Ed tor’s Note If your company wants to not just hire Millennials, but also retain them, it’s important to understand what motivates them. Truth be told, Millennials want the same things from their employers as the Baby Boomers and the Traditionalists. Contrary to popular belief, Millennials place little importance on company offering nap rooms, car service and a sushi bar; the idiosyncrasies of an informal workplace. They value learning and advancement, great managers, and great jobs that are well-suited for their skills and interests.
Among other things, we have Legal Hub, which offers advice on how to deal with office affairs and sexual harassment. It’s becoming increasingly common among co-workers to find their passion in the office. Many times, this take an ugly turn when the romantic liaisons transform into a petty affair of ‘he said, she said’. You might also like Q&A with Jane, your official cannon for brutally honest, straightforward answers to HR related queries and concerns, answered by Jane Harper. Happy Reading!
Millennials fundamentally place greater emphasis on an opportunity-rich environment, and how an organization can help further their careers. Our Cover Story, ’10 Great Millennialfriendly Workplaces,’ takes a look at companies offering an inspiring mission, a collaborative work-culture and worklife flexibility. Plunge In!
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The Team Editorial Anna Domanska, Editor-in-Chief
Christy Gren, Sub-Editor
Priyansha Mistry, Sub-Editor
Aubrey Chang, Associate Editor
Riana Petanjek, Sub-Editor
Design Kevin Paul Sr. Graphic Designer
Reepal Savaniya Graphic Designer
Project Management Tony Raval Project Director
Marketing Jason Miller Sr. Project Director
Jay Raol Project Director
Advertising Richard Dean, Advertising Manager
Technology John Hancock Head-Web Department
Le Manh Coung, Sr Software Coordinator
Finance Control R R Baratiya
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Julia Hunt, Magazine Production
Content Features
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HR DRIFT Gone are the days of office vending machines stocked with soft drinks
LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS Transform the workforce for your customers.
Q&A WITH JANE
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I’m dealing with a one-of-a-kind jerk in the office. Help!
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT Are we on the verge of a skill crisis?
COVER STORY 10 Great Millennialfriendly workplaces! The HR Digest Magazine | January 2017
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EMPLOYEE BENEFITS Can a country like the U.S. afford to have shorter workdays?
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LEGAL HUB ‘That’s what she said!’ Are you ready to handle office affairs?
HR TOOLS & TECHNOLOGY Sentiment Analysis, the new hero in town!
RECRUITMENT POINT
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‘Resumé Whitening’ is real amongst minority job candidates
SUCCESS STORY Inside Facebook Inc.’s operations: Automating to create a transparent culture
WORKPLACE CULTURE Make 2017 one of the best years ever! A list of fun, social activities to do with your work mates.
HR Events & Conferences
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Gone Are the Days of Office Vending Machines Stocked with Soft Drinks Think all that sugar and soda is going to help your employees carry you to the top of your industry? Think again: according to The New York Times, a growing number of workplaces are looking to eliminate sugar-sweetened beverages, including soda and energy drinks, from their inventory. Early observations indicate that making soda unavailable from workplace may help curb cravings 24-hours a day. At the University of California, San Francisco, every campus food supplier – including locations like Subway – was told to remove soda from shelves. The UCSF was curious to see if the lack of availability had any measurable health effects on its 24,000 employees. The researchers are currently in the process of evaluating 214 blood samples collected to observe changes in metabolic activity. A preliminary survey of 2500 workers showed that soft drink ingestion was being reduced by roughly a quarter. By far, the changes have been adopted by more than 30 medical centers in the U.S. Policymakers are even attempting to dilute soda consumption by raising sales taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages. According to the World Health Organization, more than 20 percent price hike would directly result in a 20 percent reduction in soft drink consumption.
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No Doctor Should Work More than 30 Hours The subject of working beyond the maximum 28 hours per shift has always been a subject of heated debate within the medical community. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety released the findings of a study released this month, which noted that drivers who sleep only five or six hours in a 24-hour period are twice as likely to crash as those who got seven or more. The finding led AAA’s director of Traffic Safety Advocacy and Research Jake Nelson to recommend on NPR:“If you have not slept seven or more hours in a given 24-hour period, you really shouldn’t be behind the wheel of a car.” On the other hand, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) on Nov. 4 proposed a new set of guidelines for the number of hours worked by resident physicians. This lifts the 16 consecutive-hour limit on first-year resident work shifts and allows them to work up to 28 consecutive hours, without sleep. “I did a weekend of 72 hours in which I only got four hours of sleep. I would also secretly hope to get in a car accident and maybe break a leg so that I would be force to take off from work...just so I could get some rest. Thank God, I never got in an accident, but I have had colleagues fall asleep at the wheel.” --Written public testimony from Dr. Betsy Greenleaf on proposed work hour changes A 2014 study by Northwestern researchers compared programs which permitted residents to work longer shifts. The residents weren’t given eight hours off between shifts, or 14 hours off after a 24-hour shift. In these hospitals, the rates of death and surgical complication were comparable. The authors of the study concluded that “flexible duty-hour policies for surgical residents were non-inferior to current ACGME duty-hour policies with respect to patient outcomes.” 012
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The solution is clear: no professional, including doctors, should work beyond the point where neurobiology fails our system to function adequately. The HR Digest Magazine | January 2017
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What Do We Do About Overworked Nonprofit Workers? At the beginning of 2016, the Department of Labor signed one of the most consequential update to the federal rules on overtime. The new rules doubled the salary threshold for guaranteed overtime pay, from $23,000 to $47,400. The rules went into effect in December, benefiting millions of employees who earlier made less than guaranteed overtime pay under the law when they work more than 40 hours a week. Unfavorable reaction came from an unexpected source: a nonprofit called the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). “Doubling the minimum salary to $47,476 is especially unrealistic for non-profit, cause-oriented organizations,” U.S. PIRG said in a statement. “To cover higher staffing costs forced upon us under the rule, we will be forced to hire fewer staff and limit the hours those staff can work—all while the well-funded special interests that we’re up against will simply spend more.” Even though a lot of nonprofits support the new overtime rules, over 300,000 comments were posted to Regulations.gov, where nonprofits expressed their disapproval. Nonprofits including College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, Habitat for Humanity, and the YMCA of the USA. In a 2013 report, the Urban Institute surveyed over 4,000 nonprofits across the U.S. and found that a majority struggled with difficulty securing funding for the cost of their services, delays in payment for contracts, and other financial setbacks. Moreover, a lot of nonprofits depend on government funding, and have annual
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budgets of less than $1 million. While, they’re expected to perform like businesses, they do not get the same leeway that government-contracted businesses do. Many are expected to meet financial challenges by squeezing more work out of their workers without a substantial increase in their pay. In fact, a lot of nonprofits choose to cut wages, benefits, and other costs to scale back to their operations. The dissent over recent federal rules speaks volumes about the nonprofits culture where staffs’ needs are put behind mission-driven ambitions.
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Immigration Reforms Coming in 2017 In 2016, the White House attempted to improve employment-based immigration through the release of “smart” Form I-9 and finalizing regulations for 1.) Skilled immigrants, and 2.) Foreign post-graduate student workers. At the same time, we witnessed disruption following President Obama’s conceded extradition programs and increased interest for President Elect Donald Trump’s plans for business immigration.
2017 H-1B Visa Cap Filings Set New Record Businesses documented roughly 236,000 petitions for H-1B guestworker visas for financial year 2017, a lower figure than expected, yet outperforming last year’s record by 3,000, as indicated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). For the fourth year, USCIS received more petitions than are allowed under the statutory cap of 65,000 visas, in addition to 20,000 visa petitions recorded under the advanced degree exemption.
Deadlock on Obama’s Immigration Plans The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 23 4-4 decision for a case contesting President Obama’s proposed delayed deportation programs viably blocked almost 5 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States from being permitted work approval.
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The deadlock decision left set up a November 2015 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upholding a lower court’s directive blocking the president’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program and extensions to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Trump Immigration Policy Likely to Be Enforcement-Heavy President-elect Trump campaigned all through 2016 with an immigration enforcement first message, focusing on border and worksite enforcement and protecting U.S. employees’ jobs. Trump promised mandatory E-Verify for employers, an update of guestworker programs revoking some of President Obama’s executive actions.
Preparing for Workplace ICE Audits With the approaching Trump administration ready to focus on immigration enforcement, businesses can stay away from heavy fines by building up an exhaustive I-9 compliance program, which would include training, selfaudits, and an investigation-day action plan. U.S. Movement and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has reduced working audits in the last couple of years, yet a late increase in punishments for immigration related workplace infringement—including the work of undocumented workers—and another administrative direction for the office may lead to more investigations.
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Music Is The Sound You Need At Work A new report revealed that listening to music in the workplace can increase focus and concentration rather than serve as a distraction. The survey, commissioned by totaljobs and music streaming service Deezer, by music psychologist Dr. Anneli Haake, noted that 79% out of 4,500 employees who participated in the online survey benefited from listening to music at work. More than a third picked pop music as their favored genre, while just seven percent settled on classical music. “Enjoyed as a private activity, music in offices can be seen by employees as a perk; a positive route to personal happiness and well-being,” wrote Dr Haake. “What’s more, it’s a clever way to help manage work environments and minimise interruptions; a cost-effective way to combat stress, and a positive technique for encouraging employee self-care.” In spite of these findings, listening to music is still prohibited in a ton of workplaces, as more than 33% of the surveyed employees revealed that they are now allowed to listen to music at work. The majority of these employees belong to accounting, banking & insurance, and customer service industries. On the other hand, those in the computer programming, data analytics, advertising, and marketing sectors are more accommodating to music at work. Still, a few people incline to not to listen to music while working. Dr Haake said, “If music is forced upon people, it can be irritating and annoying, and we know from research that office noise can have severe negative effects on employee health, well-being, and productivity.”
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Transform Your Workforce For Your Customers. Company culture plays a critical role in companies at the forefront of its digital transformations. For example, Apple has a unique corporate culture that emphasizes innovation, creativity and expertise. To promote this culture, they are nitpick employees through an extremely thorough recruitment program. Today, Apple’s brand valuation stand at $170 billion, which would never happen unless you have a loyal customer-base that sees this image. Anyone who has been to an Apple store knows that Apple Geniuses (employees) are experts in product they sell and are willing to give their time to all of your queries. They’re knowledgeable, smart, and positively reflect the company culture. For higher productivity, innovation and more effective executive, it’s imperative that HR use some assist from marketing. Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice at London Business School, wrote a blog on “Five 022
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Changes Future Leaders Must Face� and one of the changes was the need for all leaders to work more collaboratively. Top talent is a point of concern amongst CEOs, and so employer branding is slowly turning into a critical strategy to address present and future talent shortages. Today, less than 20 percent of businesses recognize the need to have an employee branding strategy, while only 30 percent of companies with teams of two or more departments responsible for managing their employer brand. In recent years though, the HR is now using assisting from marketing to get on to the battleground called the internet and fetch the best talent. The HR Digest Magazine | January 2017
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Compete for Talent: Today there is serious competition for the absolute
best talent. When a high-potential employee goes after a company, the first thing they check out is social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, or even employer review sites like Glassdoor. Now, company presence on social media and other sites is generally owned by marketing or PR. To win the talent-game, fast and furious, companies must take a sales-oriented approach to their online presence. Although, a lot of businesses prefer taking a more balanced, recruiting-centric approach to their online presence. This is because, in many industries, finding the best talent is as crucial as finding loyal customers.
Give Careful Consideration to UIs, I.E. User Interfaces:
To start with, start researching various platform and their UIs by applying for jobs at some of the best employer brands in the U.S. Soon, you’ll find that even the most boring, clunky process is designed to feed into an algorithm. Access to a live person via chat, or maybe even a web video. This is the most common practice in customer service. Give the same kind of attention to people who show willingness to work for your company.
Be More Human. In today’s digital age, the most human companies will win. You have the most fantastic opportunities to use technology to tear down hindrances between people as opposed to raising them. If you have visited HR-oriented web pages on the internet, you may have noticed 1. Stock pictures of completely diverse people with real smiles in a real workplaces. 2. Text-overwhelming descriptions of what the organization does rather than stories (particularly videos) of how the organization feels to employees who work there. 3. A absence of the uber-useful video “tours” to communicate the culture and values and work ethics of the company.
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If you have seen some of Sweden’s promotions, you may have noticed a phone number. You can call on the toll-free number and talk to a random Swedish citizen who has volunteered to be an ambassador for their nation. Why not do this for a company with over 1,000 employees.
Build Employees’Brands. On the promoting side, every now and then
we discover about employees who post stories about our products, leading to more views on our company content. Now, this isn’t something that happens too often, but sounds like it should. Employee social networks look great on paper however actually, there has been moderate success. Who needs to post company news on Twitter or their own Facebook page? Discussing the company culture, commenting about the pride they have in an association, or posting photographs from a company potluck … well, that is an easy feat. We should give employees the training and tools to do their very best when creating content about their company culture. Discover Contextual Advertising. Today any sort of marketing more often than not has a paid promotional part. If you are trying to attract talent instead of customers, why not use promotional marketing? There are people online talking about their job hunting experiences all the time. It might look good if you create targeted ads that can help potential employees with their questions and problems.
Give More Thought To Strategic Touchpoints. The purchaser’s
decision is a tangled wreckage of touchpoints. They may see advertisements, look online for data, and talk to friends and family. Advertisers try to have some sort of substance holding up clients at every point in this journey. Clearly there is also a comparative way to the work travel. Why not consider brimming those touchpoints with supportive data as we do on the marketing side? Consider including content for each of the decision-points in a potential employee’s journey. Help them evaluate (and maybe even look at) your company culture, pay, benefits, and so on.
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Use Influencer Marketing to Recruit.
We are quickly moving toward a world in which online ads are blocked or disregarded, however people still love to get information from the people they trust. Why not employee an influence? When people seek information about your company, who are they most likely to listen to? How about you connect with some of the most important online personalities so they become advocates of your company culture? A lot of tech companies today hire well-known industry bloggers to create content on behalf of the company. Due to the blogger’s vast online reach, the company instantly gains credibility. Why not use a similar strategy for recruiting efforts? Now a lot of these ideas remain untested to the wary HR’s eyes. However, existing HR recruiting practices are so behind our times that there’s no loss in trying out these.
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The brutal and straightforward answers to HR-related queries and concerns. Hi Jane, At the end of a job interview they always ask “Would you like to ask any questions?” What question should the candidate ask? 19 and Clueless.
Answer Hi 19 and Clueless. Your question reminds me of an interview in which the candidate asks the panel for a brief summary of their time with the company – favorite aspects, overall experience, and the challenges. You’ll be surprised how well received it was! It shows that as a potential employee, you are interested, but at the same time you still have a decision to make. Besides, people like talking about themselves! If you want, you can refer to the below set of questions– How would you describe the company culture? How did this position come to be open? What is the biggest challenge facing this department right now? What is the biggest achievement this department has made? Mind you, the last two questions can sound a little prying if your tone isn’t self-effacing. Albeit, these questions will lend you an upper hand in the most-friendly way possible. Besides, it will give up a little more insight into the position and the company culture. Here’s the most important questions of all: Would you mind giving me a tour of where this job would take place so I can get a feel of where I’d be working and who I would be working with? Dazzle them with brilliance! The HR Digest Magazine | January 2017
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Hi Jane, You know how they ask ‘what is your biggest flaw?’ during an interview? I’m ill-prepared for such a question. I fear, I may blurt something out, like Jennifer Lawrence giving an unadulterated opinion about herself! At the same time, I also do not want to sound like a bullshitter with something like this – ‘Oh, I’m too much of a perfectionist!’. 23 (F), marketing intern
Answer Hi, Looks like you’re someone who doesn’t like being caught between moral and ethical dilemmas of over-promising. Most interviewers expect candidates to reveal a noticeable and potentially detrimental struggle, and explain how the employee will mitigate the risks of the struggle. My advice – don’t give an automated response. Give your interviewer a story. Here’s an example of what you could say – 1. I used to be socially awkward person, which sometimes made it difficult for me to talk to people around me. I’ve made a lot of friends since then, and I’m constantly trying to think before I speak, so I won’t say nonsense. 2. I don’t have a lot of leadership skills. I always try to follow and figure out the tasks ahead of me. I am quite good at being a high-contributing team member, and I always try to take a lead even if I find the task difficult.
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Hi Jane, We have an employee who is really unlikeable and has a bad attitude towards work. Let’s just say I’m dealing with a one-of-a-kind jerk. This guy would fall asleep all the time at his cubicle. Last week, I caught him asleep, thrice on three different days! When I woke him up, he threw a fit and was blaming everyone that sat around him. His point of view: it’s too quiet in the office and so he gets a little sleepy. I want to fire him, but he’s a client’s son, who happens to generate around 45% of our overall business.
Answer In many workplaces, employees get fired for sleeping on the job. Personally, I think one shouldn’t fire an employee for a single occurrence. You need to make it clear that sleeping on the job is absolutely unacceptable! Albeit, your only choice in this situation is to make it clear that another occurrence would lead to a disciplinary action. How about two weeks of unpaid vacation? If you still catch this employee sleeping during work hours, in spite of the disciplinary meetings and written warnings, you may fire them. Simple as that!
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Can a country like the U.S. afford to have shorter workdays? Because happy worker is a better worker! In 2016, the Swedish city of Gothenburg began trials for a corn-flake capitalism experiment. The government coalition proposed a year-long trial that would divide municipal workers into a test and control group at the same pay rate: with the test group working six-hour days, and the control group working eight-hour days. The six-hour working day is promoted not only by Vänster (Leftist Party), but also a growing body of academics, who support this transition based on research. An audit published in midApril concluded that the program in its first year The HR Digest Magazine | January 2017
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has sharply reduced absenteeism, and greatly improved productivity and worker health. While eight-hour work day is the norm, not all of those are spent actually working. The average time spent on private activities, such as personal phone calls, chatting with colleagues, checking social media and emails, and online shopping, take up an estimated 1.5 to 3 hours per day. According to CareerBuilder (2016) most employees spend at least an hour or more each work day on personal stuff. So technically, workers spend only 6-hours each working on what they are actually getting paid to take care of. Now, this is an interesting trade-off, making a 35-hour work week, especially for millennials, who value work-life balance a lot more than previous generations. In a 2012 article for Foreign Policy, Charles Kenny explored the complicated connections between output and work hours: “The bottom line is that productivity -- driven by technology and well-functioning markets -- drives wealth far more than hours worked. And very few jobs in developed economies nowadays are classic assembly-line positions, where working 20 percent longer will mechanically produce 20 percent more widgets. Psychology plays a role here too: At least 40 years of studies suggest that people work harder if you limit their time to complete a certain task. In some cases, working too hard can actually reduce output. Long working
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hours are also associated with ill health, which means lost labor in the long term, as well as higher medical costs for employers and government.” Companies in Sweden are also moving to a sixhour work day, in a bid to reduce absenteeism, and improve productivity and worker health. As a matter of fact, employers across the Scandinavian country have already instituted the change. Toyota centers in Gothenburg, made the transition to a 35-hour work week more than 13 years ago, with the company reporting happier – productive staff, a decrease in turnover rate, and a rise in profits in that time. Filimindus, a Stockholm-based app develop, introduced the six-hour day in 2015, thinking the change would make employees happier. Linus Feldt, the company’s CEO told Fast Company: “I think the 8-hour work day is not as effective as one would think. To stay focused on a specific work task for 8 hours is a huge challenge. We want to spend more time with our families, we want to learn new things or exercise more. I wanted to see if there could be a way to mix these things. My impression now is that it is easier to focus more intensely on the work that needs 040
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to be done and you have the stamina to do it and still have energy left when leaving the office.” To cope with the 35-hour work week, Filimundus introduced a rigid new productivity policy: mandating that employees must stay off social media during work days and keep off other distractions. A four-hour work week is something we’re familiar with in the U.S. Although, underemployment became a big issue after the 2008 disaster. Today, even 40 hours a week feels draining to many employees. There are one too many roadblocks along the way. Towns in Sweden have abandoned this move in the past when it proved costly. Opponents (Moderate Party) in Sweden warn that idea is a utopian folly. If one city or a town, let alone Sweden, were to adopt a 35-hour work week, the economy would be in shambles from reduced competitiveness and strained finances. The opposition Moderates party argues that the government should not intrude in the workplace, citing high tax payer costs. But, a majority of employers in Sweden believe that to implement a six-hour work day, people wages would be lowered, and more people would be working, increasing the profits no matter. But, let’s be clear: It all comes down to what kind of job you do. A lot of jobs require the worker to be more focused on being on site at the right time. While some jobs demand more than 8 hours because it requires effort that cannot be actually measured in “productivity” or “efficiency”. A reduction in work-day-hours for a pilot, chef, or surgeon, would not benefit in total productivity. Productivity can be increased by reducing the hours per day if you work in an industry with work-load that can be done today as well as tomorrow. Fundamentally, everything boils down to decreasing amount of time spent at work while improving the amount of work done. Of course, reduced work-hours a day would improve productivity if you refer to psychologist Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment (1971). In the workplace, we have a psychology contract that binds us to our work, co-workers and The HR Digest Magazine | January 2017
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EMPLOYEE
BENEFITS supervisors. If our managers are autocratic and disrespectful, we get pissed at for not being treated better. We expect reciprocity, and as such, when we reduce the work-week to 35 hours, employees feel that their productivity and efficiency must go up for this perk. Moreover, reducing the work-hours in a day, forces workers to increase their efficiency to match their previous base-line.
What does Sweden aim to gain from a 6 hour work day? • A more focused and productive work force. • An improved social life and extra time for leisure pursuits for its citizens. • A shorter peak traffic time. • A healthier workforce. Primarily, Sweden’s six-hour work day is to encourage workers to get their tasks done, and leave at a reasonable hour to enjoy a better social life. The key part here lies in the willingness of employees to be disciplined and more focused on their job during the work hours, instead of squandering away the time to do other things. This way, it would be even more economical for employers and would give employees more personal time for leisure pursuits.
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Of course, some jobs require longer hours. If companies can pay employees for the extra time if they’re willing to put it in. That’s a win for both sides. In the U.S. though, another added benefit of 35-hour work week is reduced stress. Many workers tend to work far beyond the normal work-life boundaries set by Scandinavian countries. U.S. employees, especially the ones in hyper-competitive sectors such as banking and finance, have an umbilical cord attached to their work emails. It’s made much worse by the advancement of smart technology, as one is expected to respond at any time of the day or night to work demands. Now, such a lifestyle can create chaos in people’s personal lives and reduce the quality of life. Reducing the work day may not exactly reduce emails, but at the very least, it would reduce stress. Non-work activities, such as power naps and walks, can have an invigorating effect on workers during the day. By shifting to a six-hour work day, employers can obviate small breaks, which would prove to be efficient and increase productivity during work hours.
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Are we on the verge of a skill crisis? Why is it critical to make a blueprint of future skills?
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The challenge is self-evident: the animating pace of innovative change has contracted the time span of usability of skills gained by today’s college graduates to only a couple of years. In a Deloitte survey (2013) of executives at large corporations, 39% said they were either “barely able” or “unable” to address their needs to talent. Besides, it’s a fairly common practice with large companies these days where they replace thousands of employees with more digitally skilled workers. But, there’s a way we can work around the digital cords in the industry. Rather than hiring new talent, why not quickly reskill the hundreds of thousands of employees we already have. How do we meet talent shortages? Can we look into the external
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labor market? Or, should we develop our own internal labor market? Let’s just say that we’re in the middle of the
skills shift. Around 20 percent of today’s workforce has the required skills for 60 percent of the jobs that will be coming to the market within the next decade. But, we need companies to be aware of and
understand this major shift. Companies with a strong brand must ensure to give the opportunity to its employees to reskill. Let’s take a look at one of AT&T’s story, which might perhaps serve as a
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blueprint to companies who’re about to embark on to their own transformational journeys. AT&T’s approach not just gives its employees an open door that encourages loyalty, it additionally ensures the respectability and progression of the institutional knowledge and informal networks that make companies run. It recognizes that while they can (and do) enroll for new skills, the supply of
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technical talent with “hot” talent is more or less, limited, and competition for it is cutthroat. The process duration for new technology has compacted and will keep on doing so. Today’s most sought-after new skills in robotics, virtual reality, software, and the likes will evolve obsolesce, so it’s savvy
to invest, as AT&T is doing, in building a culture of continual reinvention, as opposed to depending on the outside market for talent. What makes it worse, is that there are no policies in place to address this. The educational system plays a critical role here. Leading schools like Harvard and Yale, are expanding their programs so the next generation of workforce is prepared for a continuum of a career, rather than just one. Today, the notion that education ends at the undergraduate level, the master’s level, or Ph.D is a dated idea. We need to learn by now that the systematic, industrial-age corporate ladder for career development had led to the digital-age corporate lattice, with multidirectional career paths. Each one of us is responsible for playing an active role in ensuring the relevance of our skills and the continued progression of our careers. One approach to do as such is to intermittently market the job market with skills, developing those skills that are market relevant. Visit online post sites to keep a check on which skills the market is looking for and which ones are emerging. Another approach to develop your career is to making
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yourself marketable for some emerging career possibilities, thus continually brushing up your portfolio with newer skills and experiences. If you’re an engineer, it’s safe to say that in the next five years or so, having a robotics or virtual reality experience would be an added bonus. Now, this is what we call the digital-age corporate lattice, where one continually adds emerging skills to compliment core competency. The skills, experiences and connections that landed you the position you have today are transferrable later on. Rather than climbing the ladder as you may have before, you’ll be all around – lateral and diagonal. Performance and job mobility are two aspects tied to talent practices as well as cultural changes. Employees with long tenures are valued, however, people are now cautioned to not stay in any role for far too long. The reasoning is that if you’re doing the same job for more than 3 to 5 years, it means that you may not develop, build new skills, extending networks, and so forth. Compensation is another territory where job status has been deemphasized. Rather, more variable compensation premiums, for example, bonuses are used to motivate higher performers, and to recognize the new job skills, without making it a qualification that future compensation increments depend on. Despite contrary belief, such programs give chances to keep employee populations relevant, and so those with relevant skills are less likely to get disintermediated. In the near future, it’s more likely that a boomer tech worker will need to invest in getting new skills that a millennial may have learned in school. How would you engage and retain employees to learn new skills, when we realize that engagement is a test only for normal work? Engagement has always remained one of top concerns for the human resources. If you look at engagement insights, by far most of individuals are not effectively engaged. So when it comes to unlocking the potential of your workforce, engagement is true measure. Several companies are now mapping the blueprint of their future capabilities they will need. Amazon Inc., for example, recently 052
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launched a new tuition assistance program called Career Choice. What makes the program interesting — beside its 95% tuition reimbursement — is that it recognizes that while a few people will make their professions at Amazon, others will use it to something else. Career Choice understands this, providing employees with ample of opportunities to brush up their skills and training that will lead to career betterment. Through this program, Amazonians are getting to be attendants, IT helpdesk experts, pharmacy technicians, and business truck drivers—all job fields that are popular, and that give opportunities for personal and professional growth. If you can persuade your employees that they are deeply involved—and integral to—the reinvention of the organization, you can thus increase engagement, profitability, and success.
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COVER STORY 10 Great Millennial-friendly workplaces! The United States is home to more than 77 million Millennials – the generation between the ages of 18 and 35- of which an estimated, nearly half of them have already joined the workforce. Every single year, thousands of survey results and employee comments are published, identifying work cultures that are a perfect fit for these young professionals. But, before we get to that, let’s first ask – what do Millennials want?
Millennials want a casual atmosphere: The youngest workforce tend to
be worked up by formalities such as job titles and business suits. In fact, MTV’s No Collar Workers survey noted that millennials want a workplace where they can be themselves. Millennials want result-oriented work: Recruiting firm Mom Corps noted that the youngest workforce were more inclined towards workplace flexibility as a key factor in choosing a job than the older ones. As a matter of fact, 18 to 34 year olds are willing to sacrifice nearly 14 percent of their salaries for such benefits. Millennials want employers to set specific deadlines and milestones, and let them decide how and when the work will get done. Millennials want the latest technology: A recent survey by Accenture found that more than half of all U.S. Millennials say office technology is a key factor in choosing their future employer. The Gen Y workers want to join a company where they have access to the latest computers, smartphones, tablets and software. Millennials also want access to social media: According to a 2011 054
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Cisco survey, 56 percent of the youngest workforce won’t work for a company where social media is blocked.
Millennials want you to listen to their ideas: The youngest workforce
have been raised in environments where their parents act more like their friends than authority figures. They want the exact same relationship with their bosses. An MTV survey points out that 90 percent of Millennials want their bosses to listen to their ideas. Now that we’ve established what Millennials want, let’s peek into the top ten millennial-friendly workplaces!
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ACUITY
Millennials call Acuity a ‘fun place to work’. How this Sheboygan, Wisc.-based firm has managed to make insurance business ‘fun’ is an inspiring tale. It holds wacky events like a circus, a chocolate fair, game shows, lunch-time comedians, and a talent contest. Acuity appeals to employees to all ages. Employees who work here feel the upper management team is forthcoming and approachable. Employees love coming to work because they know they’re making a difference in the organization. One of the many added bonuses is that employees often get special treats like food and gifts, and parties to celebrate the company’s success.
ALLIED WALLET
At Alliet Wallet, employees look forward to going to work – every single day. It’s not surprising, after all, this Los Angeles-based payment processing firm offers amazing office view, along with the company’s frequent gifts, special events, funand free Friday lunches where everybody sits and eats together. Its workforce is young as well – more than 90 percent of Allied employees are below 35 years of age.
ALPHABET INC.
Alphabet Inc. will always remain one of the coolest companies to work for! People who work at this Google-parent company love its famous perks, the doo-no-evil motto and its worldchanging power. Its many perks include onsite cafes, wellness centers and services – all ranging from bike repair to dry cleaning.
BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP
Millennials love The Boston Consulting Group! What’s not to love – it offers high-impact work,
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high-integrity leadership, and high-levels of camaraderie! Now this is something to boast about, because despite its rigorous selection process and work-training, employees feel it’s the best place to work for. BCG gives a helping hand to first-time homeowners. New consultants at this consulting firm can borrow up to $100,000 from the company (at low-interest rates) to make a down payment on the purchase of a home. Employees at BCG admire the comfortable and inclusive setting. Everyone knows everyone, and the comfortable setting makes it feel like everyone is just part of one big family.
DAVID WEEKLEY HOMES
‘Building Dreams, Enhancing Lives’ is the Houstonbased homebuilder, David Weekley Homes’ tagline. Here, company employees feel their work has special meaning, it’s not just a job. Founder and Chairman David Weekley inspires his employees with a ‘servant leadership’ motto that rewards integrity and giving back.
DPR CONSTRUCTION
This San-Francisco Bay Area based contracting and construction management firm hits the mark with Millennials by putting safety at the center. It offers safety awards, and once even rewarded an employee with a brand new Ford F-150 truck when he reached 30,000 consecutive work hours without an accident. Employees at DRP Construction work to serve bigger purposes. Once when the company reached a milestone to expand a certain biotech manufacturing facility, it invited a cancer patient would benefit from the drugs to be manufactured at the plant to meet the workers.
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INTUITIVE RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY
Millennials at Hunstville, Alabama-based tech services company can have a life outside of work. Around 98 percent of the company employees have pointed out towards work-life balance as a major perk. In addition, Intuitive has perks including fully-paid medical coverage, onsite fitness center, and unlimited tuition reimbursement. Perhaps, the most surprising part may be the company’s dress code. Intuitive values being ‘best dressed’ and expected professionalism in employees’personal presentation.
QUICKEN LOANS
Millennials at this Detroit-based financial services firm love its fun, egalitarian culture. Employees are treated as a full member regardless of the position. Each new employee is given the personal cell phone numbers of the CEO and other members of the leadership team. In 2010, Quicken moved from the suburbs to downtown Detroit to help spur an urban renewal effort. Employees feel good about the ways in which they contribute to the community. At Quicken, there’s no ‘boss’ or manager – it has a 100 percent open door policy for any person in the company. Employees at Quicken feel blessed to be provided with the atmosphere and resources to be successful.
ULTIMATE SOFTWARE
This Florida-based software maker loves to party, and so do the employees who work here! Ninety-nine percent of its employees say they love to celebrate the special events around here. It regularly sponsors karaoke contests, cocktail hours and monthly birthday celebrations. Ultimate Software even holds 48 hours events where employees can work on pet projects for a 48-hour period as long as it pertains to company goals.
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WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY
Millennials at St. Louis-based technology services company love the family feel and the flexibility! In spite of long hours that come with never-ending projects, employees have the flexibility to take time off work when they think it’s necessary. Employees genuinely feel that the company cares about them and what is going on in their life! Everyone is allowed to progress at a young age, without any questioning about whether they can handle it because they’re young. Very few organizations allow young people to progress so quickly through the ranks, recognizing that merit can be proven at any age.
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“That’s what she said!” Are you ready to handle Millennials office affairs? • Our VP of sales would hire people solely on their willingness to sleep with her. It made work a lot of shit work for the rest of us and we all grew to resent him. • I met my Significant Other at work. We had to keep our romance secret to the point that we still have to lie to our co-workers about our anniversary. • A co-worker of mine and a lady from HR thought they were being secretive. Turns out, the husband found out and shot the guy in the eye. My co-worker has been in a 064
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You may say, it’s a brave new world for office romance, especially among young millennial cubicles. Almostonethird believe it is acceptable to dip your pen in company ink. vegetative state since. The HR still works here. Over the past few years, workplace fraternization is becoming more acceptable, especially among the millennial workforce. According to the results published by Vault. com (2016), 51% of business professionals have been involved in some sort of workplace relationship; 42% have had an ongoing, casual relationship with their co-worker; 36% participated in a random office hookup; 29% were involved in a long-term serious relationship with their co-worker; and 16% were lucky enough to meet their Significant Other at work. Of the entire number, 64% disposed to look on the bright side, and said they would do it again.
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As per a 2012 poll by work-life and benefits consultants Workplace Options, the millennial generation is blithely unaware of how messy workplace liaisons can get. Consider this: 84% of 18-to-29-year-olds say they’d date a coworker, compared to, 36% Gen Xers and only 29% of Boomers. You may say, it’s a brave new world for office romance, especially among young millennial cubicles. Almost one-third of millennials believe dating in office is de rigeur, even expected, almost. Another survey by Vault (2016), says 44% of Millennials have been involved in an office relationship, compared to 59% for Gen X, and 66% for Baby Boomers. Oddly enough, millennials, believe an office romance can lead to positive gains such as improved performance and morale. And, so do older respondents, who now prefer to stay frosty around workplace boundaries of what’s acceptable. Around 43% of Boomers have avoided a workplace relationship, followed by Gen Xers at 39% and Millennials at 34%. When those who participated in a workplace liaison were asked if they would do it again, 54% said yes, followed by millennials at 67% and Gen X at 68%. It’s quite tricky altogether, whether it’s a hierarchal workplace romance or a lateral one. The ramifications – legal and social, can make you wary of dipping your pen in company ink. Some offices have no problem with employees navigating the murky waters of departmental desires. This is especially true in creative industries like media and advertising. But, with the millennial workforce obliterating the rules regarding dating co-workers, it’s time to set our sights on one of its most problematic aspects: Regulating workplace romances. Flinging Flings Out of the Courtroom In some corporate culture, half the employees are dating, or married to, the other half, and it’s not a taboo. In many other companies, though, office romances are strong discouraged, or even prohibited. Perhaps,
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one big concern is, what about the people who are not in the relationship? The employer needs to ensure there is no perceived, or actual favoritism. For example, the project manager’s darling gets greater work flexibility than everybody else. Specifically, managers and co-workers tend to worry about some of these issues. • Will the lovebirds be able to work on projects together professionally? • Will the personal relationship cause bias in their work, particularly if one has control over something, such as schedules or budgeting? • Will the two be inappropriately romantic or touchy-feely in front of other co-workers? • Will the two end up interfering in one another’s professional battles? For example, if one is terminated or treated in a way that is unfair, will it affect the morale and working relationships of the other person? • Lastly, will the liaison cause drama or tension in the office if the two have a fight, or worse, break up?
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Some of this concerns aren’t the ones you can easily address. Now, this is why some companies have a policy of separating the lovebirds. This is done either by moving one of them to a different part of the company, or, asking one or the other to resign. It’s not exactly a legal requirement, but is widely perceived as a best practice to minimize the company’s legal liability. Say, the supervisor and the subordinate are involved in a whirlwind affair, a cupid contract helps ensure that the romance is voluntary. It also helps establish that there is no quid pro quo sexual harassment taking place. It’s the kind where a manager tells the subordinate, for example, “You can have a raise if you sleep with me.” Of course, this wouldn’t apply to employees who are voluntarily involved, and prefer to keep it professional. Nevertheless, no one can predict a break up might go. Here comes the distasteful, no fraternization at workplace ‘policy. Contrary to popular belief, a policy that prohibits workplace dating is rarely appropriate. As a matter of fact, policies prohibit workplace fraternization has backfired on many employers, creating an environment where employees seem to enjoy toeing the line because of the risk involved. In addition, several state laws require employers to be aware of the broadly worded provisions of the State Labor Code that forbid businesses from discriminating against an employee or applicant for lawful off-premises conduct during non-working hours. What is a cupid contract? Considering all the various ways in which an office romance can transform into a big, ugly can of worms, it might not seem so strange after all to have your employees sign a cupid contract. Of course, sitting down with two employees, and making them commit the nature of their relationship to paper, is anything but romantic. However, as the employer, you’re failing if the relationship turns sour, and no one considered to document it while it was in its honeymoon phase. A cupid contract is an agreement between two consenting adults to explicate
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that the relationship itself is, in fact, voluntary and legitimate, and not the product of one of the partners being coerced into something inconvenient because of the imbalance of power between the two parties. By asking an employee to confirm in writing that the relationship is voluntary gives the business a defense later if one of the parties involved in the relationship tries to sue on the grounds that they were coerced or intimidated into accepting the other party’s amorous advances. The agreement is intended to record the intentions when the relationship is working. Later, when it isn’t, a party will have a harder time substantiating that the relationship was more of a sexually predatory scheme on the part of a wily colleague. A cupid contract also ensures that if the romance ends badly, it won’t affect the position of any of the two parties involved, and that one has the right to bring any repercussions to the management’s notice. Additionally, the agreement serves as a powerful evidence that the relationship wasn’t coercive in nature, and a reminder to the employees that they need to behave appropriately in the workplace. Although, we recommend you review the following factors, to decide whether a cupid contract is appropriate: The potential impact on morale if the relationship is permitted to go forward; Whether company policy addresses workplace dating or relationships; Whether the relationship is covered by the office dating policy and, what does it say about this particular type of relationship; When drafting a cupid contract, you need to ensure that the agreement is fair to both the parties, and provides for equitable enforcement. In addition, the agreement must include the following elements: An acknowledgement by both the parties that – The relationship is consensual; they are aware of and understand these policies, and the potential impact each has on their relationship; they are required to follow certain procedures if the relationship turns nonconsensual in anyway;
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up to the date of the contract, no behavior has occurred that violates the company’s policies; they are aware of and understand the policies on workplace dating, sexual harassment, workplace conduct and business ethics; they are aware of and understand the potential repercussions each has on their relationship; A statement elucidating what happens if either employee fails to stand by company policies. The downside of a cupid contract is that it doesn’t forbid other employees feeling they’re subjected to a hostile work environment if the couple engages in amorous behavior at work. It also does not forbid the paramour theory and types of scenarios in which other employees believe the only way to get ahead is to sleep with the boss. A cupid contract also does not impact situations where favoritism exists. This, and many other reasons is why it’s imperative that once a cupid contract goes into place, the company must still take affirmative steps to prevent the workplace liaison from interfering with the work environment of other employees. In drawing things to a close, we recommend reviewing your company’s policy on workplace dating and liaisons. Employers must ensure the policy does not violate the State Labor Code protection for off-duty, off-premises lawful conduct. Regardless of whether you decide to use a cupid contract, consider reviewing your sexual harassment policy and adding additional training that addresses workplace romances. Let’s just say, the once forbidden office romance has now become an expected situation for many businesses. With so many employees spending the majority of their time at work, it’s understandable why many see the workplace as a way of meeting their future partner.
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Sentiment Analysis,the New Hero in Town! The HR Digest Magazine | January 2017
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Sentiment-analysis software can help companies figure out what’s bothering workers—or what they’re excited about. The term ‘sentiment analysis,’ is selfexplanatory, but for the sake of it, we’ll list a definition we found on Google - “the process of computationally identifying and categorizing opinions expressed in a piece of text, especially in order to determine whether the writer’s attitude towards a particular topic, product, etc. is positive, negative, or neutral.” Every day, humans, collectively, type out over 200 billion emails, 500 million of tweets, and hundreds of millions of texts, chats, and private messages. It’s practically impossible for one single person to stitch together these data, to figure out emotional trends or behavioral themes. This is why we have computers. For decades, researchers have been developing computer programs which can try and understand the emotions stirred up by an idea or a product from our writing. This particular field, is known as ‘sentiment analysis.’ As a matter of fact, it’s pretty popular in the world of marketing, and is commonly referred to as ‘opinion mining’. It refers to the analysis of one’s feeling (i.e. emotions, opinions, and attitudes) behind the big blur of words using language processing
tools. The idea is to use computers to look beyond the veneer of construed words – are you positive, sarcastic, negative, or biased? So, what does sentiment analysis have to do with employers and their business? You see, it all goes back to the mid2000s, when companies wanted to understand how people respond to their products, or their competitors offerings. Algorithms were being used to aggregate reviews to reveal broader insights than surveys or focus groups. This grew to the point that dozens of startups are now exclusively offering these sentiment analysis softwares to let them know how their own employees feel about their jobs. Large corporations like IBM, Twitter, Intel, and Accenture have started instituting the software to understand how their workers feel about their jobs. The aim here is to identify problems that might easily escape a supervisor during the annual performance review. Earlier this year, IBM started using sentiment analysis software to better retain employees in the competitive job market. The software uses languageprocessing and machine-learning
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algorithms to decipher emotions from text found in open-ended questions on company surveys, comments on company blogs, and internal social networking sites. Intel uses a similar software from Kanjoya Inc., to better understand employee frustration. The software turned out to be pretty insightful, as well. It revealed how a majority of the employees had the wrong impression that their own jobs were at risk. Such cases highlight how imperative is it for companies to rely on such technologies. According to CIO Journal columnist Irving Wladawsky-Berger, in today’s world, where workplace collaboration is the key and where technology-empowered customers can easily share what they think about a product or service, empathy is the competitive edge. Not so long ago, Twitter hired Kanjoya, to analyze workers’ responses to company surveys about their workplace experiences. The surveys were administered twice yearly, and included only two open-ended questions. After hiring Kanjoya, Twitter started sending the survey to one-sixth of its workers every month – it also increased the number of open-ended questions. The patterns extracted from Kanjoya’s
analysis platform were then shared with the executives. Kanjoya, also advertises that its sentiment analysis tools work with Yammer, a social network acquired by Microsoft for a billion dollars. Some of Kanjoya’s product offerings include employee engagement tracking (to trace positive or negative emotions), and a search function which responds to queries which an analysis of the surrounding sentiment. A lot of companies today are more focused on analyzing employee chatter outside of the formal reviews or surveys. Now, this makes it difficult to scoop a structured response, or identify behavioral themes. IBM has for years, been collecting employees’ posts and comments on its internal social networking platform. Called Connections, it’s available to all of IBM’s 400,000 employees worldwide. It functions like a mélange of Facebook, Wikipedia, and Dropbox, allowing employees to publish posts, comment on others’, and collaborate with one another on certain projects. IBM also sells a version of the platform, Connections to other companies. The social networking platform is integrated with a sentiment analysis tool called Social Pulse, which allows IBM to monitor posts and comments for behavioral trends and red flags.
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In 2015, IBM used Social Pulse to revamp its performance-review system. Its HR department relapsed the old feedback system to create a new one in order to receive genuine responses. IBM used Social Pulse to comb through the hundreds of thousands of feedback received. The software narrated an entirely new story: Employees at IBM were unhappy that their performances were actually graded on a curve. Within a month or two, the company introduced a new and improved method. By widening the scope of the data accumulated via surveys, reviews, and social media posts, there’s a certain risk of violating employees’ privacy. This is why IBM limits the data-mining to posts and comments that are shared with the entire company. It bars emails, chats, or interactions in private groups.
agree on three-quarters of them. These algorithms still lack the human elements, empathy. A small team of analysts routinely examine IBM’s Social Pulse, to ensure they’re sending the right trends to the management. We’re still a long way to go, if we really want to improve our ability to understand how our employees feel. A group of computer scientists in India published a paper which suggests a new way of determining employees’ well-being: facial scans. The system utilizes images captured of employees’ faces each time they enter the building, to determine whether they’re happy, depressed, sad, or angry. The facial scans might someday help business use the date to optimize productivity and profits. Until then, there are plenty of emotion-detection technologies in the market, and to be honest, it’s not a bad start.
One cannot entirely rely on sentiment analysis for a polished report. You see, the computer’s understanding of natural language, is still in its infancy. According to a research project (2016), basic analysis tools sent between developers and an open-source server software suite only had a maximum accuracy rate of 30 percent. However, when two people tried to determine the emotions expressed in 50 emails, they could only
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‘Resumé Whitening’ is real amongst minority job candidates
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For quite a while, business-school professors and HR professionals have peddled the merits of diversity in the workplace, encouraging companies and their executives to take bold steps. The typical reasoning reach from moral contentions—that it’s essentially the right thing to do—to more practical motivations, for example, covering organizations’ blind spots by having a more diverse team of problem solvers, improving primary business concerns subsequently. Researchers from U.C. Santa Clause Barbara recently wrote in Harvard Business Review that in spite of the fact the business spends millions on diversity programs and policies, they rarely bring desired results. As a matter of fact, their data is generally flawed – it is made to make white workers feel that their employee is treating minorities fairly – whether that is true or not. A growing number of diversity initiatives are now looking into the flawed system, but it is all talk. Another study done by researchers at the University of Toronto and Stanford University brings into picture another dimension to this dilemma. The findings propose that the expressed aspirations of companies to become more diverse haven’t changed how they take up hiring, and that minority candidates responding to job openings that welcome diverse backgrounds are just as limited as before. The researchers explored into the growing practice of ‘whitening’ resumes, in which minority job seekers remove language that may reveal their race, for dread that would it lead to conscious or unconscious segregation— for example, modifying a foreign sounding first name to something that sounds “more American.” The motivation for doing this is pessimistically pragmatic: The job market is unfair to minorities, so why do something about it to at least get an interview. In the first place, the researchers conducted detailed interview with 60 black and Asian students who were looking for employments and temporary positions. They found that 36 percent of their interviewees
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reported whitening their resumes, and 66% of the respondents knew about companions or family who had done as such before. Students who were applying for jobs were letting researchers know this is something that they were doing, and something their companions were doing, and something they had been advised to do when they went to career counselors. The researchers also found other common practices for whitening resumes. For example, a few students would remove or change experiences so businesses couldn’t distinguish their race. Students reported toning down racial identifiers, for example, removing part of black or Asian affiliations. Additionally, job seekers would deliberately include experiences they considered “white” — outdoorsy stuff, for example, climbing, kayaking. Those were the sorts of things that job seekers believed were attached to more standard white American culture.
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The study then measured how a group of minority students responded to diversity language, and noted that minority job seekers both pick up and respond to these prompts: The participants were 1.5 times less inclined to whiten resumes for managers who signal that they think about diversity. The researchers also tested how the job market responded to whitening, and whether companies that underlined the significance of diversity in their job postings would actually screen whitened resumes. They made two set of resumes, one whitened and the other not, and randomly sent them in response of 1,600 job postings in 16 U.S. cities. They found that whitened resumes were twice as prone to get callbacks— it held true even for companies that put emphasis on diversity. Perhaps, the most troubling part is that even pro-diversity employers are sending mixed-signals. On one side, they’re keen on hiring minorities, and on the other, they’re only picking whitened resumes. This practices aren’t exactly tied to discriminatory practices, but speaks volumes about what changes are expected underway. It’s best if companies use blind recruitment, where information that might reveal a candidate’s race and gender are removed before the screening process, in order to make things easier for managers to hire without discriminating. Employers should be realistic about people and how they’re bad at making hiring decisions when they have a great deal of data that we need to process so rapidly. Often, they simply fall back on the biases, such as stereotyping and prejudices. These practices come into play, especially when they’re under time pressure and have a lot of information to process, i.e. when a recruiter or the hiring manager is screening through a pile of CVs. The results of this study shouldn’t be surprising. Whitening may help job seekers get an interview, but it is also indicative of the kind of challenges that will remain present for people of colors once hired in such places.
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If job seekers are compelled to whiten their resumes, image what might happen when they’re actually employed there. There are several reasons why job seekers are now against whitening their resumes. A lot of them believe that their experiences, whether white or not, are a part of their identities, and thus their CV’s strength, and should be so even in to the employer that claims to be pro-diversity. If employers are unable to accept a potential employee’s racial identity, there’s no reason to see why they would fit into that job. The HR Digest Magazine | January 2017
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Inside’s Facebook Operations: Automating to create a Transparent Culture
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When a company as large as Facebook sketches a blueprint for the future of operations, it mainly thinks about how its own operations will change. Rarely does the vision of automating exclude the work that humans do today. Running the operations of Facebook Inc. is not an easy feat. First of all, there’s the sheer scale of its global networks and the supreme need it puts on reliable service and satisfying user experiences. Then there’s the need to create new flexibility and capacity for the business to pursue its broader ambitions. This includes Facebook’s most recent initiatives, the Connectivity Lab, AI, deep learning and virtual reality as a nextGen computing platform. To combat this, Facebook is using automation because the team has a ton of complexity to manage. They have an infrastructure that supports hundreds and thousands of computers all around the world. Facebook is actually serving 2 billion people in the map, and millions of people on the other apps. Their engineers are constantly improvising on the features, making things more optimized, and providing newer and better services. So, in reality, Facebook has a lot on its plate, and a lot that can be done via automation, in order to keep up with the scale and the pace of its product development. Recently, Facebook built a system called FBAR, for Facebook Auto Remediation, to do the basic hardware remediation tasks. Before, if a server had a hard drive failure or some kind of hardware error, an alarm would go off and a Facebook worker would have to log in, or walk to the computer, and try to fix it. The The HR Digest Magazine | January 2017
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worker would have to fix the software and reboot the machine, before it starts working alright. Today, all of the software remediation and debugging is automated. No human is involved in the process. The automated system can detect the error, be it a disk drive, or a CPU, or a networking card failure. The system will recognize the error – and simply fix it. In any case, these are truly idiotic things – things that are outrageously unimportant to automate. But, it allows Facebook engineers to work on higher-level things. Facebook has a long list of menial tasks it’s looking to automate in the months to come. Take for example, clusters, .i.e. a bunch of servers doing a certain type of function in the infrastructure. They require a lot of configuration – installing software and a lot more, to make sure the right things are connected to one another. Back in 2009, this process was done manually. Facebook had to literally write things down on the whiteboard to assign cluster job to a certain group of engineers. The entire process was time consuming, and more importantly, error-prone. You don’t need to worry about that with automation, since work consistently gets done the same way, every single time. In simple words, automation allows Facebook engineers to focus on simple, but time-rewarding tasks. It allows them to think about the future projects, rather than what they’ve already built. Another reason why automation is important is that it allows teams to do things for the future. Imagine, a majority of tech companies in the world invest most of their time bringing the best in tech. If employees end up doing humdrum tasks for a long time, they aren’t really learning anything. This leads to job burnout and dissatisfaction. It is necessary to keep automating your systems so that tasks don’t become The HR Digest Magazine | January 2017
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menial, boring, or repetitive for the employees. Companies must set employees in a place where one group, which needs to keep on improving, and one needs to make everything cost-effective, are both aligned. Let’s take a look at Facebook’s product teams – it consists of the middleware as well as backend engineering teams, the operations teams, the security team and the IT team. Back in 2009, it was considerably normal to have so many teams. But then, Facebook realized it was causing inefficiencies in its operations. As a matter of fact, it was slowing people down. The teams couldn’t make the best decisions. Some of the decisions made were short-term costbased, while some were long-term. Automation didn’t exist in a lot of operations. Facebook, then, had to rethink its entire operational structure, the kind of people it wanted to hire, and break every possible wall. It is difficult to manage separate teams. There are daily interruptions coming in consistently that distract you from your long-term goal. You truly need to ensure you have the right team, with the necessary expertise and the right skills you require. In any case, there are one too many advantages of automating. To begin with, it makes work much more transparent. No one likes it when there is a team working in a secured location doing something cool that might replace your product and your team, someday. It ends all sorts of unwanted worries. The core business team can go back to focusing on more important issues.
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Make 2017 One of the Best Years Ever! A list of fun social activities to do with your workmates!
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Do you want to design the best company on earth to work for? For years, we’ve been exploring the elements of a great company culture by asking hundreds of employees in surveys and seminars all across the world to describe their ideal organization. Many of the answers are, of course, highly specific; while some are unambiguous. The ‘organization of your dreams’ is largely aspirational. We offer our findings, ‘one’ of the many elements, so it can serve as an agenda for leaders and organizations that aim to create the most productive and rewarding workplace cultures. So, let’s get down to business. There’s something enchanting about celebrations – and it’s not just the food and parties. The commonalities of celebrations, bind us together – it’s the companionship, joy, selflessness, and the togetherness. So, how can an organization re-create this kind of holidayinduced happiness and enthusiasm in the workplace? After all, a happier workplace leads to engaged employees! As a matter of fact, happy employees take 10 times fewer sick days and are 12 percent more productive than unhappy employees. So, here’s how you can re-create holiday-induced happiness using our fun calendar, which is filled with a list of social activities for your workmates.
JINGLE & THE MINGLE
Holidays are all about celebration. The possibilities of celebrating special holidays in the office are endless! You could host a Thanksgiving potluck, plan a Secret Santa gift exchange, dress up for Halloween, host a 4th of July picnic
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filled with patriotic games or even nights’ firework.
‘TIS THE SEASON FOR GIVING
A growing number of companies using charity work as a way of giving back to the community. You can unite your employees to raise awareness and funds for health issues. You could plan a trip to the homeless shelter, run a charity race, and hold a canned food drive. There are so many ways in which you can give back to the community while also uniting your employees.
HAVE FUN!
You can get more creative around special events like retirements, birthdays, promotions, new babies or adoptions, major milestones or completions or certain projects, major office changes like renovations, anniversaries or tenure, company anniversary, and lots more! Encourage team spirit days. Of course, spirit days don’t have to be serious, or revolve around valuable lessons. Office outing can could be as simple as going out after work on a Friday evening for a movie and pizza, or checking out a new bar that just recently opened, or going out for fish and chips! You could even try out some of the below listed team outing ideas: Going ice-skating right before the holidays Taking a walk to the local botanical garden Unwinding at the beach during summer Celebrating the start of spring by having a company hiking trip If the employer is willing to celebrate, it becomes automatically important to the employees. You need to make sure everyone The HR Digest Magazine | January 2017
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is focused on the imperative: celebrate! Here’s why: Celebrations build morale: High morale leads to high productivity, which is a good thing for every company. It balances out the challenges of a high performance work-culture and less to reduced absenteeism and employee morale. Celebrations can help underline major milestones in your company’s history. Why waste a great achievement? The positive momentum can turn out to be a springboard for your next goal. It can magnify and lead to even more positive moments. Lastly, celebrations encourage loyalty at work. Every employee wants to be acknowledged by and in the presence of the coworkers. In a lot of companies, it gets difficult to see what other employees are working on. Celebrations around recognition gives employees validations, and makes them more loyal to their work and the company they’re working for! When you’re planning to create an office fun calendar, make sure you keep it inclusive. The celebrations should never be seen as discriminatory. Team-building celebrations and events can provide employees an opportunity to unwind and relax. Of course, it doesn’t necessarily have to be an adventurous outing, or a glamorous, expensive party. The idea is to get the team together and learn new things about one another inside or outside of the workplace. While you’re at it, you must always take into consideration the variety of options at different times. This include the work hours, so employees with tight schedules even after work hours, or those with physical disabilities don’t get excluded. Good luck! The HR Digest Magazine | January 2017
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Human Resources for Anyone with Newly Assigned HR Responsibilities
Date: Jan 17, 2017
The Human Resources for Anyone with Newly Assigned HR Responsibilities, organized by the Fred Pryor Seminars & CareerTrack will take place on 17th January 2017 at the Comfort Suites in South Bend, United States Of America. The conference will cover areas like laws every HR professional should know regarding flsa, eeo, osha, fmla, ada, and hipaa, smart practices that will keep your organization out of legal trouble and minimize liability, are your current practices legally sound, how to troubleshoot potential legal hot spots and avoid the courtroom. *The event will also take place on – 18 Jan 2017 at the Holiday Inn Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, USA 19 Jan 2017 at the Clocktower Inn Hotel, Ventura, USA 20 Jan 2017 at the McM Elegante Hotel & Suites, Dallas, USA 20 Jan 2017 at the Clarion Hotel, Cincinnati, USA 23 Jan 2017 at the Hilton Akron Fairlawn, Akron, USA 23 Jan 2017 at the Hampton Inn & Suites East Corona, Riverside, USA Venue: Comfort Suites, South Bend, USA*
TechConnect
Date: Jan 17, 2016
TechConnect is a 1 day event being held on 17th January 2017 at the Duke University in Durham, USA. This event showcases products like tips and techniques for searching, interviewing and choosing a job. Following the panel discussion, there is a networking reception etc. in the HR Consultants industry. Venue: Duke University, Durham, USA
MERIT The HR and executive education summit, Barcelona
Date: Jan 18-19, 2017
MERIT is the first annual summit bringing together corporate HR and business education senior decision-makers. This year, the topic of the conference is “Learning in Times of Globalization”. More than 200 attendees from all over the world will learn, connect, generate ideas and foster partnerships. The summit programme features 50 recognized industry experts speaking at 9 panel sessions, 10 case studies, 25 MERITalks and 16 People Development and Business Education workshops. Please visit our website to review our growing list of speakers from companies such as Nestle, KPMG, KLM, Mondelez, and Bayer. The prestigious executive education programmes of IESE, HEC Paris, London Business School and IMD, among others, will also be showcased at the event. Venue: World Trade Center Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain 102
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Human Resource Law: What You Need to Know Now
Date: Jan 25, 2017
The Human Resource Law: What You Need to Know Now, organized by the National Business Institute will take place on 25th January 2017 at the HOLIDAY INN FRENCH QUARTER in Perrysburg, USA. The conference will cover areas like job descriptions and advertisements, critical elements (and what to leave out), record keeping requirements, the interview process and avoiding discrimination. Venue: HOLIDAY INN FRENCH QUARTER, Perrysburg, USA
Strategic Internal Communications
Date: Jan 30- Feb 01, 2017
The Strategic Internal Communications, organized by the Advanced Learning Institute will take place from 30th January to the 1st February 2017 at the downtown San Francisco in San Francisco, United States Of America. The conference will cover areas like internal communications as a lever for better business performance, social tools to ignite and accelerate the adoption of new behaviors, emerging technologies and social media to break down silos and increase two way communications, internal communication strategy that matches your organizations mission and drives culture change, promoting social conversations of interest to your employees, analyzing social data and surveys to measure the effectiveness of your employee engagement initiatives. Venue: Courtyard San Francisco Downtown, San Francisco, USA
HR Directors Summit
Date: Jan 31- Feb 01, 2017
The HR Directors Summit, organized by the WTG Events will take place from 31st January to 1st February 2017 in Birmingham, United Kingdom. The conference will cover areas like offers you the chance to hear from some of the biggest and most profitable organizations in the world. Venue: Birmingham, UK
Recruitment Agency Expo London
Date: Feb 01-02, 2017
Recruitment Agency Expo London is a 2 day event being held from 1st February to 2nd February 2017 at the Olympia London in London, United Kingdom. This event showcases products like Job descriptions, job prospects, career opportunities and training in the fields of hotel, catering and tourism, free resume check etc. in the HR Consultants industry. Venue: Olympia London, London, UK
HRPA Annual Conference & Trade Show
Date: Feb 01-03, 2017
The HRPA Annual Conference & Trade Show, organized by the Human Resources Professionals Association will take place from 1st February to the 3rd February 2017 at the InterContinental Toronto Centre in Toronto, Canada. The conference will cover areas like opportunity for The HR Digest Magazine | January 2017
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educators, practitioners, researchers, trainers, and human resource and development personnel to submit proposals that address state of the art practices and future directions in human resource education and research. Venue: InterContinental Toronto Centre, Toronto, Canada
TEDxUco Conference
Date: Feb 02, 2017
The TEDxUco Conference, organized by the Ted Conferences LLC will take place on 2nd February 2017 at the Nigh University Center, University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond in Edmond, United States Of America. The conference will cover areas like TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx. Venue: Nigh University Center, University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, Edmond, USA
Global Predictive Business Analytics and Data Management Forum
Date: Feb 02-03, 2017
The Global Predictive Business Analytics and Data Management Forum” which takes place on 2nd – 3rd February 2017 in Milan-Italy is bringing together all those who are involved with Business Strategy, Data Analytics and Technology, Predictive Analytics to Prescriptive Analytics, Sales and E-Commerce, Social Media, Engineering, Finance, etc. The aim of this conference is to offer networking opportunities, foster debate among senior participants from all over the world and bring inspiration. Venue: Hotel Novotel Milano Linate Aeroporto, Milan, Italy
HR Metrics Analytics Summit
Date: Feb 27-Mar 01, 2017
The HR Metrics Analytics Summit, organized by the IQPC will take place from 27th February to the 1st March 2017 in Orlando, United States Of America. The conference will cover areas like Learn the principles of Design Thinking and how they’re applied to build HR analytics systems from the ground-up Workforce Health in the Face of Talent Mobility: How Metrics Influence Retention. Venue: Orlando, USA
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Date: March 07-08, 2017
Corinium’s Chief Learning Officer Forum, USA launches at Convene, 101 Park Avenue in New York and will explore how the Chief Learning Officer (CLO) role is gaining strategic importance. The conference’s program has been created for you to validate your leadership, learning and development strategies to solidify workforce engagement and the retention of talent. This conference is led by Chief Learning Officers but is open to learning and development, human resources, talent and workforce professionals cross-industry, allowing you to meet and network with the very best of your peers from a range of organizations and experiences. Using an interactive format, the forum will bring together 100 learning and development, talent and Human Resources professionals to share their latest innovations, best practices, challenges and use cases, as well as facilitate conversations and connections. Venue: Convene at 101 Park Avenue, New York, USA
Strategic Agility and Resilience: Embracing Change to Drive Growth
Date: Apr 03-04, 2017
The Strategic Agility and Resilience: Embracing Change to Drive Growth, organized by the American Management Association will take place from 3rd to 4th April 2017 at the AMA Atlanta Executive Conference Center in Atlanta, US. The conference will cover areas like understanding strategic agility and why it’s crucial for today’s organizations, identifying the competencies needed to lead with agility and resilience, utilizing the leadership agility profile™ self-assessment to determine your agility score. Venue: AMA Atlanta Executive Conference Center, Atlanta, USA
International Human Resource Management
Date: Apr 09-13, 2017
The Human Resource Management - A Strategic Approach, organized by the The Management Centre GB Ltd will take place from 15th to 19th May 2016 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The purpose of this seminar is to equip managers with the understanding and techniques of the strategic human resources. They will learn to develop strategies for acquiring, training, developing, motivating, organizing, rewarding and maintaining the human employees of the firm such that the company can achieve its long-term goals. The strategic human resource plans and overall corporate strategic plans integration will be another topic of discussion. Venue: To be announced
Diversity Employment Day Career Fairs Phoenix
Date: Apr 12, 2017
Diversity Employment Day Career Fairs Phoenix is a 1 day event being held on 12th April 2017 in Phoenix, United States Of America. This event showcases products like the exhibitors of Diversity Employment Day Career Fairs Phoenix will exhibit the latest and advanced products and services including innovative products and services related to employment and career and various kinds of educational courses and training programs etc. in the Education & Training industry. Venue: To be announced The HR Digest Magazine | January 2017
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