Workforce - January/February 2017

January/February 2017 workforce.com

BIAS BATTLE

HR on high alert for surge in sexism

COMMON CORE

Leaders reset critical competencies

THE WOMEN OF HR Meet HR’s female influencers

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From Our Editors

On the Scene with The workplace wellness community lost one of their earliest pioneers late last year.

Bill Baun, wellness officer at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, died Nov. 5. He was 67.

It’s hard to believe but 2017 marks Workforce’s 95th year.

That’s right. HR leaders like you have been flipping through this magazine since the days of President Warren G. Harding and the Teapot Dome scandal.

You don’t make it that long without a dedicated group of readers. So thank you for continuing to take the journey with us.We look forward to continuing to serve you in 2017.

You also don’t make it that long without some changes along the way.What started as The Journal of Personnel Research became Workforce in 1997.While we’re not changing the name again, we are changing the game.

We’re taking the print edition bimonthly so we can invest more in daily coverage online and via video. Go to Workforce.com daily to keep up with the latest news along with analysis from experts.

Check out Five Minutes of Management, a weekly video wrap of HR-related news, as well By the Numbers, an interactive look at the statistics behind the workplace stories of the day.

The year and the media may be new, but our mission, as always, remains the same.

— Mike Prokopeak, Editorial in Chief 4

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

Mr. Baun worked in corporate wellness since its earliest days, and despite his own battle as a stage 4 prostate cancer survivor, his input shaped the wellness field that exists today.

Bill Baun, pioneering wellness advocate

In a profile of Mr. Baun published in the January 2016 edition of Workforce, he explained that it is ineffective to teach people wellness skills without first giving them an environment that promotes wellness. One of the first changes he made at MD Anderson was simple: remove junk food from the cafeteria and vending machines and provide easy walking paths for employees.

Said Mr. Baun about the value of wellness at work: “This is a relationship game. This is all about building relationships with people so that they trust you and give you the opportunity to show you what we can do. I think sometimes wellness programs want things done fast, and that’s not how this works. It needs to be one small step at a time and one relationship at a time.”

To read the full interview, go to: workforce.com/MrBillBaun

READER FEEDBACK Reader Michael Lujan reacted to Associate Editor Bravetta Hassell’s online post titled, “More Diverse Workplaces Require a Broader View of Benefits”: Kudos to employers and innovators for rethinking or reimagining what benefits mean to the changing workforce and how to meet them, even outside of the traditional products and services. More companies are made up of mostly millennials who challenge the stale and limited ideas offered for decades by many well-intended traditional benefits managers. Add to this the many new tech tools to help add cost transparency and decision-making support for open enrollment. Nice job, Bravetta.

Workforce.com/BroadBenefits

Online reader Ad commented on blogger Jon Hyman’s post titled, “Just Because It Might Be Legal Doesn’t Make It Right”: I totally agree with Jon’s moral stance that bigotry should not be tolerated. However, the position that the manager “would have been terminated upon an investigation reasonably confirming the misconduct” could put the organization at risk of been sued by the said manager. Just as in the example case the requirement for direct

evidence remains. Furthermore, there are a number of alternate strategies that organizations can adopt that could address or minimize this type of behavior arising.

Workforce.com/MakeItRight

Finally, online reader Fatima Hassan joined the discussion with the many comments on Jon Hyman’s post, “Why #BlackLivesMatter Should Matter to Employers”: What makes you so sure your race was a factor in his decision? You didn’t include it in your story, as if the connection was obvious.Your firing may have been unjustified, malicious, unfair, etc. and still had nothing to do with your race.White employees are fired by white employers because they’re “not a good fit” every day. Unless you provide more evidence that your firing was racially motivated, there’s really no reason to believe it was. If you don’t have any evidence, then you’re just assuming the cause was racism. It’s as though firing you was racism ipso facto.

Workforce.com/FatimaHassan We welcome your comments on these stories and others on our website.

Be sure to follow us and give us a shout on Twitter at @Workforcenews, too.

Hope to hear from you! j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

2017

AN ANALYTICS TOOL FOR TALENT

You know your company.

You know your needs.

We know who’s out there.

TheTalentTracker.com

A PUBLICATION OF January/February 2017 | Volume 96, Issue 1 PRESIDENT John R. Taggart jrtag@workforce.com

EDITORIAL INTERNS Alice Keefe akeefe@workforce.com

VICE PRESIDENT, CFO, COO Nidhi Madhavan Kevin A. Simpson nmadhavan@workforce.com ksimpson@workforce.com VICE PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT, RESEARCH AND GROUP PUBLISHER ADVISORY SERVICES Clifford Capone Sarah Kimmel ccapone@workforce.com skimmel@workforce.com VICE PRESIDENT, RESEARCH MANAGER EDITOR IN CHIEF Mike Prokopeak Tim Harnett mikep@workforce.com tharnett@workforce.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Rick Bell rbell@workforce.com

DATA SCIENTIST Grey Litaker clitaker@workforce.com

GROUP EDITOR/ ASSOCIATE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Kellye Whitney kwhitney@workforce.com

RESEARCH ASSISTANT Kristen Britt kbirtt@workforce.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Frank Kalman fkalman@workforce.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Andie Burjek aburjek@workforce.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Lauren Dixon ldixon@workforce.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Bravetta Hassell bhassell@workforce.com

RESEARCH GRAPHIC DESIGNER Theresa Stoodley tstoodley@workforce.com MEDIA & PRODUCTION MANAGER Ashley Flora aflora@workforce.com PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Nina Howard nhoward@workforce.com

EVENTS MARKETING MANAGER Anthony Zepeda azepeda@workforce.com

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER Melanie Lee mlee@workforce.com

WEBCAST COORDINATOR LEAD GENERATION Alec O’Dell ADMINISTRATOR aodell@workforce.com Nick Safir EVENTS GRAPHIC nsafir@workforce.com DESIGNER CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Tonya Harris Jennifer Benz lharris@workforce.com Marty Denis BUSINESS MANAGER Kris Dunn Vince Czarnowski Eric J. Felsberg vince@workforce.com Sarah Fister Gale REGIONAL SALES Jon Hyman MANAGERS Derek Graham Mark T. Kobata dgraham@workforce.com Bill Pasmore Rita Pyrillis Daniella Weinberg dweinberg@workforce.com Michelle V. Rafter Sylvester Taylor ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Brian Lorenz blorenz@workforce.com DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, EVENTS Kevin Fields kfields@workforce.com AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Cindy Cardinal ccardinal@workforce.com

DIGITAL MANAGER Lauren Lynch VICE PRESIDENT, EVENTS llynch@workforce.com Trey Smith COPY EDITOR DIGITAL COORDINATOR tsmith@workforce.com Christopher Magnus Mannat Mahtani cmagnus@workforce.com mmahtani@workforce.com EVENT CONTENT EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR MANAGER LIST MANAGER Anna Jo Beck Mike Rovello Ashley Collins abeck@workforce.com acollins@workforce.com hcmlistrentals@infogroup.com

WORKFORCE EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Arie Ball, Vice President, Sourcing and Talent Acquisition, Sodexo Angela Bailey, Associate Director and Chief Human Capital Officer, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Kris Dunn, Chief Human Resources Officer, Kinetix, and Founder, Fistful of Talent and HR Capitalist Curtis Gray, Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Administration, BAE Systems Jil Greene, Vice President, Human Resources and Community Relations, Harrah’s New Orleans Ted Hoff, Human Resources Vice President, Global Sales and Sales Incentives, IBM Tracy Kofski, Vice President, Compensation and Benefits, General Mills Jon Hyman, Partner, Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis Jim McDermid, Vice President, Human Resources, Cardiac and Vascular Group, Medtronic Randall Moon, Vice President, International HR, Benefits and HRIS, Lowe’s Cos. Dan Satterthwaite, Head of Human Resources, DreamWorks Dave Ulrich, Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan Workforce (ISSN 2331-2793) is published bi-monthly by MediaTec Publishing Inc., 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1200, Chicago IL 60601. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Workforce, P.O. Box 8712 Lowell, MA 01853. Subscriptions are free to qualified professionals within the US and Canada.

Digital free subscriptions are available worldwide. Nonqualified paid subscriptions are available at the subscription price of $199 for 12 issues. All countries outside the US and Canada must be prepaid in US funds with an additional $33 postage surcharge. Single price copy is $29.95 Workforce and Workforce.com are the trademarks of MediaTec Publishing Inc. Copyright © 2016, MediaTec Publishing Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction of material published in Workforce is forbidden without permission.

Printed by: Quad/Graphics, Sussex, WI

FREE LIVE

ONLINE EVENTS

CONTENTS 26 ON THE COVER INFLUENCE OF WOMEN IN HUMAN RESOURCES

Female HR leaders are making a difference. Meet some of HR’s leading female influencers.

FEATURES 34 BIAS BATTLE

A new administration has some bracing for a spike in sexism. Others say it’s been there all along.

40 CRITICAL COMPETENCIES

Generational preferences and new forms of technology-supported collaboration are shaping leaders’ need for a reset on their core competencies.

SECTOR REPORTS 44 RECRUITMENT PROCESS OUTSOURCING

46 RECRUITING TECHNOLOGY

RPO customers are saying, ‘We want more of everything.’

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SOFTWARE PROVIDERS

It’s all about branding, building relationships and getting social. j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

2017

40 ON THE WEB SPEAK UP!

The Workforce online community provides you with virtual meeting places to chat about issues and trends affecting you and your workplace.

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LIKE US: facebook.com/workforce.magazine

FOLLOW US: twitter.com/workforcenews

JOIN THE GROUP: workforce.com/LinkedIn

TRENDING

WATCH US: workforce.com/youtube

FOR YOUR BENEFIT COLUMNS 4

YOUR FORCE

Still changing the game in our 95th year.

14 WORK IN PROGRESS

Making the pitch for pay equity, workforce equality.

16 REPEAL OR NO REPEAL?

Employers move ahead with ACA compliance despite overturn threat.

17 POLITICAL WINDS

Advice for managing emotions in a post-election workplace.

20 BENEFITS BEAT

The benefit of setting workrelated goals.

24 THE PRACTICAL EMPLOYER

OSHA doubles down against retaliation.

50 THE LAST WORD

Defining Trump:‘Stop it’ and ‘You’re fired.’

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17 POT LAWS BLOW IN

New challenges emerge with drug-free workplace policies.

18 BENT ON WELLNESS

Corporate yoga prompts workers to get their namaste on.

10 GOOD WORKPLACES, BETTER RESULTS?

Evidence ties culture to a healthy bottom line.

11 FROM THE WEB, PEOPLE MOVES AND BY THE NUMBERS

OT rule’s headache; Shannon Mashburn to Alcott; payday.

12 FUTURE FORWARD

Jessica Choi has diverse outlook on staid industry.

LEGAL 22 BIG DATA AND THE LAW

Making employment decisions using cold, hard data seems wrong and, perhaps, risky. But is it?

23 LEGAL BRIEFINGS

ADA accommodation; unions.

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

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TRENDING

Good Workplaces, Better Results?

Evidence points to a healthy bottom line, though one expert warns against tying culture solely to results.

By Nidhi Madhavan ompany leaders often feel like they a culture that focuses on the process must straddle the line between making that produces successful results,” Witta profit and keeping their employees happy. man said. “Results are the byproduct of However, newly published research sug- a no-excuses/high-trust culture, not gests that positive employee experiences the other way around.” may in fact contribute to that bottom line.

But should business decisions be made As part of a joint study from the IBM only with employee well-being in mind?

Smarter Workforce Institute and the Wittman also stressed the importance of Globoforce WorkHuman Research Insti- leading with logic. tute, researchers surveyed 23,000 em“The sweet spot of management is to ployees across 45 countries to identify create buy-in without steering with the ideal employee experience and mea- emotion,” Wittman said. He added that sure its impact on business. although emotion certainly plays a role The survey responses helped create a in decision-making, it must be guided by five-facet Employee Experience Index, critical thinking. which measures belonging, purpose, However, Wittman also said he underachievement, happiness and vigor. stands that positive emotions can drive Through their analysis, researchers results that are good for business. found that high scores in each dimension “Managers need to tap into those inpredicted higher retention rates, work ternal emotional drivers to motivate performance and discretionary effort. their employees,”Wittman said.

These all tie directly to an organization’s financial performance, said Lynette Silva, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS senior recognition strategist, analyst and In addition to outlining business beneconsultant at Globoforce. fits, the study also identified several key Further, a separate study by FTSE practices to improve the employee work Russell analyzed companies on Fortune’s experience, such as providing a work-life “100 Best Companies to Work For” List balance, recognizing employee achieveand found that they provided stock mar- ments and building organizational trust. ket returns three times greater than the According to Silva, recognition and general market. voice were particularly influential drivers. EmWHICH CAME FIRST? ployees who felt that Some have questioned their suggestions matwhether the positive cultered and that they tures at high-performing were appreciated for companies are simply due what they did were alto the organization’s sucmost twice as likely to cess and increased capital report a more positive to invest in their employees. work experience.

And rew Wittman For H2O Plus warned against tying an orBeauty, a San Francisganization’s culture solely co-based skincare to results. Wittman is a forcompany, empowermer federal agent who ing and recognizing consults entrepreneurs, employees fostered CEOs and other leaders in innovative thinking high-stress situations on that helped launch developing mental tough- Patagonia employee John Rapp new product lines ness strategies. and move the compaand his daughter head to the “The leader must build on-site child development facility. ny forward.

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PHOTOS COURTSEY OF KYLE SPARKS

C

A young girl at the Child Development Center at Patagonia’s corporate headquarters holds a book chronicling the company’s successes.

“I’m a firm believer that culture is a platform to make the right business strategies,” said CEO Joy Chen. “But as our strategy changed, we needed a new culture.”

Chen said the company needed to ensure that innovative thinking at all levels of the 50-person workforce was encouraged as they shifted the focus of their business to sales and marketing.

One approach Chen took was to start a monthly award series to recognize both big and small employee achievements. The company also began hosting “Winedowns” each Friday to allow employees to gather and relax over a glass of wine. Chen said that the resulting conversations encourage employees to share new ideas and even led to the creation of a pop-up studio showcasing products in the front of the company office.

These initiatives required minimal monetary investment, but a genuine change in mindset.

“We really needed leadership and the rest of the company to view this as a valuable effort,” Chen said.

DON’T FORGET WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Although engagement plays a huge role in shaping employee experiences, also influential is what happens outside the office. Employees who felt they had enough time and flexibility CULTURE continued on page 49 j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

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TRENDING

By the Numbers

PEOPLE BEERS ALL AROUND Contributor Jason Lauritsen says that to create a workplace where potential employees are beating down the door to join the team, start by fostering employee connectedness. For some organizations, the ingredient they drafted for their company culture is beer.

Workforce.com/ BeerCulture AN OVERTIME HEADACHE A judge’s dismissal in November of the Labor Department’s controversial overtime plan meant unnecessary work and frustration for employees across many industries, writes Workforce Associate Editor Lauren Dixon.

“When I shared NPR’s story about the news, comments to my post on Facebook included sentiments of ‘this sucks,’ ‘this blows’ and ‘ugh,’ ” Dixon notes.

Workforce.com/ OTHeadache NATIONAL ORIGIN BIAS Lost in the maelstrom of the overtime rule rejection was the news that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued updated enforcement guidance on national origin discrimination, writes blogger Jon Hyman.

“Legal or illegal, however, the issue of perceived inclusion in a protected class raises a deeper issue. What kind of employer do you want to be?”

Workforce.com/ NationalOrigin j a n u a ry

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moves

compiled by Rick Bell

Every employee looks forward to that jingle in the pocket.

MARY SLAUGHTER Management consulting firm North Highland named Mary Slaughter as chief people officer.

Slaughter will oversee training and development, performance management and talent retention. Slaughter has more than 25 years of HR experience in global organizations and has led cultural transformation efforts, talent retention and global training operations across several continents.

Pay. Period.

Monthly

Percentage of private Semimonthly businesses and their pay Biweekly frequency.

11% 20% 37%

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014

I’m So Paid

Length of pay period, by number of employees.

Monthly 16% Semimonthly

SHANNON MASHBURN New York-based Alcott HR named Shannon Mashburn as director of human resources. With more than 22 years in HR services management, Mashburn most recently was first vice president, HR with New York Community Bancorp Inc.

32%

1%

15%

1%

8%

21%

Biweekly 32%

58%

Weekly 32%

26%

1-9 employees

73% 18%

100-249 employees

1,000+ employees

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014

Payroll Players

Which department takes care of doling out the cash.

5%

Standalone department

4

Shared services department %

1% Other

KATHY BOWMANWILLIAMS Law firm Day Pitney named Kathy Bowman-Williams as director of diversity and inclusion. Bowman-Williams will be a member of the firm’s senior management team, guiding the development of its strategic D&I plan and serving as a thought leader, ambassador and advocate on diversity, inclusion and equality.

Pay Delay

Source: “2015 Survey of Salaries and the Payroll Profession,” American Payroll Association

29%

Employee Somewhat difficult reaction when a Not very difficult paycheck is delayed a week.

Not at all difficult

Very difficult 34% 21% 16%

Source: 2016 Getting Paid In America Survey

Paper Stacks Paper paychecks are so 20th century.

Direct deposit To be considered for People Moves, email a brief announcement and a high-resolution color photo to editors@workforce.com. Include People Moves in the subject line.

Source: 2016 Getting Paid In America Survey

Money Hungry

Best candy bars of all time (Editor’s note: not our choices).

1.Twix 2.Kit-Kat 3.Snickers …

19. Payday

Pay Day

FROM THE WEB

Source: The Top Tens

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TRENDING

EY Taps Autistic Talents LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

By Nidhi Madhavan Jessica Choi has three mottos: always be Jessica Choi, Associate VP, learning, make an impact, and have fun.

Talent Acquisition and Since joining Penn Mutual Life Insurance Diversity, Penn Mutual Co. in Philadelphia two years ago, the associate vice president of talent acquisition and diversity has embedded these goals into all of Penn’s recruiting efforts. She also aims to bring diversity to the organization at a time when the average financial services employee is a 58-year-old white male and women make up only 25 percent of life insurance advisers. Workforce intern Nidhi Madhavan caught up with Choi via email to discuss Penn’s efforts to attract women, veterans and Generation Z. Workforce: Why do you think diversity is an important asset for Penn Mutual?

Jessica Choi: Our clients all have specific needs for their financial future, and we want to have advisers with diverse perspectives who can best service those needs.

WF: Explain what Penn Mutual calls ‘Diversity of Thought.’

Choi: Everyone has different backgrounds and experiences, and those differences create unique perspectives that we want in our organization. We are focused on holistic aspects of diversity with respect to experiences, culture and perspectives beyond visible representation or EEOC measures. Our leaders are also willing to listen and change. Two of my colleagues have worked at Penn for years and have significant institutional knowledge to share. At the same time, they’re always willing to listen to me, even when I push their buttons. That’s what we want from our candidates: people who can challenge our thinking and raise new questions.

WF: What were some of the challenges Penn faced in recruiting diverse candidates?

Choi: Our No. 1 problem was branding. Penn mutual is a 169-year-old organization, and until last year, we’ve operated on a business-to-business level. All our branding and messaging was targeted toward life insurance advisers, so consumers in the marketplace didn’t know who we were. In the past year, we’ve worked to educate the public about our company’s story and become more client-centric.

WF: What other initiatives has the company taken to attract diverse talent?

Choi: A lot of recruiting conversations center around millennials, but they’re already a big part of our workforce. We decided that we needed to start talking about Generation Z. We wanted to attract this new, diverse generation of talent by updating our onboarding process. Our adviser development program starts with the Penn Mutual Pathways Internship. At the end of the internship, they walk away with a life and health license.

WF: What were the results of these initiatives?

Choi: We had our second highest recruiting year in our history last year, and we’re hoping to beat that record [in 2016]; 32 percent of our Pathways interns were women, ethnically diverse or veterans. Managers are excited about the impact the interns have during the 10 weeks they are with us. They provided fresh perspectives and energy.

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By Nidhi Madhavan

A

utism spectrum disorders affect 1 out of every 68 people nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, limiting their ability to socialize and communicate.

However, individuals on the autism spectrum are also known to be particularly detail oriented, task driven and analytical, qualities that Ernst & Young needed in its workforce.

The consultancy piloted the EY Neurodiversity program in its Philadelphia office over the past year to recruit and train individuals with high functioning autism in order to streamline its process of compiling and analyzing client data.

“We needed to divert this work to individuals who were particularly good at data crunching, pattern recognition and paying close attention to detail,” said Lori Golden, abilities strategy leader for the Americas talent team at EY. “We know that individuals who are neuro-diverse tend to have a lot of the characteristics we’re looking for.”

To source this talent, EY worked with Specialisterne, a global nonprofit organization that assists autistic individuals in gaining employment. In November 2015, Golden and her team sought out college graduates with high grades and experience with numbers.

Candidates participated in a group problem-solving activity and a set of interviews. Applicants were then invited to a four-week paid training program co-run by EY, Specialisterne and the Arc, a national organization serving individuals with disabilities. The first three weeks trained participants in the basics of working in a corporate setting.

“These individuals mostly hadn’t had professional work experience. We wanted to make sure they got the benefit of as much information as possible in a way that was easy to digest,” said Golden.

Of the approximately 20 applicants who participated, EY choose four to join the account support services team in March. j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

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TRENDING

Wo r k i n P r o g r e s s

THE SALESFORCE PITCH FOR EQUITY, EQUALITY

By Kris Dunn

I

f you don’t like the answer, you can always change the question. Especially if you have money. Lots of money.

There are a lot of companies across America that struggle with diversity hiring. It’s under-utilized in multiple job families, and even as employers try to attract diverse talent, it hasn’t gone great.

After all, not everyone wants to work for your company.

Throw in the fact that you can’t pay new hires anything they want without messing up your compensation equity, and most companies don’t make the diversity hiring progress they’d like to.

Salesforce has the same problems you do. But Salesforce also has innovation in their DNA. So Salesforce did what any company with progressive DNA (and loads of cash) would do.They changed the answer, and thus the question.Turns out the answer isn’t more DIVERSITY, it’s more EQUALITY. Confused? You’ll get it soon.

TechCrunch recently reported that Salesforce named Tony Prophet the company’s first-ever chief equality officer.

That’s equality, not diversity, and the distinction is important to note since the company said that a major focus for it was what it termed “the women’s issue.”

Initial interviews with Prophet yielded the following quote: “The notion of being chief equality officer — now that was very thoughtful and deliberate on Salesforce’s part and on Marc’s [Benioff] part versus being chief of diversity or chief of inclusion because you can have a diverse workplace or a diverse culture in many parts of America that are very diverse but are hardly inclusive and there’s hardly equality. We want to go beyond diversity and beyond inclusion to really achieve equality.”

Translation? Tech companies have huge issues finding enough females and minorities to work at their company, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Earlier this year, Salesforce chairman and CEO Marc Benioff revealed that his company spent about $3 million in 2015 to equalize compensation across the company, closing the tech giant’s gender pay gap.

Of that $3 million, the equity increases were smaller and more spread out than you would think. Salesforce reports approximately 6 percent of employees required a salary adjustment, and roughly the same number of women and men were impacted.The HR pro in all of us would assume there’s equity increases embedded in that number that impact diverse male employees as well.

A quick look at Salesforce’s workforce diversity numbers

shows the following: 70 percent male and 30 percent female; 67 percent white, 23 percent Asian, 4 percent Hispanic, 2 percent black, and 2 percent two or more races.

Translation: The company still has a lot of work to do, but by changing the conversation to equality, not diversity, they’ve effectively changed how they’re measured by the outside world.

I’m not saying diversity hiring in tech isn’t important. I am saying that Salesforce is working toward a related, equally important goal and now will be considered in a different light than other major tech companies, whom I would expect will follow suit soon enough.

Most companies subscribing to this publication can’t afford to write a huge check to support equality increases similar to the Salesforce initiative. But just because you don’t have $3 million lying around doesn’t mean you can’t do anything on the equality front.

The first and easiest action you can take is to make sure your offer process is less subjective. Most companies are turning over 20 percent of their workforce annually, which means you could be well on your way to resolving half your equity issues in three to five years.

The next tool in your pay equality arsenal is to stack rank the departments you want to fund equity increases for and start budgeting funds on an annual basis to take care of those over time.

If you can’t find enough diverse hires, it makes sense to ensure the ones you have (including women) are paid on equal footing to everyone else.

Then you obviously want to get your message out.

At Salesforce, that message includes the fact they’re changing the conversation from diversity to equality, with an emphasis on pay equity.

By focusing on pay equity/equality, Salesforce has created a masterstroke to relieve some of the diversity hiring pressure and is going all in, with first mover advantage and everything that comes with it.

I’m a cynic on most things. Even the cynic in me has to respect how Salesforce is controlling the narrative here.

Does this move from diversity to equality make Salesforce an employer of choice or a ninja/Jedi of public relations? I’ll let you decide.

SALESFORCE HAS CREATED A MASTERSTROKE TO RELIEVE DIVERSITY HIRING PRESSURE.

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Kris Dunn, the chief human resources officer at Kinetix, is a Workforce contributing editor. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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FOR YOUR BENEFIT

Despite Repeal Efforts, ACA Compliance Moves Forward Employers expect changes to arrive gradually, if at all.

By Rita Pyrillis

I

t didn’t take long after Donald Trump was elected president their income tax for Republican legislators to reignite efforts to filings. The deadrepeal the Affordable Care Act, but that’s not line for electronistopping employers from moving full steam cally filing forms ahead to comply with its provisions. to the IRS “Whatever changes to the ACA or other showing that legislation affecting health benefits pass, they affordable are likely to be done step-by-step with long health coverlead times before major changes take effect,” age is being said Steve Wojcik, vice president of public policy offered to for the National Business Group on Health. “For employees now, the ACA is still the law of the land and nothis March 31. ing has changed.”

With 5,000 U.S. employees, The ACA’s employer mandate requiring businesses gathering the data needed to comply with with 50 or more full-time employees to offer health the ACA has been a daunting process for vision care care coverage went into effect in 2015, so last year was provider VSP Global, according to April Bettencourt, directhe first time employers were required to meet its various tor of global employee benefits for the California-based reporting and filing deadlines. To help ease the pain, the gov- company. ernment extended employee notification and Internal Rev“When your data is housed in several systems — payroll, enue Services filing deadlines, but not so for 2017, said Tracy HR, benefits, or even worse, by carriers — it would be inWatts, a senior partner at consulting firm Mercer. credibly difficult to pull all of that information together, In 2016, “we got a delay in reporting deadlines but that perform the analysis to ensure ACA compliance and do this goes away this year,” she said. “The deadlines for 2017 are on an ongoing basis,” she said. “You would need a full-time really deadlines. Last year, the deadline for filing to IRS person just to do this.” was extended from March until June. That’s a pretty big The ACA is putting a huge strain on HR departments, so difference.”

VSP hired HR software and services firm ADP Inc. to hanThe majority of employers surveyed by Mercer took ad- dle the process. vantage of last year’s extension and viewed the process as a Ellen Feeney, vice president and counsel, global complilearning curve, according to Watts. But in 2017 the stakes ance at ADP, said that in order for employers to keep up are higher. with compliance they must view the process “as an annual “For 2015, the IRS said do your best, make a good faith reporting of events and validate the ACA status of employeffort and we won’t impose penalties, but no more for 2016,” ees every month.”

“It’s important to focus on always gathering and improving your data,” she said. “ACA compliance will continue to evolve as laws and requirements continue to change. Employers will need to focus on ACA compliance as a part of their daily activities.”

But there is some uncertainty ahead as efforts to repeal the ACA pick up steam, according to Feeney.

“Given the Republican sweep in the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, the new makeup of our gov— STEVE WOJCIK, NATIONAL BUSINESS ernment represents a potentially significant change not just for ACA, but for tax policy, Fair Labor Standards Act, pay GROUP ON HEALTH equity and more,” she said in an email. “First and foremost, it’s important to focus on facts vs. speculation. Change said Cheryl Hughes, a regulatory expert with Mercer. “The won’t happen overnight. The Affordable Care Act is the law, bar will be much higher and employers will be penalized for and will remain so until it’s not. Ten million people are getmissing, late or incomplete reporting.” ting subsidies through the marketplaces and 20 million total The first deadline is Jan. 31, the last day for distributing are insured through the public marketplaces. A wholesale 1095 forms to employees, which includes information about replacement of the Affordable Care Act would require contheir health insurance coverage. Employees may need it for gressional action and would take time.”

“FOR NOW, THE ACA IS STILL THE LAW OF THE LAND AND NOTHING HAS CHANGED.”

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2017

FOR YOUR BENEFIT

Managing Emotions in a PostElection Workplace

Advancing Pot Laws Put Employers in the Weeds

Keeping a cool head on hot topics.

By Rita Pyrillis

By Andie Burjek

I

n the weeks following November’s presidential election, some employees had deep emotional reactions to the results.

“We’ve seen a slight increase in calls to the employee assistance program after Tuesday, with a wide range of emotions from people who were distraught to verbal spats in the office over the election outcomes,” said Richard Chaifetz, CEO of EAP provider ComPsych, in an email interview. “This has been one of the most difficult election cycles for all involved, and we’ve gotten requests from managers as far as how to mend relationships and move ahead.”

ComPsych offered this kind of advice to managers with employees who were bickering about the election results — in particular the presidential race won by Republican Donald Trump. Don’t bring up the issue unless you need to, because people are already burned out on media coverage about the election and its results, and don’t add to the friction by bringing up the topic unnecessarily, he said. Also, managers should encourage employees to treat each other with respect, and focus on what they have in common rather than political differences.

It’s not just managers. The day after the election, the Chicago Tribune reported that some company employees were calling EAPs and reporting “depressing thoughts or even sinking feelings of doom,” according to Philippe Weiss, managing director at Seyfarth Shaw at Work, a legal compliance and consulting services company.

Tom Gimbel, founder and CEO of staffing and recruiting firm LaSalle Network, is one leader who responded to the emotional post-election atmosphere.

He wrote an email to his employees on the Friday after the election. “I said that we are an establishment built on friendship, respect and work ethic, and there are certain things we can control and certain things we can’t,” he said. “And if this inspires people to get more involved in politics, on a local or national level, that’s a great result.”

Gimbel also added that because it was a very emotional time after the election, people should feel free to talk about it and discuss it, provided they still get work done and are willing to respect each other’s opinions. Employees at LaSalle Network, he added, did not contact EAPs but people did go to human resources more. This was not an anomaly, he said, because the company strives to have a proactive, employee-focused HR department and a company culture that allows employees to talk about emotions.

What’s important moving forward is being able to work together, compromise and not demean or disrespect one another, he said.

“The views that the person has are the same views as they were a month ago, and you could work with them then.”

One creative solution he had for employees who are bickering over politics is to show them conversations or video clips of celebrity couples, like James Carville and Mary Matalin — famous people of opposite parties who are married and find ways to engage in productive discourse. j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

2017

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t was a banner year for marijuana-use advocates as a number of states passed laws in November that approved its medical or recreational use. It also creates new challenges for employers as they develop drug-free workplace policies.

Arkansas, Florida and North Dakota approved the medical use of marijuana while Montana voted to expand an existing law, bringing the total number of states with legalized medical marijuana to 28. California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Maine also legalized the use of recreational pot.

Whether it’s medical or recreational use, each type of state law poses different challenges to employers as they develop their drug policies, said Kathryn Russo, an attorney with law firm Jackson Lewis and an expert on workplace drug testing and substance abuse.

“With medical marijuana, presumably, the employee is disabled and that raises discrimination issues if the employer refused to accommodate, so it’s trickier and more complex,” she said.“With recreational marijuana, I think it’s less complicated to administer policies because we’re not dealing with disability issues anymore. Employers can treat it like alcohol and prohibit its use. But it does get tricky with drug testing.”

In the case of recreational pot, most state laws have provisions protecting an employer’s right to create a drug-free workplace, she said.

California law states “that it does not alter or amend the rights and obligations of public and private employers to maintain drug- and alcohol-free workplaces and to have policies prohibiting the use of marijuana by employees and applicants. It further does not require employers to permit or accommodate the use of marijuana in the workplace, or prevent employers from complying with state or federal law.”

Things get murky for employers that implement drug testing.

“People might think, ‘Oh I can do whatever I want now. I can smoke all weekend,’ and the problem is that you don’t know if someone was using drugs while off duty or on duty,” Russo said. “That’s a dilemma for employers who conduct drug testing.You need to look at your policies and figure out what you want to prohibit and be very, very clearly about it. You can put employees on notice that if they want to do this on your own time that’s fine but if they test positive at work there will be consequences.” w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

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FOR YOUR BENEFIT

Corporate Yoga: Get Your Namaste On Yoga is one of many options in the corporate world that is tackling emotional well-being.

By Andie Burjek

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yndsey Morash was working at a longhour, high-stress job in Boston in 2012.

Meanwhile, she was also taking classes to become a certified yoga instructor. She soon started a business based on her experiences as an employee and a yoga enthusiast.

“I was working full-time and, after I finished my yoga training, I knew that I wanted to marry the two worlds: the corporate world and the wellness world,” said Morash.

She founded Chasing Nirvana, a mobile yoga studio that brings wellness to corporate offices, along with meditation and health coaching. She has a staff of instructors who have been properly trained, certified and insured so that an organization doesn’t have to do the background work.

Morash and her yoga business fit into the larger corporate wellness trend. Employers want to address emotional health and well-being, according to Stephanie Pronk, a senior vice president who leads Aon’s U.S. National Health Transformation Team. In the broad field of wellness, 83 percent of consumers said they needed the most support for emotional well-being, according to Aon’s 2016 Consumer Health Mindset Survey, which surveyed 2,320 consumers — including employees and dependents covered by employer health plans.

This broader interest in mental and emotional health initiatives can be partly explained by the generational aspect of the workplace, Pronk added.

“The millennial generation has much more depression than even the baby boomer generation,” said Pronk.“They’re going to need different ways of working 18

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through those issues, and the traditional need much equipment.Third, they can get ways that worked for baby boomers creative with pricing options. A company won’t work for millennials.” can pay for the whole class, interested emPronk said baby boomers are more ployees can split the cost or the employer likely to avoid acknowledging or discuss- and employee can share the cost. ing these problems than the younger gen“Larger companies have the ability or eration, who have been around for certain the funds to put in a gym or use a manmedical advances and who are more open agement company to manage these to tackling mental health issues. While things,” said Morash. “[But] Chasing Nirsome behavioral health systems and em- vana is there for the company that wants ployee assistance programs were designed to give their employees wellness options for older generations, they need to change but doesn’t have the funds to install a to support new generations. full-on gym.”

Bringing in things like yoga, mindfulYoga classes fit into the structure of an ness, meditation and resiliency training employee wellness program. One of Mocould help employees and organizations rash’s clients is the Pine Street Inn, an with emotional health, she added. It’s emergency shelter for homeless and disabout organizational behavior, too, not placed people. Last year the inn put tojust individual behavior. gether a formal wellness program, and “This is an area to watch. It’s on the cusp yoga was one of the top options employof starting to make some significant ees sought, said Jayne Hamilton, manager changes. It’s been a status quo industry for of benefits and employment at the Bosa while, but we’re seeing indications that ton shelter. it’s starting to change,” she said. “Some of Creatively enough, the inn provides that is demand. Some of it is recognition incentives for yoga participants through that the old tried-and-true approach to “yoga bingo.” Everyone gets a bingo card emotional health is not necessarily work- and can cross off whatever the “yoga ing.What can we do differently?” pose of the week” is if they’ve attended It’s a great time to have ideas address- the class.The winner gets a prize. ing emotional well-being, she added.“It’s About 10 employees overall are dedinot one thing, it’s a variety of things to cated and go every week, making yoga meet individual needs.” Not everything one way to meet individuals’ needs. The will work for every person, but there’s a participants “look forward to it because certain amount of trial and error to see it’s a way for them to reduce stress and what makes an impact. find balance in their day,” said Hamilton.

Morash’s nook, yoga, is appealing to Meanwhile, in the vein of meeting employers for several reasons. First, she others’ needs, Pine Street Inn also offer and her team work with interested com- programs in stress reduction, mindfulness panies in the limited space they have to training and sleep workshops in its wellhost classes. Second, participants don’t ness program. j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

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FOR YOUR BENEFIT

Benefits Beat

THE BENEFIT OF SETTING WORK-RELATED GOALS

By Jennifer Benz

I

t is the new year, which means it’s time to snap out of our indulgent holiday habits and get back to real-life goals and aspirations.

For my team, this means launching 2017 campaigns for our clients. After all, this is an ideal time to get employees engaged in benefits! There are countless benefits and programs that can be easily promoted and tied to the typical New Year’s resolutions: losing weight, eating healthier, actually using that meditation app on your mobile phone, paying off that holiday-induced credit card debt, finally getting your will or estate in order and many more.

What’s a little more challenging, though, is creating a set of personal work-related goals. For anyone in benefits and HR, this is an excellent time to plan ahead, reflect and prioritize. I’d like to suggest a few aspirational resolutions for you and your team.

I will carve out time to think strategically.

Oh, peace and quiet. Time to think and reflect. As I write this — on a plane where the Wi-Fi is fortuitously not working (because I need to focus on this article!) — I’m reminded of how hard it is to have just a little time without interruption. Uninterrupted time may be our most precious resource. And it’s one that you must create and protect. More than likely, that means scheduling it on your calendar, prioritizing it as a team and building it into the way you work. What better time to start than now?

I will help my team think about the employee experience as a whole.

As each area of HR gets more sophisticated, and as the complexity of integrating systems and vendors persists, it is more important than ever to think holistically about the employee experience.What are you asking employees to do, step by step, to meet certain goals? Is there a consistent feel, emotion or brand experience across your programs? Can you create more value by connecting tools and resources? These are hard questions to ask and hard to dig into, but they can start to change the overall value of HR. If you’re overwhelmed deciding where to start, look at your new-hire experience. It is an obvious area of opportunity for most companies and one where your efforts will almost certainly create an immediate and measurable ROI. I will not blame employees.

When I talk with HR and benefits leaders, I often hear these frustrations about employees:

“They just don’t care.”

“They don’t understand.”

“They won’t take the time to learn it.”

“They don’t seek information that’s out there.”

While most of this is true, it most definitely is not because employees don’t care. Rather, it’s because we have created insanely complicated systems and we’re asking average people to figure them out — largely on their own.

So in 2017, let’s stop using the employees-will-neverget-it excuse and start building systems and programs that they can use with confidence. A tall order? Yes, for sure, but not if you commit to the following resolution, too.

I will prioritize making it easier for employees to make good decisions.

I’ve spent my career trying to help employees “understand” our health care and financial systems. But, in the past couple of years, I have gradually let go of the idea that they can actually understand them.

That decision has been inspiring and motivating. Here’s why: we know it is almost impossible to get people to fully understand all the things they need to do to live happily ever after. But we can design programs and systems that make it easy for people to make good decisions and a little harder to make bad ones.

This is the essence of the whole field of behavioral economics, an area of study that has really made its way into the workplace in the past several years and one that we employ in our own work. Behavioral economics offers a more strategic — and practical — approach to helping employees, and it can be applied across all areas of HR. I will celebrate success with my team.

Just as focused time is a scarce resource, in too many organizations recognition is uncommon as well. Plenty of organizations are working on systems that promote workplace recognition, or they’re finding ways to build it into their culture. Just as important, though, is to create rituals among your closest team members. Find ways to recognize each other more often this year, and watch how much that helps you fulfill all the aspirational goals we’ve just talked about.

FIND WAYS TO RECOGNIZE EACH OTHER MORE OFTEN THIS YEAR.

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Jennifer Benz is CEO and founder of Benz Communications, a San Francisco-based employee benefits communications agency.

She was honored as one of Workforce’s Game Changers in 2013.

To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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Digital Learning for Real Business Results

CrossKnowledge is an engaging, forward-looking digital learning solution, driving business outcomes and the ability to transform individuals and entire organizations.

We provide a customized, fully integrated learning solution and implement it at unmatched velocity. CrossKnowledge’s learning solution is complete, bringing together our cutting-edge technology and world-class content into a blended environment. Only CrossKnowledge has the experience, agility, and foresight to help you build an innovative and more effective learning solution. CrossKnowledge, a Wiley brand, serves over 10 million users in 130 countries.

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Legal Big Data and the Law: New Tools but a Better Workplace?

More than just numbers, analytics can bring humans and resources together.

By Eric J. Felsberg

B

ig data analytics promises to save companies millions of dollars by streamlining employment decisions and preserving workforces. But is there risk in relying too heavily on automated workforce decisions?

We encounter the results of big data analytics every day, yet we rarely question the appropriateness of its use.Think about the last time you applied for health insurance — the application likely requested information regarding your health history.Your personal health history can help predict whether you will become seriously ill in the future; a prediction that will partly determine your insurability.

The process of applying for a loan is similar. The lender will review your credit history to determine how likely you are to repay the loan based on the lender’s experience with others with a similar credit history.This is analytics at work, and, for the most part, it operates very effectively.

Despite widespread adoption of big data analytics in virtually all aspects of business and business management, use of analytics in workforce management has lagged. This is due in large part to the way human resources professionals have been trained to manage personnel matters.

HR often involves emotions and complex notions of equity and fairness. This is a far cry from the sometimes cold, dry reality of financial transactions. HR professionals are trained to examine each personnel matter individually, talk to the parties involved, review documentation, and consider institutional employment policies in the legal context. Making employment decisions using cold, hard data seems wrong and, perhaps, risky.

But is it?

Several reports, including from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the White House, have cautioned on the risk of making biased workforce decisions based on big data analytics. Users of HR analytics tools even have been ad22

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vised to monitor their workforce for any evidence of “discrimination by algorithm.”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a public meeting on the use of big data in employment in October 2016, during which the Agency explored the benefits and risks of using big data analytics in the workplace.

Do the benefits outweigh the risks? Yes, if the analytics are designed and deployed properly. Appropriate use of analytics allows corporations to predict attrition likelihood, optimize recruitment efforts, gauge employee morale, and focus training and development efforts on what requires the most attention, among other benefits. These use-cases not only can result in a more efficient and better workforce, they can translate directly into company savings.

In Eric Siegel’s “Predictive Analytics, The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, Or Die,” he points to case studies that demonstrate the value big data analytics brings to the workplace.

In one, a well-known tech company used big data analytics to create a scoring system that predicts which of several hundred thousand employees were more likely to leave the organization.

The flight risk score empowered company managers to prevent the loss from actually occurring or to plan for the departure. He said the system resulted in $300 million in potential savings. j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

2017

The benefit is real, but commentators ask how real is the risk? Are the analytics and the algorithms on which they are often based tainted with bias?

Algorithms created to help employers make employment-related decisions certainly could be tainted with bias. For example, one designed to help a talent acquisition team identify successful candidates may take race or gender into account.

Even if race or gender is not used to explicitly identify successful candidates, using the algorithm could unintentionally result in disproportionately excluding a particular race or gender from the preferred applicant pool. Bias is entirely avoidable, however, if the analytics are carefully and correctly designed.

Humans, of course, are not perfect. We have a number of unintentional biases arising from seemingly well-informed decisions based on the experience and intuition of talent management team members. If used correctly, big data analytics can remove potentially biased intuition and, instead, support decisions with reliable and neutral data science.

Why do some commentators remain concerned?

Perhaps it’s the feeling that employment decisions are about people, not cold, hard data.

In any event, responsible employers contemplating employment analytics platforms must ensure their algorithms and models do not incorporate protected characteristics such as race and gender as a predictive variable. Moreover, employers must review periodically the models to determine whether certain individuals are being disproportionately excluded or harmed.

The most reliable and effective HR analytics platforms provide guidance to companies faced with employment-related decisions. The algorithms alone should never drive the decision. This point is nicely illustrated in the above example of using flight risk scores. Once flight-bound employees are identified, managers can try to affect employees’ decisions to leave. This hybrid approach leverages the analytics to identify the areas of highest risk and permits companies to focus their efforts and resources in a meaningful and effective way.

Use of big data analytics in the workplace is here to stay. Embrace it.When utilized properly, analytics can have a significant impact on companies’ bottom lines and help preserve their employees.

Eric J. Felsberg is a principal and director of JL Analytics at Jackson Lewis P.C., where he helps employers, HR professionals and in-house counsel develop a mix of technology, analytics and human capital to manage their workplace. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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Legal Legal Briefings ADA ACCOMMODATION REQUEST NEED NOT BE EXPLICIT Roberta Kowitz was a respiratory therapist for Trinity Health. In 2010, she took a three-month leave following surgery to correct a degenerative spine disease, then returned with restrictions that her shifts should be temporarily cut from 12 to eight hours, and that she should not move loads more than 10 pounds. After Kowitz returned, the hospital gave employees a month to provide updated copies of their CPR certification: a written exam and a physical CPR demonstration. Kowitz passed the exam but told her supervisor that her doctor said she could not perform the physical demonstration for at least four months. Kowitz was fired the next day. The U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota dismissed the case, holding that Kowitz could not perform an essential function of her job. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, holding that although “Kowitz did not ask for a reasonable accommodation of her condition in so many words, her notification to her supervisor that she would not be able to obtain the required certification until she had completed physical therapy implied that an accommodation would be required until then.”

IMPACT: Employers cannot rely on an employee to specifically request an accommodation under the ADA. When an employer is aware of an employee’s disability, the employer must be careful to consider whether an employee’s circumstances require such an accommodation.

EMPLOYERS CAN SEEK RELIEF FOR SOME UNION ACTIVITY Employers dealing with union organizing efforts and related activities, including picket lines, protests and similar activities, must resort to the National Labor Relations Act for relief. The National Labor Relations Board, however, has not always been friendly to employer’s interests. A California court recently confirmed, however, that some union organizing activity can be dealt with under state law, without the necessity of involving the NLRB. In Wal-Mart Stores Inc. v. United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, the California Court of Appeal held that certain union activity could be enjoined by local courts without conflicting with the National Labor Relations Act. The union in the Wal-Mart case had organized protesters to enter the store, where they acted to disrupt Wal-Mart’s business.

Wal-Mart filed a lawsuit in California state court seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction. The trial court granted the injunction, and the union appealed. The Court of Appeal for the 2nd District upheld the entry of the preliminary and permanent injunction, finding that the union had violated the state law against trespassing. The court further found that Wal-Mart’s claims were not preempted by the NLRA because the state had sufficient interest in regulating the activity.

IMPACT: Employers facing possible union organizing campaigns or other union activities have avenues for seeking relief other than the NLRB. An employer facing concerted activity by employees or a union should seek the advice of an attorney to determine whether the employer can protect its rights in the state court rather than before the NLRB. Mark T. Kobata and Marty Denis are partners at the law firm Barlow, Kobata and Denis, which has offices in Beverly Hills, California, and Chicago. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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Legal

OSHA Buffers Against Retaliation Jon Hyman |

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The Practical Employer

ate in 2016 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s new injury-reporting rule took effect.

Critically, this new rule imposes significant changes to employers’ anti-retaliation obligations. OSHA has redefined retaliation to cover the three facially neutral rules that many, if not most, employers have in their workplace.

1. Disciplinary programs The rule prohibits disciplining employees simply because they report work-related injuries or illnesses without regard to the circumstances of the injuries or illnesses, such as automatically suspending workers who report an injury or assigning them points that have future employment consequences.

An example of a retaliatory disciplinary program, according to OSHA: Employee twists an ankle at work but does not immediately realize that he is injured. The next morning, Employee’s ankle is sore and swollen, and he reports the injury.

Employer disciplines Employee for failing to report his injury “immediately” as required by Employer’s injury reporting rules.

An example of a non-retaliatory disciplinary program, according to OSHA: Employee twists her ankle at work but does not immediately realize that she is injured. The next morning, Employee’s ankle is painful and swollen and she realizes it is the type of injury her employer requires her to report.

However, even though she easily could have reported the injury, she waited several weeks to do so. Employer disciplines Employee for failing to report her injury as soon as practicable after realizing she has the type of injury it requires her to report.

2. Incentive programs The rule prohibits using incentive programs to penalize workers for reporting work-related injuries or illnesses. If an employee reports an injury or illness and the employer subsequently denied a benefit as part of an incentive program, this denial may constitute retaliatory action against the employee for exercising their right to report an injury or illness.

An example of a retaliatory incentive program, according to OSHA: Employer informs its employees that it will hold a substantial cash prize drawing for each work group at the end of each month in which no employee in the work group sustains a lost-time injury. Employee reports an injury that she sustained while operating a mechanical power press.

Employee’s injury requires her to miss work for two days.

Employer cancels the cash prize drawing for that month for Employee’s work group because of Employee’s losttime injury.

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An example of a non-retaliatory incentive program, according to OSHA: Employer informs its employees that it will hold a substantial cash prize drawing for each work group at the end of each month in which all members of the work group comply with applicable safety rules, such as wearing required fall protection. Employee sustains a lost-time injury when he falls from a platform while not wearing required fall protection, and he reports the injury to Employer. Employer cancels the cash prize drawing for Employee’s work group that month because Employee failed to wear required fall protection. Employer actively monitors its workforce for compliance with applicable work rules and cancels the cash prize drawings when it discovers work rule violations regardless of whether the Employee who violated the work rule also reported an injury.

3. Drug testing The rule prohibits using drug testing, or the threat of drug testing, to retaliate against an employee for reporting an injury or illness. Employers may not conduct blanket post-accident testing, but may conduct post-incident drug testing if there is a reasonable possibility that employee drug use could have contributed to the reported injury or illness. However, if employee drug use could not have contributed to the injury or illness, post-incident drug testing could constitute prohibited retaliation, as it would discourage injury reporting without contributing to the employer’s understanding of why the injury occurred.

An example of a retaliatory drug-testing program, according to OSHA: Employer required Employee to take a drug test after Employee reported work-related carpal tunnel syndrome.

Employer had no reasonable basis for suspecting that drug use could have contributed to her condition, and it had no other reasonable basis for requiring her to take a drug test.

Rather, Employer routinely subjects all employees who report work-related injuries to a drug test regardless of the circumstances surrounding the injury.

An example of a non-retaliatory drug-testing program, according to OSHA: Employee was injured when he inadvertently drove a forklift into a piece of stationary equipment, and he reported the injury to Employer. Employer required Employee to take a drug test.

Study these examples, as they will help you navigate the increasingly complex world of OSHA compliance in 2017 to avoid costly and complex retaliation complaints.

Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.

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Data from our 2016 Modern Family Index shows turnover is a real risk for a large portion of today’s workforce.

Download the eBook to learn more about this critical issue affecting employee retention at brighthorizons.com/MFI-ebook.

Bright HorizonsÂŽ is a leading global provider of employer-sponsored child care, back-up child and adult/elder care, educational advising for employees and their families, and work/life consulting.

800.453.9383

The Awesome Influence of Women in HR ALISON QUIRK

ANJANI PANCHAL BHARGAVA

Whether they’re eliminating traditional performance reviews, improving employee engagement or putting more women in upper management, female HR leaders are making a difference.

Meet some of the women influencing HR.

BY ANDIE BURJEK AND MICHELLE V. RAFTER

O

rganizations are transforming how they manage their workforces, and women in C-suite human resources positions are leading the way.

As you read each profile, you’ll see how these women are ending formal annual performance reviews, closing the wage gap, improving gender parity and diversity, and increasing employee engagement, among other initiatives.

It’s also the only leadership role that is predominantly female. Seventy-three percent of HR practitioners at the manager level are female, according to 2015 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, compared against 43 percent in marketing and 27 percent in IT. Although the numbers dwindle at the highest level of HR, women still hold an employment edge when compared to their male counterparts. CEB, a

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KIM DAVIS

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best practice insight and technology company, analyzed 382 HR executive appointments between 2011 and 2016 and found that 55 percent of these new hires are female.This coincides with separate data from executive search firm Korn Ferry, which found that from a sample of top 1,000 U.S. companies, 55 percent of CHROs are women.

Some women managing these changes are well known. One is IBM CHRO Diane Gherson, who helped Big Blue end performance reviews based on stack-ranking employees.

Another is Kathleen Hogan, the Microsoft human resources executive vice president who in 2016 closed the gender pay gap at the company so salaries for women are 99.8 cents for every $1 earned by men.

But people management power players are as likely to work at enterprises with fewer than 5,000 employees as they are to head HR at companies with hundreds of thousands of workers.

Workforce contacted professionals at business schools and HR associations, along with six female CHROs, to explore the position further: Why are women faring better in this field than others? What roadblocks still exist? And what does the future of HR look like?

Despite the fact that the equality of the position in terms of gender is unparalleled in other fields of business, there’s still ample room for improvement, said Bill Greenhalgh, CEO at the Human Resources Professionals Association. Male HR managers make about 40 percent more than female HR managers, according to the 2014 U.S. Department of Labor statistics, and in 2013, only 11 out of the 50 highest-paid HR leaders were female despite the fact that it is a female-dominated profession.

Regardless of company size, the women profiled here exemplify how HR and CHRO roles have evolved over the past decade. A competitive job market and technology advances have seen the function shift from j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

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practical and administrative to strategic.

Still, there remains the so-called “glass elevator,” said Matthew Bidwell, associate professor of management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. That is, men tend to fare better in female-dominated roles than females in male-dominated jobs.

“What you see in female dominated industries is they become progressively less female as you rise up [the career ladder],” said Bidwell. “Our stereotype of a manager or a leader is too often a man.”

In general, male CHROs tend to spend the most time on strategic activities (i.e., adviser, counselor, coach) while female CHROs tend to spend more time as “talent architects,” said Greenhalgh. In the current talent economy, where attracting and retaining the best talent is increasingly a challenge, this has positive implications for female CHROs. “There’s a great opportunity here, because female CHROs spend more time in that area,” he said.“It’s an area where they can really add value.”

Just as the field of HR is shifting to become more strategic, HR leaders are moving in the same direction. When HR was more people and process driven, the cliché of an HR practitioner generally had those stereotypically female traits, like caring about other people and being communal.

Now, as HR leaders gain more strategic and analytic roles, the skill set needs to be successful in shifting as well.

“This has implications for the profile of HR people,” said Bidwell.

“The people who will do the best will have a combination of [these skills].We’re looking for people who blend the understanding of how people work and also have the ability to analyze and understand data and make data-driven decisions.”

The female CHROs showcased in this feature represent a variety of industries, company sizes and business challenges, and they have that unique blend of people and strategic skills that HR professionals need to succeed in the modern workplace.

ELLYN SHOOK

JoALINE OLSON

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BEING LIGHT ON YOUR FEET A BIG HELP IN HR ALISON QUIRK EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES AND CITIZENSHIP OFFICER STATE STREET CORP., BOSTON One of the enjoyable aspects of watching a dance routine is how something that looks so seamless requires so much strength, flexibility and preparation. Dancers memorize their routine, but while preparing for the next step they must remain in the present. Each small movement contributes to the dance holistically. There is also a degree of strategy, mental capacity and intelligence along with the creativity, flexibility and pure strength.

Alison Quirk — who took dance classes recreationally through college and is the vice chairman of the board of Boston Ballet Inc. — brings the same mental and creative stamina to her role of chief human resources and citizenship officer at financial services company State

MiniBio: Renee Atwood Love it or hate it, Uber is the face of the gig economy, and Renee Atwood is part of the reason why. The ride-hailing startup practically invented the technology platform-as-a-service business model, which in its case relies on a phalanx of drivers to ferry passengers in their own cars. Whether those drivers are rightly classified as independent contractors or employees is open to debate — and litigation. As global head of people, Atwood oversaw hiring as Uber grew from 605 employees to around 5,000, with operations in 300 cities and 56 countries.

In mid-July, the one-time Google HR executive shocked HR and tech industry watchers by quitting to run people operations at Twitter.

Insider’s note: “First week at Twitter a huge success! The HR+recruiting team rocks,” Atwood tweeted in August about her new gig.

— Michelle V. Rafter

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Street Corp., where she’s worked for 14 years.

“I never thought I’d be as involved in an arts organization as I am, but I love being involved in it. It really stretches me in ways I’m not used to,” said Quirk, 54.

“Working with artistic people is a lot different than working with people in the financial services. It helps me think differently and helps my innovation and creativity in my day job.”

She began her career at Boston Financial Data Services as a compensation and benefits specialist. She remained for 16 years, attaining functional experience in every area of HR and ending up as head of HR. She continued on to Liberty Financial Cos. and FleetBoston Financial.

When she had been at her first company for 15 years, she was getting itchy to do something else. She had to decide between “the devil you know versus the devil you don’t. Why would I give up everything I put into this to take a risk to go do something new? I had a young family, and [there’s] a lot of uncertainty with moving to something new.”

Some advice from her father, whom she described as the biggest influencer in her career, made her decision easier: Treat your career like you’re making strategic decisions for a business, he advised. Is a career move now good for that business? The advice has guided her throughout career junctures since then.

That willingness to make hard admissions and necessary change is apparent when talking to her, whether it’s admitting she needs to move on to the next career opportunity or admitting her own shortcomings and improving on them.

She’s always enjoyed multifaceted roles that have a level of complexity to them, and big, general management jobs are her sweet spot. Persuasion, though, is a skill she’s focused on and improved.

“One of the skills that I have that makes me effective there is I can see broad landscapes and the implications of decisions into the future pretty clearly,” said Quirk.

But she’s “had to learn how to articulate a vision of what it is I actually see. I’ve had to learn how to articulate that so that other people will follow.”

Several years ago, State Street was going through a major transformation across the entire organization, which has 32,000 employees in 28 markets. To deal with the confusion involved, Quirk realized they had to change the way State Street was communicating the company’s strategy to employees. She led a team, and together they developed a new way of talking about the future of the organization called The Way Ahead, which was based on the foundation that people don’t follow what you want them to do unless they understand why you’re doing it.

“It was a big departure from the way we talked about the strategy in the past,” said Quirk, adding that ideally it results in improved communication across the company.

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“It took a lot of time, persistence and personal risk, but I Accenture’s workforce spans five generations, but 72 really believed it was worth the risk because we needed percent are millennials, and annual reviews didn’t give something different,” she said. “We needed something younger employees the regular feedback they desired. disruptive to get employees’ attention and [have them] Then there was the amount of time spent on reviews: understand what it means to move through this change 2 million hours a year, 75 percent of it on paperwork with us. and only a quarter on Taking risks, taking acpeople actually talking tion and taking control to each other. of her own decisions is “The amount of enerone quality that makes gy and time that went her an effective HR leadinto this distribution er, such as when commucurve was not time addnicating a disruptive ing value to our people — ALISON QUIRK, EVP, CHIEF HR AND strategy to employees. or helping them be bet“There have been juncCITIZENSHIP OFFICER, STATE STREET CORP. ter,” Shook said. tures in my career where I She crowdsourced — felt like I was running out a millennial favorite — of opportunities, therefore I had to take it upon myself to find out how employees wanted Accenture’s people to do something about that,” said Quirk. “The trick practices to change. They said they wanted real-time there has been to recognize what it is I’m wrestling feedback on how they were doing, personalized career with.” At times like this, she added, it’s important for training, opportunities to provide input on how business people to realize that no one else will fix their problems. got done, and for the firm to be more transparent about They should take action themselves to do something diversity and other company practices. about it.

Shook used the input and Accenture’s objectives to “It could mean something outside work, like joining transform the existing performance management prothe Boston Ballet board, or it could mean changing jobs cess into what she refers to as a performance achieveand going in a different direction,” she said. “The trick is ment culture. Instead of rating employees along a distrito recognize when you’re there, and not keep spinning bution curve, Accenture switched to using Gallup’s and expect someone else to solve for it.”

StrengthFinder to identify and build on what people are —Andie Burjek good at.

In-house software developers built an app called Accenture People that employees use to set priorities and share them with work teams. The app works on iOS and Android phones and has voice recognition. That makes it fast and easy for an employee to ask a coworker for ELLYN SHOOK feedback, “and they can speak it into the app so it’s captured, and they’ll see it immediately so they can improve CHIEF LEADERSHIP AND their skills,” Shook said.

HUMAN RESOURCES Shook, 53, tested the new feedback system on 20,000 OFFICER employees in multiple business units and countries for four months before introducing it to the entire compaACCENTURE, CHICAGO ny in January 2016 along with other changes, includCEO Pierre Nanterme ing a new on-demand online learning program. Early broke the news when Ac- results have been positive. Employee mood improved centure switched up perfor- along the way and remains high, Shook said. Accenture mance reviews in 2015, but recruiters mention it in job interviews as a selling the heavy lifting fell to El- point of working there. lyn Shook, the management consultancy’s chief leaderChange of such magnitude takes time and resources. ship and human resources officer.

Shook estimates she spent a third of the past year reAccenture isn’t the first U.S. multinational to move structuring reviews, which she calls “probably the most away from once-a-year ratings-based reviews. But with significant talent transformation we’ve ever undergone 375,000 employees worldwide, it is among the biggest. in our history.” She got help from a cross-functional The reasons were simple. Accenture was reshaping its team of 2,500, and an outside communications firm. An business units to meet changing customer needs, and the Accenture spokeswoman declined to say how much the firm’s existing performance management system and talent firm spent on the retooling. pipeline weren’t producing employees with skills that fit.

As part of the new performance achievement culture,

“WE NEEDED SOMETHING DISRUPTIVE TO GET EMPLOYEES’ ATTENTION.”

UPON FURTHER REVIEW

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Accenture is spending thousands of hours training managers to coach employees to reach performance goals, because “looking ahead is different than providing backward-looking feedback,” Shook said. Time will tell if the investment pays off.

—Michelle V. Rafter

GIVE EMPLOYEES A SAY TO KEEP THEM ENGAGED JoALINE OLSON CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER ADVENTIST HEALTH SYSTEM ROSEVILLE, CALIFORNIA Improving employee engagement is easy to talk about and complicated to carry out. JoAline Olson is learning that as she tackles multiple initiatives to improve employee engagement while overhauling HR at Adventist Health System, a faith-based health care system with 23,400 employees operating in 25 communities in four states.

Olson, 60, took over as Adventist’s CHRO and senior vice president in 2013. Before that, she spent several years as vice president of innovation at the Roseville, California, nonprofit, which runs 20 hospitals, four retirement centers and other health care agencies. The experience taught her about what goes into changing how things get done, and why employee buy-in is essential.

“A good idea on its own doesn’t add value if it doesn’t meet employees’ needs, and if it doesn’t, it’s not really an innovation,” she said.

Olson is redoing HR to streamline and modernize processes and increase productivity. She also wants to make the organization a more attractive employer at a time of ongoing shortages for nurses, therapists and other in-demand health care professionals.

Helping employees feel connected to their work is one way to retain people in a competitive job market.

Giving them a voice in how they do their jobs can increase that connectedness. In one example, as Adventist’s innovation vice president, Olson instituted while, she used cloud-based software to crowdsource employees’ ideas for improving clinical information system workflow. Doctors, nurses and other practitioners use the clinical workflow system to track a patient’s treatment, history and other data to plan their care. The previous system relied on manual updates and had no mechanism 30

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for prioritizing suggestions. The crowdsourced feedback system lets employees who normally wouldn’t be involved in making decisions share ideas for improving the workflow system, vote other ideas up or down, and make comments.

“It’s a whole different level of engagement than a fiveor 10-minute discussion in a staff meeting,” Olson said.

Based on employee suggestions, the 100-person clinical information system department reduced time spent on clinical workflow by more than half, from a cumulative 25 days a year to 12.The changes directly benefited 9,000 employees, or slightly less than half of Adventist’s workforce. Olson expects to use the crowdsourcing tool in other departments as well.

In another stab at employee engagement, Adventist started a wellness program three years ago that 92 percent of employees enrolled in. In the near future, Olson plans to make more HR technology available to employees on mobile devices, including time and attendance functions, and software for hospital rounds. She’s also considering doing away with annual performance reviews.

Changes instituted so far have seen employment engagement scores increase to 4.08 in 2015 from 3.89 in 2014, according to results of an internal poll published in the provider’s latest annual report. Olson calls the jump “dramatic,” but won’t pin it on a single improvement.

“Really it’s a Rubik’s Cube, in that there are so many elements to it,” she said. “If one (element) is out of sorts it can affect an employee’s ability to be engaged. When they’re all firing, we have the highest engagement.”

—Michelle V. Rafter

ASTUTELY MAKING INROADS NATALIE STUTE CHIEF HR OFFICER CONSILIO LLC WASHINGTON, D.C. Many children grow up wanting to be an athlete, a dancer or a singer. Natalie Stute started out young on a totally different career path: human resources.

She was groomed from a young age. Every Saturday from seventh through 12th grade, Stute attended INROADS, a leadership development program for children of color. An early career assessment had her as the perfect fit for a teacher, minister or therapist. She discovered her actual career path in college when INROADS j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

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MiniBio: Patty McCord No list of modern HR pioneers would be complete without Patty McCord, Netflix’s former chief talent officer. Over 14 years, McCord’s unorthodox people management practices made her a trailblazer and set the stage for HR policies at countless tech industry startups. Among them: doing away with formal performance reviews and letting salaried employees take time off without having to ask for permission. Since leaving Netflix in 2012, McCord has consulted on leadership and corporate culture for clients such as Warby Parker and HubSpot.

Insider’s note: A PowerPoint deck McCord and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings created to explain how they reinvented the company’s HR, “Netflix Culture: Freedom & Responsibility,” has been viewed more than 5 million times.

— Michelle V. Rafter

placed her in an HR internship at Travelers Insurance.

There, she got the opportunity to network with different HR professionals and learn what she wanted to do with her career. In college, she majored in chemistry and psychology because of her dual interests in behavior and analytics — a skillset prime for the current state of HR. After graduating, she went on to work for Best Buy, another stint at Travelers Insurance, and memorabilia manufacturer Jostens, where she became head of corporate human resources in 2011.

Stute attributes her successful ascent to the importance she places on relationships — a realization that perhaps came from gleaning networking skills and learning from seasoned professionals at such a young age.

Stute cited her husband, Will Stute, who has practiced law over the past 20 years and is a partner at McDermott Will & Emery, as her greatest influence and mentor for this very reason.

“The thing he has consistently reminded me of throughout my career is: It’s all about the relationships you have. Because when you have solid, strong relationships at work you get so much done,” she said. “People trust you. People [know you’re] going to follow through and value what you’re bringing to the table.”

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She also was willing to address seemingly negative feedback with a positive attitude. For example, at Jostens, she was being groomed to be the next head of HR, “running at 300 miles per hour,” when she was told to stop. Although most of the leaders supported her moving on to the role, a couple of colleagues who hadn’t worked with her weren’t sure. Stute asked a friend for advice.

“I [talked] to one of my friends who shared something with me: When someone tells her ‘no’, she hears, ‘not now.’ I took that as, I have to prove and earn and show that I can lead at that level. I have earned and do deserve to move to that next level,” said Stute.

The CEO put her in an interim role, and she developed professional relationships with the unconvinced stragglers. A year later, she had proven herself and officially got the position.

Currently, Stute is the CHRO of Consilio LLC in Washington, D.C., which provides e-discovery software and services to assist law firms and corporations involved in internal and external investigations. Here, she very much has to adapt to the “talent architect” role of HR. HR leaders in general have to understand the intricate needs of their people, especially in the cur rent talent economy. Stute herself is no exception. In the past year, Consilio acquired four companies, growing the team from 100 to 2,000 employees.

“What’s huge now is to calibrate who are we as an organization.

What’s the DNA of Consilio? And what does that look like from an employee experience?” said Stute, 39. “As a CHRO, one of my primary roles is — JoALINE OLSON, CHRO to define culture and AND SENIOR VICE [figure out] how do I embed that in every- PRESIDENT, ADVENTIST day structure.”

HEALTH SYSTEM Her vision for the future, along with her strategic gusto and people skills — developed and improved upon since the seventh grade — help her navigate this environment, mobilize people, and prioritize both the short-term and the long-term goals of the organization.

—Andie Burjek

“A GOOD IDEA ON ITS OWN DOESN’T ADD VALUE IF IT DOESN’T MEET EMPLOYEES’ NEEDS, AND IF IT DOESN’T, IT’S NOT REALLY AN INNOVATION.”

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THE ART OF HUMAN POSSIBILITY ANJANI PANCHAL BHARGAVA SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER, TOPCO ASSOCIATES, ELK GROVE VILLAGE, ILLINOIS

MiniBio: Cindy Robbins Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff got most of the credit for spending $3 million to boost salaries so men and women at the cloud-based software platform company had equal pay. But the idea for the all-hands salary audit that led to the change came from Cindy Robbins, Salesforce’s top people person, who holds the title executive vice president of global employee success. In all, 6 percent of Salesforce’s 17,000 employees got a raise to bring them on par with their peers. The initiative led the Obama administration to tap Benioff in 2016 to support an equalpay rule that takes effect this year.

Insider’s note: Robbins and Leyla Seka, head Anjani Panchal Bhargava has worn many hats. These of Salesforce’s customer support division, professional experiences — from the corporate to the entrepreneurial, from small to large companies — have hatched the idea for the salary audit when they given her a well-rounded perspective on human reteamed up in a Salesforce-supported women’s sources and its role within the business. empowerment circle.

Her work history includes roles such as organiza— Michelle V. Rafter tional development consultant for Motorola; a consultant at the then-startup Axiom Consulting Partners; and executive director in charge of culture transformation at Lenovo. She eventually started her own con- five years of someone who’s just looking to skate by.” sulting company and went on to become the CHRO Her varied career also gave Bhargava the opportunity of one of her clients, Topco Associates. to find several mentors, influences and advocates. Early “I was able to see a lot of different sides of different in her career at Motorola she got the chance to work industries as well as get experience in the different with senior leaders in HR as well as the CEO. Some of aspects of HR,” said Bhargava. “Joining a strategy firm the best career advice she ever received is to be valversus a pure HR firm gave me a much more ue-driven. You can’t go wrong if you make decisions rounded-out view of all the levers that HR can based on your values, she said. “And if the right thing actually push.” isn’t in front of you, you just have to wait because it The ability to look at a situation holistically helped could be right around the corner. Don’t ever comproat one company she worked at that was having severe mise on your values.” turnover issues. “The As important as traditional answer for values are, so is a willHR was to stop ingness to negotiate. turnover,” she said.

A fatal flaw for HR But, in this case, they leaders is when they looked at the busijust stick to their guns ness model, the labor and don’t seek a winmarket and at the win, said Bhargava. types of positions “Especially within they were losing. To the role of CHRO, —ANJANI PANCHAL BHARGAVA, SENIOR VICE their surprise they what I’ve learned so PRESIDENT, CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER, far is you have to be a discovered that the turnover wasn’t actureally good influencer TOPCO ASSOCIATES ally that bad. and n e g o t i a t o r.

“The right answer Sometimes, you can was, let the turnover happen. It’s OK. We just need a be very data driven and have your facts all lined up, but better plan for this,” she said. “I would rather take two the CEO or CFO have a fundamentally different viewyears of a smart, hungry, type-A person than four or point guided by their beliefs. Your role is to influence

“YOUR ROLE IS TO INFLUENCE BY BEING AN ADVISER AND COACH. YOU’LL WIN SOME AND LOSE SOME; IT’S ALL PART OF THE DEAL.”

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by being an adviser and coach. You’ll win some and lose some; it’s all part of the deal.”

Being versatile in negotiations, varied in experience and connected to a network of mentors and advocates are all significant to being a good leader, but there’s one other aspect about Bhargava that’s impressive: mindfulness.

She exudes focus and energy. “I’m a lifelong learner.

That’s what gives me joy outside work,” she said, and her history of learning has included the tango, photography and, most recently, how to raise her two children to be balanced and anchored. She also is interested in yoga and meditation, and studies “the art of human possibility.” She’s curious about what people are capable of physically, mentally and spiritually, and this interest in people, combined with the sharp business expertise, is what makes an HR practitioner effective for her people and her business.

—Andie Burjek

GENDER PARITY AS PART OF A BIGGER GOAL KIM DAVIS

The longtime HR executive has focused on changing the gender status quo since selling a consulting firm she founded to NFP in 2012 and taking over HR. She helped create a women’s leadership council, 32 women from all company departments trained in leadership skills who pass on what they learn to other employees.

Davis, 55, also created LeanIn circles, optional groups that women and men can join to discuss stereotypes, biases and how employees can help each other overcome them.

Gender parity is the first step in a bigger challenge to improve diversity at NFP, which itself is one of several major initiatives Davis is undertaking. To keep employees connected and engaged, she’s instituted flexible work hours and is reviewing maternity, paternity and other leave policies to make sure they’re family friendly.

She also upgraded NFP’s HR technology to a cloudbased platform for payroll, compensation and time management. In September, she planned to phase in revamped performance reviews where managers will share feedback with direct reports at least once a quarter. In late July, she was reviewing employee engagement platforms with social media-type newsfeeds to use for fitness and team-building challenges, employee recognition and newsletters.

—Michelle V. Rafter

CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER NFP CORP. CHICAGO Some CHROs might be satisfied with the number of women in management at NFP Corp. Kim Davis isn’t one of them. Since taking over as NFP’s top HR executive in May, she is aiming higher because it’s good for the company, and that’s good for business.

Forty-seven percent of vice presidents at the global benefits broker are women, more than the national average of 23 percent, according to a 2015 report from LeanIn.Org and McKinsey and Co.Women also hold more than half of director-level jobs, and make up 64 percent of the company’s 3,600-person workforce. But in the C-suite, the numbers drop. Just 38 percent of NFP senior vice presidents are women. Of NFP’s eight executive vice presidents, Davis is one of a kind.

“Insurance in general is still a very white, male-dominated environment,” she acknowledges. But for client services organizations such as NFP to serve customers, leadership has to match their employees’ and clients’ demographics, and that means improving gender diversity and inclusiveness up and down the corporate ladder. j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

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MiniBio: Diane Gherson In February 2016, IBM joined multinationals such as Accenture and GE in tossing out yearly performance reviews, with Diane Gherson leading the way. Under the senior vice president of HR’s direction, IBM dumped a contentious, 10-year-old system where employees set annual goals and checked in with managers twice a year. After crowdsourcing ideas from its 380,000-person workforce, IBM created an app called Checkpoint that employees can use to set short-term goals and get more regular feedback. Instead of a single score, employees are judged in five areas, including skills, personal responsibility to others and innovation.

Insider’s note: In 2013, Gherson and eight co-inventors were granted U.S. Patent No. 8600847B1 for a predictive analytics process titled, “Optimal service fee discount management.”

— Michelle V. Rafter

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Unwelcome Advancement in the Workplace

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A Trump administration has some experts bracing for a spike in sexism at work.

Evidence shows that widespread bias and harassment have been there for years.

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BY RITA PYRILLIS

W

hen Andee Harris launched an HR tech startup nearly two decades ago she took pride in creating a workplace that supported women with family friendly benefits and ample career opportunities. She never imagined that when the company was acquired in 2011 the culture that she helped to build would change dramatically.

Suddenly, she found herself unable to attend her firm’s executive retreat because it was at a male-only hunting lodge.

“Every year they did strategic planning over the weekend at a hunting lodge in Montana,” said Harris, 43, who was chief marketing officer at the time and the only woman on the execu-

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tive team. “For 10 years it wasn’t an issue and then I joined the team. My CEO said,‘We just realized that they don’t allow women so we’ll just take notes and follow up with you.’ I said, ‘No, I’m going to go.’ ” The CEO called the lodge and convinced them to make an exception, but according to Harris the damage was done.

Andee Harris She resigned soon after.

“They weren’t trying to be mean about it, but they didn’t realize the position that they put me in,” said Harris, who is now chief engagement officer at HighGround, a Chicago-based tech firm. “I pushed back and accused them of being sexist, but in their eyes they accommodated me. In tech, sexism is not as blatant as some women think it is. It’s not ‘grab ’em by the pussy.’

It’s a lot of little things that add up.”

Harris was referring to comments made in 2005 by newly elected President Donald Trump that were caught on a videotape uncovered by the Washington Post in October of last year. Trump, then a private citizen, can be heard boasting about kissing and grabbing women by the genitals.

Most sexual discrimination in the workplace is much more subtle than blatant harassment and takes many forms,

“GENDER DISCRIMINATION HASN’T GONE AWAY, ITS GONE UNDERGROUND.” — ROSALIND BARNETT, RESEARCHER, WOMEN’S STUDIES RESEARCH CENTER, BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY according to Rosalind Barnett, a researcher at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University.While sexual discrimination in hiring, pay and other aspects of employment is illegal, attitudes and certain behaviors are much harder to prove. Sexism can mean being denied a promotion in favor of man who is deemed a better cultural fit, being talked over in meetings or never getting credit for your ideas, she said.

“Gender discrimination hasn’t gone away, its gone underground,” said Barnett, who coauthored the 2013 book “The New Soft War on Women: How the Myth of Female Ascendance is Hurting Women, Men, and Our Economy.”

“We’re talking about things that are not legally actionable.

People who do this are often not even aware of it. Sexism is in the air.”

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While Trump’s comments were roundly condemned, some brushed them off as “locker room talk,” which women’s rights advocates see as a tacit acceptance of sexist behavior, including harassment. Many fear that workplace sexism could get worse. “[November’s presidential] election threw so many of us for a loop,” said Meg Bond, psychology professor and director of the Center for Women & Work at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. “You realize that there are people who are not bothered by deep sexism and racism and that’s disturbing. Are we are bracing for more sexism in the workplace? Absolutely.”

Bond is a member of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s special task force on the study of workplace harassment, which released a lengthy report in November showing that it remains a big problem. In 2015, the EEOC received 28,642 sexual harassment complaints, representing nearly one-third of the all complaints filed that year.That averages to 76 complaints a day, according to the report.

Defining Discrimination Sexual harassment is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on national origin, sex and religion.

The most common type of sexual harassment is called quid pro quo harassment and involves demanding sexual favors in exchange for some kind of employment benefit, according to Tom H. Luetkemeyer, an attorney with Hinshaw & Culbertson in Chicago. The other kind is hostile environment harassment, which is defined as “frequent or pervasive” unwanted sexu- Tom Luetkemeyer al advances or comments that create a hostile workplace, he said. Harassment also includes making offensive remarks about a person’s sex — whether female or male — or being subjected regularly to offensive jokes or images.

“If it’s severe and objectionable on an objective and subjective basis and it’s based on gender, it will likely rise to the level of sexual harassment,” Luetkemeyer said.

And if left unchecked, employers could ultimately pay a big price.

In 2015, the EEOC settled 5,518 sexual harassment cases totaling $125.5 million. Since 2010, employers have paid out $698.7 million to employees alleging harassment through the EEOC’s administrative enforcement pre-litigation process alone, according to the report.

In addition to legal expenses, employers who fail to address sexual harassment are likely to see a decline in productivity and higher health care costs, according to Bond. j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

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Workers who experience sexual harassment often suffer depression, anxiety, turnover, more sick days and a host of physical ailments that come with psychological distress, she said.

“Women who work in an environment where there’s harassment are less happy, and men are also less satisfied,” Bond said.“It’s not just a few targets that are victims. It’s the whole workplace.”

Yet, only 30 percent of employees who experience

Building a Sexism-Free Workplace Sexual harassment is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on national origin, sex and religion.

Yet despite federal, state and municipal protections for workers, it remains a persistent problem, according to the EEOC’s special task force on the study of workplace harassment, but there are things that employers can do to create safe environments for women and all workers.

Here are some recommendations from the 2016 report: • Employers should assess their workplaces for risk factors associated with harassment — like a lack of diversity or a culture that tolerates or promotes alcohol use — and explore ideas for minimizing those risks.

• They should adopt and maintain a comprehensive anti-harassment policy and make sure that it is communicated frequently to employees, in a variety of methods.

• There should be several channels to report harassment, and investigations should be prompt, objective, thorough and kept as confidential as possible.

• Employers should be alert for any possibility of retaliation against an employee who reports harassment and should take steps to ensure that such retaliation does not occur.

• Employers should offer regular compliance training and make sure that middle management and first-line supervisors know how to respond effectively to harassment that they observe, that is reported to them, or of which they have knowledge or information — even before such harassment reaches a legally actionable level.

—Rita Pyrillis

sexual harassment report it to their employer, according the EEOC report. Most try to avoid the harasser, deny or downplay the incident, or try to live with it, the report found.

HR’s Harassment Role That is not surprising to Michelle Phillips, an employment attorney with Jackson Lewis. She questions whether HR is the right place for victims to go to lodge a complaint. She said that women may feel unsafe telling their stories to employees who may have been hired by the executives accused of the harassment.

“HR professionals play a critical role in a company’s culture, so it’s important for them to set the standard and be part of the enforcement mechanism to make sure complaints are heard and that no retaliation occurs,” she said.

“The number one reason employees don’t report harassment is retaliation. They are afraid of being fired, shunned, ignored or intimidated. Like with Roger Ailes, a company can have a culture of not reporting things. HR plays a critical role in that.”

In July, Fox News CEO Ailes resigned amid accusa- Valerie Aurora tions that he sexually harassed current and former female employees throughout his career. The scandal left many observers wondering how he was able to do this unchecked for so long.

Liz Washko, an employment attorney with Ogletree Deakins, advises employers to provide multiple ways for employees to report harassment or other types of sexual discrimination, such as a hotline and one or two HR representatives to hear complaints. But most importantly, she urges employers to follow through.

“You can have best policies but if you don’t act it means nothing,” she said. “We recommend that employers take complaints seriously and investigate them, and if they conclude there is an issue, then take corrective action.”

Claiming ignorance doesn’t protect employers from liability, according to Washko.

“I would urge vigilance right now,” she said. “People might not come to you. Make sure that front-line managers understand the importance of protecting employees and ask them to keep their ears to the ground so that maybe they can alert you. Even if people don’t complain, the company could be liable if these things are happening in the workplace.”

Identifying the Disconnect The first step is learning how to spot sexist behavior, HARASSMENT continued on page 48

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Watch editors Rick Bell and Frank Kalman online for stimulating takes on talent in a weekly video series.

Available now at www.workforce.com/video

Critical

Competencies Generational preferences and new forms of technology-supported collaboration are shaping leaders’ need for a reset on their core competencies.

BY SYLVESTER TAYLOR AND BILL PASMORE

W

hile no one can see the future with perfect clarity, we must be prepared to adapt to whatever we encounter, not just what we expect. It is crucial then that business leaders need to start developing critical competencies now in order to be prepared for future business and leadership challenges.

Ten years ago, and again in 2016, our organization, the Center for Creative Leadership, queried its most recent database of 360 assessment responses and asked the bosses and coworkers of tens of thousands of leaders three key questions: • What leadership skills and perspectives are critical for success?

• How strong is the leadership bench in these critical skills and perspectives?

• And what potential pitfalls lie ahead for these leaders?

The studies included data from more than 40,000 executives rated by more than 400,000 coworkers and bosses. Using the language of the 360 assessments we deployed, they told us that leading employees; strategic perspective; decisiveness; composure; change management; and building relationships were the most critical skills in order for the organizations to survive and thrive. Interestingly, 10 years later, the list looks about the same, with composure dropping out of the top six and being a quick study replacing it.

We also asked about the skills that are most needed to ensure career success.Then and now, managing change; learning agility; interpersonal relationships; and collaboration led the list of critical skills. It’s safe to assume that as we go forward, these bedrock core competencies will remain important.

As we examine these skills that are shaping how organizations are beginning to operate differently and will operate in the future, we see the convergence of new generational preferences, new forms of technology-supported collaboration, globalization, flatter organizational structures, more open organizational boundaries, rapid advances in knowledge of all kinds, and the use of big data ana-

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lytics shifting the landscape within which leaders (and others) exercise influence.

As indicated by the subtle shifts in the most important skills needed today, in today’s hyperfast world of constant complex change, there are some competencies that will rise to even greater prominence than in the past.

1. Discovery-based learning.

While the ability to learn has always been a desirable trait in leaders, the criticality of learning will grow in a world of fast-paced, innovation-driven change. The type of learning that will be required is not just learning from books or even experience, which in our research has accounted for about 70 percent of what leaders say they know about leadership. Now, learning agility is important, combined with learning from experiments versus relying on experience alone.This competency is exhibited through: • Curiosity and openness to new ideas and points of view.

• Willingness to take calculated risks in order to learn.

• The ability to structure learning experiments that produce fresh insights.

• Encouraging dissent, challenge and sustained tension during the period that new ideas are being fermented.

• Actively seeking input from a wide variety of sources inside and outside the organization.

• Challenging the status quo; maintaining a state of perpetual interest in making things better.

2. Collaborative strategic decision making.

Engaging others as partners in making decisions is something that good leaders have always done. However, this was balanced in the past with a healthy dose of “willingness

PEOPLE MANAGERS AND LEADERS SHOULD RESOLVE TO BE NIMBLE IN IDENTIFYING AND ADDRESSING CHANGING COMPETENCIES. to take charge and make the tough calls” as an individual leader in the face of confusion or disagreement. The need to provide “leadership” was an excuse for control-oriented leaders to exercise authority even in situations where collaborative leadership might have produced better decisions.

In the future, flatter organizational structures, cultures of equality and teamwork among knowledgeable contributors in and outside the organization, and less willingness on the part of members of the new generations to put up with positional power over knowledge-based power will force 42

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leaders to adapt. In his book “The Open Organization,” CEO Jim Whitehurst of software maker Red Hat describes in detail how he needed to shift his leadership style from the time that he led a turnaround at Delta Airlines to accommodate the non-hierarchical, collaborative culture of Red Hat. It is a shift that many leaders will need to make, and it requires the following capabilities: • Understanding the value of collaborative decision-making and being able to lead processes that bring out the best in what people have to offer.

• Instead of “influencing without authority,” learning how to influence with authority to create interdependent rather than dependent organizational cultures.

• Demonstrating authentic support for people working together to make and own decisions of importance to the future of the enterprise, when it really matters.

• The ability to recognize when the need to reach consensus is driving out dissent and overpowering high-quality decision-making.

• Seeking the best solution versus the most expedient one.

3. Shaping work for meaning.

Millennials are looking for challenging assignments that provide opportunities for learning and growth. As only about 13 percent of the workforce is highly engaged, there is much work to be done. It’s not that young people want to flee large bureaucratic organizations to join startups; most would prefer to continue to work where they are but won’t if opportunities to learn, grow and advance seem limited or a long way off. There are plenty of meaningful challenges to be tackled in large organizations but this work can’t be reserved for the few versus the many. Leaders can support and develop this organizational competency by: • Stimulating and then listening to ideas that can be translated into meaningful opportunities by those who invent them.

• Acknowledging and rewarding efforts to make the organization better or more successful, especially when it is beyond job requirements or expectations.

• Providing time, space and resources for innovation that anyone with a worthwhile idea can access.

• Removing barriers that exist to people exploring ideas with others across the organization and outside of it.

• Allowing people to assume positions of influence based on their ideas rather than their titles alone.

4. Activating Open Networks.

Organizations of the future will rely more on networks of temporary contributors from outside the organization much more than organizations do today. Beyond outsourcing jobs to reduce expenses, leaders of the future will recognize that the expertise and capabilities that can be captured via full-time employment are but a microcosm of the total expertise available in the global labor pool. Knowing how to create and leverage open networks will be a key j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

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Revisiting 31 Core Competencies Fifteen years ago Workforce printed a story titled “31 Core Competencies Explained.”

Written by Edward J. Cripe and Richard S. Mansfield, the story today is one of Workforce.com’s most popular stories, generating tens of thousands of hits a month.

Why a story published in 2002 remains so popular as we enter 2017 is something of a mystery, though one answer could be the timeless nature of the story’s content.

It is also broken into three separate components: Competencies Dealing with People; Competencies Dealing with Business; and Self-Management Competencies.

While I’m not going to go through each item — the story is more than 3,100 words — I’ve included the first three competencies under each heading. I urge you to go to Workforce.com/31CoreCompetencies to read the full story. —Rick Bell 1. Competencies Dealing with People Establishing focus: The ability to develop and communicate goals in support of the business’ mission.

Providing motivational support: The ability to enhance others’ commitment to their work.

Fostering teamwork: As a team member, the ability and desire to work cooperatively with others on a team; as a team leader, the ability to demonstrate interest, skill and success in getting groups to learn to work together.

2. Competencies Dealing with Business Diagnostic information gathering: The ability to identify the information needed to clarify a situation, seek that information from appropriate sources and use skillful questioning to draw out the information, when others are reluctant to disclose it.

Analytical thinking: The ability to tackle a problem by using a logical, systematic, sequential approach.

Forward thinking: The ability to anticipate the implications and consequences of situations and take appropriate action to be prepared for possible contingencies.

3. Self-Management Competencies Self confidence: Faith in one’s own ideas and capability to be successful; willingness to take an independent position in the face of opposition.

Stress management: The ability to keep functioning effectively when under pressure and maintain self control in the face of hostility or provocation.

Personal credibility: Demonstrated concern that one be perceived as responsible, reliable and trustworthy.

differentiator between successful leaders of the past and those of the future. To realize the value of open networks, leaders must begin by: • Defining and structuring meaningful projects in which experts outside of the organization can assist.

• Activating and facilitating networks of individuals collaborating virtually to bring out the best thinking and fastest speed to market.

• Ensuring adequate engagement from internal resources in supporting open networks and capitalizing on their innovations to help the organization achieve optimal diversification and growth.

• Influencing the activities of voluntary network contributors to “steer” them toward valued outcomes.

• Learning to build more powerful open networks that seize key knowledge assets and translate them into high-payoff investments.

5. Leading complex and continuous change.

Leading a single complex change is difficult, but leading multiple, simultaneous complex changes requires skills of a higher order.Today, the success of single change efforts remains stuck at about 33 percent, a figure that hasn’t moved for decades despite years of research, executive education and acknowledgment that there is a serious problem here. In the future, change will be key to every major breakthrough, of which there are potentially very many. To seize these opportunities, leaders will need to up their game concerning change by taking the following steps: • Get ahead of the change curve by identifying and prioritizing opportunities more quickly.

• Building greater capacity in individuals, teams, units and networks to undertake successful change.

• Understanding the interdependencies of multiple simultaneous changes and address them rather than hoping that the competing demands for resources, time and attention will somehow sort themselves out.

• Continuously increase the speed of change by doing it better, not pushing harder.

COMPETENCIES continued on page 48

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SECTOR REPORT

RPO Providers

RPO Customers: We Want More of Everything

By Sarah Fister Gale

B

ig companies are increasingly relying on recruitment process outsourcing as part of a strategic approach to recruiting that allows them to tap best-in-class technology, top recruiting talent and advanced performance metrics.

This is good news for RPO vendors, who’ve seen their businesses steadily grow. But it has also put them on the hook to provide an increasingly sophisticated set of tools and services to keep these clients engaged.

Today’s RPO customers want their vendors to do more than just fill seats, said Stacey Cadigan, principal consultant for Information Services Group, a market intelligence firm.

They are looking to them to build their employment brand, increase passive candidate engagement and improve personalization in the application process without losing efficiency.

“Those services used to be differentiators,” Cadigan said.

“Now they are expected.”

RPO vendors are responding. In recent years they’ve added a variety of recruiting technologies to drive engagement and brand awareness for clients, including digital marketing tools, video interviewing, and mobile job application and follow-up features. They are also working with clients in a consulting capacity, adding “brand specialists” who work with clients to help them highlight their brand message across all of their candidate touchpoints.

“Branding has become such a critical part of the RPO delivery model,” Cadigan said. “It filters into every aspect of the recruiting process.”

the human experience,” Oakes said.

One way Randstad is addressing this issue is by developing more complex talent community tools that proactively seek out and engage passive talent, so they are already warm when a position becomes available. It is similar to a talent community, but rather than passively storing data on anyone who applies, they seek out specific kinds of talent and sort them according

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THE CHALLENGE: MERGING GOOD AND FAST Clients may want a more robust suite of services from their RPO providers, but that doesn’t mean they are letting go of the key performance metrics that drive this business model.

Time to hire and cost to hire are still key measures of RPO

RPO USE HAS INCREASED BY 32% SINCE 2011.

32

%

success, said Dan Oakes, senior vice president and general manager of Randstad’s RPO business in North America.

That’s forcing vendors to juggle sometimes competing demands to create a personalized and engaging candidate experience that is also fully automated to increase efficiency.

“The challenge is how to best combine the technology and

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OF COMPANIES OUTSOURCE % SOME OR ALL OF THEIR RECRUITING FUNCTIONS.

to skills and experience, Oakes said. “It will help us get candidates to the client as fast as possible.”

Clients also are giving up on their desire to see proof that the RPO is meeting deadlines and cutting costs.“Analytics are a big part of that,” Oakes said. Most RPOs have rolled out a variety of analytics tools including dashboards and weekly reports to track candidate status and other measures. Though Oakes admitted, “No one has really mastered it yet.”

He would like to see the industry get to the point where data is available in real time, and appears as a tickertape running along the bottom of his screen showing constant performance updates. “We aren’t there yet.”

Part of the challenge is the disparate data sets. Much of the data that would provide recruiters with insight into where the best hires come from and the best ways to engage them live inside the company’s applicant tracking system or HR management system.Without that data, it can be hard for RPOs to make connections between past successes and future hires.

This challenge is further complicated by the increasing use of contingent labor, said Stephen Clancy, director of workforce strategies for Staffing Industry Analysts. The company’s data shows contingent workers represented 29 percent of all U.S. workers in 2015, representing $792 billion in staffing buyer spend.

“The penetration of contingent labor is pushing recruiting trends toward total talent management,” he said. That means RPO vendors need to get more creative in the way they source and engage candidates, leverage their networks and keep track of talent once these contracts have ended. “It is generating a lot of debate about the role RPOs play in finding contingent talent.”

INSIDE INTEL: ADAPT TO CONTINGENT LABOR TRENDS Most RPOs aren’t yet integrated into the total talent manj a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

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agement process, but Clancy predicts they will move in that direction as contingent labor becomes a bigger part of the workforce. “RPOs need to think about how they are going to innovate to take advantage of this ‘known talent’ pool,” he said.

He believes that the vendors who figure out how to integrate contract labor into the broader recruiting and talent management program will gain a competitive edge going forward.

In the meantime, clients should continue to push their ven-

dors to deliver more robust analytics around their recruiting efforts, and keep track of all the talent that moves though the organization, Cadigan said.“Clients should expect their RPOs to innovate, and to provide real-time data to support the decisions they make on their clients’ behalf.”

Sarah Fister Gale is a freelance writer in the Chicago area. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

HOT LIST Recruitment Process Outsourcing Providers Listed alphabetically; compiled by Nidhi Madhavan; editors@workforce.com

Positions filled annually

Number of clients outsourcing end-toend recruitment process to company

Number of clients outsourcing recruitment of all job classes to company

Able to blend recruiting of temporary staff and permanent staff on a single platform

Number of recruitment professionals on staff

ALEXANDER MANN SOLUTIONS alexandermannsolutions.com

94,000

75

Would not disclose

Yes

3,600

ALLEGIS GLOBAL SOLUTIONS (AGS) allegisglobalsolutions.com

120,000

63

63

Yes

2,100

CIELO (FORMERLY PINSTRIPE) cielotalent.com

151,000

143

100

Yes

1,600

HUDSON RPO hudsonrpo.com

15,631

Would not disclose

46

Yes

349

IBM RECRUITMENT SERVICES www.ibm.com

105,000

40

32

No

1,500

KELLYOCG kellyocg.com

36,000

53

53

Yes

Would not disclose

MANPOWERGROUP SOLUTIONS manpowergroupsolutions.com

230,000

371

110

Yes

3,200

WILSONHCG wilsonhcg.com

Would not disclose

96

Would not disclose

Yes

600

Company Name & Web Address

Note: Aon Hewitt divested its RPO business to TrueBlue’s PeopleScout in January 2016. ADP RPO, Decision Toolbox, Futurestep, People Science, PeopleScout, Pontoon, Randstad SourceRight, Resource Solutions and Seven Step RPO either declined to participate or did not respond to requests for information.

Source: Companies j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

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SECTOR REPORT

Recruiting Software Providers

Branding, Building Relationships and Getting Social

By Sarah Fister Gale

T

he days when automated screening tools and mobile-enabled job sites were considered innovative have long since ended.

In today’s tight talent market, recruiting technology is all about building the brand, developing long-term relationships with passive candidates and integrating recruiting into the broader talent management process.

“The post-and-pray days are pretty much over,” said Lisa Rowan, an analyst with IDC. “The current trend is all about candidate relationship management.”

Companies are beginning to recognize that even if they

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circle, so that when a position opens up they are still warm,” Rowan said.

It also ties in with companies’ efforts to build their brand as a “great place to work.” LinkedIn’s 2016 Global Recruiting Trends report shows 59 percent of companies are investing in their employer brand as part of their recruiting program.

“Companies are thinking a lot about how to proactively build their brand,” said Kate Hasting, director of insights for LinkedIn. That includes fleshing out company websites with “day in the life” videos, employee testimonies, executive blogs

THAT A COMPANY’S HIRING PROCESS CAN % AGREE POSITIVELY OR NEGATIVELY IMPACT THEIR DECISION TO

100% 80% 60% 40% 20%

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ACCEPT A JOB OFFER FROM THE COMPANY.

only hire one candidate, they may be getting hundreds of qualified applicants who could be perfect for the next role — and it is foolish to throw that connection away. That’s where CRMs, candidate relationship management tools, come in, said Rowan.

This software, from vendors like Avature, Greenhouse and Talent Function, expands on application tracking technology, to provide companies with a platfor m for capturing candidate data, and organizing it in a way that makes it easier to sort them into targeted talent pools, and communicate with them. “It’s a way 62% say hiring volume has increased, to keep them inbut only 44% say hiring budgets have volved with the increased — similar to last year. company’s social

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%

and detailed job descriptions, and adding branded language to all applicant communications. They are also expanding their social media presence to appeal to passive candidates through blogs, photos and posts that highlight the company culture and values rather than just referencing job openings.

This proactive approach helps them attract a better candidate pool, and begin to win over hard-to-find talent before they ever engage with a recruiter. This is particularly important among highly skilled millennials who choose the companies they want to work for long before they apply for the job, Hasting said.

THE CHALLENGE: CLOSE THE ONBOARDING GAP Once candidates are recruited, companies are also looking for ways to link the recruiting process more directly to onboarding and talent management as a way to better engage new employees and track performance, said Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president at Constellation Research.

“It’s the natural next step for recruiting,” he said.

Many talent management software vendors have some onboarding tools, like Silkroad’s RedCarpet, Oracle’s Talent Cloud and Cornerstone On Demand’s ResCare. They all address administrative tasks pretty well, but customers want them j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

2017

to do more, said Rowan. “Onboarding is an opportunity to socialize new hires, introduce them to teammates, and get them connected on internal social platforms,” she said.

Over the past 18 months, vendors have been scrambling to make their onboarding tools more robust, she said. SuccessFactors for example, integrated its social platform Jam into the onboarding suite and links new hires directly to learning, goal setting and other talent management tools; CRM vendor Avature offers clients a customizable onboarding portal where new employees can connect with managers and teammates before their first day. Rowan believes this category of recruiting software still has room to improve.

Mueller noted that the link between recruiting and the broader talent management programs is also driving demand for more sophisticated workforce analytics. They want to know things like where their best hires come from, what skills and education they bring to the table and why they leave when they do.

The challenge is not the lack of tools, it is lack of access to the data, which often sits in a siloed system. “Companies need better data to do better analytics,” he said. “The only way to get that information is if the recruiting data is merged with

the rest of the talent management system.”

INSIDER INTEL: HR AND RECRUITING NEED TO GET ALONG Mueller urges HR leaders to look for vendors that can help them link recruiting, onboarding and the broader talent management system, and to create stronger links between HR and recruiting so that data is more easily captured and shared.

“There is a big disconnect right now between recruiting and performance management,” he said. But if companies want to track their high performers and replicate them in future hires, they need to close this gap.

Companies also need to think more strategically about branding and what their social persona looks like, Hasting added. “Whether you want candidates to think you are innovative, or fun, or professional, that has to come across in all of your marketing and branding efforts,” Hasting said, and the more proactive they are the better. “If you want to go after passive talent, you have to build a brand that will capture their interest long before they apply for the job.”

Sarah Fister Gale is a freelance writer in the Chicago area. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

HOT LIST Recruiting Software Providers Listed alphabetically; compiled by Nidhi Madhavan; editors@workforce.com

Company Name & Web Address

Names of recruiting software

Number of clients

iCIMS INC. icims.com

iCIMS Talent Platform

3,200

JOBVITE jobvite.com

Jobvite Platform

Not available

PeopleFluent Recruiting

5,100

GSK, AIG, JetBlue, Advance Auto, American Cancer Society

TalentReef Social Recruiting

2,500

Cinemark, Focus Brands, Checkers/Rally’s, Spencers/Spirit of Halloween, TravelCenters of America

UltiPro

3,500

Bloomin’ Brands, Culligan International, Feeding America, Major League Baseball, Yamaha Corp. of America

PEOPLEFLUENT peoplefluent.com TALENTREEF talentreef.com ULTIMATE SOFTWARE ultimatesoftware.com

Key clients using system Kate Spade, Rackspace, Dish, Aon, Enterprise Holdings LinkedIn, Schneider Electric, Zappos, Tenable, Dollar Shave Club

Note: ADP, Greenhouse, Monster and Paychex either declined to participate or did not respond to requests for information.

Source: Companies j a n u a ry / f e b ru a ry

2017

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COMPETENCIES continued from page 43

6. Pursuing vertical development.

Vertical development is adding more complex thinking capacity versus simply adding more skills to a repertoire.

Since the complex challenges of the future will require systems thinking at a much higher level, leaders must be able to elevate their ability to see the entire picture and take actions that will enable long-term shifts in strategy and capabilities.

Instead of breaking things down into discrete short-term activities, leaders will need to be able to balance the here and now against preparing for the future, by: • Developing the ability to see patterns and shift systems and processes to enable future possibilities.

• Learning to think in terms of paradoxes or polarities instead of focusing exclusively on the ends of a continuum.

• Envisioning long-term possibilities rather than being paralyzed by current limitations or barriers to innovation.

• Understanding the STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT & CIRCULATION potential of technol(Required by 39 U.S.C.3685) 1. Publication title: Workforce ogy to transform the 2. Publication number: 4286-0000 3. Filing date: October 1, 2016 4. Issue frequency: Bi-Monthly organization and the 5. Number of issues published annually: 6 6. Annual subscription price: $195 world.

7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1200, Chicago, IL 60601 • Seeing beyond perContact: Cindy Cardinal at 847-438-4577 8. Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office of sonal achievement publisher: Mediatec Publishing, 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1200, Chicago, IL 60601 9. Full names and complete mailing addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor: and advancement in Cliff Capone, Publisher, 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1200, Chicago, IL 60601; order to ignite colMike Prokopeak, Editor, 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1200, Chicago, IL 60601; Kellye Whitney, Managing Editor, 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1200, laborative efforts to Chicago, IL 60601.

10. Owner: John R. Taggart, 1401 Park Avenue, Ste 502, Emeryville, CA 94608. achieve what would 11. Known bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders owning or holding 1% or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other otherwise be impossecurities: none 12. Tax status has not changed. sible.

13. Publication title: Workforce 14. Issue date for circulation data below: August 2016 These are just a 15. Extent & nature of circulation Avg. no. copies No. copies each issue of single issue during preceding published nearest few areas in which 12 months to filing date a. Total no. of copies (net press run) 41,612 41,252 workforce compeb. Paid/requested distribution: b1. Outside county paid/requested mail tencies are shifting. As subscriptions stated on form PS 3541 (Including advertisers’ proof and exchange copies) 32,547 32,621 we begin 2017, peob2. In-county paid/requested mail subscriptions stated on form PS 3541 ple managers and (Including advertisers’ proof and exchange copies) 0 0 leaders should resolve b3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales and other non-USPS paid/requested distribution 73 68 to be nimble in idenb4. Other mail classes through the USPS 0 0 c. Total paid and/or requested tifying and addressing circulation 32,620 32,689 d. Nonrequested distribution: the changing comped1. Outside county nonrequested copies stated on form PS 3541 7,425 7,337 tencies for the success d2. In-county nonrequested copies stated on form PS 3541 0 0 d3. Nonrequested copies of your employees distributed through the USPS 0 0 d4. Nonrequested copies and your organizadistributed outside the mail 0 0 e. Total nonrequested distribution tion. (sum of 15d 1, 2, 3, 4) 7,425 7,337 f. g. h. i.

Total distribution (sum of 15c & 15e) 40,045 40,026 Copies not distributed 1,567 1,226 Total (sum of 15f & 15g) 41,612 41,252 Percent paid and/or requested circulation (15c ÷ 15f × 100) 81.5% 81.7% 16. Electronic Copy Circulation. a. Requested and paid electronic copies 4,005 4,003 b. Total requested and paid printed copies (line 15c)+requested/paid electronic copies (Line 16a) 36,625 36,692 c. Total requested copy distribution (line 15f)+requested paid electronic copies line 16a) 44,050 44,029 d. Percent paid and/or requested circulation (both print & electronic copies) (16b divided by 16c X 100) 83.1% 83.3% ✔ I certify that 50% of all my distributed copies (electronic and print) are legitimate requests or paid copies).

17. This Statement of Ownership shall be printed in the November/December 2016 issue of this publication.

18. I certify that on October 1, 2016, all information furnished on this form is true and complete. Mike Prokopeak, Editor.

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Sylvester Taylor is director of assessments, tools and publications for the Center for Creative Leadership. William “Bill” Pasmore is an adviser to CEOs, boards and senior teams at CCL. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

HARASSMENT continued from page 35 according to Valerie Aurora, CEO of Frame Shift Consulting, a San Francisco-based tech diversity and inclusion firm. This is especially challenging in tech where sexist attitudes are common, even though the industry prides itself on its progressive culture.

Aurora started Frame Shift last year to help companies address this disconnect. One of the services that Aurora offers are ally skills workshops, training that teaches people how to use their societal privilege, like being white, or male, or wealthy, to help others. She said she developed the program in 2011 after a friend was groped at an open source software conference.

“I think our self-image as an industry and our actions are out of sync,” she said. “A lot of us think sexism is bad but a lot of us are acting in sexist ways.”

While many companies believe that sexual harassment training is the key to tackling the problem, she said most approaches are ineffective.

“Many times the instructors are rolling their eyes and telling people that they don’t want to be there, that they’re forced to do this legally, so no one takes it seriously,” she said. “You watch a 10-minute video and go home thinking, that was pointless.”

A better approach is to help people walk in someone else’s shoes in order to make them aware of their own subtle biases. Ally skills workshops focus on real-life scenarios to drive the point home.

“For example, you’re in a meeting and a woman has an idea and everyone ignores it and 30 minutes later a man voices the same idea and everyone gives him credit,” she said. “What can you do to make sure that first person gets the credit?”

Harris agreed that having allies in the workplace who are willing to speak out against instances of sex discrimination is key to creating a civil workplace. But she also encourages women to speak up for themselves.

“We need people who will have your back — whether they are men or women,” she said. “As women we tend not to fight and we sometimes let people take credit for our work. I think it’s also important that women stand up.

Many companies focus on diversity and inclusion, however, a lot of companies don’t even realize how biased they really are.”

The workplace has become the front lines in the battle against all forms of discrimination, and employers have a responsibility to address them, according to Bond.

“The workplace is one of the primary places where people can and often do come into contact with people of different views,” she said. “It is an important setting for increasing understanding and equity. Some employers do see that they can play an important role in our society by helping to bring people together across differences.”

Rita Pyrillis is a freelance writer in the Chicago area. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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CULTURE continued from page 10 to meet their personal responsibilities were 30 percent more likely to have a positive work experience.

For many employees, this often means the ability to start and raise families. Outdoor apparel retailer Patagonia Inc. is known for having family-affirming workplace practices.

In addition to offering paid leave for both moms and dads, parents can bring infants eight weeks and older into a fully staffed nursery just moments away from their workspace.

“Having on-site child care is a great way to get nursing moms back into the workforce and to ensure that parents know their children are safe and nearby,” said Dean Carter, vice president of human resources at Ventura, California-based Patagonia.

Patagonia also encourages employees to pursue activism by offering paid time off to volunteer and by paying bail fees for employees who are arrested while protesting on behalf of environmental causes.

According to Carter, these benefits have resulted in more focused employees and a “freakishly low” corporate turnover rate of less than 5 percent annually.

“There’s definitely a cost to all of [these programs], but what we’ve found is that since we have less issues finding talent and low turnover, we can focus on growing our business instead of filling positions,” Carter said.

Indeed, the company has experienced double-digit growth in recent years and had one of its most profitable years in 2015.

However, Carter said that Patagonia’s decision to promote a balanced workplace had nothing to do with ROI. “Our founder wanted to create a place where, simply, work doesn’t suck,” he said.

“Our culture grew out of a deeply embedded view that work and life should be able to coexist.”

Nidhi Madhavan is a Workforce editorial intern.

To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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49

LAST WORD

Rick Bell

DEFINING TRUMP: ‘STOP IT’ AND ‘YOU’RE FIRED’

I

once had two employees whose working relationship blossomed into a workplace romance.

At first it was an all-out lovefest; footsies under the table during staff meetings, goo-goo eyes at each other at lunch … ain’t love grand? It sure was; until it wasn’t.

Their chocolate kisses turned sour. Tart words and icy glares soon took a toll on the staff; they asked if I would help end the hostilities. I did; and it didn’t go particularly well.

It was obvious that there was no mediating this one.

Back and forth they went with terse accusations. Exasperated, I finally blurted: “Stop it; just, stop it.”

I was reminded of this nasty affair when late last year newly elected President Donald Trump was confronted

HOW YOU SAY IT IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS THE MESSAGE YOU DELIVER. by “60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl’s question regarding his supporters’ harassment of Latinos and Muslims.

Trump’s response: “And I say, ‘Stop it.’ If it — if it helps, I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: ‘Stop it.’ ” I’ll admit, Trump’s statement had conviction — arguably more than mine did. While his “stop it” may temporarily soothe an edgy nation and workplaces teeming with potential to boil over in bias, there’s another two-word phrase Trump is known for that strikes fear into every worker’s heart.

“You’re fired” of course is the catchphrase from his reality TV show, “The Apprentice.” But which two-word phrase — a more reassuring “stop it” or brusque “you’re fired” — will define the man running our country for the next four years?

Like Trump, as workplace leaders we must toggle from “stop it” to “you’re fired.” It’s also on us to deliver the workplace tone for clarity, set an example of fairness and honesty.

Our new president gets no pass on this, either. The initial days and weeks of Trump’s tenure will provide that roadmap for our nation’s workplaces.

That there’s a massive shift ahead for our political landscape under Trump is without question. His impact on the workplace however, is less apparent.

Let’s define what we know: The courts and their interpretations of employment law will undergo a massive philosophical shift.

Laws and regulations affecting our lives and jobs, from the Affordable Care Act to H-1B immigration policies to minimum wage laws, parental leave issues and especially 50

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

organized labor, will come under intense scrutiny. The Family and Medical Leave Act and Fair Labor Standards Act will be under the microscope. Boards and agencies including the NLRB, OSHA, the EEOC and the Department of Labor face substantial overhauls.

That much is clear. What remains hazy is how our CEO-president’s provocateur-business leader-outsider persona will influence behavior in workplace corridors and on job sites across America.

When an unknown boss is tapped to lead an organization we check their LinkedIn profile; search for images and background; glean Glassdoor; perhaps even email a friend of a friend who may have a shred of insider knowledge.

There’s no need to play cyber-Sherlock Holmes with Trump. If we were in the dark about his leadership skills, abilities and attitudes, two years of campaigning and his time as president-elect clarify his management style.

Building a multibillion-dollar real estate empire is impressive. Beyond that remarkable bottom line, what does a peek into his supervisory toolbox reveal? Under organizational skills: withholding subcontractors’ pay and years of skirting tax laws. Checking the leadership box — a dizzying example of bullying, intimidation and name calling on social media. As a manager … ogling and belittling his beauty pageant contestants and taking “locker room banter” to near-obscene levels.

Maybe you’re all about results and the soft stuff doesn’t matter. Go ahead and look the other way. But with those qualities, Trump as a CEO looks like a lawsuit and extremely pricey settlement waiting to happen. It’s also behavior that I find unfit for any leader, let alone the president.

It would be a shame if HR has to play hall monitor rather than work as a strategic business partner during a Trump presidency. Policies will change; managers have learned to handle that. It’s the toxic attitudes and mounting disrespect for people that present such an ominous challenge during the next four years.

Fortunately, a handful of CEOs and leading employers have already committed to policing their workplaces.

President Trump could aid these leaders’ efforts and help curb growing workplace bias by turning his provocative rhetoric into more meaningful dialog with a few more “stop it” moments.

It may take a “stop it” to promote cohesion. A “you’re fired” could even ease fear and distrust. How that message is conveyed will speak volumes about your leadership skills and the quality of your workplace. In this new era, how you say it is just as important as the message you deliver.

Rick Bell is Workforce’s managing editor. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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