Posts

HR and the Legal Ramifications of a Mobile Workforce

/ /by

The world is on the move. And, working from multiple locations. Today’s mobile workforce answers emails during dinner, writes reports on airplanes, and participates in conference calls in cars. A growing number of workers prefer flexible hours over the 9-to-5 grind. In fact, a recent study inside a Fortune 500 company found that employees offered flextime were happier at work and less prone to psychological stress than their colleagues working a more traditional schedule. However, here’s a concern: Flextime policies can create legal challenges for HR pros. This is why smart HR departments are developing intelligent policies and combining those with technology, paving the way toward more mobile, more productive, and increasingly secure organizations.

Employees Working in Vehicles Could Pose Legal Risks

Most of us already check work email, and answer business-related texts. Many employees also join conference calls from their cars. Ideally, workers use hands-free calling and refrain from texting while driving. But even hands-free devices can cause cognitive distraction, a lack of mental focus. And if one of your employees gets into an accident while focused on work—even using hands-free technology—your business could be held liable. This form of distracted driving will probably become even more prevalent as auto manufacturers begin equipping vehicle infotainment systems with the Microsoft Office 365 suite, which automatically enables voice-activated email and other functions. To be proactive, your HR department should write and enforce strict policies that prohibit employees from using smartphones and mobile assistants for anything other than navigation while driving.

Mobile Networks Create Potential Security Threats

A growing number of organizations, especially those subject to federal regulations like HIPAA or PCI DSS prohibit their employees from using public networks to access protected information. But people forget. They can get lazy. And, then there are the non-digital security issues. When anyone works in public—away from the office—security threats are everywhere, not only in the digital environment. A stranger could view confidential information by looking over an employee’s shoulder on a crowded flight. Or, a competitor could eavesdrop on a conference call in a hotel lobby.

Workers who travel, or work outside the office, should be mandated to use password-protected internet access, and tools like privacy filters which prevent others from viewing their laptop, tablet or smartphone screen. Additionally, enforcing strong policies, and educating your employees about their roles in maintaining security can help protect against these threats.

BYOD Policies Could Cause Compliance Issues

The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement is growing in popularity and acceptance. BYOD can save companies money and offer convenience to employees. But it’s really important that your HR and IT departments work together to develop BYOD policies and procedures, that track software and devices in use and mandate anti-virus and security software on BYOD devices and establish guidelines for network use and access to sensitive data. Also, you need to make sure all devices used for work are equipped with locking technology (via a password, pin code, or thumbprint) and the ability to remotely track, disable, and wipe a lost or stolen device, especially if your business is responsible for maintaining HIPAA or PCI DSS compliance.

Flextime Makes It Harder to Track Employee Hours, Including Overtime

With access to documents via the cloud and to work email via smartphone, today’s employees have many opportunities to attend to work matters after hours. This “always-on” mentality may increase productivity, but guess who’s responsible for tracking that time? You’re right. HR Departments.

Salaried employees making less than $47,476 per year must be paid overtime for working more than 40 hours per week. So, if you don’t want to pay overtime for remote work that takes place after hours, you need to set clear policies. Your HR team may need to encourage managers not to send emails after hours because employees may feel compelled to reply. If such after-hours work is a must, your HR team should deploy time-tracking apps (and make sure to include salaried employees, too). Be proactive. Get started today. By working with your IT and legal departments, you can ensure your organization is in compliance with privacy regulations as well as payroll and legal issues introduced by an increasingly mobile workforce. Is your HR team ready?

A version of this was first posted on Huffingtonpost.com

The Complicated Nuance Of Workplace Bullying

/1 Comment/ /by

I just didn’t want to go anymore. She made it nearly unbearable.

It didn’t start off that way, though. When we first started working together as colleagues in the same department, our relationship was amicable and tolerant. We because fast friends and got to know each other very well, including our spouses, lives and everything in between.

The first time it happened, it made me flinch inside a little, but not enough to rethink our relationship. The tenth time it happened, I felt sick every time we ran into each other in the office.

She became obsessed with my life and me. Not in a sexual way, although there might’ve been some covert element at play there. What started off as warm, daily banter each day at work because an incessant review and critique of everything I did – my job, my staff, my wife, and my life – in front of anyone who was in the office at the time.

When I finally called her out on it one day, she said she just cared about what happened to me and wanted me to succeed and be happy. I told her what she said made me feel very uncomfortable. She seemed mortified, but the very next day the behavior continued. Non-stop. For months.

Our offices were only separated by one wall and one door, so there was really nowhere for me to go. Finally I discussed it with our mutual manager, who in turn had a sit-down with both of us. For one week I received a reprieve.

But it still didn’t stop. Then I convinced our manager to get human resources involved. There were more meetings and an actual agreement drafted for her stating when to engage with me about work and when to leave me alone.

But it still didn’t stop. Not until I finally quit. I had told her more than once, in person and in writing, of how uncomfortable she constantly made me feel. She always said she was sorry and willing to change her behavior, but it never happened.

But was it workplace bullying? Harassment? HR called it harassment. Either way it was painful, the complicated nuance of her constant invasive behavior. If what she did and said to me repeatedly over time affected my ability to be productive and engaged in my job, and it was personally debilitating, meaning I took it home and struggled with it, then it’s truly unacceptable.

But was she a bully and she should have been labeled as such? She claimed to only care about my well being, to being supportive of me, not critical and demeaning.

Nearly 20 years later, we’ve reconnected online. It’s water under the bridge, shall we say. She told me how she worked really hard to change her behavior, which she actually did after some serious life changes, and was very apologetic about the past.

I know how she feels; I’ve been on both sides of the complicated nuance.

Now we want to get tougher on bullying. According to the Healthy Workplace Bill, a law that has been introduced to over 28 legislatures (26 U.S. states and 2 territories) that would affect the practices of state and local government agencies, not private employers, “harassment, intimidation or bullying” is any act that “substantially interferes with a person’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.”

However, it’s not a law anywhere in the states at this point. And most organizations would argue that they already have company policies in place that prohibit bullying and harassment and deal with them accordingly.

And even though the employment world is already heavily regulated, one major gap remains: workplace bullying. No state prohibits bullying as noted above, unless it relates to a protected group (such as race, sex or disability).

But no one can agree on what constitutes bullying either. Our recent guest on the TalentCulture #TChat Show, Jonathan Segal, an employment lawyer and partner with the international law firm Duane Morris LLP, made it clear that:

“If we make everything bullying, then nothing is.”

Having children, I realize and have already seen how teasing is a gateway drug to bullying and beyond. Many people say they experience some form of it, though. According to one recent study, 96% of American employees experience bullying in the workplace, and the nature of that bullying is changing thanks to social media and online interactions (think cyberbullying and the dissed-engaged).

Most of us agree that workplace bullying has harmful, reverberating effects, not only on the victims, but also on the witnesses. The good news is that we don’t need to wait for a law to be enacted to prevent and respond to bullying. Progressive employers who want to successfully ensure their cultures are bully-free should:

  • Beware of labels. Dr. Susan Swearer is Professor of School Psychology at University of Nebraska and Co-Director of the Bullying Research Network agrees that labeling and change (or lack thereof) are closely linked with children. She thinks that “it’s really important to think of bullying as a verb and not a noun, so bullying is a behavior that can be changed, not a character trait within a particular child. When we treat them as ‘a bully,’ then we send the message to that child that ‘You can’t change’ or ‘I don’t think you can change.’ And so we really want to communicate to these kids, ‘You know you can change and I can believe that you can change.’” Unfortunately we can carry those labels around like scarlet letters throughout adulthood.
  • Change the behavior. Yes, we know we can change, at least most of us, and so we should believe that mantra if we really want a positive, team-building, engaging, business-outcome behavior. Like Mark Fernandes told us recently, Chief Leadership Officer Chief Leadership Officer of Luck Companies, culture is the shadow of leadership, so positive values should be established by leadership and emphatically in place and embraced by the organization in order to reduce the frequency of bullying and harassment. Toxic environments breed nothing but more toxicity, and that’s allowed to permeate from the top down. So only the top down can make and drive change, igniting a bully-free culture from the inside out.

It’s time for us to unravel the bullying nuance and make it uncomplicated altogether.

Compliance: Why It's The Only Fix For Candidate Experience

/ /by

Candidate experience is one of those terms recruiters just can’t seem to shut up about. But unlike the blizzard of buzzwords mostly designed to sell consulting services and content marketing, it’s one that we should be discussing more. The reason is (unlike, say, employer branding), candidate experience actually is a concept that has real impact on real people and real recruiters every day.

Forget, for a second, the normal argument about business value and brand equity that seems inexorably intertwined with the candidate experience conversation. It’s actually kind of sad that we need to frame basic courtesy as a business case. Forget, also, the fact that many of the issues around candidate experience stem from bad technology and process, not necessarily bad recruiters.

Recruiting’s Problem Child

Candidate experience is perhaps the only issue every recruiter seems to agree on, with minimal dissent. We bicker all day about minutiae like in-house vs. third party, or when’s the best time of the day to send a job-related tweet — but no one disagrees with the fundamental facts that candidate experience counts, and that what we’re doing to fix it isn’t working.

The data generated by initiatives like the Candidate Experience Awards and products like Mystery Applicant provide valuable benchmarks. However, meaningful metrics and actionable insights simply reinforce a hypothesis upon which everyone already agrees, but treats with apathy more often than action.

Candidate Experience Petition Change.org US Dept of Labor

See the Candidate Experience petition at Change.org

Who Can Fix Candidate Experience?

It’s time to reframe the candidate experience discussion. We need to move from identifying the problem (we know it exists) and pinpointing its causes (the “why” is really irrelevant), to what companies actually can do about it. But that seems unlikely, because this issue is so big, and employers have been getting it so wrong for so long. What’s more, the HR industry seems more concerned with candidate experience as a commodity instead of an issue that demands conscious, meaningful change from the inside out. Instead, an improved candidate experience must start with the candidates themselves – and we’re all candidates, eventually.

Recently, I surveyed various professional networks and career-focused social media groups about this topic. Although the methodology was informal and unscientific, the results are noteworthy. For example, 80% of candidates (and about 50% of career services professionals and coaches) have never even heard of the term “candidate experience.” That low Q score likely skews high, considering the source – primarily active candidates who also engage about their searches on social media. Interestingly, this same group of non-mystery applicants also seems convinced that searching for jobs is a pain in the ass, applying online takes too much time, and they’ll likely never hear back from employers or recruiters who receive their application.

We’re not going to solve this issue overnight. But the first step (one that too often seems overlooked) is simple. Candidates need to recognize that it doesn’t have to be this way, and make their voices heard. We’ve done a good job of “managing” — and diminishing — candidate expectations to the point where they’re essentially minimal. But if job seekers demand better — if candidates say that this isn’t the way hiring should be — then employers will eventually listen. But how can we be sure they’ll actually do something to improve the status quo?

How You Can Help, Starting Now

Compliance is a sure bet. That’s why I established a petition over at Change.org calling for the U.S. Department of Labor – the same feared entity which keeps so many HR generalists so busy – to create specific guidelines and specific penalties for candidate experience.

Because in HR, it’s hard to change a mindset. It’s far easier to change the law. So please sign the petition now and make your voice count. I welcome your revisions, suggestions and/or comments.

Image Credit: Change.org

Compliance: Why It’s The Only Fix For Candidate Experience

/3 Comments/ /by

Candidate experience is one of those terms recruiters just can’t seem to shut up about. But unlike the blizzard of buzzwords mostly designed to sell consulting services and content marketing, it’s one that we should be discussing more. The reason is (unlike, say, employer branding), candidate experience actually is a concept that has real impact on real people and real recruiters every day.

Forget, for a second, the normal argument about business value and brand equity that seems inexorably intertwined with the candidate experience conversation. It’s actually kind of sad that we need to frame basic courtesy as a business case. Forget, also, the fact that many of the issues around candidate experience stem from bad technology and process, not necessarily bad recruiters.

Recruiting’s Problem Child

Candidate experience is perhaps the only issue every recruiter seems to agree on, with minimal dissent. We bicker all day about minutiae like in-house vs. third party, or when’s the best time of the day to send a job-related tweet — but no one disagrees with the fundamental facts that candidate experience counts, and that what we’re doing to fix it isn’t working.

The data generated by initiatives like the Candidate Experience Awards and products like Mystery Applicant provide valuable benchmarks. However, meaningful metrics and actionable insights simply reinforce a hypothesis upon which everyone already agrees, but treats with apathy more often than action.

Candidate Experience Petition Change.org US Dept of Labor

See the Candidate Experience petition at Change.org

Who Can Fix Candidate Experience?

It’s time to reframe the candidate experience discussion. We need to move from identifying the problem (we know it exists) and pinpointing its causes (the “why” is really irrelevant), to what companies actually can do about it. But that seems unlikely, because this issue is so big, and employers have been getting it so wrong for so long. What’s more, the HR industry seems more concerned with candidate experience as a commodity instead of an issue that demands conscious, meaningful change from the inside out. Instead, an improved candidate experience must start with the candidates themselves – and we’re all candidates, eventually.

Recently, I surveyed various professional networks and career-focused social media groups about this topic. Although the methodology was informal and unscientific, the results are noteworthy. For example, 80% of candidates (and about 50% of career services professionals and coaches) have never even heard of the term “candidate experience.” That low Q score likely skews high, considering the source – primarily active candidates who also engage about their searches on social media. Interestingly, this same group of non-mystery applicants also seems convinced that searching for jobs is a pain in the ass, applying online takes too much time, and they’ll likely never hear back from employers or recruiters who receive their application.

We’re not going to solve this issue overnight. But the first step (one that too often seems overlooked) is simple. Candidates need to recognize that it doesn’t have to be this way, and make their voices heard. We’ve done a good job of “managing” — and diminishing — candidate expectations to the point where they’re essentially minimal. But if job seekers demand better — if candidates say that this isn’t the way hiring should be — then employers will eventually listen. But how can we be sure they’ll actually do something to improve the status quo?

How You Can Help, Starting Now

Compliance is a sure bet. That’s why I established a petition over at Change.org calling for the U.S. Department of Labor – the same feared entity which keeps so many HR generalists so busy – to create specific guidelines and specific penalties for candidate experience.

Because in HR, it’s hard to change a mindset. It’s far easier to change the law. So please sign the petition now and make your voice count. I welcome your revisions, suggestions and/or comments.

Image Credit: Change.org

HR Generalists: Tricks of the Trade #TChat Recap

/ /by

Recruiting and hiring.
Compensation and benefits.
Organizational design and development.
Compliance and employee relations.
Training and performance management.
Change management and internal communications.
The list goes on…

In today’s world of work, the areas of expertise that define HR are varied and complex. Yet, most companies are too small to employ a dedicated staff of specialists. It forces the question:

In an era of increasing specialization, how can one person successfully run an entire human resource department?

Of course, this isn’t just an academic exercise. For many HR professionals, nonstop multitasking now seems to be a way of life. Recent research by The Society For Human Resource Management suggests that there’s a widespread need to support small HR shops. According to SHRM, a majority of its 275,000 members represent HR departments of 1-5 people. They know what it means to juggle many demands on a daily basis. But how can they perform effectively?

That’s the issue our talent-minded community tackled this week at #TChat Events, where two  “in-the-trenches” HR veterans led the discussion:

• Dave Ryan, SPHR, Director of Human Resources at Mel-O-Cream Donuts, and
• Donna Rogers, SPHR, owner of Rogers HR Consulting, and management instructor at University of Illinois Springfield.

(Note: For details, see the highlights slideshow and resource links at the end of this post.)

Context: How Essential Is HR, Itself?

Recently, a debate has been brewing about the value of HR departments, overall. Bernard Marr questioned the need for an HR function, while Josh Bersin championed its role. Bersin emphasizes the fact that, despite a tremendous need to reskill and transform the HR function, human resources professionals help solve some of today’s most fundamental business problems. Top executives recognize the strategic role that talent plays in organizational success, and HR professionals are best equipped to define, shape and implement those strategies.

But how does that apply to solo HR managers, who may be living in a perpetually reactive zone? Ben Eubanks describes the best one-person HR departments as leaders with entrepreneurial traits:

• We don’t pick up the phone and call our corporate HR team. We ARE the corporate HR team.
• We are comfortable with research and making judgment calls.
• We constantly seek out opportunities for professional development — if you’re not growing you’re dying.

Comments From the TalentCulture Crowd

Because many #TChat-ters understand the challenges that multi-tasking HR generalists face each day, the vast majority of Twitter chat participants sang the praises of one-person shops. In addition, many offered thoughtful advice. For example:

As the #TChat discussion demonstrates, solo managers don’t need to wait for industry events to connect with smart advice. Social tools make it easy to create a network of virtual resources to assist when you need it. Do you have a question about an unfamiliar subject? Tweet it with a relevant hashtag. (Try #TChat!) Post it to a LinkedIn HR discussion group. I guarantee you’ll get responses, faster than you expect.

Social tools also are useful for communication within your organization. Intranets are a great way to enable collaboration and communication at a relatively low cost. Cloud-based tools are available for internal discussions, project management, and reporting. Hiring systems and performance management solutions also offer social integration without steep IT costs. The possibilities are limited only by the time and interest HR managers invest in professional networking and research.

Above All: Aim for Agility

It seems that, of all skills needed for one-person HR superheroes, the most important is agility. Put aside the notion that you can execute perfectly, across-the-board. Prioritize carefully. Then, with the time and budget available to you, apply tools and resources as efficiently as your able, while making it all seem effortless.

Scared? Don’t be. If you’re reading this, you know that a worldwide community of like-minded people is right here to support you. We’ve got your back!

#TChat Week-In-Review: HR Departments of One

Donna Rogers and Dave Ryan

Watch the hangouts in the #TChat Preview

SAT 11/30:

#TChat Preview: TalentCulture Community Manager, Tim McDonald, framed this week’s topic in a  post featuring #TChat hangout videos with guests Dave Ryan and Donna Rogers. Read: “HR: How to Succeed at Flying Solo.”

SUN 12/1:

Forbes.com Post: TalentCulture CEO, Meghan M. Biro looked at 7 ways leaders can foster a high-octane social workplace culture. Read: “Top 5 Reasons HR Is On The Move.”

MON 12/2:

Related Post: Guest Donna Rogers shared wisdom from her experiences. Read “Survival Tips for HR Departments of One.”

WED 12/4:

TChatRadio_logo_020813

Listen to the #TChat Radio recording

#TChat Radio: Our hosts, Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman spoke with guests Dave Ryan and Donna Rogers, about the challenges and rewards of operating as a one-person HR department. Listen to the radio recording now!

#TChat Twitter: Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin, Dave and Donna joined the TalentCulture community on the #TChat Twitter stream, as I moderated an open conversation that centered on 5 related questions. For highlights, see the Storify slideshow below:

#TChat Insights: HR Departments of One

[javascript src=”//storify.com/TalentCulture/the-hr-department-of-one.js?template=slideshow”]

Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

GRATITUDE: Thanks again to Dave Ryan and Donna Rogers for sharing your perspectives on HR management. We value your time and expertise!

NOTE TO BLOGGERS: Did this week’s events prompt you to write about how HR professionals can operate “lean”? We welcome your thoughts. Post a link on Twitter (include #TChat or @TalentCulture), or insert a comment below, and we’ll pass it along.

WHAT’S AHEAD: Next week, #TChat looks at the latest Candidate Experience trends and best practices with guest experts, Elaine Orler and Gerry Crispin! Look for more details this weekend.

Meanwhile, the World of Work conversation continues. So join us on the #TChat Twitter stream,  our LinkedIn discussion group. or elsewhere on social media. The lights are always on here at TalentCulture, and we look forward to hearing from you.

See you on the stream!

Image Credit: Stock.xchng