U.S. companies are fighting hard in the war for loyal talent. Their strategy?
Being really, really nice.
Salary makes up a smaller part of compensation than it used to, and lifestyle benefits are filling in the gap. According to a Bank of America report, asurvey of 2,000 employees found that 88% would consider lower-paying jobs to get better perks. Paid time off, onsite fitness centers, casual dress, catered meals and a constant flow of free coffee are all approaching standard as companies work to attract and retain their people.
But amid the deluxe whirlwind of benefits, the saying holds true—no good deed goes unpunished.
The Lawsuit
In 2003, New York-based Estee Lauder, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair products, implemented an exceptionally generousparental leave policy. In addition to the 12 weeks of unpaid leave required by law, “primary caregivers” were offered 6 weeks of paid leave specifically for “child bonding,” along with flexible return-to-work benefits. “Secondary caregivers” were offered two weeks of paid leave.
The policy is certainly warmhearted on paper. However, in 2017, amale stock worker at a Maryland store, requested six weeks of child bonding leave as the primary caregiver and was denied. He was granted two weeks, as the cosmetic company claimed the “primary caregiver” designation was intended only for mothers and those in “surrogacy situations.”
On August 30, 2017, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed alawsuit against Estee Lauder, stating the additional parental leave policy discriminated against male employees. TheEEOC claimed the practice of allowing women six weeks and men only two weeks, violated theCivil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The policy also was found in conflict with theEqual Pay Act of 1963—outlawing wage disparity based on sex.
Costly Consequences
Estee Lauder paid a$1.1 million settlement to the class of 210 male employees who received two weeks of paid leave, as compared to the six weeks offered to new mothers. Sex-neutral criteria was used to revise return-to-work policy, ensuring equal benefits for both mothers and fathers. Benefits were applied retroactively to all employees who experienced birth, adoption or foster placement since the beginning of 2018, and training on sex discrimination was mandated by court decree and monitored by the EEOC.
A weighty consequence for such a well-meaning idea. Fortunately for us, we can learn a few things from a distance.
Take-Aways
“Parental leave policies should not reflect presumptions or stereotypes about gender roles,” Philadelphia District Office AttorneyThomas Rethage said. “Mothers and fathers should be treated equally.”
This equal treatment applies not only to parental leave, but to all benefits offered beyond what is required by law.
With the rising corporate trend of providing extended parental leave and other lifestyle benefits, companies must ensure treatment consistent with the prohibition of discrimination based on sex. Sincere, routine attention to policy and practices is necessary in catching unwritten stereotypes and protecting against disparate treatment.
Kindness can quickly turn unkind if not shown equally. Fair company values must match the way a company actually operates; otherwise, generous perks are an expensive and empty investment.
Since 2006, the #MeToo sexual harassment movement has been asking American workplaces some tough questions.
Increased exposure and media coverage have prompted all the right things—98% of organizations have sexual harassment policies in place, and according to the Los Angeles Times, requests for harassment training offered by corporate HR resources have multiplied 8 times since January 2017.
So, update policy and increase training. Easy enough.
However, ongoing headlines regarding sexual harassment at corporations such as Fox News and Uber, prove the still broad gap between good-intentioned rules and workplace reality.
Cultures of Harassment
Defining terms and outlining reporting protocol is fundamental, but too often sexual harassment has deeper roots in an organizational culture. “The way things are,” can serve important cultural functions, making paper policies irrelevant—even laughable.
Strong lines can be drawn from organizational cultures to the larger historical narrative—a male-centric one, with many women still at pay disadvantages, despite education or qualification. This history can serve to legitimize cultures of sexual harassment, as female targets are often blamed for exaggeration and sensitivity. The non-essential nature of low status positions, combined with need for a good recommendation, means a quiet resignation is often considered the best solution.
The Opposite Effect
But of course, not all corporations wield power through a culture of harassment. Still, headlines keep coming, revealing the wide reach of corporate sexual harassment—so what else is wrong?
Two 1998 Supreme Court cases determined that to avoid liability in a sexual harassment case, a company must be able to provide proof of training. However, quality of training is more difficult to measure.
Research shows typical policy language and training techniques make employees uncomfortable and defensive, often actually reinforcing gender stereotypes.
Ineffective and unprofessional, these techniques do little to meet the ultimate goal: preventing sexual harassment in the first place.
Sexual harassment policies and trainings are essential, but not enough. Practicing the following as values, rather than checking them off as tasks, may lead to higher engagement and mutual respect within a company.
1. Care for your culture. Routinely ask yourself uncomfortable questions. Are women in the lowest positions in every department? How accessible am I to my employees? What is my relationship like with my Human Resources professionals? Caring for your culture means not only calling out clear offenses, but habitually seeking to ensure equal opportunity, respect and civility between all workplace members. Give credit where credit is due. Encourage reporting through both words and actions. Robert Eckstein, lead trainer at the University of New Hampshire research group for sexual violence prevention, says sexual harassment training should be a regular work conversation topic. “We’re talking about generations of people getting away with abusing power,” Eckstein quoted for the New York Times. “Thinking you can change that in a one-hour session is absurd. You’re not going to just order some bagels and hope it goes away.
2. Educate bystanders. In effort to encourage sexual harassment reporting, many policies unknowingly place sole responsibility on the target. Unfortunately, reporting can put targets in a vulnerable position. If harassment is reported, targets may be viewed with skepticism, disbelief or suffer from isolation. However, unreported harassment is likely to continue and spread. It’s important for policies and trainings to include specific actions bystanders can take to disrupt, distract and confront harassing behavior. It’s also important for bystanders to care well for targets through validating experiences, reinforcing that targets are not to blame and offering witness in an HR report.
Relieving responsibility from the target puts responsibility on the whole culture, creating a healthier work environment for all employees.
3. Give attention to language. While you may wonder if people are awake during training or if anyone is reading the sexual harassment policy, the language used here shapes workplace culture. Typical policies tend to be all business, but a sexual harassment policy done well should be personal and emotional. If protocol is thoughtfully curated in an effort to truly care for employees, training becomes less about HR box checking and more about serving your people. It’s important to consider possible perceptions of your language as well. People react strongly to labels and quickly reject any categorizations they believe do not apply to them. It is unlikely one would admit to being a “harasser,” but one might admit to “predatory behavior.” Similarly, using the word “target” instead of “victim,” is less exploitive and more empowering. These small changes in language counter the portrayal of men as powerful and women as vulnerable, enabling women to feel confident and credible in the workplace. Actively opposing male/female stereotypes also serves to legitimize all types of harassment, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
Building relationships and supporting employees is a critical part of preventing and recovering from an incident of sexual harassment. Need help? Interested in outsourcing a human resources team? Contact us!
Every year, Servant HR client Edge Mentoring, brings renowned speakers to the heart of Indianapolis for the half-day EDGE|X leadership conference. The conference audience is people leading in all arenas—workplace, community and home—and this year’s EDGE|X conference theme is “People Centered Leadership.”
This theme hits close to home for us in HR, as a good human resources team focuses first on humans! Naturally then, a healthy HR team plays a strong role in organizational leadership development.
While often viewed as a heads-down operation, HR should perhaps be the most people-centered in its vision and approach toward company development. Meeting this expectation requires HR professionals to step up to leadership themselves—consistently offering strategic opportunities for internal growth.
As advocates for employees, it is necessary for HR to prioritize investment in their company’s people. Investment looks like a variety of things, from relationship building to internal promotions, but perhaps the most popular way HR promotes leadership development is corporate training.
Less Training, More Practice
The 70:20:10 principle claims 70% of learning happens from on-the-job experience, 20% from bosses and mentors and 10% from formal training. However, “traditional HR” tends to focus majority of energy on the 10% formal training—seminars dedicated to bagels, leadership styles and self-reflection.
Despite being imbalanced, research also shows too much introspection actually amplifies our blind spots—the exact opposite of the intended effect. Richard Pascale, acclaimed Fortune 500 adviser and faculty member at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, says in his book Delivering Results, “Adults are more likely to act their way into a new way of thinking, than to think their way into a new way of acting.”
Insight vs. Outsight
A more strategic opportunity for leadership development is offering experience. The term “outsight,” coined by UK organizational behavior professor Herminia Ibarra, is defined as “the fresh, external perspective that comes from doing new and different things and interacting with new and different people.”
Directly opposite of formal training guiding you to personality insights, outsight involves trusting the 70:20:10, evaluating job experiences first and trying out employees in different spaces. Spending time with this 70% demonstrates HR as people-centered leaders.
This approach is certainly more difficult. The relational work combined with the risk of assigning jobs different from what employees have done in the past, makes a self-reflection seminar sound pretty good.
However, research shows strategic views of work are developed best through “experience in an internal project outside of usual responsibilities.”
To put it simply, people become better leaders by practicing leadership.
For HR, the job here is understanding the work employees have done forever, and then designing cross functional projects that challenge their comfort levels and offer exposure to senior leadership. Essentially, giving people places to practice.
The Role of HR
Whether outsourcing with a PEO, or housing an internal department, the separation from a company puts human resources in a powerful and unique position. As a kind of third party, HR is able to maintain an objective position when evaluating the needs of an organization.
HR also has access to cross-cutting relationships through its work with every level in a company. Encouraging diverse and externally focused networks for both the work table and the executive table, keeps ideas fresh and lets employees know they are valued by their employer.
This doesn’t mean including random employees in all high-level meetings. But, it does mean assigning side projects and activities to help cultivate new relationships and skills. (After all of that, then we can do the self-reflecting!)
The responsibility of HR is to care for a company as a whole. HR professionals steward their function well by cultivating the best possible relationships and opportunities for both employer and employee. This requires an entirely people-centered approach to leadership, and this approach in return, creates people-centered leaders.
But don’t just take it from us! To learn more about people-centered leadership and how you can cultivate these leaders in your organization, register for the Edge|X conference on Friday, October 5th. We’ll see you there!
“A man does not live on bread alone. He needs buttering up once in a while” – Robert Henry
Well folks, the season of thanksgiving is upon us once again. The turkeys are gobbling, people are making traveling plans and thanks are being given. This is truly a season of gratitude and love for others and taking time to thank employees is no exception… also, gravy.
So how does the thankfulness of the season crossover into the work place? Can it? Many people view work as a means to an end. They work for the weekend, for a paycheck, and for time off. Of course they engage in holidays and seasons, but not at work. Work is a place for progress, profits, and pay-out. It’s a place of meetings, memos, and managers. Unfortunately, it’s thinking like this that keeps those who manage employees from engaging at all during the holiday seasons.
Don’t get me wrong, there should be a distinct balance between work and home. An employee should not have the expectation that Thanksgiving at home will be the same as Thanksgiving at work. My suggestion? Leave the turkey, keep the thanks.
Giving thanks early and often is appropriate at all times, but especially in November and December. This season gives you a wide open door to thank employees unabashedly, with passion and care. Good employees flourish at work when they know that what they do matters. Letting your employees know that their contributions are important to you, the organization, and to their other co-works, enables them to trend upwardly; both in their quality of work and their value added.
There are 3 steps you can take to ensure that you are thanking others well.
KNOW – How can you plan on being a good giver of thanks if you don’t know the person you intend to thank? Take time to understand your employees. Small conversations, shared meals, and project collaboration are just a few ways to organically get to know an individual.
PLAN – Unplanned thanks can come off as cheap and half-hearted. Plan well to thank well. If you don’t do your research, your thanks will miss the mark which could lead to the employee actually feeling less appreciated rather than more appreciated. Investigate unique ways to thank employee (my own list is just below). Poll your office as to what they would appreciate. Finally, don’t be afraid to specifically ask people what they find encouraging or appreciative.
ACT – Just do it. You have your plan, now it’s time to execute. Below are a few creative ideas to show thanks to your employees.
Park like the boss– offer up the best parking spot for a week.
Free lunch– they always say there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but who doesn’t like being treated to a restaurant of their choosing?
Training and Conferences– pay for them to attend events that will grow them personally and professionally. It’s an investment in them and the organization
Extra PTO– people love time off. Give additional hours to employees as a way of saying thanks.
Hand written notes– they add a personal touch. Go a step further by having mailed to the employees home address.
Gift Cards– whether it’s a fuel card,for a restaurant, or for other entertainment purposes, this is a perfect way to enable your employee do enjoy something they love or to fulfill a need they may have.
A Project Pass off– let your employ pass off one project to you and you complete it instead.
Off campus outing– plan a whole or half day somewhere that gets people out of their normal routine. Incorporate team building.
Office Awards– like the Oscars or the Emmys. They can be goofy, light-hearted, and personal to each person.
In this season of Thanksgiving, it’s a great opportunity to thank employees. If you do it well, you and your whole organization will benefit from it. Don’t be a turkey and miss this golden opportunity!
Medical insurance renewal season is usually considered a “necessary evil” in the grand scheme of medical insurance. We want the coverage, but we hate anxiously waiting for the renewal rates. I had the opportunity to sit down with Founder and President of Servant HR, Jeff Leffew, and talk about this topic. During our discussion, Jeff shared his perspective on three key areas’ the Servant HR team gets asked this time of year.
1.) What’s different this year?
Healthcare and medical insurance is ever evolving, which makes renewal seasons unique every year. And this year is no exception. According to Leffew, the biggest distinction is the length of time this renewal season covers. In fact, the renewal season for small groups that are not currently on an Affordable Care Act (ACA) qualified plan will extend until the end of 2017.
What does that mean?
As an example, a company has an Oct. 1st, 2016 renewal date. Instead of renewing Oct. 1st, 2017 (or 12 months from the last renewal) their plan would actually go to the end of 2017 (or a 15 month period). If their renewal date was Dec. 1st, 2016, it would go to the end of December 2017 (or 13 months).
Why is the renewal season length different this year?
When the ACA was established, there were serval provisions given that delayed the ACA from being fully implemented. Because these provisions will be gone by January 1st, 2018, it doesn’t make sense for companies who renew on October 1 to turn around and renew again for only three months.
Why is this important to you?
When you get your renewal percentages, they might be a tad higher than normal because they could be covering 13 or 15 months. It all depends on your renewal date.
2.) Options are dwindling
For small groups in Indiana, the options for medical insurance coverage are beginning to dwindle. According to Leffew, groups with fewer than 50 employees realistically have only three or four providers that will offer quotes.
The reason?
The environment for an insurance company is so complex that it’s difficult and costly for new companies to break into the market. As a result, they barely get off the starting line because looming regulations and complexities make profitability quite stingy for these companies.
3.) Judgement calls are gone
There was a time when the requirements to obtain medical insurance were less formal—less controlled. Those days are over. Now that companies are being held accountable by the federal government, the standards are black and white.
While the intentions may be good, Leffew believes it has taken away the ability for medical insurance companies to make judgement calls. He says, “Not all businesses look alike. There are unique situations, but the human element has been taken out.” With the reality that everyone has to look the “same”, judgement calls become less of a viable option for companies to make.
If you have questions about our top 3 list or need help this renewal season, we’d love to talk with you.
Did you know most hiring managers decide whether they are going to hire someone in the first 3 minutes of an interview? And that is not enough time to conduct an effective interview. In fact, ineffective job interviews often lead to bad hires and that is a costly proposition when you factor in training costs, wages, and lost productivity when you have to do it all over again.
In order to improve your odds, you need to be prepared. Conducting a structured interview requires time and forethought. Some studies suggest businesses spend at least one hour preparing for an hour-long interview. It’s well worth the investment.
Here are the Top Ten tips for conducting more effective job interviews – and hiring the right person.
1. Have a current, accurate and enticing job description. Job descriptions should identify the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities that are critical for the candidate to succeed at the job. What critical need does the company have, and how will the candidate fulfill that need? Make sure to also identify the personality traits required for the specific job. Once you’ve performed the job analysis, develop the interview questions based upon the determined criteria.
2. Create a structured interview process.
Structured interviews help ensure all candidates are treated similarly, and research has indicated they are more effective than unstructured job interviews. To create a structured interview:
Ask every candidate the same interview questions, and plan follow-up questions to likely responses.
Evaluate candidates using an objective and thorough rating scale.
Provide training to all interviewers to enable them to conduct interviews using a consistent method and tangible tools to evaluate candidates so they aren’t relying solely on instinct.
3. Ask behavioral questions.
Asking hypothetical or open-ended questions like “how would you deal with an angry coworker?” or “what are your strengths and weaknesses?” encourages candidates to frame their responses according to what they think the interviewer wants to hear. This is not the best method.
Behavioral interview questions are designed so candidates describe things they actually did in a previous situation and the outcome of their actions. Ask questions like “Tell me about a project you helped initiate. What was your role? What were the results?” and ”Tell me about a time you made an unpopular decision. What were the reactions? How did you respond?”
4. Contact references.
References are a valuable tool for attaining a more complete impression of a candidate. References can verify information, provide feedback on the candidates’ past job performance and accomplishments, and give insight into whether they’ll fit with your company’s culture. They can also verify the accuracy of the examples given in responses to the behavioral questions posed during the interview. When considering a candidate, it’s also prudent to examine their resume to find colleagues who are in your business network and contact them as well.
5. Use the interview to describe the job position.
Interviews are opportunities for managers to give candidates a realistic impression of the job position and the company culture. Some managers are tempted to oversell the company in job interviews, which can ultimately lead to employee dissatisfaction in the long run. Answer questions thoughtfully and candidly and let your natural enthusiasm for the company show, and you’ll help the candidate make an informed decision.
6. Hire for attitude.
At least one study found that 89% of the time new hires failed, it was for attitudinal reasons, not lack of skill. Hire for characteristics that align with the company’s values as well as technical skills. Be proactive about recruiting people who will be good for your team. High performers are a good source of referrals.
7. Don’t take chances.
Sometimes employees can hire candidates with obvious deficiencies, in hopes they will change. There will always be some compromises made, but if a candidate has a track record of burning bridges, missing deadlines, or quitting multiple jobs within a few weeks – their past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior.
8.Silence Can Be Golden.
Try pausing and counting to 5 after an answer to a question you want to know more about. Let them fill in the silence and reveal more.
9. One more interview.
If you have doubts, conduct one more interview. A bad hire is too costly to the company to forgo the additional interview. And if you find you’re deciding between a pool of average candidates, continue the process until you find someone who fits.
10. Look on social media.
Is the candidate on social media such as Twitter or Facebook? What do they comment on? What do they do with their free time? Who are they are linked to on LinkedIn? Social media channels can give a good look into whether someone will fit your culture.
By taking the time to sufficiently prepare for an interview and asking the right questions, companies can improve their chances of hiring the candidate who is best for the job. If you need help developing an effective interview process which produces consistently great results, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
