Posts belonging to Category employee communication

Author Dan Pink, Tuesday’s keynoter at the Society for Human Resource Management’s 2013 Annual Conference, gave his early-morning audience — most of the event’s 15,000 attendees — a pretty basic and resounding wake-up call: If you’re not selling your offerings and services in HR, you’re not going to make it in HR.

“Back in HR’s beginning,” said Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, Drive and other best-sellers about the changing world of work, “HR had to come up with ideas to sell their ideas to workers,” a concept that needs to be constantly reignited if the profession is to move forward.

Today, he said, most people in business spend a large portion of their time convincing other people to give up something of value for something they offer. “Like it or not,” he said, “we’re all in sales now … and my guess is HR people spend even more time than most,” or should be spending more time than most, selling their wares.

Drilling his repetitive mantra of “always be selling [through] ‘attunement,’ buoyancy and clarity,” he went on to illustrate each of those selling techniques as they might relate to programs and initiatives HR leaders are trying to get off the ground.

“Get out of your own head and see the world from their point of view,” he said. “Stay buoyant in a sea of rejection, and [be crystal clear] by constantly distilling information so everyone can access it and by focusing on finding [people's] problems rather than solving them.”

What can you do to increase your HR sales prowess? First, reduce your feeling of power, because power “distorts the ability to take someone’s else’s perspective,” Pink said. Second, don’t be an extrovert or an introvert, but be what he calls an “ambivert,” someone with a good mix of both qualities. “Don’t be a glad-hander; be more like yourself,” he said, citing research by Adam Grant from the University of Pennsylvania proving “ambiverts” make the best salespeople.

Pink also stressed the importance of giving people “an off-ramp, an offering to make it easier to act” the way you want them to, be it through a behavior change or a choice to buy in to an initiative or idea. Auto-enrollment, he said, is a good example of this.

Getting good at this is getting ever more crucial, he said. With information available to everyone now, “buyers” aren’t taking you at your word anymore. They’re coming to the conversation armed with their own research, so you’d better be ready for that and at the top of your game.

“We’ve left the world of buyer beware and entered the world of seller beware,” he said, and selling is increasingly defining and redefining the HR profession.

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I know we’ve pounded the benefits-communication drum already in our magazine, website and blog, but Audrey Boone Tillman’s plea, if you will, to HR leaders to pound that drum harder left me with some compelling new truths.

Tillman, executive vice president of corporate services for Columbus, Ga.-based Aflac Inc., presented findings of the 2013 Aflac WorkForces Report at her session — “Marketing Your Benefits: Developing a More Effective Strategy to Educate and Engage Employees About Benefits Options” — Monday at the Society for Human Resource Management’s Annual Conference in Chicago.

That’s a mouthful. I’ll cut to the chase. According to the report, 59 percent of employees would likely switch employers for lower salaries but more comprehensive benefits, and 79 percent agree a well-communicated benefits package would make them less likely to leave.

At the same time, 93 percent of employers believe they effectively communicate benefits, yet nearly half of employees say HR doesn’t communicate benefits enough. And here’s the kicker: Only 10 percent of employees feel their HR department is extremely effective at communicating benefits.

When you’re thinking about the overall cost of providing benefits, “think about the cost to the company if someone leaves for better benefits,” Tillman said, such as turnover, recruiting, lost productivity, training, the list goes on.

When it comes to the confusing labyrinth that is the Affordable Care Act, 75 percent of employees think their employer will and should be explaining how healthcare reform will impact them and their healthcare, yet only 13 percent of employers are actually planning to explain that.

For a complete rundown on who all was questioned for the survey, how many and from what industries, go to the company report’s website. In the meantime, I think it’s safe to say HR professionals are not marketing the benefits their companies are offering nearly enough.

“Too many HR leaders still think if they offer it and explain it at open enrollment and put out an email, that’s enough,” said Tillman. “The days of explaining what’s inside a glossy brochure once a year are over.”

Tillman urges employers and their HR and benefits teams to utilize “all the new touch points” available today that “far too few are taking advantage of,” including creating Facebook pages, mailing annual benefits statements to homes where spouses can see them, putting table tents in break and conference rooms, dedicating online email accounts to benefits questions, holding frequent town halls and lunch and learns, and putting videos on company portals featuring testimonials by employees who’ve been helped by the program in some way.

She even suggests pumping up the message with free shirts and free food. “You should be marketing benefits like the big vendors are marketing their goods and services on the expo floor below us,” she told attendees.

And when it comes to healthcare reform, “even to tell them, ‘We still don’t know enough’ is better than telling them nothing. Even ‘We have no news’ is fine,” she said.

Bottom line, employers aren’t finding ways to ask employees what they know and don’t know, need and don’t need, and employees aren’t asking about their options and how their companies can help them become better stewards of their health, finances and benefits.

And if you don’t think most employees need help, consider these two stats from the study: Nearly half (46 percent) of employees have less than 1,000 saved for unexpected health or life emergencies and 25 percent have less than $500 saved. And these are employees! These are the people who are working!

The good news, said Tillman, is that “employees want to hear from HR about employee benefits.” They want the ACA explained to them. They want to understand the “alphabet soup” of acronyms and terminology associated with it.

“This is a space where HR can really take the lead,” she said, “determining and explaining where the company will go in light of healthcare reform. This is where HR can really create value — for the company, for the employee and for HR.”

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Figured flu season makes this infographic from Best Choice Reviews a viable post, even though much of the information is stuff you already know about germs at work.

Like just how germy your mouse, phone and keyboard are. Or just how much rhinovirus sits on surfaces in restrooms and lunchrooms. Or just how filthy co-workers’ hands really are (indeed, the graphic — based on 5,000 swabs of office surfaces and corresponding interviews with several thousand of the folks who touch them — shows 15 percent of workers avoid shaking hands to avoid germs … wonder how that plays out in sales meetings??).

Surprising as some of the new stats are (79 percent of vending buttons are dirty, 1 in 3 office workers have witnessed people leaving restrooms without washing their hands, 53 percent of workers don’t wash their hands after exchanging money), there’s not much more you can do with them beyond communicating the importance of hand-sanitization and making sure dispensers are strategically placed throughout your company.

What I found more troubling were Best Choice’s findings that 72 percent of Americans typically go to work when they’re sick and 55 percent of workers feel guilty when they call in sick.

I wonder how many HR departments out there are seriously and aggressivley communicating the importance of staying home when you don’t feel well, considering all the work that needs to get done today with fewer resources and less money. And surely, it doesn’t stop there. Training managers and supervisors to respond to “I’m sick and staying home today” calls – or ”I’m sick but I’ll be there around noon” calls – so health is being promoted just as much as, or even more than, productivity has to be the next and necessary step.

Considering how prevalent and scary the currently spreading flu bug is, this may be something worth thinking harder about and taking up with your powers that be.

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It’s nice to think that your highest-achieving, hardest-working employees are driven to excel in the name of meeting team goals, advancing the company’s mission, increasing market share and all of that good stuff.

And many of them are. That should be part of what pushes them, anyway.

We all know there needs to be something in it for them as well. The prospect of receiving a promotion is one obvious motivator, and employees want to know what’s required to reach the next rung on the company ladder. And from an employer standpoint, making sure workers understand how they can continue climbing is also a wonderful recruitment and retention tool.

Nevertheless, a recent survey from Scottsdale, Ariz.-based WorldatWork finds very few companies making serious efforts to convey promotional guidelines and policies to their workforces.

The survey of 873 HR, compensation and benefits managers found just 16 percent of respondents saying their organizations widely communicate such information to employees.

Companies neglecting to share parameters for employee promotions do so at their own peril, says Kerry Chou, practice leader with WorldatWork, in a statement announcing the findings.

Employers may be missing out on an opportunity to enhance [their] ability to attract, motivate and retain employees by not sharing general information about the guidelines or processes associated with promotions.”

While employers may be mostly hush-hush on promotional guidelines, the study finds organizations still finding room in the budget for programs supporting employee advancement, and respondents report promoting about 8 percent of employees in a typical year.

The survey also found the average promotional increase award to salaried employees in 2012 was 8.7 percent, compared to 8.3 percent in 2010. Officers and executives received an average promotional pay increase of 10.2 percent, versus a median jump of 9.5 percent two years ago.

Most responding companies (81 percent) defined a promotion by an increase in pay, band, grade or level, and/or the addition of higher-level responsibilities (76 percent).

Make special note of how most respondents defined a promotion: While nearly one in five organizations reported awarding promotions without salary increases, the importance of providing a bump in compensation shouldn’t be overlooked, says Chou. In other words, pay up when you promote.

While a bigger title and recognition from peers are nice, employees will usually not feel completely satisfied with a promotion unless there is a meaningful increase in base pay.”

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No harm in reminding one and all that you have until March 1 — according to the recently enacted Affordable Care Act — to notify your employees about state-specific healthcare exchanges to be set up before 2014.

This alert from the Society for Human Resource Mangement lays out what you need to be doing next, according to the new law, after you’ve satisfied your January 2013 healthcare-benefit cost-reporting requirement for 2012 W-2s, that is. (Appropriate informational links are included in the SHRM piece; note, though, that the SHRM site is a subscription-based one.)

In the piece, Jennifer Benz, CEO of Benz Communications, lists three specific communication requirements employers must satisfy by March 1:

• State exchange basics. This is a description of the state exchange, the services provided by the exchange and how to contact the exchange (website and customer service number). One wrinkle: not all states have decided how they’re going to comply (the National Conference of State Legislatures provides an up-to-date chart of state implementation efforts). Employers in multi-plan states will have an even more challenging time.

• Individual plan value. This explains whether employees will receive at least 60 percent coverage of essential health benefits through employer-provided coverage, and whether employees may be eligible for a premium tax credit if they purchase a plan on the state exchange.

• Tax implications. Because health-insurance premiums under employer-sponsored coverage may be paid with pre-tax dollars, buying coverage through a state exchange may change an employee’s tax obligations. Employees using an exchange to purchase coverage may lose their employer’s tax-free contribution (if any) to their health coverage, also.

Although many benefits and HR experts are predicting the March deadline will be extended, considering the U.S. Department of Labor has yet to release proposed regulations or samples of a model notice, Benz suggests integrating the three-part notice into your overall health-benefits-communication strategy regardless.

“No matter what deadline the DOL ultimately sets,” says Benz, “employers need to be prepared to include [these three points] in their communication plans for 2013.”

“Communicate your 2014 position before the legalese does,” she adds. “Be sure to use language that fits the notice into your big-picture approach to healthcare-reform compliance. For many employers, this strategy is going to include high-deductible health plans and incentive-heavy wellness programs, two benefit strategies that require robust, thoughtful communications in their own right.”

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Figured the same day I opened up our holiday-party email (we’re having our small departmental one but nixing the gift exchange) would be a good day to share a few holiday-party notes I’ve been compiling to kick off the season.

I guess top of the list, and in keeping with the nixing theme, has to be this survey from OfficeTeam that finds 52 percent of executives saying their employers are not holding holiday celebrations at all this year. I guess the rercovery is still recovering.

But should yours be one of the companies deciding not to dampen the spirit (the OfficeTeam survey says 79 percent of managers and 75 percent of employees whose companies throw holiday parties indicate they enjoy them), here, courtesy of About.com, are a few choice notes on how not to ruin your own reputation. There’s no harm in sharing them with all employees before you let the partying begin.

Probably the more obvious caution from Susan M. Heathfield lays out her “Top Seven Office Party Gaffes” – the most obvious of which is the don’t-drink-too-much one. “One executive,” she writes, “after drinking too many martinis, stripped naked and climbed his city’s water tower.”

I would add that any office-party planner should think long and hard before adding alcohol to the festivities and fare. Angie Strunk, vice president of Sheakley HR Solutions, writes in a recent email that HR professionals should review everything — harassment, retaliation, workplace violence, safety issues, dress code as well as alcohol use – before the party, considering every one of these issues can become exacerbated when alcohol hits the flames.

Flirting with co-workers or their significant others at the office party is another of Heathfield’s top seven. “I remember when two employees, both married, commenced an affair following an office party. No matter how quiet they tried to keep their involvement, the company was not that large; people knew and people gossiped … .”

Then there are the gifts you should never give to your boss or co-worker for fear of sending a wrong or inappropriate message. Lahle Wolfe of About.com lists eight such no-nos. Top of that list (no-duh) are the “adult” items (toys, art, books, etc.) that, at best, are inappropriate and, at worst, illegal. Think, too, before you wrap up that funny small book that could be considered offensive to women, minorities, people of certain faiths or individuals with disabillities. Give something like that to your boss, even if he or she is your BFF work spouse, and you might be looking for other employment come January.

Personal care products, intimate clothing and romantic jewelry can also be fraught with suggestive overtones, or just plain wrong for the recipient. “That scented hand lotion you love,” writes Wolfe, ”might seem like a good idea, but when given to a person with allergies or asthma, you are giving a gift that cannot be used.”

“A good rule of thumb,” she writes, “is to ask yourself if the gift is something you would let a child see. [If not], it may not be appropriate to give to someone at work.”

Considering their many complications, I guess it’s possible the apparent decline of holiday parties has nothing to do with the ecomony at all and everything to do with headache-avoidance … hangover headaches included.

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It’d be nice to think that employees are, in general, long-term planners, always taking into account the big picture in terms of what they and their dependents will need the most further down the road: adequate retirement funds, money put aside for unforeseen medical expenses, perhaps some long-term care insurance. And then there’s reality: When 10,400 workers in 10 key markets around the world were asked in a recent survey to choose from a list of benefits the ones they’d most like to have, the No. 1 choice was a salary increase (The exception were respondents in Canada, where paid time off proved slightly more popular).

Who can blame them? Well, Mercer doesn’t seem too happy with their choices. Mercer conducted the survey, titled Making Smart Benefit Choices. Dave Rahill, president of Mercer’s health and benefits business, had this to say: “Employees valuing more time off and increased pay in the current stress-filled environment may be understandable, but there are other benefits that have the potential to create more income protection through health benefits and income replacement through retirement and savings vehicles.”

To the survey participants’ credit, it’s not as if they’re unaware of their retirement challenges: In general, the percentage who indicated they’re fairly or very concerned about retireemnt ranged between two-thirds and three quarters. Mercer notes those concerns are valid, pointing out that in markets outside of Asia, approximately 75 percent of employees are putting aside less than 10 percent of their total compensation towards retirement savings.

The survey also asked employees to rank the “voluntary” benefits (extra benefits, such as home, auto and life insurance, that are typically paid for by employees but usually include a group discount) they’d be most willing to pay for themselves. The top three benefits U.S. employees were willing to pay for are disability, life and auto insurance. Accident and hospital indemnity insurance was also fairly popular, while legal assistance and identity theft insurance proved the least popular.

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When we talk about communicating and engaging Gen Y employees in their benefits, the assumption has long been that technology better be a big part of the way companies go about it. After all, these are the folks who use Twitter and Facebook, right? But according to at least one speaker at this week’s Benefits Forum and Expo, technology may be important; but it’s only part of the story.

In a panel titled “X, Y and Boomers: Excelling at Multigenerational Engagement” and moderated by consultant Ron Leopold, one panelist cited research suggesting that employers would be wrong to discount the importance of one-on-one contact when it comes to benefits and Gen Y employees.

Stephen Bygott, an assistant vice president of marketing analysis and programs for Colonial Life, reported that recent research indicates that Gen Y employees welcome the use of technology when it comes to administering and communicating benefits, but they want employers to use it in an appropriate manner. “They want technology to supplement and enhance the one-on-one experience, not replace it,” Bygott says.

In other words, he explained, they still want that “personal connection.”

Colonial Life’s research, he adds, finds that Gen Y employees don’t want employers to tell them what they’re telling everyone else. They don’t want to hear a one-size-fits-all response.

At the end of the day, he said, what they want to know is:

• How much is it going to cost? (Or put another way, how is it going to impact their paycheck?)
• What kinds of benefits are going to be derived by participating? and
• Why is it going to make sense to them personally?

That’s not to say technology isn’t important to the Gen Y demographic. Bygott said employees want communications that are interactive. They prefer videos, audios and social media two or three times more than other generations. But that said, he reminded those listening that we’d be mistaken if we were to think that one-on-one experiences and high touch aren’t important, even in the case of Gen Yers.

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Does HR really see what’s going on?

If that’s the question, then the answer — according to the results of a new Kenexa whitepaper entitled Employee Attitudes and Engagement – is a disconcerting “No.”

The whitepaper sought to find out just how tuned in — or tuned out — HR leaders are to what employees think and feel about their organization by asking the same questions around attitude and engagement of both employees and HR leaders.

The results show that HR and employees are worlds apart on some big issues:

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81 percent of HR professionals think employees would recommend the organization to a friend. Only 38 percent actually would. If your employees aren’t fully engaged, they might consider leaving the organization. Bringing a friend into an organization that you aren’t fully engaged with might affect a personal relationship—a risk many aren’t willing to take.

Retention

83 percent of HR professionals think their employees plan to stay for the next year. 41 percent of employees agree with this statement. With engagement low and belief that compensation and benefits aren’t fair, it should come as no surprise that employees aren’t committed to their organization. Moreover, through the recession, many employees stayed with their organization out of a need for security. Now that organizations are hiring again, loyalty starts to waver.

Troubling figures, to be sure.

But, according to Kenexa, there is still hope for the function:

So how can we resolve these gaps in perception? Through communication and manager training. Even the best-intended HR programs fall flat without proper communication. Often times our employees aren’t fully aware of all the organization is doing for them or how much the organization is spending on programs. Moreover, all the communication in the world won’t offset a poorly informed manager. Managers need to be trained not only on understanding and evangelizing the company message, but also on bringing concerns back to HR so employee issues can be addressed.

So, there you have it.

Communication and manager training: HR’s route back to Earth  — and its employees.

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In case you missed it, National Labor Relations Board Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon has issued another report on social-media cases brought before his agency in an effort to further clarify when employers are in the right and when they’re in the wrong when trying to govern and manage the growing labyrinth of social media in the workplace.

The Operations Management Memo — available in PDF form within the link above — details seven more recent cases since I blogged about this last in this post. In the words of Solomon:

In August 2011 and in January 2012, I issued reports presenting case developments arising in the context of today’s social media. Employee use of social media as it relates to the workplace continues to increase, raising various concerns by employers, and in turn, resulting in employers’ drafting new and/or revising existing policies and rules to address these concerns. These policies and rules cover such topics as the use of social media and electronic technologies, confidentiality, privacy, protection of employer information, intellectual property, and contact with the media and government agencies.

My previous reports touched on some of these policies and rules, and they are the sole focus of this report, which discusses seven recent cases. In the first six cases, I have concluded that at least some of the provisions in the employers’ policies and rules are overbroad and thus unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act. In the last case, I have concluded that the entire social media policy, as revised, is lawful under the Act, and I have attached this complete policy. I hope that this report, with its specific examples of various employer policies and rules, will provide additional guidance in this area.

It’s worth reading carefully, just as the previous memos have been. There are nuances that might surprise you. For instance, in one case, the employer in question had this policy in its employee handbook:

Use technology appropriately. If you enjoy blogging or using online social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube, (otherwise known as Consumer Generated Media, or CGM) please note that there are guidelines to follow if you plan to mention [Employer] or your employment with [Employer] in these online vehicles … . Don’t release confidential guest, team member or company information … .

And here is the NLRB’s assessment:

We found this section of the handbook to be unlawful. Its instruction that employees not “release confidential guest, team member or company information” would reasonably be interpreted as prohibiting employees from discussing and disclosing information regarding their own conditions of employment, as well as the conditions of employment of employees other than themselves–activities that are clearly protected by Section 7.

The report’s a bit long, but a must-read – if you don’t have the time to digest it now, make sure your legal counsel does.

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