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The new year is a great time to take stock of risks and start planning risk mitigation strategies.
This article was first published January 11, 2022, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
The dawn of a new year is a time to reflect on the accomplishments and struggles of the previous year and a great time to celebrate successes and acknowledge shortcomings. It’s also a time to look forward and plan for the future. While a lot of that planning will focus on taking advantage of new opportunities, it’s also essential to be pragmatic and consider the many risks companies will face in the year ahead.
Top Threats to Business as We Enter 2022
International SOS, a risk mitigation company, recently released its annual 2022 Risk Outlook report predicting the top threats to businesses, employees, and managers heading into 2022.
Unsurprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic and its ancillary impacts are high on the list of causes of productivity decrease in the coming year. The top five causes cited by the Risk Outlook report are:
COVID-19
Mental health
Natural disasters
Transport concerns
Security threats/civil unrest
The pandemic impacts productivity not only directly but also indirectly by increasing the complexity of managing health and safety and diverting resources to manage that complexity.
Need for New Health and Safety Measures
The report found that 58% of organizations feel that new health and safety measures will increase the complexity of supporting the health and security of employees. Furthermore, the report notes that slightly more than one-third of American businesses see COVID-19 policies generally, and the need to define testing and vaccine policies for COVID-19 more specifically, as a major challenge for the next year.
While companies should always look forward to new opportunities, it’s also important not to overlook the many risks businesses face now and in the future.
The new year is a great time to take stock of those risks and start planning risk mitigation strategies. After all, unless risks are successfully managed, it’s extremely difficult to take advantage of available opportunities.
Her Workforce Innovation Center, an arm of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, demonstrates just how serious businesses are taking diversity and inclusion.
This article was first published December 27, 2021, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
For years, companies actively discriminated against women and people of color, both implicitly and explicitly. After eliminating overt discrimination, many companies have since showed at least a passive interest in diversity and inclusion, albeit—in some instances—as more of a PR strategy than a business strategy.
More recently, though, companies are beginning to recognize and acknowledge the value of diversity and inclusion as a component of their overall business strategy.
Our subject for this installment of our series on Chief Diversity Officers and those who hold similar positions, Audrey Treasure, is Vice President and Executive Director of the Workforce Innovation Center, an arm of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber that demonstrates just how serious businesses are taking diversity and inclusion. The stated purpose of the Workforce Innovation Center is, “partnering with business leaders to advance the adoption of inclusive practices in their workplaces that empower employees, the community and their businesses to thrive.”
A Background in Education
After finishing her undergraduate degree at Indiana University in Spanish and nonprofit management, Treasure started teaching first grade in Chicago as a Teach for America Corps Member before moving to Atlanta to teach second grade. While it may be hard to draw a direct line between teaching and work for the Cincinnati Chamber, it’s hard to overlook the benefit teaching in diverse urban cities can have on a future career advocating the benefits of nurturing a diverse and inclusive workforce in the business world.
Getting in on the Ground Level
As D&I efforts have become more prominent in recent years, it’s not uncommon for the subjects of this series to step into the shoes of a predecessor, while the relative recency of corporate America’s focus on D&I means that there are also a large proportion who are the first to serve in their role.
Treasure is not only the first to hold her current position but also got in on the ground level when the Workforce Innovation Center itself was created. “I was invited to join the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber to launch the Workforce Innovation Center in late 2018,” she says. “The premise of the Center is to provide services, resources, and actionable plans to companies looking to adopt more inclusive practices. The Workforce Innovation Center’s policy and practice universe includes those grounded in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, along with a focus on financial wellness and economic mobility for employees.”
The Workforce Innovation Center emerged from other efforts in the Cincinnati region focused on embodying “inclusive capitalism,” which is the concept that capitalism should support business imperatives while supporting and empowering employees who are the lifeblood of any business, Treasure explains. While Treasure says she’s not aware of any other organization quite like her own, she adds that she and the Workforce Innovation Center have been fortunate to collaborate with national organizations, such as the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism and the Council for Inclusive Capitalism with the Vatican that are also engaged in broader efforts to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, along with other tenets of a broader movement categorized as inclusive capitalism.
Meeting Employers Where They Are
Diversity and inclusion goals aren’t solely the purview of major Fortune 500 companies. Companies of all sizes can realize the benefits of a more diverse and inclusive workforce on their competitive advantage and bottom line. Part of the beauty of the Workforce Innovation Center is that it supports a diverse range of businesses in pursuing those goals.
“The Workforce Innovation Center is a consulting practice built with a defined structure to meet employers where they are in their unique context —size, industry, geography, workforce composition—and support them in their journeys to be more inclusive,” Treasure says. “We use our three core services – a unique employee survey, a policy and practice review, and an analysis of a workforce’s employee trends with diversity measures—to provide our teams with the rich data about a company so that we can create a tangible action plan for how the company can adopt inclusive practices to create equitable workplaces.”
The Ever-Important Recruiting Process
It’s impossible for an organization to be inclusive of diverse talent if they don’t have any diverse talent to begin with. That’s why recruiting with an eye toward diversity is so essential—something certainly not lost on the Workforce Innovation Center.
“Thanks to our partners and expert practitioners, we have built an evidence-based catalog of policies and practices that focus on practical steps that companies can take to not only recruit diverse sources of talent but also create work environments that encourage retention and advancement of diverse talent,” says Treasure. “We work with companies to track their own internal data historically as they use it to set goals for themselves. We also establish a broad network of partner organizations, training and education providers and resources across the region to help connect employers with the diverse talent. This network is currently searchable in a recent map we have published of the Cincinnati region’s Workforce and Talent Ecosystem.”
For their own staff and consultant team, Treasure says the Workforce Innovation Center networks with diverse organizations and individuals who can connect them with other diverse sources of talent. “As we work with our client companies, we encourage them to do the same, through partnerships with organizations that serve specific populations that could diversify an employer’s workforce,” Treasure says. “We also recommend specific internal steps that companies can take to ensure that they are valuing diverse perspectives and mitigating ‘like me’ or ‘halo bias.’”
Casting a Wide Net
While the Workforce Innovation Center is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and serves employers across their metro area, their consulting model allows them to work with employers anywhere. “We have built tools and resources to help companies identify the value of diverse, equitable and inclusive cultures where employees feel a sense of meaning and belonging,” says Treasure. “We would love to bring these services to employers who are ready to take action on evolving their workforce but are not sure where to start.”
Even after organizations stopped actively suppressing diversity and inclusion, many have been slow to come full circle and embrace D&I as a critical element of their business strategy. This oversight causes companies to miss out on the tremendous benefits a diverse and inclusive workforce can provide to businesses of all sizes.
Treasure and the Workforce Innovation Center of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber are working to not only show companies they work with the potential benefits of D&I but also how to turn that potential into reality.
It might seem like the incentives of a team at work would naturally be aligned, but dig down and you may discover sources of conflicting incentives.
This article was first published January 2, 2022, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
Whether it’s a sports team, a group of laborers, or a work team in a corporate office, the goal of any team leader is to create a cohesive unit that functions as one. Strong leadership can help make this goal a reality. But even the strongest leader will struggle to create cohesiveness if incentives aren’t aligned.
Lack of Alignment All Too Common
At first, it might seem like the incentives of a team at work would naturally be aligned—doesn’t everyone want to see the team and the organization succeed? But when digging down, one will typically discover sources of conflicting incentives.
An obvious example is payment structures. A sales rep’s compensation is often largely driven by commissions, meaning this worker is heavily incentivized to make sales to help his or her own bottom line, even if those sales aren’t necessarily in the best interest of the organization. For example, the sale of a highly customized product might bring in a nice commission for the sales rep but put an inordinate burden on the production team relative to the margins.
Similarly, when some employees are paid hourly and others are paid on salary, the hourly employees may be more motivated to put in extra hours—and accrue lucrative overtime—compared with salaried employees, who don’t see another dime for working late.
Payment Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story
Payment is a key element of an employee’s motivation, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Performance in different job roles is also evaluated differently.
An employee in the compliance department, for instance, might be far more risk-averse than an employee on the marketing team because the compliance employee’s performance is based on avoiding compliance risk, while the marketing employee’s performance is based on increasing return on investment (ROI). Ultimately, performance tends to impact compensation, but even at the more immediate level of feedback from superiors, employees are incentivized psychologically to seek praise and avoid criticism.
The best teams are those that work together toward a common goal; however, achieving that kind of cohesiveness is extremely difficult when incentives aren’t properly aligned. In a follow-up post, we’ll discuss some strategies for achieving that alignment.
Recruiters will be able to focus on and bring in terrific talent for their businesses in the new year—but it’s going to require them to prioritize correctly.
This article was first published Dec. 13, 2021, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
As we turn the corner into 2022, many HR departments are feeling the effects of the job market. Recruiting is taking more energy, the interview process is dragging out, and job candidates are requesting more and more benefits before finally saying yes. If your company is understaffed, it puts stress on your employees, adding to even more turnover as your burned-out workers seek opportunities elsewhere. It’s a vicious cycle and one that doesn’t look to be ending anytime soon. A lot of the responsibility to fill open positions falls on the shoulders of recruiters.
That being said, there are ways to make recruiting less of a hassle in 2022. Top recruiters will be able to focus on and bring in terrific talent for their businesses in the new year—but it’s going to require them to prioritize correctly.
Here are 4 priorities recruiters should focus on in 2022.
Flexibility, Flexibility, Flexibility
The labor shortage has been referred to as “The Great Reevaluation”—and for good reason. Many employees are evaluating common labor practices, such as being in the office 40 hours a week, and questioning whether they’re necessary to get the job done. The COVID-19 pandemic gave employees a taste of working from home, and many are finding it’s much easier on them not to have to commute. Things like paid parental leave, vacation time, and sick days are also becoming just as important to employees as their weekly paycheck. According to Jobvite’s 2021 Recruiter Nation Report, 54% of recruiters have seen candidates turn down an interview or a job offer due to a lack of flexibility, and 57% of recruiters believe a lack of work-from-home policies makes it harder to attract potential candidates.
The more flexibility your office can give employees, the better. Flexibility surrounding where employees should work isn’t always up to recruiters, but there may be other ways you can help management create wiggle room. Maybe you can’t implement a work-from-home policy, but how flexible are you when employees need to dip out of the office for an afternoon? Perhaps allowing your employees to work on their own schedules doesn’t work for your collaborative environment, but could you create “shifts” so people can pick their kids up from school? There’s space for creativity and nuance. More companies than ever are finding ways to help employees achieve a better work/life balance. If you’re unable to participate, you’re going to be left behind as workers seek out jobs that cater to their preferences.
Bonuses and Cash Incentives
Due to inflation, salaries have been rising to keep up with the cost of living. That can cause a major difficulty for businesses struggling to pay their employees a fair wage and manage their books. It can feel like your competitors are constantly snatching your best employees away with promises of higher paychecks. But have you considered getting creative with your payment structure? Cash incentives for signing or recruiting can give recruiters a huge leg up and help employees see how great of a place your company is to work. By rewarding employees for a job well done through a bonus system, you’ll be spending your money in a way that makes sense: paying and motivating your most valuable employees. If people know that achieving a certain goal will get them a weightier annual bonus, you can bet they’re going to move full speed ahead. This kind of structure allows you to pay your people what they’re worth while making sure your business is compensated.
Branded Recruiting
If you haven’t already started incorporating your brand into your recruiting efforts, 2022’s the time to start. By having a cohesive brand presence, you’ll stand out from the crowd and assure candidates that your company is organized and forward-moving. Although recruiters aren’t typically marketing professionals, many marketing tactics come into play during the recruitment process. Think of a job position at your company as something you need to sell to top talent. In today’s labor market, that’s very much the case; jobseekers have a bounty of opportunities to choose from, and you need to make sure your business makes an impression. Branding is a semi-vague term, but what it really means is how your company looks to outsiders.
Yes, your logo is part of your brand, but a brand is so much more than visuals. Your brand is how you reach out to job candidates, your tone during the interview process, the information you supply to potential employees, and your onboarding process. It’s also how your company looks online when someone does a basic Google search; every recruiter knows that job candidates are looking at companies online before committing to an interview. Now’s the time to either clean up or delete your various platforms and make sure your website is up to date, on message, and fully functioning. The smoother and more streamlined you can make hiring, the more consistent your brand presence will be.
Promotion from Within
Lastly, promoting from within should be a major focal point for recruiters. There are a variety of reasons for this. By promoting current employees, you’ll help other employees envision a future for themselves in your company, making them less likely to jump ship. If your workers think they’re likely to climb the career ladder within your business, why would they go somewhere else where they may have to start from scratch? You’ll also save time and resources on a huge chunk of your onboarding process and reward employees who have done excellent work for your company.
Furthermore, people are much more likely to accept a job they don’t need to relocate for, get to know all new colleagues at, or learn new systems for. Promoting from within is typically a much easier “sell” than searching for someone unfamiliar with your business. Therefore, if you have an open management position in 2022, make sure to start by looking at who’s already working for you.
By taking the lead in remote employee disagreements, you can help your staff learn from their disputes and find the best resolutions.
This article was first published Dec. 21, 2021, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
HR professionals must handle employee disagreements every day. Meanwhile, many businesses let their employees work remotely, and as a result, today’s HR pros must explore ways to manage disagreements among remote staff.
You want remote workers to feel empowered, and they must communicate and collaborate with one another. If disagreements arise among remote staff, you must handle them promptly and effectively. Otherwise, these disagreements can hamper remote worker productivity, as well as disrupt both your remote and your in-house staff.
There are many things you can do to manage disagreements among remote employees before they escalate. These include:
Generally, it helps to give your remote workers multiple avenues to communicate with one another. Videoconferences, phone calls, text messages, and e-mails can be used to foster communication across your remote staff. Furthermore, provide regular reminders to ensure remote workers know they can come forward with any concerns and questions at any time.
Be flexible with your management style, too. You may possess a wide range of management skills that work well in a traditional office setting, but you may need to adjust your management style to keep pace with employees who work from locations around the world. If you are willing to adapt your management style, you can communicate with remote workers in ways that work best for them.
When faced with remote employee disagreements, encourage workers to take a break, which could allow them to temporarily step away from their work and focus on their overall health. Then, these workers can calm down and revitalize their bodies and minds, returning to work and feeling and performing their best once again.
Remember, a healthy work/life balance is a must for all workers at all times. Educating remote workers about the importance of taking regular breaks and prioritizing their physical, mental, and emotional health is key. Thus, it pays to provide remote employees with tools and resources to help them take care of themselves. That way, these employees will be well-equipped to develop and maintain a healthy work/life balance.
3. Establish Realistic Expectations for Remote Workers
Your remote workers should know what you expect of them and vice versa. Thanks to employee journey-mapping, you can set the stage for positive relationships among your workforce. Plus, you can lower your risk of remote worker disagreements.
Employee journey maps demonstrate how workers can move forward in their careers and outline steps a worker can take to achieve myriad career aspirations. These maps also highlight your business’s commitment to helping its employees thrive.
Learn what your remote workers want to accomplish, and help them craft their journey maps. Then, you can explain the steps required for remote employees to move forward in their careers. With journey maps in place, these employees can work with others to succeed within your business.
4. Collect and Implement Employee Feedback
Remote workers are busy, but you should make time to engage with them regularly. By checking the pulse of your remote staff, you’ll be able to find out if potential disagreements are brewing and take steps to address such issues in their early stages.
At the first sign of a remote worker disagreement, provide support. Reach out to the employees involved in the conflict, get facts surrounding the disagreement, and do not take sides. Instead, use your knowledge and insights to get the employees involved in the disagreement to communicate with one another. You can then work with these employees to find common ground and alleviate the problem.
Finally, ask remote employees how they feel it is best to resolve workplace disputes. Host remote employee brainstorming sessions, and provide questionnaires and surveys, which can allow you to get feedback regarding remote workers and how they want to mitigate disputes. You can then implement this feedback to help your remote staff address conflicts going forward.
The Bottom Line on How to Deal with Disagreements Between Remote Employees
There is no telling when a disagreement will arise among remote staff. Fortunately, HR pros who are proactive in their efforts to avoid remote worker disagreements can identify these disputes without delay. They can also help remote employees communicate and collaborate with one another, even if these workers do not see eye to eye on certain topics.
By taking the lead in remote employee disagreements, you can help your staff learn from their disputes and find the best resolutions. Most importantly, you can foster camaraderie among your remote staff members and help these employees feel and perform their best at work—now and in the future.
An employer that knows what it's like to struggle to afford child care is more likely to offer employer-sponsored, on-site day care than an employer that simply 'feels sorry' for workers struggling to pay for child care.
This article was first published Dec. 9, 2021, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
The idea that employers should empathize with their workers is relatively new. Just ask Bob Cratchit how empathetic his employer, Mr. Scrooge, was in Victorian-era England. Of course, by the end of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Tale, and thanks to some supernatural intervention, Scrooge came around and developed genuine sympathy for the plight of the Cratchit family.
But sympathy is not the same as empathy.
Sympathy Isn’t the Same as Empathy
Consider the definitions of these words from Merriam-Webster:
Sympathy: “the feeling that you care about and are sorry about someone else’s trouble, grief, misfortune, etc.”
Empathy: “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.”
Hopefully, a few points stand out in comparing these definitions. First, sympathy is defined as a “feeling,” whereas empathy is defined as an “action.” Second, sympathy is caring about or being sorry about someone else’s misfortune; empathy is deeper—understanding and vicariously experiencing another’s feelings.
Empathy Matters
Empathy is important in the employer-employee context because it better motivates concrete action and changes in policies. An employer that knows what it’s like to struggle to afford child care is more likely to offer employer-sponsored, on-site day care than an employer that simply “feels sorry” for workers struggling to pay for child care.
Unfortunately for employees, the gap between the employer and the employee is so far apart in many organizations that genuine empathy may not often occur naturally. A millionaire CEO will likely find it difficult to genuinely empathize with an entry-level employee worrying about medical bills, for example.
A Look at 'Radical Empathy'
This is where the concept of “radical empathy” comes in. Radical empathy involves actively putting yourself in others’ shoes you’d like to empathize with—to the extent reasonably possible. In an article for Fortune, Nicole Goodkind gives an example of a radical empathy exercise designed to put corporate leaders in the shoes of visually impaired employees:
Early on Monday evening about 30 of the world’s most powerful business leaders sat blindfolded together in the lower levels of a swanky Washington D.C. hotel.
No, this wasn’t a hostage situation. It was an exercise in radical empathy, individual empowerment, and inclusion held at the Fortune CEO Initiative.
Led by Sara Minkara, the U.S. Special Advisor on International Disability Rights under President Joe Biden, the group of executives entered the room blindfolded and were led through a series of exercises where they were asked to talk to one another without revealing their official titles.
Radical empathy may sound, well, radical, but the trend illustrates both the importance and the challenge of creating genuine empathy toward employees in order to drive meaningful discussion and change.
Employers need to educate employees about their rights and have a defined and published procedure for them to report retaliation issues as well as a mechanism to address the concerns.
This article was first published Dec. 13, 2021, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
An announcement from three federal agencies that they are aligning to protect employees who try to exercise their rights in the workplace means employers need to be especially on guard against actions that may be seen as unlawful retaliation.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on November 10 announced they will collaborate in a new initiative aiming to target employers that unlawfully retaliate against workers. And that means employers should expect increased scrutiny.
“I expect joint educational efforts to start, but I also expect to see information sharing between the EEOC, DOL, and NLRB when one agency identifies what it believes is a violation that may have implications under laws enforced by another agency,” Jeremy M. Brenner, an attorney with Armstrong Teasdale LLP in St. Louis, Missouri, says.
For example, if the EEOC identifies what it believes is an employer retaliating against an employee who is opposing a practice the employee considers unlawful under a law enforced by the DOL or the NLRB, Brenner expects the EEOC to alert the other agency and encourage a parallel investigation.
“The initiative announcement suggests that the agencies view retaliation as a pervasive problem in the American workplace today, and so I expect increased scrutiny of employer practices by all agencies, and cross-agency information sharing will serve to increase the level of scrutiny from the perspective of the agencies,” Brenner says.
Advice to Employers
Brenner says awareness is essential to preventing retaliation. “This means training decision-makers about the various aspects of the law on retaliation and also training them about how to identify and address retaliation or reports of retaliation from within their areas of responsibility.”
Also, employers need to educate employees about their rights and have a defined and published procedure for them to report retaliation issues as well as a mechanism to address the concerns.
“For example, once an employee is fired by someone with a retaliatory motive, it’s too late,” Brenner says. So, employers must work to prevent adverse employment action before it occurs, and that takes individuals who are trained to investigate and empowered to act.
“Employers need to be prepared for increased scrutiny of retaliation claims from these agencies, and awareness is key to avoiding that scrutiny,” Brenner says. “Once the bell is rung, an employer cannot un-ring it.”
Agency Aims
In announcing the initiative, the EEOC, the DOL, and the NLRB said they will collaborate “to protect workers on issues of unlawful retaliatory conduct, educate the public, and engage with employers, business organizations, labor organizations and civil rights groups in the coming year.”
On November 17, the initiative is scheduled to launch with a virtual dialogue with the employer community that will be focused on the importance of workers’ antiretaliation protections and the agencies’ shared commitment to vigorous enforcement.
The agencies said the initiative will build on the work of memoranda of understanding among the agencies and strengthen interagency relationships.
Flexibility in the workplace is not reserved for parents only.
This article was first published Dec. 7, 2021, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
Workplace flexibility has become increasingly important in recent years. That trend has accelerated in the wake of a pandemic involving illness and a forced shift to remote work for many organizations.
More than ever, employees expect some flexibility to leave work early or take a long lunch to run an errand, work remotely, and take more or extended paid time off (PTO). As long as they are able to get their work done, they feel they should be treated like adults and given that flexibility.
Demand for Greater Flexibility
To a large extent, companies have answered this call, especially when it comes to family life. Managers are often willing to make accommodations for parents who need to leave work to take a child to the doctor or miss a meeting to drop off or pick up a child at school or attend a soccer game or choir recital.
But while parenting duties are certainly an important form of nonwork responsibility, they aren’t the only form, and some wonder whether employers treat nonparents differently than parents when it comes to providing flexibility.
Flexibility is Not Just for Parents
Many nonparents experience explicit disparate treatment, such as a manager’s allowing a parent to leave work early to attend a child’s school event but not allowing a nonparent to leave early to go fishing with a close friend or participate in a volunteer event.
Other times, nonparents assume they should be the ones to work over a holiday or stay late to wrap up a project.
“The smaller things can often take a toll on non-parents, who are often treated as if their hobbies, relationships and responsibilities are trivial, compared to being a parent,” writes Christine Ro in an article for BBC Worklife.
“This can lead many employees without kids to hide or feel ashamed about their lives outside work—despite many women without children, especially, using their time outside work to volunteer or care for others. Even simple comments presuming that most people have families can sting, making non-parents feel invisible.”
Increasingly, many people, both married and single, are choosing to forego having children for a variety of reasons. But just because employees don’t have children does not mean they don’t have nonwork obligations that are important to them.
At the end of the day, employers and managers should avoid making value judgments about an employee’s nonwork obligations. It’s not for the employer to decide whether a child’s sporting event is more important than a nonparent’s volunteer obligations.
Within reason, managers should be encouraged to provide equal flexibility to all staff without factoring in their family situation.
Employees feel more comfortable attending company holiday parties when certain safety measures are in place, data suggests.
This article was first published December 6, 2021, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
Holiday parties have long been a staple of company culture. They’re a time to mark the end of a year of accomplishments and struggles and to look back on fun memories with colleagues and teammates.
Obviously, holiday parties haven’t been nearly the same since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of workers haven’t even been to their office since last December, and even if they aren’t working remotely, social gatherings are certainly still on the naughty list.
But, although the United States is still in the grips of the pandemic, things have changed significantly since this time last year. Millions of Americans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and many office buildings have at least partially opened to staff and visitors.
With companies and workers eager to return to some sort of normalcy, we asked business leaders and company culture experts their thoughts on what to plan for and expect during this year’s corporate holiday observances.
More Companies Returning to In-Person Parties
“Over the past two years, our law firm staff has overcome many challenges to continue serving our community during a global pandemic,” says Mary Alice Pizana, HR Manager at Herrman and Herrman. “Last year, we hosted a Zoom holiday party due to COVID-19. This year we are hosting an in-person holiday party to reward our team for their dedication and hard work during such a difficult time.”
Pizana says the firm feels confident about keeping its team safe with the changes it has made and because much of the firm’s staff is fully vaccinated. In addition, she says, “We have set up hand sanitizer stations throughout our office, offer free face masks, and have arrows set up in high-traffic areas to avoid our team members from coming into contact with one another.”
Advice for In-Person Parties
For those that are having in-person parties, there are some adjustments that need to be made relative to pre-pandemic gatherings. These include simple steps like offering hand sanitizing stations and more logistical considerations like whether to ask attendees to wear masks and how to handle social distancing. Even venue selection involves COVID considerations.
“Planning ahead is important,” says Ian Sells, CEO and founder of RebateKey. “Knowing the head count can help you quickly book for a venue that meets safety protocols. It’s also important to check with your state or county for any specific regulations or protocols.”
Data Offers Best-Practice Insights
Data suggests that overall, employees feel more comfortable attending company holiday parties when certain safety measures are in place, according to the forthcoming Q4 2021 edition of Jungle Scout’s Consumer Trends Report on deterrents and motivators to attend events during the COVID era.
Jungle Scout polled over 1,000 U.S. consumers and asked them which COVID-related safety precautions would make them more or less likely to attend an event. A selection of the results is shown below.
If masks are required at the event:
56% of U.S. consumers are more likely to attend the event.
25% say their attendance would not be influenced by this.
19% are less likely to attend the event.
Temperature check at the door:
55% more likely
32% uninfluenced
12% less likely
Proof of vaccination required for entry:
54% more likely
24% uninfluenced
22% less likely
Negative COVID test required for entry:
50% more likely
27% uninfluenced
23% less likely
This data may not be a reflection of your own employees’ sentiment, but it can be a good place to start when considering the issues they may or may not be concerned about—and it’s not a bad idea to poll your own staff to identify their unique concerns.
Advice for Remote Parties
Of course, many companies will be continuing to host remote parties. While these almost always lack the same excitement and sense of togetherness as in-person gatherings, companies at least have last year’s virtual holiday party experience to learn from.
“My team and I are still working remotely so our holiday party will also be remote this year,” says Todd Ramlin, manager of Cable Compare. “Last year’s party was better than nothing but not great either. This year, to try and make it more fun for everyone, we’ll be planning it together. Everyone on the team will get to contribute ideas and we’ll vote on our favorites to determine what we’ll be doing. Hopefully by this time next year, the virus will be less of a concern, but until then we’re putting health and safety at the top of our priority list.”
Virtually everyone who provided feedback for this feature indicating they were staying with remote celebrations this year emphasized the need to work extra hard to promote engagement and excitement at their virtual gatherings.
Providing staff with a couple of drink tickets and the opportunity to mingle with colleagues in person might be enough for a fairly enjoyable in-person party, but most virtual event planners are looking for ways to make up for the less-than-desirable format. These include asking participants to wear their favorite ugly Christmas sweater, trivia, and other games. Some companies are even maintaining gift-giving traditions despite the remote format.
“This year for the holidays, my team is having a virtual party!” says Adam Moore, founder of SocialPlus. “Although we could have a few people get together, I actually have team members who work from a variety of places and therefore we would not be able to have much of a physical party anyway. We are all going to order takeout and commence a virtual call between everyone. We also decided to do a secret Santa and are sending small gifts to each person. We will be getting dressed up and opening the gifts over the camera!”
Moore says he’s excited about the celebration and that everyone will still be able to get together safely and celebrate the holidays with colleagues. “We are all also very close, so we feel comfortable giving each other what address to send the gift to,” he says. “The secret Santa is a fun way to have remote parties, and everyone gets to participate.”
Holiday parties are a valued tradition for companies across the country, and many businesses have worked hard to preserve these events, at least in spirit, despite the challenges imposed by the pandemic. This year, with the widespread availability of vaccines and the increasing numbers of businesses reopening their offices, many companies are returning to in-person holiday parties, albeit with some additional precautions and protocols. But the ones that are sticking with virtual events for at least 1 more year now have the benefit of having learned from last year’s virtual events.
Research suggests that, with respect to company gifts, it often is the thought that counts.
This article was first published November 29, by HR Daily Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
Anyone who’s worked long enough in Corporate America has likely had occasion to roll their eyes at a gift received from their company: an ugly t-shirt with the company logo; a pen and notepad seemingly worth less than $1; or countless coffee mugs.
Employers are generally aware that the gifts they give to employees aren’t necessarily going to be home runs. After all, employers are getting gifts for dozens if not hundreds or thousands of workers, and it’s difficult and expensive to get something worthwhile and personalized for everyone.
Gifts Employees Will Appreciate, Even Treasure
But research from “The 2021-22 Employer Gift-Giving Report” that Mrs. Prindables (a national e-commerce brand specializing in corporate gifting) published in November suggests that, with respect to company gifts, it often is the thought that counts.
The report features data from a survey of 1,092 US-based employees that cover a wide range of topics surrounding receiving and giving corporate gifts. The report shows that 57 percent of surveyed employees said they’re more likely to be loyal and continue working for a company that provides gifts to employees, while 62 percent said they do not expect to receive a gift from their employer this year for the holidays.
These two data points suggest an opportunity for employers to surprise their workers with a token of their appreciation this year. Most workers aren’t expecting a gift, and most believe such a gesture would make them more loyal to the organization.
But Some Employer Gifts Can Be Turnoffs
At the same time, not all gifts are created equal. Employers need to know that getting a gift perceived as cheap or thoughtless can be a turnoff for some employees. According to the report:
37% said they’ve felt underappreciated by their employer based on the gifts they’ve received.
56% of respondents believe the gifts they’ve received from their employer are “impersonal” and/or “generic.”
66% of the employees with a household income of $100,000 or more felt the gifts they’ve received from their employer were “impersonal” and/or “generic.”
By comparison, only 52% of employees making $100,000 or less perceived the gifts they’ve received as “impersonal” or “generic.”
42% of respondents reported having received a gift from an employer that they didn’t want.
While these numbers suggest it doesn’t hurt for employers to put some thought into their gift giving, it’s important to note that only a minority—albeit a large minority—felt underappreciated based on gifts they’ve received. Although many employees felt that the gifts they received were impersonal or generic, this doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t appreciate the gesture.
The takeaway for employers this year is that even a relatively small gesture around the holidays can help generate a boost in employee morale and loyalty. Companies that go the extra mile and try to get their workers thoughtful and meaningful gifts can expect even greater dividends.