profitable? Let’s explore….

The Cost of DEI

Diversity budgets come in all shapes and sizes. They range from a modest $10,000 to a mind-boggling $216 million. But the sweet spot lies at a median budget of $1.2 million. 

When allocating funds to increase workforce diversity, you can prioritize specific business activities (training programs, recruitment, recognition) or functions (HR, Marketing, Community Relations). 

For smaller organizations with fewer than 1,000 employees, it is feasible to initiate DEI efforts by assigning specific responsibilities to existing staff members. For example, you could allocate about 50% of an existing employee’s role (such as an HR project manager), to oversight of DEI initiatives. This makes it possible to integrate DEI responsibilities into your workflows without creating a dedicated role or team.

However, in larger organizations, it’s crucial to establish clear ownership of DEI with a dedicated role or team. This ensures that DEI efforts receive the necessary focus and resources to drive meaningful change.

At the average Fortune 1000 company — with a workforce of 34,000 people and revenue of $15 billion — the DEI budget is significantly larger than other companies require. For a smaller organization — with 2,ooo-10,000 employees — a reasonable estimated budget for establishing a DEI program is likely to range from $50,000 to $300,000.

But no matter what your company size or DEI budget, the key is to spend that budget effectively. How should you allocate available funds? Let’s look closer…

Structuring a DEI Budget

The range of DEI expenses varies, depending on numerous factors, such as an organization’s size, industry, geographic location, and scope of DEI initiatives. It’s important to note that there is no fixed or universal standard for DEI budgeting. Each firm faces unique financial realities and priorities.

Now, let’s break down ways to distribute your budget across key areas:

1. Personnel Expenses

This includes any costs associated with hiring and maintaining a dedicated diversity and inclusion team. It may include salaries and benefits for DEI professionals to develop your strategy, implement initiatives, offer guidance, and provide support.

2. Training and Education

This covers expenses for design, development, and delivery of diversity and inclusion training programs, workshops, and seminars. It can include the cost of external trainers, development of training materials, e-learning platforms, or subscription fees for diversity and inclusion training resources. Investment in engaging, transformative training programs varies widely, from $30,000-$150,000.

3. Recruitment and Branding

To promote diversity and inclusion, budgeting for recruitment and hiring initiatives is essential. This may include expenses for advertising on diverse job boards, attending job fairs that target underrepresented groups, engaging with recruitment agencies that specialize in diverse talent, or implementing software and tools that help reduce bias in the hiring process. Companies usually set aside $10,000-$30,000 for DEI-focused recruiting and branding initiatives.

4. Employee Resource Groups 

Employee resource groups can foster a sense of belonging and provide a platform for underrepresented employees. But you’ll need a budget to establish and sustain these groups. This can include funding for ERG events, activities, resources, and initiatives that promote DEI within your organization. Employers often allocate $10,000-$30,000 for this line item.

5. Policy Development and Implementation

This ensures that your organization’s policies align with DEI principles. It may involve expenses for external experts, legal consults, or HR DEI specialists to review, update, and create relevant policies. However, you can manage this process without extra expenses. These tips can help:

  • Review your existing policies and practices to identify potential biases or barriers. 
  • Make necessary adjustments to ensure inclusivity across various functions and responsibilities, such as hiring, promotion, and performance evaluation. 
  • Encourage transparency and accountability in decision-making to prevent bias and discrimination.

6. Data Collection and Analysis

Investing in data collection and analysis tools enables organizations to track DEI progress effectively. Budgeting for these resources may include expenses related to software, surveys, and data analysis tools. It may also include the cost of consultants to conduct audits and assessments.

7. Community Partnerships

To build external relationships and demonstrate a commitment to DEI beyond the workplace, employers often allocate a portion of their budget to community engagement and partnership programs. These are common steps:

  • Look for external organizations or community groups that align with your DEI goals.
  • Consider how these efforts can open doors for additional expertise, resources, and networking opportunities.
  • Collaborate with appropriate groups to define joint initiatives, such as workshops, panel discussions, or mentoring programs. 

A budget of $5,000-$50,000 can help drive effective partnerships or sponsorships.

8. Ongoing Evaluation and Measurement

Budgeting for ongoing evaluation and measurement is crucial because it ensures that you can determine the impact of DEI initiatives. This may include funds to conduct surveys, audits, or focus groups. It may also include the cost of hiring external consultants to evaluate your company’s progress.

Meanwhile, you can save money on evaluation activities by regularly measuring DEI ROI.

The ROI of DEI

To showcase the value of your DEI efforts, you’ll want to estimate ROI. Follow these steps:

1. Identify Measurable Objectives

Start by defining clear objectives for your DEI initiatives. These objectives should align with your organization’s overall goals and values. For example, you may aim to increase employee retention, enhance innovation through diverse perspectives, or improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

2. Determine KPIs

Select specific key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your objectives. These metrics should be quantifiable and trackable over time. For instance, you could measure employee satisfaction and engagement, diversity representation at various levels of the organization, or customer feedback related to diversity and inclusion.

3. Establish a Baseline

Before implementing DEI initiatives, establish a baseline measurement for each selected KPI. This provides a starting point, so you can measure subsequent progress. The easiest way to do this is to gather and analyze available data from existing HR and business systems and programs. You may also want to collect and analyze relevant data by conducting preliminary surveys, assessments and interviews.

4. Track Progress and Impact

As you implement DEI initiatives, regularly monitor and track the selected KPIs. They may include minority hiring rates, promotion rates, turnover rates, employee satisfaction scores, customer satisfaction scores, or other relevant metrics. As you measure change in each metric over time, you can follow your organization’s overall DEI progress. This trend analysis will also help you quickly identify unexpected issues that should be researched and resolved. 

5. Assign Monetary Value

By assigning a value to improvements in selected KPIs, you’re taking a vital step forward in justifying the cost of DEI initiatives. This step can be challenging, but it will help you demonstrate the tangible benefits of your efforts. For example, you could estimate the cost savings associated with reduced turnover, or the potential increase in revenue resulting from improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.

6. Compare Investments and Returns

Next, estimate ROI by comparing tangible DEI costs (financial resources, time, and effort) with the monetary value you’ve assigned to improvements you’ve observed. In other words, subtract actual costs from tangible benefits. Ideally, the result of this calculation will be a positive value (benefits – costs = net benefit).

7. Consider Qualitative Impacts

While ROI calculations often focus on quantifiable metrics, it’s also vital to consider qualitative outcomes. In other words, for some business endeavors, the overall positive impact can far exceed the result of a straight cost/benefit equation. Look beyond the numbers to consider the importance of qualitative benefits such as a more vibrant work culture, improved employee morale, enhanced brand reputation, and stronger relationships with diverse communities. Goodwill may be intangible, but it is a powerful business asset.

A Final Note on the Cost of DEI

Some companies have struggled to demonstrate the value of their DEI initiatives. However, with thoughtful planning and an ongoing commitment, it is possible to develop an effective working budget and successfully demonstrate ROI.

Although the upfront cost of DEI initiatives may seem steep, organizations can experience tangible benefits in the long run. But the true value of diversity, equity, and inclusion actually goes beyond financial success. DEI has the potential to elevate your work culture, customer relationships, and brand position in ways that can transform your organization for the better.

Belonging Where Does it Fit Into Your Work Culture - TalentCulture

Belonging: Where Does It Fit Into Your Work Culture?

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We all share a deep desire for belonging. From Abraham Maslow to Brené Brown, experts agree that this “indescribable feeling of being welcomed” is a fundamental need. Even the earliest behavioral scientists recognized that the need to belong is an integral aspect of the human experience. 

Cut to today. The year is 2023, and the state of the global workplace is … confusing. For example, in the United States, people spend a massive portion of each week at work. And increasingly, we’re questioning the way we manage our careers.

All around us, full-time employees are shifting to part-time work, office workers are becoming digital nomads, and teams are dissolving. The apple cart has been tipped. And frankly, no one is really sure where all these changes will lead.

Despite this season of flux and indecision, employers can help people find clarity. By prioritizing an inclusive work environment, leaders can create an authentic culture of belonging that attracts talent from all walks of life.

Belonging is not just a powerful talent acquisition strategy. It’s also an effective way to engage people, whatever their values may be. It appeals to everyone, from full-time employees to contingent workers, no matter whether they work onsite, offsite, or in a hybrid capacity.

How Inclusion Impacts Employee Retention

Workforce inclusion and retention are deeply intertwined. According to a Deloitte survey, 80% of full-time employees consider inclusion an important factor when choosing where to work. It also remains significant throughout the entire employment relationship. In fact, 23% of respondents told Deloitte they’ve quit a job where inclusion was lacking.

These statistics speak not only to inclusion’s influence on recruitment, but retention, as well. When people feel included, they’re naturally more engaged. And although engaged people care more about their work, they’re less likely to suffer from anxiety or burn out.

A genuinely inclusive work environment promotes a sense of belonging. And a sense of belonging lifts team morale. As a result, businesses benefit in multiple ways. For example, inclusive organizations tend to be more productive and more profitable. This means fostering an inclusive work environment is not just a good thing to do. It’s also a good business move.

All of this ties back to people who feel included and engaged. So the message is clear: If your culture is inclusive, people will feel more connected to your organization and invested in your success throughout their relationship with you.

How to Foster an Inclusive Work Environment

What strategies and practices help build a culture of inclusion and belonging? Focus on these fundamentals:

1. Educate Around Diversity

Diversity and inclusion are closely linked. But diversity alone is not enough to move the needle. After all, what’s the point of creating an inclusive environment only for one kind of person?

Instead, ensure every member of your workforce is welcome to bring their authentic selves to work. This starts by consistently communicating your commitment to diversity, and illustrating that commitment with action. In other words, look for ways to openly support and celebrate different skill sets and abilities, backgrounds, accessibility needs, gender identities, and ethnicities.

Leaders can also educate employees by raising awareness and encouraging people to interact in appropriate ways with co-workers. For example, neurodiverse team members may need noise-canceling headphones to stay focused and productive at work. Or on Zoom calls, hearing impaired participants may need to rely on captioning. Educating teams about these adaptations and how to apply them will help everyone feel more receptive and comfortable.

2. Prioritize Inclusion, Even in Stormy Weather

In this time of reshufflings and resignations, your commitment will be tested. Maintaining a culture of inclusion and belonging is essential, even when your business is facing a downturn.

In times of crisis, many leaders may default to outdated practices, especially when managing reductions in force and communicating about these decisions. But remaining open and intentional about layoff practices can help you keep your inclusivity promises.

Above all, insist upon treating all employees with an equal level of respect and appreciation throughout disruptive organizational changes. This tells everyone that the way you let go of team members is just as important as how you hire and retain them.

3. Offer an Environment of Care

Inclusion not only means people feel welcomed at work, but also that your organization cares about the quality of their employee experience. Demonstrating care can take numerous forms. For example, you could:

  • Reserve time each day for wellbeing check-ins or social activities that promote team care and bonding.
  • Reward employees for inclusive, caring actions toward others.
  • Ensure that everyone receives training on how to develop emotional intelligence skills and put them into practice at work.

The possibilities are limitless. But whatever mix you choose for your organization, keep in mind that creating an environment of care reinforces a sense of belonging. So the sooner you craft this agenda, the better. Also, the sooner employees experience a sense of caring, the better.

Start with the onboarding stage, or even earlier. Think about how you can help applicants and news hires understand how much your company values and prioritizes inclusion. Then consider how you can keep checking in periodically to ensure employees’ needs are being met and they’re actually developing a sense of belonging.

A Final Note on Inclusion, Belonging and Employee Retention

For better or worse, the nature of your work environment directly influences workforce recruiting and retention. If you learn how to foster a culture of belonging, you’ll attract, engage and retain people who appreciate sharing their talent with an organization that makes them feel wanted.

Making a meaningful impact on your culture may require you to invest more time, attention and funding to inclusion. But, as many employers have discovered, it is well worth the effort.

How do you remove politics from the talent calibration process? Follow this data-driven process

Talent Calibration Can Rise Above Politics. But How?

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Are you involved in your organization’s talent calibration process? Think back to the last session you attended with executives. Did they mostly stay quiet? Perhaps experience taught them that opening up about employees exposes them to career-damaging shoot-from-the-hip criticism. Or they may think it reflects poorly on them as leaders if staff members’ ratings are less than stellar.

Unfortunately, this is a common situation. And too often, it leads to needless bias in talent ratings. Hyperbolic statements like “She’s fantastic!” or “He’s a superstar!” don’t help. Actually, leaders’ talent calibration input can be distorted by many factors — territorial issues, inflated egos, unconscious bias, a lack of exposure to employees, and more.

How can you minimize the impact of these variables? After working with many senior leadership teams who’ve faced these challenges, we’ve developed an approach that removes politics from the equation. It’s a two-step process:

  1. Capture leadership behaviors on a scorecard.
  2. Rely on data-based decision-making to drive calibration.

Here’s how it works…

The Behavior Scorecard: Measuring Means and Ends

Some executives are wildly successful, yet they’re notorious for leaving a “trail of bodies” behind them. When the end always justifies the means, it sends a negative message that can seriously damage your organization’s culture.

Before executives calibrate talent, they need a way to manage “ends” and “means” that avoids in-the-moment bias. The answer? Emphasize observable behaviors that reflect your cultural mindset and values. Rather than relying on a standard off-the-shelf competency model, focus on real behaviors that are valued in your organization.

Partnering an in-house team with an external challenger can provide a more balanced perspective. Also, expand your interviews beyond top executives. Perspectives from across the organization help create a realistic and authentic framework. Use focus groups, surveys, and other instruments to help illuminate the nature of leadership at all levels of the organization.

Most companies have already performed much of this work, and the evidence is located in multiple places. Start by analyzing verbatim comments from engagement surveys. Review consultant reports based on employee interviews. Interview people at all levels to understand what is valued currently, and what will help the organization advance. Using this data, you can construct a simple set of leadership priorities, including specific behaviors that can shape assessments and learning opportunities.

Assessments based on these behaviors can be one data point in an executive leadership scorecard. Others might include mobility, diversity goals, engagement survey data, ethical conduct, and participation in employee resource groups. Clearly define measures of leadership behavior that will move your organization in the right direction.

Data-Based Decision-Making: 4 Steps

We suggest a simple 4-step, data-driven decision methodology. We call it the “STAR” process — survey, talent card, assessment, and review. This encourages ongoing conversations about executive talent between peers. It also ensures visibility of organizational talent and breaks down silos to increase mobility, career development and advancement.

1. Survey

Understand a leader’s ‘brand’ before calibration.

Conduct a survey based on the potential and visibility of the “brand” each executive has developed with their peers. To promote a robust discussion, compare each executive’s pre-calibration response with responses from peers. This exercise can be especially helpful for succession planning and development.

2. Talent Card

Show a full view of the leader and their organization.

Use this card to aggregate data about leaders and how they manage their teams. Ideally, it features scorecard data, performance data, risk data, and ethical data. It can also include other relevant organizational data such as spans, layers, diversity, and profit and loss responsibility. To offer a broader perspective, you may also want to add responses from employee surveys.

3. Assess

Weight each item to determine a starting score.

For all talent card data, assign a relative weighting based on importance. This creates a set of “scores” based solely on data. These scores are your calibration starting point. Stack rank the list of leaders by score to identify top, middle, and bottom ranges. A leader’s manager can keep the ranking, or challenge it and add commentary. This balances manager reviews and data-based reviews of executive talent.

4. Review

Prep for calibration.

A review period gives executives a starting point to calibrate talent based on available data. Differences between ratings reveal where the “heat” of conversations should focus during a calibration meeting. This review cycle encourages dialogue about gaps before a calibration session. Encourage participants to stay curious and check their biases. Also, prompt them to ask questions that will deepen their understanding, rather than to explain or defend.

The Calibration Session

After completing the pre-work, you can focus on the gaps between data and manager review as a starting point for talent discussions. It also creates opportunities to ask useful probative questions about each leader. For example:

  • Were appropriate goals established?
  • Is this a “how” or “what” issue?
  • Are they seen as a “blocker” for other talent?
  • How do they interact with peers?
  • Are they visible enough?
  • Do they need to move on to a new role?

The calibration team does more than simply determine an appropriate rating. It also makes data-driven decisions around talent actions. Next steps and plans for both struggling and high-potential talent can be recorded during the session.

Benefits of a Better Talent Calibration Process

We’ve worked with many senior leadership teams who’ve faced serious talent calibration challenges. When one firm used this process to deepen their talent discussion, it helped them create more effective development plans and design more confident action plans during the calibration session.

This planning process enabled executives to conduct more fruitful conversations with their most talented leaders. And these conversations about strengths, opportunities, and career paths within the company resulted in increased mobility through promotions, retirements, and resignations. As a result, the company made way for new talent, while increasing the visibility and mobility of diverse talent.

By relying on available data and linking evaluations to transparent behaviors, you too can reduce bias and improve the conversation about enterprise executive talent. Ultimately, you can minimize the unwanted influence of politics in discussions and decisions about your organization’s most precious resource — talent.

 

EDITOR’S NOTE: In developing this article, Jennifer Tice collaborated with Andy Atkins, VP, Executive and Team Performance Practice at BTS, a global consultancy. For more than three decades, BTS has been designing powerful experiences that have a profound and lasting impact on businesses and their people.

How to Bridge Hiring and Wage Gaps with DEI Analytics - TalentCulture

How to Bridge Hiring and Wage Gaps with DEI Analytics

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In recent years, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has become a red-hot topic among employers and human resources professionals who plan and manage these initiatives. The tumultuous past few years have reshaped perceptions about when, where and how we work. Meanwhile, ongoing social unrest is challenging organizations everywhere to more deeply consider how their policies, practices, values and norms affect people from all walks of life. As a result, interest in DEI analytics is skyrocketing.

With diversity initiatives on the rise, employers recognize they must have the ability to measure progress. Currently, DEI programs are underway at an estimated 80% of U.S. companies. And although the business world is seeing some improvement, there’s still a long way to go.

For instance, organizations that don’t prioritize a culture of inclusion continue to put their brand at risk. Some have already faced serious public backlash — not to mention costly legal ramifications from discriminatory hiring, compensation, and management practices. In short, no matter where your organization is on the DEI investment spectrum, access to relevant analytics is essential.

Defining DEI Analytics

Every organization can benefit from knowing if employees are experiencing unfair or inequitable treatment. DEI analytics tools and processes add value by converting HR data into actionable insights about related issues. For example, these tools can help you:

  • Develop metrics to detect decision-making bias, unequal access, unfair treatment, and discrimination based on gender, race, disability, religion and/or sexual orientation.
  • Analyze data patterns to discover where employees face opportunity barriers. In other words, you can compare staff development and mobility statistics across groups with different traits and compensation levels, independent of individual performance or other factors.
  • Track and compare key DEI indicators to determine if your workforce is representative of the labor market in your industry.

Together, these capabilities make it possible to identify and resolve specific DEI issues and also evaluate your organization’s performance over time.

The Value of DEI Analytics

As Jeff Higgins, CEO of HCMI says, “Leveraging diversity data to empower decisions or action is perennially easy to say but hard to do.” True. Developing a coherent, reliable dashboard can be a complex process. But organizations can no longer afford to get by with hunches or incomplete data. Too much is at stake.

There are many other reasons to embrace DEI analytics. Here are three examples:

  • Data-based analytics reports make it possible to enforce discrimination laws in Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act. By protecting fundamental civil rights, employers play a vital role in preserving our society.
  • For organizations that want a talent acquisition edge, DEI intelligence is highly beneficial. Younger generations expect workplace equality. And inclusive cultures attract top talent. If candidates think your employee base lacks diversity or your track record in advancing underrepresented groups is weak, they might conclude that you’re out of touch. But data that highlights DEI strength can prove that you stand by your values.
  • Improving diversity policies and practices can directly boost your bottom line. In today’s business world, investors see greater value in companies with strong environmental, social, and corporate governance propositions. And the most effective, efficient way to benchmark these policies and track improvement over time is with DEI analytics.

How DEI Misconceptions Hinder Analytics

Several fallacies in the HR community sometimes keep businesses from implementing DEI analytics initiatives. The primary misunderstanding is that DEI policies enforce “hiring quotas” and place a premium on race or gender, rather than candidate quality.

On the contrary — proper diversity plans ensure that hiring and advancement opportunities for underrepresented groups are proportionate to the pool of available candidates. Combined with appropriate employee selection and promotion assessments, organizations can have confidence that they’re making these decisions with a high degree of fairness and equity.

Bottom-Line DEI Statistics

For employers who want to measure DEI performance, countless metrics are available. For example, “pulse” surveys are a popular way to calibrate employee sentiment about belonging and inclusion. What matters most when choosing baseline metrics is that they accurately reflect the state of equity and inclusion across your workforce.

Below are three measures that can help ensure that you are prioritizing DEI in an effective and legally compliant way. Once these metrics confirm that you’ve reached parity with comparable organizations, you can move on to more advanced and nuanced options such as pulse surveys.

1. Recruitment

When setting DEI goals, it’s important to consider representation in your talent pipeline, relative to the labor market at-large. A great way to apply DEI analytics in recruitment is to measure whether your efforts actually reflect the qualified labor market in your area.

For example, if 20% of your local population includes qualified African-American candidates, then you would expect about 20% of your company’s candidates to be African American. However, if you’re hiring for remote roles, your labor market could be nationwide or even global.

2. Hiring and Promotion

Simply hiring diverse candidates is not enough. To truly address diversity representation, you’ll want to ensure that women and people of color are distributed throughout all levels of your workforce.

A common mistake employers make when trying to boost diversity representation is to ignore where women and people of color are located in their organizational structure. It might be easier to achieve broad representation goals when women and people of color dominate your lowest ranks. But for DEI success, all tiers of your organizational structure should reflect the available labor market.

3. Compensation and Pay Equity

It’s also important to know if employees in similar roles are being compensated equally, after considering relevant factors such as time on the job and overall performance. For example, in the U.S., women earn about 20% less than men, on average. But employers are increasingly addressing disparities like this with pay equity initiatives. In other words, all employees performing the same type of work at the same level in an organization receive the same compensation, after relevant pay practice factors are considered.

The right metrics can help you ensure that all employees are paid fairly. While discrimination in the workplace continues to remain a significant issue, today’s biases are largely unintentional. If you don’t track DEI metrics properly, you may not even be aware that implicit discrimination like unequal pay is an ongoing issue.

A Final Note on DEI Analytics

Advancing DEI initiatives is simply the right thing to do. But organizations can no longer leave inclusion to chance. The best way to ensure that you’re on track is to make decisions based on hard data and accurate analysis. As the old adage goes, you can’t improve what you don’t measure.

By including DEI metrics in recruiting and compensation discussions, your company can maintain modern business standards while gradually becoming more diverse and inclusive. Along the way, you can make better-informed decisions that will keep existing employees happy, engaged, and committed to fairness and inclusion.

People-First DEI is High-Impact DEI. Why? A diversity expert shares her perspective

People-First DEI is High-Impact DEI. What’s the Secret?

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is by definition a people-centered business endeavor. So at first glance, the phrase “people-first DEI” may seem redundant. But that’s not always the case. Numerous factors shape DEI initiatives. But not all of these factors are beneficial. In fact, some even derail DEI progress. Why is this happening?

In recent years, many organizations have invested heavily in DEI endeavors, primarily in response to growing societal pressure, evolving customer expectations, and increasing competition for qualified talent. However, research reveals mixed results.

For instance, according to Deloitte, 86% of business leaders think embedding DEI into their work culture is very important. Yet only 25% say their organization is ready to move the needle. And only 30% link inclusion with business outcomes like productivity or profitability.

In this environment, it’s easy to find employers that are struggling to succeed at DEI. Plenty of programs land flat or wind up amplifying the issues they’re trying to solve. So, how can employers fix this?

Where DEI Goes Wrong

Inclusion challenges clearly are people-driven issues. But often (and ironically) organizations view DEI through a technical or data-focused lens. For example:

  • Many organizations see DEI as a layer of additional commitments and activities, rather than a comprehensive transformation that starts with embedding people and culture into business strategy and objectives. As long as a specific “target” percentage of employees are from underrepresented populations, leaders see DEI as a success.
  • Well-meaning executives invite inspirational DEI speakers to deliver presentations once a year at company meetings. They believe these stories will make a lasting impact on employees. Then they’re surprised when it doesn’t happen.
  • Similarly, some organizations hire a specialist to spearhead their DEI efforts. But if that position is a title in name only, and lacks appropriate responsibility, authority, and budget, nothing changes.

Although choices like this can contribute to stronger DEI outcomes, they won’t make a difference without employee buy-in. That’s where people-first strategies make all the difference.

Marissa Andrada, a self-described culture master and kindness catalyst, counsels companies on DEI. As a chief people leader and board director, she’s found that integrating people-centered DEI strategies with business strategy unlocks opportunities for growth in individual performance, corporate performance, and beyond.

Andrada says, “Diversity is rooted in the practice of inspiring people to feel confident in bringing exactly who they are to the table, which is unique for every individual. Overlooking the potential and value of individual talents defeats the purpose of building a company culture with diversity at its core.”

She adds that leaders who develop emotional connections with staff are better able to hear their voices and “grow the company through growing people.”

Of course, the road to embedding deeper people connections into your DEI program requires deliberate, thoughtful action. Try the following steps to make sure your efforts are designed and delivered with true human needs in mind…

3 Keys to People-First DEI

1. Close Gaps in Career Opportunities and Pay Practices

Many companies still struggle with pay gaps among people from different gender and race populations. In fact, Pew Research over the past two decades reveals that women still don’t earn equal pay for equal work. And SHRM says race-based salary inequities are just as disappointing.

It’s very difficult for employees to believe your company cares about DEI if you ignore existing pay gaps. Staff members won’t get behind internal DEI efforts if they’re being discriminated against in their paychecks. On the other hand, if you identify and close discriminatory pay gaps, you’ll open the door to DEI program acceptance and momentum.

Don’t forget that opportunity gaps and pay gaps are closely related. Equal pay is not enough. Your job is to also remove barriers to advancement and professional development across the board. By leveling the financial and opportunity playing field, you’ll speak volumes about DEI. Plus, you’ll get more people excited about diversity and inclusion as a broader work culture concept.

2. Ask Employees to Share Meaningful Changes They Want

Rather than play a guesswork game with DEI, go right to the source. Survey employees to determine what matters most to them. Where do they see openings for DEI to help make your workplace more inclusive? What do they want the DEI team to do for them and their colleagues? I guarantee the answers will be both eye-opening and informative.

For example, you may discover that employees want your organization to invest in employee resource groups (ERGs). Company-supported ERGs give people common ground and a chance to feel more “at home” on the job. Healthy ERGs are naturally inclusive and open to all members, including those who want to be better allies.

Another DEI program your people might appreciate is formal mentoring. Many up-and-coming workers from underrepresented groups feel isolated. They may want to climb the corporate ladder but have few (or no) internal role models to follow. Mentorships can be a way for them to grow within a supportive system. They can also attract talent from diverse candidate sources. That’s yet another reason to get staff members involved in developing your DEI strategies.

3. Keep Updating Your DEI Vision, Mission, and Approach

DEI doesn’t work as a standalone “set it and forget it” campaign. It’s not an automatic process. It’s a moving target that requires fine-tuning every step of the way. As your culture changes and becomes more inclusive and diverse, your people’s needs will change, too.

If you’re a leader, this means you’ll also want to take a flexible stance toward DEI. For instance, instead of building a formal, structured 12-month, 3- or 5-year DEI plan, consider taking a page from the agile playbook.

On a quarterly or semi-annual basis, evaluate what’s happening across your company related to DEI. Are things working well, or are tweaks in order? What’s missing? What’s no longer needed?

It’s best to assign a committee of employees to own this responsibility. Just be certain you empower them to conduct regular reviews and recommend appropriate adjustments.

By constantly refining and retooling your DEI efforts, your organization will stay ahead of the curve on DEI, in general. The field has experienced significant transformation — particularly since 2020 — with increased social injustice awareness. If your DEI is stuck in a pre-Covid era, you’re probably not connecting with your current employees’ needs and expectations. A refresh can resolve this issue and help you get back on track.

Final Thoughts on People-First DEI

When handled well, a commitment to DEI can be a huge asset for any company. It builds a sense of camaraderie that improves a brand’s reputation and appeal, while enhancing a company’s value in the marketplace.

But lasting change doesn’t happen unless employers design, implement, and manage DEI efforts around what truly matters to their people, rather than trying to force everyone into a one-size-fits-all mold. For successful results, start by connecting with your people, reassessing your culture, and moving forward from there.

How can you design a more productive, people-centered organization? Listen to this #WorkTrends Podcast with successful startup leader, Alex Furman of Performica...

How to Design a More People-Centered Organization

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Sponsored by Performica

In today’s world of work, it’s easy to find two very different types of people — self-promoting “squeaky wheels” whose voices are often the loudest, as well as those who quietly deliver without much recognition. Both bring something to the table. Still, leaders often judge an employee’s value based primarily on their visibility. This kind of bias is a critical reason why it’s important to build a people-centered organization.

But what can leaders do to better understand everyone’s true contributions? And how can they use these insights to develop more engaged, productive teams?

This issue matters, not only now, but for the future of work. That’s why I want to dig deeper with an HR tech innovator and entrepreneur who understands what it takes to design a more productive, people-first work culture.

Meet Our Guest: Alex Furman

Please join me in welcoming Alex Furman, CEO and Co-Founder at Performica, a people analytics platform provider. Previously, Alex co-founded Invitae, where he was responsible for growing the company’s collaborative culture of innovation at scale.

His first-hand experience as a senior business leader with technology expertise makes Alex an ideal guest for this discussion. Join us as we explore how you can leverage technology to build a more equitable and effective work environment…

Designing a More People-Centered Organization

Welcome, Alex! How do you define a people-centered approach to organizational design?

For a truly human-centric organization, we need to understand how people actually operate in the context of getting work done. Historically, we haven’t done that. We’ve thought in terms of org charts, business units, profit centers, and vertical silos.

But people are our greatest asset. And they’re social. The dynamic, cross-functional way people actually work doesn’t show up on org charts.

So to optimize people as an asset, we need to make sure everyone is seen, heard, valued, supported. That means moving away from analyzing org chart boxes and looking through the lens of humans working together.

Finding Hidden Influencers
You say teams rely heavily on “stealth influencers.” Could you tell us more?

As the head of people at a rapidly growing tech company in 2014, I wanted to see who was actually working together in real time. So I asked our engineers to connect our internal systems and create an org graph.

Soon it was clear that we had been over-celebrating those who were good at promoting themselves. Meanwhile, we were under-recognizing quieter “non-leaders” who were actually stronger influencers.

It was humbling. But that was the beginning of a solution to an important problem in the corporate world.

Tech’s Role in a People-Centered Organization

How can technology help leaders build a more people-centered organization?

We all know people are a company’s biggest asset. At most companies, 75-85% of expenses involve things like payroll, office space, travel and entertainment.

But people are also our biggest liability. We see this when cultures go sour and top performers start leaving. It becomes hard to attract talent and this can cripple a company.

But truly knowing your people and how they work is like a superpower. For example, one of our customers is going through significant change management. In this company of 1000 people, we identified only 24 people who are driving about 50% of employee sentiment and engagement.

So we’ve worked with senior management to target their interventions through that group of influential people. Now we’re seeing a massive and very measurable positive effect.

For more insights from Alex about how you can build a more people-centered organization, listen to this full podcast episode. And be sure to subscribe to the #WorkTrends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher.

Also, to continue this conversation on social media anytime, follow our #WorkTrends hashtag on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

8 Ways to Empower Employees Through Financial Education - TalentCulture blog by contributor, Brett Farmiloe

8 Ways to Empower Employees Through Financial Education

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These days, many people are dealing with stress from all kinds of personal financial concerns. This can harm workforce wellbeing — especially when people aren’t sure how to manage these issues or who they can trust for advice. That’s why organizations are increasingly offering workforce financial education.

But which strategies are most effective in helping employees develop financial literacy — especially considering that everyone has a different level of financial knowledge and experience?

We asked HR superstars to share one recommendation from their employee benefits and DEI programs. Here are 7 of the best suggestions we received:

  • Offer Resources to Help Employees Make Informed Choices
  • Host Budgeting Workshops and One-on-One Coaching
  • Think in Terms of Financial Wellness
  • Be Sensitive to an Employee’s Financial Literacy Level
  • Keep Equity in Mind When Offering Resources
  • Add More Benefits Instead of Outsourcing
  • Leverage Employee Questions and Anecdotes

To learn more about how you can make these ideas work for your organization, read the full responses below…

7 Proven Ways to Boost Employee Financial Education

1. Offer Resources to Help Employees Make Informed Choices

Financial literacy is an important life skill that can have a major impact on an individual’s overall wellbeing. Unfortunately, many employees lack the financial knowledge and resources necessary to make informed decisions about their money. As a result, they may end up making poor choices. And those choices can lead to serious financial problems down the road.

However, there are steps HR leaders can take to help employees improve their financial literacy. For example, you can offer resources to help employees make informed financial decisions. This can include access to basic financial education courses, budgeting tools, and debt management assistance. 

By tapping into these resources, employees gain the knowledge and skills they need to make better money decisions, avoid future financial difficulties, and improve their overall wellbeing.

Teresha Aird, Chief Marketing Officer and HR Lead, Offices.net

 

2. Host Budgeting Workshops or One-on-One Coaching

At our company, we offer different levels of financial education and resources. We recognize that not everyone is comfortable discussing or learning about personal finance, so we want to ensure we provide various resources that cater to different needs and preferences.

For example, we provide budgeting workshops for employees who want to get a better handle on daily money management. And for those who prefer a more personal approach, we offer one-on-one financial coaching. We also provide resources on our intranet and website for employees who want to learn more about finance-related topics on their own time. 

By offering a variety of resources that address different interests, we hope to make it easier for all of our employees to understand and take control of their finances.

Tracey Beveridge, HR Director, Personnel Checks

 

3. Think in Terms of Financial Wellness

Some organizations approach their benefits and DEI programs from a “financial wellness” perspective. Financial wellness is about much more than money management — it’s about creating a holistic, well-rounded view of one’s financial situation and health.

A financial wellness program can address people with different levels of financial literacy in several ways. One common approach is to provide employees with a variety of financial education options and resources, depending on their needs and interests. For example, employees who are just starting out may need more basic information on topics like budgeting and saving for retirement. Those who are further along in their financial journey are likely to benefit from more advanced topics like investing and estate planning.

No matter what an employee’s level of financial literacy may be, it’s important to provide them with accurate and up-to-date information. This means employers should plan to regularly review, refresh and adjust available content, courses, tools and resources.

Linda Shaffer, Chief People Operations Officer, Checkr

 

4. Be Sensitive to an Employee’s Financial Literacy Level

It is important to provide employees with the resources they need to make informed decisions about benefits and DEI programs, without forcing them to take part in activities they are not comfortable with.

One approach is to provide employees with resources that are tailored to their level of financial literacy. For example, you could offer an online course for employees who want to learn more about personal finance. Or, you could provide a list of recommended books or websites for employees who want to learn more on their own.

Another approach is to hold workshops or seminars on various financial topics. You can tailor these events to different levels of financial literacy so all employees can benefit from the information presented.

Alysha M. Campbell, Founder and CEO, CultureShift HR

 

5. Keep Equity in Mind When Offering Resources

It’s important to understand that we all start at different places in life. While this may seem like a given, many struggle with truly understanding how this applies to financial literacy. 

Specifically, many individuals from different racial backgrounds were not privy to having a mother or father to teach them the ins and outs of financial literacy. This is why equity is so important in the workplace. Equity recognizes that giving everyone the same tools or resources isn’t effective, and instead ensures that each individual has what they need to be successful. 

Keeping equity in mind when planning and managing your employee benefits offerings is one way to ensure that each employee has what they need. Resources every employer should offer include financial coaching, legal assistance, and workshops about credit, budgeting, and the importance of investing.

Tawanda Johnson, HR Leader, Sporting Smiles

 

6. Add More Benefits Instead of Outsourcing

Our employee benefits are managed through another company, so we aren’t able to decide what most of the options are. However, this past year, the benefit premiums increased. Still, the company could add more benefits to make the overall package more robust and attractive to current and new employees. Adding these incremental benefits could help offset the premium increase.

Lindsey Hight, HR Professional, Sporting Smiles

 

7. Leverage Participant Questions and Anecdotes

When addressing financial topics in DEI programs where attendees have different financial literacy levels, we want to help participants understand the benefits of concepts like retirement plans, debt management, and budgeting. Then we explain the fundamentals of these subjects.

An excellent way to explain these concepts is by welcoming questions from attendees. Then we use real-world examples to make the topics clear enough for individuals, no matter what their financial literacy level may be.

Grace He, People and Culture Director, teambuilding.com

WOTC Prescreening Employer Tax Credit Compliance

The WOTC and Prescreening: How Employers Can Stay in Compliance and Reap the Benefits

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Sponsored by ADP

The WOTC (Work Opportunity Tax Credit) offers businesses a tremendous opportunity for tax credits based on hiring. But for organizations to participate and leverage the advantages of this federal program, they have to be in compliance. That means prescreening applicants. Given the recent update released by the IRS that clarifies the need to prescreen, the time is now to learn more.

As with so many complex tax credits and other regulations today, successfully navigating them requires not only understanding how to stay within the bounds, but then how to create a process to make it part of your hiring system.

A Tax Credit and a Boost

The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) was first introduced in 1996. Since then it’s gone through a number of changes and extensions, including incorporating a credit for long-term welfare recipients in 2006. It’s authorized to stay in effect until December 31, 2025, so it’s anything but a flash in the pan: it’s a well-institutionalized regulation.

It’s designed to be both a tax credit for employers and a boost for employees, a combination of business advantage and social good. Companies who hire those American job seekers who consistently face barriers to employment can see up to $9,600 per employee — depending on a number of factors. In turn, qualifying new hires get the chance to break free from depending on government assistance and become self-supporting, steady earners and contributing taxpayers.

Leveraging the WOTC means respecting it: in its intent, the WOTC is designed to lift the barriers to employment among specific groups, and that’s why it includes specific criteria for compliance. It’s also opening up wider talent pools for employers at a time when hiring is tight, to say the least — and this should be seen as an added opportunity.

For larger companies that hire in numbers, it could be a windfall if done right. For smaller businesses it can make a tangible difference in a hiring budget: for every 4 or 5 new hires who fit within the target group, you may have the means to hire another employee as well.

Who Qualifies

Employees need to belong to a list of targeted groups, as specified by the IRS, and jobs must entail a minimum of working hours. Pay attention to the descriptions as well as the durations specified in each (adapted here):

 

Qualified IV-A Recipient:

  • A member of a family that receives state assistance under IV-A of the Social Security Act providing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
  • Assistance must be received for any 9 months during the 18-month period, ending on the hiring date.

Qualified Veteran: 

  • A member of a family that receives assistance under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (food stamps) for at least a 3-month period during the 15-month period, ending on the hiring date, or
  • Unemployed for a total of at least 4 weeks (consecutive or not), but less than 6 months in the 1-year period, ending on the hiring date, or
  • Unemployed for a total of at least 6 months (consecutive or not) in the 1-year period ending on the hiring date, or
  • Entitled to compensation for a service-connected disability and hired not more than 1 year after being discharged or released from active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, or
  • Entitled to compensation for a service-connected disability and unemployed for at least 6 months (consecutive or not) in the 1-year period ending on the hiring date.

Qualified Ex-Felon:

  • Hired within a year of either being convicted of a felony, or
  • Released from prison for the felony.

Designated Community Resident (DCR): 

  • At least 18 and under 40 years of age, with a principal residence either in an Empowerment Zone (EZ) or
  • A Rural Renewal County (RRC).
  • The WOTC credit doesn’t cover wages paid or incurred for services performed while the person lived outside of an EZ or RRC. (You can find the latest list of EZ and RRC designations here.)

Vocational Rehabilitation Referral: 

  • Has a physical or mental disability and was referred to the employer while receiving or upon completion of rehabilitative services under:
  • A state plan approved under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, or
  • An Employment Network Plan under the Ticket to Work program, or
  • A Department of Veteran Affairs program.

Qualified Summer Youth Employee:  

  • At least 16 but under 18 years of age on the hiring date or on May 1 (whichever is later), and
  • Only working for the employer between May 1 and September 15 (not employed prior to May 1) and
  • Lives in an Empowerment Zone (EZ).

Qualified Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Benefits Recipient:

  • At least 18 but under 40 on the date of hire, and
  • A member of a family that received SNAP benefits for either the last 6  months or at least 3 of the last 5 months.

Qualified Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Recipient:

  • Received SSI benefits for any month ending within the 60-day period that ends on the hire date.

Long-Term Family Assistance Recipient: 

  • At the time of hiring, is a member of a family that meets one of the following conditions:
  • Received assistance under an IV-A program for a minimum of the prior 18 consecutive months, or
  • Received assistance under an IV-A program for a minimum 18-month period beginning after 8/5/1997, and it has not been more than 2 years since the end of the earliest of such 18-month period, or
  • Ceased to be eligible for assistance under an IV-A program up to but no more than 2 years before because a federal or state law limited the maximum time those assistance payments could be made.

Qualified Long-Term Unemployment Recipient: 

  • Unemployed for not less than 27 consecutive weeks at the time of hiring
  • Received unemployment compensation during some or all of the unemployment period.

How to Certify

Eligibility for WOTC is not as simple as just hiring a member of one of these underrepresented talent pools and receiving a credit. As with many federal programs, the devil is in the details — and you can’t certify after the fact.

The IRS recently published additional guidance that clarifies the need to prescreen, and how to do it. As the update notes, “​​To satisfy the requirement to pre-screen a job applicant, on or before the day a job offer is made, a pre-screening notice (Form 8850, Pre-Screening Notice and Certification Request for the Work Opportunity Credit) must be completed by the job applicant and the employer.

To reiterate, both employer and job applicant need to complete Form 8850 in advance. Certification has to happen before you can claim this tax credit, which means establishing that the employee you hired is indeed a member of one of the targeted groups on the list.

And there’s more: employees in the targeted list qualify as long as they work at least 120 hours — any less, and the hire isn’t in compliance. Employers also can’t claim the tax credit for rehired employees (it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that some employers might think they could rehire an employee in order to certify them for the WOTC).

While the maximum credit is $9600 for an eligible employee, the amount of credit an employer receives depends on the WOTC target group identified, as well as how many hours the employee works:

  • If the employee works at least 400 hours during the first year of employment, the tax credit equals 40% of the employee’s qualified wages.
  • If the employee works less than 400 hours but at least 120 hours, the credit equals 25% of the employee’s qualified wages.
  • Eligible employees MUST work a minimum of 120 hours to qualify.

Reading Between the Lines

It means something that the IRS releases an update clarifying its rules on prescreening. Clearly, there were issues being found in terms of when employers were screening: noncompliance was on the radar. Compound that with wanting to increase participation in the program, and likely a decision was made that it was time to set the record straight. Again, complying with the WOTC could mean a major windfall for a larger employer and a key difference in the budget for a smaller one.

But many employers may have been caught in a blind spot. Some have been customarily conducting certain screening processes post-hire, considering the practice a viable shortcut. The intention may be to assume the new employee qualifies, since there has been some due diligence on the part of the employer already. Another assumption may be that by certifying after the hire is complete, the credits will come sooner. But both approaches are wrong.

For one thing, Form 8850 covers specific information in a specific way in order to certify a hire — and as such, is far more effective in terms of fact-finding for WOTC compliance. From an HR standpoint, since both employer and job applicant need to fill out the form, there may be more incentive for the applicant to get all the information right if it helps boost their getting hired. And minor missteps can really add up, putting companies at greater risk, and great costs stemming from an accumulation of noncompliant hires.

Getting the Process Right

Simply making the shift to when an employer conducts screening and sends in their certification request, and then keeping clear and adequate records to stay in compliance would make all the difference. Here’s what you need to know:

Recruit potentially eligible candidates through the state workforce agency (SWA) or the local employment office. Then, screen them: the applicants need to answer the questions on page 1 of IRS Form 8850 on or before the job offer date. 

If the applicant is eligible (they qualify for one of the WOTC target groups), the next step is up to the employer. Employers must sign and submit the IRS Form 8850 — as well as Department of Labor (DOL) ETA Form 9061 or 9062 to the state workforce agency (SWA) within 28 calendar days of the new hire’s start date. 

Keep careful records of hours worked and qualified wages paid. Remember: WOTC-certified employees need to work at least 120 hours in the first year of hire.

Claim the tax credit using IRS Form 5884, and make sure you have not only accurate records but copies of all the forms and supporting documents submitted to the SWA. Keep tracking your employee’s hours in case the IRS wants to conduct an audit.

Better Practices, Better Results

Remember: audits potentially contributed to the IRS’ decision to publish an update with clarifying language on the need to prescreen. It’s clear some employers weren’t being compliant. The line in the sand has already been drawn. But it’s also possible that not all employers are aware of the ramifications of being out of compliance with the WOTC.

Not only does post-screening forfeit initial benefits, but there’s an overall risk of having the WOTC credit revoked if an employer is found to have systematically not complied with prescreening requirements. In a big company that is always hiring, that could be a disaster.

The solution isn’t to hope for the best here. It’s to lean on solutions that help you make the shift without adding complexity. An integrated solution can make it far easier to change a long-held process consistently across the board. But given the historic lack of clarity on compliance and why shortcuts won’t work, this may be the time to look for better guidance.

The Benefits of an Outside Provider

Consider partnering with an outsourced solution provider who has experience with prescreening. A solution provider who has a solid track record with successful prescreening will be able to create a better process that’s streamlined and efficient. They can help get your organization over the common hurdles and build better ways to ease the pain points.

Given the pressures organizations are under — from intensely competitive hiring to a need to scale and adapt within shorter windows than ever — being able to leverage the advantage of the WOTC could be a key differentiator.

Minimizing your organizational exposure to risk is never a bad idea. But having a well-run, successful, WOTC-compliant hiring program may do even more. It’s a huge boost to its employer reputation that could pay off in a steady talent pool and a great workforce.

EDITOR’S NOTE: ADP has developed additional information about the WOTC and how employers can apply it. Learn more here

How can employers build an international workforce? Check these tips from a global recruitment expert

How Can You Build an International Workforce? Tips for Success

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In the past, many employers dismissed the idea of building an international workforce. Those who could attract local talent considered it unnecessary. Others didn’t have the resources to support remote teams. No more. Why? The market for talent is vastly different today than when the pandemic began three years ago.

Welcome to a New World of Work

Even if you’ve only glanced at business news recently, you’ve seen the signs. Several rapidly changing trends are rewriting work-related behaviors, norms, and expectations in significant ways.

Employees are working from home in unprecedented numbers. And they’re quitting their jobs at higher rates, despite inflation and other economic warning signs. In fact, people are more mobile than ever.

What’s more, these trends aren’t limited to a few isolated professional groups or locations. Now, you can see evidence of these changes in every corner of the world. So, what’s the key takeaway from all of this upheaval? In my opinion, it all points in one direction — to the rise of a truly international workforce.

Why Choose an International Workforce?

According to government statistics, roughly 75% of global purchasing power lies outside the United States. And across that global landscape, an international workforce has sprung up, filled with talented, driven people who are eager for employment.

Fortunately, many crucial technologies are now available to help employers find and hire an international workforce. For example, these tools are designed to assist with everything from identifying the right candidates and onboarding new hires to ensuring that payroll complies with regulations in an employee’s home country.

Employers with a modern, cloud-based HR technology ecosystem can integrate these tools into their existing tech stack with relatively little disruption. But whatever applications you choose should be based on a holistic talent strategy. In other words, you’ll want to develop a plan that considers all the issues and benefits associated with international expansion.

But for many organizations, the reasons for going global are compelling. Competition for qualified talent remains intense. And now that flexible work models are becoming a standard, the reasons for U.S. companies to go global are clear. It has never been easier to attract and retain the talent you need by expanding your geographical footprint. But employers who want to succeed should focus on these key steps…

How to Hire a Truly International Workforce

1. Uplevel Your Talent Acquisition Efforts

Many employers continue to act as if their sourcing efforts are still limited to a specific geography. But that’s no longer the case. Today’s qualified talent pool is global. So, if you make the most of this competitive opportunity, in no time you can expand your applicant pool.

The U.S. doesn’t have a monopoly on exceptional workers with specialized knowledge and experience. Not even close. By limiting yourself to domestic workers, you also limit your company’s potential.

Obviously, a major advantage of global hiring is the ability to quickly fill high-priority roles. But there are other valuable benefits, as well.

For instance, if diversity is important to your organization, an international workforce opens the door to fresh perspectives. Embracing people with various points of view brings the kinds of insights that help businesses grow and thrive. In fact, diverse teams are 1.8 times more likely to be prepared for change and 1.7 times more likely to lead market innovation, according to Deloitte.

This also sends a powerful message to potential hires and customers about your commitment to diversity and inclusion. For example, having an internationally diverse workforce is a strong selling point for 67% of candidates looking for a new job.

2. Find Local Partners You Trust

Thus far, we’ve discussed one type of remote hiring — accepting applications for remote roles from people around the world. But there’s another type of remote hiring with massive implications. It’s when companies want to rapidly enter a new geographic market.

In the past, businesses breaking into a new country like Thailand might have acquired a Thai company to absorb its workforce. This can be slow, time-consuming, and costly. And it may even be a cultural mismatch.

Now, this process is no longer necessary. Today, through remote recruiting, businesses can simply hire the remote workers they need in Thailand, and work with them to implement a rollout in that country.

This raises a related question: How can you trust a remotely-hired partner to build your business in another part of the world? Ultimately, the answer is the same as it would be for a domestic candidate.

This means you’ll want to complete the same type of due diligence. Ask for references. Conduct multiple rounds of interviews. If possible, begin with a probationary trial period, so you can clarify each candidate’s skills and culture fit. Although hiring an international partner might seem like a bigger decision than hiring a domestic candidate, the same basic rules apply.

3. Leverage New Technology to Drive Global Growth

Certainly, global hiring isn’t simple. Setting up operations in a new work environment — with its own distinct customs and employment laws — requires specialized knowledge that isn’t readily available in most organizations.

What are the local laws around hiring and firing? What kinds of expectations do employees bring to their day-to-day work lives? What are the labor laws? How are things like cross-border compliance monitored? These are essential questions when hiring globally, and it’s imperative that businesses build their knowledge base so answers are available when they inevitably arise.

Fortunately, in recent years, many technology solutions have emerged to help businesses deal with issues like these. AI-powered platforms can readily streamline the process, integrating team members from across the globe while staying on top of compliance. In fact, platforms like these can transform the entire process, allowing companies to quickly expand into new markets and establish a local presence anywhere in the world.

Final Thoughts

At this point, the barriers to forming a truly international workforce are almost purely psychological. There is no shortage of skilled workers across the globe who are eager to make an impact at U.S.-based companies. And there is no shortage of technology-based solutions that can make it as easy to hire those workers as it is to hire someone down the street.

What corporate America does need is a psychological shift. Employers need to be willing to think beyond borders, get creative with hiring, and tap into the power that an international workforce can offer. The rewards are clear and abundant. All we need is the will.

Are You Cultivating a Culture-Add Talent Strategy? Take a closer look with our Managing Partner Cyndy Trivella

Are You Cultivating a “Culture-Add” Talent Strategy?

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In recent years, I’ve been encouraged by a groundswell of employers that are choosing to embrace “culture-add” people practices. In fact, several months ago, I wrote about it in a Sage Masterclass article.

Because this concept is central to the future of work, I’ve continued to ponder, read and discuss culture-add issues with others. Now I’m convinced this topic deserves much more than just one blog post. So let’s explore it further here. I hope this underscores the need for a shift to a culture-add recruitment and retention mindset. But more importantly, I hope it inspires constructive change.

What Does “Culture-Add” Mean?

The term “culture-add” speaks to a paradigm shift beyond traditional “culture-fit” talent strategies. On the surface, the culture-fit approach seems appealing. However, it ultimately leads to one-dimensional groups, teams, and organizations. And history tells us homogeneity can have dangerous consequences:  blind spots, groupthink, and poor decision-making.

In contrast, a “culture-add” approach actively seeks people with diverse perspectives that enhance teams and organizations. As we learn more about the significant benefits of a diverse workforce, culture-add hiring is emerging as an important way to strive for differences that make a positive impact.

As I noted in my previous article:

Most of us know that employees who align with a company’s values and fit into the culture generally have higher job satisfaction, improved job performance, and frankly, stick around longer. However, we are resting on our laurels if we use this as our rationale for continuing to use the culture-fit model.”

Embracing Organizational Change

We all know humans tend to resist change. In fact, the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” was suitable for a long time. It still holds some merit, so let’s not dismiss it completely. Tried-and-true processes can potentially save us from all kinds of turmoil — emotional, logistical, financial, and more.

However, if we want to innovate and grow, we must also be able to adapt. No doubt, changing an organization’s cultural fabric can be daunting. But it is necessary for long-term viability.

As Stephanie Burns says in a 2021 Forbes column, Why Evolving Your Business Right Now Is Critical:

Anyone who has wanted to cling to how things were will be in for a surprise this year, as COVID-19 entirely shifted the original paradigm. However, it’s also presented an opportunity for businesses and individuals to evolve into new ways of being.

COVID hasn’t just turned the world on its head, it’s accelerated trends that were already happening, such as the shift to remote work and the collective desire for more convenience…

Still, some founders don’t want much change. This could be due to fear of the unknown or fear that leaving their old business model, which had worked so well for so long, could be catastrophic. However, we’re reaching a critical impasse where businesses that don’t evolve may very well fade out of the picture. Evolution is a natural part of all of our lives, and our businesses are no exception.”

Leaders would be wise to heed this important advice, even if it seems overwhelming. It’s time to change. Our work cultures are constantly shifting. We, too, should remain prepared to embrace new ideas, processes, and people who can make us better.

Culture-add hiring can support this process by inviting more diverse minds and voices to the table as we dream up fresh ideas and orchestrate change. This reminds me of a related term — new blood. We need new blood to thrive.

Connecting Culture-Add and Diversity

This conversation leads us directly to the benefits of diversity. There’s an excellent article on the NeuroLeadership Institute blog, Your Brain at Work: Why Diverse Teams Outperform Homogeneous Teams. The entire piece is worth reading, but here’s a noteworthy excerpt:

Diverse teams are particularly good at exposing and correcting faulty thinking, generating fresh and novel ideas, and accounting for a wider array of variables in planning.

Part of the reason this happens is due to what scientists call cognitive elaboration — the process of sharing, challenging, and expanding our thinking. In essence, diverse teams compel each other to think more deeply about their reasoning and interrogate the facts more objectively.

They share counterfactuals as they go, they don’t take things for granted, and there is minimal ‘social loafing’ — or just accepting things at face value. In short, diverse teams tend to come to better conclusions because those conclusions have been road-tested more thoroughly.”

The science of diversity in teams is truly fascinating. It tells us that recruiting and hiring leaders can help by feeding teams with talented people who can accentuate the benefits of diversity.

Of course, diversity and inclusion don’t end with hiring. The next step is fostering a workplace that makes a wide variety of people feel valued. This is not an easy task. However, it is essential. So let’s look closer at what to consider…

Tips For Building a Culture-Add Mentality

1. Actively weave a sense of belonging into your workforce

As you build a more diverse organization through culture-add hiring, don’t be surprised if cliques and segmentation develop based on geographical, cultural, and other distinctions. That’s natural! But challenge your people to also learn and share what they have in common with others. Allow space for these common interests and goals to surface.

The Why Diverse Teams Outperform Homogeneous Teams article offers a compelling reason to make this a priority:

The benefits of diversity aren’t likely to accrue if we simply put together a team of diverse individuals and assign them a task. The environment in which they’re working should be inclusive — one in which all members feel valued and as if they have a voice.

In that inclusive environment, the benefits of diversity are far more likely to materialize. If not, employees will leave the organization, or worse, stay but not contribute. Diversity without inclusion only creates a revolving door of talent.”

Vigorously work on building a sense of belonging so people of different ages, backgrounds, and lifestyles feel celebrated for their differences. After all, you’ve brought them in to add to your culture, so allow them to shine.

2. Prepare to fully retrain your recruiting and hiring staff

This tip could stand alone as an article, white paper, or college thesis. But to be brief, let’s use an example to illustrate how deeply culture-add hiring upends the traditional approach:

Previously, when Bob hired someone at XYZ insurance company, he considered a candidate like Stan an excellent fit. That’s because Stan lived in a similar neighborhood, was married to a well-liked woman, and had kids who were high achievers. If Stan also golfed on the weekends and enjoyed a steak dinner, even better! He’d fit right into XYZ Insurance and would have a fulfilling career.

As mentioned previously, this model once made a lot of sense. Cultural similarities and a genuine “he’s one of us” mentality created a comfortable atmosphere where longevity was often the result. Unfortunately, homogeneous organizations were also the result.

Today’s businesses face new challenges that require a different approach. Your talent acquisition team can start by taking the initiative to reassess the criteria they use to find people (where, how). Then you can reframe the recruitment conversation from end to end.

Instead of looking for people to fit a standard outdated profile, allow questions and conversations to emphasize and embrace differences in candidates. What can they add versus how do they fit?

Begin by asking yourself and others in your organization to talk openly about how hiring is being handled, and what kind of outcomes this approach is creating — for better or worse.

If a culture-fit model still drives your talent decisions, don’t be ashamed to admit it. But if that’s the case, you’ll want to start making changes soon. Because I assure you, your competitors are already moving toward culture-add for the win.

How can we help women leaders move up, not out? #WorkTrends podcast with host Meghan M. Biro and guest expert, Todd Michem

What Helps Women Leaders Move Up, Not Out?

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Currently, women account for nearly 48% of the global workforce. This seems like progress for gender equality and inclusion, right? But the picture isn’t as rosy as you might think—especially for women leaders.

In fact, recent research reveals that as women move up the management ranks, they’re actually less likely to be promoted to each successive rung on the corporate ladder. No wonder women executives are quitting their jobs at a record pace!

What will it take to remove these obstacles so more women can reach top management positions?

With stellar talent in short supply these days, this topic has never been more important for employers to address. So I invite you to dig deeper with me on this #WorkTrends podcast episode.

Meet Our Guest:  Todd Mitchem

Today, I’m speaking with author, consultant, and leadership development expert, Todd Mitchem, EVP at AMP Learning and Development. Todd is a future-of-work visionary who helps individuals understand and embrace the process of professional disruption and reinvention. And today we’re tapping into his expertise on key trends involving women leaders.

Work, Women, and Power

Welcome, Todd! Tell us, how can women leaders step into their power?

I teach presentation, communication, and executive presence skills for employees, often at large companies like Microsoft. And I would say about 98% of the participants are women.

Often, when I tell these women to step into their own their power, they’ll ask, “Well, how do I do that? I don’t want to seem too aggressive, or too bossy, or…”

My response is, “When you are in a room presenting, you’re there because someone believed you deserved to be there. You just need to own that. You need to step into that power.”

And the next piece is to lean on what you know, lean on what you’re good at, and step into that strength.

Executive Presence is a Skill

How are women leaders applying these lessons to engage their power?

Well, executive presence is a skill. People aren’t born an executive leader. It’s a skill.

So, if you teach them this skill, it’s amazing to watch what emerges from the process.  Because it frees them to bring out all the things they’ve worked so hard to achieve.

It’s powerful. But it’s skill-based. Once you learn the skill, your intelligence, your wisdom, your knowledge all emerge, almost naturally.

Women Can Lead With Their Strengths

You say women leaders need to realize they deserve to be in the position they’re in and should claim it. But what do you really mean by this?

I think society tends to make women think they’re supposed to act like their male counterparts who are successful but may be aggressive or overly dominating.

But in truth, if women just lead with their knowledge, instead of trying to outmatch the egos of their male colleagues, they’ll find they’re in a better place. That’s because they have much more confidence.

How Men Can Help

Todd, you’ve helped thousands of women claim their power and step into their roles more fully. As a man, how can you do this?

It’s not as if the corporate world is now magically wonderful for women. It isn’t. That’s an illusion. But women are evolving at an incredible pace, and men need to help step that up.

As women step into their power, men need to step up and check our egos at the door.

Resistance, or fear, or an unconscious belief structure will destroy you. The ego’s fight to win is about wanting to be right, instead of getting it right.

But the best thing to do for the future of work is to embrace the power we have as a unified group—men and women working together.

 

For more great advice from Todd, listen to this full episode. Also, be sure to subscribe to the #WorkTrends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. And to continue this conversation on social media, follow our #WorkTrends hashtag on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

DEI Programs

How to Launch Sincere DEI Programs

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The working world has spoken: Employees want to be part of organizations that value and support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). But they won’t accept lip service. They want employers to put actions behind their words. And they want DEI programs that make a real difference.

Of course, this makes sense. When DEI programs aren’t genuine, they won’t have merit or promote lasting change. But with a sincere, consistent effort, organizations can expect to see plenty of benefits.

The Benefits of Effective DEI Programs

Companies that make a conscious effort to recruit a diverse pool of qualified candidates tend to attract more applicants, overall. In fact, Glassdoor research says two-thirds of job seekers actively look for potential employers that encourage workforce diversity.

What kind of signals matter? For example, consider the proportion of top performers on your staff with diverse backgrounds. When that proportion is high, it indicates that diverse representation will rise to leadership levels in the future. This sends a clear message that opportunity is open to current and potential employees.

A thoughtful, transparent approach to diversity has other benefits, as well. For instance, individuals can see how colleagues are helping their organization grow from within, both formally and informally. Through employer-sponsored professional development programs, employees from diverse backgrounds can learn and apply new skills that will help them take on more responsibility. Along the way, they can contribute to cultural change and even help the organization better align its products and services with evolving market needs.

The Challenges of Establishing DEI Programs

Many employers want to construct a welcoming culture that feels inclusive and equitable for all. So, why aren’t more DEI programs flourishing? What’s getting in the way? Too often, companies make bold statements about their DEI intentions. Then when implementing those plans, they stumble.

One reason DEI initiatives falter is that employers want this process to be intentional, comfortable, and intuitive. It sounds reasonable. But the road to understanding and building better bonds with many types of people sometimes means addressing pain points head-on.

When business leaders are concerned about stretching team members beyond their personal comfort zones, they may simply define the DEI outcomes they want to see. However, they don’t go further because they’re unclear about how to help employees be authentic—or how to help them support one another without bias or hesitation.

Although this may seem like a huge obstacle, it doesn’t need to be. Sometimes, what it takes to get started on firm footing is simply the will to implement several pointed strategies. Here are four suggestions:

4 DEI Implementation Pillars

1. Research DEI programs at successful companies

Figuring out how to design your DEI efforts doesn’t have to involve recreating any wheels. It’s easier—and more practical—to find out what others are doing well. Then use that knowledge as a springboard.

For instance, consider Mastercard. This company has been very intentional about expressing a desire to diversify its workforce. Our team at LaunchCode partnered with Mastercard to help the company find candidates from previously untapped, diverse talent pools. Doing this has connected Mastercard with top talent.

To ensure further progress, Mastercard holds regular meetings to discuss hiring efforts that support its corporate DEI goals. The company also sponsors a Women+ program, providing funding for free technical education and career pathways for women.

2. Sponsor on-the-job training about DEI

More educational experiences can help increase awareness, appreciation and adoption of organizational diversity. For example, you could develop training focusing on understanding and managing unconscious bias. Conducting regular DEI training gives people a chance to step back and consider their frame of reference. This can help people identify and let go of their cultural biases, so they can move forward.

Sponsoring topical employee resource groups (ERGs) can also be a useful approach. Starting one of these committees can be as simple as inviting individuals to speak about their experiences and suggest actions they’d like the organization to pursue. Of course, it’s important to host these discussions in safe spaces, whether it’s online, in person or a combination of both. Plus, leaders must do more than just support these events. They must be present and participate. Their visibility reinforces the fact that this isn’t about checking DEI boxes. It’s about transforming the entire organization at all levels.

3. Hire for diversity in leadership

If people at the top of an organization aren’t diverse, employees assume the company must not be committed to DEI. Workers from underrepresented backgrounds may go one step further and assume they have no future with your organization.

This isn’t an uncommon scenario. In fact, in a recent study, more than 75% of people told Harvard Business Review their employer doesn’t have diverse leadership representation. This means there’s an enormous opportunity for most organizations to make fundamental changes to better align their top positions with desired DEI objectives.

Although it may be impossible to change senior leaders until positions become available, an organization can diversify leadership by adjusting representation on its board of directors (or advisory board). It can also be intentional about seeking clients, suppliers and business partners from different backgrounds and experiences.

4. Evaluate pay equity

As of 2021, women were on average, still earning 83 cents for every $1 dollar men earned, according to the  American Association of University Women. And Black male workers make 87 cents on the dollar when compared with their white male counterparts. These gender and racial pay disparities reveal that more work lies ahead for those who want to achieve a more equitable work environment.

However, it’s a general “best practice” for human resources professionals to evaluate pay grades across-the-board. After all, employers are expected to pay wages fairly and equitably. DEI can and should be folded into this process.

The objective for pay equity conversations should be to ensure that wages are based exclusively on merit. If you’re unsure how to move the needle on glaring wage gaps, it can be helpful to work with a consulting firm that specializes in this.

The Bottom Line

Above all, it’s important for DEI to mean more than just putting people in seats based on their demographic profile. It is not just a one-and-done “program.” At its best, DEI is a values-based, purpose-driven process that comes not from the top or the bottom, but lives in every layer of your organization. And when everyone genuinely feels ownership of DEI, you’ll begin to see just how powerful it can be.

Diversity

6 Ways Leadership Teams Can Fuel Workplace Diversity and Inclusion

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If your diversity strategy relies on presentations and workshops, it’s probably not working as it should. In addition to diversity programs showing minimal improvement in terms of racial composition in the workforce, some leaders have failed to take the proper steps to prioritize this issue.

About $8 billion a year is spent on diversity training in the United States. This is a significant number, that looms large when considering the lack of progress. Numbers suggest that demonstrations of microaggressions—packaged into 3-5 minute clips and presented every 6 months—aren’t working. If you want success with your DE&I strategies, you must take responsibility for the actions that can fuel results.

Why Leadership Should Invest in Building a More Inclusive Culture

To attract good talent, start with building trust. Be directly involved in DE&I efforts. Your diversity strategy will be more successful with the involvement and influence of your leadership team.

It’s no coincidence that McDonald’s set competitive annual diversity goals for 2025 that are directly tied to the compensation of executive vice presidents. You have to believe that failing to invest time and energy in improving organizational DE&I negatively, can affect your company’s performance. Putting it simply—the solution starts with your visible commitment to developing diversity-related KPIs for other leaders and managers.

The benefits of an inclusive workforce include increasing employee retention, recruiting through brand awareness and possibly customer acquisition. You should own these efforts, not solely because it’s the right thing to do, but because it is also what is best for your business.

To start, evaluate your company’s diversity strategy and its results. In addition, talk with leaders about ways they can help make the strategy more successful. 

Let’s explore 6 ways leaders can fuel workplace diversity and inclusion.

1. Sponsor a diversity and inclusion-related initiative.

Choose a DE&I issue that you are passionate about or a professional skill that you may possess. Is there a skill that is missing within the company? Are there enough support programs? Are there skill-share opportunities? You have the power to create programs to fill gaps. Sponsoring Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), is one great way for senior leaders to connect with their employees. 

2. Offer support to underrepresented employees.

Support both sponsorship and mentorship programs; noting that sponsorship will include help with elements such as career vision & visibility. These programs help create genuine connections between employees and leadership, helping to build better, trusting relationships. Set up consistent skip-level meetings with underrepresented employees, or ask your managers to introduce you to high performers who may be able to help.

3. Join executive forums that embrace diversity.

One of the best things you can do as a leader is expand your network to include underrepresented executives. Joining communities that champion underrepresented employees will help you gain a broader perspective. Some useful forums are Chief, him for her, Hitec, and MLT. 

4. Discuss progress of diversity-related initiatives at all-hands meetings.

Prioritizing diversity and inclusion in your company-wide all-hands or strategic discussions, is a simple way to include these plans within company KPIs. Clearly communicating progress on your diversity strategy should be on the agenda.

5. Participate in diversity and inclusion training.

Attend diversity training with other employees, not just other leaders. Encourage your executive team to take part in training with their direct reports. Leaders will have an opportunity to increase psychological safety, and learn more about how individual employees feel about the culture.

6. Hold VPs and Directors accountable for building diverse teams.

The sphere of influence within an organization starts with leadership. If your organization wants to champion diversity, your leadership team should reflect that. Hold yourself, and your direct reports accountable for building a diverse team by setting aspirational targets. Similar to how the McDonald’s executive team tied diversity goals to compensation, determine what will motivate your peers and direct reports to take diversity seriously.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, the solution is to create safe and productive work environments that keep employees motivated and candidates eager to join your organization. Start with these 6 steps and build momentum.

Burnout

By the Numbers: Employee Burnout, Workplace Discrimination, and the Great Resignation

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Sometimes research emerges that sets a new high-water mark on a troubling trend — and it’s well worth paying attention to. That’s the case with the recent Work and Well-Being Survey conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA) of 1,501 U.S. adult workers. Conducted in 2021, it remains extremely relevant to where we are now. 

The survey reveals a strong connection between stress, burnout, workplace discrimination, and the Great Resignation. If that sounds like a topic you should know more about, we heartily agree. We also think that the fact that the research was conducted outside an HR-centric organization actually makes it all the more valuable for those of us in HR — particularly leadership.

The Bottom Line of Burnout

Here’s the bottom line: employee burnout is undeniably high. It’s clearly a major factor in the Great Resignation. It’s also affecting employees unequally: discrimination is a thru-line there. We took a closer look at some of the survey’s most telling statistics to see how we’re doing. As you look for strategies to stave off employee departures and reduce workplace-related stress, these are numbers (and issues) you need to keep in mind.

Burnout is at an All-Time High, Regardless of Profession

  • 79% of employees across all professions reported work-related stress. 
  • Nearly 3 in 5 employees reported negative impacts of work-related stress, including lack of interest, motivation, or energy at work. 
  • 36% reported cognitive weariness.
  • 32% reported emotional exhaustion
  • 44% reported physical fatigue — a 38% increase since 2019.

Burnout is a Key Factor in the Great Resignation

There’s a clear association between day-to-day workplace stress and the likelihood they will look for a new job somewhere else, and soon:

  • 71% reported feeling typically stressed out or tense during their workday.
  • Only 20% reported they didn’t feel that way.
  • Those who report feeling tense or stressed out during the workday are over 3X more likely to seek employment somewhere else in the next year.

Workplace Discrimination

It’s not only stressful, but employees are also sick and tired of it — and it’s making them seek employment elsewhere:

  • 68% of those who say they have experienced or witnessed discrimination in their current workplace plan to look for a job outside of their organization in the next year. 
  • Only 33% of those who say they did not experience or witness discrimination in their current workplace plan to look for a job outside of their organization in the next year. 

The Breakdown is Telling

Black and Hispanic:

  • 31% of Black and Hispanic employees say they have been the target of discrimination in their workplace in the last year. 
  • 20% of White employees say they have been the target of discrimination in their workplace in the last year. 
  • 58% of Hispanic and 57% of Black employees plan to look for a job outside of their organization in the next year. 
  • 37% of White employees plan to look for a job outside of their organization in the next year. 

LGBTQ+:

  • 32% of LGBTQ+ employees say they have been the target of discrimination in their workplace in the last year.
  • 23% of non- LGBTQ+ employees say they have been the target of discrimination in their workplace in the last year.
  • 56% of LGBTQ+ employees plan to look for a job outside of their organization in the next year. 
  • 43% of non-LGBTQ+ employees plan to look for a job outside of their organization in the next year. 

People with Disabilities:

  • 47% of people with disabilities say they have been the target of discrimination in their workplace in the last year.
  • 19% of people without a disability say they have been the target of discrimination in their workplace in the last year.
  • 63% of people with disabilities plan to look for a job outside of their organization in the next year. 
  • 41% of people without a disability plan to look for a job outside of their organization in the next year. 

Women and Burnout

What’s not in here: how women are faring. Women’s experience with workplace burnout is its own topic, and we’ll be covering it. There are also plenty of other factors contributing to the soaring rates of workplace stress, from overwork to not enough paid leave, to low compensation to being left out of decision-making. Look for our coverage of those as well in the coming months. (In the meantime, please read here for more on the connection between employee responses to the pandemic and workplace stress — an uneasy and ongoing relationship. And for an interesting take on overcoming burnout pre-pandemic, check out this great #WorkTrends podcast we did with a public schools counselor turned go-to executive coach. — her wisdom still holds true.)

Final Thoughts

The numbers we’ve included here paint a clear picture — and as we look for a special sauce that will slow down voluntary quits, it’s time to get back to basics. The importance of an inclusive workplace where everyone feels like they belong is inarguable — and the APA’s stats should prompt a serious re-think. Once again, kudos to them for doing such a well-considered, diligent deep dive into this important workplace topic. 

Meeting the Needs

Meeting the Needs of a Changing Workforce

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Graduation season is here, and many recent or soon-to-be graduates are about to enter the workforce. In fact, it is estimated that companies plan to hire 26 percent more new graduates from the class of 2022 compared to the year before. Meeting the needs of this new workforce is key to successful talent acquisition and retention. 

The world is different than it was three graduation seasons ago. Businesses have needed to adjust the way they approach the hiring process to build strong teams. For these organizations to attract and retain the top talent within the job market, a different mindset and approach are required.

The future of work is now, and it is reliant upon driving change through technology, different ways of working, fresh perspectives, and diverse voices.

The Demand for Flexibility

Flexibility is an unwavering demand of the new generation of workers. In a world that relishes instant communication and expects full transparency, job candidates are more aware of the vast number of organizations that meet their employees where they are. So what does this mean for companies that are looking to hire and retain candidates who are overwhelmed with options? It means that flexibility is a must – not a “nice to have.”

Flexibility means allowing employees to build a schedule that best fits their needs. Many organizations are adapting accordingly as they recognize this level of flexibility is something they must offer their current and future employees. In fact, 81 percent of executives are changing their workplace policies to offer greater flexibility. This is a standard expectation of our new normal. A failure to keep up with these demands means limiting your talent pool and losing even the most loyal of employees.

Flexibility also means empowering employees to choose where they work. Organizations that promote a “work from anywhere” mindset prove that they truly foster an environment of flexibility and a consistent employee experience regardless of where one is seated. Companies have quickly acknowledged that the “work from anywhere” mindset vastly widens their potential candidate pool. These organizations can focus on recruiting candidates with different skillsets or backgrounds that can positively impact the business.

The companies that will win in the top talent competition are those that realize it is not where one works, but rather it is the breadth and quality of the work produced that is critical in allowing their organization to scale to the next level.

Defining Your Purpose and Aligning With Candidates

As Gen Z gains more stake in the workforce, purpose-driven practices will continue to take hold at the forefront and become the foundation of business. This shift has been bubbling under the surface for a few years, but now it sits firmly at the core of candidate requirements.

Organizations that choose to look intrinsically and identify the true purpose behind their work will find that like-minded talent turns their way. Purpose comes in many forms and can be realized in a variety of ways. There is no doubt that the new generation of candidates will not work for a company that does not have a defined and pursued purpose in place. The questions that all organizations must ask themselves are: What is the purpose of what you do? Who will you positively impact? How can you build a workplace that drives this purpose every single day?

The Impact of Technology

The Insurance industry exists largely to serve and support individuals, families, and organizations across the globe in times of need. This institution is comprised of companies that face challenges of how to bring a fresh and modern approach to help drive their purposes. Due to the length of its establishment, it would not come as a surprise if many candidates, particularly new graduates, saw the insurance industry as old school and have not considered it for their future careers. However, the reality is that there is a multitude of career advancement opportunities as technology such as software-as-a-solution, artificial intelligence, and machine learning continue to mature and become a staple within the industry. Insurance is a perfect fit for the new generation of workers who are inherently creative problem-solvers and who also wish to deepen their technology skillsets.

The companies that truly live out their defined purpose and offer the skills and training programs that employees desire will be the ones that gain the talent pool’s attention and thus deliver the innovative solutions that will be disruptive within their industry.

Cultivating Diverse Talent is the Path Forward

The changing workforce is shedding a bright light on the notable differences in how the varying generations approach their line of work. However, one similarity all generations in the workforce share is that employees only feel satisfied within their careers when they are comfortable enough to show up as their true selves and follow and express their passions and beliefs. Organizations that allow individuals and groups to be heard and empowered will win the competition for great talent. Without a doubt, upholding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) practices are at the forefront of these efforts.

Companies that promote their DE&I efforts create a culture where employees feel respected, connected, and proud. These organizations that choose to take a stance are more favorable to the new generation of candidates, many of whom will not work for companies that do not have DE&I programs in place. For organizations with customer-facing roles, an increased level of pride from employees leads to an increased level of engagement. Therefore, allowing them to better serve their customers and build stronger relationships with critical stakeholders.

Diversity Fosters Innovation

Organizations with diverse leaders and employees innovate at a faster rate. Diverse thinking and perspectives fuel creative ideas. It also fuels development cycles for new solutions, allowing companies to gain and sustain a competitive advantage by getting to market faster and focusing on the long-term value for their customers. This will in turn drive better business outcomes. 

Recently, our organization held a Diversity Summit to reflect on and discuss the future goals of DE&I in the workplace. It was a transformational three days, and the Summit is the type of event every organization should host more of. The group’s time together was filled with impactful moments that were educational, inspiring, and motivating to our employees. Both on a professional and personal level. 

DE&I initiatives should be incorporated into every part of the business and is not merely a three-day event. Leaders need to make a conscious effort to inspire employees and drive company culture by “walking the walk.” Candidates are not impressed by companies with executive-level and corporate “buy-in”. They are drawn to companies with true executive-level and corporate “believe-in”. An organization’s DE&I stance must stem top-down, and it cannot just be a focus within the HR part of the organization, or it will fall flat.

Every employee at every level within a corporate environment owns the company culture. Every candidate in the talent pool has a vested interest in being a part of an open culture that promotes belonging. 

A Few Final Thoughts

A company’s most valuable asset is its people. 

Companies must regularly reevaluate their hiring and internal processes. These processes are only successful when companies foster programs that empower their employees both professionally and personally and allow them to pursue their passion and purpose.

The companies that do this are the ones that will attract and retain candidates of the highest caliber.

DEI

The Critical Intersection Between DEI and Mental Health

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Pandemic-related mental health is undoubtedly top-of-mind. In addition, there tends to be an uptick in dialog about mental health this time of year because May is Mental Health Month. Yet here’s what I’m thinking a lot about recently that extends all year long: the critical intersection between mental health and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). 

While both topics have grown exponentially in discussions among leaders, they have often grown in tandem. However, it’s important to tie the two together. It’s a junction where belonging, health, happiness, and productivity live. But the key is to understand how they intersect and what that means to leaders who want to foster a positive workplace.

The State of Mental Health

The research and stats continue to illustrate that COVID has propelled us into a mental health crisis. In a report by Mental Health America and Surgo Foundation, “The COVID Mental Health Crisis in America’s Most Vulnerable Communities: An Analysis of the US Cities Most Impacted by COVID-19, Poor Mental Health, and Lack of Mental Health Access”, the researchers hit on an important societal issue. A community and workforce’s access to mental health services – especially for underserved populations – is a DEI issue. Period.

“Mental health benefits: A key component of DEI,” a 2021 article in BenefitsPRO, connects the dots by stating that if an organization is going to be committed to DEI, then mental health benefits must be part of the picture. So, ask yourself, are accessible, impactful mental health benefits part of your organization? And even if you say yes, there is still work to do. And it’s interesting to look back a year later and see what mental health needs were unmet before, during the height of the pandemic, and today.

Create Paths to Help

What has become abundantly clear is that organizational management – and HR leaders, especially – must include mental health benefits, resources, and services with a special lens on underserved and high-risk populations. We expect government entities to pave the way, but every company should also take proactive steps to provide its own inclusive, healthy community. (The article was published under different titles to appeal to various HR professionals, including the aptly named DEI That Ignores Mental Health Is Doomed in HRAdvisor.)

The piece states, “Mental ill-health is often a symptom of lackluster DEI within companies, and specifically among minority demographics… Regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, a majority felt that they had experienced barriers to inclusion. McKinsey’s research supports the argument that certain demographics are more likely to feel less included. Among those groups are entry-level employees, women, and ethnic or racial minorities.”

“When someone’s race, identity, and sense of who they are, are repeatedly questioned and used against them, their mental health is affected. When those kinds of questions and attacks happen within the workplace, the individual and the company suffer.”

Foster DEI to Support Mental Well-Being

Let this remind us that the conversation isn’t simply about COVID-related mental health, although that’s the world we live in at this minute. DEI leaders need to ensure that the workplace always fosters inclusivity to support mental well-being proactively.

Other problems that can impact mental health and a feeling of safety at work for marginalized populations include lack of representation/misrepresentation, microaggressions, unconscious bias, and other stressors that can be hard to see. A solid DEI approach ensures that (1) leaders are trained to watch for these issues and (2) employees have access to resources to manage or mitigate these concerns.

According to Forbes, “Managers can be the ‘first responders to address mental health in a crisis. Training, educating, and empowering managers to lead on both mental health and inclusion – and how the two intersect – can speed up needed support to employees from diverse backgrounds. Managers may be in the best position to handle these sensitive issues with individual employees, helping to answer questions, address concerns, and direct people to the best available resources.”

First, Find Your People

The CDC published data about racial inequities that continue to plague our health care system. “The COVID-19 pandemic has brought social and racial injustice and inequity to the forefront of public health. It has highlighted that health equity is still not a reality as COVID-19 has unequally affected many racial and ethnic minority groups, putting them more at risk of getting sick and dying from COVID-19.”

That information doesn’t require much of a leap to the gap between underrepresented populations and mental health resources. The right DEI strategy should incorporate holistic, proactive approaches to address mental health needs, especially for groups that have never received or considered support.

The Connection Between Mental Health and DEI

So how do we draw this line between mental health and DEI? What’s interesting is that it’s truly about perspective. Reaching rural, LGBTQ, ethnic, religious minorities, youth, and other groups can be challenging. But it can also be extremely fulfilling, allowing a culture of inclusion and a celebration of differences to shape an organization.

You would be well-served to take an audit of your DEI strategy. Where does it address mental health? Is it proactive? Is it realistic? Are there proper communications plans to inform employees about resources?

These questions may reveal what’s next – and I beg you to take more than a quick look. See what’s working and what’s not to take a macro and micro look at how to improve. HOW are WE making mental health a priority for ALL of our people? How can we start at the top and make it actionable throughout the organization?

Tech Innovation Can Help Close the Gap

During the last few years, one noteworthy stride has been an increased capacity by the medical community to interact with patients online. Zoom therapy wasn’t much of a “thing” a few years ago. But improved technologies and a growing savviness for online medical appointments can drastically improve our reach into underserved populations.

A fascinating interview in Forbes addresses the ripe market for a tech disruption in mental health. This points to a promising future for organizations invested in closing the gap between mental health and all kinds of populations. The article covers the importance of how connecting underserved people with the technology they need to stay up-to-date is essential.

Some interesting tech innovations in this area include, “explicit measurement-based care efforts integrated within virtual behavioral health solutions, expansion into other modalities of care such as coaching, and continued consolidation in the space.”

“Additionally, many vendors are expanding their treatment modalities from just teletherapy with a mental health professional to things like virtual coaching. Finally, tons of funding is going into condition-specific startups, including those focused on substance use care, autism, etc.”

Opportunity is Knocking

This topic offers hope. There is a real struggle right now as the fog of uncertainty has not lifted, and mental health aftereffects reverberate like aftershocks. It’s discouraging to know there are underserved populations and people who suffer from depression, anxiety, and other mental health struggles. It’s not an easy task to look at the gaps in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools. But we can make positive changes here. Armed with the correct information and a willingness to ask hard questions, organizations can use DEI initiatives to make actual societal change.

Hiring Bias

Hiring Bias – Create a Fairer Hiring Process

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Bias can be a powerful factor in the recruitment process. In 2019, researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley, began secretly auditing some of the top companies for implicit bias in the hiring processes. Their results showed a significant bias against resumes that included candidate names likely to be associated with Black applicants. In other words, even at top-tier employers, bias appeared to be repeatedly popping up in the hiring process.

This may surprise some people who believe that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Act wiped out bias in hiring. After all, it’s illegal for employers to discriminate against potential employees based on gender, race, religion, age, national origin, or disability. Nevertheless, bias in hiring is still an issue.

The Root of Bias in Hiring and Recruitment

When it comes to recruiting, bias is the brain’s subconscious way of labeling a candidate as a “yes,” “no,” or “maybe” according to the recruiter’s subjective feelings about a candidate’s observable characteristics. This means that the recruiter can be biased toward or against a candidate (for example, a male recruiter preferring a male candidate), which can lead to unfair assessments. Given this understanding, it’s clear that bias can show up in almost every step of the hiring process.

Consider a recruiter reviewing dozens of applications for a job opening. The recruiter can show bias when judging candidates. Anything from gender and personal pronouns to alma maters and home addresses can spark common hiring biases. Many recruiters aren’t even aware they’re being biased because many of these judgments happen subconsciously.

Even after the resume review stage, hiring teams can again display bias during interviews. A number of studies over the years, including some from Princeton and New York University, have concluded that it takes less than a minute to form a first impression of someone. That first impression could be based on an unfair preconceived notion — related to anything from previous personal experience to common stereotypes.

For instance, a recruiter may expect candidates to be energetic and cheerful during the initial screening. Under those circumstances, a more thoughtful, serious, or reserved applicant could be removed from consideration before getting a chance to warm up to the discussion. While this immediate impression may have some truth to it, the candidate may need time to truly show what they have to offer, which may be far more beneficial to the organization in the long run.

The good news is that it’s possible to mitigate the effects bias can have on the hiring process. And it all starts with having conversations to acknowledge, understand, and address this issue.

Common Types of Hiring Bias

According to ThriveMap

  1. Affinity bias
  2. Confirmation bias
  3. Halo effect
  4. Horn effect
  5. Illusory correlation
  6. Beauty bias
  7. Conformity bias
  8. Contrast bias
  9. Non-verbal
  10. First impression

Reducing Implicit Bias in the Hiring Process

In my years in the recruitment industry, I’ve encountered some excellent, reliable ways to temper bias. Below are a few recommendations.

1. Implement an applicant tracking system.

An applicant tracking system, or ATS, is a centralized platform used to streamline recruitment and consolidate candidates. A robust ATS can collect, analyze, and review hiring and recruitment data objectively, and can provide an overview of all touchpoints and data collected along the candidate’s journey. At any time, a recruiter can retrieve key information about an applicant from the system.

Not surprisingly, one of the biggest benefits of an applicant tracking system is the ability to reduce bias. Certainly, recruiters can tailor candidate searches by inputting keywords such as “developer” or “Harvard.” Nevertheless, an ATS has the potential to be more impartial than most humans.

Another advantage of an automated applicant tracking system is time savings. An ATS can match up candidates with remarkable speed. At the same time, most applicant tracking systems are customizable and can integrate with other platforms such as marketing tools.

2. Remove identifiers.

Applicant tracking systems remove a lot of unconscious bias from recruiting. But, they can’t conduct interviews for you. Instead, get creative in implementing different methods to decrease the chance of discrimination before and during interviews.

One method I learned that proved successful was to scrub identifiers (such as applicant name, education, address, gender, and related fields) from every resume. As a result, your hiring committee can compare candidates on the basis of their experience — nothing else.

For example, in a previous role, I was tasked with building out the DevOps team. I presented candidates of diverse ethnicities and genders, but the hiring manager kept rejecting them no matter how technically adept they were. When I brought up the high rate of rejection, the hiring manager explained that they were only interested in bringing on male applicants of a certain ethnicity.

Though that explanation was genuinely upsetting, I suggested the method of removing identifiers from applications, and we agreed to try it. From that point forward, I presented only candidates’ qualifications, and the acceptance rate went from near zero to over 95%.

3. Involve a hiring panel.

It’s common in recruiting to conduct a final panel-style interview. This is the opportunity for the candidate to meet their potential teammates and vice versa. Someone on the call may have reservations or be impressed just based on their initial perception of the candidate. Rather than letting this bias influence the interview, let the candidate’s qualifications and cultural fit come into play.

One way to mitigate bias with panel members is to ask them to listen in on calls with candidates rather than join by video. Just listening helps panelists focus on the substance of candidates’ answers rather than their appearance.

Final Thoughts

Everyone has biases, whether they realize it or not. Rather than allowing those biases to unfairly affect the hiring process, set up guardrails to guide the process toward more equitable outcomes. You’ll end up making more appropriate hiring decisions and, ideally, improving the candidate and employee experience.

Ways to Help Veteran Employees Thrive

Ways to Help Veteran Employees Thrive

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Sponsored: Orion Talent

I am a staunch advocate of veteran hiring. It is a smart business decision with a positive impact on everything from profitability to innovation to competitiveness. Not only are you hiring men and women with state-of-the-art technical skills and proven leadership skills far beyond that of their civilian peers, but you are also accessing resilient soft skills. Combined, these skills will help shape the future of your company.

While many of you are already on board with hiring veterans, I know retaining veterans is an entirely different animal. In a recent conversation with Meghan Biro, we talked about how many companies don’t transition service members to civilian roles very well. According to SHRM, the average annual employee turnover rate is around 19% making it a formidable hurdle for talent acquisition leaders. When we consider veteran employees, the percentage jumps to nearly 50% leaving their first post-military position within a year.

Much of this turnover can be attributed to a lack of support. Or, an undefined career path, feeling uninspired, or skills misalignment. But this doesn’t have to be the case. Luckily, these issues can all be addressed through a well-planned veteran onboarding and retention plan.

Help Military Veterans Thrive with These Five Strategies

1. Mentorships 

Mentorship is an excellent way to provide your new veteran employees with a connection to another veteran. They can serve as a resource, guide, and advocate in their new role. The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs offers a wealth of information on retaining veterans, including information on setting up a successful mentorship program. 

Listed among the benefits of veteran mentoring are an increase in morale, and productivity. In addition, retention, better adaptation to workplace culture, better career development, and promotion of diversity. These voluntary relationships are also a great way to transfer institutional and cultural knowledge.

Technology powerhouse Siemens has been successfully executing its veteran mentorship program for years. Orion Talent has worked with Siemens to hire nearly 2,500 veterans since 2010, and among their veteran retention best practices is a military peer mentorship program. Mike Brown, Global Head of Talent Acquisition of Siemens, explained their program.  “When other military come in now, they get paired up. And I think that really helps with their transition.” 

2. Employee Resource Groups

Similar to the retention benefits of mentoring veterans, creating Employee Resource Groups or Veteran Affinity Groups also offers increased employee engagement and job satisfaction. The VA calls these voluntary groups a “critical element to retention advocated by study respondents”  in their Veterans Employment Toolkit. ERG programs can also include career development, advocacy, community service, and social activities. Make sure to give your veteran employees the time and space to participate in these groups, especially as they onboard.

An additional benefit of veteran ERGs is that they help build your company’s reputation in a job market where candidates, veteran or civilian, are seeking purpose-driven work. They also increase workplace agility as your org chart is flattened in an ERG. Collaboration and innovation often follow!

3. Career Pathing

When I speak with men and women transitioning into the civilian world, their desire for a clear career path stands out. Their military career progression was clearly laid out, with defined goals and requirements. In civilian terms, you can think of this as career pathing. When you hire a veteran for a Junior Electrical Engineer position, you could lay out a plan with steps and milestones to reach Senior Electrical Engineer and then Project Manager, for example. 

Laying out these career paths pays dividends in terms of engagement and retention. Employers also experience higher performance and productivity rates. This Mercer study shows that 78% of employees would stay with their current employer if they were given a clear career path. 

4. Upskilling

Offering continuous development and ongoing education to your veteran employees is a powerful retention tool.  

Not only are you illustrating your investment in their success by providing these programs but you are reaping the rewards. Aside from increased retention, benefits of upskilling include increased employee satisfaction, less need to hire train new employees, and becoming more competitive in your industry.

“Our experience shows that when veterans receive tailored preparation for future roles, it leads to a better fit, a better transition, and ultimately better retention,” explains Laura Schmiegel, SVP, Strategic Partnerships at Orion Talent. “This helps companies save time and money in employee turnover, and it means they get to keep some of their best talent.”

As Meghan discussed in her recent article on veteran hiring, workforce partnerships can play an important part in upskilling. Strategic workforce partnerships like the Department of Defense Skillbridge program allow you to recruit veterans and gain access to their existing expertise while upskilling and reskilling them at the same time. 

5. DEI Initiatives

The veteran population represents a 43% diverse workforce and should be an integral part of a company’s DEI initiative. As with any other group in your initiative, you will want to consider how to prevent bias towards your veteran employees. Unfortunately, some old biases may linger, and your DEI strategy is the place to nip that in the bud. 

This HR Exchange article by LaKisha Brooks explains, “These judgments are often harmful to diversity initiatives because they limit our ability to see people as individuals with unique talents to contribute. For example, bias against veterans includes assuming they have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Bias can also include mental health problems just because of their military background, assuming they have a particular personality type, such as being rigid or stern…It’s essential to put assumptions aside and ask meaningful questions to learn the truth instead.”

These five veteran retention strategies will help highlight to the veterans at your company that yours is a workplace that sees them for the unique individuals they are with valuable skills worthy of investment. But, you don’t have to take on all five at once. Choose one, and make it amazing! Then move on to the next retention strategy. Your veteran employees will be proud to call your company home.