Focusing on Uncertainty

After a rather contentious and ugly election process, many government regulations, both existing and proposed, have become the subject of many pundits trying to predict what will happen. It’s really not as uncommon as you think to see executive orders get reversed, pending regulations get stalled, and lots of unanswered questions swirl the internet. What we do know is that everything is up for grabs, though often times, not much really changes substantially. That may or may not be the case this time around.

So, what is an HR person to do? We all ramped up for huge changes in the overtime rules, only to see them put on hold. We just got used to ACA and now who knows what’s going to happen with healthcare. The list goes on. To get us through these times of uncertainty, try these helpful tips.

1. Stay the course – continue to do your job as before and wait to see what the changes will be, when and if they actually come about.
   
2. Be prepared – stay abreast of what the issues are and where things might be headed. Focus your efforts on reliable sources of information, and stay away from “fake news”. Also, prepare for different possibilities, if it’s appropriate.
   
3. Do what’s right – you really don’t need to wait for regulations to do what you should be doing anyway. Often times, HR professionals are advocating for going above and beyond the regulations because it’s the right thing to do.
   
4. Accept change positively – managing change is now part of most of our job descriptions. We always want to be perceived as having a positive attitude and most of all adaptable. After all, being resilient can be a competitive advantage; be perceived as part of the solution.
   
5. Stay apolitical – it is important to be seen as fair, unbiased, and objective. Regardless if you think the regulations are good or bad, or whether you prefer one political party’s approach to another, it’s best to focus on how the regulation can be integrated into the organization. You can always write to congress to change it, but stay professional and positive at all times at work.

When it’s all said and done, the only thing we know for sure is that change is the only constant. Focus on what you can control.

By John P. Savas

Hey, What's Your Cause?

Our workday seems like it never ends, then we go home, tend to the house, spend a few minutes with the family, answer some emails, and if we’re lucky, get some much-needed sleep. Then we do it all over again the next day. Does this sound like your normal day? Unfortunately, it’s an all too familiar scenario we all seem to face. In the middle of this “down time”, the phone rings, or there’s a knock on the door, or something in the mail asking us to donate to some worthy cause. There are so many people who are in need, so many causes to support, so many organizations trying to do good. How do you decide who will get your attention?

Many of us already have a few pet causes, be it church, animal welfare, or at-risk children. But writing a check may not be enough…not for the organization and not for you. Getting actively involved in a cause can be highly rewarding, and yes, time-consuming too. But there are lots of reasons to volunteer your time. Some are altruistic; some more self-serving. Giving back to the community, trying to make a difference in the world, leveraging your skills in other ways, or trying to add new skills for yourself are all good reasons. There’s no guilt in deriving personal satisfaction from doing volunteer work or contributing to worthy causes. After all, they get something and you get something in return.

We just said you’re already tired from work and other responsibilities, how can anyone expect to add to that by volunteering? Believe it or not, volunteering can add mental and physical value to your life. It is proven to reduce stress and can help you maintain a healthier lifestyle. You’ll be in a better mood, be happier, be more optimistic, as well as have an all-around better attitude about life. You will meet and socialize with people in different circles, gain valuable experience to be used in your professional life, and ultimately make a difference. Seems like a lot of upside for you, in exchange for giving back to the community.

No matter what your passion is or where you feel like you can make the biggest impact by volunteering your time, pick a cause, get involved, and know that serving others is one of life’s highest callings. If you need help finding the right place for you, there are lots of sites that help match volunteers to opportunities. Try VolunteerMatch.org, Idealist.org, or HandsOn Network, to name a few.

By John P. Savas

Photo credit: Viktor Hanacek

Fixing a Broken Employee

Maintaining order and maximizing performance are critical elements in the management of an employee population. Just as a parent disciplines a child, a supervisor must call into question unacceptable behavior demonstrated by his or her direct reports. Parents attempt to curb the bad behavior of their child before it becomes ingrained. They use several techniques from talking to the child, scolding them, sending them to their room, or even grounding them when the behavior is bad enough. It’s not likely that your employees have a room at the office to send them to when they are misbehaving, but you will notice that the parent in the example above is using something called progressive discipline. Progressive discipline is one part of an overall corrective action program, whereby each subsequent infraction is dealt with a little more severely. It may begin with a verbal warning, lead to a suspension, and end with termination.

How many people think the goal of corrective action is to create a paper trail to follow so that when an employee is ultimately fired, you can defend your actions? If you answered “yes”, you couldn’t be more wrong. That may, at times, be the end result. But the reason we engage in corrective action is to bring about a change in behavior; to correct a deficiency; to improve performance. We must always focus our efforts on changing undesired behaviors. If we have any other ulterior motive, corrective action programs will not work. In fact, when employees realize that they only get disciplined as a first step to being terminated, there is no incentive to correct the behavior. 

The most important step in preventing unwanted behavior is communication. Communicating rules and policies is usually done during an employee’s first week on the job. An effective orientation program will dedicate a portion of the time to review the employee handbook and cover basic policies and expectations of behavior. Special training programs are also used to communicate expectations. For example, sexual harassment training clearly tells employees and supervisors what is acceptable behavior and what is not as it relates to dealing with others in the workplace.

Probably most important in communicating expectations of behavior and how inappropriate behavior will be dealt with is a written policy. Formalizing your policy by putting it in writing is an essential first step to communicating and developing a program that has teeth. The policy should become a part of the employee handbook that is distributed to all new employees upon hire, as well as reviewed with all employees from time to time. It should also allow flexibility in its application, as there are times that management needs to exercise discretion.

How you treat your employees when they make mistakes will define the company and its culture. A practice of helping employees overcome their problems by giving them every opportunity to improve will in most cases reward the company many times over.

By John P. Savas
Photo Credit: Bethany Legg | unsplash.com/@bkotynski

Seasonal Employees Count

During the busy shopping season that is now upon us, many retailers bring on lots of interim and seasonal staff. Some are college students who are on break, others are looking for a few extra bucks. Regardless of the reason people take these seasonal jobs, employers must remember they are still employees and they are afforded the same rights and protections under the law. Though they may be gone right after the new year begins, while they are employed, they fill a big gap for retailers and should be given the same consideration as other employees.

Interim employees are required to pay taxes, so they must fill out all of the required tax forms and payroll records, including an I-9 form. (Be sure to start using the new I-9 form that was recently released.) It is unlikely they will be eligible for other benefits, like paid vacation or dental plans, but they might be, depending on how they are classified and how they are defined by the specific plan documents.

In addition to completing payroll records, be sure to give your seasonal staff a copy of the employee handbook when they start. The handbook will outline expectations of behavior and performance, as well as provide them much needed information about important company policies that they are required to follow. Beyond that, the handbook will usually discuss procedures around filing complaints, reporting concerns in the workplace, and describing their rights as an employee. Regular full-time employees usually go through some type of orientation program where these things are covered. Often times, seasonal staff are just put to work their first day, foregoing an opportunity to learn more about the company and it's policies.

Just because they may only work a handful of weeks, they can still file EEOC complaints for sexual harassment, workers' compensation claims for getting injured, or even FLSA complaints for not being paid properly. An orientation program for interim and seasonal workers might help to develop an immediate rapport as well as direct them internally if they have questions or complaints before they run to an outside agency. Finally, it may be worthwhile to remind managers and coworkers that seasonal staff should be treated like everyone else at the company...as by all accounts, they are just like everyone else, except they won't be around as long.

By John P. Savas

Wanting to work with people, does not make an HR professional.

I often hear young folks tell me they want to get into human resources because they are good with people and they like working with people. It’s true that an HR professional must have good people skills since the product they are dealing with is, after all…people. But for some reason, every time I hear it, I cringe. I think maybe these folks should be thinking about some other field like counseling or something in the social sciences. Yes, there are aspects of counseling in every HR job and there are lots of opportunities to work with people. Then again, most jobs, no matter what the discipline require people skills and interacting with others effectively. Why does someone automatically think of HR because they want to work with people?

Many HR professionals, including myself, are speaking out against the old stereotypes of what used to be called personnel. HR is so much more than just the department that keeps people in line or acts as the gatekeeper to bring people in and out of the organization. Some employees mistakenly look at HR as the representative voice of the people. Executives often call upon HR to deliver tough messages to the staff since they “know how to talk to the employees”. But, for HR to be truly effective, they need to have strong business acumen. They need to understand the business, the products, the sales cycle, marketing, development, manufacturing, service, etc. They need to be able to create a budget and read a financial statement.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recently changed their certification program and adopted a competency and knowledge based model. It looks at HR functional knowledge as the foundation, and introduces technical and behavioral competencies. In looking at the technical competencies, they look at four areas; people, organization, workplace, and strategy. People represents only one part of the HR expertise. Just being good with people or liking the fact you work with people is not going to make you a full-rounded, well-balanced HR professional.

So, when someone says they like working with people, help them understand that the HR profession is so much more than that. If that’s the answer they give in an interview, it may be well short of what organizations are truly looking for in their next HR hire.

By John P. Savas

Transition Is No Time For Catching Up On Chores

Inevitably, everyone will find themselves in transition at some point in their lives. Being without a job may come about as a result of your company merging or downsizing, having your job eliminated, getting fired for poor performance, or maybe because you just got fed up and quit. Being without a job can be both a blessing and a curse. It might just give you the time to re-evaluate your life and career goals and give you the push you need to make a change you’ve been contemplating for years. Many outplacement studies have shown that people who lose their jobs more times than not end up in better jobs, perhaps even making more money. There are lots of reasons for this phenomenon, one of which is that we all get comfortable in a job and enjoy the security over taking the riskier chance of leaving a job for a promise of more opportunities and more pay.

But if you’re not careful, being in transition can also cause you to sink to emotional lows and perhaps even depression. It’s easy to start to feel sorry for yourself and begin to question your self-worth. It’s also very easy to sleep in each morning, turn on the television or surf the internet for a few hours, and call it an early day, all while convincing yourself that a new opportunity will come along any day now. There’s an old saying that finding a full-time job is a full-time job. That means that you need to be spending 8 hours a day, 5 days a week on your job search. It does not mean surfing the job boards for 40 hours per week. Only about 20% of all jobs are filled through job postings, so why would you spend 100% of your time on that one task? Job boards should be considered one arrow in your quiver. You need to be attacking your job search from every possible angle; networking, phone calls, emails, lunchtime meetings, coffee meetings, association events, etc. Fill your week with productive opportunities to find that next great job, and save the job board surfing for the evenings and weekends.

You need to stay busy! You need to approach each day as if you were going to work. Get up at your normal time, shower and get dressed, and be ready to start your day, just as if you were going to the office. If you don’t normally cut your grass until the weekend, then you should not be out in the middle of a workday cutting your grass. Obviously, if there is a school event that you would normally miss because of your work schedule, take a break, and put a smile on your child’s face by showing up. And stay active with a regular workout routine, as this will prepare you physically and mentally for the challenges you are facing.

Want to learn more about how we can teach you or your team these essential skills? Visit us at www.odasiconsulting.com.

By John P. Savas

Some HR folks still haven’t gotten the memo!

I find it so gratifying to follow LinkedIn articles about the latest and greatest advancements in the HR profession. I read blogs and posts on HR association websites and am pleasantly amazed at the seminars, webinars, and conferences being put on regarding HR and how it is evolving. Being a part of the HR community for the past 30 years has given me a unique perspective to see how the profession has advanced from the days of “personnel” to true “human capital management”. At times, I’m actually proud.

But I continue to be reminded that there is still a long way to go. There are folks out there calling themselves HR managers, when in fact they are remnants to the old way of doing things. There are still too many HR professionals (using the word “professional” very loosely in their case) that do not understand what it means to support the organization, service the employees, and provide the tools and resources that creates a meaningful employment experience.

A day doesn’t go by that I don’t get a call from someone asking me if their company can legally do this or that. Legally? Those are the easy questions to answer. Once we determine that nothing illegal transpired, I must give this person my usual answer, “Unfortunately, there is no law against lousy management”, I typically substitute the word “lousy” with something more colorful.

I recently came across an organization that refuses to give its employees their pay stubs, unless the employee drives over to the corporate administration building to sign for it and pick it up in person. This company is based in Illinois, so the law requires an employer to furnish employees with a wage statement; it just does not prescribe the manner in which it is provided. In these days of technology and access, I find it difficult to believe their payroll provider doesn’t have an online portal or some form of electronic pay stub. Be that as it may, the HR person won’t even take the time to email or fax the pay stub to the employee, rather deferring to their “policy” to sign for it in person. Reminds me of the archaic pay windows that used to be in the factories in the middle of the last century.

There are far too many companies, and HR people at these companies, that did not get the memo. Times have changed! We support and respect employees now; we treat them with human compassion and decency; we help them. Let’s stop focusing so much on what makes an HR person’s job easier and focus on making the job of our employees easier. That, in turn, will help the entire organization.

Stepping off the soapbox…

By John P. Savas