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June 11, 2022

IRS Raises Standard Mileage Rate for Final Half of 2022

Citing soaring gas prices, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on June 9 announced an increase in the optional standard mileage rate for the final six months of 2022.

Effective July 1 through Dec. 31, 2022, the standard mileage rate for the business use of employees’ vehicles will be 62.5 cents per mile—the highest rate the IRS has ever published—up 4 cents from the 58.5 cents per mile rate effective for the first six months of the year, according to IRS Announcement 2022-13.

Midyear increases in the optional mileage rates are rare. The last time the IRS made such an adjustment was in 2011.

The rate is used to compute the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business use, as an alternative to tracking actual costs. Beyond the individual tax deduction, employers often use the standard mileage rate—also called the safe harbor rate—to pay tax-free reimbursements to employees who use their own cars, vans or trucks to conduct business for their employers.

Organizations are typically required to reimburse their workforce for the business use of their mixed-use assets, or personally owned assets such as vehicles that are required for their jobs, excluding routine commuting costs.

Employers have the option of calculating the actual costs of employees using their vehicles rather than using the standard mileage rates.

The IRS normally updates standard mileage rates once a year in the fall for the next calendar year. For vehicle use from Jan. 1 through June 30, 2022, employers and employees should use the rates set forth in IRS Notice 2022-03.

While fuel costs are a significant factor in the mileage figure, other items enter into the calculation of mileage rates, such as depreciation and insurance and other fixed and variable costs, the IRS noted. For cars employees use for business, the IRS set the portion of the standard mileage rate treated as depreciation at 26 cents per mile for 2022.

[SHRM members-only HR Q&A: Do we have to reimburse personal auto mileage for business-related trips?]

Mileage Rate Changes Through 2022

For the final six months of 2022, standard mileage rates for the use of cars, vans, pickups or panel trucks will be:

Purpose	Jan. 1 to June 30	July 1 to Dec. 31
For business use	58.5 cents per mile	62.5 cents per mile
For medical care and for moving active-duty members of the Armed Forces	18 cents per mile	22 cents per mile
In service of charitable organizations*	14 cents per mile	14 cents per mile

*The 14 cents per mile rate for charitable organizations remains unchanged as it is set by statute. Source: IRS (June 2022).

Fuel and Other Costs

“The IRS is adjusting the standard mileage rates to better reflect the recent increase in fuel prices,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “We are aware a number of unusual factors have come into play involving fuel costs, and we are taking this special step to help taxpayers, businesses and others who use this rate.”

On June 9, the national average price of gas in the U.S. surpassed $5 per gallon for the first time, reported GasBuddy, a consumer fuel-savings platform. Consumer demand “doesn’t seem to be responding to the surge in gas prices, meaning there is a high probability that prices could go even higher in the weeks ahead,” said Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis.

July and August are traditionally the peak driving months in the U.S.

Gasoline prices in May were up 48.7 percent year over year, the Department of Labor reported on June 10 in its monthly consumer price index report.

According to Boston-based Motus, a mobile workforce management software firm, “the increase to the business mileage standard rate comes at a time when driving costs such as fuel have reached record highs, inflation is affecting repair and maintenance costs, and supply chain challenges continue to drive up the cost of new and used vehicles.”

Using FAVR Plans

The IRS rate is optimal for low-mileage drivers, such as those who travel fewer than 5,000 business miles per year, according to benefits advisors.

Alternatively, Notice 2022-03 provided maximum vehicle expenses when using a Fixed and Variable Rate (FAVR) allowance plan, in which employees who drive their own vehicles can receive tax-free reimbursements from their employers for fixed vehicle costs (such as insurance, taxes and registration fees) and variable vehicle expenses (such as fuel, tires, and routine maintenance and repairs), instead of the standard mileage rate.

Under a FAVR plan, the cost of the vehicle may not exceed a maximum amount set by the IRS each year. For 2022, vehicle costs may not exceed $56,100 for automobiles, trucks and vans, up from $51,100 in 2021. These rates remain unchanged through 2022.

Revenue Procedure 2019-46, which updated the rules for using standard mileage rates in computing the deductible costs of operating a car for business, stated that an employer may provide a FAVR allowance only to an employee who can provide adequate records showing at least 5,000 miles driven during the calendar year in performing services as an employee or, if greater, 80 percent of the annual business mileage of that FAVR allowance.

If the employee is covered by the FAVR allowance for less than the entire calendar year, the employer may prorate these limits on a monthly basis.

“Relying on any sort of flat reimbursement approach, like the IRS business mileage standard rate, can lead to wasted spend and potential corporate liability, especially in times of uncertainty and volatility,” said Karen O’Byrne, president and interim CEO of Motus.

She added, “Organizations that have adopted methodologies like FAVR, that factor in the many components of vehicle costs, have realized significant cost savings in a way that is compliant with federal and state tax and labor laws, while ensuring that their mobile workforces are fairly and accurately reimbursed no matter how volatile the market gets.”

Motus calculates that organizations saved more than $1.4 billion using FAVR reimbursement compared to the IRS business mileage standard from 2011 through 2021. In part that’s because the standard mileage rate doesn’t account for driving costs that fluctuate based on geography and time of year, so businesses that rely on the rate to reimburse mid- and high-mileage workers may be giving reimbursements that exceed actual driving costs.

However, according to payroll, benefits and compliance firm Justworks in New York City, “in locations with higher automobile operating costs, the FAVR allowance may be more than the standard mileage rate.” Also, “the employer must recalculate the FAVR allowance at least once every three months,” as payments to employees must be made at least quarterly.

Flat Car Allowances

Another way for employers to reimburse employees for their business-driving expenses is a flat car allowance, which is a set amount provided to employees over a given period to cover the costs of using their own car for business purposes—such as $500 per month for the cost of fuel, wear and tear, tires, and more. Employers can also pay expenses using a variable rate for different locations.

While a car allowance is relatively easy to administer, payments are taxable to employees unless handled within an “accountable plan” that requires substantiation through adequate records and the return of excess amounts in a reasonable time.

Gamification Advances Post-Pandemic

?Ask the people in your next meeting to share the name of their favorite game from childhood and you’re likely to get a wide range of responses as they happily reminisce about tag, hopscotch, Monopoly, marbles and more. It’s not just children who like playing games, of course. We all do.

That reality isn’t lost on proponents of gamification. In fact, according to a TalentLMS survey, 89 percent of employees say that gamification makes them feel more productive, and 88 percent say it makes them feel happier at work. Gamification has a marked impact on training effectiveness, too, with 83 percent of those who had received gamified training saying it made them feel motivated, compared with only 61 percent who felt the same way after receiving non-gamified training.

Gamification in the workplace today can run the gamut from traditional analog activities like scavenger hunts to high-tech, AI-fueled interactions incorporating augmented or virtual reality. Whatever the format, research supports the idea that gamifying learning works.

Better Learning Results Through Gamification

Some of the challenges with the adoption of gamification prior to the pandemic may have been potential confusion between gamification and video games.

“It seems in the last few years, it’s finally sunk in that gamification and gaming aren’t necessarily the same thing,” said Courtney Bentley, senior director of customer success at Open LMS. Effective gamification doesn’t have to be about advanced technology and astronomical development costs, she said.

“It’s much more common and cost-effective to mix smaller interactive exercises to reinforce concepts,” Bentley said. “Instead of [trainers] thinking they always have to spend months with a programmer developing virtual reality simulations, we’re seeing the use of images and video that are readily available overlaid with interactive hotspots. And instead of full game simulations, organizations are incorporating badges with leaderboards and sometimes allowing learners to exchange their digital recognition for real-world discounts to other courses or branded swag in the company store.”

Research has long supported the idea that people learn more from doing than from simply listening to lectures. The National Training Laboratory’s “learning pyramid,” or “cone of learning,” indicates that learners remember only about 5 percent of what they hear in a lecture, but 75 percent of what they learn through practical doing. Gamification offers the opportunity to practice while not only learning, but also having fun.

In fact, the fun element helps to enhance engagement—and learning.

Making Gamification Fun

Andrew Phelps is the co-founder and CEO of IncentivePilot, a company that offers gamified and automated contests and engagement tools.

“The key to successful gamification is fun,” he said.

Five years ago, he added, companies weren’t really ready to embrace the idea of fun at work. “Gamification was dismissed as a threat to professional efficiency or dictated from the top down with so much buzz-killing bureaucracy that it was doomed to fail from the beginning,” Phelps said.

That has changed, he said, thanks in some degree to the pandemic. As organizations of all types and sizes had to embrace remote and hybrid work, they faced new challenges in keeping employees engaged.

“With some new credibility and a super-charged demand for engaging employees, gamification is poised for a comeback as organizations search for anything that will help them solve their talent retention problems,” he said.

Bentley agrees. “Gamification has been in the background for a very long time,” she said. “The pandemic and shift to online for so many users have really just propelled the pace and forced us to consider more intrinsic motivation rather than relying on external factors—less sticks, more carrots.”

Gamification in Practice

Like many companies, Glovo, an on-demand courier service provider with 5,000 employees operating in 20 countries, was challenged during the pandemic to onboard and train staff remotely. It decided to introduce gamification into the mix and worked with Totara to make it happen.

“It was a huge hit,” recalls Miquel Gomez Roura, who was the global training manager for Glovo at the time. “One aspect of the program was that we had our own company currency they earned as they moved through the programs. They could then cash out into their country’s currency and trade in for items ranging from toasters to high-end bicycles.”

The solution was a success, he added, for onboarding and training. In addition, he said, “it really created a culture of closeness, despite the pandemic-caused physical separation.”

Tiffany Hiscock, senior consultant with The Vaya Group, a global leadership consultancy, said that HR and learning and development pros can achieve some key goals by incorporating gamification into their training efforts:

Boosting productivity and engagement.
Strengthening teamwork and increasing social interaction. This is something that has been especially important for employees in remote and hybrid settings during the pandemic. “Gamification elements include a competitive element which allows employees to engage each other in friendly competition and bond while learning crucial areas of their job,” Hiscock said.
Enhancing the corporate image. Gamification, she said, can help an organization “stand out and be viewed by competitors, employees and the public as innovative, dynamic and contemporary.”
Encouraging creative innovation. Simulations can help employees think unconventionally, Hiscock said. “This prepares them for bewildering situations they could face in the real world and promotes creativity and problem-solving.”
Pointing to next steps. Employees get instant feedback through gamification and, Hiscock said, “can improve their performance by following the action steps that will advance them.”

Phelps recommended starting small with gamification. “Play a five- or 10-minute game with your team and see how people react,” he suggested. “It will likely take a few times for people to loosen up in a traditionally stiffer culture.”

He also suggested layering games on top of other initiatives. “For example, if the organization is trying to hit a new sales goal, create a contest that rewards sales activity with participation in a companywide game.”

Bentley added that HR should also weigh the costs and benefits of gamification options as they would with any training initiative.

“If a lightweight image map with hotspots, immediate feedback and a gold star at the end proves to increase retention for basic safety training for all employees, it may free up the budget to create a VR simulation on a million-dollar piece of rescue equipment that you hope to rarely need to use,” she said. “Smaller gamification elements like badges, leaderboards and smaller modules are just as important as larger-scale initiatives as they can work to your advantage to hook learners and keep them coming back.”

Finally, Phelps cautioned, don’t try to outsource the process. “There are a lot of good resources out there, but someone needs to own gamification inside your organization for it to be successful.”

Lin Grensing-Pophal is a freelance writer in Chippewa Falls, Wis.

June 11, 2022

Balancing High Touch with High Tech Improves Recruiting Results

?Like many recruiting functions that do high-volume hiring, the talent acquisition team at Houston Methodist Hospital uses artificial intelligence to lift some of its burden in sourcing, screening and scheduling interviews for the many candidates it considers and hires each year.

But unlike some recruiting groups, the hospital’s Houston-based team believes the power of technology only goes so far. Recruiters use chatbots on the front end of the process to connect faster with candidates around the clock, but the goal is to quickly hand them off to human recruiters for more in-depth relationship building. The belief is that adding more high touch—human interaction in business operations—to the high-tech process can help the hospital stand apart in a highly competitive recruiting environment.

“Even before the pandemic, we’d created what we call our ‘know me’ personalized journey about how to engage candidates in a more personalized and human way,” said Tom Vernon, vice president of talent and experience at Houston Methodist Hospital, in a presentation at the spring HR Technology Conference & Exposition.

Balancing Tech with Human Connection

The hospital’s recruiters employ chatbots from tech vendor Paradox to help prequalify candidates with screening questions, automatically schedule interviews and send reminders. One of the biggest benefits of the technology is the ability to connect with candidates 24/7.

For example, the hospital often hires travel nurses from different states who work onsite for a few weeks or months.

“One of the first hires we made using the bots was a nurse working an ICU night shift in another state who had an interaction with our bot on a break, immediately got scheduled with a recruiter and began working for us 21 days later,” Vernon said.

Carlos Fernandez, a director of talent acquisition for the hospital, said the hospital hired 7,000 employees in 2021 as it expanded operations, but it also had to fill positions because of staff turnover. Using the bots helped the recruiting team keep its time-to-hire performance essentially flat during the pandemic, which executives viewed as a success given the challenge of hiring in a difficult market.

“Our goal is to use technology to connect with candidates faster, more efficiently and effectively,” Fernandez said during the presentation. “But our strategy also is to get to know candidates personally as early as possible in the sourcing process and introduce them to our culture.”

Vernon said the recruiting team adjusted how it balances high touch with high tech during the pandemic.

“The speed and efficiency created by the bots doesn’t replace the quality of our people and our culture,” he said. “It’s great on the front end for assessing candidates and getting them scheduled for interviews. But our recruiters and hiring managers can really make the difference on the back end of the process.”

The use of chatbots frees up recruiters to highlight and reinforce the hospital’s culture, which Vernon said is a big part of its employee value proposition.

“We strive to support our candidates and employees as whole people and see work as just one subset of life,” he said. “Candidates join our hospital because they come to understand our values are real to us. If a candidate were to walk the halls of our hospital and ask employees what drew them here and what keeps them here, many would say it’s because of how we live our values every day.”

Fernandez said the recruiting team has a clear-eyed view of the strengths and limitations of technology.

“You can have great technology in place, but if you don’t have the right follow-up from human recruiters, there will be gaps in the process,” he said. “It’s about having the right people behind the technology to connect with candidates.”

Tech Maturity Leads to Emphasizing High Touch

Some research shows that the longer many recruiting organizations use artificial intelligence tools, the more they begin to emphasize and develop the interpersonal skills of their recruiters.

For example, in a 2021 study by Lighthouse Research and Advisory, respondents who reported they’d been using chatbots and conversational recruiting tools for two or more years were twice as likely to prioritize relationship skills when upskilling recruiting teams than other respondents in the study. The research includes responses from 800 talent acquisition leaders based primarily in North America.

Ben Eubanks, chief research officer for Lighthouse Research and Advisory in Huntsville, Ala., said when employers have AI-based tools embedded in the recruiting process to handle routine transactional tasks, they often turn their attention to other areas such as building deeper relationships with key candidates.

“When it comes down to it, many of the simple questions asked by candidates don’t qualify as ‘building a relationship’ because recruiters can often answer them on autopilot,” Eubanks said. Using AI-based tools on the front end of the hiring process can free up recruiters to do more intensive relationship building at other stages of the process, he said, whether that be virtually or in person.

[SHRM members-only HR Q&A: What is artificial intelligence and how is it used in the workplace?]

Permission to ‘Fail Fast’

The Houston Methodist Hospital HR group’s innovative use of recruiting technology has positioned it as something of an incubator and thought leader for the rest of the organization on how to smartly employ AI. Human resources created its own “center for innovation” that is part of a larger hospital initiative seeking ways to introduce digital innovation to the organization, Vernon said.

“Everyone wants to succeed, but we decided to give ourselves permission to ‘fail fast’ in using new technologies,” Vernon said. “Many times, with innovation, you try to sustain an initiative that isn’t meeting your objectives for too long. But when we clearly see that something isn’t working, we’ll stop the pilot test and reinvest in something else, applying the lessons we learned going forward.”

Fernandez said the talent acquisition team constantly monitors and evaluates new technologies to see if they might improve recruiters’ performance or enhance the candidate experience. Most recently, that included assessing platforms that can make it easier to create and deploy employee-generated video testimonials as a recruiting tool.

A decision to move to a new applicant-tracking system contributed to improving the drop-off rate on candidate applications by 30 percent, Fernandez said.

Hospital recruiters also use automated texts to help counter the rise in “ghosting,” which is when candidates drop out of the hiring process or don’t show up for jobs once hired. The team sends automated reminder texts to candidates at three stages of the process—when a job offer is in the works, when a pre-onboarding process gets underway and when that process is complete.

The recruiting technology platform also has self-service features that allow candidates to access their online application at any time to check where they stand at different stages of the hiring process.

“The idea is to have constant communication and stay more engaged with candidates at all stages of the process,” Fernandez said.

Dave Zielinski is principal of Skiwood Communications, a business writing and editing company in Minneapolis.

June 11, 2022

Supreme Court Arbitration Ruling in Favor of Employee Called a Narrow Victory

?The U.S. Supreme Court recently unanimously ruled that a baggage-handling supervisor who participated in loading and unloading cargo on and off planes transporting goods across state or international borders did not have to arbitrate her wage claims under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The win for the employee may be a narrow one, however, and have limited application to other jobs, legal experts say.

Applying the transportation worker exemption of Section 1 of the FAA to the plaintiff, the Supreme Court found that the employee is a member of a class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce exempt from the arbitration requirement in her employment contract. Section 1 exempts from the statute’s coverage “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.’

“The court did not find—but rather specifically rejected the employee’s argument—that the exemption broadly applied to all airline employees who carry out the customary work of the airline, which the court noted would include virtually all employees of major transportation providers,” said Marc Zimmerman, an attorney with Freeborn & Peters in New York City.

“The court also did not expand the exemption to other industries or other classes of workers, specifically limiting its decision to the facts of the case and declining to decide whether the FAA exemption applied to workers who carry out duties further removed from the channels of interstate commerce or the actual crossing of borders,” he added.

In addition, the court did not determine that mandatory arbitration agreements in employment contracts are unenforceable under applicable state law, regardless of the application of the Section 1 exemption to the FAA, Zimmerman noted.

“Southwest itself downplayed the practical impact of the court’s decision and confirmed publicly it will continue to rely on mandatory arbitration agreements for its nonunion personnel who perform functions distinct from those at issue in this case, noting the bulk of its nonunion employees rarely handle cargo on a regular basis,” he said.

Uncertain Impact on Delivery Drivers

“The court flat out declined to decide whether delivery drivers—specifically referencing cases involving Amazon and Grubhub—are within the exemption,” Zimmerman noted.

While this opening will enable lower courts to continue to field challenges to the FAA’s application to particular classes of drivers, the court provided a roadmap that a determination must be based on a finding that a class of workers is directly involved in transporting goods across state or international borders, he explained.

The court suggested that such a finding would not be as plain as it is for airline cargo loaders when the class of workers has duties further removed from the channels of interstate commerce or the actual crossing of borders.

“Employers should be prepared to argue specifically that work performed by such drivers is, at best, tangential to interstate commerce because they do not regularly, directly involve transportation across state or international borders,” Zimmerman said. “Based upon this fact-specific inquiry, even in cases where the duties of certain such drivers may arguably trigger the exemption, it will be a challenge for employee advocates to identify a broad class of such drivers.”

Narrow Application of Decision

“Despite the court’s finding that airline cargo loaders no longer are bound to arbitrate disputes, the decision has narrow application and employers still may rely on the FAA—and applicable state laws—to enforce mandatory arbitration agreements with the vast majority of their workers,” Zimmerman noted. “Not only did the court refuse to open the door to broadening of the Section 1 exemption for a wide range of transportation industry workers, it may actually have nudged that door closed by highlighting the limitations of the exemption,” he added.

“Since the Supreme Court’s ruling was so narrow, airlines are still able to argue that airline employees with other types of job duties, such as supervisors who oversee the loading and unloading cargo on airplanes but do not physically handle the cargo themselves, workers who check in baggage curbside or at ticket counters, and employees who issue passenger tickets and check those tickets at the boarding gate, are not exempt from coverage under the FAA,” said Richard Silberberg, an attorney with Dorsey & Whitney in New York City. Arbitration agreements in these workers’ employment agreements would remain enforceable, he said.

The court explicitly refused to expand the federal exemption beyond airline workers performing particular duties in the transportation industry, Zimmerman emphasized. “This signals good news for employees in other industries.”

Theane Evangelis, an attorney with Gibson Dunn in Los Angeles, nonetheless noted that, “HR professionals should be attuned to the fact that the Section 1 exemption is not necessarily limited to workers who themselves physically carry goods or passengers across state lines.”

That said, she added that the court’s ruling, “confirms that the Section 1 exemption is narrow and covers only those workers who play a direct and necessary role in the free flow of goods across state and national borders.”

This decision is Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon.

June 11, 2022

Employees Cannot Be Forced to Arbitrate Claims Dismissed from Court Filing

?Takeaway: Employees who sued their former employers—asserting individual claims under the California Labor Code as well as claims under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA)—but later dismissed their individual claims could not be compelled to arbitrate those claims. The employers were seeking to use arbitration not as a forum for neutral dispute resolution but as a shield against liability under PAGA.

?Four workers who had signed arbitration agreements with their two former employers sued those employers, asserting individual claims under the California Labor Code as well as claims under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). The employees later dismissed the individual claims, leaving only the PAGA claims before the court. The employees could not be forced to arbitrate those dismissed individual claims, a California appellate court ruled, affirming a lower court’s order denying the employers’ motion to compel arbitration.

PAGA was enacted in 2003 to authorize private parties to sue under the California Labor Code for the civil penalties previously only recoverable by the state. An employee bringing a representative action under PAGA does so as an agent of the state’s labor law enforcement agencies, not other employees.

The employers agreed that the employees’ PAGA claims could not be forced into arbitration. They argued, however, that arbitration was still required to resolve the arbitrable individual claims the employees had raised in their original complaint.

The employers argued that the elimination of the claims for individual relief was only an indication that the workers were not actively seeking relief “at this time and in this forum” and that there remained a controversy between the employers and the employees, which the employees could resuscitate at some point in the future.

The appellate court refused to send the parties to arbitration, concluding that the employers were not using arbitration as a forum for neutral dispute resolution but as a shield against liability under PAGA.

Interpretation of Arbitration Statute

The statute at issue in this case, California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1281.2, provides that a party to an agreement to arbitrate a “controversy” may go to court to compel the other party to arbitrate the disputed issue or issues.

Section 1281.2 is part of the California Arbitration Act, which defines controversy as “any question arising between parties to an agreement whether the question is one of law or of fact or both.”

The employers argued that the employees’ dismissed claims were a controversy within the meaning of the statute, so the trial court had the authority to order arbitration of those claims.

The appeals court noted that its fundamental task in interpreting the statutory language at issue was to ascertain the legislature’s intent and effectuate the law’s purpose. It first must examine the statute’s words, giving them a plain and commonsense meaning, the court said.

However, a court does not consider the statutory language in isolation, the court continued. Rather, it construes the words in question in context, keeping in mind the nature and obvious purpose of the statute.

The appeals court then noted that the statutory language at issue includes the requirement that the question be “between parties” to the arbitration agreement.

The use of the plural “parties” and requirement that the question be between them indicates a bilateral process typical of arbitration proceedings, the court said.

The employers’ interpretation of “controversy” to include the employees’ individual claims not asserted in the lawsuit “strips arbitration of its defining characteristic as a forum for bilateral dispute resolution,” the court said. There is no question arising “between the parties,” the court explained.

More importantly, arbitration’s purpose, as a cheaper and more efficient alternative to civil actions, is not implicated because arbitration under the circumstances presented would not be an alternative to a civil action or an action in any other forum, the court added.

If the employers were interested in determining the validity of the employees’ allegations of Labor Code violations in the absence of the employees seeking damages, they could conduct an internal investigation of those allegations. Instead, the court said, the employers sought arbitration of those allegations with the purpose of having the employees’ PAGA action delayed. By this conduct, the employers are not using arbitration as a forum for neutral dispute resolution but as a shield against liability under PAGA. This is not arbitration’s intended purpose, the court emphasized.

Leshane v. Tracy VW Inc., Calif. Ct. App., No. G059946 (April 29, 2022).
Joanne Deschenaux, J.D., is a freelance writer in Annapolis, Md.

June 11, 2022

Juneteenth: More Than a Holiday for Some Employers

?On June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill recognizing Juneteenth, the celebration to commemorate the end of slavery in the U.S., as a federal holiday. It became the first new national holiday since the creation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

“By making Juneteenth a federal holiday, all Americans can feel the power of this day, and learn from our history, and celebrate progress, and grapple with the distance we’ve come but the distance we have to travel,” Biden said during a press conference at the time.

Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of the last enslaved Black Americans. On June 19, 1865, about 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation, which had taken effect two years prior. Texas was the last Confederate state forced to free enslaved people of color, officially ending slavery in the U.S.

In May 2020, the murder of George Floyd sparked protests nationwide and brought Juneteenth back into public discourse. That year, hundreds of companies—including JPMorgan Chase, Lyft, Nike, Spotify, Target and Uber, among others—began celebrating Juneteenth.

How Companies Are Celebrating

Once Juneteenth became a federal holiday, many more companies began honoring the occasion with a day off for their workers. Some employers are also leveraging the holiday to educate and raise awareness about racial barriers that continue to exist today.

Walker Sands, an integrated marketing agency in Chicago, is launching an internal podcast series of short conversations with three of its Black employees who will outline the history of Juneteenth, why it is important and how to celebrate the occasion.

The company will also be hosting a presentation with Brittany Applegate, a brand marketing consultant, who will discuss the evolution of Juneteenth. The event is designed to spark a passion for the holiday, an appreciation for the journey to national recognition and a desire to celebrate the day’s role in Black history.

“In many ways, Juneteenth is a reminder that even though significant progress has been made toward building more diverse and inclusive company cultures, barriers still exist,” said Allison Ward, chief people officer for Walker Sands. “It’s up to us as HR professionals to evaluate our systems and processes in order to remove said barriers so that everyone can thrive at work.”

15Five, a San Francisco-based performance management company, will also release podcast episodes that will cover topics such as LGBTQ rights and Juneteenth to educate their employees on the plights of these underrepresented communities.

The company’s Black employee resource group will also host a companywide watch party of the Juneteenth episode of the TV show “Blackish” and use part of the workday to discuss what they learned from the episode.

Cara Pelletier, senior director of diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) at 15Five, views Juneteenth as more than just a holiday.

“To me, Juneteenth is a reminder that there’s a difference between legislated equality and lived equality,” she said. “In our communities and in our organizations, we should always be asking ourselves whether our laws and our policies apply equally to everyone and, if not, how we can work to ensure fairness, equality and freedom for everyone.”

Yrthya Dinzey-Flores, vice president of DE&I and social impact and sustainability for software company Justworks in New York City, said her company is partnering with a Black employee resource group to host charitable, educational events on historical milestones for the Black community.

“We plan to include information about Juneteenth on our website that will provide context on Juneteenth and explain why it matters to us,” Dinzey-Flores said. “By sharing information, educating our employees and speaking about Juneteenth, we’re ensuring that the day is not forgotten.”

DE&I consultants are doing their part as well. Shirley Davis, a Florida-based global workforce expert and author of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion for Dummies (Wiley, 2022), will offer educational programs and deliver keynote speeches about Juneteenth. Each year, she contributes to articles, writes blogs and participates in podcasts on the topic.

“I believe it is every American’s responsibility, especially leaders, to learn about and acknowledge our painful history because it is our American story, just as we remember and look back on Independence Day, President’s Day and others,” said Davis, whose birthday falls on Juneteenth. “The American Dream belongs to us all.”

Change Requires Action

Opal Lee, a 95-year-old Texas activist who spent decades campaigning to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, told The Associated Press in 2021 that Juneteenth becoming a nationally recognized occasion is significant but that the country still has a long way to become a truly equal society.

“We don’t want people to think that Juneteenth is a stopping point, because it isn’t,” Lee said. “It’s a beginning, and we’re going to address some of the disparities that we know exist.”

The federal government has passed several measures to reduce these disparities. In January 2021, Biden signed Executive Order 13985, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.” The executive order mandated that each federal agency produce a plan for addressing barriers that limit full and equal participation for underserved communities.

The American Rescue Plan, signed into law in 2021, has supported Black business owners and families by:

Expanding access to wealth creation through small-business ownership in Black communities.
Providing cash relief directly to low- and middle-income Americans, which cut Black child poverty by 40 percent.
Leveraging federal procurement to reduce the racial wealth gap for Black entrepreneurs.

“To honor the true meaning of Juneteenth, we have to continue toward that promise because we’ve not gotten there yet,” Biden said at the Juneteenth press conference. “[Vice President Kamala Harris] and I and our entire administration and all of you in this room are committed to doing just that.”

June 11, 2022

Jobless Claims Edge Up Amid Tight Labor Market

?States reported that 229,000 workers filed for new unemployment benefits during the week ending June 4, an increase of 27,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The number of workers continuing to claim unemployment benefits—1.3 million—is still well below the pre-pandemic average of 1.7 million.

Jobless claims have remained near pre-pandemic levels for months as employers have generally avoided laying off workers in historically high demand. It is being reported that some layoffs are starting to occur in the tech sector.

The unemployment rate held at 3.6 percent in May, close to what is considered full employment. And while employers are offering higher wages to attract talent, many on the sidelines are unmoved: the gap between job openings and available workers remained at 5.5 million in April, or about two jobs for every unemployed worker.

June 11, 2022

Ask HR: Did My Employer Violate the ADA?

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.

I was terminated after I had a manic episode at work. My employer was well aware that I am bipolar I, and this was supported by my psychiatrist of 25 years. Do I have any recourse in fighting this termination? —Sebe

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.: It takes strength and courage for you to disclose your medical condition. While the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) does protect employees from discriminatory employment actions based on disabilities, known or perceived, it does not completely shield employees from adverse employment action.

Employment is at-will in all states except Montana, which means an employer or employee can terminate the relationship at any time, with or without notice or reason, as long as the termination does not violate a law, such as anti-discrimination laws. Therefore, the reason for termination cannot be based on protected class status such as race, sex, color, age, religion, national origin, disability and genetic information.

On its face, you may have a legitimate case under the ADA, but it will depend on your prior work performance. Before you fight the termination, think about your job performance. Have you had any performance discussions or performance improvement plans? Did your employer document any misconduct or violation of policy or other work rules? If you had performance problems, your employer could be justified in its decision to end your employment.

Assuming there are no problems with your performance, your employer may have violated the law. Were you engaged by your employer in the ADA interactive process to determine if any reasonable accommodations were needed to support you? Do you know if other employees experienced similar workplace health crises but didn’t have their employment terminated? You may want to look to your employer’s policy regarding grievances or consider contacting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or speak with legal counsel regarding the circumstances.

One last thing to keep in mind: Even if you had an accommodation in place, your employer may still be able to take adverse actions against you if the accommodation presented is or becomes an undue hardship, or if you were deemed a direct threat to yourself or other employees.

I know this is sensitive matter, and I hope you can reach an amicable conclusion.

My company went to 100 percent remote work during the height of the pandemic. We have been back in office fully for a couple of months. I feel like I can get my work done from home or within an alternate schedule. What is the best way to approach my employer to request schedule flexibility (four-day workweek or remote work)? —Leanna

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.: You are among a growing contingent of workers looking for work flexibility. Virtually every employer is facing this rising demand for remote work and alternative scheduling. It is important for workers to share their preferences with employers that are making critical workplace decisions. Employers are constantly trying to weigh business needs and workforce needs to find solutions that benefit both.

As you build your case for schedule flexibility, be sure to include how it will benefit business performance. Draw from your experiences during your remote-work period. Highlight how your work was positively impacted during that time. Point to some opportunities to improve remote-work experience and effectiveness. In preparation for speaking with your people manager, consider what type of flexibility you are seeking and why. Outline the benefits of the options you seek.

Your company may already be exploring flexible work options. In today’s tight labor market, many employers are finding telework and flexible scheduling to be valuable incentives in attracting and retaining talent.

Your company’s decision will come down to what makes sense for their business needs and workplace culture. Even if the answer is “no,” you will have done the right thing in giving respectful and informative feedback to your employer. I hope you find the work arrangement that suits you best.

June 11, 2022

Values-Based Leadership in Action

?Values-based leadership is both a leadership style and philosophy that builds on the shared beliefs and assumptions of the leader and the team. Because a common set of values is shared, teams experience greater alignment and benefit from higher productivity.

OK, that’s simple enough in theory, and it stands to reason that employees who share similar values and philosophies will work together more harmoniously. But what does it feel and look like in action, and how can you introduce this idea to your current team?

Let’s start with some basic premises. Values-based leadership tends to be selfless in nature. Selfless leadership, otherwise known as servant leadership (as articulated by author Robert Greenleaf in his 1970 essay “The Servant as Leader”), proposes that the servant leader is servant first. Their first desire is to serve others and make them better people. From there, the servant leader helps those served grow to become “healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous and more likely themselves to become leaders.”

Likewise, values-based leadership builds off of a foundation of emotional intelligence, where self-reflection, a balanced perspective and genuine humility, among other attributes, make people stronger. Productivity follows from there.

Step 1: Express this on day one with new hires.

One of the great masters of values-based leadership is Mark Taylor, Nickelodeon’s former general manager and senior vice president for 15 years. Nickelodeon thrived under Taylor’s leadership, becoming the destination studio for animators worldwide. Taylor advises, “Setting values and expectations needs to occur during the first week of employment. Set aside time with each new hire cohort to get to know them personally and make sure they find in one another a special bond as new hires. This was also my opportunity to share my ‘Big 8 Rules of the Road,’ where I took the opportunity to outline how special the Nickelodeon family was, what made us unique, and how each new hire remained accountable for perpetuating the culture that was so dear to me and everyone else. It’s amazing how new hires took to those values and made them their own. And one thing’s for sure: Everyone understood what was expected of them and naturally wanted to be part of such a special culture. That’s the glue that binds people to your organization.”

Taylor’s “Big 8” focused on high quality, personal accountability, mutual respect and passion for the work. He included the importance of “true leadership,” whether you were in management or in an individual contributor role. And he handed out a one-sheet with his principles and mantras mapped out, with the tagline:

Strong Principles + Belief in People = Strong Leadership

Taylor was and still is an animation industry legend. How exciting for new hires—from animators to accountants to mailroom staff and janitors—to spend time with him, feel his genuine concern for them and the organization, and be welcomed personally to the Nickelodeon family.

Once Taylor had met with new hires, he would hold a separate meeting a few days later for those in formal leadership positions. “The follow-up meeting with newly hired managers was a bit more pointed and specific in terms of my expectations,” Taylor said. “We worked off the values one-sheet again, this time focusing on expectations of these management team members in terms of communication, team building and furthering the culture. It was likewise important to address the potential negative consequences for not meeting these expectations since the management team would be held to a higher standard of accountability.” Performance, creativity and innovation soared in an environment where people felt connected to a culture that was so safely cherished, with clear expectations surrounding performance, productivity, respect and gratitude.

Step 2: Introduce your values to your current team.

It may feel awkward to suddenly call a meeting to express your leadership values with your current team, especially if you’ve been working together for years. “But there’s no time like the present to reset expectations, especially as we emerge out of a devastating pandemic where new norms and patterns are quickly being re-established,” said Kim Congdon, global vice president of human resources and talent management at Herbalife Nutrition in Torrance, Calif. “Introducing values-based leadership impacts everything from recruitment and selection to employee engagement and satisfaction, motivation, innovation, and high performance because people want to feel like they’re part of an organization that shares their values and values them as individuals. They likewise want to know what’s expected of them. It’s that simple, and it works because it pierces people’s hearts, which is something no employee handbook or policies and procedures manual will ever do.”

Here’s what it might sound like in practice:

I called this meeting to introduce something new. This isn’t meant to be an HR idea du jour that’s shared and forgotten. I’ve been researching and studying this, and I feel like it could really help us cement our relationships and perform at a higher level. It’s called values-based leadership, and it’s intended to set a standard for us all to follow. As you lead your own teams in the future, I’d encourage you to do this, too, if you feel this is successful. But I want to outline my 10 most important values on a one-sheet that we can discuss now and refer to going forward. You can call them ‘Paul’s Crucial 10’ or something similar, but they’re intended to help us keep focused, ensure that we’re supporting one another appropriately and remind us to actually have fun in our day-to-day activities. That’s an order! So, let’s discuss this together and see if we can all agree on the premises I’ve mapped out.

Have one another’s backs.
Create a friendly and inclusive work environment.
Always bring out the best in others.
Practice selfless leadership (i.e., put others’ needs ahead of your own and expect them to respond in kind).
Demonstrate accountability in all you do for both your performance and conduct.
Follow the leader-as-coach model: Each of you is responsible for helping others reach their personal best; people should seek you out for help as a mentor and leader.
Focus on career and professional development. Building your resume and LinkedIn profile stems from an achievement mindset that focuses on quantifying accomplishments.
Have fun—lighten things up a bit and celebrate successes.
Do your very best work every day with peace of mind.
No drama! Life’s too short, and we spend more time with each other than with our own families. Let’s create a work experience that brings out the best in all of us.

Now, I’ll ask you all to give this some thought for our next meeting so that we can discuss what this might look and feel like in reality on our team. And I’ll welcome you to meet with me individually if you have any concerns about our rolling this out successfully. But we’ve got to start somewhere, and this is as healthy a place as any. I’m looking forward to partnering with you all to make these values our go-forward action plan. Does anyone have any initial thoughts on this and how the overall goal will help us feel more aligned and in sync with one another?

Advised Congdon, “If you’re a CEO, business owner, division or department head, or supervisor or team lead, share your values and your expectations upfront and openly. State them proudly, give examples of how they work, and remind everyone that your culture is unique and worthy of attention. Add them as a permanent topical point to your staff meetings and employee gatherings, asking for recent examples that further your organization’s mission and values. Most important, know that people will feel more secure when they understand what’s expected of them, when they can relate to you and your values as their leader, and when they appreciate the opportunity to join and remain part of such a special family.”

Nickelodeon’s success soared under Mark Taylor’s legendary leadership. You, too, can tell your story about your history and culture proudly, set expectations, and raise the bar for all employees to perform at their highest level. It’s amazing how a simple philosophy—clearly expressed and modeled every day—can have such a tremendous impact on a business. Great leadership can be yours. All it takes is a change to your sponsoring thought about who you are and who you choose to be. Values-based leadership may very well be the most impactful—and simplest—leadership intervention to get you and your team where you want to go.

Paul Falcone (www.PaulFalconeHR.com) is a frequent contributor to SHRM Online. He is a member of the SHRM Speakers Bureau, a corporate leadership trainer, certified executive coach and author of The Paul Falcone Workplace Leadership Series (March 2022). The first book in the five-book series is titled Workplace Ethics: Mastering Ethical Leadership and Sustaining a Moral Workplace. Other books in the series focus on the talent management life cycle, including Effective Hiring; Leadership Offense; Leadership Defense; and The New Managers (HarperCollins Leadership and Amacom).

June 10, 2022

Best Practices to Improve Team Communication

There is no doubt that strong communication is a key factor and a driving force behind any organization’s success. After all, what distinguishes a successful team from a bunch of individuals? A team is made up of individuals who are engaged in collaborative work. Ideally, they are aware of and share the company’s mission and […]

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