Workplace Anxiety

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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

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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:

  1. Temporary Staffing- although the mark ups can be high, sourcing and staffing temps is something many take off their plates
  2. Background checks
  3. Pre-employment Physicals
  4. Payroll 
  5. Providing mandatory training like Sexual Harassment 
  6. 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

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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.

Predictive Analytics in Human Resources

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Data based decision making and predictive analytics are buzz words you are hearing a lot about these days.  However, they are emerging from the dark corners of the developer’s worlds and into the light of mainstream business operations. I was speaking at an Analyst update earlier this week and the question came up “which companies do you follow that are using predictive analytics in Human Resources?”   A great question, but the answer was, unfortunately, no one.  Although it may be some time before this data based approach becomes mainstream in the world of Human Resources, there are a plethora of reasons it should.  

Let’s start with a definition of predictive analytics.  It is basically just a script or a technology that learns from current data and then uses that current data to “predict” or forecast upcoming data or behavior. Think about how your credit score works.  The rating agencies use data, your past history of paying on time, as well as other data points, to “predict” your ability and willingness to pay on time for a new loan.

HR has massive set of data on its employees.  By applying predictive analysis to these data sets, HR moves toward becoming more of a strategic partner at the table.  Decisions become fact and data based instead of depending on someone gut feelings or instincts.  Predictive analytics allows HR to forecast the impact that different policies will have on their workforce and to get ahead of the curve on turnover, candidate success models and employee engagement.

From Deloitte’s 2017 Global Human Capital Trends Survey. While 71 percent of companies see people analytics as a high priority in their organizations (31 percent rate it very important), progress has been slow. The percentage of companies correlating HR data to business outcomes, performing predictive analytics, and deploying enterprise scorecards barely changed from last year.

Analytics is being applied to a wide range of business challenges: Recruiting remains the No. 1 area of focus, followed by performance measurement, compensation, workforce planning, and retention. We see an explosive growth in the use of organizational network analysis (ONA) and the use of “interaction analytics” (studying employee behavior) to better understand opportunities for business improvement.

Staffing and on-boarding tends to be an area that we think of first when it comes to utilizing Predictive Analytics.  We all want to be able to predict the success of the candidate in the role.  Progressive HR organizations are using interview data, careful parsing of job posting language, and candidate screening data to do just that. New tools that look at social and local hiring data can even help companies identify people who are “likely to look for new jobs” much before they are even approached by competitors.

Turnover is another area that could greatly benefit from this approach.  Capturing and reporting on it is nice, but what about getting ahead of it?  What about using data to be able to predict who is likely to submit their resignation within the next 3 months and conducting extensive stay interviews with those employees? Or being able to offer them an Individualized Development Plan to solidify their engagement?

There are a multitude of opportunities to utilize Predictive Analytics to help us make better decisions across the board in each of our organizations.

Compensation- Getting it Right

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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. 

 

Holocracy- Implementation Challenges

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Last week we talked about Holocracy, what it is and what its advocates say the potential benefits are.  But in reality, does Holocracy work ?  Can a type of self-management that gives decision making power to fluid teams, or “circles,” and roles rather than individuals yield results and better decisions than a traditional structure?  How well do people deal with the uncertainty that a holocratic approach creates? 

Sourcing and Hiring

Holocracy models complicate sourcing and hiring decisions.  How do you advertise for a job that is comprised of ever changing micro roles and how do you assess whether the person sitting in front of you actually is competent at those micro roles and any other talents they might have?  People are used to looking for traditional job titles, but in holocracy, there are no traditional job titles.  Do management level employees worry that deviating from their career path might stall out their careers.  What if they are at a Director level now and you are trying to recruit for a team member with a skill set normally held by an Accounting Dir.  How many would take a “team or circle member” title?

Micro Roles

Another issue that holocracy creates is the formation of micro roles.  No longer is one individual responsible for a specific set of set roles, but a swirling set of micro roles that are ever changing.  It can complicate the work actually getting done as employees may be responsible for up to 25 different responsibilities and struggle with prioritizing them and deciding where to focus first.  They may be members of a number of different circles and have weighty responsibilities to each, but not be able to satisfy all of them or be forced to prioritize in conflict with others. 

Compensation

Compensation becomes difficult as well.  Not only are there struggles with determining internal equity as this now requires each of 100’s of micro roles to be assessed and the value of these roles change as new circles are created and as the organization matures and different skills become more or less valuable, but external equity is an issue.  How do you go to the market to assess the worth of a position when there is no longer a match for the position?  There is nothing to compare the person’s position to.

Unlearning old behavior

For holocrcay to be successful it necessitates that both bosses and subordinates unlearn old behavior.  If everyone is truly to be tapped for their full potential then there cannot be those who are hesitant to express opposing views in front of what used to be superiors.  This is a hard habit to break for both bosses and subordinates.  It is hard for leaders to learn to step back and not lead all the time.

Holocary has yet to be proven as a model that offers significant benefits over a traditional structure. The best of both worlds may be to incorporate some of the circle mentality into the traditional structure allowing everyone a voice to be heard and encouraging growth horizontally as well as vertically.

Hierarchy versus holacracy

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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.

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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

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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!

Let leaders lead

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Most who enter the Human Resources disciplines due so out of a desire to help others and to help the organization to align their employee workforce with the goals of the company to further productivity.  Often times, however, we forget to let our leaders lead.  Especially as an organization grows, HR functions need to adopt a “train the trainer” approach more than a train everyone approach.  Although enlightened organizations put their full support and resources into HR functions, the team still has a responsibility to be able to scale the organization without adding significant numbers of HR team members.  Efficiency is key.

Train- the- trainer

A train-the-trainer model allows experienced trainers to show a less-experienced individuals how to deliver courses, workshops and seminars. http://work.chron.com/train-trainer-model-5463.html Usually, a new instructor first observes a training event led by the course designer. A train-the-trainer approach can build a pool of competent instructors who can then teach the material to other people. Instead of having just one instructor who teaches a course for a long time, you have multiple instructors teaching the same course at the same time. This ensures that employees get timely training to complete tasks according to company policies and procedures.

Identify SME’s

SME’s or subject matter experts exist in all corners of the organizations and at all levels.  It is a fairly good bet that your excel gurus are not sitting in the corner office.  Tap those resources!  Find out how has a skill set that the rest of the organization could benefit from and engage the SME to deliver the training. This serves two purposes.  One, it enhances your pool of trainers and two, it gives well deserved recognition to a group of people who might be overlooked otherwise, further engaging them in the business.  

Step out of the way

The inclination is to teach every class to every audience, but the real goal is to get the training out to a broad audience in a timely manner.  Like a proud parent, you need to teach your junior trainers your techniques, ensure that they know their material, do a few dry runs with them and then let them launch.  Will it be perfect, no. Will it improve with time, yes and will you gain far more by engaging your workforce then trying to do it all yourself, a big YES!

Training is not a one and done.  It is a process over an unending period of time that, done correctly, not only teaches a new skill, but also engages and inspires a workforce to do greater things both in their work and personal lives.

Organizational Value

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There are multiple ways a Human Resources organization can add value.  Too often though, there is a mismatch between the value that HR is bringing and the growth and maturity curve of a company.  Imagine, for instance, heading HR for a large, established, multinational corporation and believing that the value HR brings lies in the mechanics of setting up employee files, creating salary structures and running benefit programs.  Conversely, imagine a situation where there is a relatively small start =up company.  The company has grown to the size, maybe 100 employees, where they finally need an HR presence.  The person selected start out by talking about aligning the employees to the organizational objectives, but the organizational objectives have yet to be defined.  It is important to always keep in mind the match between the HR function and the organization.  There are three primary ways that HR can bring true value to an organization.

Mechanics

HR has the responsibility to provide the basic mechanics of the HR function.  This can include such basics as:

  • Running ads and hiring for candidates
  • Creating salary structures to ensure the workforce is paid correctly
  • Selecting and running health insurance plans
  • Keeping I-9’s
  • Running basic training programs
  • Legal Compliance

Processes

Moving along the continuum, HR should provide the processes that ensure that an organization can scale efficiently

  • Hiring becomes……. an on-boarding process with predictive capability
  • Providing benefits becomes ……..a well thought out approach to which benefits, how to create a benefit matrix and judgment applied to the types and cost sharing of benefits
  • Legal compliance becomes……an understanding of what we are trying to accomplish and how best to accomplish it
  • Basic Training programs become….. Training program that meet key corporate objectives where impact is measurable
  • Basic compensation administration becomes…..internal and external equity comparisons, creative approaches to a three pronged approach and the most bang for our buck, social performance management systems

Strategy

Where HR can truly contribute the most value is when the Mechanics and Processes are in place and we can step back and view the big picture strategy.  Where are we going and how are we going to get there?

  • Thoroughly understand the goals of the organization and get ahead of the curve- what processes, practices and strategies will be needed in 1 year?  3 years?
  • Communicate corporate goals that align the workforce to the vision and mission of the Company
  • Align processes and programs across the organization to create high performing teams
  • Continually monitor the pulse of the organization and make recommendations to solve small problems before they become big ones
  • Assist executive teams to make sense of the internal and external environments and the impact they have on the organization

What do we hope to Achieve?

Crafted effectively, we orchestrate the above to achieve:

  • Increased alignment between organizational objectives and employee population goals
  • Most value extracted from each hire
  • Greater employee engagement yielding greater employee satisfaction
  • Reduced turnover
  • Better hiring decisions
  • Better use of resources reflected at the bottom line