Career | Sherrie Suski | Career

Workplace Anxiety

May 7, 2018 by Sherrie Suskie

The numbers of people who are affected by anxiety are on the rise. Recent reports estimate that 40 million people are affected by anxiety, roughly 18 percent of the nation’s population.

While it is hard to tell whether this rise is an actual increase in those affected by anxiety or simply an increase in those willing to report it, one thing is for sure, uncontrolled anxiety impacts a person’s quality of life both at home and at work.

Strategies for coping with Anxiety

Ensure that you have a strong support system both at home and at work. Spending time with family and friends is one of the best ways to ease the stress of the day. People who develop strong emotional connections at work have built in safety nets for diffusing some of that stress before it becomes harmful.

Exercise before, during or after work. Everyone has a time when they feel their best. Some may prefer to get up early and for others it is the perfect release after the end of a long day. Some are lucky enough to have company or company sponsored gyms that they can take advantage of during the workday

Take a different perspective, remembering that not everything is urgent. Learning to laugh a little at how busy things can get, automatically eases the stress level.

Try looking at things a different way the next time you feel stressed. For example: Instead of rolling your eyes when yet one more person walks into your office, think of it as how many opportunities you have to impact someone’s life in a positive way. The more the better!

Do something to lighten your own mood. Maybe it’s wearing a funny saying under your work shirt or leaving yourself inspirational messages. Whatever breaks to constant stream of stress, even for a few minutes, will be helpful

Keep a journal of all the crazy, wacky, unbelievable things that happen. Then, after a particularly stressful day, you will be able to review the past happenings and realize that today was no worse than some of the past days have been. They passed and you got through them.

Fake it until you make it. Pretend that you’re not anxious or bothered by what happens at work. Because of something known as cognitive dissonance, the mind can actually adapt to the way you act. If you act like a great, confident, happy employee every day even when you’re genuinely not, you can start to feel the very same positive emotions that you’re pretending to experience, and ultimately reduce your anxiety that way.

The way you handle the anxiety is not as important as finding the approach that works best for you. Don’t be reluctant to reach out for professional help if you have tried numerous approached and nothing seems to be working. Left untreated, anxiety has a negative impact on your quality of life and you deserve only the best!

Human Resources Outsourcing

April 30, 2018 by Sherrie Suskie

With more and more focus on driving the business, operating strategically and automating the mundane and repetitive processes that make up the daily existence of many HR departments, the focus has shifted to what, if anything, can be outsourced. Outsourcing, contemplated and implemented correctly, can be a win win decision from both a cost and efficiency standpoint. This type of arrangement is not the PEO “Professional Employer Organization” where you outsource all of your employees to another organization in the hopes of saving material sums of money while still being able to deliver exceptional customer service. In my opinion, PEO’s are a poor choice for almost every organization. Here we will explore the primary reasons that HR organizations consider outsourcing.

In a SHRM survey the top reason that companies chose to outsource HR functions are as follows

1) 6% of companies outsource to save money- someone who does just one thing but does it very well is often more efficient.

2) 23% of companies outsource to focus on strategy – spreading yourself too thin with all of the administrative tasks doesn’t leave a lot of time for planning and strategy.

3) 22% of companies outsource to improve compliance – it is increasingly challenging to stay in compliance and increasingly risky to not meet requirements.

4) 18% of companies outsource to improve accuracy – if you’ve got too much on your plate accuracy may suffer.

5) 18% of companies outsource due to a lack of experience in-house – knowing your weaknesses is as important as knowing your strengths, so handing off a task you know you can’t handle properly to someone with expertise is a great business decision.

6) 18% of companies outsource to take advantage of technological advances – with big data worth tapping into, but costly technology needed to really delve into strategic analytics, outsourcing can offer solutions without a significant investment.

Almost all HR organizations currently outsource some aspect of their responsibilities, but it has become so common that many don’t even think of it as outsourcing. Below are some of the functions most typically outsourced:

Temporary Staffing- although the mark ups can be high, sourcing and staffing temps is something many take off their plates
Background checks
Pre-employment Physicals
Payroll
Providing mandatory training like Sexual Harassment
Benefits Administration

There are significant benefits to outsourcing if you do your homework upfront, identify your potential cost savings and thoroughly vet your vendors.

2018 Canadian HR Trends

December 27, 2017 by Sherrie Suskie

It is always interesting to look at Human Resources Trends from around the world to explore the similarities and differences of varying cultural perspectives. As our parent company is Canadian, let’s look at a few of the trends that are top of the list for 2018. Morneau Shepell compiles an annual list of Canadian HR Trends:

Insights on what HR leaders are expecting in the coming year:

• Improving employee engagement is a top priority

Employee Engagement is top of mind for companies in the US as well. Not only for altruistic motives, but for the sheer fact that engagement can be tied to better productivity and bottom line numbers all around. Trying to tap into the discretionary effort each employee has is big business. http://www.snacknation.com/guides/definitive-guide-employee-engagement/

• Streamlining administration and absence management continue to be focus areas

Streamlining administration is a worthy cause in any country. Streamlining can take the form of creating new processes or automation. Robotic process automation has real potential to transform the mundane tasks in HR.

• HR leaders continue to be cautious about salary increases. Salaries expected to increase by 2.3 per cent in 2018.

While salary increases are trending just slightly higher in the US, there are still concerns about how to differentiate between average and high performers with such small increase budgets.

• Employers are looking at workforce data in silos, with very few looking at data in an integrated way

Data will be THE FOCUS in 2018 whether in silos or a more integrated approach.

• Complex mental health claims are the top disability management concerns

Large claim management in general is a concern. A few large claims can turn the loss ratios in the wrong direction.

• Manager training is a focus in managing absence and disability

Manager training is a focus for all companies. It should encompass the hard skills like managing absenteeism and disability LOA’s, but should also encompass softer skills like having difficult conversations, confrontation and inspiring your employees.

• Organizations are concerned that their employees are not adequately prepared for retirement

This is a growing concern amongst many US employers as well. Financial wellness training for the workforce is a partial solution. Other approaches may include automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans and writing plan documents to exclude the popular loan provisions.

Companies around the globe have the same goals, to inspire their workforces, yielding a team of more engaged workers and better profits at the bottom line.

Compensation- Getting it Right

November 9, 2017 by Sherrie Suskie

This time of year brings all the excitement of the holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah, among others. Amid all the festivities, for many organizations, it brings Compensation planning activities including revisions of salary structures, decisions on merit increases, promotions, adjustments and bonuses. Before you say “Bah Humbug” let’s take a closer look at how to structure a compensation plan and why it’s so important to your organization.

For all of the articles out there espousing compensation as a short term motivator, compensation speaks to our employees. It tells a story of how we perceive their value in the workplace. There is little that is more important than the value one sees in oneself and that is partly determined by the value others place on us and our contributions.

Ask Questions

You have to start out by asking the right questions in order to determine what your company’s compensation strategy should be. It’s OK not to have all the answers, they will provide topics for discussion with your internal teams.

What are your goals?

It’s important to know what problem you are trying to solve before you launch into a strategy to solve it. Do you have excessive turnover? Are you having a hard time attracting candidates? Are you losing your high potential employees at an alarming rate? Do you need to focus certain groups on different goals

How would you define your market?

Is it defined solely based on a geography you are in? Do you need to include competitors outside of your geographical regions? Is it domestic or do you have international competitors as well? Sometimes, you can get a good clue to identifying this by asking where do your employees come from, and where do they go when they leave?

How competitive do you need to be?

Some disciplines like Big Data are highly competitive and there may only be a handful of candidates that everyone is competing for. On the other hand, if your positions are relatively common and there are many candidates available, you may be able to set you target closer to the 50th percentile and be just fine

What and how should you reward?

What behavior do you want to reinforce and what types of rewards will you give? The most effective plans focus on a Purpose Statement and/or Guiding Principles. Your rewards should ultimately drive the culture you are trying to create. Even monetary rewards come in many different forms. They could be merit increases, promotions, short term or long term cash incentives.

All of the above questions will help to guide you toward the most effective compensation strategy for your organization and drive employee productivity forward.

Hierarchy versus holacracy

October 16, 2017 by Sherrie Suskie

Before we delve into whether or not holacracy is right for your organization, how many of us know what holacracy is? Holacracy is a social technology or system of organizational governance in which authority and decision-making are distributed throughout a holarchy of self-organizing teams rather than being vested in a management hierarchy. In theory, holacracy empowers people to make meaningful decisions and drive change.

Instead of a traditional management structure where questions must go from the bottom to the top and decisions go in reverse, organizations that adopt holacracy empower agile teams of people to make and implement decisions.

Self-organization models typically share three characteristics:

Teams are the structure

In holacracy, there are “circles” or many companies simply call them “teams.” Whatever they’re called, these basic components are not, individuals, and not units, departments, or divisions but they are the essential organizational building blocks. Individual roles are defined and assigned in order to accomplish the work. As in more traditional hierarchical organizations, there may be different teams for different projects or functions like finance, tech, sales. But self-managing enterprises have a lot more of them. After Zappos implemented holacracy, 150 departmental units evolved into over 500 circles.

Teams design and govern themselves

Although self-organizing companies try to avoid the traditional hierarchy, the teams are a part of a larger structure, which they are actually able to shape and refine. Holacratic organizations have everyone sign a constitution—a document outlining the rules by which circles are created, changed, and removed. So the circles not only manage themselves; within those guidelines, they also design and govern themselves. The constitution doesn’t dictate exactly how people should do their tasks. It explains in a broad way how circles should be created and operate: how they should assign roles, what boundaries the roles should have, and how the circles should interact with one another.

Leadership is constantly changing

In self-managed organizations, leadership is distributed among roles, not individual people. People usually hold multiple roles, on multiple teams. Leadership responsibilities continually change as the work changes and as teams create and define new roles. Technology is essential for keeping all these changes straight. The information is accessible to anyone in the organization and each individual’s commitments are visible to everybody at the company. Supposedly, transparency enables cross-team integration.

Although it is becoming a buzz word, holacracy is not being adopted at a rapid pace. The organizations who have tried to adopt it run into a myriad of issues, including increased turnover and decreased productivity given the endless meetings. While some look at it with interest, others simply say it does not work. Next week we will delve into some of the issues that have arisen when organizations have tried to implement holacracy.

Putting Words into Action

September 12, 2017 by Sherrie Suskie

There is never a time more appropriate for putting our words into action than in the midst of unforeseen crises and disasters. We all speak of our employees being our biggest asset, of creating a workforce that is engaged and more productive. We know that when we treat our employees well it builds loyalty, a great culture and better metrics at the bottom line. But how many of us really show our employees, in a meaningful way, that we care about them as more than just employees? That we care about their lives and families outside of work?

I am proud to work for a Company that does just that in a bigger way than I have previously witnessed. The unfortunate, recent, back to back hurricanes have devastated parts of Houston, Texas and many parts of Florida. While many companies put out words of encouragement to stay safe, how many really went the extra mile, went above and beyond?

Here are just a few of the more meaningful ways you can show your employees that you care and, hopefully set an example for other companies to follow:

Full Pay

Ensure your workforce that they will continue to be paid full pay for all the hours/days they are unable to get into the office to work due to the storm or subsequent damage or flooding. Many employees live very close to their paychecks and losing even 1-2 days of pay creates an undue hardship and stress on the family.

Insurance

Many employees do carry renter’s or homeowner’s insurance, as well as car insurance, but may not be able to easily afford the deductibles. Some have purposely chosen policies with lower premiums and higher deductibles in the hopes that they would not run into a situation where they needed them. Most of these deductibles are in the $100-$500 range. Think about what it would mean to your employees if you were to offer to reimburse them for their deductibles?

Housing

We are fortunate enough to be a property management company with homes all over the US. We offered all of our employees under evacuation orders, vacant homes to move into, on a short term basis, in other geographical areas out of harm’s way. Even if you are not so fortunate as to have vacant homes to offer, you can offer to pick up the cost of hotels for the time that the employees are forced to evacuate.

Donations

It probably goes without saying that others want to help in times of need. Set up a Red Cross donation through payroll deduction. Make it easy for the rest of your workforce to assist those in need. When we set this up last week, we have over 20% participation with 45 minutes.

Take this opportunity to put your words into action and show your employees that you do truly care about what they and their families are going through and you are here to help. It’s time we learn to take care of one another out of and in the workplace!

Health Insurance 2018

August 14, 2017 by Sherrie Suskie

PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI) annually projects the growth of health insurance and more specifically, medical costs, in the employer insurance market for the coming year. They also identify the major factors expected to impact the trend. Moving into 2018, the healthcare industry seems to be settling into a “new trend” which is marked by more moderate fluctuations and single-digit medical cost trends

HRI projects 2018’s medical cost trend to be 6.5%—the first uptick in growth in three years.

What does this mean for employers still seeking to get the most for their insurance dollars and provide the best benefits for their employee population? In a labor market that is heating up and becoming more competitive, employers are looking for new cost containment strategies beyond shifting more costs to their employees.

Target Health and Wellness

Many employers are creating wellness programs and enlisting the employees in a partnership arrangement regrading practicing better health habits. Although hard numbers are difficult to come by, many employers believe they are creating a focus on wellness that will pay off at the bottom line. Employers are offering smoking cessation programs, health fairs populated by as many as 100 different vendors, offering everything from multi vitamins to massage, and healthy snacks, like fruit and nuts instead of candy, cupcakes and empty snacks.

Investigate provider arrangements

More employers are taking a harder look the health services they are providing and how those health services are being offered. Some are considering more restrictive arrangements like EPO’s (Exclusive Provider Organizations) where they can get better discounts by decreasing the size of the provider network. Other options include offering 2 tier plans where the employer pays a sizable percentage of the lower plan, but gives the employees an opportunity to “buy up” if they want to choose the more expensive plan.

Evaluate the value of drug spending

Employers are banding together to put pressure on drug companies to moderate price increases. Similar pressures were enacted in the early 1990s and significant decreases in the drug price growth rate.

We are already seeing some pharmaceutical companies take action, limiting price increases, offering cheaper generic alternatives and proactively addressing questions of value in the marketplace.

Even though health insurance price increases have slowed over the past three years, they still outpace inflation and employers need to continue to pursue alternatives that will lead to a healthier workforce and, ultimately, to lower health insurance costs for everyone.

International HR – Germany

July 17, 2017 by Sherrie Suskie

There are significant differences when it comes to the Human Resources organizations in the US versus companies in Germany, and many other countries in the EU.

Managerial Discretion

Anyone who has worked in the US understands that managers and HR have a lot of discretion over who to hire and who and when to terminate. Sometimes these kinds of decisions can be made in a few days or weeks. In Germany, specifically, these types of decisions are months if not years long, with serious infractions needing to have taken place. Germany has a co-determination practice. Co-determination is a practice whereby the employees have a role in the management of a company. The word is a literal translation from the German word Mitbestimmung.. In some countries, like the USA, the workers have virtually no role in corporate management; and in others, like Germany, their role is more important.

Wage differences

In the US, many studies show that white collar workers can make as much as 20 times that of blue collar workers in the same company. This is drastically different than in Germany. Germany is known for its balanced remuneration system. The average white-collar worker’s wage is only 20% over the average blue collar worker`s wage. In addition, companies are not allowed to hire skilled workers from other companies by offering higher salaries.

Company Loyalty

Here too, the perception differs. In the US, workers are generally always in search of something new or better, and there is very little company loyalty. In Germany, employees feel a much greater sense of loyalty to their companies and, general, will not leave. They will look for opportunities within their current company or subsidiaries and the company will work hard to provide those.

Management decisions

While the US is typically a very individualistic society, making quick decisions and reversing them if necessary, Germany, in stark contrast, tends to work like a democracy in their companies. It is important the whole team has a say and the whole team is bought into the decision. While this can seem appealing, the trade off is time. Decision making will take much longer with a group of employees when everyone needs to be in agreement.

Both cultures have their pros and cons and neither is necessarily best. The US, acting as an impulsive, decisive, all knowing teenager and Germany as the wise parent, moving slowly with certain purpose.

International HR – UK

July 17, 2017 by Sherrie Suskie

Differences between the UK and US

Much like there are slight difference between states in the US, like the timing of final pay for an involuntary or voluntary termination, ranging from day of termination in California to next scheduled pay period in Georgia, there are greater difference amongst countries around the world. Many of these differences relate to working hours and leave.

Overtime

In the UK, for instance, employees cannot be required to work more than 48 hours in a work week, while in the US, there are companies that require, legally, far in excess of this amount, especially during peak seasonal times.

Vacation Pay

While most workers in the US get 10 paid vacation days per year, their lucky UK counterparts are enjoying more than twice that at 28 days. And, if you are in the UK, you are going on “holiday”, not on “vacation.”

Maternity Leave

In the UK you can take a year off for maternity leave without losing your employee rights. No matter how long you’ve worked for a company. Just let the company know 15 weeks before the due date. The official UK maternity leave policy – known as Statutory Maternity Leave (SMP) – means that employees will still earn money for up to 39 weeks. During the first 6 weeks they receive 90% of their average weekly earnings before tax.

Then for the next 33 weeks either £136.78 pounds sterling (about $225 US per week) or 90% of their average weekly earnings before tax depending which is lower. Their employee rights, including holiday entitlements and pay raises, are safeguarded during the time they take off. Compare that to the 6-8 weeks that most US employees take and only receive 66% of their normal wages IF they have SDI.

Time management

June 19, 2017 by Sherrie Suskie

There have been copious articles written about time management and everyone no doubt has their favorite strategies. The below are a few that I have found to be helpful in the workplace and in life in general.

Know yourself

Part of being a good time manager is knowing what behaviors prevent you from managing your time effectively. The link below gives you a quick summary spreadsheet for determining what your behavior is to day and what your behavior should be in the future to maximize your time. It is helpful to know when your energy is at its peak- is that early morning, late night or somewhere in between. This will help you to plan critical activities for when your energy level is the highest.

Multi-task

I know this is contrary to many time management theories out there, but wherever possible, multi-task, especially when something does not require your full attention. When you give up the idea of doing only one thing at a time and look for ways to do two, you can get a whole lot more done. Some quick examples: If you’re on the West coast, schedule East Coast calls on your drive into work. Owe the Far East a call back, pop in your earbuds and make the call while you’re making dinner. 6:00pm pst is around 8:00am there.

Touch each e-mail or piece of paper once

This one is big. We all have a tendency to want to “think about” it for a bit and then answer which is likely the answer you would have given in the first place. Force yourself, unless there is truly research that is needed, to answer right away.

Start the night before

A big time saver is to lay out your next day the night before. This allows you to hit the ground running in the morning and not have to stop and get organized. Know what you need to accomplish that day, in terms of key deliverables and follow up items.

Get your follow up items out early so that it allows people time to work on them during the day.

Take a break

While this may sound counterintuitive, often times taking a quick 10 minute break will help you to re- focus and complete a task in a shorter amount of time than if you had stayed with it past your ability to really focus.

Determine what is urgent and what isn’t

Not every e-mail that comes in must be answered right away. Some of the best time managers only answer their e-mails 1-2 times/day. You would be amazed at how many strings of conversation there are where you are only peripherally involved and if you just let them play out, you can catch the last e-mail and be completely up to speed.

Everyone has strategies that work better for them than others. Don’t be afraid to try 20 or 3- and then pick the top 5 that really do save you time and increase efficiency.