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June 13, 2022

Global Survey Highlights Ways to Strengthen Workplace Culture

?A Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey of more than 9,000 workers in 12 different countries shows that a workplace culture with transparent communication that builds trust is one of the best ways to ward off high turnover. Better people management and empathy training can help improve workplace culture.

However, despite working in overwhelmingly positive and safe workplace cultures, almost half of surveyed workers (45 percent) have thought about leaving their current organization, and 30 percent have actively searched for a new job in the past six months.

Most employees who have thought about leaving their current organization work in organizations with poor cultures, the survey found. Nine out of 10 surveyed workers (90 percent) who rate their culture as poor have thought about quitting, compared with 72 percent of workers who rate their organizational culture as average and 32 percent who rate their culture as good.

The results about work culture and turnover are similar for workers who are actively looking for a new job. More than 1 in 5 employees (22 percent) who rate their culture as good have actively looked for a new job in the past six months, and that number grows to 43 percent of workers who rate their culture as average and almost 2 out of 3 employees (64 percent) who rate their workplace culture as poor.

Poor workplace culture is infectious, according to Jackie VanDerMeulen and Andrew Gould, attorneys with Fasken in Toronto. “In our experience, when employees are unhappy, they are more likely to share that sentiment with their colleagues, be ineffective at work, create a worse environment for their co-workers and thereby continue the cycle,” they said in a joint e-mail.

A sample of 9,464 workers were surveyed in September and October 2021. Respondents were from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Why Do Employees Leave?

Employees leave for a variety of reasons, but lacking purpose and poor people management are two main factors.

Nearly 1 in 3 surveyed workers (30 percent) who are actively searching for a new job say they don’t have a meaningful career, compared with 10 percent of workers who are not actively searching.

People management also matters. Strong supervisors make their employees feel inspired and motivated at work, whereas weak supervisors contribute to irritation and dissatisfaction, the survey report noted.

More than half of workers (54 percent) who are looking for a new job believe their supervisor doesn’t know how to lead a team. A void in leadership can quickly lead to turnover, the survey report noted.

Uberto Percivalle, an attorney with Andersen in Milan, said that when workplace culture deteriorates, “it is normal for employees to search for better jobs.”

He added, “There are many negative patterns that may unfortunately prevent teams from doing their best. Employees who are not free to express themselves will not be able to perform well. Employees who have reasons to be afraid of their bosses and co-workers will likely seek job alternatives and anyway will limit their potential. Lack of clear and consistent objectives will cause the performance of various employees to be unaligned.”

Percivalle also said that “employees who are not credited and rewarded for their merit will also search for different jobs and in the meantime grow disgruntled and disenchanted from their companies.”

Don Dowling, an attorney with Littler in New York City, added, “Decades ago, there was a stigma against job-hopping; we no longer have that. Therefore, these days, when unemployment is low and jobs are plentiful, an employer whose work conditions are unappealing struggles with recruitment and retention—and turnover gets high.”

How Organizations Can Improve Workplace Culture

One way for organizations to improve their culture is to focus on people management. Due to their daily interactions with employees, people managers have a major impact on workplace culture, so they must be properly trained and feel empowered to lead.

“Improving poor management needs to begin at the top,” VanDerMeulen and Gould stated. “Managers, like employees, learn and should lead by example. Training and mentorship are foundational, but the most effective way to improving management is to place well-positioned employees into those positions in the first place.”

Nearly 9 in 10 of surveyed workers (87 percent) indicated that their manager contributes to setting their work team environment. Therefore, people managers need to be trained on how to be more effective supervisors, such as building trust, eradicating bad behavior and showing empathy.

Currently, only 69 percent of surveyed workers think their direct supervisor is empathetic, so there is room for improvement, the survey report noted.

There are significant differences between organizations that offer empathy training and those that do not. For example, 93 percent of employees who work at an organization that offers empathy training said they love working for their organization because of the culture, compared with 56 percent of employees who work at an organization that does not offer such training.

“Empathy is an important skill in any manager’s set,” VanDerMeulen and Gould stated. “Good managers can identify with their employees while still maintaining the necessary boundaries and productivity.”

They added that the last two years have resulted “in a monumental shift in the way people approach and prioritize work—supervisors, executives and managers included. It is important for managers to respect the boundaries of employees.”

Organizations that fail to offer empathy training leave themselves more vulnerable to turnover, the survey report concluded.

June 13, 2022

Effective Networking Starts with Self-Awareness

?Networking can open doors to career growth. But reaching out to people you don’t know can be intimidating for some people.

“So many of us are excited when we have the opportunity to enter into new spaces and meet new people, learn from their experiences, their stories, their insights,” said Daniel Horgan, CEO and founder of CoLabL.

“But for some of us, networking can be one of those things [where] our stress levels start to rise, our anxiety goes up,” he said during the virtual session “Effective Networking: In-Person and Virtual Strategies to Make Meaningful Connections,” held June 12 at the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2022 (SHRM22).

Horgan’s Arlington, Va.-based company provides customized training and consultation in areas such as program design and management and employee development. CoLabL has partnered with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the SHRM Foundation in the past to design and facilitate a variety of their mentorship programs.

“We’re not quite sure what to say or how to approach somebody that we don’t know yet. We walk into that room full of strangers and suddenly we just don’t know what to do, where to go or what to say,” Horgan said.

But as scary as it may seem, networking is important, he added. It opens doors and creates connections to the work and to the people who are advancing an organization’s mission.

Networking and Self-Awareness

Building great relationships requires “a solid understanding of who we are, what we like, what we dislike, what values drive us, why we make the decisions and take the actions that we take,” Horgan explained.

There should be purpose to your networking, “not just networking for the sake of making more connections on LinkedIn or meeting as many people as you can meet,” he said. Think about your goals and the types of people you want to meet.

Having a clear sense of your values and what you’re seeking in networking “gives you the opportunity to be more focused, to be more prepared in those experiences—ultimately leading you to be able to accomplish your goals and build more meaning and purpose,” Horgan said.Developing characteristics of self-awareness and reflecting on the influences in your life can help you network successfully. Keep in mind factors such as:

An understanding of what facets make up your identity—such as race, religion, economic status, sexual orientation and gender—because these elements shape who you are, how you view yourself, and how you interact and engage with others.
Knowledge of your skills and strengths.
Who you spend your time with.
“The group of people that you surround yourself with really does, in fact, impact your personal brand,” Horgan said.
Your experiences, which influence how you participate in groups and converse with others.
The values that guide your actions and decisions.
“If you have a strong sense of your value system and you put those values into action, you take time to reflect on and make sure that you stay aligned to those values,” he said.
“You also strengthen your relationships—often being drawn to people who are aligned to your values and not in direct competition with them,” he said. “You have sort of this compass guiding you each day,” which boosts your confidence and helps reduce stress when networking.
Your personal and professional goals.

Tools and Resources

Horgan shared the following tips and free resources that may help as you cultivate your networking abilities:

Scientific survey of character strengths from the VIA Institute on Character, www.viacharacter.org. This assessment helps you understand your best qualities.
LinkedIn. The profile you create helps others get a sense of who you are. Make sure you display a friendly expression in your photo and stay away from distracting backgrounds.

Use keywords in the headline that explain “what you bring to the table,” Horgan said. Write a short summary—five to nine sentences—about your experience. This should include some top skills and strengths and key passion areas, then end with one to two sentences about future goals.

Be purposeful in how you reach out to people on LinkedIn, Horgan recommended. For example, instead of sending a generic connection request, you might note that the other person has more than five years of experience in an area you’ve worked in for two years and explain that you would like to hear how that person pivoted to a different HR function.

Follow up immediately when you receive a response to your networking request—thank them, create a calendar invitation and perhaps send an article you have read related to the topic you’re interested in discussing. This shows your initiative.

Know When to Pursue and When to Back Off

Use cues around you to adopt a conversational style when you begin your conversation. At SHRM22, for example, you might ask what your new acquaintance thought of the previous main stage speaker or the conference venue. If you are networking virtually, also consider if you have enough lighting and if the other person can see and hear you.

Sometimes, after an exploratory conversation, it’s apparent there is no true connection. That’s OK, Horgan assured attendees.

“Move on to someone else or to another group that’s present at that event or present [at] the virtual experience that you might be a part of,” he advised.

If you know someone in your network who could better benefit from meeting your new acquaintance, offer an introduction. And if someone you meet introduces you to another contact, always circle back to the initial contact to thank them for the introduction.

“When you do that,” Horgan said, “it increases your chances of that person introducing you to more people from their network because you’re showing a genuine appreciation for the time and the effort they took to think about you.”

June 13, 2022

Empathy, Humility Driving Top Executives at Humana

?Facing a dire health condition a few years back, Tim Huval was given little chance of surviving.

While in the hospital for treatment, at a time when things appeared bleaker than ever, a visit arranged by his CEO Bruce Broussard, some co-workers and Huval’s family really lifted his spirits, leading to his eventual recovery.

It’s genuine gestures such as these that are most remarkable at every level of the workplace, especially given the hardships and mental health challenges that so many have endured since the pandemic began.

Empathy, inclusion, level playing fields and humility are what today’s C-suite leaders should strive for, and their HR departments are there to make sure this is achieved.

These were the values and beliefs shared in the opening general session, “A Candid Discussion on Leadership and Workplace Culture from the C-Suite Perspective,” presented June 12 at the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2022 (SHRM22) in New Orleans. The session was moderated by Maribel Perez Wadsworth, president of Gannett Media, and featured Huval, chief administrative officer at Humana, and Broussard, the health care company’s CEO.

Huval described Broussard as “one of the top CEOs in the country.”

“If you asked me for his top 10 attributes,” Huval added, “nine of them would be based on a human element.”

Vulnerability ‘Expected’ of Leaders

Huval said leaders today need to be more vulnerable.

“It’s now expected of them,” he said. “And these leaders can drive this at the company level: [make sure] their department heads have open conversations with their staff members; insist on mental health days; make sure their employees are not on their work e-mail during vacation times.”

Huval said the pandemic put every employee at “eye level. This gets rid of the hierarchy that we had before, and we can’t have that change.”

“People are saying, ‘Together, we’re better,’ and that’s true. But more true is, ‘Together, we’re unstoppable.’ “

Asked to define SHRM22’s theme “Cause the Effect,” Huval said it’s “making sure every pebble matters in your big pond, and the sum of the parts makes everything better.”

Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere

Broussard said leaders need to be more intentional.

“Given the remote environment so many are in right now, never has there been a time when I can reach out to anyone, anytime, anywhere,” he said. “My connections with employees are not limited to only what I might hear at the watercooler.”

Broussard emphasized that leaders must also ensure their employees have purpose.

“If they don’t have purpose, you won’t have customers,” he said. “If your conversation with your team is all about earnings per share, their eyes will glaze over. They want jobs where they can see that they have impact on other people’s lives.”

Tim McKeever, SHRM-CP, CHRO of Buffalo City Mission in New York, said, “I was pleased to hear the panel talk about the importance of having a strong partnership between HR and the executive level and that Humana’s focus was on its people. Empathy matters, and having one-on-one conversations matters if you want to get the pulse of your workforce. It was great to hear that this is how they measure the success of their company.”

Angelique Clark, SHRM-SCP, strategic human resources manager for Rec Silicon Inc. in Moses Lake, Wash., said, “Leaders need to show that humility and be willing to ask questions of their employees—and not just among those at their level. To hear [Broussard] say that he doesn’t have all of the answers and wants to have those conversations was powerful. A lot of leaders don’t do that.”

Anadeen Nembhard, assistant vice president and head of people, culture and talent management for Sygnus Capital Limited in Kingston, Jamaica, said, “It’s good to see the same principles being applied here by employees even at that level as to what we have. Companies need to see the value that comes through employee engagement.”

Paul Bergeron is a freelance writer based in Virginia.

June 13, 2022

Nearly Half of Workers Are ‘Definitely Looking’ to Work Remotely

?Many employees plan to pursue remote working opportunities in the future, according to new research by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Research Institute.

Forty-eight percent of about 1,700 surveyed workers in the U.S. said they will “definitely” seek a remote position for their next job, the research showed. Employees would consider pursuing or remaining in an onsite role for an annual raise of:

20 percent with a 30-minute commute.
15 percent with a 15-minute commute.
10 percent for a hybrid job with a 30-minute commute.

“Our research shows that there is still a lot of demand for remote positions from job seekers, which could even increase in the future,” said Mark Smith, Ph.D., SHRM’s director of HR thought leadership. “Close to a quarter of respondents currently working in an onsite position say that they definitely want a remote role in the future.”

However, many companies are mandating that remote employees return to the office. About half of business leaders said their company already requires or is planning to require employees to return to in-person work full-time in the next year, according to a Microsoft survey of more than 31,100 workers.

The SHRM research suggests that workers disagree with return-to-office requirements without sufficient reason from the employer: 63 percent of respondents said that being required to work from an office makes no sense when work can be completed remotely.

And 53 percent of workers said leaders who mandate returning to the office after their employees worked well remotely are “stuck in the past.”

“These results indicate that companies need to use clear justification when calling employees back on site,” Smith said. “Without it, most agree that a return to the office is not a good idea.”

Perceptions of Remote Work

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, employers and workers have seen that remote employees can be as productive and hard-working as their onsite counterparts. However, many onsite workers do not believe this to be the case.

In-person workers are five to seven times more likely to believe that remote employees are less productive and work fewer hours than they do, the SHRM survey showed.

“These large differences show that many individuals seem to be falling into a ‘slackers versus suckers’ distinction,” Smith explained. “Remote workers think that onsite workers are suckers for having to spend more time and effort on commutes and other onsite issues. On the other hand, onsite workers think that remote workers are slackers who don’t work hard or produce much.”

The research also indicates that remote workers are not missing out on key aspects of the work experience any more than onsite employees. In fact, onsite workers report more problems than remote workers in some areas.

For example, more in-person workers (27 percent) feel excluded from opportunities at work than remote workers (20 percent), and more onsite workers (30 percent) feel passed over for promotions than remote workers (24 percent).

And both groups were equal in their reports of feeling unable to form work relationships.

“Across the board, we’re seeing remote work to be relatively equivalent to onsite work when it comes to worker perceptions and experiences,” said SHRM researcher Katie Merlini, Ph.D. “Ultimately, this is a good news story for organizational leaders, who may have feared remote work would come at a cost of perceived fairness or culture, and for employees, who want the benefits that come with remote opportunities without potential drawbacks to their careers.”

Why Are Workers Looking for Remote Positions?

Recent research shows that many workers value the perceived benefits of remote work. For example, SHRM’s 2022 State of the Workplace survey found that:

Remote organizations allow for greater work flexibility.
Remote workers report much higher levels of positive feelings toward their companies.
Labor shortages are less of an issue for remote organizations.

“Our research findings illustrate some of the benefits of remote jobs from the perspective of the organization,” Smith added. “Based on these results, we hope that this will compel companies to at least consider making more jobs remote or hybrid opportunities.”

Amy Freshman, senior director of global HR for the management services company ADP, said many employees and employees prefer remote work because it can lead to reduced stress, improved employee recruitment and retention, and more job opportunities for employees.

“Given the juggle that many employees have in their day-to-day lives with families, aging parents and health concerns, including mental wellness, the need for more flexibility and some form of remote work has become a must-have, not a perk,” she said.

June 12, 2022

Education to Employment: Make Your Voice Heard

?It is no secret that jobs are tough to fill these days. A better education-to-employment ecosystem could help lessen that burden on employers generally and small businesses in particular.

Educators, congressional representatives, and federal, state and local government leaders are open to hearing from HR professionals on what needs to change so that more students are ready to join—and thrive in—the workforce. A handful of interested parties spoke on the subject during “E-Squared: Education to Employment—Building a Talent Development Ecosystem That Works for All,” a SHRM Annual Conference & Expo mega session, which was a panel session, on June 12.

“Don’t be shy” about making your needs known, said former Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala.

Byrne has more than two decades of public service with firsthand experience in expanding the talent pipeline and shaping policy at all levels of government. He served as an elected member of the Alabama State Board of Education and the Alabama State Senate and was appointed chancellor of Alabama’s two-year college system.

He spent four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. His background in education and as a labor and employment attorney made him a natural fit on the Education and Labor Committee, where he worked on significant issues with the U.S. Department of Education and advanced federal policy to support workforce training and apprenticeship programs.

Community colleges, in particular, listen to workforce councils, Byrne remarked. “Tell them the skills you need,” he recommended, and employers just might wind up with students who have them.

University Reaches Out to Employers

At Strayer University, which has 60 campuses, university administrators saw a disconnect between education and the workforce. “Relevancy is not evergreen” but rather “constantly evolving,” said Andréa Backman, Strayer’s president.

After talking with employers about their needs, “we took the general curriculum and tore it up,” she said. For example, history was no longer taught in isolation; instead, history and productivity are taught in tandem.

Backman previously served as chief employability officer for Strayer’s parent company, Strategic Education Inc., where she focused on bridging the gap between graduates and employers and ensuring that students achieve a positive return on their educational investments. Strayer educates many working mothers, students who have returned to school after leaving the education system and people who were formerly incarcerated.

Backman said the university has a “massive talent pipeline” and would like to connect its students with employers to provide them with a “pathway to a better life.”

Tell Congress What’s Working and What’s Broken

Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., urged attendees to tell their representatives “what’s working and not working. We’re there to assist.”

Carter also urged employers to provide more paid internships, noting many students can’t afford to take unpaid internships.

He added that “more people should be telling students what they do wrong instead of always what they do right.” Carter elaborated that students need to know that the “road to success is riddled with failure, and that’s OK.”

Volunteer

Emily M. Dickens, J.D., the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM’s) chief of staff, head of government affairs and corporate secretary, moderated the session. She noted that the SHRM Foundation has an apprenticeship program for HR professionals.

She urged attendees to make their voices heard, whether through joining workforce development boards or running for the school board, city council or other elected office.

Time volunteered this way—gaining a seat at the table—is critically important to give more of a voice to HR professionals’ concerns, Dickens noted.

Shannon Gordon, CEO of River Edge Behavioral Health in Macon, Ga., is the chair of her community’s workforce board. She told SHRM Conference Today that she thinks employers could do a better job of engaging people who have been unemployed for a long time.

Byrne said, that the greatness in the U.S. “is our people. Pay attention at every level. There’s no reason we can’t become greater.”

June 12, 2022

Employee Resource Groups Create a Sense of Belonging, Foster Engagement

HR teams that support employee resource groups (ERGs) gain partners in fostering employee engagement. These groups can also help counter the spike in employee turnover known as the Great Resignation, said Christine Michel Carter, an author and corporate advisor, during a June 12 workshop at the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2022 in New Orleans.

“The most innovative HR teams view these groups as a dynamic retention tool,” Carter said. “It’s ultimately up to the employer to actively monitor employee morale and provide opportunities for advancement, but ERGs are an often-untapped resource.”

ERGs, also known as affinity groups, are led by employees and made up of colleagues with shared experiences. Although affinity groups began forming in the 1960s when Black workers at Xerox organized to discuss race-based tension in the workplace, growing acknowledgment of the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) has shined a fresh spotlight on ERGs’ role in the workplace. Members volunteer their time to organize, hold and attend meetings.

About 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies support ERGs in the workplace, Carter noted, but organizations of all sizes can benefit from working with these groups.

Diverse Populations, Shared Experiences

ERGs can reflect a range of commonalities and interests, Carter said. Typically, groups are formed around the experience of being part of historically underrepresented populations that have faced discrimination based on workers’ race, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, and disability status.

But as ERGs proliferate, the groups now routinely focus more generally on shared experiences, such as employees who are young professionals, employees nearing retirement, workers who are new to the organization, veterans and military reservists, remote workers, working parents, and people with religious or spiritual interests, to name a few.

Employees are multifaceted and may choose to belong to more than one ERG, Carter said.

These groups create a sense of belonging and togetherness based on shared social factors that might not be present in work-focused teams, she noted, and provide support and empathy that may be lacking elsewhere in the organization. They can help employees feel they belong at the company.

Belonging and connection are important for workers to thrive, which is one reason why being part of an ERG increases performance levels and lessens turnover and absenteeism.

ERGs also can hold workshops to help workers develop negotiating skills and share professional development advice.

Revealing ‘Pain Points’

For HR, or what Carter calls “people operations,” ERGs can help reveal employees’ “pain points” that, left unaddressed, increase absenteeism and lower productivity or drive workers out of the organization altogether. These groups allow employees to “beat down doors and advocate for change, and to mitigate toxic work environments,” Carter pointed out.

What’s driving higher turnover? Stress, burnout and other mental health issues are commonly cited, Carter said. But often, “underlying those responses is financial stress,” she said. “ERGs are a great opportunity to reduce stress and burnout by offering financial wellness resources” in a forum where employees may feel comfortable discussing their challenges and needs.

More broadly, ERGs can tell HR which benefits are desired by various diverse populations. “You can’t know without asking,” Carter said, “and ERGs are an opportunity to have those discussions.”

Listening to ERG representatives and following through on their recommendations can “reduce attrition and improve productivity because workers feel recognized and valued,” she noted.

“If you support your ERGs, they’ll support the organization,” she said. “If the organization is Batman, ERGs are your Robins and Batgirls.”

Like everything else in business, metrics tell the story, Carter said. Check up on how ERGs affect turnover, absenteeism and career advancement at the company and “monitor these consistently,” she advised.

Supporting ERGs and Encouraging Participation

When workplace research organization Great Place to Work asked employers and workers about ERGs, Carter said, it learned that nearly 100 percent of executive sponsors felt their company encouraged ERG participation. But only 52 percent of ERG leaders thought that was true.

Meanwhile, roughly half (51 percent) of workers said they received an annual budget of $5,000 or less to operate the company’s ERG programs.

Among the comments the organization received at a 2021 gathering of DE&I leaders: “There’s more spent on the bagel budget than the ERG budget.” Another participant suggested that a company may offer a $100,000 donation to a racial justice organization but put only $500 into the ERG budget.

To encourage employees to create and participate in ERGs, Carter said, employers can:

Pay participants a small stipend.
Offer perks such as a front-row parking spot, a free car wash, dinner on the company or gift cards.

Employers can also reward ERG leaders and participants with development opportunities, including attendance at a future SHRM Annual Conference & Expo.

June 12, 2022

Tips for Workers to Avoid Burnout

?Robert Bogue, president of Indiana-based technology company Thor Projects, and Terri Bogue, the company’s chief operations officer, have both experienced burnout in their lives. They’ve dealt with high levels of stress that created personal and professional challenges for them.

Over time, they learned to manage their priorities to prevent the physical and emotional exhaustion that leads to burnout.

“For instance, I’m a private pilot, but I don’t fly because I don’t have time for that aspiration,” Robert explained. “You can do that with everything you have. Say, ‘I can’t do the family vacation. I can’t do this. The math doesn’t add up.’ “

On June 12, Robert and Terri led a concurrent session, “Extinguish Burnout and Ignite Engagement,” at the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2022. The session aimed to equip workers, HR professionals and business leaders with the tools and techniques needed to help them prevent or recover from burnout.

“Burnout occurs when your internal fire is out and you have no more fuel left,” Robert said. “It can result in a negative attitude, a lack of productivity, high stress, a lack of teamwork and a negative transparency.”

Recent studies show that burnout is increasingly common in the U.S. Among workers surveyed in the American Psychological Association’s 2021 Work and Well-being Survey:

79 percent experienced work-related stress in the month before the survey.
Nearly 60 percent reported negative effects of work-related stress, including a lack of interest, motivation or energy and a lack of effort at work.
44 percent reported physical fatigue.
36 percent reported cognitive weariness.
32 percent reported emotional exhaustion.

“We have this perception of how much time we have to give different people in our lives,” Terri explained. “But sometimes we get out of balance with reality. Your perception of what you should be able to do might not match reality.”

5 Ways Employees Can Combat Burnout

A combination of family, work and social stresses can contribute to burnout, which can impact workers at all levels, including business leaders. Robert and Terri offered several ways in which workers can avoid or reduce burnout:

Change your attitude. Are you thinking about momentary challenges or the long-term results? Try to maintain an optimistic point of view when dealing with work challenges.
Reframe your perceptions. Robert explained that many people harbor false perceptions of the expectations others place on them. What beliefs do you accept as fact that are just your perceptions?
Give yourself some credit. Robert asked, “Would you let anyone talk to your best friend the way you talk to yourself? Probably not.” It is OK to give yourself a pat on the back for great work.

Focus on self-care. This includes maintaining a healthy diet, exercising regularly, taking “mental health days” and seeking professional support when needed.
Find ways to limit your demands. There are ways we can manage the demands we place on ourselves, Terri said. For example, why do we always say “yes”? It’s OK to admit when you cannot handle something, whether it is a work or personal task.

“We need to make sure our expectations, perceptions and results match,” Terri said. “When they don’t, that’s when we experience burnout.”

How Employers Can Help

Business leaders play a crucial role in helping workers avoid and overcome burnout, creating a positive work atmosphere and igniting engagement:

Recognize great work. Let your employees know when work is done well—and do not let them downplay the significance of their accomplishments.
Offer support. Create a culture in which seeking help is encouraged. In addition, proactively ask workers what you can do to help them perform their jobs better and avoid unnecessary stress.
Promote a healthy work/life balance. Life happens. Let your workers take time to deal with personal responsibilities. As Robert said, “It is important for a leader to demonstrate their own work/life struggles.”
Set realistic expectations. Robert emphasized the importance of placing realistic expectations on what a company’s workforce can accomplish and understanding that an increased workload may require changing deadlines for other projects.

“To prevent burnout, we as leaders need to engage with employees and give them a rest from time to time,” said Jamilu Dawaki, deputy director of HR for the Central Bank of Nigeria, who had traveled from Abuja, Nigeria, to attend the conference. “That will help them do their jobs better in the long run.”

June 12, 2022

Managers Need Training on the Interview Process

?Managers who aren’t trained on how to conduct effective interviews may cause organizations to lose out on the best candidates—something they can ill afford during the Great Resignation. What’s more, managers who don’t receive proper training are likely to place their organizations at risk of violating a host of employment laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

To mitigate this risk, organizations should train managers on the hiring process, urged Michael Cohen, an attorney with Duane Morris in Philadelphia, during his presentation “Managing Your Managers to Manage Better: A Practical and Necessary Look,” a SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2022 preconference session held on June 12.

The need for better hiring practices is particularly acute in industries hit hardest by the pandemic and subsequent Great Resignation, such as hospitality, retail and health care. A session attendee who identified himself as an executive vice president at a health care organization in Louisiana told SHRM Conference Today, “We currently need nurses, and we will need nurses and other health care professionals in the future. Unfortunately, we are not able to create and train these essential workers overnight.”

So, managers must treat the applicant pool well and employers must broaden the pool where possible, Cohen recommended.

‘Don’t Overprepare’

The first step is for the manager to prepare an updated job description prior to the interview stage.
The manager also needs to create a uniform list of job-related questions to ask during the interview; however, the interviewer shouldn’t stick just to these questions. “Real interviews become conversations,” he shared.

In effective interviews, managers ask intelligent questions based on applicants’ answers.

“Don’t overprepare,” he cautioned, because that can result in the interviewer not listening and listening is essential.

If the manager asks only predetermined questions and no follow-ups, it may look like the interviewer doesn’t care about the answers, Cohen said.

Nonetheless, the discussion shouldn’t stray into inappropriate interview questions.

[SHRM members-only toolkit: Guidelines on Interview and Employment Application Questions]

Don’t Write Off Applicants Too Soon

Some managers decide in the first 15 seconds that an applicant is the wrong person for the job. This can be a mistake, Cohen cautioned, noting that it takes some people a while to hit their stride in an interview situation. An organization with managers making knee-jerk reactions may lose out on qualified individuals, he noted.

Cohen said he represents a startup that talks to its managers about providing “white-glove service” when it comes to the hiring process. Treating everyone with a high level of respect can result in “boomerang applicants”—those who don’t receive a job offer but apply again in the future.

Cohen also recommended that managers not cut interviews short; otherwise, they risk discrimination claims. Let’s say halfway through the interview, an applicant fails a question about whether they’d ever take a candy bar without paying for it. Cohen said the manager should continue the interview, giving the applicant the chance to correct a make-or-break answer and minimizing the chances of a discrimination claim.

Widen the Applicant Pool

Cohen encouraged attendees to widen their applicant pools. Experience may be as or more valuable than a college degree, for example.

While college degrees might be required in some cases, such as to fulfill the learned professional exemption to overtime requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Cohen described the higher educational system as too expensive and “broken,” recommending that attendees do more to recruit those who haven’t graduated from college. “Some bright and motivated people don’t spend four years in college,” he said.

Another way to broaden the applicant pool is to refrain from asking about salary or criminal history, even if such inquiries are permitted under state or local law.

Applicants shouldn’t be banned from ever working again because they committed a crime 10 or 20 years ago, Cohen said.

[SHRM members-only toolkit: Employing Individuals with Criminal Records]

Respond to Voluntary Disclosures Carefully

What if someone volunteers information related to a crime during an interview? Cohen recommended that the manager simply say they appreciate the disclosure but not inquire about it further, to avoid what could be a potentially dicey legal area from a discrimination standpoint.

Similarly, if a disability is disclosed by an applicant during the interview, the manager shouldn’t do much beyond indicating nonverbal empathy. The manager shouldn’t apologize, as the applicant may take the apology to mean the employer is sorry it isn’t extending a job offer because of the applicant’s disability.

With veterans, “stay away from discharge information,” Cohen recommended. Otherwise, applicants might disclose that they were honorably discharged following an accident or that they left the military after revealing their sexual orientation.

If a manager and an applicant went to the same college, they shouldn’t spend the interview asking when the applicant graduated because doing so could result in an age discrimination lawsuit.

Cohen noted that these days organizations need to be selling themselves to applicants as much as giving applicants the opportunity to highlight their experience. “The smallest hiccup can result in not getting a candidate,” he said.

June 12, 2022

U.S. Inflation Rate Reaches 8.6% in May, a 40-Year High, Pushing Wages Up

The U.S. inflation rate reached 8.6 percent in May, its highest level since December 1981, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) reported on June 10, putting pressure on employers to raise wages to keep pace.

An unusually tight U.S. labor market, combined with spiking gas and food prices, are to blame for creating pricing pressures across the economy.

In April, the consumer price index (CPI) had ticked down to 8.3 percent year over year, off of a March high of 8.5 percent.

The long-term average inflation rate in the U.S. is around 3.2 percent, although consumers had grown used to more moderate annual price increases averaging 1.75 percent from 2010 to 2019.

The May CPI measure came in higher than consensus expectations that the annual rate would stay unchanged at 8.3 percent, indicating that “signs of inflation peaking in April were wrong,” according to The Kobeissi Letter, an industry commentary on global capital markets.

Tweeted Mohamed A. El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz, “Amplifying the economic/social/political discomfort, [the CPI] headline is a new high for this inflation cycle. Also, if the first 10 days of June are anything to go by, the next monthly measure would be higher.”

Upward Pressures on Wages

According to the June 3 employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), wages continued to climb in May, driving concerns about an inflationary wage spiral.

Over the 12-month period ending in May, average hourly earnings (nonfarm payrolls) increased by 5.2 percent, down slightly from the April year-over-year increase of 5.5 percent.

Similarly, findings announced on June 2 from advisory firm Aon’s biannual study of nearly 2,000 employers show that, for U.S. companies, average budgeted salary increases in 2022 reached 5.2 percent, up from 4.5 percent last year, including merit raises and promotions.

Researchers have also reported a wide variation in pay increase plans among different industry sectors. For the 12-month period ending in March, for example, the BLS reported that wage and salary increases ranged from 4 percent for construction and maintenance occupations to 7.8 percent for service occupations.

Hourly wages have been rising faster than salaries, with annual wage growth reaching 6.1 percent in May, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s wage tracker.

While employers are offering higher wages to attract talent, the gap between job openings and available workers remained at 5.5 million in April, or about two jobs for every unemployed worker, the BLS said in its June 1 jobs report.

“Many organizations are willing to take a less competitive approach to compensation while they wait for the labor market to cool down,” said Tony Guadagni, Washington, D.C.-based senior principal in consultancy Gartner’s HR practice. “Yet, these organizations will find themselves at a significant strategic and operational disadvantage if demand continues as anticipated—especially as other employers offer higher base pay salaries.”

Midyear Pay Increases

A May survey of 337 U.S. companies by pay consultancy Pearl Myer found that about one-third of organizations are considering or planning to provide midyear salary increases in 2022:

23 percent of companies are planning midyear salary adjustments in addition to their annually scheduled pay increases.

An additional 8 percent are considering this action.

“It is very unusual to see so many companies planning a second round of adjustments,” said Rebecca Toman, vice president of the survey business unit at Pearl Meyer. “Normally, budgets are set well in advance for an annual rise. This is further indication that a shift is occurring—at least for now—when it comes to setting pay for the established workforce.”

Most companies considering midyear increases said they would be focused on key employees, targeted job families and top performers rather than granted across the board.

Related SHRM Articles:

How to Avoid Unintended Consequences When Raising Pay, HR Magazine, June 2022

High Inflation Disrupts Retirement Savings Strategies, SHRM Online, May 2022

Salary Budget Growth of 5% Most Common Increase in New Survey, SHRM Online, April 2022

Related SHRM Resources:

SHRM Express Request: Salary Increase Projections 2022

SHRM Express Request: Salary Increases 2023: Survey Participation Opportunities

[Need real-time, HR-reported compensation reports? Check out the SHRM Compensation Data Center]

June 12, 2022

Priorities Shift as Pandemic Recedes, SHRM 2022 Employee Benefits Survey Shows

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, businesses across the U.S. were forced to rapidly adapt, which included changing their benefits offerings to help employees survive the pandemic’s sweeping economic effects. These shifting practices are continuing to evolve as businesses return to a “new normal” of hybrid work arrangements, according to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM’s) 2022 Employee Benefits Survey.

The SHRM Research Institute conducted the survey from Jan. 11 to Feb. 28, 2022, collecting responses from 3,129 HR professionals at organizations across all sizes, industries and sectors. Respondents were asked about employee benefits their organizations offer during 2022. The findings were released June 12 at the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2022 in New Orleans.

As a member-exclusive benefit, SHRM offers an Employee Benefits Survey Results interactive online tool (accessible through the survey link above) that allows users to filter results from the Employee Benefits Survey according to organization size, industry and location.

Priorities Get Reordered

During the first part of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers felt health, leave and flexible work benefits were most important to offer their employees. Meanwhile, employees felt retirement savings benefits were less important at that time, with many often reducing or eliminating 401(k) matching contributions, for instance, and cutting back on professional development offerings.

SHRM researchers compared this year’s survey results with the last employee benefits survey SHRM reported.

“Employer rankings of the importance of benefits shifted drastically in 2020 as they made pandemic-inspired adjustments, but these rankings have returned to an order like that seen pre-pandemic as businesses regain a semblance of normal operations,” said Daniel Stunes, senior researcher at SHRM.

Significantly, however, “all benefit types were rated by employers as more important to offer today than before the COVID-19 pandemic,” Stunes said, reflecting an increased appreciation for the role benefits play in fostering employee well-being and in attracting and keeping talent in a tight labor market.

Health Care Keeps Top Spot

Despite a modest pullback in offerings from the height of the pandemic, employers continued to view health care as the most important benefit organizations can offer. Given the rise in health concerns brought about by the pandemic, “it comes as no surprise that health care remains the leader in ranked importance,” Stunes said.

Almost all respondents said that their organizations offer some type of health care plan to their employees:

Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of organizations offer a fully insured health plan, meaning that they pay a fixed premium amount to an insurer who then pays the medical claims.

Just over one-quarter of organizations (26 percent) said their health plan features a self-insured plan, meaning they pay medical claims themselves, often through a third-party administrator.

Medical flexible spending accounts (medical FSAs) and health savings accounts (HSAs) continued to be the most popular type of health-related spending accounts, with 63 percent and 57 percent of employers offering them, respectively. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of organizations that offer an HSA said they make employer contributions to these plans.

Group coverage health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), funded solely by employers, continue to trail other consumer-directed health accounts, offered by 16 percent of respondents.

Enhanced Telehealth and Mental Health Care

While the perceived importance of some core benefits has returned to pre-pandemic levels, COVID-19 “resulted in seemingly lasting changes among some offerings,” said SHRM researcher Derrick Scheetz. For instance, 93 percent of organizations now provide access to telehealth care as a benefit, he noted. Since last recorded by SHRM in 2019, the prevalence of this benefit increased by 20 percentage points.

Similarly, employers indicating they offer mental health coverage also hit a new high of 91 percent.

The strong growth in these benefits, even after businesses have returned to more normal conditions, indicates that job candidates and employees in the future “may view these as ‘table stakes’ that employers are expected to offer,” Scheetz said.

Retirement and Savings Gain Ground

Possibly serving as a proxy for recovering financial health, employers ranked retirement and savings benefits among the most important. “After falling in ranked importance during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, this return to form shows that employers still strongly believe in the importance of benefits that help to provide financial security,” Scheetz said.

In 2022, most employers offered some type of retirement savings plan to their employees:

94 percent offer a traditional 401(k) plan, funded with pretax dollars that are taxable as income when withdrawn during retirement. When employees contribute to traditional 401(k) accounts, 83 percent of plan sponsors matched those contributions, capped on average at 6.8 percent of employee’s base pay.

68 percent offer a Roth 401(k) as well, funded with post-tax dollars that may be withdrawn tax-free after retirement. When employees contribute to Roth accounts, 76 percent of plan sponsors provided a match, capped on average at 6.7 percent of employee’s base pay.

Under current law, employers’ matching contributions for employee Roth contributions must be made to pretax 401(k) accounts, although Congress is considering legislation to allow match contributions to be made to Roth accounts.

In addition, the survey showed that:

Automatically enrolling new or existing employees in the company’s retirement plan, unless employees opt out, was a feature in plans sponsored by just over half (51 percent) of organizations. This figure has held steady since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Automatically increasing employees’ contributions unless they opt out, generally done annually with a deferral increase of 1 or 2 percent of pay, also held steady, with 26 percent of plans including an auto-escalation feature.

Rise of Hybrid Work

Sixty-three percent of employers said they offer most of their workers the opportunity for hybrid work, which involves a combination of working remotely and in person. During the pandemic, employers and employees learned that “remote work works,” Stunes said, and “today, more people want the flexibility to work remotely at least part of the time or when they need to do so. Businesses have discovered that they may need to consider offering hybrid work opportunities to attract job applicants and keep employees.”

Across all organizations, 62 percent said they offer employees a subsidy or reimbursement for at-home office or work equipment. Among those organizations:

Employers, on average, provided about $891 to employees to cover costs related to working from home.

Most employers (95 percent) cover costs related to work technology, such as computer monitors, keyboards or headsets.

Over two-thirds (68 percent) cover costs related to general office supplies such as pens or notepads.

24 percent said they cover the cost of chairs for employees working from home.

Parental Leave Scaled Back

Leave benefits remained among the top-ranked benefits that employers felt an organization should offer, the survey showed.

Despite its strongly ranked importance, however, leave for new parents (beyond what’s required by law) returned to pre-pandemic levels after all types of leave reached their highest prevalence in 2020:

The number of organizations offering paid maternity leave dropped to 35 percent in 2022, down from 53 percent in 2020.

The number offering paid paternity leave fell to 27 percent, down from 44 percent.

Additionally, the number of organizations offering paid adoption leave dropped to 28 percent (down from 36 percent), and the number offering paid foster child leave dropped to 22 percent (down from 28 percent).

New-parent benefits saw “a big bump in 2020 relative to prior years, which we can now say was likely a direct response to needs created by the pandemic,” Scheetz said. “Now that many businesses have returned to a more typical way of operating, employers seem to be dialing back on expanded parental-leave opportunities.”

The greater ability of new parents to work from home also may have lessened employers’ commitment to provide paid parental leave, although that belief may overlook the need for parental bonding time with new children.

Help with Family Caregiving

The COVID-19 pandemic also highlighted the often-conflicting demands of caregiving and work, although in 2022 these responsibilities remain important:

Over half of respondents (59 percent) said their organizations offer a dependent care FSA, which allows employees to save funds directly for expenses related to caregiving, down from 64 percent who offered this benefit in 2020 but close to the 60 percent offering dependent care FSAs in 2019.

31 percent said they would allow employees to bring children to work in an emergency as a benefit, up from 27 percent in 2020.

Professional Development and Tuition Aid

The number of employers that viewed professional development benefits as important to offer rebounded in 2022 after falling off during the pandemic, with 78 percent of organizations now paying for opportunities to develop new skills, up from 74 percent in the 2020 survey.

However, the percentage of employers offering undergraduate or graduate tuition assistance fell during the pandemic and has yet to rebound. This year, 48 percent of employers are paying at least some tuition costs, up one percentage point from 2020 but off the peak in 2019, when 56 percent of organizations provided tuition aid.

Student loan repayment assistance was offered by 7 percent of respondents this year, down from 8 percent in 2020, which Scheetz said might reflect some trimming back by employers dealing with tighter budgets or might just be due to the normal difference in sampling factors between surveys. Look to future surveys to show whether growth resumes for this still relatively new benefit.