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What’s the Difference Between the PHR vs SHRM-CP vs SPHR?
Not sure what the difference between the PHR, the SHRM-CP, and the SPHR is? We’re here to help! Find everything you need to know right here.
The post What’s the Difference Between the PHR vs SHRM-CP vs SPHR? appeared first on Workology.
Some Workers Are Ready to Embrace AI, But Others Fear It
?Half of U.S. workers believe that automating some of their job duties using artificial intelligence technology would give them more time to focus on other areas of their work, while nearly a quarter are concerned their job will be replaced by AI in the next few years, according to a SHRM survey.
The poll of 521 U.S. workers was conducted in March and April by SHRM in response to the rising awareness of and adoption of automation, machine learning and AI tools.
HR professionals are at the intersection of AI and an increasingly complex workplace as policymakers begin to regulate and address the technology’s use across the country.
The SHRM survey data also shows that over one-third (35 percent) of respondents think workplace automation and AI will become even more prevalent in U.S. workplaces in the next few years.
“We know that people have fears about job loss depending on what part of the economy they are in,” said J.P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, a market research company in Cambridge, Mass. “We know that people are not always able to adapt to new tools quickly, and in the case of something as different as AI, that can be challenging. The disruption caused by this kind of shift is an opportunity, but it can also create mayhem if not managed with an intentional strategy that brings people along on the journey.”
Gownder said introducing automation and AI in the workplace requires a big investment in the workforce and leadership. “People don’t just walk into their job ready to deal with AI,” he said. “And when AI comes into someone’s job, people are not ready to contend with it right away.”
The majority of SHRM survey respondents (57 percent) are confident their organization could train them to properly use AI at their job.
“There is opportunity with these tools to be more productive and more strategic, assuming people are trained properly,” said Jeanne Meister, executive vice president at Executive Networks, a San Francisco-based resource group for HR leaders. She is also the founder of the Future Workplace Academy, which provides learning and research on the future of work.
“Companies have to focus on communication and need to do a better job reframing how AI is not a threat but a tool,” Meister said. “People will not be replaced by AI as much as they may be replaced by someone who knows how to use AI.”
Additionally, new roles related to AI will be developed. Meister said these could include a human-machine manager, who works with the talent acquisition team to make sure chatbots are programmed properly, or an algorithm bias officer, who makes sure the AI being used is fair, legal and ethical.
Another problem for organizations is how some employees are using generative AI tools such as ChatGPT at work. “HR needs to be on top of this trend,” Meister said.
Gownder agreed, noting that computer work up until now has largely been deterministic, meaning the user can determine what the outcome of pressing a button will be. But using generative AI is probabilistic, meaning the user is not completely sure what the result will be and has no way to evaluate the result that the machine spits out.
“At the end of the day, companies need to keep humans in the loop on all of this, because AI systems are making things up, they are producing misleading results, they can violate copyright laws,” Gownder said. “There is a lot of risk in letting AI run roughshod over your enterprise without the proper governance and training.”
Metaverse Workers: Where to Find Them—How to Hire Them
?You’ve likely head of the metaverse by now, even if you don’t quite know what it is. Like any new technological innovation, it’s a concept that is capturing the attention of consumers and businesses alike.
The metaverse is a term used to refer to virtual worlds that exist on the Internet where users can engage with the environment—and with other visitors in those settings.
Many businesses have already firmly established a presence in the metaverse. A PwC survey of U.S. company leaders indicated that 32 percent said they were planning to hire a “metaverse leader”—51 percent said they already have roles that are focused to some degree on metaverse activity.
Of the 1,000 respondents, 66 percent said their organizations were “actively engaged in the metaverse.”
It’s hard to know what that means, specifically, given the wide range of ways the metaverse may or may not work. But it’s a clear indication that it’s a concept that business leaders across all industries are paying attention to.
The challenge, of course, is finding people who have the knowledge, skills, abilities—and experience—to work with, and in, the metaverse.
Metaverse Still Holds Some Uncertainty
The metaverse is such a new concept that there aren’t yet any graduates with metaverse degrees—although that’s on the horizon, with schools like the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania already dabbling in this space.
But some knowledge and hands-on experience can help talent find a way to land jobs working in the metaverse. Wright State University student Showri Chitti, for instance, graduated in the spring of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. While at school, he had an internship with Veera Engineering which led to a full-time job. When Veera merged with Reach, a company that hosts metaverse spaces, Chitti was ready to step into a role with them.
“I was always fascinated with the concept of the blockchain and its uses, which made it easier for us to build a metaverse that is actually useful for people,” he said.
Still, the idea of “a stable and reliable metaverse” is still years away, said Victor Anaya, CEO and co-founder of Serviap Global, an employer of record and recruitment services provider, with offices in the Americas, Asia, Brazil and Europe. “What will be needed is not immediately clear.”
Despite the newness of these roles, though, there is some agreement on the types of skills that may be foundational for the metaverse workers of today—and tomorrow.
Skills Required to Work In, and On, the Metaverse
Andy Morgan is senior vice president at 2U, the parent company of edX, an open online course provider. Software engineering employees, Morgan said, will need to be “up-to-speed on the most relevant coding languages which, for building the metaverse, include Java—the primary coding skill in game development where the metaverse has made the most progress. Python is also critical, as machine learning plays a big role in building experiences in the metaverse, as well as C# used to build out blockchain technologies, which will be necessary for required security protocols.”
Despite the newness of these roles, though, some of the skills likely to be needed to excel in this area may not be that different from skills needed to succeed in other technology and customer engagement fields.
As Kyle Elliott, founder and career coach at CaffeinatedKyle.com, pointed out: “Many of the skills and competencies needed for the metaverse are similar to those that help workers survive when working on other cutting-edge technologies. These include the ability to thrive in ambiguity, comfort in stressful environments, a high-risk tolerance, and the ability to move forward after failing.”
Marketing and consumer experience expertise will also be important. A focus on the user experience, for instance, arguably could, and should, be a requirement for any business role. Understanding your customers (internal and external) and their needs is obviously important for driving positive experiences and outcomes. The metaverse is all about user experience.
And, of course, because the metaverse was initially the playground of gamers, those with experience in gaming may have certain skills and competencies that organizations moving in this direction will demand.
EY asked gaming executives for their input about the future of gaming and how their companies fit into the metaverse. Their responses indicate a confidence in their understanding of the metaverse that others may not yet have. For instance, when asked: “How advanced is your grasp on the concept of the metaverse?” Fifty percent said, “I understand what the metaverse is, how it works and how my organization will participate in it.”
“As first movers, gaming companies have already built an early prototype of the metaverse,” EY noted, “and their position as early adopters is well-known across industries.”
Finding—or Developing—Talent to Work in the Metaverse
HR leaders should be taking steps now to help position their organizations to find or develop the talent needed to excel in the metaverse.
Morgan said: “When a major and disruptive technology like the metaverse, or artificial intelligence, rapidly enters the business landscape and social zeitgeist, it’s critical that HR professionals align with their leadership teams to consider how this new technology may affect existing roles, and the new functional skills that will need to be built interlay to ensure the organization is best placed to leverage the opportunities—and take on the potential challenges—the technology may present.”
HR, Morgan added, will be one of four key functions that will need to come together to effectively leverage the potential of the metaverse. HR, tech, product and marketing teams “should be at the forefront of helping their organizations understand what the metaverse is, how it impacts employees and consumers, and the challenges and opportunities this exciting new technology will bring,” he said.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a freelance writer in Chippewa Falls, Wis.
The Pandemic Public Health Emergency Ends This Week. Here’s What To Know
May 11 marks the end of the COVID-19 pandemic public health emergency (PHE)—the beginning of a significant phase in the pandemic response in the U.S., as well as the ending of a series of benefits enabled by the emergency.
President Joe Biden announced earlier this year he would not renew the PHE or the pandemic national emergency again after May. Both had been in place since early 2020. Biden signed a resolution in April ending the national emergency earlier than intended, although that early end didn’t shift some of the original deadlines as spelled out in previous administration guidance.
The end of the PHE means a number of provisions will end, including mandates that health insurance plans fully cover COVID-19 testing without employee cost-sharing. May 11 also will mark the end of the COVID-19 vaccine mandates for federal employees, federal contractors and some health care workers.
There are significant implications for employers regarding the end of PHE, as well as the end of the national emergency, said Wade Symons, regulatory resources group leader at consulting and professional services firm Mercer. Organizations will need to make decisions regarding COVID-19 vaccine and testing coverage, as well as other issues.
So what should employers know? What should they do? We rounded up SHRM Online stories to help employers better understand what the end of the emergencies means.
Employers Will Have to Make Decisions for the End of the Emergencies
What exactly does the end of the PHE and national emergency mean for employers and their health and benefits plans? And how should they address it?
The PHE, for instance, mandates that health insurance plans fully cover COVID-19 testing without employee cost-sharing, on both an in- and out-of-network basis. But that requirement now changes, meaning medical plans, including employer-sponsored plans, do not have to pay for testing and will have to decide how to proceed.
“That’s a bit of a decision point,” Mercer’s Symons said. “Employers will have to decide: How are we going to cover COVID testing going forward? Are we going to continue to do what we did before and pay for it? Are we going to limit it to in-network only? Are we going to restrict further how employees can get over-the-counter tests?”
New Guidance Helps Employers Navigate End of the Emergency Orders
Employers have some clarity on test and vaccine coverage and on how to unwind pandemic-era extended deadlines, including for COBRA continuing health care coverage elections.
This clarity comes courtesy of frequently asked questions (FAQ) guidance issued March 29 by the U.S Department of Labor (DOL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and U.S. Department of the Treasury. The FAQ guidance includes details on COVID-19 diagnostic testing, coverage of vaccines, and the extended deadlines for COBRA, special enrollments, and group health plan claims and appeals.
COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Federal Workers Will End May 11
The Biden administration announced May 1 that the COVID-19 vaccine mandates for federal employees, federal contractors and some health care workers also will end on May 11.
“While vaccination remains one of the most important tools in advancing the health and safety of employees and promoting the efficiency of workplaces, we are now in a different phase of our response when these measures are no longer necessary,” the White House said in a statement. HHS and the Department of Homeland Security will also end their vaccine requirements for Head Start employees and health care workers at many facilities certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, according to the White House.
Biden Ends Pandemic National Emergency
Biden signed a Republican-led resolution to end the pandemic national emergency on April 10, a month earlier than originally planned. The national emergency is one of two that have granted special permissions and provided support during the pandemic.
Early End to National Emergency Won’t Change July 10 Deadline
Biden in April ended the pandemic national emergency weeks earlier than expected—but the premature ending won’t shift the deadlines spelled out in the administration’s guidance from March, including the extended deadline for special enrollment in health plans.
The DOL has unofficially clarified that although the national emergency ended April 10 instead of May 11, previous guidance it issued in the form of frequently asked questions stands, including that the outbreak period—originally slated for 60 days after the national emergency ends—will still end on July 10. That date is significant for employers because it marks the end of the special enrollment period that gives employees up to a year to enroll in a health plan after a major life event, rather than the standard 30 days employees normally have to enroll in a plan after such an event.
July 10 will also mark the end of some COBRA-related relief, under which employees were allowed extra time to pay their COBRA premiums or to decide whether they wanted to use the coverage.
Ivy Overseas â a special Dating & Matchmaking service strengthening Successful Single Pros to obtain the Great Partner
The small variation: When Matchmaker Inga Verbeeck created Ivy Global, she was obvious about her driving philosophy: to keep genuine to the woman belief with what she phone calls “trickle-down-lov-o-nomics” as a means of causing a more happy world. Inga told you whenever winning, important individuals find pleasure inside their relationships it trickles into every facet of their particular physical lives and in to the life of those around them. Along with her lineup of consumers well worth vast amounts and 16 practices around the world are proof her tailored, psychology-based approach to matchmaking really works. At Ivy Global, Inga and her staff are helping the world’s high-net-worth singles connect to partners which display their particular lifestyles and aspirations.
Show
Ivy Overseas creator and CEO Inga Verbeeck provides committed her life to both the company and secret of assisting important experts select really love. Since 2011, this experienced matchmaker and business person has given above 300 couples the secrets to unlock rewarding, romance-filled futures together.
“i believe whenever we could bring even more delight to individuals â?? especially to high-net-worth people who are important and have now power â?? subsequently hopefully we can really make a difference,” Inga mentioned.
The woman knowledge of society and desire for helping others is key to the woman long-term success. Inga’s early are a yachting journalist and professional photographer allowed their to report the world over â?? a learning experience that will inform her later on are operator and company specialist.
With a master’s level in financing and knowledge of news media, she became President of the leading intercontinental metallic trading and investing business at 30. After 13 many years for the metal business, Inga chose to pursue matchmaking because, almost everywhere she looked, she observed the majority of people provided a desire to locate lasting really love.
As a successful company woman, Inga was also in a position to deliver her special viewpoint on gender roles when you look at the pro globe into her make use of effective singles.
“Although we have progressed towards getting more equal, there is nevertheless many work to be achieved towards true sex equivalence,” she mentioned. “Because of the whole feminist movement, plenty of the male is confused. They aren’t yes just what females desire.”
Inga told you it is Ivy International’s aim to aid link these gaps in comprehension and produce opportunities of an eternity for contemporary singles. Inga along with her group tend to be determined to grant the best of worth for clients. With a normal power to read and match individuals, this woman is focused on providing her members with a world-class experience that’s sure to produce solid results. Also it all begins with a strategy that leaves customers in control of their destinies.
Individualized account Packages Capture Clients’ Goals
When you join Ivy Global, you might be more than simply a number. Inga and her staff go above and beyond to generate a lasting effect and a one-of-a-kind knowledge through coaching created to guide, encourage, and, in certain cases, test consumers to move onward.
“every little thing we would is individual, discrete and accomplished using the greatest degree of professionalism,” Inga mentioned.
Membership charges begin with 15,000 euros for a Standard Membership. Executive and Premium account costs and details are discussed with consumers only after a one-on-one conference due to the customized nature among these plans. But whichever path clients get, they can rest easy their unique work is likely to be fruitful. Ivy Overseas’s rate of success consistently boost, with a 92per cent of male customers discovering partners in the 1st year.
“Yes, we have been matchmakers, but correct achievements in matchmaking means making it possible for so much more than that,” Inga said. “such a thing from goal setting and life mentoring to styling and internet naughty dating decorum courses â?? there is a thorough service eating plan that may be transparently tailored to each person’s needs.”
Ivy International customers start from 23 to 82 yrs old and generally are based primarily in European countries, the united states and also the Middle East. The majority of Ivy consumers fall in this bracket of 35 to 55; however, the organization has actually certain products for promising youngsters including silver singles (or those above 65). Inga told united states membership and customer variety is the reason why Ivy International be noticeable.
“There is a very worldwide and varied clients with a big team getting entrepreneurs and C-level control, and creative people such photographers, performers, artists, and much more,” she said.
A Heart-Centered Magazine That Hones in upon enjoy as a Lifestyle
For Inga along with her team, matchmaking is more than a rigorous formula â?? it’s a way of living that captures the skill of really love. And absolutely nothing supports more than Ivy mag.
As part of a future relaunch, Inga told you she actually is turning the online journal into a blog-based structure and you will be posting print editions every six months. Inga mentioned the mag encourages discretion helping make a communication platform the spot where the staff can discuss knowledge, motivate other individuals, and offer insights inside matchmaking career.
“our very own solution is extremely bespoke, private and discrete, and in all of our mag you certainly will demonstrably maybe not find any information regarding our very own users,” Inga said. “Just the Inspirations area is viewable of the wide general public once we set out to spread your message about matchmaking and put a conclusion to almost any taboos men and women might associate with it.”
Through Ivy Magazine, Inga is actually devoted to sharing tips, tips, and expertise about all things like, meals, and existence.
Inga informed all of us the printing mag will take care of similar topics once the on line journal however with a more impressive focus on really love and connections.
“we shall not be undertaking travel tips and things such as that but wider, much more in-depth material, such as collaborations and interviews,” she mentioned. “the whole thing will focus on love as glue plus the usual subject.”
People Are making reference to the group’s triumph & Accountability
Out of all of the of her pro achievements, Inga mentioned the woman is very proud of having located the enthusiastic and skilled team on her Ivy Global team. Folks have really used notice as well as have arrive at depend on the group for assist to get a hold of an amazing partner with provided principles, an identical way of living, and possibly a like-minded approach. Most importantly, Ivy downline guarantee clients your right partner in fact is nowadays.
“all of us is vital,” Inga mentioned. “It’s probably the thing I’m many happy with: assembling an original staff of people that are the center of Ivy.”
Inga informed united states her team is extremely varied and result from several social backgrounds â?? with 11 different nationalities on-board. And, although team may hail from different locations world wide, Inga stated discover considerably children feeling present at Ivy Overseas.
“The firm culture within Ivy is like a family group,” she said. “We cook meals collectively, we practice yoga with each other, and just have quarterly team-building and workout sessions in a variety of countries.”
Inga and her staff have already been commonly covered into the push to be considered leaders in terms of exploring brand-new ways to top-quality matchmaking. Inga is included on several intercontinental development stores and this also team’s successes prove over and over that people exactly who excel rise above the crowd.
“Every single one people is enthusiastic and pushed by the company’s purpose and philosophy,” Inga stated. “I do believe in inspiring management and letting each team user to grow on their potential. I really believe there is developed a really nurturing planet and is especially important in our company once we want to empower all of our consumers continually and propel them toward achievements.”
After that for Ivy Overseas: Rebranding & increasing providers Globally
Inga is certainly not anyone to sleep on the laurels. She actually is consistently trying drive the package of her own success by continuing to rebrand and develop. Ivy are completely re-launching its brand and internet site in 2018.
“It’s fairly exciting since it is whatever you’ve been taking care of for the past couple of years,” Inga mentioned. “We unearthed that the matchmaking business certainly needed a big change. That is why our company is disrupting and genuinely re-inventing it.”
At the same time, Inga is top the company because it took its headhunting expertise one stage further. Ivy International plans to invest in worldwide, elegant, and inspiring campaigns, which are communicated through different networks for only intent behind producing an environment of chance of those people that require or are interested. To have a preview from the type of ideas that are being formulated, go to SearchForVenus.com. Inga’s objective is consistently improve Ivy’s reputation as a distinctive, unique solution agency.
“creating a change within the everyday lives in our clients indicates globally to united states, and it is why is every group member begin every single day with a grin,” she said. “the consumers’ journeys around broadens their unique horizon and gives possibilities that couldn’t occur in the usual road of existence.”
With the new tagline, “Ama Tempus Tuum” â?? which means “Love your own time” â?? Inga along with her staff desire to motivate men and women to end up being hands-on about their really love physical lives.
“every day life is too short to simply sit around and wait a little for the opportunity to appear,” Inga said. “Your time is one of valuable item, therefore we must spend it sensibly. Understanding existence and riches without really love? We all have the need to fairly share life and all of our very own happy minutes with somebody we like. It surely makes the journey of existence beneficial!”
Ask HR: What Can Be Done About a Negative Manager?
?SHRM President and Chief Executive Officer Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, is answering HR questions as part of a series for USA Today.
Do you have an HR or work-related question you’d like him to answer? Submit it here.
My manager regularly accuses me of making mistakes and criticizes my work without fully understanding the situation. It seems like she doesn’t like me or want me there. In two years, I have never received a word of positive feedback from her. Though I like the company, my situation just isn’t tolerable. What’s the best way to tender my resignation without burning bridges with the company? –Janae
Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.: Having your work be unfairly characterized can be extremely demoralizing, especially when you don’t receive recognition for your positive contributions. People managers set the tone for the work environment, and their harsh, overbearing and punitive behavior can quickly create a toxic workplace. It would be one thing if your manager were critical sometimes and complimentary at other times. Understandably, this singular focus on the negative erodes the supervisor/subordinate relationship.
While I am not privy to all the details of your situation, good management should provide consistent positive and negative feedback. Does your manager treat other workers similarly? Who else is aware of your manager’s pattern of behavior? Can a co-worker corroborate your concerns? Someone outside the situation should be aware of any unresolved issues between you and your manager. Even if the issues aren’t addressed immediately, other leaders and HR should have the situation on their radar. If you addressed this with your manager and have yet to find a resolution, then now is the time to contact HR. They will generally investigate to determine whether your manager has done anything wrong. Depending on the circumstances, HR may suggest you work separately from your manager or take leave, or it may have your manager take leave while the investigation is ongoing. Ultimately, any decision to resign prior to the investigation’s conclusion is your own.
If you decide to resign, review your company policies to ensure you adhere to their requirements (giving notice, providing a letter, etc.). If you choose to fully disclose your reason for leaving, do so constructively and professionally. Additionally, offering to assist with the transition of your responsibilities during your notice period would typically be well-received. Be prepared, though, as an employer may decide not to allow you to work through your notice period. You can meet with HR on your last day and complete an exit interview. This may be an excellent opportunity to provide additional details about your resignation. Again, you’ll want to maintain professionalism. HR will likely take your feedback and provide coaching to your manager.
As you move on to interview for new positions, refrain from disparaging your former manager. Prospective employers often view complaining as a red flag that a candidate may cause issues for them later down the road. Stay positive, focusing on your interest in the new position and how you fit into the role. I wish you good luck in your career, regardless of your path.
I recently took part in a group interview. I found it awkward and nerve-wracking. How can I have a more comfortable and productive group interview? —Derek
Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.: Taking a potentially tense situation like a job interview and layering in multiple participants can get dicey even for the most seasoned career professional. Building some confidence and ensuring success will take a good deal of preparation.
Know the organization and know yourself. Much like a one-on-one, a group interview requires thorough preparation, starting with research on the organization and relevant discussion points. Prepare examples of your experience, skills and education. Be ready to highlight an obstacle you overcame or a problem you solved in previous roles. Get some practice with other people who can provide candid feedback.
Group interviews are a terrific setting for exhibiting networking skills and personality. Introducing yourself to other participants helps you make a good impression, ease anxiety and build rapport. Employers utilize group interviews for jobs that rely on teamwork and interpersonal communication. Your willingness to make connections demonstrates how well you would acclimate to the position if selected.
Keep the discussion moving forward by actively listening and building on issues presented. If you reiterate a previous point, add to it or expound upon a detail. As with any interview, answering and asking questions is essential in demonstrating engagement. Your preparation beforehand and engagement throughout will improve your group interviews dramatically. Knowing your audience and yourself is the foundation for a successful interview.
Good luck with your next interview, group or otherwise.
Canada: Federally Regulated Workers Get Paid Leave
?As a result of provisions in the Canada Labor Code that took effect on Dec. 1, 2022, Canadian workers in federally regulated sectors are now entitled to 10 days of medical leave. The change was first announced by the government more than a year ago, so that workers who were unwell would no longer have to choose between self-isolating and receiving pay.
10 Days of Medical Leave
The 10 days of medical leave are not available to workers immediately upon hiring; they must be accumulated over time. The code does entitle employees to three days of paid medical leave—also known as sick days—after 30 days of employment. Sick days must be paid at the regular rate for the employee’s normal hours of work or based on averaged earnings over the previous 20 days worked, excluding overtime.
After this first month, employees accumulate an additional day of paid medical leave at the beginning of each month following a month of continuous employment, up to a maximum of 10 days per year. Although these sick days are not cumulative, unused leave in one year will be carried over to the next year and deducted from the maximum number that can be accumulated.
In order to take a medical leave of absence, employees must give at least four weeks’ written notice of the date and duration of the leave. If an employee is unable, for a valid reason, to give such notice, or if there is a change to the expected length of their leave, they must notify the employer, in writing, as soon as possible.
It should be noted that prior to Dec. 1, 2022, employees under federal jurisdiction had no paid medical leave. In Quebec, the act respecting labor standards has provided, since Jan. 1, 2019, provincially regulated workers with two days of paid leave, including medical leave, per year.
What Are Employers’ Rights and Obligations?
Once an employee has taken a medical leave of at least five consecutive days, employers are entitled to require that they provide a certificate from a health care professional certifying that they were unable to work during the relevant period. The code stipulates that such requests must be made in writing and no later than 15 days after the employee’s return to work.
While employees’ 10 days of leave may be divided into multiple periods, the code authorizes employers to demand that each period be at least one day in length.
Also of interest: new provisions in the Canada Labor Standards Regulations require that employers keep detailed records of all medical leaves taken, including their start and end dates, the year of service in which it was earned, the number of days of leave carried forward from a previous year, a copy of any written request for a medical certificate and a copy of any related medical certificate submitted.
Finally, with certain exceptions, it is prohibited to dismiss, suspend, lay off, demote or discipline an employee for taking or planning to take medical leave.
Another Change to the Code
In addition to these new provisions granting 10 days of paid leave, effective Dec. 18, 2022, the code entitles employees to 27 weeks of unpaid leave, rather than 17, for illness, injury, organ or tissue donation, medical appointments or quarantine.
Catherine Biron and Michel Cobti are attorneys with Langlois in Montreal. © 2023 Langlois. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission of Lexology.
China Employee Terminations: Make Them Mutual When Possible
?Terminating China-based employees is difficult. Article 40(2) of China’s Labor Contract Law permits an employer to unilaterally terminate an employee, with severance, if the employee is incompetent and remains incompetent after training or assignment to a different position. In practice though, Chinese courts tend to be quite strict in applying this law and employers that fail to check all the boxes before a termination usually face adverse consequences.
Employee Termination Hypothetical One
Suppose the employer and the employee enter a written employment contract in year one. The employer provides the employee with a written statement explaining its expectations and performance requirements for the employee’s position. The employee signs that statement, but the employee’s performance perpetually fails to meet the employer’s expectations. The employer unilaterally terminates the employee for poor performance and pays the employee statutory severance: in this case, three months’ salary, plus one additional month’s salary in lieu of advance notice. The employee sues for unlawful termination.
How will a Chinese court likely rule? This termination will usually be deemed unlawful because the employer failed to generate good contemporaneous evidence of its employee’s failures to meet the job requirements.
Employee Termination Hypothetical Two
Assume the same facts as above, except the employer did yearly performance reviews and documented the results. These performance reviews indicated the employee was poorly performing and the employee acknowledged the performance reviews via signature. Then during the next six-month period, the employee did nothing to improve job performance and it became clear the employee was not going to get any better. The termination notice in year three was the same: unilateral termination of employee with the same amount of severance for poor performance. The employee sues for wrongful termination.
In this scenario, the employer did a better job documenting the employee’s incompetence but it will still likely lose. The employer will likely lose because it did not follow the law in making the termination decision as it did not provide employee training that might have led to performance improvements, nor did the employer ever assign the employee to a different position. For these reasons, the employer will likely lose the wrongful termination lawsuit for failing to meet its burden of proof regarding the need to provide a failing employee with training or a different position.
Employee Termination Hypothetical Three
In another hypothetical, the facts are again the same as above, except during the six-month period before termination, the employer diligently worked with employee to come up with a corrective plan for the employee’s improvement. The employer worked with the failing employee on correcting work errors, closely monitored the employee’s work progress and provided the employee with ample training. The employer also contemporaneously documented all of this in writing.
Will this employer prevail against the employee’s wrongful termination lawsuit? Probably yes. But there are a few more things the employer should have done to increase its chances. Generally speaking, if there is a workers’ union, the union needs must be consulted before a unilateral termination decision can be made final and failing to go through this step may subject an employer to liabilities for unlawful termination. Even assuming there is no workers’ union, there may still be additional requirements imposed by the local authorities and those local rules must be followed as well.
Your outcome from your China employee termination decisions will depend on the facts, including where your company and your terminated employee are based. Note that even in the last hypothetical above, employers must jump through multiple hoops to satisfy their burden of proof. This is why it nearly always makes sense for employers to do their utmost to secure a mutual termination agreement from any leaving employee.
Bottom Line
Mutual termination agreements are the best way to reduce your risk of being sued by a departing employee. If you cannot get your employee to agree to a mutual termination agreement, the next best thing is to be sure to do everything right in terminating your employee.
Arlo Kipfer is an attorney with Harris Bricken in Beijing and Seattle. © 2023 Harris Bricken. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission of Lexology.
4 Types of Employee Complaints—and How to Respond
?Editor’s Note: SHRM has partnered with Harvard Business Review to bring you relevant articles on key HR topics and strategies.
Do you have a chronic complainer on your team? Most of us have worked with someone who can find something negative in every situation and loves to discover others who will commiserate with them. (As the saying goes, misery loves company.) If you’re on the receiving end of ongoing workplace complaints, you might be wondering how you should handle them. Do you ignore them? Express sympathy? Tell them to just “toughen up”?
Complaining—the act of expressing dissatisfaction or airing grievances—is an essential and often unavoidable aspect of organizational communication. Complaints tend to be viewed negatively and can be perceived as whining when the complainer doesn’t propose a clear solution.
Indeed, when done ineffectively, complaining can harm the collective mood, individual relationships, and organizational culture. But when done effectively, complaining can help manage risks, provide early red flags, uncover opportunities for growth and change, and even boost relationships and well-being. Here we’ll explore why employees complain, when and how it can be constructive or destructive, and offer some practical tips for managing destructive complaints and harnessing the constructive ones.
The Forms and Functions of Complaining
Different types of complaints have different underlying intents (both conscious and unconscious) and downstream effects. When faced with complaints from employees, start by identifying the type of complaining and its drivers:
Productive complaining
Productive complaints are made with the intention of bringing to light and improving an undesirable situation. Productive complaints, also referred to as “voice,” can result in valuable feedback that’s necessary to change practices or behaviors that are harming the organization and to improve processes, products, and services.
For example, employee complaints about a lack of natural light in the office, an unsustainable workload, a new product’s functionality, or a team member’s inappropriate behavior can highlight potential problems and generate ideas for positive change. To a manager who’s willing to listen, productive complaints can offer valuable information and highlight problems that need to be addressed early before they spread through the organization.
Venting
Venting is an emotional form of complaining where the individual — often vigorously — expresses their dissatisfaction about someone or something to others. The typical intent behind venting is to release bottled-up stress or frustration, or to seek allies (for example, to simply feel heard and acknowledged or generate support and buy-in for a particular issue).
On the positive side, emotional venting can provide temporary relief from distress. Suppressing negative emotions keeps our physiological activation high, which can have negative cognitive and health effects, such as increasing our chance for cardiovascular disease. Venting to a trusted colleague or coach can foster feelings of social support, decrease loneliness, and also help us gain perspective on a situation in a safe space before it’s escalated.
That said, venting puts a double burden on the listener: first, to receive and handle the complainer’s negative emotions (i.e., to support them in solving or coping with their issue), and second, to then deal with their own emotions or shared dissatisfaction with the issue. If this persists, it can result in exhaustion and empathy or compassion fatigue in the listener. Further, if venting becomes a widespread and habitual way to deal with unpleasant emotions instead of solution-oriented, productive complaining, it can ignite chronic stress and contribute to a negative emotional culture.
Chronic complaining
Some people seem to complain about everything (the room temperature, their salary, their manager, the artwork in the lunch café…). Chronic complainers often have a more pessimistic or critical view of their role, their work, and the world around them.
In this case, complaining reflects a mindset and attitude — not necessarily an objective problem. The social costs of this behavior are high, as listening to a chronic complainer zaps energy and those around them often quickly give up trying to help because it never actually seems to help; a new grievance replaces an old one.
One upside to chronic complainers is that these “troublefinders” can help surface potential red flags before they become widespread. For example, when introducing a new work from home policy, chronic complainers might offer the first insight into potential weak areas of the policy. Thus, chronic complainers shouldn’t be ignored entirely: They’ll either surface problems or eventually exhaust those they work with. Importantly, if you find a particular employee starting to habitually feel cynical about all things related to work, this could also be an important individual warning sign of impending burnout.
Malicious complaining
Malicious complaining is a destructive form of complaining that’s used to undermine colleagues or gain an unfair advantage. Some kind of personal (or group) gain, rather than dissatisfaction with an organizational issue, lies at the heart of this behavior.
Different than chronic complaining, however, malicious complaints serve the self at the expense of others. This type of complaining is often associated with gossip and backstabbing. If someone makes unfounded or exaggerated complaints or speaks against others with the (sometimes unconscious) intent to harm their reputation or career, or to increase their own status through downward social comparison, leaders must quickly take action. This type of complaining rarely has an upside — and it can create a toxic and psychologically unsafe work environment, lower team morale, and negatively impact productivity if it proliferates.
How to Handle Complaining at Work
It’s important to develop a strategy to listen to and act on complaints, harness their benefits, and mitigate their destructive potential. When employees believe their manager doesn’t care about, minimizes, or ignores valid concerns, it can increase stress, decrease engagement, and ignite turnover.
Being dismissive of complaints can also damage the manager’s — or the entire organization’s — reputation, as seen recently with one CEO’s now-viral town hall where she tells employees to “leave pity city” regarding their concerns about compensation. As Sigal Barsade and Olivia A. O’Neill put it, “Telling employees to ‘put a lid’ on [their] feelings is both ineffective and destructive; the emotions will just come out later in counterproductive ways.”
Managers who are receptive to employee complaints foster trust and psychological safety with their people, which can ultimately boost organizational learning and performance. Further, employees who feel that they’re heard can even be more engaged in their work and driving positive workplace change. Allowing for productive, solution-oriented complaints promotes creative problem-solving.
However, when unregulated, workplace complaining can give rise to negative consequences, such as “complaint contagion,” where the negative mindset and emotions attached to certain forms of complaints can spill over to others and affect team and organizational culture. Ongoing complaints that provide no solutions (or that simply have no solutions) can also lead to learned helplessness and reduced productivity.
As a manager, you need to handle your team members’ complaints with care. Here’s how:
Start with interest and curiosity.
When you first hear of a complaint, be grateful to the messenger for showing trust in you to do something about it. Despite the message potentially being wrapped in negative emotions like frustration, disappointment, or even anger, employees who directly express their dissatisfaction to their manager are likely to be more committed than those who will turn to their peers or friends instead (using venting or malicious complaining, for example). That they’re coming to you gives you the chance to identify the problem in the first place.
During the conversation, adopt a mindset of curiosity. Beware the false consensus bias, which can influence the attitude of “If I don’t personally experience it, it must not be true” or “If it’s not a big deal to me, it shouldn’t be to them either.” When an employee complains about a particular topic, consider the intention. Is the complaint intended to harm, or to fix a problem? Does it offer an opportunity or spark an idea for positive change? Is it a red flag for a future issue? Is it something that several employees have mentioned? Is the person just trying to be heard in venting about a situation that isn’t particularly solvable?
If you’re not able to decipher the intent behind the complaint, you might even directly ask the person, “What do you hope to achieve with your feedback, and how might I help you?” This can help employees make sense of why they’re complaining and offer solutions for how you can support them.
Encourage and help facilitate constructive complaints.
Next, encourage perspective-taking and solution-oriented, productive complaining. For example, you might create opportunities at regular intervals for employees to provide feedback and ideas for improvement in constructive ways. Regular performance reviews also provide a structure for critical feedback from both sides and offers an opportunity to build psychological safety. Employees who know they have a clear opportunity to voice concerns about something they’re dissatisfied about might just wait for the appropriate time and place instead of seeking out others behind closed doors, which can ignite complaint contagion and malicious complaining.
Installing a time buffer — a short pause to reflect on the grievance, its impact, and potential solutions before having a conversation about it — can allow the complainer to articulate concerns with less negative emotion and thus more effectively. It can also allow the receiver to prepare resources and ideas for response. Also, consider having employees share some common concerns or complex matters in a trusted group environment, allowing everyone to express and consider alternative perspectives. To help employees take on more active, solution-oriented mindsets, recognize “helpful” complaints that provide pathways and improvement opportunities.
Tackle destructive complaints.
It’s critical to address the negative forms of complaints that can quickly undermine culture and teamwork. A team member who’s “known” for malicious or ongoing chronic complaining might find that others get so tired of listening to them that potentially valid complaints get lost.
If you find an employee often complains about someone without any intention or desire to solve the problem, address the relationship, potentially through mediation or a constructive conversation. Employees aren’t always aware of how their tone or negative mindset affects others and impacts culture, so simply addressing the behavior can be a big help in some cases. If the chronic complaining about a particular issue persists, especially if the problem isn’t solvable, the complainer may need support to change their mindset and behavior to accept and better cope with the circumstances. If that isn’t possible, they may need to make the decision to leave the situation (or, be asked to leave by the manager) so that they don’t continue to infect the team’s culture.
Complaining can have both positive and negative effects on organizational communication. Constructive complaining—or structured opportunities for employees to voice their concerns—offers valuable feedback to improve work processes, products, and services, and thus should be encouraged. Venting and chronic complaining have both advantages and disadvantages for the individual and the group and should be given the right space and time, rather than being stifled. Malicious complaining only creates personal gain that harms others and the collective, decreases productivity, and creates a toxic work environment. By managing these different types of complaints with the appropriate behaviors, managers can create a positive, high-performing work environment while monitoring and containing the risks and costs of complaining for themselves and their teams.
Alyson Meister is a professor of leadership and organizational behavior at IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. She received her PhD from the University of Melbourne (MBS). Specializing in the development of globally oriented, adaptive, and inclusive organizations, she has worked with thousands of executives, teams, and organizations from professional services to industrial goods and technology. Her research has been widely published, and in 2021, she was recognized as a Thinkers50 Radar thought leader.
Nele Dael is a senior behavioral scientist studying emotion, personality, and social skills in organizational contexts. She is leading research projects on workplace well-being at IMD Lausanne, focusing on stress and recovery. Nele is particularly tuned into new technologies for the benefit of research and application in human interaction, and her work has been published in several leading journals.
This article is adapted from Harvard Business Review with permission. ©2023. All rights reserved.
