CareerCurve™

HR deals with many employee issues but one that is particularly challenging is administering FMLA.  This law protects employees’ positions and benefits while giving them the ability to manage some of life’s biggest challenges, including health issues of their own or of family members (increasingly common as baby boomers care for aging parents), pregnancy, adoption and other family obligations that arise.  This law can be tricky and can also be abused.

Many times the perception exists that this law protects employees to the extent that they can take leave for any reason under any circumstances.  Even though it may feel as if employees have a free pass, there are things you can do to control abuse and reduce disruption to company operations while still following the law.  Because one of the most difficult aspects of FMLA to manage is intermittent leave.

Intermittent leave is when time off is taken in chunks rather than all at once.  For example, an employee who requires medical treatment three times a week may take four hour blocks of time three times a week for six weeks.  How do you mange this with as little disruption to the rest of the workforce as possible?

• Work with the employee to schedule intermittent leave.  FMLA obligates the employee requesting it to work with the employer to schedule treatments so they are the least disruptive to company operations.  In addition, if the option exists to schedule treatment on days off or after hours, the employee must do so.

• Ask for information on your medical certification request form regarding the employee’s projected number of treatments, dates of treatments, and how much time will be needed for recovery following each treatment. With the employee’s consent, you may also use your designated health care provider to ask the employee’s health care provider whether the treatments might be scheduled at alternative times that would not require the employee to miss work.

• Request recertification.  Generally you’re allowed to request this every 30 days and you should.  Things change and this will cut down on abuse by insuring the leave is still necessary.

• To reduce distraction to the rest of the workforce, you can also move the employee into a different role if their current position requires coverage at all times and it will interfere with the business’s operations for the employee to be absent.  This can also be done if it will assist in the recovery of the employee.  The same pay and benefits must be maintained even if the job changes.

FMLA can be confusing and sometimes feel like it leaves you with few rights and little control.  With a little bit of research and some well thought out policies you can regain some control, diminish abuse, and reduce negative abuse on the company.

Attracting and retaining top talent has been a key conversation in HR for a while now and it is not going away.  Our economy is improving and unemployment is dropping, but the rate at which this recovery is happening depends a lot on who you ask.  One thing that can’t be denied though is that it is happening slowly. 

Businesses are finding themselves in a situation where they want to staff up so they can support recovery but they don’t want to be overstaffed if the recovery slows down even more.  Ultimately, this means that talent optimization is not only a cost effective solution to this conundrum but it is also the safest solution.  And caution seems to be the word of the times.

Talent optimization is a concept that in its broadest definition means making the most of the talent you have.  But what does that mean in a practical sense?   And how do you not only achieve it, but know you’ve achieved it when you do?

Effective talent optimization requires a well thought out and deliverable strategy.  This concept cannot be some pie in the sky theory that is discussed ad nauseum with no executable game plan.  Talent optimization can easily fall into the category of when is a strategy not a strategy?  (Great article, by the way!)

Here are some key components to creating a Talent Optimization Strategy:

Strategic Alignment – Leadership, culture and business goals must be in alignment.  Without this, there is no hope that any strategy will succeed, especially one involving human capital.

Talent Assessment – There must be metrics in place to accurately assess performance in your people.  And high-level measurements and data analytic tools with which to do that.  You can’t optimize talent if you don’t know what that talent is.

Programs – Learning, development, and succession planning programs that take the defined talent and move it to the next level.

More Metrics – As important as it is to measure talent, you also have to be able to asses the results of any programs you do implement.  How else can you tell if your talent optimization strategy is having any effect?

These are obviously high level suggestions for what needs to be a very detailed and cohesive strategy.  But you do need a strategy.  Companies that are aware of the importance of this are creating organizational development roles internally and/or working with firms such as ours, or other consultants to achieve these goals. 

What are you doing to optimize your talent?  Do you have a set strategy?  Do you see the need for one?

I was talking with someone recently about their company’s take on hiring from within. Although the organization was all for it, there were definite challenges in actually making it happen. These challenges sounded to me like they all revolve around Human Capital Management.

There are a number of benefits to hiring this from within such as:

• Already evaluated work performance as well as an employee’s ability to fit into company culture.
• It is much more cost effective to re-invest in an employee, even if you just consider recruiting cost alone.
• The employee already has knowledge of the culture, corporate policies, and your business goals.
• Advancement opportunities do wonders to increase engagement, instill loyalty, and lower turnover.

But this may not be so easy to implement, especially for very large organizations. I saw this video and it made me realize how many things you need to know to make hiring internally a valid and productive choice. It uses a funny comparison between the role a chair plays and the role an employee plays in the company to demonstrate these things. And of course, it ultimately winds up being a commercial for Human Capital Management systems, but the video raises some valid points nonetheless.

• Do you have a solid understanding of each employee’s strengths and weaknesses?
• Do you have knowledge of your employees’ career aspirations and focus on training and career development?
• Do you know what your company has already invested in each employee?
• Are you aware of the specific contributions made by your employees?

All of these things have to be there in order for you to successfully tap into a pool of potential candidates. 

What’s your takeon it? Does your organization take steps to hire from within and is it successful? Do many of your employees lose opportunities and do you lose out on this resource because of poor human capital management?  Do you have processes in place to make this a viable option?  Do you see the relationship between hiring from within and Human Capital Management?

We’ve all heard the saying, “one bad apple spoils the bunch”.  In some cases this refers to guilt by association.   What I am referring to is that one bad attitude can bring down the rest of the team.  This is particularly relevant now, when employee engagement is low and one of HR’s biggest challenges is attracting and retaining top talent.

I read an interesting article about leaders being disengaged that makes the claim that “leaders are the unrecognized victims of the recession.”  Immediately, red flags waved in front of my eyes.  Corporate culture plays an important role in engagement levels within organizations and if the leaders aren’t engaged?  Well, that is not good.  How can the culture be positive and full of energy if the leaders aren’t feeling it?  And how can each person’s attitude affect the company, leader or not?

This article is written by Theresa M. Welbourne, Ph.D, founder, President, and CEO of eePulse Inc. and EEPulse.com.  They use surveys about energy levels combined with different topics to draw correlations between energy and productivity.  The goal is to engage leaders in interactive dialogues about what’s happening to them and their companies for the purpose of learning, in closer to real time rather than waiting for studies and papers to be published when the topic may no longer be relevant.    (It’s pretty neat stuff). 

In this article she lists some sample comments of respondents explaining the reasons for their different energy levels such as, “working with people that are not passionate about their work is sapping the energy out of me” in the negative range and citing “working with superb – knowledgeable, committed and responsible colleagues” as a reason in the positive range. 

 Many comments attribute a component of energy level to those around them.  As you can see by those two examples though, the good news is that this can work both ways.  If you can address the negativity in those employees and nurture the positive attitude in others, you will see a difference in the whole corporate culture.  Have you ever been in a great mood and talked to someone who is crabby?  Don’t you walk away a little less happy?    On the flip side, have you ever been cranky and irritated and spoken to someone who is passionate and upbeat?  Don’t you walk away just a little bit more optimistic?

The bottom line is not to underestimate the power of the relationships that exist in the workplace.  Someone who is pessimistic, negative and just a drag to be around is going to affect how others think and feel.  Don’t let one bad apple spoil the bunch.

Given the economic conditions, it is highly likely that you have employees currently experiencing the stress of an unemployed spouse.  Unemployment ranks near the top of the list when it comes to most stress-inducing life experiences, along with divorce and death.  If an employee is living with someone who is going through this doesn’t it stand to reason that this is affecting your employee as well? And does this stress decrease your employee’s productivity?  According to a recent study, yes it does.

Associate Professor Maw-Der Foo and lead author Professor Zhaoli Song of the National University of Singapore co-authored a paper called “Unraveling the Stress Crossover Between the Unemployed and Their Spouses”.  To summarize part of what they discovered, an unemployed spouse can mean a less productive employee.  According to Foo, “our findings call for more attention on the family as an integrated system in responding to the unemployment situation.”

Can and should your organization do anything to assist?  I can think of a few reasons that you should: 

• A calmer and happier employee will be more productive.
• Engagement and retention rates will be higher for those who feel supported by their organization.
• Demonstrating that you care for your employees will positively influence your corporate culture and brand, making you attractive to top performers when you are hiring.

Learning how to support an unemployed spouse in a healthy way could really make a difference to an employee who not only has the added burden of being the sole bread winner, but also has to navigate the emotional terrain of their partner.   But what can your company actually do?

Offer stress management information.  This could be in the form of newsletters, literature, webinars or a counseling session on site.  This could also be as simple as sending a mass email with a link to a relevant article every Friday.

Provide coaching for the employee.  These employees may find themselves stuck between being so compassionate they end up enabling and pushing so hard they seem uncaring.  A healthy balance makes all the difference in successfully supporting their spouse.

Schedule financial management workshops focused on suggestions of how to save money.  Most people have experienced the fear of instability in one way or another over the last couple of years.  As a result, more people are thinking of the future.  This means that practical suggestions on how to live on less money would be very useful, not only to employees with an unemployed spouse but to all employees.

Create a support group within the organization.  This could be done using social media or your intranet.  You could also provide resources to external support groups that already exist.

Taking a little initiative to understand and assist this employee challenge can mean a big payoff for your company.

I am fascinated by ROWE, which stands for Results Only Work Environment and is exactly that - an environment where how, when and where work is accomplished is completely irrelevant. 

Most managers say they evaluate employee performance on the results produced, but is this true?  Don’t things like showing up for work, being available for and attending meetings, and managing corporate politics play a large part in how an employee is evaluated?  With ROWE all of these things are thrown out the window and employees are  evaluated strictly on the quality of work produced. 

ROWE, quite simply, revolves around trusting your employees.  And trusting employees increases engagement and motivation which increases productivity for the company as a whole.  As you know, I am all about instilling trust and the benefits of it, but is it realistic?

This article does a nice job of summarizing the components of creating this type of work environment as well as the types of businesses where it could be successful and the industries where it could not.  I personally find the whole concept very appealing and can see how it could create the type of corporate culture that would not only attract the best and the brightest, but would be a great retention tool as well.  Then, when I stop to think about the details involved in actually running a company this way it’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that anything could actually be accomplished in a timely manner.

Doesn’t a successful company revolve around commitments and deadlines managed by numerous people to accomplish the business objectives?  How do you manage that without meetings, set availability of team members and mandatory updates on progress?  And legally, are the complications it presents worth the rewards?

Have any of you encountered this type of management philosophy?  Was it difficult to implement and do you see better results than a traditionally run organization?  Are your employees happier and more productive and is the quality of their work higher?  Please share real-life experiences in the comments.

A few decades ago, Human Resources was mainly centralized around managing personnel, policing corporate policy and keeping records.  As HR has evolved it has come to mean many things with many off-shoots under the Human Resource umbrella, and in some cases, the development of entire departments to manage separate areas.  For example, in some organizations Talent Management is its own entity that focuses on strategic functions such as inventorying the available talent pool, optimizing this individual talent to increase the organization’s ROI, and motivating employees to increase engagement (which increases retention which increases productivity).  In other companies, working in Talent Management means that you coordinate and execute training modules. The title Talent Acquisition may mean implementing tools like specialized testing, emotional intelligence assessment, and succession planning development where in another organization it’s simply a title for an entry level recruiter.

Think about the different organizations you know.  Are the industry buzzwords such as organizational development, performance management, learning and development, workforce optimization, and on boarding used in different ways to mean different things.  Are they sometimes interchangeable from one company to the next?  Many of these have been considered part of HR for awhile now but as more emphasis is being place on human capital, is this still true.

There is a lot of confusion around these buzzwords.  Each may have a different meaning, be a subset of HR or have evolved into a stand alone department.  But is this a negative thing?  Is it preventing Human Resources from showing itself to be a strategic business department that aligns its Human Capital with strategic business objectives? Do some of these functions like I/O psychology and process management have their own place to stand alone and then appear in individual departments such as operations and finance?  Is all this verbiage a good thing for HR only as long as it remain within HR?

Is each organization run differently using various definitions? I would love to hear your experiences and opinions in the comments.

As I was perusing discussions on LinkedIn I came across a conversation about whether or not HR should allow hospitalized employees to work from their sick beds.  Once I started thinking about this and reading opinions, I realized that there are many angles to consider when determining what to do.

Simple Logistics:

Can the job be done effectively away from the office?  Does the company have to provide the equipment to make this possible?  Do you allow others in your organization to work remotely?  How much of a burden will be added to the person managing the sick employee?  How long is the anticipated recovery?

Legal Issues:

Are you obligated by the Americans with Disability Act to offer working from the hospital as an option?  This act states that not making reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of disabled employees is discrimination.  Is it discriminatory if you don’t provide the option if their doctors have approved this plan?

Financial Considerations:

Does your organization offer short or long term disability and sick pay?  If the employee is only able to work (and get paid for) a few hours a day, would he/she become ineligible for these benefits and ultimately suffer financial hardships at a time where he/she is probably racking up additional expenses?  From the company’s point of view, what about the differences between exempt and non-exempt employees?  If the employee is non-exempt you only pay for hours he/she tracks and submits.  Exempt employees will be paid for a full week even he/she is only able to work a few hours.

Physical and Mental Ramifications:

Will this situation prove stressful for the employee and will that end up affecting recovery?  Is working like this something the employee wants or is it something he/she feels is necessary?  On the flip side, could providing the opportunity to work from the hospital assist in the recovery process?  It could give keep him/her a purpose and inspire the employee to stay hopeful thereby taking his/her mind off of being ill.

Answering this question is a challenge and obviously each situation is unique, but if it makes sense there is a definite upside to working toward a solution that accommodates the sick employee.  You are sending an emphatic message that the people in your organization matter and this should improve employee engagement.

Research shows that one very important factor in why older workers leave their jobs is because they don’t feel like they are needed anymore. Older employees will get discouraged when they feel their purpose is in doubt, anyone else in the company can do what they do – and more effectively, and if they start to feel like they are simply taking up space.

I previously posted about attracting and engaging Generation Y employees. That certainly needs to be addressed but another fact is that mature workers have a lot of experience, knowledge, and wisdom that can help your company be more successful. And this means that you need retention strategies for all the generations in your workforce. So what can you do to retain your older employees?

Start a mentoring program. This will help engage your younger employees while at the same time giving purpose and value to the older employees.

Encourage career development. Nothing sends the message that there isn’t any potential left than assuming older employees are uninterested in honing their skills or learning new ones. In addition, you can really benefit from the fact that years of working mean older employees are pretty quick learners.

Consider offering retirement preparation counseling. Just because someone can retire doesn’t mean they will. Older employees just want more control over their future. Providing assistance in this way may produce some interesting results, like someone moving into a different role within the organization or suggesting a consulting or telecommuting role where they continue to help your company on terms that appeal to the employee.

Be open to horizontal career moves. Many mature employees get bored and changing it up a bit may be all that is needed to relight the fire they’ve had in the past.

Provide a specialized wellness program. Incentivize mature employees to participate and offer programs that share dietary and exercise advice. Many older employees are beginning to think of these things in their personal lives. Providing expertise for them at work gives them another reason to stay and to feel valued.

Older employees are more loyal and tend to want to work at one place for the rest of their careers. They also have a strong work ethic, a deep knowledge base and are not as interested in climbing the corporate ladder. All of these can be of huge benefit to you in terms of lower turnover, which is expensive and great experience that can be passed onto your younger employees.  Because they are not fighting for the next promotion they also tend to stay in their jobs longer. 

Understand that retention programs can’t be exactly the same for everyone. Take a look at the percentage of mature workers your company employs and then realize that implementing strategies to retain this group is not only going to reduce costs, but can make your organization more successful.

I listed a few reasons in my previous post that help explain why Gen Y has the work ethic and value system that they have.  Using this knowledge can help you get a better understanding of the things they are looking for when choosing an employer. This, in turn, will ultimately help your organization determine what you need to provide to attract the key talent from this generation and then retain it.

If this generation is focused on minimizing some of the “stuff” their parents worked so hard to get, is more money going to be a huge incentive? If they expect to be praised and appreciated can you manage them effectively with the mindset that “they have to put in their time”?  If you have a generation of employees who believe they can and should have it all, does it make sense to ignore career development in your organization?  If you understand their need for work/life balance based on the fact that they’ve witnessed that life can be very, very short, could your company choose its battles when it comes to things like sabbaticals and volunteer opportunities?  Knowing that this generation is extremely adept and comfortable with technology, will it create the right culture to monitor them like crazy rather than encourage them to spread their knowledge?

In the next five years, we will experience the largest turnover in human capital history. Generation Y has a confidence in their talents and their own self-worth that is unusual in previous generations.  To some companies, it feels like they are being held hostage by these young employees.  In reality, it is just a different approach to work.  Is it impossible to embrace this approach while keeping your mature workforce satisfied?  I don’t know the answer to that but it seems to me that if everyone gets the same choices, why not?  New choices should help everyone.  Here are some examples:

Flexible work schedules.  Gen Y prefers to be measured on the quality of work they do, not the hours they spend doing it.  Other generations may appreciate this new way of working, particularly if they are caring for young children or elderly parents.

Volunteer programs with time off to participate.  Gen Y wants to feel appreciated and that what they do is meaningful.  While they work their way up from entry level work, this could fulfill that need.  Other generations may appreciate the time to give back too, as they juggle their families and responsibilities. 

Focus on Career Development.  Gen Y wants to learn and grow.  If you want to keep them, you may have to provide work and training that will help them move on.  Ironically enough, this will help them stay.  Older generations should respond well, too.  This is one of the perks that engages most employees anyway.

Provide team spaces versus traditional conference rooms.  Gen Y is all about collaboration and mobility.  They don’t want to be stuck behind a desk.  The rest of your workforce might appreciate a more social atmosphere as well.

Develop a mentoring program for technology.  Gen Y doesn’t even think when it comes to using technology – it is the way they’ve always done things.  Enlist their help in updating your company’s technological goals.  They want to feel they are doing something meaningful and implementing programs like this will provide that for them.  Plus you get to tap into their knowledge to educate and inspire your mature workforce so your organization can be on the cutting edge.

Like it or not, the power in the workforce is shifting from the executives to the younger professionals.  This change doesn’t have to be bad.  With some understanding and a little creativity, these changes could end up positively impacting your entire corporate culture.