workplace Archives - TalentCulture

Posts

Workplace Safety Reporting – How to Streamline

April 12, 2022/Employee Safety, HR Strategy, OSHA, Workplace Safety /by Stacy Bliek

In pursuing health and success for a business, safety compliance is critical and we understand why. Monitoring injuries and potential hazards can help your workplace combat risks and costly fines. It can also make employees feel safer, but understanding where to begin isn’t always easy.

Maintaining workplace health and safety reporting is a practical challenge for HR teams already balancing a lot on their plates. Plus, fluidity and growth in the compliance industry over the past few years have added some complex obstacles.

Reporting requirements are likely to keep shifting. The more aware you are of changing regulations, the better prepared you will be to meet the uncertainty of maintaining health and safety in the workplace.

Meeting Regulations Around Employee Health and Safety

There are no two ways about it: Being compliant in the workplace is a must for companies that don’t want to welcome risk. For starters, companies that don’t adequately or accurately report workplace incidents could incur financial penalties from regulatory bodies or have legal action taken against them. What’s more, the public could form the opinion that your company doesn’t protect its most valued assets: employees.

Being prepared to confront the evolving nature of health and safety concerns can put you at ease when an unfortunate incident does occur. But how should you go about it practically? These three elements should be part of your action plan to maintain health and safety in the workplace:

1. Make record-keeping a habit.

Employee health and safety is something no company can afford not to prioritize. If a workplace incident or mishap occurs, you shouldn’t wait to report or record it.

Getting proactive about record-keeping will save you a lot of time and stress when reporting to the Occupational Safety and Health Association, or OSHA. Track recordable incidents throughout the year and always maintain an accurate count of all information required for the OSHA log. This information can include injury information (e.g., date, body part, location), restricted days, lost time, the annual average number of employees, and their total hours worked.

This data can be complicated and time-consuming to gather in one fell swoop, so establish a practice of thoroughly documenting every injury, incident, and safety audit as it occurs. Doing so will also put troves of insightful safety data in your hands. For example, suppose the numbers tell you that the most common injury in your organization is lower back pain. In that case, you could introduce preventive measures, such as mandatory lunchtime stretching periods or weight limits on packages. The more informed you stay on injury occurrences, the more proactive and supportive you can be about employee safety.

2. Work to reduce employee injuries.

The safest way to make OSHA reporting more efficient is to have fewer employee injuries. Easier said than done, sure, but if you and your team dedicate time to preventing injuries, you might be surprised at the difference.

Start by removing any unnecessary hazards from your workplace. Then, try scheduling regular check-ins with your employees and taking note of their safety concerns. These conversations can help you shine a spotlight on hazards you haven’t even considered.

That said, actively trying to avoid on-site injuries doesn’t guarantee they won’t happen. A business that works with any risk will have a run-in with OSHA at some point. If you’re unlucky enough to have to report a fatality, serious incident, or complaint against your business, OSHA will reach out to you for additional information.

When it does, you want to be ready to comply with the OSHA reporting requirements. Be prepared to present a record of all nonminor injuries, copies of the safety training provided to employees, and hazard assessments. These documentations also serve to educate your team continuously about safety trends.

3. Categorize staff logs.

When your company diligently maintains accurate safety reports, it creates a buffer against legal action. Reports are verifiable and evidential, and they can help make your case if your business faces a lawsuit.

Keeping timely safety reports is especially useful because many lawsuits happen months or even years after an incident. Preserving documents like associate reports, investigation summaries, medical documents, email correspondence, and photographic or video evidence means you can be ready to inform your legal team when ready.

Your HR network might be complicated, especially right now when contingent workforces are trending. When working with different types of employees (e.g., seasonal, part-time, or temporary employees), make it a little easier on yourself by distinguishing among them. If you’re working with a staffing agency, ensure that they have strong safety processes, prioritize associate safety, manage incident documentation, and oversee workers’ compensation claims.

Making compliance reporting more efficient in your workplace will take some time. Once you have a plan in place, reporting activities should be easier and more efficient.

Maintaining health and safety in the workplace is critical for your business’s survival. Streamlined reporting will help you stay organized and safeguarded from legal action. Prioritizing health and safety is also a necessary investment in the value employees bring to your company. It can lead to fewer accidents and injuries. It can help keep your teams healthy and ready to perform at their best.

Looking to Build a Strong HR Department From Scratch? Follow These 6 Steps

January 19, 2022/Hiring and Retention, HR Strategy /by Shannon Walker

Building an in-house human resources department for your business, or a company where people can outsource their HR needs to you? The initial steps can be overwhelming. The best way to build a solid HR foundation is to create policies, standard operating procedures, and risk mitigation plans. Implementing policies that align with your workplace culture will improve overall employee experience and mitigate operational and reputational risk. Here are some important components to keep in mind to build the foundation for a strong HR department–from scratch.

1. Organizational Design

Organizational design is the backbone of the company. It facilitates efficiency by eliminating double work and smooths out bumpy processes and procedures that may be in place. That’s because it delivers the proper information to the right employees at the right time. While this is a relatively new element in human resource departments, organizational design has been around for decades. A tried and true method is the McKinsey 7-S Framework created in the 1970s. You use it to see whether different parts of your organization are operating harmoniously together and find ways to improve. The structure is split into seven key components, and at the center of the framework is the company’s shared values. These components comprise of the following:

Strategy (your business plan)
Structure (how your business is organized)
Systems (daily activities)
Shared values (mission statement and goals)
Style (the leadership)
Staff (the culture and the capabilities of the staff)
Skills (what the organization is actually capable of)

2. Employee Compensation and Benefits

Workers search for companies that focus on well-being, meaning the best talent is looking for the best compensation and benefits. According to a recent study, 32 percent of businesses with 10 or fewer employees are now offering benefits packages. Your business should also have something to offer. Principally, the larger your business grows, the more comprehensive your compensation and benefits package will need to become. In-house HR departments should know what employees want so that they can attract and retain talent.

3. Onboarding/Recruiting Procedures

Proper onboarding is important because it can cost 90 to 200 percent of an employee’s annual salary to replace them. Effective onboarding will reduce the chance of quick employee turnover while potentially increasing retention. Listen to what your employees want and give them a full idea of what their job will entail. In a BambooHR survey, of the employees who left within six months, 26 percent didn’t believe it met their expectations.

4. Occupational Health and Safety Program

According to a study published in 2018, 1,027 Canadians die a year due to work-related accidents. That’s about three people a day. Therefore, you should adhere to the Occupational Health and Safety Act set by your province and the Canada Labour Code. All employers in Canada are required to follow these by law.

5. Training and Development

When it comes to recruitment, you want to have a good training and development program implemented within your business. An IMB study showed that 35 percent of millennials felt compelled to work at a company with optimal training programs. In fact, it’s one of the top reasons they are likely to sign on with a business. Plus, 52 percent of millennials are drawn to companies that give them the opportunity to advance in the workplace. Furthermore, employees that don’t receive the training they need are 12 times more likely to quit their job.

That’s not all. A recent study found that businesses with thorough training programs had more than twice the income per employee than those without them. The American Society of Training and Development also found that those who spend $1,500 on training generated 24 percent more profit than those who spent less. This is evidence that skimping on training affects your bottom line and hurts you financially in the long run.

6. Internal vs. External HR Teams

There are many pros to having an in-house HR department. Specifically, it is a lot easier to cultivate a positive culture, resolve problems, and adjust practices to enable organic development. The cons of having an internal HR team are that it can be expensive. Additionally, it can be hard to find the right specialist or team that aligns with your company values.

A pro of having an external HR team is that specialist companies have in-depth knowledge and skills in specialized areas. These may include legal compliance, coaching and development, and benchmarking. It also gives companies the time to focus on their business rather than human resources and employee compliance issues.

The cons of outsourcing your HR team are that it can feel impersonal and disconnected from the company’s culture. This department outside the company can be an issue as you are giving up control of select processes. You also won’t be able to keep track of daily startup operations and related HR concerns. What is best for your company will depend on your own set of challenges and the resources you can access.

It’s a good idea to plan and have realistic HR goals that align with your company values. As your team grows, your business needs will require some tweaking. Having a plan in place from the outset will make this process a lot simpler and allow for organic development.

Image Created by Total Clean

Coronavirus Checklist: How to Safely Return to Work [Infographic]

February 10, 2021/Pandemic and Post-Pandemic /by TalentCulture Team

Once upon a time, we assembled around the office coffee machine to discuss what antics happened over the weekend. Now, of course, COVID-19 has wholly transformed our outlook on life, work, and cleanliness — and cleanliness at work. Which means that before returning to work, your company needs a Coronavirus checklist.

Returning Safely to Work: First Steps

The last year has been unsettling enough, and for many going back to work can be just as nerve-wracking. Coupled with waiting our turn for a vaccination, it’s a lot to take in.

“It’s important to know that while vaccine administration is underway, businesses still need to make sure their workplace is ready for staff to return, whenever that may be,” says Carlos Garcia, Managing Director at Total Clean. “The safety of the workforce during — and beyond — this pandemic should be at the forefront of any business owner or leader’s mind.”

If you’re a business leader, now is the time to think about a recommissioning plan, including having a system (and when we say “system,” a checklist should do the trick) in place for recording which areas have been cleaned and at which times. Also, have qualified contractors on the ready should you have systems that need servicing. Bonus tip: Consider keeping those contractors on standby should you require emergency decontamination should someone becoming ill with Coronavirus.

A Coronavirus Checklist

To be as prepared as possible, check out this infographic from Total Clean. Here, you’ll see what to do when it is finally time to go back to work — even if that is in shifts or cohorts to start. As many organizations have already learned, re-acclimation starts with the systems (HVAC, fire, and water) that need your attention first. You’ll also learn how to:

Level up on cleaning procedures
Look after employees
Reduce risk
Reduce touch points
Reinforce social distancing (even after people start to feel safe)

For even more information on preparing your workplace — and workforce — for the inevitable return to work, check out this guide from Total Clean. Then, make sure your company is completely ready for the return to work.

Photo by Petr Jilek

[#WorkTrends] How Child’s Play at Work Helps Navigate Uncertain Times

January 29, 2021/Company Culture /by Meghan M. Biro

At work, we try to be serious grownups. But data shows that when we bring child’s play — yes, fun — into work, we are far more creative. And that’s when the real magic happens!

We know adult playtime increases camaraderie, goodwill, focus, and trust and reduces stress. So why aren’t more organizations incorporating play into their work environments?

Our Guest: Jeff Harry, a Top 100 HR Influencer

Jeff Harry helps individuals and companies tap into their true selves, to feel their happiest and most fulfilled — all by playing. Jeff has worked with Google, Microsoft, Southwest Airlines, Adobe, the NFL, Amazon, and Facebook, helping them infuse more play into their day-to-day activities.

I asked Jeff how embracing child’s play during a global pandemic can make a real difference for companies today. Jeff’s response cut right to the heart of the matter, especially when many of us are working remotely: “We have to ask yourselves: Is our staff feeling comfortable with work anymore? Are they able to be themselves — or even half of themselves?” Jeff is right; when we’re working from home, we’re not really fully present at work or home — and time for creative thinking, let alone play, is hard to come by.

Jeff suggested: “Go to your staff, virtually or not, and ask them, ‘What part of your job do you love to do most? What part of your job would you consider your flow work — the work where you forget about time. It’s the work where you, if you weren’t getting paid to do this, would do this anyway.” Jeff has learned that most people would say they engage in flow work maybe 10 percent of the time and that leaders have some influence here:

“Give them an extra hour of play a day! That is their best work, so we must invest in that play time — the flow work.”

The Correlation Between More Play and Better Work

“Look at the companies that thrived in 2020. The TikToks, the Googles, Netflix, Disney Plus, and Hulu,” Jeff said, noting these companies are known for playful yet focused cultures. “People gravitate towards that. Actual money and business are attracted to that. Look at Google with their 20% program. They gave their staff a fifth of their time to pursue what was curious to them. From that came Gmail and Google Meet — billion-dollar ventures, because they allowed their staff to play and be curious.”

Jeff added that most companies don’t offer their employees enough time to play — that time needed to pursue their flow work or experiment within a psychologically safe environment:

“We’ve gotten so results-oriented and so focused on meeting expectations — and expectations are the thief of joy.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with Jeff — this is my flow work! Be sure to listen in — and then deliberately add more time for child’s play into your workday.

Find Jeff on LinkedIn and learn more about his work at Rediscover Your Play.

Editor’s note: We’ve designed your FAQ page and #WorkTrends Podcast pages to be more fun and productive. Please take a look!

Photo: Anika Huizinga

How to Stay Productive During the COVID-19 Crisis

September 15, 2020/Employee Experience, Pandemic and Post-Pandemic /by TalentCulture Team

Remote work isn’t new. In fact, working from home been on the rise since 2010. But this new decade brought with it COVID-19, triggering a complete paradigm shift for remote work, school and life — worldwide. As a result, how we communicate, learn, teach, and conduct business has changed. And staying productive has become a challenge all it’s own.

Back in April, FlexJobs reported more than half of all Americans were working from home. Since then, 65% said their productivity increased. In June, Stanford reported that 42% of the U.S. labor force was working from home full-time, signaling a return to the office for many. But in July, COVID-19 cases soared by more than a million globally. More than half of all states in the U.S. that reopened (or planned to), closed in an effort to curb the virus. Given this ever-evolving context and data, we soon knew it would be a tough summer.

How Do We Stay Productive?

Now that we roll into the fall, families and students grapple with how to return not just to school, but to some sense of normalcy. At the same time, organizations struggle with re-entry to the workplace. While Twitter says they’ll begin reintegrating employees into their offices soon, major companies like Amazon have decided to remain remote until the end of 2020. Google and Facebook have announce their employees will work remotely until mid-2021.

So amid this ongoing crisis and uncertainty, how exactly do we keep stay productive? In the workplace, how can we find the balance between completely safe and fully engaged?

For many leaders, these seven strategies now serve as a roadmap that helps teams stay productive during the COVID-19 pandemic…

1. Focus on Priorities

Location shouldn’t matter as long as the work gets done, especially now. Employees should think about what work needs to get done, in what order, and how they should tackle that work. Managers, on the other hand, should think about the work that must be produced today while keeping an eye on what’s on the horizon. Combined, this strategy helps set realistic priorities while reducing stress and burnout.

2. Boost Communication

For a remote workforce to be successful, strong communication is key. So managers must integrate communications technology like Slack, Trello, Basecamp, and Zoom. By leveraging these tools effectively and in a balanced manner (no Zoom calls at 6:15am!), managers can easily check-in with employees – perhaps even more often than they did when sharing an office. The win-win: this boost in communication builds even stronger working relationships across the organization.

3. Adopt New Approaches

As the world of work changes, managers must change their approach. True, we’re no longer in the same office. But that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to build mutually-beneficial, one-on-one relationships. One example is making remote work feel more human. Other approaches range from more informal meetings (just to connect), to co-created checklists and to-do lists (to build autonomy). Bottom line: The same rigid approaches to work we used to rely on may not work well now.

4. Set Clear Expectations

Clearly stating expectations and setting common goals is more important now than ever. Just as vital: A clear of understanding of how work will be measured. This will help ensure everyone understands what productivity looks like. At this time, being autocratic may not be the right answer. So welcome input and questions. After all, when managers encourage curiosity it naturally empowers each of us to do good work.

5. Offer Respectful Radical Candor

Managers and leaders must lead by example. So, no more excuses to others — or ourselves — as to why we can’t get work done. To excel, we must be honest about why we can’t be efficient during these times. Let’s accept responsibility and ditch the lies to hack productivity. Let’s consistently offer respectful radical candor. We can then co-create solutions to the challenges we face. By working together, we can overcome whatever keeps us from being productive.

6. Use Stress to Your Advantage

Not all stress is bad stress. Some stressors actually motivate us to better maintain our focus, stimulating a better work performance with goals and deadlines at the forefront. Of course, sometimes stress becomes too overwhelming. When that happens, take a deep breath. Refocus on the highest priorities. Where possible, reset expectations. By focusing on an employees strengths rather than what feels like a weakness during stressful moments, managers can help reduce the bad kinds of stress. And use the good for good.

7. Employ Empathy

Remote work has always meant a flexible work location, work schedule and dress code. But now, empathy plays a role in flexibility. Today, many of us must think about the pressures of working from home. We must integrate family responsibilities, distance or hybrid learning for children, and other life commitments. Showing empathy, and specifically knowing what each of us might be going through during the COVID-19 crisis, helps maintain – and even improves – our work culture.

Leverage these seven strategies. Help team members and leaders stay productive. Enable a positive company culture. Do it well, and you’ll help everyone feel more at ease during a complex time.

Photo: Markus Winkler

Speaking Emoji: The New Language of Working

July 17, 2020/HR Technology /by TalentCulture Team

Emojis are both a language and a technology. Cultivate’s recent study into just how we use them shows how creatively we’ve adapted to this hybrid form of communication. In just over 20 years, emojis have evolved from the province of teens to an accepted part of business conversation. Influenced heavily by the presence of Gen Z and millennials, emojis have become a standard way to communicate — faster, more effective, and also, enabling us to communicate with more empathy.

After 6 months of studying communications over Slack at four enterprise companies — including a total of 83,055 messages that used 101,134 emojis, Cultivate found some interesting trends. 30% of messages used Thumbs Up, while 27% used Mask Face.

Emoji usage also differs by company: each has their own visual vocabulary based on company culture. And each generation has their preferences. Baby boomers enjoy receiving business texts with emojis, but only in the right context. Gen X appreciates informal channels like Facebook that can still be written professionally. Clearly, the majority of Gen Y (millennials) are obsessed with emojis and quick, digital-first communications like IMs or DMs. And Gen Z loves video formats, apps and mobile-only approaches with filters and emojis.

In terms of how we use emojis, 16.3% of ad hoc requests were most typically answered with Thumbs Up, 1.31% with Okay Hand and 1.29% with Coffee. 14.64% of responses to completing tasks were followed by the highest-ranking Thumbs Up emoji and 1.13% were followed by the lowest-ranking Prayer Hands emoji 1.13%.

The study also found that managers speak their own language: the top five emojis used by managers were different from the top five used by employees. The top emojis used by managers include Thumbs Up (in 4.63% of messages), Clapping (in 1.80%), Party Popper (0.88%), Smiley Face (0.53%), and Heart Eyes (0.39%). The top used team member emojis were Check Mark (in 1.83% of messages), Heart (1.35%), Laughing Crying (1.23%), Eyes (0.64%), and Heavy Plus Sign (0.54%).

Moreover, Cultivate found that managers and employees each tend to stick to the same emojis. As a language, emojis create a sense of connection — no matter the age or rank. And they add a personal touch along with a business personality that sets the tone for the work culture.

Emojis also offer context to a message by bridging understanding with a reaction/emotion, especially for women, as recent research done by psychologists at Southwestern University found women tend to use twice as many emojis as compared to men. They use more emojis in particular to communicate and express emotions to family, friends and colleagues. Of course it depends on who we’re emoji-ing: you may not want to throw a line of crazy faces to your manager in an email. Then again, it might garner a Thumbs Up.

Photo: ion dooley

#WorkTrends: Managing Down, Up, and Across: Best Practices

May 8, 2020/Podcast, Podcast Recaps /by TalentCulture Team

People always create the culture, especially at work. And when Meghan M. Biro and tech and workplace innovator Dr. Janice Presser joined forces on this week’s #WorkTrends, what emerged was a new compact for managing not just teams, but everyone we work with — including ourselves.

We can’t just consider dynamics as one-way, Janice noted. Managing relationships goes in three directions: “Up, sideways, and down,” she said. Employees can and should work on ‘managing their managers,’ but to manage up, managers need to understand what makes employees motivated to work first, explained Janice. “One motivator is power. Not power over people necessarily, but empowerment. And the other is affiliation.” As an employee, do you know what skill (and value) you have to complete a task — and contribute to the team? More importantly, do you know who you need to report that task to?

No matter the direction, Meghan pointed out, and whether you’re managing a team, a report, or a boss, it can be like walking a tightrope. As Janice noted, the key is understanding exactly who you’re dealing with, and what makes them tick, and we can do that just as well with someone in charge as we can with a colleague or a report.

Not surprisingly, one of the most effective strategies for enabling employees to do well is to “get out the way,” said Janice, which is a matter of trust — a factor that needs to exist across the board. In terms of managers, however, they need to trust that their employees will each do their part to contribute to the bigger picture. After all, everyone lands in a particular career role for a reason. And one smart tactic for helping employees climb the ladder is to let them switch roles until they find their niche. “Just let people swap,” she said. It can do wonders in getting everyone to feel that “corporate love.” The approach doesn’t even have to be fancy, added Meghan: informally managing peer relationships helps “employees figure out who on the team will love doing that part of the work.”

As for managing across, there’s a foolproof way to reduce friction and resentment among your team. Be grateful for those doing their job so you don’t have to. We all have our unique talents. And in the end, love and appreciation will take us all a lot farther.

Listen to the full conversation and see our questions for the upcoming #WorkTrends Twitter Chat. And don’t forget to subscribe, so you don’t miss an episode.

Twitter Chat Questions

Q1: Why do companies struggle with management issues? #WorkTrends
Q2: What strategies can improve how we approach managing? #WorkTrends
Q3: What can leaders do to help organizations improve how we manage? #WorkTrends

Find Dr. Janice Presser on Linkedin and Twitter

Photo: Petri R

Continuous Listening: Moving Beyond Standard Practices

March 23, 2020/Company Culture /by John Mattox, II, Ph.D.

The second in a two-piece series on Continuous Listening.

In Part One of my series on Continuous Listening, I looked at the flaws of taking a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to an employee’s development. Continuous Listening and asking the right questions can play a key role in recognizing milestones along each employee’s individual journey, and evaluating their engagement.

The second part of this series looks at how to move beyond standard practices in order to craft engaging, long-term, and productive employee journeys and ultimately business success for all — and use the Continuous Listening strategy to tackle the challenges now facing our industry. And it’s important to note the value of feedback, as it contributes to the roadmap aimed at improving the organization.

Applying Continuous Listening strategies before exploring suggestions for decision-makers can greatly improve outcome, and help explore various ways to address a number of HR challenges:

HR’s employee insight is segmented. Information is siloed based on the different HR tools used in various milestones, each tool having its own task and interface. Sharing between existing application tools is usually complex and information tends to stay within the boundaries of departments.
Insight is collected from a limited number of sources. This limits HR’s ability to see the big picture and creates a disjointed employee experience. For example, some collection tools are only focused on one feedback channel instead of a combination of direct, indirect and inferred channels. As a result, HR can miss the broader view.
Not enough data types are gathered. HR teams can gather transactional data on existing processes thanks to tools such as applicant tracking systems, HRIS tools, and learning management systems. Who was hired? Into what department? When was the start date? With some advanced analytics, this information can be transformed into predictive models indicating who should be hired in the future. Though sophisticated, these systems miss the heart of the employee experience as they fail to tap into the thoughts and feelings that bind employees to their jobs. Transactional data will never provide insight about personal views and cannot answer questions like: “How engaged is the employee?” or “How loyal do they feel to the brand?” “Are they committed to the mission or just the paycheck?” “What are their long-term aspirations?” Thus, it makes sense to use tools that also focus on evaluative HR processes such as 360 feedback, performance reviews, training evaluations, and engagement surveys.
Most data analyses do not address an employee’s evolution. Data is collected at specific intervals and analyzed with particular timestamps, but understanding how an employee’s data has evolved over time may offer a clearer perspective of the processes that this employee has gone through with the organization. This highlights effective HR interventions to reach higher employee engagement, retention, and success.

Moving Forward

Continuous Listening encourages multi-directional communication among employees, managers, administrators and executives. It is designed to work in conjunction with other listening tools deployed at milestones such as performance reviews, annual engagement surveys, training programs, and mentoring programs. With it, HR can compile a more comprehensive picture of the attitudes, feelings, and intentions of the workforce.

Organizations that are serious about optimizing the engagement of their workforce should look beyond a one-size-fits-all approach, and instead pursue a measurement strategy that incorporates:

Gathering evaluative feedback during milestones.
Collecting data between events aligned on topics relevant to employees and business goals.
Integrating the milestones and Continuous Listening data with fluid, real-time feedback processes to gain a comprehensive and evolving picture of workforce issues.

Solving a Turnover Problem

Continuous Listening can help solve problems feedback can’t handle alone. Take the example of a large software engineering firm in Silicon Valley: it was experiencing a 50% higher turnover rate among employees who had been there for three or four years. The traditional milestone approach using HRIS data flagged the increase in turnover, but failed to provide any meaningful insight as to its occurrence. An evaluative feedback survey, delivered annually, showed that no one in the cohort had been promoted to a managerial position in the past 18 months. The business unit had adjusted the promotion criteria, delaying qualification by another one or two years to ensure stronger competencies among those being promoted.

A combination of HRIS data, annual survey results, and Continuous Listening surveys revealed that employees were outraged at the policy changes, and had started looking for jobs elsewhere. Additional results from Continuous Listening surveys illustrated the fact that the 50% who remained were given development experiences and discretionary time to work on special projects — i.e., meaningful incentives to stay despite the prospects of delayed promotion.

These approaches provided substantially different data that, when viewed independently, provided weak explanations for the turnover. But through a holistic strategy, the bigger picture became clear. Using Continuous Listening provided insights earlier, giving leaders the opportunity to intervene sooner.

Feedback Approach	Information Uncovered	Available Leadership Actions
Transactional Annual Turnover Report from HRIS turnover data	Turnover is 50% higher.	Investigate by launching a survey or conducting interviews.Backfill positions with experienced hires.
Transactional & Evaluative Annual Turnover Report Annual Turnover Survey	Turnover is 50% higher.No one in the 3 – 4 year cohort has been promoted due to a policy change.	Create an internal marketing campaign to encourage employees to stay.Change the policy. Provide incentives to stay.
Continuous Listening (Transactional & Evaluative) Annual Turnover Report Annual Turnover Survey Continuous Listening Surveys	Turnover is 50% higher.No one in the 3 – 4 year cohort has been promoted due to a policy change. After learning of the policy change, outraged employees started looking for other opportunities.	Explain why changes are necessary.Let employees know leaders hear their frustration. Fund new development events. Provide discretionary time to those who stay to work on special projects.

Feedback Matters

Without Continuous Listening efforts and the adoption of innovative technologies, information gaps can grow, increasing risk and uncertainty for decision-makers and the company. Further, effective listening allows leaders to stay informed about workforce perspectives, and it encourages employees to communicate their needs, satisfaction, frustrations, and other points of view in a healthy way.

The journey begins when HR professionals develop and implement a comprehensive listening strategy across the employee lifecycle. By listening to employees, HR will develop a continuously evolving stream of data to support critical business management decisions. Through understanding which questions to ask and which tools to employ, HR professionals may properly listen and respond to needs. Moving beyond the one-size-fits-all approach enables organizations to craft engaging, long-term, and productive employee journeys — ultimately predicting positive or negative changes before they are likely to occur, thus driving their business toward success.

Photo: mentatdgt

Cultivating Employee Trust in Today’s Workplace

March 10, 2020/Company Culture /by Sofia Hernandez

Trust plays a role not just in employee recruitment and retention, but in everything from the benefits employers offer to their cultural norms. As leaders welcome Gen Z into the workplace, they’re learning that this generation insists on transparency and trust in a way that prior ones simply did not.

Frankly, today’s employees have high expectations. Edelman’s 2020 Trust Barometer found that 73% expect to have the opportunity to help shape the future of society. The same percentage say they expect to be included in company planning.

Evident among younger employees, in particular, are four trust-related trends:

1. Flexible work is becoming a table-stakes benefit.

The giant leap that technology has made over the last decade means most employees are now able to work from home. Many now see that as a right rather than a privilege earned with trust.

According to FlexJobs, which leases coworking space to companies, 80% of the 7,300 surveyed workers said they’d be more loyal to their employer if it gave them flexible work options. More than half (52%) have attempted to negotiate such arrangements themselves.

It’s understandable that many employers are hesitant to give workers total freedom to work when and where they want. But technology — the very thing that has made this trend possible in the first place — can also be used to create accountability. Communication platforms like Slack show when workers are online, and time-tracking tools can ensure they spend their time in ways that are actually valuable to the company.

2. Employers and employees are monitoring each other’s online activity.

It’s been true for some time that employees and employers research the other online before a hire is made. But now, they’re scouting each other’s social media accounts on a near-daily basis.

The question in many HR circles is no longer whether to hire someone because of past social media posts, but whether new ones might be worth firing someone over. And it’s no longer just illegal activity that raises eyebrows: Employees and employers are on the lookout for bigotry, culturally insensitive comments, and even relationships with questionable individuals.

Make clear to employees that your company is watching, but do so in a positive, uplifting way. From brand accounts, interact with employees’ social profiles. Go ahead and share that post from a worker who just ran a 5K. If they ask for contractor recommendations for an upcoming roof repair, why not comment with a referral to someone who re-shingled the office?

3. Diversity is gaining attention as a professional-development advantage.

The broader the range of backgrounds a company has, the more its members can learn from one another. As people learn from each other, they build trust — gaining insights into their work and seeing the world from another’s perspective can strengthen ties. Tracey Grace, CEO of IBEX IT Business Experts, credits the company’s diverse workforce with “keeping the company fresh and me growing.”

SurveyMonkey data suggests that Gen Z employees understand this as well. Almost three times as many members of diverse companies told the pollster they plan to stay with their current employer for five years or more.

Reiterate that mentorship programs are open to everyone, and try to pair diverse mentors and mentees. Encourage women and members of racial minorities, in particular, to pursue growth in technical fields, where they’re often underrepresented.

4. Workers aren’t waiting around for things to get better.

Employment tenures have been trending downward for years. Just 10% of Baby Boomers have left a job for mental health reasons. But according to a survey of 1,500 young people from Mind Share Partners, three-quarters of Gen Zers asked have done so.

Every role at every company will experience stress at some point. But while older generations could be trusted to tough it out at least for a few months, many younger workers react by immediately sharpening their resume.

Make company challenges an open conversation. Encourage workers to speak up if they are struggling. Be generous with support, whether through a part-time helper or additional development opportunities, when asked for it.

Everywhere you look, distrust has redefined the ways employees and employers interact with one another. But many of the changes it’s produced are clearly not: Flexible work environments encourage people to work when and where they feel most comfortable. Growth opportunities can and should be given to everyone so they can both earn trust with others and extend trust in return. If distrust is what it takes to get to happier workplaces, then so be it.

Photo: PCM

Continuous Listening: How to Strengthen Employee Communication

February 26, 2020/Company Culture /by John Mattox, II, Ph.D.

This is the first in a two-piece guest series on Continuous Listening.

Human Resources departments own many responsibilities that directly contribute to the overall success of a company. According to Sari Levine Wilde, managing vice president of Gartner, “The businesses that are successful today and in the future, will be those that win when it comes to talent…This means helping employees build critical skills and developing employees into leaders.” One of the burning questions today is how we can achieve that mission.

Howard Moskowitz, a psychologist in the field of psycho-physics and a renowned market researcher, was hired by PepsiCo to determine the optimal quantity of artificial sweetener for a Diet Pepsi product. He faced a similar challenge, as mentioned by author Malcolm Gladwell in his TED Talk. With the aim of maximizing sales, Moskowitz conducted empirical tests, which provided unexpected results. He examined the data and concluded that there was no such thing as a perfect Diet Pepsi! Due to the multitude of variations between human tastes, Moskowitz found that the best option to maximize the number of sales was by offering a collection of lower calorie flavors along the scale of taste.

Returning to the HR dilemma, a one-size-fits-all approach to HR is guaranteed to overlook the needs of many employees. More specifically, each employee journey is unique and thus HR must find ways to observe, tune in, and adapt to address individual employees in a more personalized manner.

Disjointed Employee View and Continuous Listening

In order to understand employees and their level of engagement when it comes to business goals, HR must continually gather information by asking questions and listening to employee responses. These standard HR processes currently serve as milestone events for gathering data, but with so many aspects of the employee lifecycle to monitor, it can be difficult to build a comprehensive view of the culture, engagement, retention, and success of employees. The process of data collection is usually transactional, though sometimes there are opportunities to gather evaluative information as well. In this respect, many challenges that HR professionals are faced with when attempting to gather this comprehensive data can be addressed by a strategy known as Continuous Listening.

Continuous Listening is a methodology grounded in the philosophy that feedback matters all the time — not just once a year during a performance review, or once a year during an engagement survey. Feedback matters even after employees leave an organization and unofficially serve as alumni ambassadors for your brand. It matters because every employee has a unique journey that begins with a handshake and a contract that says, “We will do this for each other.”

HR organizations that begin gathering evaluative feedback from employees during such milestones will gain valuable insights that leaders can use to better manage the workforce. An added benefit is that once in place, this feedback process can gain further traction as employees witness leaders responding to their feedback. This reinforces more open lines of communication, which is a recipe for future success. For every milestone along the employee journey milestones, here are some sample evaluative questions that HR should be asking in order to enrich the information that is later provided to company leaders:

Employee Journey Milestones	Sample Evaluative Question
Recruiting	Would your employees recommend your organization to their professional network?
Onboarding	Do your onboarding processes achieve the cultural immersion and integration you need?
Development	Is your development process providing the right knowledge and skills to drive successful employee outcomes in meeting the needs of tomorrow?
Performance Management	Is the performance management process identifying, recognizing, and rewarding talent?
Engagement	How much do you really know about your employees’ experiences? Are your efforts encouraging or destroying employee goodwill, motivation, and engagement? How often do you measure employee engagement? Once every two years? Annually? Bi-annually?
Promotion & Career Growth	Are you identifying employees with strong potential and directing them toward leadership positions? Is your leadership pipeline full enough to meet resource planning goals?
Compensation & Benefits	Is your compensation and benefits plan competitive? Is the plan sufficient to keep high-value employees engaged?
Retention	Do you know what motivates your employees’ decisions to stay and grow with your organization, and what motivates them to seek opportunities elsewhere? Are you systematically collecting the data needed to analyze and improve the employee experience from hire to retire?

Feedback matters because whatever the expression, it contributes to the roadmap aimed at improving the overall organization. By implementing a Continuous Listening strategy, we can begin to explore how to best address specific HR challenges. For that, stay tuned for the second piece in this series.

Photo: Obi Onyeador

Love Starts with Leadership

February 15, 2020/Company Culture /by Meghan M. Biro

Around here we celebrate Valentine’s Day sentiments all the time. We tell each other how much we appreciate, cherish, are wowed by, awed by, impressed by, and value each other. It’s not in our culture deck (we don’t have one since we’re always flexing and morphing to grow and change with the world of work). It’s not in the rulebook and it’s not even in any of the job descriptions. It’s just in the ethos of TalentCulture.

I’m showing you a glimpse of how we work to make a point: all that love? It’s up to me. Daily, I’m aware of a deep sense of responsibility: I founded this company, and it’s up to me to make sure we’re all feeling good about it and great about each other. It has to be that way: the people come first. And if we’re going to love each other it has to start with the leader. So, my lovelies, here’s the closest thing to a box of chocolates I can give you all: 4 tips on how to bring more love into the workspace, whatever shape that space takes:

Be emoji-ional

Consider your favorite brands, and then, if you would, reflect on a conversation you may have had via chat, or a text, or on a social media platform. I love that brand. I heart that brand. Or you may have dropped literal heart emojis on someone’s text recently to express your absolute affirmation for their observation or idea.

Social media has made it stunningly easier to express our feelings in a lighter, more informal way — which is far more appropriate for the workplace than any written declarations, let’s face it. The more we blend social into our workspaces, the easier it is to spread that love around.

Get inspired.

Going back through the amazing posts we’ve published on TalentCulture.com, I realized we’ve always been interested in love. So, dear readers, here’s some reading material. Love and its impact on the office has plenty of angles, including a new post by guest contributor Rebecca Shaw on a recent UK office romance study. The research uncovered a disquieting gap between how women and men perceive work entanglements — and puts the onus on HR to help equitably and safely untie the knots.

A post on why engagement comes from the heart bears a re-visit, bringing up the value of emotional currency. Kevin Grossman, a longtime member of the TalentCulture family, wrote about the dance between love and money — and managed to bring prog-rock band Rush, AC/DC, Apple and Southwest Airlines under one “culture rocks” umbrella. We tend to feel very emotional about our work — from colleagues to culture — and it helps to remember that this isn’t new, we’re just getting better, and smarter at dealing with it.

Take a love inventory.

We do a lot of work with amazing HR tech innovators — and lately we’re covering a lot of ground on the subject of engagement and experience for both candidates and employees. A strategy that comes up again and again is actually asking your employees how they feel. Now that we have access to highly effective tools that can scale to needs and growth — such as surveys, check-ins, feedback and recognition platforms — there’s no excuse for ignoring your workforce’s emotional state of mind. Inaugurate a new campaign to find out how your people are doing, and that should include anyone on the workforce, from freelancers and independent workers to payroll employees to executives. We tend to overlook our own needs as much as anyone else’s, and leadership behavior models the behaviors that the workforce is going to adopt.

Conduct surveys of employee/workforce sentiment — short and sweet and frequent is better than long, arduous, and one-time. Include yourself and other leaders and high-level managers as well as the whole workforce. Use the data to reveal the realities of your work culture and workspaces, share it with the workforce, and then start taking action to remedy the weak spots. Transparency and action taken on feedback are definitely part of modern leadership’s love language.

Practice emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence isn’t a new concept: it’s become a twenty-first century chestnut at this point. It has to do with how skillfully we manage our relationships and ourselves, and it’s been proven to correlate with our ability to perform. But I’m frequently struck but how far away from EQ we’ve gotten. Like many concepts that make a splash and send ripples through the HR field, EQ’s novelty has receded. A great piece in Inc. by Wanda Thibodeax introduces its close “cousins,” cognitive intelligence, success intelligences, and cultural intelligence (CQ).

But EQ is just as important as ever. When we talk about using tact to deliver un-great news to job applicants, that’s EQ: and it’s akin to letting a suitor down easy because, well, they’re human. When I wrote about the power of some leaders to reach their people, one of the key factors is emotional intelligence — though these days, I’d gather other traits, such as kindness, honesty, respect, letting go and partnering as all part of being emotionally intelligent. Evolution is consolidation in this case, and we’ve come far since that piece first appeared, though with over 700,000 views by now, it’s clearly still hitting a sweet spot. To be perfectly honest, that makes me happy.

The bottom line — to feel love you have to bring the love yourself. It that means you spend a bit more time practicing some much-needed self-care, then do it. Get that box of chocolates, do the yoga class, plan the marathon training, go on vacation, take time to do something good for the planet, or volunteer. Whatever works. It’s your job to make everyone else feel good about themselves and the value they bring to your organization — and that means you need to feel good about yourself and your value as well. Go get yourself a Valentine-y card, then get everyone cards too, and watch the love start to catch on.

Photo by mnm.all

Work, Love, Gossip, Power: The Thrill and Toll of Office Romance

February 14, 2020/Company Culture /by Rebecca Shaw

We all know that office romances happen. But on what scale do they happen, and how exactly do they affect those involved on a professional and personal level?

A recent workplace study by Viking surveyed 2,000 office workers in the UK to uncover the true experience of dating a coworker. Those surveyed were professionals aged from 18 up to 65+, including temporary trainees, executives, middle management, senior management and board members. Participants were from a range of industries spanning from marketing, advertising and PR through to energy and utilities, banking and finance, and leisure and tourism.

The study found that office romances are extremely common. Almost three-quarters (74%) of office workers aged between 25 and 34 said they had been involved in a romantic relationship of some level at work. Further, 59% of workers surveyed who had been involved with a colleague had made efforts to hide their relationship from others in the workplace, including management and HR.

Some of the most fascinating facts, however, came when looking into the differences between men and women. There are marked differences in how the genders handle office romance, and how the impact it has on workplace productivity and wellbeing.

Women Are More Worried About Office Gossip

In any office environment, people talk, and an office romance can quickly become the hottest new water cooler gossip. Understandably, this was found to be a real issue for those who had been involved in an office romance.

The study found that more women than men are worried about gossip in the workplace – when asked about the biggest downfall of an office romance, 46% of women said being the subject of office gossip, compared to 36% of men. You can understand why this number is so high; office gossip does not only bring worries about a loss of reputation in the workplace, but also makes it highly likely that managers or HR will catch wind of the romance. With many workplaces viewing office relationships negatively, people are worried that office gossip could ultimately lead to more serious consequences, including reprisals or even the fear of losing their jobs over their workplace romance.

However, interestingly and despite the fact women are more concerned about gossip, men are far more likely to keep their office romance a complete secret. 22% of men said they would tell nobody in their office about their relationship, while only 5% of women reported the same.

Women Are More Likely to be Romantically Involved with Their Manager

An interesting angle to consider, especially from an HR perspective, is power disparities when it comes to office romances. It was only two months ago that McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook was fired following a romantic relationship with an employee that violated the company policy. So, on a wider basis across the UK workforce, how common are relationships between management and those they employ?

Overall, across the study, 15% of workers said they had been romantically involved with their direct manager. Looking at the gender split, this statistic is broken down into 17% of women, as opposed to just 11% of men. The study also looked specifically at upper management, finding that 7% of women and 6% of men reported being involved on a romantic basis with a company director or CEO.

This brings about a whole host of further issues. While any office romance can be complicated, the disparities of power between managers and their staff mean we need to address the need for psychological safety should these relationships occur. If a lower-ranking member of staff finds themselves in a tricky relationship with an upper-ranking manager, they may be understandably worried of the repercussions or retributions this could bring. HR staff need to ensure there is a safe space and a sense of security when it comes to these difficult conversations, so staff feel like they can come forward and discuss their issues without fear of backlash on their career and professional standing within the company. Further still, with the study finding that only 33.6% of employees knew of and understood their company’s policy on office romances, it is clear that organisations need to be doing more to ensure there are fair, clear, communicated policies in place.

Women Are More Likely to be Negatively Affected

As well as analyzing the who and the when of office romances, the study also looked a little closer at the psychological effects on those involved. We understand that office romances happen, but do we understand exactly how they are making the workforce feel?

Again, the study highlighted a number of interesting differences when it comes to gender – it is clear women and men are affected differently by romance in the workplace and women, on the whole, are having a much harder time dealing with the consequences of their workplace relationships.

According to the study, women find it more difficult to keep their personal and professional relationships separate. One question put to those who had been involved in office romances was whether they found it difficult to avoid letting personal feelings affect professional decisions. Almost double the number of women (31%) said they did, compared to just 16% of men who reported the same. The study also found the quality of work of those involved in office romances was reduced; almost half (47%) of women believed their office romance decreased their productivity and creativity throughout the working day, as opposed to only a quarter (25%) of men.

An important topic for both HR and business professionals is employee wellbeing at work. How are office romances contributing to stress levels and the overall workplace wellbeing of those involved? Interestingly, 23% of men who had been romantically involved with someone at work reported that the relationship had actually reduced their stress levels in the workplace, compared to just 13% of women. At further look into overall wellbeing in the workplace uncovered that almost a quarter of women (24%) said that their office romance had a negative effect, with just 15% of men saying the same.

While this study shows us that office romances are as prevalent as ever, it also highlights huge disparities in gender, and how men and women both approach and are affected by relationships at work. Overall, women in a workplace romance are more worried about the consequences and more affected by the negatives of the relationship – whether that be office gossip causing stress, or the relationship itself leading to a decrease in performance and a loss of reputation at work. Men, on the other hand, don’t seem to share these concerns, or at least not on the same scale. This gives us an insight into gender issues, and a hint at a double standard within the workplace, suggesting what is acceptable for men isn’t always acceptable for women. It is clear that there is still much to be done when it comes to workplace cultures: companies need to encourage an environment where men and women both feel equally safe and secure in their jobs.

As with any personal issues at work, it is important for businesses to be aware of the problems that may arise with an office romance, and to create a safe space where those affected can talk through their issues without fear of repercussions. This will allow the company and HR department to adapt their approach to workplace relationships in the best interest of the business and encourage a safe, comfortable, productive working environment for everyone.

Seven Keys to Effective Recruiting

June 7, 2017/Archives /by Tony Lee

Creating a world-class talent acquisition effort that incorporates cool recruiting ideas may seem unrealistic for many HR departments. After all, the pressure to fill the ever-larger pile of open reqs leaves little time for experimentation. And at smaller firms, where recruiting duties often fall to an HR generalist who has to interview candidates in between many other daily duties, attracting good new hires is good enough, which leaves the absolute best hires working someplace else.

Yet, even if you hire just one new candidate a month, you can leverage many of the same effective strategies as the leading companies in talent acquisition, say the folks who lead them. You simply need to learn about the latest trends, and then strive to incorporate some or all of those efforts into your daily hiring routine.

Most HR specialists agree they want to get better at talent acquisition. In a 2016 SHRM survey of more than 2,300 HR professionals, respondents said recruitment was their top business/HR challenge, ahead of compliance, employee training and compensation/benefits. Finding the time to implement these leading strategies is the bigger challenge. To that end, here are summaries of the seven most meaningful steps to creating a more effective talent acquisition effort, according to a range of leading voices in the field. Many don’t require a major investment of time or money, and instead can be incorporated into the recruiting practices you’re using already.

Brand your company as a great place to work. If you don’t tell your story, others will do it for you. Having an attractive career web site was a prerequisite 10 years ago. Now, it’s a basic requirement to manage your brand and, once in place, allows you to focus on what makes you special to potential candidates in your marketing materials, across social media and in person. For example, post written and video testimonials on your web site from current employers explaining why they enjoy their jobs, to create an image among prospective hires of what it’s like to work for your company.
Maximize employee referrals. Referrals are still the primary source of new hires. In fact, 96% of all companies with 10,000 employees or more say it’s their No. 1 source of new hires, while that percentage falls to a still high 80% for companies with less than 100 employees, according to a 2016 SHRM Benchmarking survey.

“So why are most incentive payments so low?,” asks Tom Darrow, SHRM-SCP, founder of Talent Connections, an Atlanta-based executive search firm and chair of the SHRM Foundation Board of Directors. “It’s widely known that employee referrals are the best source for candidates, yet many companies offer pitiful ‘bonuses’ of $500 or $1,000 to their employees, while offering search firms a $20,000+ fee for the same position.” He suggests incentivizing staff to serve as recruiters and encourage them to tap into their networks to help fill open positions.

Pay at least as much as your competitors for talent and be transparent about what you offer. Make absolutely sure that your total compensation package is competitive and, if one or more aspects are lagging, tell candidates why. Then work with your senior management team to improve your offerings.

“Create a competitive compensation package that reflects your culture, then put the dollars in front of candidates at the start and you’ll likely have to negotiate less,” says Steve Browne, SHRM-SCP, executive director of human resources at LaRosa’s Inc., a Cincinnati-based restaurant group. “It’s a brass tacks approach, but be sure to supplement the dollar discussion with the other workplace benefits you offer, including flexibility, autonomy, the work space and more,” says Browne, who is a director-at-large on the SHRM Board of Directors. Darrow adds that by highlighting what makes your offer most attractive, you can help deflect attention from what doesn’t.

Consider hiring more part-time contributors, and embrace their flexibility. If the full-time talent you seek is too difficult to find or costly to hire, then fill each open position with multiple part-time employees who have embraced the “gig” economy and are willing to share the workload. And don’t punish them if they decide to try something else.

“The biggest shift for us culturally is that we tell each new employee that we’ll enjoy you while you’re here, and that we want to make the time you’re with us be great,” says Browne. “So if you decide to become an Uber driver, congrats! We enjoyed having you while we were here.”

Build strong talent networks. Learn to develop relationships with potential new hires long before relevant job openings are posted. One approach is to create “communities of engagement” online through social media where candidates can learn about your company and see how current employees have an opportunity to make a difference.

“Too often I see companies aren’t hiring the best of the best; they’re hiring the best of who they stumble on based on their poor sourcing strategies,” says Darrow. He advocates using social media and networking to build a deep pipeline of potential candidates who you may not have jobs for today, but who you can tap into when appropriate openings emerge down the road.

Learn and implement predictive analytics. The role of HR metrics has grown dramatically. While you may not need to hire a full-time data analyst, you (or your vendors) should have the ability to measure the effectiveness of all aspects of your recruiting efforts.

“Employers have to be able to assess the probable yield of a recruitment ad in a certain location, among a certain demographic or at one salary point vs. another, and then instantaneously measure the results and make changes to that ad placement and content on the fly,” says Peter Weddle, CEO of TAtech.org, the association for talent acquisition solutions in Stamford, Conn. By managing your recruitment marketing efforts this closely using analytics, you’ll optimize the results and lower your cost per hire, he adds.

Simplify job applications. Poor completion rates for online applications results in the loss of top talent, poor word-of-mouth from candidates frustrated with the process and wasted spending associated with abandonment in cost-per-click recruiting models.

About 60 percent of all job seekers quit in the middle of filling out online job applications because of the form’s length or complexity, according to CareerBuilder. Conversely, companies can increase the rate at which candidates will complete an application by more than 300 percent by reducing the length of the application process to five minutes or less, reports Appcast, an online recruitment service. “You have to make applying simple, fast and mobile friendly, or you won’t attract the best candidates,” says Darrow.

Photo Credit: 宏☆ Flickr via Compfight cc

Employee Advocacy = Engaged Employees

May 24, 2017/Archives /by Doug Coull

A great work environment with happy employees is the start for creating sincere and enduring employee advocates. When people experience a wonderful culture in action and believe in the reputation of their company, they become your most effective spokespeople.

Why Does it Matter?

There is a lot of research out there that supports the direct correlation between employee satisfaction and its impact on customer satisfaction. When employees are engaged advocates, they will go the extra mile for the customer, seeking out alternate and better ways to deliver service that amazes and delights. These employees don’t mind spending extra time with a customer to ensure their complete satisfaction, has been met, and are more likely to set achievable expectations for customer service delivery and timing.

Additionally, employee advocacy humanizes your brand. It puts a face to the brick and mortar of your business and allows people outside the company to better identify with your people-driven mission. It’s like word-of-mouth advertising… a very powerful weapon in the war for customer satisfaction and their dollars.

What’s in it for Employees?

Empowerment allows employees to become stakeholders by having them take part in decision-making processes. This empowerment enables them to take responsibility for their role and manage their behaviors and outcomes. A culture of trust allows people to do their job, autonomously. Employees want to create their own successes, and with that find greater satisfaction in themselves and with the culture around them.

Feedback is a powerful tool in the workplace. It enables people to see how they contribute to the bigger picture of the organization. It’s important for each employee to see how her specific role impacts the organization. Show employees, directly, how their work is improving customer retention, profitability, or the metric that is most closely related to their position. This will motivate them in their jobs, in attainable goals, and increase their engagement.

Skills and knowledge training provides the growth and expansion employees need to keep improving and advancing in their careers. Challenge them to find learning opportunities that can be applied to their jobs and allow them to put this new-found knowledge to work. The empowerment and satisfaction they can reap from this experience will encourage them to look forward to future learnings to continue growing their skills and knowledge.

Collaboration across an organization opens the door to team spirit and engages people at a more root level because they believe every employee is approachable for conversation. Being able to collaborate on projects with colleagues will increase employee engagement, and make the projects more satisfying and effective allowing employees to ideate, give peers feedback and bring solutions to the forefront. In other words, to take ownership.

Why You Need Advocates

Employees who are advocates for their organization cast a wider net not only inside the organization but externally, as well. They reach a larger audience and position themselves as the voice of the organization. They will increase your brand engagement with potential new customers and employees, which from a monetary value, can save companies dollars in advertising and marketing promotions. As engaged employees, advocates are tremendous agents and defenders of your company’s reputation, again positioning themselves as a voice for their employer. Further, research has shown that employee advocates can increase the stock value of organizations by over two and a half times versus organizations that do not support employee advocacy and engagement.

Creating Advocacy

Focus on your culture to understand how employees view the company. To truly understand how successful an advocacy program will work, you first need to understand what people are thinking. If you guess you may guess wrong and that could produce a myriad of consequences. Leadership needs to have the courage to ask, “What do you like and dislike about working here?” This information is gold to the wise employer. With this in hand, set out to better understand what your employees are seeing and that may even include how they view the leadership within the organization. Be prepared to leave your ego at the door, as the feedback may be a wake-up call for management, but if the goal is to create a better workplace, recognition of what works and what is failing miserably must be addressed.

Communication is key here. Employees are inspired by leadership that is open and authentic with communications. Strong leadership that has a clear idea of the company’s direction will be viewed much more favorably than a waffling leader that is out of touch with the company’s mission. When communications flow back and forth between leadership and the employee population, the likelihood of misunderstandings and mistakes lessens.

Measure the results. Whenever possible, track the metrics that will gauge the outcomes of employee advocacy. For example, if increased customer retention is the goal, design a program to determine what a successful outcome will be. Communicate this goal to your employees, then provide them with the resources and opportunities to explore and expand on their knowledge and skills in support of the goal. By tracking the data, you can adjust how you communicate and incentivize your employee advocacy initiatives for future goals.

Trust and Opportunity

Organizations need to believe in their employees and want to help them to promote the organization, but first they need to give them good reasons. Pressuring them rather than encouraging them will not work. Advocacy needs to flow naturally for it to be believable. Leadership can, however, empower employees with knowledge and tools to promote the benefits. With a minimal amount of direction, companies can offer opportunities for employees to exercise their bragging rights in a public, social way. I know of companies that had business cards printed for each employee so if that person was interacting in a social setting and felt the opportunity was right, they could hand their business card to potential new customers and even use it as a referral card for job seekers.

Of course, having a set of “Do’s and Don’ts” is helpful so employees understand what would fall outside the parameters of advocacy. No organization can tolerate proprietary information being shared with people outside the company, so establishing parameters that address items such as this, is important.

The Dividends

Essentially, the value of having employees who act as brand advocates offers a value next to priceless. What better way to market your organization, espouse the features of your products and spread the word in a social manner that is much less expensive than traditional marketing and advertising.

To me, employee advocacy is when employees look forward to pitching the benefits of their organization and do it because they’re excited and energized, not because they’re specifically prompted by management. What sets these advocates apart from other employees is they’re engaged with their employer and find their workplace environment a satisfying atmosphere where communication and opportunity to grow and collaborate occur with consistency.

And most importantly, organizations need to give employees a reason to advocate for the company. An engaged employee advocate is the best bet you have for increasing customer satisfaction, and to experience business prosperity in an organic manner that is natural and unprompted. And the best aspect is, it’s one of the best methods for retaining valuable talent and attracting more of the same.

Photo Credit: martinlouis2212 Flickr via Compfight cc

Managing Your Talent and Business Alignment

February 16, 2017/Archives /by Doug Coull

Good business leaders recognize the value in a good hire, but often times don’t appreciate that one key individual can add to or deter from a company’s overall business plan. Consider a new Chief Technology Officer versus a sales executive within the same company. Most people would immediately acknowledge the CTO’s position as being the most pivotal and in large respect, it is a critical position and one that should be occupied by someone who can elevate the company’s technical advancements. So let’s consider the sales executive’s role.

The sales executive’s role is probably one of many like it within the organization, but sales executives often times serve as the face of the company and represent the organization externally in different capacities, not all of which are sales. These individuals may be members of a local organization where they provide volunteer time and may even sit on the board of another organization. This is a very visible representation and one where the sales executive is speaking on behalf of the organization in a business capacity. Given this, would you consider this role less important than the CTO’s? Maybe or maybe not, but each position yields a different ROI, so there needs to be a different approach in regards to specific talent management practices and how they impact the company’s overall business.

Everyone is a Contributor

One thing is for certain, hiring new employees and training existing ones should be aligned closely to the business imperatives of the organization. As businesses grow, expand their services, establish a footprint in other areas around the Globe, or simply tweak their existing products and offerings because of upgrades or enhancements, due consideration of the employee population should be included in the mix of your business strategy. A hard look at your current business and what your projections for company growth and expansion of products and services will look like in five years and beyond will impact the people you hire and train today.

Understanding the impact of each division, department, team and individual should not be a siloed evaluation. All parts and pieces are links in a chain that make up your company’s foundation. When one is weak, the strength of the other links becomes compromised. It may not be apparent immediately, but over time you may experience problems in customer service, low production numbers, disconnects with prospects, high employee turnover, all of which can lead to downturns in revenue or profits. When this occurs, a prompt investigation into all aspects of your business, including who and how talent is sourced and brought into your company should be considered, as this may be where the root of the problems are based.

Being on the Same Page

There are times when leadership can be so focused on particular outcomes of their business that they fail to acknowledge other important factors, such as what recruiting tactics are used to source and qualify people to advance and align with the organization.

One overlooked item is assuming that the recruiting team is informed and up-to-date on company goals and any subsequent changes to the short-term and long-term business imperatives. Are the job descriptions indicative of what skills and experiences are needed to build the foundation for the future? Do the hiring managers understand what they need to evaluate when considering people to fit the current role and how the candidates’ skills will impact the future of the role? Is everyone aware of the company’s direction and where the company needs to be in five years? Ten years? Do they know what the success profiles are for each position? These are all questions that must be answered before they can fully execute in accordance with the company’s plans.

Employee training is another area that can be out of sync with a company’s business imperatives. Even talented contributors need training, if for no other reason, than to be kept up-to-speed with the implementation of new technologies, policies, products and services. By offering training, employers stand a much better chance to retain desirable employees, as well as determining who is open to learning and embracing the company’s evolution. Keep in mind, training is an investment into your most precious asset… your employees.

Ultimately, communication is going to drive much of what your employees know or don’t know about the company’s short- and long-term business objectives. Leadership needs to decide what kind of info will be shared, with whom and why, as well as present that info so it’s understood by all people receiving the message and resonates with each person’s level of understanding. The obvious conclusion is to assume the mission, vision and company’s values are well understood by all and are unwavering, so when making adjustments to the business plan, this understanding helps drive the point home and makes adoption of the plan easier.

Reducing Risks and Other Factors

Talent management is more than having a succession plan. It’s understanding the value each position offers and capitalizing on that value in the present with eyes towards the future. Also, external factors such as demand, the market cost to fill certain positions, the economy, geography, Visas, etc. will also impact the alignment of your talent and company-wide business strategy. Items to consider include, but are not limited to:

Your current employee pool… what new skills do they need and how can you get them to the skills level your business needs with a shorter time-to-productivity
Bringing new talent into your company… do the job descriptions fit the current need with skills to build towards the future
Anticipating issues with hiring the right people for the jobs your organization will need to sustain your future business
Ensuring everyone on the leadership team is onboard with understanding how the present and future of the business hinges on the alignment of talent to the business plan

There are many answers you need to uncover to truly understand the importance of how talent acquisition and your business strategy should be closely aligned; the list above is only a starting point. Keep in mind, the goal should always be to reduce risks and manage the factors within your control and it begins with a shared vision.

Photo Credit: Web_Service Flickr via Compfight cc

Give Employees The Gift Of Well-being

December 21, 2016/Archives /by Doug Coull

Undoubtedly, a sense of well-being is one of the precious joys of living. It’s foundational to who we are and what we do. This important underpinning sets us up for success… or failure.

As a business owner, I appreciate the well-being of my employees and understand the value of helping them stay mentally focused, for many reasons, including how well-being affects attitude which in turn affects productivity. There are a variety of ways which companies can contribute to employee well-being.

Pet-friendly Environment

I am a proponent of animal rights so with that, acknowledge the value of my pets and having them with me at work. The benefit of a pet-friendly workplace is becoming recognized by many companies, because the advantages outweigh the cons. According to researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business, it was discovered that pets in the workplace actually create a buffer between stressful situations, boost employee morale and increase productivity. Further, in a separate study conducted by Central Michigan University, researchers found that when dogs were present at team meetings, people expressed a greater desire to collaborate and were motivated to find reasons to trust in their fellow collaborators. These are just two studies, there are many more that corroborate these findings.

Note, it’s also important to be sensitive to employees who have health issues or sensitivities to animals, so be cognizant of their needs before implementing a program of this nature.

Flex Hours and Remote Work

Acknowledging that your employees have a full life that includes activities outside of work is a reality smart companies recognize. For example, many people have personal obligations that may conflict with a work schedule of 8am to 5pm, but with some adjustments can still work a full day with different start and stop times.

Flex hours also accommodate individuals who may have special needs. It opens the door to people who may not otherwise have opportunity to be productive, contributing employees. As stated by Denise Tsukayama, Equal Opportunity Officer/ADA Coordinator for the City and County of Honolulu, “While flexwork / telework may be an effective reasonable accommodation for some employees with disabilities, more importantly these accommodations can broaden our efforts in fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce.”

Additionally, not everyone is a “morning person” and with that may have different high productivity times of day. Undoubtedly, all companies want maximum output from their employees, so understanding that all people have a different productivity cadence can save companies millions of dollars a year by simply adjusting employee work hours to coordinate with their high-producing hours.

Some jobs and projects are very focus intensive and with that may be more costly or timely for an organization. Having your employees full attention and focus riveted at these times, can be critical to the success and ultimately to the bottom line of the company.

Work-day Breaks

Workday breaks can offer your employees a short respite to regroup and refocus their energy. Workplace specialists (i.e., ergonomic specialists and organizational psychologists) believe there is a benefit to taking a short break prior to starting a long and complex project. The break gives people a chance to mentally close the work just finished and begin a new project with a clean slate. In terms of productivity, this is a way to jump start a new effort without having a prior work project still looming in the back of the employee’s mind.

Going out to lunch is an extended work-day break with its own set of benefits. In addition to offering a change of venue, this is a great time for a vigorous workout, a leisurely walk, or even a chance to run personal errands. Lunch breaks outside of work, allow people to decompress, listen to music, chat with a fellow walker, or interact with people outside of their place of employment. Companies can help make lunch breaks extra fun by incentivising employees with rewards for their dedication to maintaining a religious schedule of exercise and other activities.

Volunteer Days

Allowing employees the opportunity to be contributors outside their organization is a wonderful way to encourage charitable service and giving back to a community that supports their employment. Volunteering empowers people to refocus on those less fortunate than themselves, perhaps, and allows them to take great pride in their efforts. It’s immensely gratifying to give back and knowing one’s company supports this outreach speaks fathoms about the organization. It can, also, help people to forge stronger bonds with their employer by representing their organization within the community and to work alongside leadership that may not have happened within the confines of the business walls.

These are a few examples; there are many ways companies can show their human side and understanding. It’s just a matter of making the commitment to support your employees and recognize they are your greatest asset and biggest business relationship. And as with any relationship that is for the long-haul, you will reap what you sow.

Photo Credit: anniejoubran1 Flickr via Compfight cc

#WorkTrends Recap: Workplace Democracy

December 8, 2016/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

As U.S. voters exercised their democratic right in last month’s Presidential election, the practice of democracy in rapidly spreading to all areas of life, most notably in the workplace.

Companies are beginning to offer employees the power to vote on various workplace amenities such as snacks in the breakroom, or even the location of the next company outing… but what if employees had the power to make more significant and impactful decisions like voting to keep or fire their CEO?

This week, Meghan M Biro was joined by Haufe CEO Kelly Max to discuss what a workplace looks like where the employees have the power.

Kelly had to run for election as CEO of Haufe so he had a lot of insights to share. Here are a few key points:

Transparency is key for employees to make better decisions,
CEOs need to listen to employees. It’s their job as a leader. It makes people have a voice.
The fact that employees are now heard gives employees so many more opportunities

Did you miss the show? You can listen to the #WorkTrends podcast on our BlogTalk Radio channel here: http://bit.ly/2gfobXe

You can also check out the highlights of the conversation from our Storify here:

Didn’t make it to this week’s #WorkTrends show? Don’t worry, you can tune in and participate in the podcast and chat with us every Wednesday from 1-2pm ET (10-11am PT). On Dec 14, I will be joined by my former co-host Kevin W Grossman, to discuss the candidate experience.

Remember, the TalentCulture #WorkTrends conversation continues every day across several social media channels. Stay up-to-date by following our #WorkTrends Twitter stream; pop into our LinkedIn group to interact with other members; or check out our Google+ community. Engage with us any time on our social networks, or stay current with trending World of Work topics on our website or through our weekly email newsletter.

photo credit: kennethkonica The message is #VOTE and I plan on it! via photopin (license)

#WorkTrends Preview: Workplace Democracy

December 2, 2016/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

As U.S. voters exercised their democratic right in last month’s Presidential election, the practice of democracy in rapidly spreading to all areas of life, most notably in the workplace.

Join Meghan M. Biro and Mr. Kelly Max, CEO of Haufe on Wednesday, December 7 at 1pm EST, as they discuss this intriguing and cutting-edge topic.

Workplace Democracy

Join Kelly and me on our LIVE online podcast Wednesday, Dec 7 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT.

Immediately following the podcast, the team invites the TalentCulture community over to the #WorkTrends Twitter stream to continue the discussion. We encourage everyone with a Twitter account to participate as we gather for a live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What are the advantages of creating a workplace democracy? #WorkTrends (Tweet this question)

Q2: How can transparency encourage employees to have a voice? #WorkTrends (Tweet this question)

Q3: What steps can leaders take to create continuous employee feedback? #WorkTrends (Tweet this question)

Don’t want to wait until next Wednesday to join the conversation? You don’t have to. I invite you to check out the #WorkTrends Twitter feed, our TalentCulture World of Work Community LinkedIn group, and our TalentCulture G+ community. Share your questions, ideas and opinions with our awesome community any time. See you there!

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

photo credit: Phil Roeder Mock Election Day via photopin (license)

Communications and Negotiations

October 12, 2016/Archives /by Doug Coull

Contrary to the belief of many, negotiations actually serve as a stepping stone to a potentially long-term, mutually beneficial alliance. Fair-minded negotiations are not the one-and-done actions played out by those who lack the skills and temperament to look beyond the moment, but are in fact, an interaction to ignite a satisfying, enduring relationship. In business it typically means that the people negotiating have come to an equitable agreement on terms for the outcome and where the “win-win situation” happens. For example, this could be product delivery, cost, quality, warrantees, and follow-up service… really anything one or more parties want to provide or to purchase. Creating relationships that are conducive to “everyone’s a winner” can be done, but is not always easy.

The Unbalanced Negotiation

The best outcome of a negotiation is when the end-result is mutually beneficial for all parties, but what happens if that is not a sentiment felt by everyone involved? You may be faced with a situation where a negotiation is, simply, not worth your time and effort. When one party’s demands create a “win-lose” scenario, it will hurt both parties in the long-run. When you concede more than you can realistically provide it may potentially diminish your ability to deliver on what you agree upon. In this instance, both you and the demanding party will lose. This can happen when a negotiator’s focus is unilateral with disregard to the other parties involved. This type of interaction should send up a red flag and alert you to the tenure of the negotiation which you can either walk away from, or re-steer to focus on what will create an equitable outcome.

Keep in mind, you have arrived prepared to discuss your points and substantiate your position. If you allow another party to dictate your negotiating posture, you’ve in essence relinquished control of your position and allowed the other party’s tactics to control the outcome. It’s fine to be flexible, and to a certain extent you should expect to be, but you need to do this without compromising your position and losing sight of what you envision to be an equitable outcome. Balanced negotiations set the stage for a win-win outcome and open the door to compromise and communication without anyone being affronted in, both, the short and long-term.

Negotiating Up

There will always be instances when negotiations are not conducted on a level playing field. We have all been in discussions with someone whose position, power or financial resources intimated or out-classed us. This is going to happen and sometimes our first experience at negotiating up begins at an early age (i.e., children negotiating for a higher allowance.) In a business situation, this doesn’t mean you should expect a negative outcome, but it does mean, you need to be better prepared and remain confident in your strategy. Research and preparation are two critical keys when presenting a solid case, but not just when negotiating up; these two practices should be present in all negotiations.

And always keep in mind, you are in the midst of a negotiation because you belong there. The value of your contributions has been recognized and you’ve been given the opportunity to put your complement of listening and speaking skills to use.

Can You Hear Me Now

The communications do not need to be hostile, but obviously opinions will differ or be contradictory in nature during conversations about how everyone can come out a winner. In large respect, this is a form of negotiation and negotiating with skill is not a science, but an art.

As with most interactions, becoming angry and loud is not as effective as remaining calm and deliberate in your delivery. Professors at Stanford University conducted a study to determine the effects of how anger can enhance or harm someone’s delivery during times of negotiation. What they found was, the presence of someone being non-temperamental, but pointed in her argument, was much more effective than when anger was used as a negotiating tactic. The feedback from the participants revealed that outbursts of anger were viewed as ineffective rather than a calculated use of language and guile. On the other hand, coming across as an automaton is not a recommended approach, either. It’s fine to show bridled emotions to tactically accentuate a point or to gain and give better understanding. Of course, timing will be a factor when using emotions as a tactic, so be sure to understand how this comes across both audibly and through your body language.

It’s Not Rocket Science

Maintaining a level-head, being confident and focusing on what you want to gain by the end of the negotiation will help you stay on track. Simple techniques such as: being prepared with facts and figures to support your comments and rebuttals, having a checklist to stay organized, compartmentalizing each of the items to be discussed to add applicable value to each discussion point at the correct time, deciding upfront what you ideally want at a minimum and what you are willing to relinquish (remember, negotiations are a give and take), as well as remaining patient, calm, and even finding humor in the discussion will help ease a potentially tough interaction.

7 Ways Managers Can Build Trust in the Workplace

September 15, 2016/Archives /by Matias Rodsevich

How many people trust their managers? A recent study by Edelman found that one in three employees don’t trust their employer. Another study by EY found that number to be even lower, with only 46% having trust in their organization, and 49% in their boss/team. Trust is one of the most important things you need in the workplace. Without it you won’t have the environment you need for an effective feedback culture to grow. So how can you help close the trust gap between employees and managers?

Honesty is the best policy

It may be hard to share difficult news sometimes. We naturally have a tendency to believe that delivering bad news will impact other people’s opinion of ourselves. In fact, a recent article by Forbes addressed a reader’s question about how to deal with a boss who lies to avoid answering difficult questions from employees.

Being honest, even during tough times, is something the most trustworthy leaders learn how to do. Whether your company hasn’t met its goals and is unable to award bonuses this year, or you’ve decided to let go of a member of your team. Rather than putting off the difficult talk, employees will respect a manager who is able to openly explain the situation, take questions and give them the facts.

Admit mistakes

While being transparent about bad news is difficult, admitting when it’s you who’s made a mistake can be even more difficult. You may be surprised to find that employees will like you more for it. Admitting mistakes actually makes you more human and thereby more likeable to others. Psychologists call this the Pratfall effect. Being able to admit to and take responsibility for your mistakes is a major part of being a great leader.

Treat employees like people, not numbers

It’s easy to get lost in the numbers. If your job is based on meeting certain performance metrics, managers can often get in the habit of seeing their employees in terms of output achieved.

Managers don’t have to be their employee’s best friend, but they should be conscious of maintaining a healthy work environment. Managers who encourage extreme competition between peers and late hours are going to end up creating a toxic work culture in which employees don’t trust their manager or each other.

You don’t have to know all the details of your employees’ personal lives, but managers should have a good understanding of what their employees enjoy about their job most. If you’re able to pick up on what your employee’s need to do their best, they’ll go the extra mile for you.

Give credit to your employees

As the team leader, you will often receive recognition from your peers and upper management for your team’s efforts. Make sure you share appreciation and acknowledge your team members for their hard work. A recent study by Globoforce showed that employees who received recognition from their leaders recently were significantly more likely to trust them (82% vs 48%).

Put yourself on the line for your team

To gain trust, managers must be their team’s best advocate. While inwardly you may have constructive feedback for your team about the way they approached an assignment, outwardly you must be willing to praise, advocate and take responsibility for your team’s actions. When team members make a mistake it may seem common sense to distance one’s self. This may maintain your reputation, but it won’t win you your team’s trust. This is a difficult balance that each manager will have to maintain on their own, but having a team that is highly committed to you will help you achieve the results you want in the long run.

Teach your managers how to overcome bias

It’s not that managers are inherently biased, as people we have a natural tendency to make assumptions about others. This can result in managers unintentionally favoring some employees over others, known by psychologists as the ‘rater bias’. Unconscious bias contributes to a major loss in trust between managers and employees, especially when it affects performance reviews. Help managers learn how to identify and avoid bias in the workplace.

Make yourself vulnerable. Ask for feedback.

Trust isn’t the magic key to workplace bliss. Issues will always arise at work, but closing the trust gap means employees will be more likely to really take on and reflect on feedback from their managers and be more honest when they give upward feedback. As more and more employees are publicizing their complaints about their employer on Glassdoor, you want a workforce that feels free and comfortable to express concerns before they boil over onto the internet.

But to gain this type of trust, managers must first demonstrate they’re willing to open themselves up to criticism. If they truly start to put themselves out there and ask for employee feedback, their reports will recognize this and start to follow their example.

A version of this post was first published on impraise.com.

Photo Credit: New Routes Real Estate via Compfight cc

Entrepreneurship Is A Sweet Deal

June 29, 2016/Archives /by Cyndy Trivella

The topic of entrepreneurship fascinates me. I often wonder what makes one person seek out entrepreneurial opportunities while others are content to be employees. I believe for some people the real and perceived risks of business ownership is too overwhelming for them to fathom. For others, there’s the immense commitment of time and resources and not to mention the financial implications. Being an entrepreneur or an employee both have their risks, it’s just a matter of which setting is more comfortable for you and where you see yourself fit.

I had the opportunity to discuss this topic with Elisabeth Vezzani, the Co-founder and CEO of Sugarwish. During an inspirational conversation we talked about the gratifying aspects, along with work-life balance issues entrepreneurs face as a business owner.

Ms. Vezzani, like many people, gained her experience from years in a corporate environment, specifically the staffing industry. During this time, she noticed a gap in the corporate gift market and created a company called Sugarwish, a startup that brings a revolutionary and sweet approach to gifting.

While working in the staffing industry, she sought out clever and unique gifting services to satisfy her own business needs and was disappointed with what was available. She recognized the need and from there decided on a type of gift that appeals to most people and envisioned how these gifts of recognition and thanks could be easy and fun to give and get. According to Elisabeth, “It all started as a conversation I was having with a friend about the lack of clever gifts that were available. I wanted to be able to give a gift that I would want to receive.”

Creating something to satisfy personal need then building it out to offer to others makes a lot of sense to me and one of the elements in the “secret sauce.” You have an idea. However, the change of moving from a position where a consistent source of income coupled with benefits and work that you enjoy doing, is still a big leap over to entrepreneurship.

Still desiring to know more about what differences someone experiences, I asked Elisabeth about the biggest adjustments she encounters between her corporate leadership position and self-employment. As with most entrepreneurs I’ve spoken with, her comments were not surprising. “The biggest difference with self-employment is that there’s no “off button.” states Elisabeth, “Much of it is my total love for Sugarwish… and my inability to stop thinking about what we can do better, or what we can do next. I want to be sure we are making Sugarwish all that it can be, and see it reach its full potential.”

Ah, the “off button.” This comment makes something come to mind. I see entrepreneurship much as I view parenthood. A full-time, no holds barred, in-for-a-penny in-for-a-pound commitment. Another element of the “secret sauce.” But wait… this sounds like work-life imbalance more than symmetry. According to Elisabeth, “The balance is a little tricky, because that separation line is really blurred. Sugarwish fits into both my work and life categories. There is no “leaving it at the office”. There just can’t be. Keeping balance (and my sanity) requires a little more juggling, a little more understanding from family and friends… and a whole lot less sleeping.” There it is! There’s no separation from personal to business, because for an entrepreneur, their business is personal and so meaningful to them.

But surely, something is a driving force for people bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. They must get more out of the experience than what meets the eye. I can understand the self-satisfaction of “building” something and watching it grow, much like how people who love to garden enjoy seeing the fruits of their efforts develop. The gratification appears to run deep, but understanding the particulars of what is most impactful is probably personal. When I asked Elisabeth about her perspective on the gratification return on investment, she was adamant.

“One of the most gratifying aspects of my job is being able to watch Sugarwish continue to grow,” states Elisabeth, “and seeing it develop from a conversation, to an idea, to an initial website, to a thriving company has been unbelievably satisfying and inspiring. Another, is knowing that what we originally set out to do, specifically, delivering happiness, is working. We get to see how kind, thoughtful, generous and just generally awesome people are to each other… each and every day. All we hear is the good stuff and it never, ever gets old. It is literally the best job in the world.”

Question answered. I appreciate her impassioned response and obvious love of what she does for work. The most important element in the “secret sauce” revealed… a passion for what one does for work.

This desire for independent creativity and drive doesn’t need to be as an entrepreneur. Many people don’t build an empire, yet they still find happiness in what they do and look forward to doing it… every day. In Elisabeth’s case, she found her passion, built her business and set high bars to improve its performance to deliver more gratification, not only for herself, but for the people who interact with her company. For her entrepreneurship is a sweet deal with plenty of cowbell.

Image credit: StockSnap.io

A Path of a Leader: The Importance of Committees to Leadership

April 12, 2016/Archives /by Samantha Stauf

Leaders have the social sway to directly and indirectly affect the policies, procedures, and laws of businesses, industries, and regions. The pursuit of leadership opportunities allows individuals to attempt to make real positive social change. Social change that can not only positively affects your place of employment, but also your local and national community.

You have the desire to inspire change? Now what? You’re only one person. How can you realistically reach far enough to positively contribute to society on a larger scale?

Start by joining a committee at work. Work committees are a great way to practice your communication skills, demonstrate your worth to the company, and indirectly and directly contribute to company plans and policies. Your suggestions might not always be implemented, but at least they will have been heard.

What committee should you join? Depending on the size of your workplace, your company might a few different types of committees that serve different purposes. I work at a small internet marketing firm that currently has two committees: a Culture and Wellness committee and an HR committee. When contemplating which committee to join, think more in terms of where can I do the most good? Where do my current experiences leave me most able to positively contribute?

Personally, I don’t care much about the idea of wellness. Health is important, but I’m more of an accidentally healthy person. If it aligns with my desires and habits, I’m healthy. On the other hand, I do get passionate about ensuring that we have a respectful and happy workplace. The HR committee is a clearly a better fit for me, so that’s the one I joined.

Once you determine where you can do the most good, then you might want to consider how active the committee is. Nothing is more frustrating and fruitless then being on a committee that rarely meets and then never follows through on their plans when they do. I’ve been on that committee. It’s essentially being paid to occasionally do nothing. Not a great place to jump start yourself into being a community leader.

If you work at a larger company, you might want to pursue a position on one of the more important committees. More influential committees actively shape the company on a larger scale, may be viewed as vital by management, and/or are held accountable by management for their contributions on the committee. These are committees where not engaging can be detrimental to your standing within the company.

SouthWest Airlines culture committee is a good example of an important committee that can sky rocket individual’s leadership credentials. Dr. Mark Allen, a company culture expert, in a webinar hosted by Pepperdine University’s MBA program, explains that being a SouthWest Airlines committee member is a prestigious title.

Members serve a two year term and within that two year term they are responsible for and held accountable to “overseeing, maintaining, [and] growing the culture of SouthWest Airlines.” Serving as a member will be harder than your typical party planning committee, but by the end you’ll have more sway within the company and better credentials if you pursue a positions on important regional or industry committees.

If you want to be the type of leader that is a change agent on a larger scale, you must eventually expand your reach beyond your workplace and pursue positions on committees or boards within alumni associations, industry organizations, or non-profit organization boards. It might take a bit to get to that point, but by getting your feet wet within company committees, you can begin the path to positively influencing the world around you.

Photo Credit: Celine Walker via Compfight cc

Discrimination: A Workplace Disorder

April 11, 2016/Archives /by Doug Coull

I came across an article recently that caught my attention. The story centered on the topic of discrimination as commented by and seen through the eyes of a few recruiters in the staffing industry. At first I assumed this was an outlier situation, but upon finishing the article I was met with a startling realization. This story, in fact, was not an isolated instance, but something much worse. The comments in this article illustrated the very nature of systemic discrimination across America and how well engrained it is in this country.

The Civil Rights Act Of 1964

No, workplace discrimination is not a new topic. Discrimination has probably been around since the beginning of humankind, but started to get some notable attention in the 1960’s.

In 1964, the U.S. Congress passed a law, called the Civil Rights Act, which stated no employer will discriminate on the basis of sex or race in hiring, promoting, and firing. In the final legislation, the wording was expanded to include it’s unlawful for an employer to “fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, privileges or employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” I support this law and would like to believe so does every other employer, but the reality is, it’s been over 50 years since this law passed and we are still battling discrimination in this country.

It’s 2016

Fast forward to 2016. The article I mentioned previously was published in January of this year. The story is about the conversations and actions taken by temporary placement agencies across the country. The people who spoke out were recruiters who recanted stories of incessant, and often times, blatant discrimination stemming from clients who would instruct them to not send particular people for interviews, as well as comments and actions from their own managers in the staffing office. These recruiters were used as messengers to carry out the discriminatory acts, however, it does not absolve them from their actions, as they chose the path of less resistance. Over time the offenders become desensitized to this way of thinking and acting. As in the case of the placement agencies there is, all too often, a monetary value placed on discrimination, as in the case of job placements, that creates a justification for its existence. In essence, it becomes a systemic process and accepted way of doing business.

When staffing agencies do business with companies that stipulate biased hiring requests, staffing firms, in effect, propagate the act of discrimination for the benefit of client relations and a healthy bottom line. In reality, these actions compromise staffing’s integrity and create a false sense of economic well-being within their firm. Attempting to justify these actions because “that’s our policy” or “our client wants it that way” or “my boss gave me an order,” takes on a permanency and acceptance that once started is very difficult to stop. Further, companies that use staffing agencies, as an extension of their hiring process, need to observe and adhere to the labor laws and not use third-party staffing as a way to circumvent their moral responsibility to hire responsibly and non-discriminatorily. According to economist Marc Bendick, “The fact of the matter is that a lot of the regular employers basically want to contract out their discrimination. They know the workforce they want, but they don’t themselves want to violate workplace discrimination laws. They want clean hands.”

Further, companies that refuse to observe fair and sound labor practices may use this to their advantage to exclude benefits, proper compensation, rewards and recognition, and to deny contractors and part-time workers from seeking recourse in the instance of an unwarranted termination.

Conscious Versus Unconscious Versus The Social Conscious

Discrimination is something many, if not most, people from all walks of life have experienced. Unlike what the staffing professionals described in the article, discrimination is often times a sense or feeling someone has about how s/he’s been treated. This is why covert discrimination is tough to prove and more difficult to identify.

To add more complexity to the topic, the act of discrimination can be categorized as either conscious or unconscious. Conscious meaning that someone is knowingly and with intentional malice discriminating against people. Of the two, unconscious is the most dangerous. It’s bigotry that sits inconspicuously within the hearts and minds of people who display it in ways that come naturally to them and without forethought of consequences. Like conscious bigotry, unconscious is intentional and delivered with malice, though not always realized by the offender. The discernible difference between the two is, unconscious is so finely ingrained into the deliverer’s character that s/he may not view the bigoted comment or action as being offensive. Neither conscious nor unconscious is more or less odious than the other. Both lack social consciousness and subsequently, greed, want and fear are at the heart of these biases.

Add Social Media To The Mix

Social media has opened very wide doors into knowing a lot about people and in the case of employers, a lot about job candidates. Profile information that may house photos alluding to or disclosing age (think ClassMates updates on Facebook), religious affiliation (pictures of a brother wearing his yarmulke), and even something as innocuous as pictures of your child, dog and life partner. These images reveal information that can potentially be used against a person and further given social media is a digital venue, all information is saved for posterity. My comments are not an attempt to discourage anyone from using social media, whether it’s the company or job seeker. The point I’m making is that social has added another dimension to the ways discrimination may rear its ugly head and something everyone should approach with sensitivity.

Where To Begin

Without acknowledging the egregious nature of discrimination and implementing structured processes to eliminate it, bias and subsequent discriminatory acts in the workplace will not change. The only way to combat discrimination is to take it on with full intention. It should start with non-discriminatory practices for hiring and carry through the entirety of each person’s employment.

To start, whether required by law or not employers need to incorporate a structured process into their hiring practices where unbiased policies are adhered to by all parties involved in the vetting and acquisition of new talent. There are many technological tools available for companies and staffing firms which help remove the element of doubt when identifying candidates and aid in EEOC reporting, contrary to what was stated by someone in the aforementioned article. Once people are onboarded, these individuals should be provided access to the employee handbook that outlines what will not be tolerated in the workplace. (Employers must be familiar with their legal obligations as prescribed by national and state laws.) All employees, regardless of tenure and position, need to access the handbook and should be required to review and be given opportunity to ask questions if something is not easily understood. Many legal professionals recommend handbooks that outline general workplace policies and employees’ responsibilities, with emphasis on consistency and accountability. Further all employees, especially managers, need to be trained to identify what’s discriminatory and what’s not and to be provided resources to either wage complaints or manage complaints without suffering retribution. Above all, a governing power needs to be in place to ensure that consistency and adherence are being practiced by everyone within the organization.

What I mention here is important, albeit, just the tip of the iceberg. Much more is needed to eradicate discrimination in the workplace, but the most important steps are recognizing the signs (intentional or unintentional) and taking action to eliminate it from your business. Leadership needs to live up to their mission statements and create workplaces that value and recognize diverse contributions and further how this can tie into customer service delivery and positively affect the company’s bottom line. In recognizing that people are not commodities, but are contributors to the advancement of a company’s mission, the culture of the organization takes a different view of the human relationship with each person.

Lastly, until people reevaluate the attitude of “greed is good” and balance that with the greater good of humankind, discrimination will continue as part of the business machinery in this country. Will you be that person who steps up to make a difference?

Photo Credit: sevkabilgisayar1 via Compfight cc

The Myths and Reality of the Workplace Generational Divide

January 6, 2016/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

There’s no dearth of information about the workplace generational divide–in fact, you’ve no doubt seen countless articles, blog posts, whitepapers, and case studies about how millennials are ‘taking over’ or altering the American workplace. While there’s some truth to that, there are many myths as well.

Among the myths: Millennials need constant attention, lack decorum, and don’t seem to to know how to navigate basic tasks.

There’s no question that a generation 80 million strong will make an impact on work culture, and marketers are paying close attention to them because they will control a vast portion of American wealth in the future.

While it’s true that to create a productive work environment we need to separate the myth from the reality, there are indications that the generational divide isn’t as vast as many of the experts would have us believe.

Do Boomers and Millennials have real workplace issues? Are GenX’ers struggling with both older and younger co-workers and employees?

And are there really generational tendencies that create a division between younger and older workers, or, has the impact of the Millennial mindset (the embrace of technology and new communications styles) meant that we are all more similar than we are different?

Let’s explore the modern workplace and address the real issues, and talk about how to navigate between and across the generations.

The workplace continues to change

In 2013, I wrote a post for Forbes that included five ways leaders could bridge the generational divide. The piece looked at how companies could foster communication and increase flexibility via Digital Skill Levels. Now fast forward two short years, and there’ve been some major changes in how we view Millennials.

At the start of 2015, Pew Research released a report on how Millennials surpassed GenX as the largest generation in the workforce. And for the first time in history we will have a workforce comprised of four generations as Boomers work longer, and GenZ begins to enter the workforce.

And although marketers and bloggers are still obsessing over millennials, we’re seeing a shift that addresses not just a demographic, but a mindset. As older generations continue to adapt to the technology and communication style of this generation, it’s revealed what is called a “Millennial Mindset.”

Yet, for every positive post that praises the virtues of Millennials, there is one reinforcing the negative stereotypes that have plagued this generation since entering the workforce and there is no question that general rifts between the generations carry over to the workplace.

Where are the real gaps between the generations?

One source of insight comes from the team at marketing and research agency ARCOMPANY. They created a series of generational “think tanks” exploring the multi-generational workplace, first with each generation separately, and then with a blended panel.

The research focused on presenting prevailing myths as well as current research to a panel comprised of six to eight members of each generation.

Among the similarities and differences that the think tanks revealed:

All three generations prefer communicating face-to-face for important issues. Telephone was next, then email, and in very last place, text. Millennials made it clear that they detest work related texting.
The greatest tension was from Xers towards Millennials. Unsurprisingly, as members of the smaller (in size) Generation X often feel overlooked and under pressure as Millennials begin to crowd the workplace and earn promotions.
The open office plan is overrated by all generations. Millennials in particular felt that open office spaces reduced productivity – many choose to work remotely at least once a week in order to be able to really concentrate and get the ‘hard work’ done.
Millennials are extremely aware of the stereotypes about their generation. The “everyone gets a trophy” statements really irk this younger generation, and they feel the weight of national issues, in particular the poor economy and its negative effects on education-related debt, as their cross to bear.
There are technology gaps at work. Millennials are digital natives of course, and embrace and adapt to new technology with ease; Gen X is nearly as comfortable. Although many Boomers also embrace technology, the biggest gap in the workplace is between Millennials and Boomers when it comes to the use of technology – which is why I continue to recommend that employers understand and appreciate these technology gaps.

So, how do we overcome the real, existing tensions?

Although the environment has changed, many of the approaches recommended in my Forbes article from a couple years ago are still applicable, in particular clear, open communication and flexibility with different skill levels.

Structured mentoring programs. Many Millennials have expressed a strong desire for better mentorship. Doing so can help foster communication between the generations and work in both directions. Think of modern mentoring as more of a two-way street, with generations learning from each other rather than the younger sitting at the feet of the older.

Discourage generation bashing. As much as you may be sick of hearing about Millennials, they’re pretty sick of it themselves. Too many workplaces allow or even enable generalized talk about Millennials, which is not only against most HR policies and a form of ageism, but deeply destructive to a positive work environment. And in the end, will cost you productivity and profitability.

If employees express a negative view about generations, open an honest dialog; the reality is that most office relationship issues are interpersonal, not generational. Leading by example and creating open lines of communication goes a long way to clearing generational tensions.

A version of this article was published on Huffington Post on 11/12/2015.

Image credit: BigStock

4 Steps to Less Work Stress

September 16, 2015/Archives /by Deidre Paknad

Work stresses people out — fear of failing, pressure to achieve, having to reply on others for our own success, overload, self-doubt and more… In fact, one million Americans call in sick over stress every day and 25% say work is the most stressful thing in their lives.

These 4 tips can help you achieve more success and keep your balance, even when things get stressful!

1. Organize

Increase your odds of achieving your goals by 64% and eliminate stress by writing down what you need to do to achieve your goals. If you manage a team, ask for transparency on what each team member is doing, where their attention is focused and what their progress is. If you don’t have a tool to see progress on actions and goals yourself, do daily meetings with the team to make sure everyone is aligned on the best use of their time. With more clarity and transparency, you’ll stop worrying about what isn’t getting done, and have more time to work on what matters!

2. Prioritize

Not everything on your list or the team’s can get done. Sometimes, it shouldn’t! Ruthlessly prioritize where your time and your team’s should go every morning. Spend your energy on work that ties clearly and directly to your team’s goals and metrics… in other words, those things that actually move the needle for you and your boss. Using the matrix below can help distinguish what matters and make it easier to stop expending energy stressing about the rest.

3. Revitalize

When you’re most busy and stressed out, it’s tempting to sacrifice exercise and other healthy habits — don’t. Did you know 20 minutes of exercise several days a week improves your happiness and productivity every day of the week! So set aside time even if it’s indoor yoga, stretching or working your own stairwell — it’ll be time well spent!

4. Tranquilize

When you find your anxiety or anger rising, it’s better to take a break. A short walk or standing, stretching and take a few deep breaths can help you get back on track. Try a few “compassion breaths” to relax and lighten your perceived load:

Focus your attention on the sensation of anger, anxiety or stress – is it anxiety about lack of time, fear of failing or forgetting something critical, worry about achieving key milestones?
Rather than shifting away from the sensation, hold it in your attention.
Now think about all the millions of people in the world you don’t know that have that same anxiety or worry.
Take a long inhale, imaging that you are breathing in the collective anxiety, anger or stress of those millions of people.
Exhale, imaging that you are breathing out calm, peace, success or the antidote to those worries to all who experience it, including yourself.
Repeat three times, deepening your breath and holding it in longer each time and being more genuine in the compassion you convey with each out breath.

At the end, your sense of being alone with pressure will be replaced with more compassion for yourself and others — and your load will be lighter.

It’s always a great time to develop new habits:

Set and share clear goals aligned with organization objectives
Allocate your efforts to achieving your goals above all else
Ensure you have the capacity to achieve goals operationally, emotionally, and physically