HR Daily Advisor is BLR’s FREE daily source of HR tips, news, and advice. HR Daily Advisor offers free webcasts, articles, and reports on topics important to HR and compensation professionals.
It’s perhaps not surprising in the post-COVID era, then, to see the emergence of yet another C-level role.
This article was first published on December 7, 2022, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
Keeping track of the growing list of C-suite positions can be challenging for casual observers. Even the most-well-known CEO title is just over 100 years old. The first chief financial officers (CFOs) didn’t emerge until the 1960s. Chief human resource officers (CHROs) are even more recent, not coming onto the scene until the mid-1980s.
A Newly Emerging C-Level Role
Successful, multi-billion-dollar corporations don’t create highly paid C-level roles on a whim. As roles like CFO, CMO, CAO, CLO and others emerge, they are in response to compelling business needs that require high-level authority and focused attention.
It’s perhaps not surprising in the post-COVID era, then, to see the emergence of yet another C-level role: the chief remote officer.
“In the new world of work, business needs have shifted,” writes Alex Christian in an article for BBC Worklife. “One of the most pertinent issues has been how to establish best practices around remote set-ups. Many companies have struggled: virtual working has been a moving target with no precedent; organizations, in some cases, have implemented hybrid or work-from-anywhere policies without formal processes in place.”
But, he adds, while some companies have taken an ad-hoc approach, others are being more proactive. They are creating senior-level positions whose job is to focus specifically on how to make remote work work. “These chief remote officers may have different titles, but they are each tasked with addressing the complex issues that arise from new ways of working and future-proofing businesses’ post-pandemic operating models,” Christian says.
Finding Order Amid Chaos
It’s understandable why organizations would want to designate a CRO in today’s business climate. In just a couple of years, the entire office paradigm has been completely upended for millions of workers.
Finding order amid that chaos and finding ways to derive strategic advantages in how a company manages its remote work policies are where companies are starting to put increasing energies in the aftermath of COVID. It will be interesting to see if and how this nascent C-suite role develops and what its ultimate purview will be once the dust settles on the historic transition to widespread remote work.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.
Job applicants should take note of a new interview format that promises to shake things up even further and add a brand-new source of stress and interview preparation
This article was first published on December 7, 2022, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
Job interviews can really put people out of their natural element. Pre-COVID, job interviews typically meant going in to see a hiring manager in person, trying to find an unfamiliar office, perhaps dressing up more than usual, etc.
During the COVID pandemic, huge numbers of job interviews switched to a virtual format. Instead of finding the right office building, interviewees stressed over not having the right video conferencing app downloaded or their microphone or camera not working.
Well, job applicants should take note of a new interview format that promises to shake things up even further and add a brand-new source of stress and interview preparation: virtual reality.
Are You Ready for Virtual Reality Job Interviews?
Artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) technology mean that job applicants may soon be interviewed by a computer, writes Elizabeth Hotson in an article for BBC.
“Earlier this year students at Sandwell College in West Bromwich put on VR headsets to do some mock interviews. Their avatars—cartoon-like, 3D representations of themselves—were put through their paces by another talking avatar representing the AI software system.”
At the moment, the VR system being used by students—made by London-based company Bodyswaps—is used primarily for applicants to practice interviews, as opposed to being used by actual employers for actual interviews. But Hotson writes that other companies, like Swedish AI firm Tengai are already leveraging VR tech for conducting real-world interviews.
Potential for Bias Still Exists
VR and AI technologies may have interesting impacts on DEI efforts among organizations looking to add talent. While interviewing with a computer as an avatar may create the opportunity for “blind” hiring, it’s also important to note that these technologies are still developed by humans, and human biases often remain subtly and unintentionally embedded in such tools.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor
Most people who pursue a career in DEI know very well there is a lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion in Corporate America. The precise nature of the problem, though, is not always clear in particular industries or locales without doing a little research.
This article was first published on November 28, 2022, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
We often note the circuitous and fortuitous paths that lead many of the subjects in our series on diversity leaders to their careers. So many start out far away from any kind of DEI work and find their DEI calling after years spent in marketing, or sales or some other corporate function.
LaTanya Flix, Senior Vice President of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for the Greater Houston Partnership, is not one of those cases.
Flix has dedicated her entire career to organizational development and serving those in traditionally underrepresented communities.
On a Mission to Make a Difference
"I began my career as the founding director of a small national organization staffed by a team of volunteers and continued to build my skills in change management, organizational development, and strategy with a focus on improving outcomes for underrepresented individuals," she says. "Since that time, I have had the pleasure to build teams and help senior leaders integrate equity and inclusion within an organization. After spending my entire career in nonprofit executive leadership, I decided to formally launch CauseAdvance, a social change advisory practice. This work led to my current role as an advisor to C-suite and senior leaders and to influence the business community through the Greater Houston Partnership—one of the largest economic development organizations in the nation."
Flix was hired as the organization’s first SVP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in December of 2020 and quickly began working in collaboration with the established Racial Equity Committee. “This was an opportunity to use my background and years of experience in organizational development, change management, racial equity, executive leadership, and social impact,” she explains. “I was honored to have established my own advisory practice, but I decided to pause that work when the opportunity was presented to advance progress in the city I love and call home by working with our region’s business leaders.”
In her current role, Flix leads the One Houston Together initiative to leverage the business community to reduce inequalities and create fundamental change in areas where businesses have the specific capacity to do so, namely in procurement diversity and diverse talent recruitment and advancement. The One Houston Together initiative is a data-driven effort of 100+ businesses, institutions, and nonprofits to advance people of color into management roles, increase racial diversity on corporate boards and grow spending with minority business enterprises.
Surveying the Local DEI Landscape
Most people who pursue a career in DEI know very well there is a lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion in Corporate America. The precise nature of the problem, though, is not always clear in particular industries or locales without doing a little research. Understanding the current landscape is crucial to clearly understanding the present challenges and solutions.
That’s why one of the first things Flix did when joining the Greater Houston Partnership was to begin laying the groundwork for an Equity and Inclusion Assessment. “When I joined the Partnership, I completed a landscape scan of DEI efforts of chambers of commerce and economic development organizations to add to initial data prepared by our Research division,” Flix explains.
Flix was already familiar with the Global DEI Benchmarks used to assess organizations’ progress across multiple dimensions of DEI. The Greater Cleveland Partnership was using those benchmarks in an assessment developed for their members, and Flix was able to collaborate with Cleveland to launch one for their region. “Different than Cleveland, we not only provided participating companies with their own scorecard, we were also able to create industry-specific scores based on aggregate data as well as a regional benchmark and robust dashboard that will help us gauge our progress,” she says.
Mixed Results
The results of the assessment Flix conducted contained promising data on existing DEI efforts, but also found some areas for improvement, particularly around diverse procurement and diversity at senior levels of organizations.
"We learned what areas Houston companies are actively engaged in with regard to equity and inclusion and that there are also a range of maturity levels and opportunities for improvement," Flix says. "We found that companies are proactively attempting to advance equity and inclusion but overall falling short when it comes to narrowing racial, ethnic and gender gaps in the talent pipeline." Results showed that companies were not promoting people of color and women to senior leadership and board positions at the same rate as their white male counterparts.
"We also learned that Houston companies had the least mature practices in purchasing from racially/ethnically diverse-owned businesses," Flix says. "The survey results were instrumental in honing the focus of One Houston Together into our two workstreams around increasing equity in the corporate talent pipeline and accelerating the growth of underrepresented businesses."
Engaging Local Leaders to Address Gaps
Of course, identifying areas for improvement is only part of the DEI battle. The other part is enacting change, and that can’t be done single-handedly, even by the most driven and well-meaning organizations. So, Flix and her team sought engagement from the broader business community.
In early 2022 they launched a Supplier Diversity Roundtable and a Talent Roundtable to convene regional C-suite and senior leaders to share best practices and set regional indicators of progress. “We have held multiple convenings emphasizing peer-to-peer learning and highlighting ways to use our assessment as an internal roadmap to advance progress,” she says. “We have also shared the roundtable learnings with our larger membership.”
In June, the Project launched the first Houston Buyer Cohort with 12 companies committed to setting time-bound goals to increase spending with Houston area MBEs. “That same month, we released the Minority Business Enterprise Economic Impact Report in collaboration with the Houston Minority Supplier Development Council (HMSDC) to demonstrate the impact of MBEs in the region and the opportunities for continued growth,” Flix adds. “Our focus moving forward is to support members in advancing DEI progress individually and to see collective progress across our 12-country region.”
Not everyone starts off their career with an eye towards DEI, even among current DEI leaders. Flix is an exception in this regard, and she has brought a passion and data-driven approach to improving DEI to her work in Houston that promises to drive real, meaningful, and positive change for businesses and diverse communities alike.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.
One of the reasons economists and politicians have been struggling to even say whether or not the U.S. is or soon will be in a recession is because there are so many mixed signals.
This article was first published on November 17, 2022, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
The past couple of years have been quite chaotic for HR teams as well as managers and executives trying to keep their teams staffed with qualified employees.
First, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a widespread shift to remote work, not to mention high volumes of illnesses and even deaths that kept employees off the job.
As the pandemic began to subside, the next challenge to face employers was the Great Resignation, which saw large numbers of workers choose early retirement or simply opt to sit out of the workforce for a variety of reasons. This phenomenon has left employers scrambling to hold onto employees as the remaining workforce has taken advantage of its newfound labor market leverage to look for more attractive jobs and greater compensation.
A Looming Recession
As the COVID-19 pandemic seems increasingly distant in the rearview mirror and companies have started to adjust to the tight labor market, the next major challenge seems to be laying in wait just over the horizon: recession.
While economists have had mixed predictions and many are cautiously optimistic, there’s a growing consensus that the United States will experience some level of recession in the next year or so.
With companies bouncing from one employment challenge to another, we reached out to industry experts and employers to get a sense of their predictions for the near future of the labor market and what challenges and strategies they foresee with respect to employee recruitment and retention.
Don’t Pop the Champagne Just Yet
A potential recession could seem like a mixed blessing to some employers or at least to the staff members tasked with hiring and retaining workers. After all, it was a red-hot and sizzling stock market and housing market that padded the finances of older workers well enough to convince so many they could afford to retire early. While a recession is rarely good news for any business, might pouring some cold water on the red-hot economy make it easier to find workers?
Don’t be too optimistic, says Kathleen Quinn Votaw, CEO of TalenTrust. Recently, Votaw attended a conference and sat in a on an economic update where Wells Fargo predicted a very soft recession early 2023, she says. “Employees should prepare for their employers being more thoughtful about their investments and expenses leading up to the economic downturn but the employers will not ‘gain an upper hand’ since there is a supply and demand issue and not enough qualified employees who want to work.”
Leslie Aument, head of people at construction startup Kojo agrees that a recession (if one does materialize) doesn’t necessarily mean recruiters will be able to pick and choose whichever candidates they want. “I was a recruiter through the Great Recession from 2008 through 2011, and high-demand positions were still hard to recruit for,” Aument says. “I do think there’s a perception that the strongest performers at any company are likely not experiencing layoffs or joblessness, so some leaders still prefer to attract passive candidates rather than active candidates.”
But, Aument says, she doesn’t think that’s necessarily true. “It’s up to each company to have strong interviewing and assessment practices to ensure they’re hiring the right person, for the right role, at the right time, with the right set of core values, abilities and skills to be successful.”
A Strange Kind of Recession
One of the reasons economists and politicians have been struggling to even say whether or not the U.S. is or soon will be in a recession is because there are so many mixed signals. In particular, the job market isn’t acting like a recessionary job market.
“Some key points that make this economic downtown a tad unique is that employers keep creating new jobs, and 1.5M jobs were created since June 2022,” says Votaw. “Next, there are 10.1M open jobs and only 6M people that want to work: virtually or onsite. It will continue to be critical for employers to work hard to retain their employees as they will continue to have choice now and for the foreseeable future. There is always a demand for employees who can make a difference and drive growth. Make sure to distinguish yourself and stand out to your employer.”
Avoiding Change Fatigue
It’s important for employers to remember that they’re not the only ones struggling with the whiplash of global economic changes. Employees themselves are already stressed out by the pandemic, wars and talk of potential recessions. Whatever employers think they need to do to cope with a potential recession, they should strive to minimize the impact on their already frazzled employees, says Jason Medley, Chief People Officer at Codility.
“One thing companies can do is try to minimize the significant change in the organization as much as possible,” Medley says. “Talent is becoming extremely change-fatigued from the last few years. While I know many companies will have to restructure, the fewer times you do this will help efforts in the long run for 2023. Prepare well and remember that the world will feel unstable, so the more we can do to create stability inside our organizations, the less employees will have to deal with.”
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
As companies ponder and even implement major workplace changes, far too often they leave their valuable human assets out of the loop. This can add to employee anxiety and create unnecessary feelings of dread and mistrust.
“Whenever there’s uncertainty, you have to step up your communications,” says Mary Stern of AI-powered employee experience platform Simplr. “If you don’t, employees will create their own reality. Whether you have changes internally or you’re responding to external factors, I guarantee you will have problems if employees don’t hear from you often. It’s essential to help employees dim the noise—and there’s a lot of it—to determine what’s relevant, what’s not and how it relates to their job security.” There are, she points out, “a variety of channels from intranets and all-hands meetings to strong employee communities and 1:1 personal communications with managers. No matter the channel, open communication is the piece that builds employee trust and retention.”
The modern global economy is certainly dynamic, something few businesses are ignorant about. However, the scale and frequency of major economic and labor market disruptions over the past few years has been quite remarkable. As companies look ahead to the next major challenge— a potential recession—it’s essential for companies to consider the impacts of an economic downturn on their operations and recruitment and retention needs.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.
Companies are racing toward automation in the face of a tight labor market and a quest for greater efficiencies.
This article was first published on November 8, 2022, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
Eventually, the labor market is sure to settle down, but when it does, it’s unlikely that jobs that were automated due to a shortage of human workers will de-automate when the labor shortage eases.
In a previous post, we discussed Walmart’s increasing embrace of automation in its fulfillment centers, including the recent acquisition in early October of Alert Innovations, a robotics company that has developed bots specifically designed for Walmart that retrieve and dispense orders.
Consumers Become Part of the Process
Diners and shoppers have likely noticed other forms of automation in certain job spaces in recent years, such as a growth in self-checkouts in grocery stores, self-service ordering at airport bars and restaurants, and even robots programmed to deliver food to restaurant diners or check inventory at supermarkets. And let’s not forget about the ubiquity of automated answering systems whenever one calls a customer service line.
Part of the recent growth in the use of such non-human resources was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. There was simply less risk of exposure to the virus from a machine or computer than from another human being. But economic and labor market conditions have also played and continue to play an important role. As companies struggled to find workers for a variety of relatively low-skill or monotonous jobs, many made the decision to invest in robots and computers.
Increased Use of Automation Poised to Drive Change
The time, money, and logistical challenges involved in such a transition has meant that companies don’t typically embrace greater automation on a whim. But once that decision has been made and implemented, it’s unlikely to be reversed anytime soon. After all, once a company has invested large sums in purchasing robots or even a robotics company (in the case of Walmart), why would it revert to the old way of doing business just because it might be able to pay workers a few dollars less per hour in a more favorable labor market?
Instead, labor market cycles can have a ratchet effect when it comes to automation: labor shortages can trigger an increase in automation, but when those labor shortages abate, automation does not tend to decrease to previous levels. The result is an increasing trend toward the obsolescence of many human positions.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.
HR Daily Advisor is BLR’s FREE daily source of HR tips, news, and advice. HR Daily Advisor offers free webcasts, articles, and reports on topics important to HR and compensation professionals.
HR Daily Advisor has identified 3 soft skills employers want.
This article was first published on November 8, 2022, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
Employers and employees alike have probably heard a lot about the increasing value being placed on so-called “soft skills,” or those skills that fall outside of industry-specific technical abilities that are often top of mind in employee searches. But “soft skills” isn’t as specific as it could be. Many applicants and employers, while now generally recognizing the importance of soft skills in the workplace, often scratch their heads when it comes to getting more specific.
In this post, we consider some specific soft skills that are in high demand for employers.
Time Management
Doing more with less, meeting tight deadlines, and appropriately prioritizing efforts are all aspects of time management, which is a critical soft skill for any worker. Even the most technically adept employees will struggle at work if they aren’t able to manage their time effectively.
Communication
Collaboration is a hallmark of a successful modern company, and successful collaboration requires successful communication. This means conveying concepts and ideas clearly and efficiently across a variety of media. Those with strong written and oral communication skills can be far more efficient and effective at coordinating group activities and avoiding costly mistakes resulting from miscommunication.
Adaptability to Change
American companies operate in an extremely dynamic economic environment, both at home and on the world stage. Supply chain challenges, pandemics, armed conflicts, environmental disasters, labor market challenges, and a variety of other factors make it essential for companies and their staff to be nimble when it comes to changing circumstances. Employees who are too set in their ways to learn new ways of operating can be a drag on company performance.
As soft skills are increasingly being accepted as a legitimate set of competencies, the next step in the collective consciousness of employers and recruiters is to dive deeper and determine which so-called soft skills are most crucial for their organization. In this post, we’ve outlined a handful of the top examples as a helpful starting point.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.
This article was first published on October 13, 2022, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
HR Daily Advisor Editor Bianca Herron sits down with Deb Reuterman, Senior Director of Human Resources at the University of Pheonix.
Deb Reuterman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Sr. Director of Human Resources at the University of Phoenix, has spent her career in human resources across myriad industries including manufacturing, law, healthcare, and higher education. We recently connected with Reuterman to discuss how she got her start in the industry, her best mistake, as well as the value of making employees feel safe. According to her, safety is the cornerstone of employee engagement.
"I like that word – safe," Reuterman shared with HR Daily Advisor. "People who feel safe to bring their whole selves to work can engage in the tough conversations that are important to moving an organization forward. So many leaders get nervous about tough conversations and either avoid them all together or rush through them leaving an employee feeling side-swiped. The reality is – any conversation can be had if there is enough psychological safety. Imagine your leader asking permission to give you tough feedback. Assuming the relationship is otherwise healthy – you are unlikely to say no, and you are mentally ready to hear something that could be critical. Just that small act of asking can open the door to a more robust conversation that can help you grow and see things differently."
In our latest Faces of HR, meet Deb Reuterman.
How did you get your start in the field?
I graduated college with a degree in Spanish and International Politics. This is a degree that has very little applicability outside of Washington, D.C. Spanish became my transferable skill that got me a foot in the door. I found myself working for a company that had a Spanish-speaking workforce. They valued my Spanish over a more traditional HR background – they offered to teach me HR by sending me to the University of Phoenix for a 9-month certificate program in HR. Even with my bachelor’s degree from a private east coast college, that certificate gave me the credibility I needed to pursue my early career HR roles. It was another 20 years before I ended up working at the University doing exactly what they taught me to do so long ago.
Who is/was your biggest influence in the industry?
So many people have influenced me along the way. Early in my career, I was told that the best HR people get out of the business of HR for a while. HR is overhead. We don’t bring in profit, and so it is up to us every day to deliver value. I’ve never forgotten that. I left HR for a while, working in the profit center of an organization. Doing that helped me gain perspective on the problems leaders face. When you have walked a mile in a leader’s shoes, you gain a different appreciation for finding solutions to problems that satisfy not just the letter of the law or the policy you are responsible for, but also solutions that enable the business. If our clients are paying for our services, we have an obligation to think like a business owner as well.
What’s your best mistake and what did you learn from it?
Years ago, I was tasked with leading an effort to build a complex business process for tracking and measuring work. There was no clear solution and a lot of obstacles, but I worked collaboratively with a team of SMEs to develop a solution. In the middle of this project there was a change in leadership, and I was asked to update a new HR leader on the project and our progress. I spent a good hour giving her all the details on how it would work and why it was a robust solution. I’d tested it with end users and was certain we needed to deploy the solution. I’ll never forget her question – “Sounds good, what does the COO think?”
I’d been so focused on the solution for the business need that I hadn’t taken the COO on the journey with us. The truth was they hadn’t seen any of the work we’d done along the way and therefore was not bought into our (REALLY GREAT) solution. Through this experience I learned the importance of taking people on the journey with you. If you are asked to deliver a project – no one wants to be in the dark until you have the solution baked and ready to deploy. I learned to gain executive leader buy in at every stage of the project. Ask for their feedback and demonstrate that you heard them in later iterations. The more they know along the way, the easier the implementation will be.
What’s your favorite part about working in the industry? What’s your least favorite part, and how would you change it?
HR has definitely evolved over the years. When I started, we were in “Personnel” and the focus was on forms, compliance, and ensuring well-maintained files. While these are all still very important parts of HR today, the industry has evolved tremendously. There is more widespread recognition that organizations are successful (or not) based on the skills and the synergy of their employees. More and more work is thought based and the discretionary effort that employees bring to their jobs is critical to success. HR is that strategic partner that helps organizations engage their employees differently. That is the piece I enjoy the most – helping leaders who understand the importance of engaged employees find out-of-the-box ways to develop business solutions that help their teams thrive.
On the other end of the spectrum, I’m frequently frustrated when states pass well-intentioned laws to protect employees in the workplace that are not carefully thought through or easily actioned. Increasingly, I find myself having to tell employees “no” to requests – not because the business won’t support them, but because the state they live in has enacted legislation that hinders our ability to support the request.
How can company leaders make HR a value within their organization?
I don’t know that it is incumbent on leaders to make HR a value within their organization. It is on us to demonstrate the value we bring. You’ll have savvy leaders who already understand that they need a good HR person in their inner circle to talk through their ideas in a safe space with someone who understands the conversation and can help them clarify their thinking. Not every leader gets that immediately. That means it is on us as HR Professionals to ask the right questions, build solid relationships, and look for ways to help leaders understand that we are here to help you win. Sometimes we get in our own way by allowing the organization to see us as the enforcers. Jokes like “watch out, HR is here” reinforce that misperception. The best compliment is when someone puts 30 minutes on your calendar to talk through an idea. When your advice is sought out, you know that company leaders make HR a value within your organization.
Where do you see the industry heading in five years? Or are you seeing any current trends?
With the baby boomer generation retiring, and future generations having fewer children, there is a natural tightening of the labor market. Combine that with the increase in thought workers needed, and companies are really going to have to think outside of the box in terms of attracting and retaining talent. The pandemic also put work-life balance on the table in a way it never has been before. For HR professionals, this means we must help our organizations think strategically about how to balance employee desires to work anywhere, anytime and employer needs to create collaboration and community. Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos, talked a lot about creating collisions with his employees. He saw himself as an architect whose responsibilities included bringing his employees together seemingly randomly to build and nurture creative ideas. The question we are going to be challenged with is “How do we bring everyone together, remotely? What does collaboration look like now? How do we create collisions?”
What are you most proud of?
Early in my career, I had an employee lose a child in a tragic accident that no one should have to live through. He was working in an industry not known for having an empathetic approach to employees. On top of that, his role was highly detailed, very regulated, and mistakes could quite literally cause planes to crash. He believed he could and should work through this life event. I worked closely with his leader, our benefits providers, and our EAP to help him get the resources he needed to make good choices about what he could do during this incredibly emotional time. His leader and I worked on backup plans to ensure the work was covered and operations ran smoothly regardless of when he was in (or not in) the office.
Through the trusting relationships I had built in my tenure there, I was able to influence the situation to give the employee grace to make decisions on his own about what he needed to. No planes crashed as a result of this tragedy. The business was successful, and they built a strong relationship with a valued employee by treating him with respect during his darkest days. Years later, I’d moved on to my next role and he called to thank me. The court case had settled, the driver had been found guilty in his daughter’s death. He was thinking through everything that had transpired over the intervening years and he wanted me to know how much what we did for him at the time meant to his family.
Do you have any advice for people entering the profession?
Don’t go into HR because you are a people person. You will struggle trying to make everyone happy. There are tough decisions that have to be made that don’t always feel good. HR is about the intersection of business and humanity. Good times are easy. But how do you help businesses navigate tough times in a way that treats people with respect and dignity? The stakes are higher every day as the war for talent intensifies. More roles are thought roles, and you need the hearts and minds of your employees fully supporting the direction of your business. Go into HR because you enjoy navigating tough business problems, both strategically and empathetically. I’d do it all over again if I could.
This article was first published on October 18, 2022, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
Technology and the digital world are becoming more and more prominent, ultimately shifting the definition of "real world" to extend beyond the physical world.
According to a recent Deloitte survey, 40% of Gen Z workers would like to leave their current jobs within 2 years. Where are organizations missing the mark when it comes to retaining this generation? Organizations must consider whether they are providing the same level of efficiency that Gen Z is used to in their personal lives.
A key component to this is enabling a consumer-grade tech experience that mirrors the ease of use Gen Z is accustomed to. To achieve this, companies must elevate their IT practices and technology to enhance the overall digital employee experience (DEX). As a result, organizations will see more long-term business success and better employee retention, especially among the Gen Z workforce.
Breaking Down the Consumerization of IT
The two key aspects of today’s enterprises are people and technology. Technology and the digital world are becoming more and more prominent, ultimately shifting the definition of "real world" to extend beyond the physical world. This enforces the idea that as technology and everyday life become more intertwined, the workplace must adapt accordingly.
Currently, 67% of employees say the digital experience in their personal life is better than what they receive at work. Ninety percent of employees also believe there’s a connection between DEX and workplace happiness. Therefore, organizations must ensure their technology never stops serving their people. The consumerization of IT has been a growing trend in many facets of life, as people expect the same speed and convenience they are used to in their personal lives.
This demand has also shifted to the workplace, especially as organizations encounter Gen Z, for whom all things digital typically tend to be second nature. Failure to meet shifting employee expectations around technology could result in increased turnover as employees face a lack of productivity and positive work experience.
The Benefits of Investing in IT Elevation
Historically, the IT department has had one main goal: to ensure company infrastructure works on a day-to-day basis, with minimal disruption or friction to employees. Today, IT has evolved into more than just a support function; it’s now a strategic business function that makes employees work better, quicker, and more efficiently.
Forrester defines DEX as "a personalized set of interactions, processes, and content resources that enables every employee to achieve success and enjoy a positive work experience." While company infrastructure has previously relied on key metrics such as the health of the network, applications, and devices, organizations must now be concerned with the health of the DEX.
Technology limitations with legacy software, as well as connectivity and access issues, cause digital friction in today’s hybrid work environment, resulting in an incohesive and less productive workforce. As employees may attempt to work around digital friction, this creates security issues, as well. Organizations that rely on DEX tools to proactively monitor and resolve IT issues will achieve a better understanding of and empathy for each employee’s individual experiences in the workplace.
Organizations must modernize their IT strategy if they plan to compete for the next generation of talent. As DEX can be a major roadblock to employee productivity and happiness, organizations that stray away from investing in elevating their IT risk the inability to not only attract the next generation of employees but also retain them.
Many people want to know what steps they can take, how they can make a difference, and how to help, rather than harm, the environment. While there are many actions individuals can take, in the business world, those actions often look like corporate sustainability. Beyond the environmental benefits, prioritizing sustainability in your organization can come with benefits for your business, including:
Lower expenses: For example, energy efficiency leads to lower power bills and going completely digital means buying less paper, both of which help save money.
Enhanced company image: When businesses are public about their green values, it can improve their public perception.
Increased profit margins: The above benefits can come together, along with general employee satisfaction, to boost your bottom line.
Though everyone in your business can do their part, HR plays a particularly important role in creating a culture of sustainability in the workplace and encouraging employees to become more environmentally aware. Here are just a few ways HR professionals can do so.
Going Paperless and Implementing E-signatures
First and foremost, consider going paperless and instead digitizing all your business records. Not only is it more eco-friendly to be paperless, but it can make work run more smoothly and efficiently. Digital documents are highly accessible and allow for increased sharing and collaboration. It also allows you to keep your workplace neater and more organized, which can make a difference with productivity. This can also enable more people to work remotely or to work remotely with greater ease and efficiency.
Similarly, another way many HR departments are creating more sustainability in their workplaces is by using e-signatures. They’re easier and faster to fill out, especially when sending documents between employees who aren’t in the same location.
E-signatures are much easier and quicker, especially when sending documents back and forth between people who are not in the same location and can’t just pop by the office to sign a document in person. Instead of printing, signing, and then scanning or faxing a document to all relevant parties, you can simply use an e-signature tool to facilitate the entire process.
Building a Company Culture of Sustainability
Successful sustainability programs require creativity, which means it’s important to build a culture of sustainability throughout the organization. However, company culture is intangible, making it difficult to define. This is why everyone in the company can get involved. This also creates an opportunity for dialogue and gives everyone a chance to listen to each other.
Have conversations with your team about sustainability and what it means for your company. Allow them to define what they feel your sustainability goals should be as a company and let them offer suggestions and ideas. Anyone’s ideas can be valuable, and great ideas often come from unexpected sources. Make sure your team knows that they have a voice and you are wholeheartedly listening.
You may even want to consider bringing a fresh perspective into your company with new ideas and suggestions. Ask your employees to talk to people in other organizations about what sustainability means to them. Encourage employees to join industry associations or peer networking groups to bring new ideas into the office.
Devising Incentives for Employee Acts of Sustainability
One strategy for making the office more eco-friendly is to come up with incentives for employees to go green. For example, there may be a financial incentive for every employee if the company has a good environmental performance. You can also offer more telecommuting days, which will reduce the number of employees who drive to work and emit fossil fuels during their commute.
Then there are always fun incentives, such as pizza parties or social media shoutouts, for reaching certain sustainability goals. You can even implement challenges that encourage people to be more eco-friendly, such as not driving to work for a month. You can also plan activities, like volunteering to plant trees, for your staff to do together that help promote environmentalism.
Tracking and Quantifying Sustainability Measures
Another way HR can play a role in creating a sustainable business is to track and quantify all company data related to your environmental efforts. If you aren’t tracking your company’s sustainability, you won’t know how well you’re performing or where there’s room for growth.
Keep in mind that these are just a few ways to track corporate sustainability. Be sure to find the KPIs and metrics that are most important and relevant to your organization, so you can make the greatest possible impact.
Conclusion
Corporate sustainability is a relatively new concept businesses have started to work on, but instead of being overwhelming or stressful, it should be seen as a challenge. HR can play an important role in implementing these changes, overcoming that challenge, and ensuring that the company becomes a sustainable one.
Some business leaders argue that the diminishing returns and counterproductivity of working too many hours makes it worth taking a closer look at a 4-day work week.
This article was first published September 6, 2022, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
While there has been considerable grassroots support for the concept of a 4-day work week, employers—those with the ability to make such proposals a reality—haven’t been quite as energized by the idea. After all, the current labor market, particularly in the United States, has made it difficult for many employers to find workers.
But some business leaders argue that the diminishing returns and counterproductivity of working too many hours makes it worth taking a closer look at a 4-day work week.
Burnout on the Rise
In an article for Fortune, Mike Milello, cofounder of Wanderlust, a technology company focused on outdoor activities, explains how he noticed his employees seemed to be more drained and burnt out while working through the COVID-19 pandemic. At one point, Milello says he realized that his and his staff’s brains were constantly active and engaged with work; their work life had completely seeped into their personal lives. Milello knew he needed to make a change.
“I wrote my team the next day to tell them that we were moving to a four-day work week,” Milello writes. “At the time, I thought it would be temporary, a summertime reprieve during a global crisis. I figured we could take the hit to productivity for the sake of our team’s sanity.”
But Milello didn’t end up switching back to the traditional 5-day schedule. Instead, he noticed some surprising and positive company developments that seemed to coincide with the shorter time commitment.
Benefits from a Shortened Work Week
“The company grew,” Milello shares. “Not only did moving to a four-day work week not degrade our productivity, but the months following the shift were among the most productive in our history. A year after moving to a four-day work week, we had grown annual recurring revenue by nearly 100%.”
One of the arguments to be made for a shorter work week that may help explain Milello’s experience is that humans simply can’t work nonstop and maintain the same level of productivity. This doesn’t just mean that the 60th hour of work in a given week is likely less productive than the 10th hour; it also means that employees make more mistakes after working long hours, which might make it necessary to actually do more work to make up for errors or poor decision-making.
Milello’s experience with a shorter work week at Wanderlust may not be predictive of what all organizations can expect. Nevertheless, it does provide one positive data point with strong anecdotal evidence that such policies can be and have been successful.
What impact might a 4-day work week have on your organization, its productivity, and its potential to attract and retain top talent?