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#TChat Preview: Why Compliance Is A Complex HR Necessity

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The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, September 9, 2015, from 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT).

Last week we talked about the upcoming HR Technology Conference and Exposition, and this week we’re going to talk about why compliance is a complex HR necessity.

Most companies want and need to scale over time to be successful. They need to sustain that growth and they’ll need the right talent to do it.

That means the ideal goal for HR in any organization is building the best performing teams and finding the greatest talent. But that doesn’t come easy – HR can’t focus on talent acquisition and management unless compliance is addressed.

Compliance is a necessity that HR cannot ignore, but it’s increasingly complex, both in our own country and even more so as you enter the global market and have to deal with regulations from other parts of the world.

HR technology providers need to be partners in compliance for HR because it can help reduce risk and give them more time to focus on what matters most in their organization.

Sneak Peek:

#TChat Events: Why Compliance Is A Complex HR Necessity

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, Sept 9 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT

Join TalentCulture #TChat Show co-founders and co-hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as they talk about why compliance is a complex HR necessity with this week’s guest: Todd Owens, CEO of TalentWise, a technology company that has completely transformed one of the most critical tasks that every company depends upon for success – hiring new employees.

 

 

Tune in LIVE online Wednesday, Sept 9

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, September 9 — 1:30 pm ET /10:30 am PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin, and Steve will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: Why has compliance become such a complex task for HR to manage? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: What are examples of new hire compliance complexities? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: How can HR technology providers be better compliance partners? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Until then, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, our TalentCulture World of Work Community LinkedIn group, and in our TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!!

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#TChat Preview: The Hot HR Technology Trends of 2015

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The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, September 2, 2015, from 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT).

Last week we talked about the how to recognize and stop workplace bullying and harassment, and this week we’re going to talk about the hot HR technology trends of 2015 and the upcoming HR Technology Conference and Exposition.

It’s that time again to cover the trends and current innovation in HR Technology, why they’re important, how HR and technology intersect inside modern organizations today and tomorrow.

Cloud computing, HR data management, talent analytics and best of breed and integrated HR and talent acquisition and management systems continue to be hot trends in the HR tech space.

How they can be leveraged in organizations regardless of size and strategies to make the best choices and investments in HR Tech are at the top of mind for inquiring companies.

Sneak Peek:

#TChat Events: How to Recognize and Stop Workplace Bullying and Harassment

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, Sept 2 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT

Join TalentCulture #TChat Show co-founders and co-hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as they talk about the hot HR technology trends of 2015 with this week’s guest: Steve Boese, co-chair of Human Resource Executive’s HR Technology® Conference and a technology editor for LRP Publications.

 

 

Tune in LIVE online Wednesday, Sept 2

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, Aug 26 — 1:30 pm ET /10:30 am PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin, and Steve will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What’s new and interesting in HR technology this year? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: What should be key buyer considerations about HR tech and implementation? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: How can HR and tech providers work collaboratively to reach a successful end result? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Until then, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, our TalentCulture World of Work Community LinkedIn group, and in our TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!!

Subscribe to our podcast on BlogTalkRadio, Stitcher or iTunes:

BTR stitcher_logoItunes_podcast_icon

 

 

Join Our Social Community & Stay Up-to-Date!

Passive-Recruiting

Image Credit: Big Stock Images

#TChat Preview: How to Recognize and Stop Workplace Bullying and Harassment

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The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, August 26, 2015, from 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT).

Last week we talked about why multi-generational leadership activism is in, and this week we’re going to talk about how to recognize and stop workplace bullying and harassment.

You may have read the Amazon news recently about their toxic workplace culture. While not new news, the unfortunate fact is there are too many other “bullying” and undermining cultures in business today.

Like pollution, workplace bullying and harassment does not usually kill you right away, but an enormous amount of misery is caused — and time wasted — because of unkind words and behavior that cause hurt feelings that take a toll on workplace productivity and relative happiness.

All of us can take leadership roles in helping prevent and stop harmful behavior by example, create clear boundaries about what is and is not acceptable, and a plan for upholding these boundaries

Sneak Peek:

#TChat Events: How to Recognize and Stop Workplace Bullying and Harassment

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, Aug 26 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT

Join TalentCulture #TChat Show co-founders and co-hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as they talk about how to recognize and stop workplace bullying and harassment with this week’s guest: Irene van der Zande, Executive Director and Founder of Kidpower Teenpower Fullpower International, a global nonprofit leader dedicated to teaching emotional and physical safety skills for people of all ages and abilities.

 

 

Tune in LIVE online Wednesday, Aug 26

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, Aug 26 — 1:30 pm ET /10:30 am PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin, and Irene will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What kinds of behavior are considered workplace bullying and harassment? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: What is the impact of workplace bullying and harassment on productivity, morale, and turnover? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: How can leadership create a culture of respect and safety for everyone? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Until then, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, our TalentCulture World of Work Community LinkedIn group, and in our TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!!

Subscribe to our podcast on BlogTalkRadio, Stitcher or iTunes:

BTR stitcher_logoItunes_podcast_icon

 

 

Join Our Social Community & Stay Up-to-Date!

Passive-Recruiting

Image Credit: Big Stock Images

Bullying In The Workplace – Facing Big Bad Bosses

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The amount of information you can find on bully boss behavior is staggering. There are thousands of internet links on the subject, not to mention books, support groups, organizations, and legal funds dedicated to this specific form of bad boss behavior.

Bullying in the workplace is such a common problem that according to a 2007 Zogby poll published by the Workplace Bullying Institute, 37% of U.S. workers have been bullied on the job. Unsurprisingly, bosses represent a staggering 72% of the offenders. What’s worse – women are more likely to be targets than men, but anyone in a subordinate position is at risk.

Coaching others through the experience of bully boss behavior is never easy. Human Resources departments, legally, have to follow certain rules of engagement whenever someone is accused of misconduct regardless of the form the harassment takes. This lack of an outlet, coupled with fear of job loss, keep many stories under wraps. After all, it takes a lot of courage to come forward and admit your boss is acting in a threatening manner.

Isn’t This Illegal?

Only 1 in 5 instances of workplace bullying actually rise to the level of illegal discrimination or harassment. Even in those cases where employment laws are broken, workers rarely complain and virtually never sue. Workplace bullying laws have seen success in some countries, but in the U.S. adoption is limited.  And is this really the answer? How do you regulate the parameters that define bullying behavior? It’s a bit more elusive than sexual harassment and cannot be defined by the same straightforward criteria. Whereas a sexual advance can be clear, no two people may agree on what constitutes bully behavior, or at least what the pattern looks like. For one person a boss can be considered demanding, and for another, the boss is a bully.

The bottom line is that employees have to develop a plan around how to address their work environment. They have to decide what outcomes they want and devise a strategy to get there. Withdrawing or doing nothing only perpetuates the problems so action is essential.

What can you do (in the moment) when dealing with a big bad boss?

Be prepared to vary these tactics depending on the situation you’re in. Workplace relationships are like any other – there’s a level of trial and error until you find a process that works. People often get so wound up in the emotional aspects of what’s not working, how it isn’t fair, etc that the victim mentality sets in, and you give all of your personal power away to your boss.

Focus On The Conversation At Hand

Don’t cower when you bully boss comes knocking. Don’t be intimidated by the demanding behavior or tone, just cut to the chase. What does he or she need, and ask questions related to that. It doesn’t matter how your boss is acting, its what is needed to get the job done that counts. You want to train yourself to toss aside the verbal in-your-face posturing and get to the matter at hand. It keeps you focused, and without a victim reaction, your boss will be more defused and switch behavioral gears.

Take Notes

In the moment, it will look like your taking notes on a work task anyway. You may or may not necessarily use your notes with HR, but having your own document trail that includes date, time, and summary of the incident. Look for patterns – is your boss more of bully around certain time periods, people, or events. Think of it like an experiment. You’re studying the behavior in order to finds ways to counteract it. It will make you more astute and focus on moving forward.

Have The Last Word

After your boss is done talking, clarify what you are going to do. Provide a quick summary of actions and emphasize when you’ll deliver. Establishing equal footing with a bully boss requires confidence in your contribution to the business needs not your boss’s needs. Showing that you are ready and capable to deliver what’s expected regardless of your boss’s behavior or demands is critical to developing a long term solution that can transform the relationship.

These tactics represent a small piece of an overall strategic plan. The severity of the bullying varies and only you can determine how much you can take. You may not get as far as suggesting a policy banning bullying in your workplace, but taking control of the communication with your bullying boss is is the first step in establishing better communication.

Image Credit: pixabay.com

When the Boss Touches Our Hearts and Not Our Butts

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“You know, your butt looks so bad in the outfit you’re wearing, that I was surprised when I touched it, it felt good.”

Imagine hearing that on a date, or in the office, or on a date at your office party, or even your boss hitting on you at the office or at a party. Pretty horrible don’t you think, especially if you were the one experiencing it. This was actually a real dating story referenced in one of my favorite podcasts called StartUp from Gimlet Media. It’s actually from their season two opener about a new dating/matchmaking startup called Dating Ring.

Unfortunately there are too many horrible true stories about how crappy we actually treat each other on the job, especially when we’re the boss. This is the stuff employees never forget. We talked about this at length on the TalentCulture #TChat Show with Tony Deblauwe, Founder of consulting firm HR4Change.

It doesn’t help that we’re still faced with a difficult and complex economic landscape, one we’ve never before seen in the modern world. Regardless of the job growth of late and unemployment plummeting, wages are still pretty flat and employers and workers are under a great deal of strain to produce. That combined with those who have limited to no impulse control, and those with no boundary-setting skills, and you’ve got thousands of annual EEOC sexual harassment complaints and more.

But according to Gallup employee engagement inched up a bit over the past three years. However, 7 out of 10 employees are still unhappy overall. Managers, executives and officers faired a little better, but there’s still 6 out of 10 unhappy bosses out there.

So much for empowering the workplace.

But if you flip the numbers and think about, we can and do empower, and there are happier and engaged employees and business leaders out there. I work with them; I am them. Maybe you are, too. Sure we make stupid mistakes and maybe do the occasional inappropriate thing (but not the egregious ones). No one is perfect.

Sometimes what simply makes a good boss great is the consistent ability to listen and provide appropriate responses for even the most seemingly benign of comments. To sharing insight with his or her team, department and company that is heartfelt and true and yet not divergent from growing a successful business.

Since I work remotely, I only get to see the PeopleFluent marketing team one every month or two. Recently we had an offsite to brainstorm and team build and strategize and all the things you do when you have an offsite. Invaluable bonding and planning time as always, our boss said something to us all that really resonated, something I’ve said in similar ways to teams of my own.

She told us that while the big “L” leadership (executive management) is important to business success, the little “l” leadership is what’s critical – for each of us to strive to be leaders of self and leaders among peers, to be the truest empowerment of the workplace, one where we all can reap both the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.

This is also the stuff we never forget and the part we wish the other 60 percent of disengaged managers aspired to, the part when the boss touches our hearts and not our butts.

Workplace Bullying: Bully Be Not Proud

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As we all know, Congress is dysfunctional.  But legislative activity at the state and local level is hot, particularly in the employment arena.

State and local governments across the U.S. have passed a spate of recent bills on myriad issues ranging from protecting the right of employees to carry a concealed weapon in their vehicle to limiting when employers can do criminal background checks to prohibiting employers from asking applicants or employees for their social media password.

Yet, there are no laws in the U.S. prohibiting bullying in the workplace.  Since 2003, anti-bullying bills have been introduced in 25 states. Everyone has failed.

Puerto Rico almost became the first jurisdiction to pass legislation in this area. But the Governor vetoed the legislation just last month.

But the absence of legislation specific to bullying does not mean that it is lawful.  If someone is bullied because of his or her membership in a protected group, such as gender, race or sexual orientation, then the bullying may be unlawful harassment (depending on, among other factors, severity).  But bullying unrelated to a protected group status generally is lawful.

For example, equal opportunity bullying is not unlawful.  Nor is bullying based on personal animus so long as the animus is not related to a protected group.

The problem is huge. A study published by Career Builder published 2012 indicates that 35% of employees feel they have been bullied at work.  Other studies show similar statistics.

The cost of bullying – both emotional and physical – on its victims can be substantial.  It can affect witnesses too, who may fear that they may be next and quite often leave.  Simply put, bullying is bad business.  Engagement cannot exist where bullies roam.

What are some of the steps leaders can take relative to their organizations?

1. Training

a. When training managers on harassment, include bullying, too. Tone at the top is particularly important when it comes to bullying.

b. Provide specific examples in training of what may be bullying; don’t rely on just the generic label.

c. Make clear that managers must do more than refrain from bullying; they must respond to bullying by subordinates. To ignore is to condone.

2. Evaluate

a. When we evaluate employees, particularly leaders, we should consider how they treat others.

b. Employees who engage in bullying or other disrespectful behavior should pay a price on their evaluation—and their compensation.

c. Indeed, sometimes bullying  should be cause for termination.

3. Complaint procedure

a. Employers may want to develop a procedure by which they can report what they perceive to be bullying behavior.

b. However, employers need to be careful not to include too specific a definition of bullying.  What is the difference between raising your voice and yelling? Sometimes, simply perspective.

c. Anti-bullying policies also may have quasi-contractual significance.  Don’t create expectations you cannot live up to.

d. An anti-bullying policy or procedure may collide with the NLRA as interpreted by the activist NLRB  so you may want legal advice to minimize (not eliminate) that risk.e. Make clear that bullying is what Company says it is.  By making clear that bullying is what the Company says it is, you reduce your risk of not adhering to your own policy.  You want to be progressive and protective but not a defendant for doing the right thing.

While bullies may appear strong, they are not.  They often need to make others feel bad about themselves to feel good about themselves.   We want to empower employees.  Sometimes that means un-empowering the bully.

(Author’s Note:  This Article should not be construed as legal advice or as pertaining to specific factual situations.)

(About the Author: Jonathan A. Segal is a partner at Duane Morris LLP in the Employment, Labor, Benefits and Immigration Practice Group. He is also the managing principal of the Duane Morris Institute. The Duane Morris Institute provides training for human resource professionals, in-house counsel, benefits administrators and managers at Duane Morris, at client sites and by way of webinar on myriad employment, labor, benefits and immigration matters.

Jonathan has published more than 150 articles on employment issues, and more than 50 blogs on leadership, legal and HR issues. A contributing editor to HR Magazine, he has published more than 100 articles for the magazine. Jonathan also is a frequent contributor to Fortune/CNN and BusinessWeek.)

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