Workforce - July/August 2018

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July/August 2018

2018

THE

YOUNG AND THE

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From Our Editors

FROM PERSONNEL TO WORKFORCE The workplace has changed a lot since 1922. That year The Journal of Personnel Research debuted, rebranded later as Personnel Journal and finally Workforce. Now in our 96th year, we take a look back at what was on the minds of past generations of people managers.

Tragedy struck when a 19-year-old former student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing three staff members and 14 students on the 14th of February 2018.

The sound of those shots continues to reverberate.

Fueled by sorrow, anger and, yes, social media, a group of teenage students committed themselves to making a change and organized a nationwide movement to tackle gun violence.

As our feature story on page 44 chronicles, it also echoes into HR. In Coral Springs, one of the communities served by Stoneman Douglas, HR leaders immediately set up services to support city employees called on to respond to the shooting.

As we highlight Workforce Game Changers, the next generation of HR talent, I can’t think of two better examples to exemplify the power of positive change in the face of challenge.

— Mike Prokopeak, Editor in Chief 4

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

Employee Wellness in the 1930s,

OCTOBER 1935

Employers were interested in monitoring their employees’ health and diets well before the wellness kick of the 21st century.

Industrial hygiene specialist Frederick B. Flinn explained the implications of several diet and fatigue studies in “Diets and Efficiency” in Personnel Journal’s October 1935 issue. He concluded that more sleep is better for productivity and went into great detail about how an employee’s food consumption impacted their productivity — that is, at what time they ate meals, how much they ate per meal and how many meals they consumed per day. While today’s employers say their interest in wellness initiatives has business and personal concerns, in 1935, workplace health initiatives seemed much more business-oriented. It was suggested that “fatigue” should be replaced by “impairment of productivity.”

The issue also featured an article called “Pow-wow vs. Conference” about how the personnel man could learn a lot about organizing a meeting from the Indian medicine man. Writer Preseley W. Melton put meetings in two categories: a formal committee meeting, or a “harangue,” and a general mass meeting, or a “pow-wow.”

Finally, it featured an article about widespread unemployment for the college-educated American and how it spurred student discontent. “Disillusioned and embittered, some of them have rallied to the banners of leaders who promise to reorganize the economy,” author W.H. Cowley wrote. Consider that in 1935, global powers cited as examples were Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.

— Andie Burjek

The Rise of the Millennials,

FEBRUARY 2000

Before they were known as Generation Y or hung with the moniker of millennials, they were branded the Net Generation. Obviously that did not stick but “Ready or Not, Here Come the Net Kids” profiled several 18- and 19-year-olds at the vanguard of what we call the millennial generation in the February 2000 issue of Workforce.

“The latest entrants into corporate America were raised in the Information Age [their capitalization, not mine] — and will test HR’s capacity for cultural change,” wrote Charlene Marmer Solomon.

And thus began the angst and hand-wringing over incorporating this new generation of employees into the workplace as the new millennium dawned. HR’s challenge with the Net Kids? “Given the role models of this generation, the number of dot-com millionaires under 25 and the world view of this group, they present an interesting array of issues to HR.” And who were these role models? Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Tiger Woods and …

Britney Spears.

Also in this issue: A Q&A with then-Southwest Airlines VP of People Libby Sartain, the cover story on office redesign (including the sidebar, “What’s With All This Feng Shui?”), a feature titled “AIDS Threatens Global Business,” and a point-counterpoint on domestic-partner benefits regardless of marital status.

Oh, it was also then-editor Allan Halcrow’s farewell issue. Goodbye Allan, hello, Net Generation.

— Rick Bell

February 2000

j u ly / au g u s t

2018

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A PUBLICATION OF July/August 2018 | Volume 97, Issue 4 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER VICE PRESIDENT, John R. Taggart RESEARCH AND jrtag@workforce.com ADVISORY SERVICES Sarah Kimmel PRESIDENT Kevin A. Simpson skimmel@workforce.com ksimpson@workforce.com RESEARCH MANAGER VICE PRESIDENT, Tim Harnett GROUP PUBLISHER tharnett@workforce.com Clifford Capone ccapone@workforce.com DATA SCIENTIST Grey Litaker VICE PRESIDENT, EDITOR IN CHIEF glitaker@workforce.com Mike Prokopeak VIDEO AND MULTIMEDIA mikep@workforce.com PRODUCER EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Andrew Kennedy Lewis Rick Bell alewis@workforce.com rbell@workforce.com MANAGING EDITOR Ashley St. John astjohn@workforce.com SENIOR EDITOR Lauren Dixon ldixon@workforce.com ASSOCIATE EDITORS Andie Burjek aburjek@workforce.com Ave Rio ario@workforce.com ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Christopher Magnus cmagnus@workforce.com

MEDIA & PRODUCTION MANAGER Ashley Flora aflora@workforce.com

BUSINESS MANAGER Vince Czarnowski vince@workforce.com MARKETING DIRECTOR Greg Miller gmiller@workforce.com MARKETING SPECIALIST Kristen Britt kbritt@workforce.com REGIONAL SALES MANAGERS Derek Graham dgraham@workforce.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jennifer Benz Carol Brzozowski Kris Dunn Sarah Fister Gale Jon Hyman Patty Kujawa John A. MacKenzie Sasha Poljak Rita Pyrillis Daniel Saeedi Rachel L. Schaller

Robert Stevens rstevens@workforce.com Daniella Weinberg dweinberg@workforce.com DIRECTOR, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Kevin Fields kfields@workforce.com

PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Nina Howard nhoward@workforce.com

DIRECTOR, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Cindy Cardinal ccardinal@workforce.com

VICE PRESIDENT, EVENTS Trey Smith tsmith@workforce.com

DIGITAL & AUDIENCE INSIGHTS MANAGER Lauren Lynch llynch@workforce.com

EVENTS CONTENT EDITOR DIGITAL COORDINATOR Malaz Elsheikh Mannat Mahtani melsheikh@workforce.com mmahtani@workforce.com

EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR WEBCAST MANAGER Theresa Stoodley Alec O’Dell tstoodley@workforce.com aodell@workforce.com EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES Aysha Ashley Househ EVENTS GRAPHIC ahouseh@workforce.com DESIGNER Tonya Harris Rocio Villaseñor rvillasenor@workforce.com lharris@workforce.com

LIST MANAGER Mike Rovello hcmlistrentals@infogroup.com BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER Melanie Lee mlee@workforce.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.

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FREE LIVE

ONLINE EVENTS

CONTENTS

ON THE COVER CHANGING THE TECH GAME

Zackary King of Seattle’s King County is among this year’s Game Changers cutting a swath through the world of HR technology.

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COVER PHOTO BY DANIEL BERMAN

28

2018

SECTOR REPORT

FEATURES

48 TOO MANY RULES

28 GAME CHANGERS CLASS OF 2018

50 L&D IS LACKING

24 OLD AGE ARGUMENT

How a patchwork of regulations is putting companies at risk with screening vendors trying to help.

Why corporate training hasn’t kept up with today’s learners and what needs to change.

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Domestically and internationally, the 2018 Game Changers are standouts and standard-setters in the HR field.

As tech companies obsess to remain forever young, older workers may be key to the industry’s long-term health.

44 HR’S CRISIS RESPONSE

The Parkland school shooting earlier this year forced one city’s human resources team to jump into a crisis mode.

CORRECTION In the May/June “Workforce 100” list, the top ranking HR person at CDW should have been Keith Sanders, and Northwestern Mutual has 5,500 employees. j u ly / au g u s t

2018

ON THE WEB

44

SPEAK UP!

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

LIKE US: workforce.com/facebookpage

FOLLOW US: workforce.com/twitteraccount

24

JOIN THE GROUP: workforce.com/linkedingroup

WATCH US: workforce.com/youtubechannel

FOR YOUR BENEFIT COLUMNS 4

YOUR FORCE

When Human Resources Reaches Your Neighbors.

14 WORK IN PROGRESS

Is Organizational Turnover Contagious?

16 PHARMA FIGHT TO COURT

Illinois city files suit versus drugmakers, PBMs to clamp down on soaring costs.

17 ESOPs NO FABLE

With pending legislation, many soon-to-retire boomers are giving ESOPs a fresh look.

19 BENEFITS BEAT

A New Look at Caregiving.

22 THE PRACTICAL EMPLOYER RevisitYour Handbooks.

54 THE LAST WORD

Generation Z, You’re Just Like Us!

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17 GASSING UP

Gas-price spike pumps up new perk — fuel delivery at the workplace.

18 PLAYING THEIR CARDS

Noncash rewards are on the rise, but there are legal and practical considerations to keep in mind.

TRENDING 10 BLOCKCHAIN AND HR

Cryptocurrency tech will change HR.There’s still time to prepare.

11 PEOPLE MOVES AND

BY THE NUMBERS

Edelman taps Barker; goodbye boomers, hello Gen Z.

12 Q&A

Jeffrey Pfeffer addresses dying for a paycheck — literally.

12 HUNGRY FOR LUNCH BREAKS

Time away from the desk is a crucial part of a worker’s daily diet.

LEGAL 20 COLD AS ICE

Employers face stiff fines for immigration documents.

21 LEGAL BRIEFINGS

FMLA emails; boorish boss behavior.

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

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TRENDING

BLOCKCHAIN: THE FUTURE OF HR? Cryptocurrency tech will change the way you do your job. Don’t panic, it’s still few years away.

By Sarah Fister Gale lockchain is best known as the infra- payroll and contract payments — withstructure behind bitcoin and other out a bank or other intermediary. But cryptocurrencies that makes financial safety isn’t just useful for financial transtransactions safe without a bank or other actions, said Stacey Harris, vice president middleman. But the technology could of research and analytics for Sierra-Cedar. soon change the way human resources “Any time you have sensitive data that leaders handle all sensitive data. needs to be verified, moved or shared That has big implications for HR, said there is a place for blockchain.”

Jeff Mike, vice president and HR reHealth care is a perfect example. Many search leader for Bersin by Deloitte. employees who get health care benefits “The reason it is relevant is that block- through their employers don’t want to chain creates the potential for personal share their health history with their data to be owned by the individual rather company. But in order to choose providthan the organization,” he said. ers and secure services, the employers That means every employee could po- acts as an intermediary to share that data. tentially maintain control over their enIf the employee owns that data via tire academic and work identity, includ- blockchain, it removes the need for a ing where they went to school, their third party, Harris said.“Any time a piece grades and degrees, and their work histo- of data is touched by another human it ry and training.“It would be more secure create risk that the data will be lost or and more portable, moving with the in- used inappropriately,” she said. “Blockdividual instead of getting stuck inside chain reduces that risk.” the organization,” he said.

Blockchain also has the potential to streamline a lot of the drudge work related What Is Blockchain Anyway? to employee data verification, said Griffiths.

In a nutshell, blockchain is a peer-topeer network of ledgers that encrypts and stores blocks of data and digital history, and can be viewed and verified by anyone in the network. Every time new data is added it extends the ledger’s chain of blocks.The public nature of blockchain is what makes the technology unique, said Tim Griffiths, chief technology leader of Xref, an automated reference checking company in Sydney, Australia.

“Every time you add data to a block it is confirmed by the network,” he said.

For example, a university might verify If all of a candidate’s education, certificacompletion of a degree, or an employer tions and work history were stored in a could confirm dates of employment. single ledger it would take minutes rather Once data is added to a ledger, it is up- than days to verify that data. “Education dated across the network. Ledgers can be checks are the biggest pain point in the added to but not altered, ensuring infor- background check process,” he said. “It’s mation remains safe and uncompromised the ideal use case for HR.” — if someone tries to alter a ledger, everyone else on the network is able to see Where to Begin it, Griffiths explained. “It guarantees the All that said, the days of instantly veridata is certified and can’t be manipulated.” fying an entire work history or streamIt provides a way for two parties to lining health benefits via blockchain are safely complete transactions — including a long way off.

B

BLOCKCHAIN IS A PEER-TO-PEER NETWORK OF LEDGERS THAT ENCRYPTS AND STORES BLOCKS OF DATA.

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Jeff Mike

Tim Griffiths

“This is still a nascent field for HR,” Harris said, though she notes that the influx of venture capital flowing into blockchain startups suggests the industry could evolve quickly. Early adopters such as Bitwage are already using blockchain to streamline overseas wages and secure contract payments, and companies like Xref are exploring the use of blockchain in background checks. But none of these applications have gained traction — yet.

The big challenge is where to begin.

Like the internet or the rollout of electronic health care records, blockchain for HR will only add benefit when it achieves scale. For example, if every candidate had a blockchain verifying their degree, it would significantly speed the education background check process — but if only a handful of universities provide that data in blockchain, it doesn’t add much value, Griffiths said. He predicts that we are still two to five years away from seeing any meaningful applications of blockchain in HR. This doesn’t mean HR leaders can afford to completely ignore blockchain.

“You don’t want to get caught up in the hype, but it is worth paying attention to,” Mike said. He encouraged HR leaders to get familiar with the technology and to talk with their IT leaders about how it works and how it could affect the way they practice HR in the future. “If you no longer need to track down resources to verify records and record transactions, what ramifications will that have on the job?” he asked.These are the questions HR leaders should ask today to be ready for the future. “It won’t change your life in the next six months,” he added, “but it is going to happen.” j u ly / au g u s t

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TRENDING

PEOPLE

moves

MARIE-CLAIRE BARKER Global communications company Edelman named Marie-Claire Barker as global chief talent officer. Barker will lead the firm’s talent development, recruitment and retention efforts, partnering with leaders across the agency network to meet the evolving demands of clients and the diverse needs of employees. She will be based in New York.

SONYA HINDS Interim HealthCare Inc. named Sonya Hinds as chief administrative officer.

Hinds previously was Interim’s senior vice president of human resources, training and IT. Hinds will continue to oversee HR, training and IT as well as recruiting and retention initiatives. Hinds served four years in the U.S. Army and is a veteran of the Gulf War.

GENE RAFFONE Global asset manager Russell Investments named Gene Raffone as global chief human resources officer.

Raffone brings nearly three decades of experience in human capital solutions and has been given a broad mandate in his new role.

Raffone will be based in Seattle and serve as a member of the firm’s executive committee.

REBECCA ROBINS Interbrand named Rebecca Robins to the newly created role of chief learning and culture officer.

Robins’ key focus will be nurturing and developing talent across Interbrand’s 21 offices.

Robins has been a catalyst for the consultancy’s focus on learning and development through her leadership of the Interbrand Academy.

DIMITRA MANIS S&P Global named Dimitra Manis executive vice president and chief people officer. She will serve on the company’s operating committee. Manis joins S&P Global from Revlon Inc., where she served as the company’s CHRO. Before that she was SVP for global talent at Estée Lauder Cos. and worked at technology and data analytics-based companies OpenLink and Thomson Reuters.

Manis also served in senior leadership roles with AXA Group in Paris and Asia.

JESS WILLIAMS Biscuitville Fresh Southern named Jess Williams vice president of people excellence.

Williams will focus on the company’s talent management, organizational development and functional capability needed to support continued growth. She previously was director of HR for UPM Raflatac’s Americas region and Global Films strategic business unit. She also was director of HR for B/E Aerospace’s seating products group and, before that, worked in HR for General Electric and Honeywell.

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. j u ly / au g u s t

2018

By the Numbers compiled by Rick Bell

Xxxxxxxxxx

From B to Z

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Goodbye baby boomers and hello Gen Z.

Source: Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Five Generations of Employees Baby boomers

Silents 1925

1946

Gen Xers Millennials

1964

1980

Gen Z

1996

Source: Pew Research Center

The Digits 10,000 – Baby boomers leaving the Xxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxxxx workforce

every day

61 million –

Source: Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gen Zers living in the U.S.

Source: Pew Research Center

Generation Gap The U.S. workforce, by generation 2018

2020

2%

1%

Xxxxxxxxxx

25%

6%

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

33%

33%

Source: Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

35%

35%

5%

23%

Silents

Baby boomers

Gen Xers

Millennials

Gen Z

Source: Pew Research Center

Co-worker Conundrum Gen Z’s problem colleague, by generation: 13% 44% Gen Z

Millennials

37%

23%

Gen X

Baby boomers

Source: Careerminds

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

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TRENDING

GIVE ’EM A BREAK

By Aysha Ashley Househ

AUTHOR ADDRESSES DYING FOR A PAYCHECK — LITERALLY

A

Jeffrey Pfeffer, author

By Aysha Ashley Househ Jeffrey Pfeffer takes a direct approach when talking about the harmful health effects a negative workplace can have on employees. The professor of organizational behavior at the graduate school of business at Stanford University points out that these effects can happen to someone in any industry.

In his new book, “Dying for a Paycheck,” Pfeffer provides evidence and examples to support his claim that negative workplace environments are hurting — and in some cases killing — employees.

Workforce intern Aysha Ashley Househ spoke to Pfeffer about why he thinks wellness programs don’t work and how the government should regulate management practices.

WF: What do you think is the ideal wellness program?

Pfeffer: I think wellness programs fundamentally don’t work. You have workplaces in which people are working long hours, people don’t have job control, people are facing economic insecurity because of layoffs and scheduling issues. And then what employers have tried to do is put on what I would call a Band-Aid. We’re going to offer you yoga or a little exercise.

And they don’t work because they are focused on individual behavior. I want you to stop smoking, I want you to stop drinking, I want you to exercise, I want you to eat better. I remember the quote [in the book] from the woman I called Kim who worked at Amazon. She said, “I would basically do anything, take any drug, to try and numb the psychological pain I was feeling from my workplace.” You need to change the environment, and then the health and wellness programs will work.

WF: What’s your advice for people in a stressful job, but can’t leave?

Pfeffer: Leave. [Laughs] My facetious suggestion of leaving is not completely facetious. Once you have ruined your physical and psychological health by being in these harmful, toxic environments, it is very hard to reverse that damage. If I said to you, you’re in a place where they’re poisoning you, and you can’t leave the place … there’s no answer.

WF: What is one thing you want people to take away from the book?

Pfeffer: The Bob Chapman quote: “Your employer’s more important for your health than your family doctor.”

Employers really are the cause of the health care crisis. Most health care spend is on chronic disease; chronic disease mostly comes from stress and stress comes from the workplace. So, if we want to fix the health care crisis and the health care cost crisis in this country, the place to begin is with the work environment.

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new survey shows the vast majority of employees take into account whether they get a lunch break when scouting for a job. Once they land that gig, however, results also show that more employees are scarfing down a sandwich rather than leisurely dining on dim sum.

“Take Back the Lunch Break” shows that 27 percent of the 1,600 North American survey participants don’t take a lunch break each workday. The study notes that going out for lunch helps workers feel more engaged and productive, said Jennifer J. Deal, senior research scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership and affiliated research scientist at the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California.

“If you think about athletes, there’s halftime for a reason, right? Because halfway through any endeavor, you need a break.You need to take time to breathe and not continually engage in the activity,” said Deal, who partnered with workplace hygiene company Tork for the study. “For people in the workplace, taking a lunch break is just that.

It’s halftime.”

Employees who took a lunch break every day scored higher than those who didn’t in the survey results for job satisfaction, the likelihood to continue working at the same company, and recommending their employer to others.

Deal said employees want to be perceived as hard-working so they bypass lunch and power through the day.

There may be some truth to that, given that survey results show 22 percent of supervisors think employees who take regular lunch breaks are less hardworking.

Employees and employers can nibble away at the problem. Deal recommends that employees pay attention to their energy levels to notice when they start to get drained. And employers can help change the culture at the company.

“You need to model the behavior and not reward the person who never takes breaks. So, it’s a matter of modeling behavior, encouraging behavior and rewarding behavior,” Deal said. j u ly / au g u s t

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TRENDING

IS ORGANIZATIONAL TURNOVER CONTAGIOUS?

By Kris Dunn |

P

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

eople hate it when other people cough or sneeze near them.The reason is simple.We don’t want to catch whatever you have!

We’re quick to say “no” to other people’s physical maladies. We’re much less quick to say no to what researchers have labeled emotional contagion.

What is emotional contagion? It’s the phenomenon of having one person’s emotions and related behaviors directly trigger similar emotions and behaviors in other people.

Studies show we pick up cognitive baggage from others without even knowing it — both the positive and negative variety.

People routinely “catch” each other’s feelings when working together in groups.

It’s not surprising that this influences your employees’ moods. What’s more surprising is that it significantly influences their judgment and business decisions as well, usually without anyone having a clue about what’s going on.

One area that’s routinely viewed as a negative form of emotional contagion is employee turnover. You know the drill. Someone announces they are leaving and all of a sudden there’s a rush to the door. People ask, “What’s wrong?” and “Should I be moving on too?” This is never more noticeable than in our current peak economic cycle.

Bringing is us back to: Is turnover contagious?

Of course it is. But instead of viewing it as a bad thing, let’s view this organizational form of a head cold as an opportunity. Here are five reasons why emotional contagion in the form of turnover (or employees thinking about leaving) is a good thing for your company and your team of managers: 1. A single employee announcing their intent to leave causes you to take stock of your team. If you believe turnover is contagious, then you surely are taking stock of who might be next to be on the market.

Taking stock is good; it forces you to stack rank those on your team.

2. Taking stock of your team allows you to think about your salary cap. In sports, a salary cap is the maximum amount of money a team can spend on players.You have a cap as well. It’s called your salary budget. Taking stock of your team when someone announces they are leaving causes you to consider different ways to allocate money to those who remain, and that’s healthy.

3. Some people may need to leave, but contagious turnover is not kind. Let’s face it: If you have 10 people on your team and one leaves, everyone gets a bit of the emotional contagion of contagious turnover.Too bad the ones you’d like to see leave are immune to coming down with the turnover bug.Turnover forces you to think about who you’d like to see leave, but you understand that they probably won’t.

4. The threat of contagious turnover should cause you to do the reorg you’ve been thinking about.

Note that I spelled reorg with a small “r,” because I’m not talking about layoffs, I’m talking about a refresh of responsibilities and who does what as a part of your team.

Sometimes a refresh of work is all that’s required to get people through the head cold that is contagious turnover. Think of this as a team shot of vitamin C that you administer when you hear the first sneeze.

5. Turnover is a call for you to talk to the people who matter most on your team. Should you talk to everyone? Sure, but a lot those folks can be covered in a group setting talking about the change. For your highest performers, the people you can’t live without, you need to have a one on one, address the turnover and rapidly move to talking about them. Give them new assignments and money if you are so moved to make them feel the love.

Did someone mention money? As a manager of people, salary compression, inequality and other bad things are present in every organization to some degree. Those confounding variables often conspire when turnover happens to limit your ability to use money as a tool to stop the bleeding.

My experience is that money as a tool is more available when turnover is a problem than most managers think. For best results, make addressing compression and inequality part of the plan related to how you want to use money to solidify your team in an environment suddenly riddled with turnover.

Turnover is contagious. But turnover is also a gift, a call to action for you to wake up as a manager and start moving cheese, money and other items to interrupt the pattern and avoid being the victim.

Feed the cold and starve the fever, people.

EMOTIONAL CONTAGION IS ONE PERSON’S EMOTIONS AND RELATED BEHAVIORS DIRECTLY TRIGGERING SIMILAR EMOTIONS AND BEHAVIORS IN OTHER PEOPLE.

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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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• Portland, OR – May • New York City, NY - May • San Francisco, CA – May • Salt Lake City, UT - May • Houston, TX - June • Buffalo, NY – June • Milwaukee, WI – September • Philadelphia, PA – September • Detroit, MI – September • Columbus, OH - October • Toronto, CA – October • Chicago, IL – October • Tyson’s Corner, VA – November • Orlando, FL – November • Miami, FL – November • Scottsdale, AZ – December

• SIOP Annual Conference:

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Dates and locations are subject to change.

Chicago, IL - April 19-20

• APA Annual Congress:

National Harbor, MD - May 15-19

• SHRM Conference & Exposition: Chicago, IL - June 17-20

• HR Technology Conference & Exposition: Las Vegas, NV - September 11-14

• ASHHRA Conference & Exposition: Pittsburgh, PA - September 16-17

Visit our our website to learn more about the educational and fun events. Ultimate Software is hosting and participating in this year.

Go to www.ultimatesoftware.com/events for details.

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15

FOR YOUR BENEFIT

Public Agencies Taking Pharma Fight to Court An Illinois city is the latest to file suit against drugmakers and PBMs to clamp down on soaring costs.

By Rita Pyrillis

P

resident Donald Trump put drugmakers and health care “middlemen” on notice during a speech in May pushing for lower prices on prescription drugs. But one employer was ahead of the president, already taking them on in the courts in hopes that more will follow.

The city of Rockford, Illinois, filed a lawsuit April 6 against drug manufacturer Mallinckrodt, which makes H.P. Acthar, a drug that treats a rare and potentially fatal epileptic disorder in infants. Two years ago, Rockford, about 80 miles northwest of Chicago, discovered that the cost to treat just two babies with the drug accounted for 2.5 percent of its $23 million health care fund — nearly a half-million dollars. The drug cost $40 a dose in 2001, but as of 2017, the price soared to more than $34,000 per dose.

“The city of Rockford came to a startling realization a few years ago that they were running an insurance company,” said Ryan Brauns, a consultant with Rockford Consulting and Brokerage, which represents the city in health care matters. “They are self-insured so the cost of a doctor visit comes right out of the city health fund, which was at minus-$4 million. It led to taking a more proactive approach.”

In 2015, city officials opened an onsite health clinic that provided a clearer picture of their health care spending, according to Brauns.“It was pretty quickly obvious that we had a problem with Acthar,” he said.

Rockford is one of a small group of public employers fighting runaway drug costs by suing drug manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers, the so-called middlemen between employers and drugmakers. The city also named a subsidiary of Express Scripts, a St. Louis-based PBM, in its lawsuit.

In 2014 the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority in Philadelphia filed a lawsuit against drugmaker Gilead alleging price gouging over the drug Sovaldi, which treats hepatitis C. The state agency said that it paid more than $2.4 million for Sovaldi prescriptions for its employees that year.

Two years later the city of Providence, Rhode Island, sued CVS Health Corp. over the cost of generic prescription drugs.

Rockford’s lawsuit alleges that Mallinckrodt violated federal antitrust laws by maintaining a monopoly that allowed them to increase the price of Acthar to an exorbitant level, according to the complaint.

Last year the Irish drugmaker faced similar charges filed by the Federal Trade Commission and three state attorneys general and agreed to pay $100 million to settle the lawsuit, according to an FTC press release. In 2001 the company’s U.S. subsidiary purchased the drug and began raising the price while preventing competitors from introducing a similar drug.

However, the FTC failed to establish a price for the drug, leaving the door open for future abuses, according to Brauns.

“Our suit is about exposing this anticompetitive behavior and 16

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asking the court to set the price,” he said. “We are the ones on the frontlines of this, we’re the ones dealing with price inflation and we’re the ones who must raise our voices about this. We said, ‘We’re just not going to take it any more.’ ” Cheryl Larson, president and CEO of the Midwest Business Group on Health, applauds Rockford’s decision to sue a drug manufacturer, but points to PBMs as a bigger problem in the pharmaceutical supply chain.

PBMs, the middlemen Trump referred to in his speech, are one of the most influential players in the drug supply chain, representing a multibillion-dollar industry. They serve as an intermediary between the employer and the other players in the health care system, promising great savings to companies by using the buying power of enrollees to bargain for lower prices from drugmakers.

PBMs also create the list of drugs that a health plan offers, known as a formulary. Drugmakers vie for a preferred spot on that list, paying PBMs a percentage of the drug’s price. But how they make their money is often unclear.

“The real issue is the PBM, not the drug manufacturer,” she said. “Pharma is being held hostage by PBMs with their rebates.

Long gone are the days when drug formularies are built on clinical efficacy, if they ever were.”

As for Rockford, the lawsuit and a recent segment by TV news show “60 Minutes” has generated “dozens and dozens” of calls and emails from public employers across the country who want to join the lawsuit, according to Brauns.

“The municipal sector is uniquely equipped to take this on,” he said.“A lot of plan sponsors are busy with their core business.

Rockford has its own legal department and the capacity not only to represent our employees but the citizens of Rockford as well. We can press that advantage.You can get these municipalities to band together in pursuit of these kinds of actions.” j u ly / au g u s t

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FOR YOUR BENEFIT

Gassing Up in the Workplace

No Fable: ESOPs Gain Favor Among Business Owners Looking to Retire

Employers are pumping up the perks to drive employee satisfaction.

With pending legislation, many soon-to-retire boomers are giving ESOPs a fresh look.

By Rita Pyrillis

By Patty Kujawa

A

s consumers brace for a spike in gas prices this summer, some employees may be feeling a little less pain at the pump thanks to a relatively new perk — fuel delivery at the workplace.

In the past few years, a number of startups that offer this service have popped up across the country, promising to spare employees the hassle of filling up at the gas station.

There is Booster Fuels in the Bay Area, Filld in Silicon Valley, Yoshi, which launched last year in Southern California, and Neighborhood Fuel in Miami, among others.

“It’s a perk that doesn’t cost the employee or the employer anything, that puts time back into your schedule, saves you money and eliminates a chore that no one enjoys,” said Jorge Camaraza Jr., founder of Neighborhood Fuel.

He said he got the idea in 2015 after a frustrating experience at a gas station with a broken pump and a faulty Jorge Camaraza Jr. credit card reader.

“The workplace is a great market for this,” he said. “There are a large amount of cars and predictable parking opportunities to service the client. They can park their car, push a button on an app and leave work with a tank full of gas.”

Employees request fuel delivery through their smartphone and designate the location where their car is parked. A truck carrying fuel will stop by and fill their tank and the employee will get a notification on their app and a receipt, he explained.

Some startups add a per gallon surcharge or a monthly fee, but Camaraza said that Neighborhood Fuel makes money by buying gas directly from suppliers at a lower cost than at the pumps.

With gas prices at their highest level since 2014, commuters will be paying more, but some will be doing it from the comfort of their office chair. j u ly / au g u s t

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Having that kind of culture makes it easier for employees to feel empowered to offer ideas for improvement to their company, he said.

“If you are interested in preserving your legacy and rewarding people, ESOPs make sense,” Rosen said.

“Selling to someone else makes all of this go away.”

Litigation, cost and lack of guidance are the trifecta that heavily influences doing an ESOP, experts Jennifer Wise agreed. ESOPs are not as straightforward as 401(k)s, and things get tricky when stock valuations are done to set the price for the stock to be purchased by the ESOP from the owners.

Most lawsuits center on bad stock valuations, said Michael Keeling, president and chief staff officer of the ESOP Association. Often, the Labor Department, which oversees ESOPs, files a lawsuit on behalf of the ESOP against the trustee and/or the owner for the overvaluation.

“Sellers can’t be too greedy, and I think that is what happens,”Wise said.

While it’s important to be fair, Keeling said that the Labor Department tends to focus on the offenders more than the thousands of success stories.

For example, according to the Labor Department’s “Private Pension Plan Bulletin Historical Tables and Graphs,” ESOPs outperformed 401(k) rates of return 10 out of the 15 years between 2001 and 2015.

“No doubt that ESOPs will benefit if bad actors are caught,” Keeling said.

“But there are so many good examples out there.”

Keeling added he would like to see the DOL issue clearer guidelines for valuations.There are accepted procedures in the industry, but an official best practice guide is what is needed.

Cost of valuations is also a hard pill for many companies to swallow.

NCEO’s Rosen said initial valuations can cost between $100,000 and $150,000, and many owners are unable to do that.Wise said she was quoted for valuations going as high as $250,000 before she settled on the best price of $110,000.

Meanwhile, Congress has turned its attention to promoting ESOPs with the introduction of two bills in the House and Senate. The House bill is aimed at giving the Small Business Administration broader authority in helping companies establish ESOPs. The legislation in the Senate also empowers the SBA to promote employee ownership.

Rosen is reasonably optimistic about this round of legislation because Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, and Gary Peters, D-Michigan, along with Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-New York — all members of Congress sponsoring ESOP legislation — seem to be more serious about providing opportunities for workers to save more for retirement. “The real trick [to passing legislation] is not so much getting the votes, it’s getting ESOPS continued on page 52 w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

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FOR YOUR BENEFIT

Gift Cards Cook Holiday Turkey’s Goose as Employee Incentive Noncash rewards are on the rise, but there are legal and practical considerations to keep in mind.

By Andie Burjek

C

ash isn’t always king. Employees can feel the love when they receive noncash rewards from their employer.

The 2017 “Trends Study” from the Incentive Research Foundation found that 70 percent of U.S. businesses used gift card programs and 60 percent gave merchandise as some form of reward to their employees. The report also found that U.S. businesses spent $24 billion annually on gift cards.

Noncash rewards such as gift cards help keep employees connected to the greater whole of the organization, according to Jeremy Tolley, chief people officer at CareHere LLC, a Nashville-based health care and wellness provider. Its noncash rewards include sending its nurses a card during National Nurses Week or giving employees an Amazon gift card with a note, “Buy yourself a book! You deserve to curl up, relax and read a book.”

Jeremy Tolley

Such noncash rewards work well with CareHere’s widely dispersed employee population. “[We’ll] have a pocket of three or four employees in a rural location,”Tolley said.

An extra $25 in a paycheck might not be something they notice, especially with direct deposit, he said. If a company wants to reward an employee, a gift card can make that recognition more memorable.

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“It makes the thank-you or the occasion last a little longer because they have that in their purse or pocket, and they can take it and cash it in later,”Tolley said.

Such rewards come with legal guidelines. Employers must keep IRS rules in mind and remember that de minimis items — something like a fringe benefit, for example, whose value is too small to be considered legally — are not taxed.

However, the IRS does not define what value is considered de miminis.

AN EXTRA $25 IN A PAYCHECK MIGHT NOT BE NOTICED, ESPECIALLY WITH DIRECT DEPOSIT. A GIFT CARD CAN MAKE THAT RECOGNITION MORE MEMORABLE. “It’s important [that] you have a good relationship with your finance department and make sure that they are aware of the taxation fees, because you don’t want to have a problem and get in trouble with that,” said Paula Harvey, vice president of human resources and safety at Schulte Building Systems Inc., a construction company in Hockley, Texas. “Any time I’m thinking about these things, my CFO and I talk about it.”

Experts consider $25 or less to be a safe amount, she added.Years ago, Schulte began to offer $25 grocery store gift cards during the holidays when there were complaints about the annual Christmas ham and Thanksgiving turkey.

A gift card allowed employees to buy what they needed rather than be limited to one item.

Vendors have ventured into the giftcard space and created a system in which employers don’t have to deal with taxation issues, Harvey added — one reason for their popularity over the years.

Buffalo Wild Wings launched a corporate gift card portal in 2014 to allow organizations to buy cards in bulk. They saw it as an opportunity to remain competitive as more large retailers entered the business-to-business incentive space, said Kim Sobasky, director of gift cards at the Minneapolis-based company.

Paula Harvey

“To be brand-forward and competitive, we wanted to get as easy and simple for companies to purchase directly from us,” she said.

Although legal considerations are important, other guidelines can help companies use gift cards more effectively.

Gift cards shouldn’t be used to recognize good safety records, Harvey said.

She’s seen companies reward employees who went a year without a safety incident, prompting some employees to take advantage of the gift. “[Some employees] want to get the reward and then don’t report when they get hurt,” she said.

Offering a gift card to a place an employee does not like may be seen as a disincentive, CareHere’s Tolley said. Many gift cards go unused, he added, because employees lose them or don’t patronize that store or restaurant. People seem to be happy with something more general, like Amazon.

“My No. 1 rule when someone proposes a gift card incentive is, do we know this is a gift card this person will have a use for?” Tolley said. j u ly / au g u s t

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FOR YOUR BENEFIT

A NEW LOOK AT CAREGIVING

By Jennifer Benz |

T

Benefits Beat

his past spring, I got that phone call no one ever wants to receive. My mother had experienced a cardiac incident and had to be resuscitated. Mom, heart stopped, resuscitated was about all I heard or understood before I was on a flight.

When I walked into her hospital room the next day, my mom looked decades older than the last time I had seen her. She was stable but weak. I soon learned that the issue was a pulmonary embolism; a big blood clot had traveled from her leg to her lungs and stopped her heart. Had she not been at the hospital when it happened — literally in the arms of a nurse — she would not have survived.

The next several days were some of the most worrisome and stressful of my entire life, and certainly for my dad, sister, and the rest of our family.

When my mom was cleared to go home, she faced a double whammy: recovery and physical therapy for her knee replacement (the reason she was in the hospital in the first place), while needing a ton of rest and ongoing monitoring following the embolism.

I spent 2.5 weeks with her, first worrying at the hospital and then helping her at home. All the while, doing my best not to let too much fall through the cracks.

I was only back home for a week when I learned that my grandmother had been rushed to the ER and was in the ICU, awaiting surgery. She is 89 and had been hospitalized not long before. Again, I booked a flight and got to her as soon as I could. For a week, I traded shifts at the hospital with my cousins, aunts and grandfather, spending the night there before and after her surgery.

Fortunately, my mother and grandmother are both doing well now, and the urgency is over. My mom is looking and feeling like her usual vibrant self, and our family is now trying to figure out the right amount of support for my grandparents so they can continue to live independently.

This was all new to me. But my experience is just an example of what is happening all over the country, to millions of families, every day. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 44 million people provide unpaid care to elders. And very few people have the flexibility or job security I do. So, in addition to all the stress and fear about their loved ones, they worry about their job and paycheck — and the longterm impact on their career.

I’m more concerned than ever about how we address this within our organizations, large and small. Common-sense programs like referral resources and backup child care and elder care already exist. And although 99 percent of employees surveyed by Bright Horizons Family Solutions said backup care is important in helping them complete their regular work responsibilities, only a portion of employers offer this as a benefit.

There are a host of other programmatic benefits that better support caregiving: extended leave, support transitioning back from leave, flexible schedules and workfrom-home options, on-site child care and more. We have seen time and time again that introducing these benefits has a positive impact on the whole company, not just those who use them. Yet, McKinsey’s 2017 “Women in the Workplace” report states “support for parents on an ongoing basis is relatively scarce.”

Clearly there’s an opportunity to provide more programs for employees. But it isn’t enough to simply put benefits in place that support navigating care or filling gaps.

Organizations must also have cultures of trust and compassion, so employees can be transparent about the burdens they manage outside of work and so their work can flex around those needs. This is especially important for women — and the organizations that need to and want to retain them.

The burden of caring for others falls disproportionately on women. They’re more likely to take breaks from their careers to help a family member and they are less likely to have a partner who stays at home to care for the family.

The impact in the short term is job insecurity and stress.

In the long term, it means women have less savings.

The Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement estimates that women caregivers lose an average of $324,044 in wages, Social Security benefits and retirement income over a lifetime. As a result, they’re twice as likely as non-caregivers to end up in poverty.

Caring for loved ones is real life. It is time for us to build work around that reality.

MORE THAN 44 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE U.S. PROVIDE UNPAID CARE TO ELDERS. THAT’S STRESS AND FEAR ABOUT LOVED ONES ON TOP OF WORRY ABOUT JOB AND PAYCHECK.

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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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Legal Cold as ICE Employers face stiff fines for immigration documents violations.

By John A. MacKenzie

I

t is no secret that the Trump administration has an agenda to crack down on illegal immigration.

Part of this process includes extensive audits on businesses conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Although immigration management is an important part of our nation’s regulatory and security processes, audits on businesses are often conducted with very little notice and result in hefty fines from ICE. It is anticipated that ICE audits will become even more prevalent during the current administration. Employers can avoid some of the burden and risk of fines by being cognizant of, and prepared for, ICE audits. At the very least, employers must keep their immigration records organized, accurate and complete to provide support for substantially mitigating any fine.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act requires employers to verify the identity and employment eligibility of their employees, commonly known as the I-9 form and process. The Act is governed by 8 C.F.R. 274A and codified in the Immigration and Nationality Act 8 U.S.C. 1324a.

Before an ICE audit, your company will receive a Notice of Inspection that compels your company to produce I-9 forms and supporting documentation for all employees that fall under the scope of the Act. Employers will be given three days from the Notice of Inspection to prepare for ICE officers to arrive and perform the inspection.

Once the inspection is complete, if there are any violations, ICE may choose to issue a Notice of Intent to Fine, or NIF. That notice will explain the applicable violations and fines incurred.

After receiving that notice, your company has 30 days to submit a hearing request in writing to ICE in an effort to dispute or mitigate the fine.Also, you may submit a written response to ICE addressing each allegation within 30 days of the NIF. However, if your company does nothing after receiving the NIF, ICE will issue a final and unappealable order enforcing the fine.

So, what do you do if you receive a Notice of Inspection from ICE? Immediately after receiving it, you should contact counsel (or another specialist) familiar with the I-9 auditing process to help you prepare for the audit. Retaining assistance at this stage will allow for proactive review and guidance be20

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fore ICE’s inspection. This will allow you to cure any defects in your company’s records before inspection and/or obtain an extension of time to prepare, if necessary.

Retaining assistance to prepare for an ICE audit may prevent a six- to seven-figure fine from being assessed against your company. Even if your company is not employing any unauthorized aliens, your company can still be fined for paperwork violations.

Many folks cringe at the thought of needing counsel or avoid it in an effort to avoid incurring costs. However, in this circumstance, retaining assistance to prepare for an ICE audit may prevent a six- to seven-figure fine from being assessed against your company. Indeed, even if your company is not employing any unauthorized aliens, the organization can still be fined significantly for paperwork violations, which at first glance, appear to be minor in nature and degree. Such violaj u ly / au g u s t

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tions are significant to ICE and can rack up significant fines per technical violation.

Disputing a Fine From ICE If the proactive approach has come and gone, your company still has the ability to dispute and/ or mitigate an ICE fine for I-9 violations. If the alleged violations are technical or procedural, these can be cured within 10 days post-inspection. Technical or procedural violations would be minor details missing from the I-9 form that do not affect ICE’s ability to determine whether the employee is authorized to work in the U.S. However, if the violations are not cured, they will be deemed substantive and fined.

Substantive violations are failures in the I-9 form completion process that prevent ICE from confirming that the employee is authorized to work in the United States. Examples include failure of the employee to sign Section 1; failure of the employer to sign Section 2; missing List A or List B and C information; and failure to produce an I-9 form for an employee covered by the Act. Such violations are difficult to overcome, but worth combating.

Disputing substantive violations requires a thorough review of all information and records that were subject to the ICE audit. In practice, we often find instances where ICE issued fines for employee violations where defenses are applicable, such as a statute of limitations defense (8 C.F.R. 274a.2(b)(2)(i) or 28 U.S.C. 2462); substantial compliance defense; good faith defense under 8 C.F.R. 274a.4 (applicable to “knowing violations”); Eighth Amendment defense for excessive fines; or ICE simply erred in its review of the often voluminous records and fine calculation. Asserting these defenses, when applicable, may result in significant reduction or elimination of the fine against your company.

The best way for an employer to protect itself from ICE fines for I-9 violations is to implement effective standard practices for executing the I-9 form with new hires (and rehires), organizing record keeping in accordance with the Act, and training. Further, retaining assistance after receiving Notice of Intent, but before the inspection actually occurs, will allow you to cure defects before the audit and avoid fines altogether. When all else fails, you should notify and retain counsel immediately upon receiving notice that your inspection was unsatisfactory to begin the mitigation process.

John A. MacKenzie is a member of Maddin Hauser’s Complex Litigation and Risk Advisory Practice Group in Detroit. To comment, email editors@Workforce.com.

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Legal Legal Briefings SUPERVISOR SAYS SORRY FOR BOORISH BEHAVIOR Jacqueline Lee overheard her supervisor, Don Egge, discussing his desire for her to begin wearing her “spring outfits,” describing her and another employee as “here come the jugs” and discussing another employee who was “banging someone.” Lee reported Egge to HR. HR’s investigation confirmed Egge made these comments. Egge apologized to Lee, acknowledged his words were not appropriate and promised it would not happen again. He further promised not to retaliate against Lee. Because there were no other available positions, HR asked Lee to return to work as Egge’s subordinate.

Dissatisfied with HR’s response, Lee resigned from her position. That same day, Egge was suspended for two weeks without pay. Lee sued the company for fostering a hostile work environment. The court found the company not liable on two grounds. First, under the law of the Seventh Circuit, a single incident does not create a sexually hostile work environment unless it is tied to physical violence or the direct solicitation of sex. Egge’s conduct, while boorish, was not directed to Lee (she overheard the conversation) and was not severe enough to create a hostile work environment. Second, the company took appropriate remedial action. It conducted a prompt and thorough investigation, elicited an apology from Egge and his commitment not to retaliate or engage in further harassment, and suspended Egge for two weeks without pay. Lee v. Dairyland Power Cooperative, No. 17-cv-50wmc, 2018 WL 1401274 (W.D. Wis. March 20, 2018).

IMPACT: Not all offensive conduct creates a hostile work environment. And while complaints of harassment are on the rise, employers can protect themselves from liability by enforcing well-crafted sexual harassment policies.

EMAILING EMPLOYEES ON FMLA LEAVE Sonja Nowlin was a sales representative for Novo Nordisk Inc. Nowlin took intermittent FMLA leave to care for her ailing father. While on leave, Nowlin received two emails from Novo requesting that she return damaged drug samples. Novo did not require Nowlin to respond while on leave. Upon her return to work, Nowlin mailed the drug samples to Novo.

Five months later, Novo fired Nowlin for failing to properly document her sales calls on days she was supposed to be working. Nowlin sued Novo under the FMLA, alleging Novo interfered with her right to FMLA leave and retaliated against her. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected Nowlin’s FMLA claim. The court recognized that while multiple attempts by an employer to contact an employee on FMLA could constitute unlawful interference, two isolated emails did not rise to this level.

The court also rejected Nowlin’s retaliation claim because she was fired for a well-documented, legitimate reason. Nowlin v. Novo Nordisk Inc., No. 17-5507, 2018 WL 1805141 (6th Cir. Feb. 28, 2018).

IMPACT: Employers should be wary of contacting employees on FMLA leave and demanding the completion of work tasks. Small, isolated communications that do not demand responses may not be illegal, but employers should do their best to refrain from making any work request.

Rachel L. Schaller and Daniel Saeedi are attorneys at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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Legal

Revisit Your Handbooks Jon Hyman |

The Practical Employer

W

hen is the last time you reviewed, or, even better, rewrote your employee handbook?

Last year? Five years ago? Ten years ago? What’s an employee handbook?

Now is as good a time as any to dust off yours, and give it a good review and polishing.

The National Labor Relations Board recently published guidance on the standards it will follow in determining whether a facially neutral employment policy violates the rights of employees to engage in concerted activity protected by section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. The board, over scathing dissents by its more reasonable members and scorching critiques from business groups, had applied its longstanding Lutheran Heritage rule to find that a variety of employment policies violate employees’ rights to engage in protected concerted activity under section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. Lutheran Heritage asked if an employee would “reasonably construe” a work rule to infringe on their right engage in protected concerted activity. The benign policies it found unlawful ranged from confidentiality, to insubordination, to the use of company logos, to photography bans, and to conflict-of-interest rules. Over the past few years, the board’s Lutheran Heritage test has led to some pretty crazed results.

Lutheran Heritage, however, now resides in the NLRB’s dust bin. In its place is Boeing Co., which scrapped the board’s “reasonably construe” test.

whether the rule would interfere with rights guaranteed by the NLRA, and if so, whether any adverse impact on those rights is outweighed by legitimate justifications.

Such rules include: • Broad conflict-of-interest rules that do not specifically target fraud and self-enrichment and do not restrict membership in, or voting for, a union.

• Confidentiality rules broadly encompassing “employer business” or “employee information” (as opposed to confidentiality rules regarding customer or proprietary information, or confidentiality rules more specifically directed at employee wages, terms of employment, or working conditions.

• Rules regarding disparagement or criticism of the employer (as opposed to civility rules regarding disparagement of employees).

• Rules regulating use of the employer’s name (as opposed to rules regulating use of the employer’s logo/trademarks.

• Rules generally restricting speaking to the media or third parties (as opposed to rules restricting speaking to the media on the employer’s behalf.

• Rules banning off-duty conduct that might harm the employer (as opposed to rules banning insubordinate or disruptive conduct at work, or rules specifically banning participation in outside organizations).

Rules against making false or inaccurate statements (as opposed to rules against making defamatory statements).

Category 1: Rules Generally Lawful to Maintain

Category 3: Rules Unlawful to Maintain

These rules are presumed lawful because, when reasonably interpreted, they do not prohibit or interfere with the exercise of rights guaranteed by the Act, or because the potential adverse impact on protected rights is outweighed by the business justifications associated with the rule. Such rules include: • Civility rules • No-photography rules and no-recording rules • Rules against insubordination, non-cooperation, or on-the-job conduct that adversely affects operations • Disruptive behavior rules • Rules protecting confidential, proprietary, and customer information or documents • Rules against defamation or misrepresentation • Rules against using employer logos or intellectual property • Rules requiring authorization to speak for the company • Rules banning disloyalty, nepotism, or self-enrichment

Rules in this category are generally unlawful because they would prohibit or limit NLRA-protected conduct, and the adverse impact on the rights guaranteed by the NLRA outweighs any justifications associated with the rule. Such rules include: • Confidentiality rules specifically regarding wages, benefits, or working conditions (such as, “Employees are prohibited from discussing or disclosing wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, or any other remuneration.”).

• Rules against joining outside organizations or voting on matters concerning the employer.

These rules are welcome news for employers, as they provide much needed sanity on the legality of facially neutral employment policies, many of which employers scrapped under the NLRB’s questionable Obamaera rulings.

Category 2: Rules of Individualized Scrutiny These rules are not obviously lawful or unlawful, and must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to determine 22

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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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Someone once said age is not important unless you are cheese or a bottle of wine. As tech companies obsess to remain forever young, older workers may hold the key to the industry’s long-term health.

BY SASHA POLJAK

I

n 2017, Roger Federer set an all-time record when he won his eighth Wimbledon tennis title at the age of 36.About the same time, Bob Williamson, a lifelong friend of mine, won his 10th salesman of the year award for a large medical systems company at the age of 59.

Neither win was probable, but Federer and my friend were lauded by their competitors and supporters. Their age was once perceived as a hindrance and insurmountable obstacle to reaching the pinnacle in their respective professions. Both my friend and Federer agree that age played a role but didn’t let it define

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them and subsequently alter their success.

One of my younger friends in his late 20s recently became the chief technology officer of a venture-backed start-up. The position was competitive and he beat out several older and much more experienced individuals to get it. This wasn’t a surprise to me, as I always knew of his superior abilities. His opinion, however, of why he got the job stunned me.

“This was actually easy,” he recalled of the hiring process.“All my competitors were too old.”

While I initially dismissed his reason as utter nonsense, he insisted it was true, that “older workers often

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don’t work as hard or as long as we do. They prioritize offwork obligations that detract their attention from their primary job. Also, they usually have obsolete skill sets and work styles that make them fall behind.”

I was perplexed and intrigued at how such a damaging and distorted view had come to dominate the tech industry — a view where anyone over the age of 40 was seen as frail, obsolete and left to shuffle through the wilderness with their Apple II computers duct-taped to their walkers.

So in the eyes of younger workers, and more and more commonly among the board members across the tech industry, the definition of being “too old” rests with having interests and obligations outside of work and being perceived as possessing outdated skills.

Working ‘Hard’ It’s no secret that the industry has a fetish for younger workers because of their levels of energy and willingness to pull all-nighters in order to meet deadlines.The willingness to work hard isn’t a bad thing.

But let’s be clear:There is a significant difference between working a lot and working hard and smart. Having a team that works all hours to meet deadlines is admirable but can often be a result of bad time management and result in burnout. From the outside, it looks like you have a group of hard workers but the reality is that it isn’t a sustainable way to work.

Companies have known for some time that demanding too much of employees will lead to burnout. But make policies too lenient and productivity will suffer.

The result is a slew of policies, from extreme ones such as a California company that introduced a five-hour workday for all employees to the way my company Ximble and our closest partner, BambooHR, provides open-ended paid time off and a maximum eight-hour work day for all employees.

These policies are not simply altruistic. They indeed provide a well thought-out ROI as they contribute to the employee’s satisfaction, productivity and retention.

This trend perfectly fits the needs and priorities of older workers seeking a more accommodating working environment that allows not just a better work-life balance but a better work-life integration.

This is especially true in the tech industry, which can be highly flexible and more suitable for working habits of older workers who value spending time with their families and focusing on other life interests without allowing their work to suffer. Smart CEOs should look to create a culture and an environment fostering flexible work schedules leading to a perfect balance of performance and enjoyment.

Obsolete Skill Sets Is using a personal AOL email address or a desktop Outlook app for email correspondence a sign of an outdated tech skill? Or is it the fact that some of us do not buy into a notion that Slack is a panacea to human productivity?

There is no doubt that technology changes rapidly and that innovation leads to availability of new tools designed to im26

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prove efficiency, accuracy and quality of products and services we sell. At the same time, very few technology innovations managed to replace time-tested rules of business engagement.

People still buy from people, and teamwork tops individual effort. Just because an older worker may not be as skilled or as fast as a coder using a new front-end language or who’s used to new Java tools, they still can offer ongoing value to their organizations through their set of professional and personal experiences, including their successes and failures.

As Cicero put it in ageless perspective: “Historia magistra vitae est” — history is the teacher of the life.

Corporations learn from historical perspectives how to avoid errors and decrease the time necessary to create successful new outcomes. Only employees who have lived through those times may be able to impact both.

By 2020, it’s expected that in the United States there will be a shortage of 1.5 million qualified workers with as many as 6 million unqualified workers available. So why does the tech industry seem so adamant in shooting itself in the foot by holding such narrow views of a cohort that holds so much untapped potential?

Tie that to the fact that the future workforce will be much older. Roy Bahat, head of Bloomberg Beta and co-chair of Shift: The Commission on Work, Workers and Technology, told the attendees at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference,“As much as we like to talk about millennials, the future of work is much older.” By 2024, his Shift commission report notes,“nearly one-quarter of the workforce is projected to be 55 or older.”

People are healthier than ever and living decades after the traditional retirement age. Living longer develops a changing set of needs resulting in traditional retirement becoming obsolete.

Shifting aspirations for retirement, people’s desire for purpose and want for ongoing application of their talents is and will continue to disrupt previous retirement norms. With a deficit of talent, surely it would make sense to open our eyes and make use of the vast pool of talent that’s being neglected.

While meeting with my salesman friend Bob to congratulate him on his achievements, I brought this up with him.

His outlook was,“When individuals pass 50, they generally shift their gaze into being productive in areas that have meaning to them and start to think about how they will be remembered.They start looking at fulfillment as a primary objective over pay.” He added, “While it’s true I was hired and trained in a new role, it’s also true that very few companies are presenting those opportunities to our age group.”

With a “generative urge,” it appears that an increasing amount of individuals are willing to contribute to the nonprofit sector.The Milken Institute noted that 16,000 experienced, savvy, corporate professionals have each brought a powerful inventory of talent, knowledge and human skills to a new environment as encore fellows.

The reason, we concluded, was twofold. The first is as a status symbol, displaying themselves as a high-performing and valued member of society to help keep their worth to proj u ly / au g u s t

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spective employees up while also being involved in something they feel worthwhile about.These altruistic efforts will be looked on with envy, even more than net worth.

The second is a way for them to place themselves in an unfamiliar environment where they can build and expand upon their own skill sets, in particular, leadership skills — a form of anticipatory careering to develop the skills they need for career progression.

The aging megatrend will test the leadership of all CEOs in the tech industry. Where success is concerned CEOs will need to push for a strong shift in hiring practices and perceptions within their workforces.

Employees across the board will need to realize and come to terms with how valuable older workers are to the sector, not just in their experience and ability but in the nonquantifiable benefits they bring, too. Such as emotional stability, complex problem solving skills, nuanced thinking, high emotional intelligence and institutional know-how, not the typical skills a youthful cohort tends to carry.

Rebecca Knight writes in her article, “Managing People From 5 Generations” in the Harvard Business Review that “studies have shown that co-workers learn more from each other than they do from formal training, making it important for organizations to establish a culture of

coaching across age groups.”

So much for the “won’t fit into our company culture” argument.

We can expect to see over-50s having more control over when and how they will work. A growing number of older Americans will begin working in the gig economy.Working freelance, with short-term contracts or with pick-up jobs, the older worker will represent a vast majority of the growth of alternate work and contracting projects due to the flexibility.

For a company to retain and make use of these valuable skills, they will need to find ways to attract and retain employees by bringing renewed interest and meaning to their roles.

Providing a lack of opportunities or training for new skills only acts as a disincentive.

This brings us back to what was mentioned previously.

Older workers are looking for fulfillment. Accommodating a flexible work pattern or schedule allows time for skills development and a better balance of work-life assisting in the retention of employees and skills.

Transitional arrangements for those who want to enter retirement will enable the opportunity to transfer skills to AGE continued on page 53

h t i w g n i l g Strug ? t n e m t i u r c e r ) t ( n e l ta . n o i t u l o s a e v a h We

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Struggling with talent recruitment? Find out why hiring experienced workers should be part of your talent acquisition strategy. They bring stability, wisdom and leadership—and can even help reduce turnover costs. Learn all of the reasons to tap the value of experienced workers. w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce 27 Learn more at aarp.org/recruitsolutions

Plugged-in Professionals T

PHOTO BY DANIEL BERMAN

GA

RS

he 2018 class of Workforce Game Changers One of these HR pros is also our youngest Game knocked our socks off with their accomplish- Changer yet. At age 20, Zackary King of Public ments in all areas of human resources, includ- Health-Seattle & King County, pictured at right, has ing recruiting, culture, training and benefits. What re- significantly improved the agency’s recruiting efforts ally stood out this year, though, was the large number by developing a new digital platform. of applicants who have advanced HR technology Other winners have proven, still, that you don’t and analytics in their organizations. need to have the tech expertise as long as E C H A N GE Now in its eighth year, the Workforce you understand the human aspect of M Game Changers awards recognize human resources. Eric Watkins — high-potential young professionals who at 27 is also one of our youngest under the age of 40 who are making Game Changers — began as an untheir mark on the HR profession. This paid intern at his company but class is certainly representative of through his determination rose that, especially as talk in the HR comthrough the ranks and made an immunity has shifted to data and analytics. pressive impact on revenue growth.

2018 One key skill in this area is knowing what to Shirley Cruz-Rodriguez from Fannie Mae do with it and not getting bogged down by the vast proved that a person can put their heart into makquantity of content. Many of the Game Changers this ing the world a better place while at the same time year have had the intelligence and ability to know ex- making her company a quality organization. She particactly what to do to improve their organization. ipated in hurricane relief efforts and also developed an We’ve also asked several of our tech-centric honor- award-winning mentoring program. ees to record themselves talking about the latest This is an impressive group of young HR talent, and trends in HR technology and the projects they’re we’re proud to call them our 2018 Game Changers. working on in that space. The video will be available at Congratulations to all of them!

Workforce.com/HRTechGameChangers.

— Andie Burjek

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GAME CHANGERS

• HR TECHNOLOGY

ZACKARY KING

Human Resources Analyst Public Health-Seattle & King County Seattle Not only is Zackary King 20 years old — the youngest Workforce Game Changer ever — he also used his youth to bring new perspectives to the organization he works at and to improve its hiring process substantially. Public Health-Seattle & King County had an outdated recruitment system, and King was assigned the task of building a new platform.

“The biggest accomplishment that I’m most proud of as an HR professional is the digital platform,” King said.

He established standard best practices for everyone in the hiring process.

His digital platform cut 23.88 days from the hiring process, and that number continues to improve, according to Greg Wilson, program manager at Public Health. Wilson added that as King actively manages analytics, he also provides reports to key stakeholders and organizes presentations to keep people informed. These presentations have helped to sustain momentum in the project.

As with any new digital platform, feedback helped King shape it from something basic to something great. “Until people actually gave me constructive and positive feedback, I didn’t know where to go with it,” King said.

His appreciation of teamwork and maintaining positive professional relationships extends to his co-workers. “It’s always a team effort, and I can’t do anything I do without the companionship of my team and their work as well,” he said.

For someone relatively new to HR, King has the drive, humility and forethought of a true Game Changer. He especially enjoys the outreach portion of his job. While some individuals or groups in the company might see HR as a separate entity in their own bubble, he likes reaching out to these crowds, explaining what HR is doing to improve things on a daily basis, and confirming that HR is there for both the agency and its employees.

His passion for the job is fueled by progress, King said. When he goes home at the end of the day he asks himself: What did I do today to feel fulfilled? What did I improve or work to improve?

“There’s always something to improve,” he said. “I’m passionate about that progress.”

— Andie Burjek

ARMANDO VILLASANA Director, Global HRIS World Fuel Services Corp.

Doral, Florida

It’s not easy taking on the leadership role of a team scattered around the world, but Armando Villasana of World Fuel Services Corp. was up for the task.

Villasana, 39, is the director of global human resources information systems and he turned around World Fuel’s team at the Doral, Florida-based company in less than a year. Through his leadership style, he developed the team’s skills while also increasing engagement and cohesion in the group that admittedly hadn’t been in the best shape.

Javiel Lopez, the head of HR at Quirch Foods, said that Villasana successfully combines business, human resources and technology, demonstrating that HR can both be technical and business-oriented in a beneficial way to companies. His approachable style and belief that talent development helps retain and motivate employees makes him “a magnet for talent.”

— Aysha Ashley Househ 30

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HR TECHNOLOGY •

GAME CHANGERS

CHELSEA SECKER

Senior Project Team Manager AT&T Dallas When Chelsea Secker realized that she wasn’t happy with AT&T’s campus recruitment tracking tool, she decided to create one herself.

Her new tool not only made things run more smoothly but also made them more cost efficient.

Secker, 28, previously was a recruiter for the company. However, since the role required travel, Secker wasn’t sure she could continue in the job after having her second child.

“I was just so lucky because when I came back from maternity leave, they were like, ‘Surprise, you don’t have to travel. We have this awesome position that we literally made just for you,’ ” said Secker.

And that’s how the senior project team manager was “sort of thrown into the role.” Taking on the new position, she immediately felt comfortable with the technical aspects since she was first part of AT&T’s technology development program. All told, she started at the company as an intern, then eventually joined as a full-time employee.

“I always joke with people, I plan to retire from AT&T,” she said.

Despite her ease with the technical side of things, the data analytics role was a different story.

Her job to collect, analyze and summarize recruiting and hiring data was new.

There are two main teams — program recruiters and campus recruiters — so Secker spent time looking into their programs to find where their efforts would best be utilized and what leadership was needed as well.

“In this role I’m always being tested, and I really thrive on that,” said Secker.

Since then, she has created multiple internal websites so teams can collaborate and view reports together to make sure they’re on the same page. Before her role was created, the teams mostly functioned independently.

MyCampus Plan, or MCP, the campus recruitment tracking tool Secker developed, helps keep the teams updated on new developments to their programs and provides easy access to hiring system reports, which reduces the time candidates have to wait for recruiters to pull up information. When she first proposed her plan to the developer of the tool, she was told it couldn’t be done — not an answer she was going to accept. So she took her idea to her boss and said she could make it happen at a low cost. Since launching it a year ago, they’ve seen positive results.

She also created the new program with a necessary eye toward it being mobile friendly, which is a boon for recruiters who find themselves constantly on the road. Another issue she tackled was event calendars. If one recruiter was in charge of multiple schools, then there previously was a separate calendar for each school. MCP allows them to handle all the events on one calendar.

Even though the college recruiting and development team manager has built a new program, she’s already busy with her next project.

“I’ve actually been working a lot to create a new database, which I’m really excited about,” Secker said. “[It’s] something to really track our candidates from the very beginning, all the way through their career with AT&T.”

— Aysha Ashley Househ j u ly / au g u s t

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GAME CHANGERS

• HR TECHNOLOGY MARCUS SAWYERR

President Adecco Group X Zurich, Switzerland

ERIC MACKALUSO

Vice President, Head of People Analytics ADP Roseland, New Jersey Eric Mackaluso joined HR software and services company ADP in late 2016, and according to nominator Jarrod Schwartz, he hit the ground running.

“Eric has done more for ADP in a little over a year than we could have ever imagined,” Schwartz, ADP’s vice president of HR strategy and planning, said in his nomination letter. “He continually drives the adoption of data science, data visualization and storytelling as part of HR’s decision-making process.”

Mackaluso, 39, made a big impact at ADP in his first six months alone, which earned him a promotion to vice president, head of people analytics.

Through monthly audits, he and his team cleansed the data of more than 57,000 associates that already existed in ADP’s system. He also introduced the Tableau platform, through which his team created consistent dashboards for reporting across all business units and functions. His analysis and presentation of key data metrics allows ADP business leaders to make informed decisions for the company.

“Eric is by virtue a Workforce Game Changer, and we are privileged to have him,” Schwartz said.

— Ashley St. John 32

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Marcus Sawyerr has been with his company for 1.5 years. It took him only a year of that time to build a global team that lead the digital transformation of his workplace, the Adecco Group X. Sawyerr, 34, is president of Adecco’s Zurich, Switzerland, operation and has created new digital products for the human resources solutions provider. He also leads Adecco’s digital acquisition strategy. This focuses on finding and scaling the most innovative digital solutions. He’s also launched two digital companies, making him “a digital pioneer for the industry,” wrote Selma Studer, the head of communications at Adecco, in her nomination letter.

At previous employer CareerBuilder, he developed new business with their largest Fortune 100 clients. His background at the jobs site in sales, product development and HR helped provide Sawyerr with the capabilities needed to execute a digital transformation strategy, according Studer.

— Aysha Ashley Househ

KYLE F. ARNOLD

Systems Director Analytics and Talent Mercy Health Cincinnati When Carol Dweck unveiled her groundbreaking research on the growth mindset in the mid-2000s, the renowned Stanford University psychology professor did not have Kyle F. Arnold in mind.

Considering Arnold was a barely out of his teens and a student at Ohio University at the time, that’s not a surprise. But today Arnold, 34, is described as the “walking example” of Dweck’s growth mindset by colleague Stacey Marroso, systems director support services and employee experience at Cincinnati’s Mercy Health.

Arnold is responsible for advancing Mercy in workforce analytics and a performance management system allowing Mercy to serve its patient population. Arnold also delivered to Mercy’s board an advanced people analytics toolkit to boost workforce planning. He also is directing a new performance management system named GPS — Grow, Perform, Succeed. That sure sounds like something Carol Dweck would agree pushes the boundaries of a growth mindset.

— Rick Bell j u ly / au g u s t

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BENEFITS •

GAME CHANGERS

NATHAN COUNTS Director of Benefits AT&T Dallas

SHANNON VARGESKO HR Specialist YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh Pittsburgh

Committing to a healthier lifestyle is a challenge for anyone.

For employers, convincing employees to commit to wellness, and do it with a smile, is even more challenging.

Luckily for the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh, Shannon Vargesko leads the charge from a place of personal passion.

Vargesko, 32, is a former smoker and now uses her own personal journey toward wellness as a source of inspiration for others.

Vargesko developed the organization’s wellness and engagement program, which has revolutionized the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh’s wellness initiative. Starting in 2012, the program encouraged employees to support their health by giving rewards for activities like health surveys and biometric screenings. Now, the program has expanded into a three-tier system that is available to all full- and part-time staff.

On top of the program’s impact on employees, it has led to reduced health insurance premium renewals for the company.

The YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh has now been recognized by the Pittsburgh Business Times as a Healthiest Employer and

by Y USA as a leader in health and wellness programs.

Vargesko’s contagious positivity has transformed a company that was once low on morale into one supported by uplifting successes and a healthy commitment to the future.

— Mariel Tishma j u ly / au g u s t

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With the U.S. health care system in flux, there’s great opportunity for forwardthinking benefits professionals to do something innovative and create change. Nathan Counts is one of those individuals.

He and his team at communications giant AT&T design benefit plans that impact over a million people including employees, dependents and retirees. Counts, 37, represents the future of successful health plan design, “bringing the human side to the analytical side of benefits,” according to AT&T Assistant Vice President of Global Benefits Marty Webb.

While he has worked to make AT&T’s design decisions truly data-driven, Counts has also impacted recruitment at the company by attracting many applicants with strong skills.

Together, they’re a powerful and analytical design team. As Counts consistently educates himself through continuing education courses on big data, statistical analysis and more, many of his team members have followed his lead to stay up to date on relevant courses.

Counts also cares about the people impacted by his benefits plans. He’s especially proud of the investments his company has made in expanding access to fertility benefits and behavioral therapy for those on the autism spectrum.

“All of these were sizable investments in our employees, but it puts a smile on your face knowing at these great moments of need you’re able to deliver a truly great benefit,” Counts said.

“Benefits are personal; it means when you get it right you can have very meaningful impact on people’s lives.”

— Andie Burjek w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

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GAME CHANGERS

• RECRUITING

ELIZABETH CALDER

Director of Leadership Development Suffolk Boston

BROOKE FREEBURG Senior Talent Acquisition Consultant Hub Recruiting Bedford, Massachusetts

In 2013 Hub Recruiting started out small. With a specific focus on tech companies, Hub Recruiting has grown steadily since then.

Brooke Freeburg, who joined the company in 2014, has had a powerful impact on the scale of that growth.

Freeburg, 37, is a former college basketball player and coach.

Her passion for coaching, mentorship and teamwork has come with her into the hiring world. Her background has given her the patience to navigate client’s tough demands as she offers lessons on how to improve hiring from start to finish. Currently, she consults at two separate startups and in the past has helped one client nearly double their staff on her own.

Within Hub Recruiting, Freeburg often trains new hires herself. Since she began, Hub Recruiting has increased its head count from 10 to 40 employees.

Most remarkably, though, Freeburg serves as an integral part of Hub Recruiting’s internal learning and development program, Hub University. She chose the learning management software at the program’s start and has since taken the lead in numerous areas like curriculum development, content creation and course administration.

Kendrick Wong, marketing manager at Hub Recruiting wrote in his recommendation, “Basically, Brooke makes it all work seamlessly.”

— Mariel Tishma 34

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A passion for talent. An infectious, winning attitude.

Someone who can be counted on to get results.

These are just a few of the qualities attributed to Elizabeth Calder, director of leadership development at Suffolk. In his recommendation letter, Suffolk Head of Learning and Development Stephen Ratt even said, “She is the embodiment of Suffolk’s core values of passion, integrity, hard work, professionalism and caring.”

In her nine years with Suffolk, Calder, 30, has been an integral member of the construction company’s learning and development team. She leads Career Start, a rotational program focused on training and developing the next tier of company leaders, as well as Suffolk’s internship program.

These are critical to sourcing and developing the organization’s future talent and leadership pipeline.

According to Suffolk Chief People and Learning Officer Dave DeFilippo, before Calder’s leadership of these programs, they were haphazard and disorganized. Under Calder’s direction they began to thrive, thanks to her implementation of a multiyear strategic plan. She also enacted measurement processes for Career Start, which show, over three years, a 94 percent graduation rate leading to placement in a permanent role, 87 percent of program participants retained and a more diversified demographic.

Because of her track record of success, Calder’s role recently was expanded. She now also leads Suffolk’s two high-potential programs: Leadership Accelerator and Emerging Talent Series.

“Not only is Liz a game changer for Suffolk, she is going to change the game for the HR, learning and the talent field,” DeFilippo said.

— Ashley St. John j u ly / au g u s t

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RECRUITING •

GAME CHANGERS

NEIL OTTO

Administrator of Talent Acquisition Orange County Public Schools Orlando, Florida

ERIN ZIMMERMANN

Director of Talent Acquisition HDIS Inc. Olivette, Missouri It takes a special person to find talented and compassionate employees to provide 24/7 services to people with developmental disabilities at Emmaus Homes. Erin Zimmermann has that ability.

Zimmermann, 33, entered an industry challenged by a high turnover rate. Making the most of her opportunity, she worked diligently and creatively to improve Emmaus Homes. In her first year, she researched and implemented a new applicant-tracking tool that provides up-to-the-minute information on potential applicants. By using this system, Zimmermann’s team increased their number of hires by 28 percent over the previous year. She also implemented a new social media strategy by creating personal recruiting Facebook pages and highlighting the behind-the-scenes work on Instagram.

In addition to those substantial numbers, Zimmermann consistently makes a difference both in and outside of work. At Emmaus Homes, she was a vital part of the company’s wellness committee and she also led an employee engagement committee.

Outside the office, she advocates for animals and the benefits of veganism.

Zimmermann recently accepted an opportunity to become director of talent acquisition at medical products supplier HDIS Inc.

— Ave Rio j u ly / au g u s t

“One of the biggest difficulties is filling the pipeline — getting the mass amount of candidates that we need at the beginning of every year,” said Neil Otto, administrator of talent acquisition for Orlando’s Orange County Public Schools. For school districts across the country, finding qualified and effective educators is an annual challenge, and some schools face teacherless classrooms when classes begin.

Thankfully, Otto, 37, has brought OCPS into the present using technology and his perspective from the business world.

“Bringing in that corporate knowledge or the understanding of how things work outside of education is part of what makes what I’m doing a game changer inside of that field,” Otto said.

His commitment to the district began early in his career when he served as an elementary school teacher. As a teacher, Otto realized that his district lacked a LinkedIn page through which the community could connect. He put the page together himself and later explained the reason to David Azzarito, director of talent acquisition and HR compliance.

Azzarito wrote in his Game Changers letter of recommendation, “Neil … wanted to make sure an employee of Orange County Public Schools was the first one to create a page to make sure it was done correctly and that only positive and truthful information was disseminated within.”

He continued to teach, and refined his business skills with an MBA, before a position in human resources opened up. Otto said he’d never considered HR prior to his new role, but now he wouldn’t change a thing. He said, “It has been a perfect fit with my extroverted self — being able to connect with so many people around not only the nation but the world.”

In his new position, Otto worked to increase OCPS’ presence on social media and improve their external branding. This felt like a natural continuation of his previous work and has since led to a decrease in vacancies.

Azzarito said, “Our inquiries from interested candidates throughout the U.S. can be traced back to information they have seen through our social media pages.”

In addition to his work on the district’s social media pages, Otto created a database of candidates to ensure the growth of the county’s network of qualified teachers. Otto’s work has allowed schools to reach and keep in touch with a new generation of teachers.

His warm and welcoming personality ensures candidates feel appreciated as they go through the recruitment process. Otto said, “I love being around people, it’s one of those things that gives me energy and fulfillment and purpose.”

His passion has allowed the Orange County Public Schools to stand out from others in their field. That’s a win for employees of the district, teachers and, most importantly, for students.

— Mariel Tishma 2018

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GAME CHANGERS

• TRAINING

LAURA KAPELSKI

Manager of Learning and Development Eagle Hill Consulting Arlington, Virginia About 1 1/2 years ago, Laura Kapelski joined Eagle Hill Consulting during a transition. As the company grew, Kapelski, 35, built career and leadership development programs from the ground up and created and implemented an L&D curriculum, all while aligning the training with business initiatives.

In her recommendation letter, Senior Director of Talent Management Stephanie Mount said Kapelski has the ability to understand the firm’s needs from both an internal engagement and an external business development perspective. “This unique lens enabled her to develop a comprehensive and dynamic L&D function that simultaneously enhances Eagle Hill’s workforce competitiveness and dynamic L&D function while building a program that embodies the company’s core values,” she said.

Under Kapelski’s leadership, the L&D team has enabled more than 47 professional certifications, facilitated 2,500 hours of external training, 2,400 hours of internal training and provided the opportunity for 30 new mentor relationships and tailored training workshops to flourish.

Further, Kapelski helped bring to life a boot camp program for project management professionals. In just six months, employees with PMP certifications went from 10 percent to 20 percent.

Since joining the company, Eagle Hill has nearly doubled in size — from 120 to 200 employees — and Mount said Kapelski has successfully had a positive impact on every employee at the company.

— Ave Rio

JULIE BETTS

Director of Enterprise Learning NCR Atlanta Regarded as a standout on the team by her manager, Julie Betts is redefining learning at NCR. Three years ago Betts, 38, revolutionized NCR’s sales learning strategy by creating a ValueSelling program that applied “one common language” to the sales force. Since the program began, Betts has produced 25 courses and 3,000 course completions, impacting 1,400 sellers. She also designed and implemented a successful managers sales certification program that produced measurable results.

Learners like what Betts is producing. A SelfServe 80 program that Betts designed and developed for 581 sellers was recommended by all of those who completed it. Further, Betts’ onboarding program has a 97 percent net promoter score.

And her direct supervisor likes what Betts is producing, too.

“Julie has branded herself through fearless execution, courageous insights and pushing boundaries on what is possible,” said NCR Vice President of Talent Development Christine Belknap in her recommendation letter. “Julie is very consistent in her performance, is passionate about her work and is the true definition of a Game Changer.”

— Ave Rio 36

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TRAINING •

GAME CHANGERS

LAURA ROENICK

Director, Talent Acquisition United Talent Agency Los Angeles Laura Roenick is a strong supporter of diversity and inclusion, and not just because it’s her job. The director of diversity, development and recruitment at talent and literary agency United Talent Agency is Latina and the daughter of a first-generation immigrant, giving her a personal connection to her role.

Roenick, 35, has been a part of many projects that have pushed diversity and inclusion initiatives at United Talent Agency. She remodeled the referral-based process into one that’s more diverse when sourcing and selecting entry-level candidates. In this way, it was ensured that all résumés were reviewed, even those of individuals who don’t have a connection to the industry.

And in a time where the Time’s Up movement is prevalent, Roenick also focuses on coordinating overviews of the movement across the United Talent Agency offices and hosts follow-up innovation sessions in New York, Los Angeles and Nashville, Tennessee.

— Aysha Ashley Househ

SHELLEY OSBORNE

Head of Learning and Development Udemy San Francisco Starting at Udemy just one year ago, the company named Shelley Osborne “Rookie of the Year” in 2017. Osborne has done a lot in her first year and Udemy VP and General Manager Darren Shimkus praised Osborne for her patience when she first began in taking the time to listen to employees and take a pulse of the company’s needs.

From there, Osborne, 35, has created an L&D culture that’s built on continuous development with a growth mindset. The Drop Everything and Learn program exemplifies that learning philosophy. Osborne encourages employees to learn on the DEAL platform during office hours and take any course that appeals to them personally or professionally.

Osborne also spearheaded the use of the virtual reality game, “Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes,” which helped bridge geographic communication barriers and cultural differences among the company’s global offices.

Beyond learning, Osborne also has a passion for ensuring employees are growing personally. She helped implement a companywide wellness month, during which Udemy instructors can take in-person wellness sessions on meditation and healthy eating.

— Ave Rio j u ly / au g u s t

2018

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GAME CHANGERS

• MANAGEMENT SHIRLEY CRUZ-RODRIGUEZ Process Improvement Manager Fannie Mae Washington, D.C.

TASHA EAST

Director of Human Capital Planning Fannie Mae Washington, D.C. Every HR professional says they aim to innovate, but by working with Fannie Mae’s Operations and Technology division, Tasha East has proven her commitment to it.

Robert Saylor, director of Process Improvement Strategy at Fannie Mae wrote in his Game Changers recommendation, “Tasha consistently operates with an eye toward innovation and process improvement.”

East, 36, is willing to go the extra mile for her projects. She has gone so far as to teach herself to code using Microsoft InfoPath so she could create a website for teams to share data more efficiently. This allowed them to cut outdated software.

East has shaken up her corner of the company since she started in 2016. She hasn’t shied away from challenging leadership, and in doing so she has steered the team away from a previous reliance on third-party consultants. Now, all core functions in the operations and technology division are staffed by employees, reducing the risk of information leaks.

In 2017, Fannie Mae’s HR team migrated to a lean management system. The switch required a massive overhaul with a high potential for turmoil. But East has used this time to reinforce the mission of the company. Alan Susi, director of human capital planning, wrote: “Tasha has treated this opportunity as a true game-changing moment.”

— Mariel Tishma 38

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Shirley Cruz-Rodriguez has made quite the impact at financial services company Fannie Mae, where she received six awards in the company’s internal recognition program for the work she’s done throughout all her projects.

Her colleagues describe Cruz-Rodriguez, 39, as a “dynamic leader who takes on every challenge with excitement and dedication.” One of her most recent innovations at Fannie Mae was the Single-Family Mentoring Program for the company’s single-family division, a provider of single-family mortgages in the United States.

Cruz-Rodriguez developed the pilot program as a way for employees to not only receive advice from company leaders but also advance their careers and move up the Fannie Mae ladder. The program also includes something atypical: reverse mentoring. Officers are paired with lower-level employees of the organization, which gives them the opportunity to look at challenges through a different lens and view what’s going on in the organization differently.

“It’s a push-and-pull relationship,” Cruz-Rodriguez said. “It’s something that both ends learn how to collaborate, close any generational gaps, and the mentees have the opportunity to see the perspective from the leadership.” Some 200 people, including mentors and learners, participated in the pilot program, and after the success of the pilot, the HR team scheduled to expand the program formally across the company.

Meanwhile, Cruz-Rodriguez also strives to make a difference outside of the office through various volunteer efforts. She’s a leader in her church and an active member of her company’s Hispanic Employee Resource Group. She also participated in relief efforts after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September.

Cruz-Rodriguez, even while she continued to push forward on the Single-Family Mentoring Program pilot, also kept her focus on helping with hurricane relief efforts. She’s originally from Puerto Rico and still has family there.

“Everyone has a call to serve others, and for me, when I serve others, it is my way to really achieve happiness in life,” Cruz-Rodriguez said. She sees doing good as a way to better understand herself and other people, a way to have more empathy toward other people, and a way to “open our eyes in the sense of how we can help and support each other in order to have a better society.”

For her professional drive to create a groundbreaking new mentoring program and her humanitarian drive to make the world a better place, Cruz-Rodriguez is part of the Workforce Game Changers Class of 2018.

— Andie Burjek j u ly / au g u s t

2018

MANAGEMENT •

GAME CHANGERS

UNIQUE MORRIS-HUGHES Interim Director District of Columbia Department of Employment Services Washington, D.C.

JESSICA ADAMS

Vice President of People Brad’s Deals by Shop Smart LLC Chicago When Jessica Adams was hired, she was only the ninth employee at Brad’s Deals by Shop Smart LLC, which has since grown to nearly 90 workers.

Under the leadership of Adams, 38, the company improved its hiring process to have an average of two weeks from first contact to hire. Using Predictive Index, the company can see candidate needs and behaviors, compare them to the role and thus ensure best fits for both the company and new hire.

Weekly, monthly and annual engagement polls also help with employee retention, which is strong; annual turnover is only 10 percent.

“Pretty much every employee at Shop Smart values having Jessica leading our HR department,” said Sarah Schmidt, the company’s vice president of finance. “She genuinely cares about each and every employee at Shop Smart.”

— Lauren Dixon j u ly / au g u s t

2018

Unique Morris-Hughes was faced with the challenge of turning around two agencies with program-related issues as the chief strategy officer at the District of Columbia Department of Employment Services.

Recently, Morris-Hughes, 37, was named the agency’s interim director.

But before she became the chief strategy officer, she was the chief operating officer at the District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education. She was responsible for leading a team to get the district off a federal “high-risk” corrective action plan, which is a “watch list” because the department had “financial, grant-management, and programmatic-compliance issues,” according to a press release from the office of the state superintendent of education.

Morris-Hughes established a corrective plan and launched a grant-management system, which changed the way local education agencies and schools could manage federal grants and spend their money. Once she achieved that, it proved to leadership that she was able to turn something around, which is how she “stumbled upon” her current role.

When she moved from education to the department of employment, Morris-Hughes once again faced turning a program around. Changes needed to be made to programs to boost compliance, implementation, development and communication.

In one case, the agency was receiving federal money for youth programs, but that money wasn’t being spent appropriately and a number of young people weren’t being enrolled when they should have been. In another case, there were compliance issues where “the law says we should do ‘X,’ and we were doing ‘Y,’ ” Morris-Hughes said. Even though it was hard work, she’s proud of what her team has been able to accomplish.

“It was kind of thrilling and exciting, but it was frustrating. There’s so many emotions involved to turning something around,” said Morris-Hughes. “But it was life-changing and meaningful, and at the end of the day young people, people who are probably the most disenfranchised, are going to have opportunities to get some really cool services from the District of Columbia.”

Morris-Hughes is proud of the turnaround she’s helped implement, but she is most proud of the youth innovation grant program, which consists of start-up, community-based organizations that have creative ideas on how to serve youth and provide them work-based learning and workforce development skills. The program helps them bring their ideas forward by providing funding to implement, build and manage it.

“The program focuses on opportunities [for] young people who may have dropped out of school, or have had some sort of barrier in their life that has prevented them from taking a more traditional approach,” said Morris-Hughes. “So, I get really excited to see the underdog win.”

Morris-Hughes believes government shouldn’t create more barriers and should help with providing people with opportunities, and being a part of that and having Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is open to those same ideas, in her corner is what drives Morris-Hughes.

She’s also happy that she can be a role model for her young daughter.

“I’m really proud of the fact that I get to be a mom and show another young woman, who’s 2 years old, the important role women play in [not only] shaping workforce development, but the world.”

— Aysha Ashley Househ w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

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GAME CHANGERS

• MANAGEMENT SAMANTHA CHAMBERS Talent Management Specialist Kronos Inc. Lowell, Massachusetts

Over the past seven years, Samantha Chambers has risen from intern to specialist in talent management at Kronos. A deep pride in her work, and the work of her company, helped get her there. This has meant she’s worked to improve and grow as she moved through the company’s compensation division to her current place in talent management.

“I always want to be making sure that I’m doing what I can to better myself and better myself in my role,” she said.

Some of Chambers’ greatest strengths are her analytical skill and project managing expertise.

Tammy Hickey, senior manager of talent management, wrote, “Samantha brings a critical blend of analytics and project and program management skills that are essential to the HR function in today’s world.”

Her ability to pluck the key information from reams of data has made her a go-to individual for analysis. “I love data and numbers and trying to understand the story through data,” said Chambers, 29.

Team members from all over have sought out the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth graduate for projects. These include streamlining the nomination process for Kronos’ leadership award program, creating a program that helps high-potential employees rise to managerial positions and leading a team to improve Kronos’ Glassdoor results.

“I kind of have done a little bit of everything,” Chambers said, referencing the span of her career.

The Glassdoor “SWAT” team she led resulted in Kronos’ debut on the Glassdoor Best Places to Work list. She also planned and later implemented an unlimited vacation policy for the company. “That was a pretty exciting project to work on,” she said. “Especially to have been working on it for a couple of years, then actually being able to be a part of when we were ready to move forward.”

Her new position in talent management is a step outside her previous experience. The challenge didn’t frighten her, though. Chambers said that she thrives on novel experiences and is eager to gain a wide understanding of the HR world. “I think that I’m a very quick learner, so I’m always intrigued by something new and something different,” she said.

Though her new role has her juggling many responsibilities, from talent reviews to engagement, Chambers is prepared to adapt and embrace new opportunities with an open mind. Her successes, though, haven’t changed her belief that more than just work got her where she is.

“I was very lucky,” Chambers said. “I know I work hard, and I don’t always give myself enough credit, but I also think that I really lucked out.”

— Mariel Tishma 40

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ERIC WATKINS

Vice President of Partner Sales Abstrakt Marketing Group St. Louis Six years ago Eric Watkins joined Abstrakt Marketing Group as an unpaid intern. It was his desire to learn everything about the organization that helped him rise in leadership ranks and contribute to revenue growth as vice president of partner sales.

Under Watkins’ leadership, he restructured the partner sales department, added 70 team members and saw referral sales rise 934 percent.

Watkins, 27, also acts as “chief huddle officer” to ensure that teams convene three times a day. In the huddles, he leads discussions about the positive results of people’s work and closes the meeting with a team chant. This practice aims to improve employee morale.

Watkins’ professional and personal growth exemplifies the company culture at Abstrakt, according to Scott Scully, president and CEO of Abstrakt Marketing Group. “Eric is an invaluable asset to the constant development of excellence in our workplace, and the contributions he has made to our culture [are] immeasurable.”

— Lauren Dixon j u ly / au g u s t

2018

CULTURE •

GAME CHANGERS

KRISTEN WAGHORNE

Talent and Culture Manager George P. Johnson Experience Marketing Auburn Hills, Michigan Kristen Waghorne’s colleagues feel like each of them is the only employee she supports, said Jennifer Shifman, vice president at general manager at global experiential marketing agency George P. Johnson Experience Marketing. “Kristen’s demeanor is one that makes each individual feel that what they have to say or what they need is her very top priority,” she said. Waghorne, 39, does this all while balancing the needs of individuals and the organization.

Waghorne’s ability to listen, communicate, share constructive feedback, effectively relay complex benefits offerings and more are what led her colleagues to nominate her as a Game Changer. Her passion to make a positive difference and build the company culture “enabled the Austin [Texas] office to thrive,” said Susan Scott, head of culture and talent at the 1,400-employee global organization.

— Lauren Dixon

DANIELLE GRIFFIN

CAITLYN JONES

Manager, Human Resources Field Services Envoy Air Inc. Irving, Texas Change in HR departments often takes off slowly with plenty of bumps along the way.

That wasn’t necessarily the case at Envoy Air Inc. A fast-moving two-year transformation took flight at the Irving, Texas-based regional air carrier previously known as American Eagle Airlines. And helping to pilot the transformation was Envoy Manager of HR Field Services Danielle Griffin.

Griffin, 37, was selected to serve on Envoy’s core transformation team and apply her HR savvy to develop new and innovative processes. The transformation was one of the largest organizational change initiatives in company history. And it will affect all 15,000 Envoy workers.

“We needed a game-changing leader to facilitate it,” said Patricia Delgadillo, Envoy’s senior VP of administration and CFO. “Danielle was quickly defined as that leader. Our team leaned heavily on her experience to ensure that our transformation was as effective as possible.”

Griffin’s attitude and abilities assured company leaders that the program’s transformation would have a smooth takeoff and a flawless landing.

—Rick Bell j u ly / au g u s t

2018

Vice President of Human Resources Arlington/Roe & Co. Indianapolis Following her nomination for the 2018 Game Changers awards, Caitlyn Jones made some major life changes. Jones moved from her role as human resources director of the Americas at Esaote to become the vice president of human resources at Arlington/Roe & Co. Jones, 28, also married, thus changing her last name from Plummer.

Before those changes, though, Jones was at Esaote, a medical equipment company.

While there, she modernized their payroll and reporting, bringing the HR function into the 21st century, said Tim McNabb, vice president of sales at Esaote. She also changed the company culture. “Prior to Caitlyn’s arrival [our] general overall workplace was not happy and people did not enjoy coming to work,” McNabb said. To change this, she implemented open-door policies so employees could feel comfortable contributing ideas that were outside their areas of expertise.

— Lauren Dixon w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

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industryinsights On Charismatic Leadership

By Ryne A. Sherman

At long last, some research finally offers a scientificallybased answer to this question. And the conclusion may come as a surprise: when it comes to charisma and humility, effective leaders have both. In this article, I highlight the key findings of the study, relate it to current thinking about charisma, and point out practical implications for coaching and leadership development.

In their paper, Jasmine Vergauwe, Bart Wille, Joeri Hofmans, Rob Kaiser, and Filip De Fruyt show that charismatic people describe themselves as talkative, inventive, energetic, and original. They also describe themselves as good-looking, persevering, and ingenious.

In contrast, others describe these individuals only as talkative, energetic, and original, not as good looking and persevering. Thus, charismatic individuals have inflated views of themselves that are inconsistent with how other people see them.

Second, and most importantly, the researchers examined the relationship between charisma and overall effectiveness in a sample of over 300 business leaders. Once again, self-ratings of overall effectiveness were inconsistent with coworker ratings: charisma scores significantly predicted self-rated effectiveness (r = .29), whereas the charisma scores were uncorrelated with coworker-rated effectiveness. But the story didn’t end there.

There was a significant curvilinear relationship between charisma scores and coworker-rated effectiveness.

According to coworkers, some degree of charisma – neither too little nor too much – predicted the highest levels of effectiveness. The Figure tells the story.

Coworkers indicated that those managers with scores slightly above the average in a large sample of working adults (i.e., about the 60th percentile) were the most effective leaders. After that, more charisma predicted decreasing effectiveness. In contrast, the higher the self-rated charisma, the higher the self-rating for effectiveness. But other people are always the best judge of a person’s performance.

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Self-rating Coworker rating

Overall Effectiveness

Everyone agrees that effective leaders are trustworthy, competent, and make good decisions in a timely fashion. When it comes to charisma, however, opinions vary widely. Some say charisma is an essential quality of effective leadership. Others say charisma’s antonym— humility—is an essential quality of effective leadership.

So, which is it? On the one hand, we want leaders who inspire us and put forward a vision for the future. On the other hand, we want leaders who listen to others and share credit with the team. Are charismatic leaders effective or not?

“Gradient of delusion” 8

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HDS Charisma Source: Vergauwe, J., Wille, B., Hofmans, J., Kaiser, R. & De Fruyt, F. (2018). The double-edged sword of leader charisma. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 114, 110-130.

At about the 70th percentile, coworkers start to see the dark side of charisma—where confidence becomes arrogance, risk-taking gets reckless, social presence looks melodramatic, and strong vision becomes ungrounded grandiosity. But these highly charismatic leaders can’t see the downside, and in fact see themselves as extraordinarily effective leaders. Study co-author Rob Kaiser refers to this divergence of opinion at the highest levels of charisma as “the gradient of delusion.”

The international authority in personality assessment, Hogan Assessments has three decades of experience reducing turnover and increasing productivity by helping businesses hire the right people, develop key talent, and evaluate leadership potential. Grounded in a more than a century of science, the Hogan assessments predict job performance by assessing normal personality, derailment characteristics, and core values. Hogan’s portfolio of employee selection, development and leadership tools allow companies to better manage their most valuable assets – their people. www.hoganassessments.com

The moral of this story will be familiar to readers of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Leaders with just the right amount of charisma, neither too little nor too much, are the most effective. Some charisma is desirable; without any spark, leaders lack the confidence, charm, vision, and flair needed to inspire others. But when it comes to charisma, there is clearly such a thing as too much of a good thing: we also need leaders who are down to earth, receptive to feedback, and humble.

This research has three practical implications. First, we should never rely on self-assessments of effectiveness or workplace performance. Delusional charismatics will always rate their performance as far greater than the reality. Reputation is where the action is, and other people own your reputation.

Second, organizations need to be wary of potential leaders who show too much charisma. While they excel at grabbing the attention of senior leaders, they tend to be all bluster and no substance. At the same time, organizations need to make a concerted effort to identify potential leaders who show more humility.

Such individuals are often overlooked in favor of the more pompous charismatics, but employees of humble leaders are more engaged, satisfied, and productive.

Third, those working in coaching or leadership development need strategies for bringing highly

charismatic leaders back to reality. Coworker feedback is obviously one way to help charismatics calibrate their excessively rosy self-appraisals. Charismatic leaders can also benefit from working with a partner who provides a practical foil to their unrealistic self-beliefs. Such a person needs to be trusted by the larger-than-life charismatic; they need the insight not to be taken in by the charismatic’s charm, and they need to be able to steer charismatic leaders back on track—and prevent them from going over the edge.

The big picture perspective is this: sometimes our strengths (e.g., the ability to inspire and motivate others) can be weaknesses when we overdo them or rely on them too much. The most effective leaders are trustworthy, competent and good-decision makers, but are also capable of setting a vision for the team without overdoing it.

CRISIS HR The Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting sent one city’s HR team into a crisis response mode.

BY CAROL BRZOZOWSKI This past Valentine’s Day, Coral Springs, Florida’s human resources director Dale Pazdra kicked off an internal monthlong kindness challenge campaign in the new city hall.

Employees gathered that morning to enjoy breakfast treats and share in friendly conversation.

Pazdra had no idea how critical those values would become in a matter of hours.

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Following the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the Coral Springs, Florida, HR department began its crisis response by facilitating and participating in local events. Above, Coral Springs employee volunteers greet attendees during ‘A Day of Healing’ event for first responders, students and faculty in North Community Park. Left, residents gather for a vigil in Pine Trails Park in Parkland, Florida, the night following the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 students and staff members. Top photo courtesy city of Coral Springs; left photo by Carol Brzozowski.

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While celebrating the holiday later with family, Pazdra rushed out the door after his daughters received tweets about a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the adjoining city of Parkland.

By day’s end, 17 students and teachers had died, 17 others were injured and the 19-year-old suspect was apprehended. Some victims lived in Coral Springs, which is part of Broward County Public Schools.

“The first thing you do is think about how you are going to help employees get through this,” said Pazdra of the city’s 1,000 full- and part-time employees serving 126,000 residents. His HR team of 12 staff members immediately set up citywide support services.

The day after the shootings, many employees reported to work openly weeping, Pazdra recalled.

“Although none of our employees or their children lost their lives, many have children who were almost killed, lost friends or had to walk over wounded and dead children to get out of that building,” said Pazdra.

“My daughter is homeschooled but she dances with a number of kids and one of her friends from dance was killed,” he added. “It was very hard.”

Through 54 years of incorporation, Coral Springs

“You can’t fix everything for everyone, but because we’re an organization that supports and provides services to the community, we had people coming to us wanting to help in some shape or form and we did a lot of referrals to the family support center set up in Parkland for Karen Cierzan resources and counseling.”

Karen Cierzan, vice president of behavioral clinical operations for health insurer Cigna, which provides an employee assistance program for Coral Springs employees, said it’s important for HR professionals to be well-versed in their available EAP services before a crisis occurs.

An EAP strategy for a mass event takes a broad approach encompassing immediate provision of information and resources to a wide array of employees including details about “counseling services, coping strategies, and how to recognize reactions in yourself, your co-workers and families,” she said, and moves to one-on-one encounters to accommodate individual reactions to the same event.

Cigna’s employee assistance counselors meet — DALE PAZDRA, CORAL SPRINGS, FLORIDA, with an employer, discuss HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR the incident, create a plan based on the organization’s employees have encountered disasters including Cate- culture and provide follow-up, Cierzan said. gory 5 hurricanes that required all hands on deck. The “From an HR professional’s standpoint, what really Parkland shooting, however, was different in its scope touched me was the outpouring of support,” said of tragedy and HR complexities. Multiple agencies Pazdra. “Every vendor, insurance carrier and benefits were involved, necessitating distinct HR responses. consultant, within 48 hours, offered us whatever they Parkland contracts its fire and rescue services could.” through Coral Springs and law enforcement through Companies such as Humana and Aetna joined Cigna the Broward County Sheriff ’s Office. Stoneman Doug- in opening services to people not insured through las — whose students come from Parkland and Coral them, Pazdra said. Therapy dogs were brought in by Springs — is in Parkland city boundaries but is part of groups and individuals. Community professionals doBroward County Public Schools, the nation’s nated services. sixth-largest school system.

Pazdra sought to balance communications between “We had to draw some boundaries,” said Pazdra of keeping devastated employees informed and overwhere he and his team invested time and resources. whelming them with information to the point it be“We weren’t running that incident. It was really the came emotionally difficult for them to move forward.

Broward County Sheriff ’s Office’s incident. We weren’t Critical support information for employees and the school board, so we couldn’t answer people’s ques- families was conveyed across multiple platforms, intions about the children and teachers who were affect- cluding a website, a hot line and email blasts. ed. We kept our focus on our employee population, “We communicated at high levels to ensure we were which is what you have to do. acting in the right time frame, not duplicating efforts

‘FROM AN HR PROFESSIONAL’S STANDPOINT, WHAT REALLY TOUCHED ME WAS THE OUTPOURING OF SUPPORT.’

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A girl writes a note on a banner placed on the fence of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to commemorate the victims of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters

and staying focused on matters on which we could have an impact,” Pazdra said.

While planned events such as a ribbon-cutting for the new city hall were canceled, an employee chili cook-off was rescheduled and attracted a record turnout, which Pazdra attributed to the need for employees to connect with one another.

The pain of the first responders was palpable during press conferences. They “had seen things no human being should have to see,” said Coral Springs Police Chief Clyde Parry of the area’s first mass-casualty incident. Coral Springs’ HR team augmented the public safety department’s internal peer-counseling groups with additional help for employees and families.

In addition to the city’s human resources team, Pazdra also directs its community relations and volunteer services departments, whose employees assisted in community events and coordinated with Parkland to manage logistics for protests and vigils.

An “extremely powerful and emotional” day of healing at a city park closed to the public and media brought together victims, survivors, families and teachers with the first responders.

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Pazdra’s team remains vigilant for post-traumatic stress disorder and other conditions, and is expanding peer counseling programs, focusing on diffusing the stigma associated with “getting your mental well-being in order,” he noted. Such efforts will be in place for as long as is necessary, he added.

“HR has a special role to play in helping employees adjust in healthy ways after stressful or traumatic incidents and communication is key,” Cierzan said. “Engaging directly with employees by walking around and speaking with them helps HR professionals better understand employee concerns and how to help.”

People react differently to the same incident. Some may be at risk for more intense reactions, such as those whose lives were directly affected by the shooting or similar traumatic events, or those who are vulnerable to stress due to a mental, emotional or substance-abuse disorder, Cierzan said.

An important course of action is to signal a willingness to talk, be patient and supportive through active listening, problem-solve with the employee about how to cover their work, and ensure they know how to get help through the organization’s EAP services provided, she said.

Pazdra said for someone whose demeanor is changing or showing signs of extreme depression, “Sometimes it’s overwhelming to that person if you go to them directly, but if you can reach out to others in CRISIS continued on page 52 w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

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SECTOR REPORT

Background Checking Providers

Too Many Rules How a patchwork of screening regulations is putting companies at risk — and how screening vendors are trying to help.

By Sarah Fister Gale

B

ackground screening is often considered the most tedious and stressful aspect of the recruiting process.While it will never be a pleasant experience, companies and vendors are focused on making it as painless as possible.“If recruiting gets bogged down during background screening you run the risk of losing candidates — and all the resources you spent recruiting them in the first place,” said Dawn Standerwick, vice president of strategic growth for Employment Screening Resources, a background screening company in Boulder, Colorado.You also the run the risk that they will complain about the process to friends and colleagues, said Richard Seldon, president of Sterling Talent Solutions, a global background screening company in NewYork.“Companies want candidates to say the process was efficient, timely and easy to do.”

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OF COMPANIES SCREENED SOCIAL MEDIA — DESPITE RISKS OF LAWSUITS RELATING TO FINDING INFORMATION ABOUT AGE, RELIGION OR SEXUAL ORIENTATION.

That’s driving screening vendors to integrate their technology with applicant tracking systems, onboarding, payroll and other solutions to streamline the process, reduce wasted time, and eliminate demand for redundant information. They are also adding automated alerts and update features, including texts and emails letting candidates know where they are in the process, whether information is missing, and how they can access their background report. “A little extra communication makes the process more transparent,” Standerwick said.

It also shortens the screening process by auto-loading data, and alerting candidates immediately if more information is required. “Speed is always a good idea,” Seldon noted. “Companies and candidates always want this process to go faster.”

Along with improving candidate experience, screening vendors and companies continue to struggle with many of the same issues that have plagued them in the past — varying laws, ban the box movements and the need for global solutions. All of these trends have one important theme in common: lack of consistency.

In the case of screening laws, every county, city and state has its own requirements for what can and cannot be considered in a screening, how many years back screeners can look, and

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what kinds of notifications companies need to provide candidates about this process. “The patchwork of regulations has heightened the environment of lawsuits and litigations, and employers are looking for more guidance from their providers,” Standerwick said. Some vendors are taking on increasing responsibility for providing disclosures and notifications that are legally the employer’s responsibility, while others are “leaning back,” she said. “It’s getting increasingly complex to manage, and not every vendor wants to take that responsibility on.”

The same is true for ban the box rules, which vary in terms of when it is permissible to ask for a criminal history in the application process, what notifications are required and how to handle actions if information disqualifies a candidate.The rules get even more complex if a candidate lives in one state but will be employed in another, Standerwick noted. “We are reaching the tipping point with ban the box.” It’s not only complicated, it can actually do more harm than good. If the recruiting process drags out for weeks only to have the candidate disqualified, it delays that person from finding a job and the company from filling a position.“It’s creating a lot of frustration.”

GOING GLOBAL Managing laws gets exponentially more complex for global companies or those seeking candidates abroad, Seldon said. Often, HR leaders aren’t certain how they handle screening in other countries or they rely on local HR teams to establish their own rules. But as the risk of lawsuits increases, and new data privacy rules emerge — like the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, in the EU — companies are realizing they need a more consistent approach, he said. “The focus on global solutions has gained a lot of momentum this year.”

Not many screening companies have a global presence, though. As companies seek out vendors to manage global talent programs, the larger vendors are likely to expand their footprint through acquisition of local screening firms or through organic growth.“Global companies expect global solutions,” he said.

Going forward, companies should speak to their screening vendors about how they plan to address all of these issues and what is on their technology road maps. “Every company’s needs are different based on their industries and the positions they are screening for,” Seldon said. The more companies can educate themselves about screening laws and opportunities for risk in the screening process, the better able they are to choose vendors who can meet their needs.

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

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HOT LIST Background Checking Providers Listed alphabetically; compiled by Aysha Ashley Househ; editors@workforce.com Number of individuals screened in the most recent 12 months

Number of clients using employmentrelated screening services

ACCURATE BACKGROUND accuratebackground.com

3.25 million

13,000

CAREERBUILDER EMPLOYMENT SCREENING LLC screen.careerbuilder.com

2.4 million

6,100

CISIVE cisive.com

5 million

600

CORPORATE SCREENING SERVICES INC. corporatescreening.com

682,000

1,826

EMPLOYMENT BACKGROUND INVESTIGATIONS ebiinc.com

1.7 million

5,850

EMPLOYMENT SCREENING SERVICES es2.com

1,211,906

4,900

FIRST ADVANTAGE fadv.com

55.6 million

35,000

9 million

3,400

2.5 million

3,800

GOODHIRE goodhire.com

248,844

17,000

INFO CUBIC EMPLOYMENT SCREENING infocubic.com

275,000

3,200

INFOMART infomart-usa.com

1.8 million

5,800

INTELLICORP RECORDS INC. intellicorp.net

2.8 million

13,300

JUSTIFACTS justifacts.com

550,000

5,000

ORANGE TREE EMPLOYMENT SCREENING orangetreescreening.com

552,500

365

PEOPLEG2 peopleg2.com

583,410

4,000

PRE-EMPLOY.COM INC. pre-employ.com

550,000

10,000

STERLING TALENT SOLUTIONS sterlingtalentsolutions.com

28 million

25,000

UNIVERSAL BACKGROUND SCREENING universalbackground.com

1,084,000

5,790

COMPANY NAME & Web Address

GENERAL INFORMATION SERVICES geninfo.com GLOBAL HR RESEARCH ghrr.com

Note: HireRight declined to participate.

Source: Companies. j u ly / au g u s t

2018

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SECTOR REPORT

Tr a i n i n g P r o v i d e r s

Your Training Program Is Not Enough Why corporate training hasn’t kept up with today’s learners and what needs to change.

By Sarah Fister Gale

T

he way employees learn has changed dramatically in the past decade.Today’s learners want just-in-time, relevant, chunky content that is available any time from any device. And for the most part, learning leaders have fallen in line, providing vast libraries of content that can be consumed quickly and easily by anyone on an as-needed basis.

So why are learners still so disappointed in their options?

“Learning professionals feel like they are doing a great job, but learners are not feeling it,” said Michael Griffiths, U.S. lead of the learning practice for Deloitte Consulting in New York.

The problem: Old learning models aren’t providing employees with the knowledge they need to achieve their ambitions.

Deloitte’s 2018 “Human Capital Trends” report found that even though most employees no longer follow a traditionally defined career path, almost half of companies surveyed still base their development program on skills designated to these paths in their learning management systems. Learning leaders know they are falling short. Just 18 percent of respondents said they give employees the ability to actively develop themselves and chart new pathways for their careers.

“The LMS has failed,” Griffiths said. “It doesn’t create a point of need, it’s just a big record-keeper.”

Part of the problem is the lack of guidance. Companies provide lots of content, but learners don’t know what to do with it, said Stephanie Neal, research associate in DDI’s Center for Analytics and Behavioral Research in Pittsburgh. DDI’s research shows that attracting next gen leaders is the top challenge for today’s CEOs, but companies aren’t providing them with the guidance they need to mature into these roles. “Organizations that rely on a self-directed, insular approach to learning are failing to engage leaders in meaningful development,” she said.

Today’s learners want personalized training that gives them the core skills they need to move up in the organization, and guidance on what courses they need and when. They also need motivation, said Tanya Staples, vice president of learning content for LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s 2018 “Workplace Learning” report found more than half of employees said they would spend more time learning if their manager directed them to complete a specific course, and 49 percent would do it if it was tied to a promotion. The message is clear, she said. “Learners will engage in learning if they feel it is worth their time.”

Learners also want the LMS to reflect the consumer-focused experiences they have become accustomed to, with user

friendly interfaces, and recommendations for courses based on their past learning history or current job title. “They want their content curated the same way Netflix curates their movies,” Neal said.

Content providers and LMS vendors are paying attention to this shift. While the curated content approach to learning is still new, content providers like Degreed, Intrepid and LinkedIn’s Lynda.com already provide learners with customized content suggestions, smaller bits of learning and social features to allow for ratings and reviews to help shape what content gets recommended.

And on the LMS side, vendors like Cornerstone and Workday are adding layers to their systems that provide individualized learning paths and a curated content experience that links to their tracking and management systems. These platforms also allow administrators to track who’s using what content, and to look at global user trends to what knowledge their people may lack.

14

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%

OF CEOS SAY “DEVELOPING NEXT GEN LEADERS” IS THEIR TOP CHALLENGE.

Experts are also excited about the growing nanodegree trend which is helping employees become lifelong learners, and keep up-to-date on skills for the future of work. “Millennials know that getting a college degree won’t set you up for your whole career,” Staples said. “They know they have to keep learning to keep their careers moving at the right pace.”

Nanodegrees and microcredentials can help them keep their skills fresh, though Griffiths worries that these programs are too focused on technical rather than soft skills.“The workforce of the future needs to be innovative, creative and empathetic,” he said. “Those skills are harder to certify.”

This approach to learning requires learning leaders to transition from developers to marketers, Staples added. “There is so much great content out there already,” she said. The challenge learning leaders face is choosing what to put in front of them, and making sure managers and executives encourage them to use it.

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

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HOT LIST Training Providers Listed alphabetically; compiled by Aysha Ashley Househ; editors@workforce.com Existing off-theshelf programs

Custom programs developed each year

Full-time instructional services personnel

Safety; sales; customer service; compliance; product knowledge

N/A

1,000

13

Retail; sales; call centers; insurance; manufacturing; logistics; supply chain

Human resources; safety and compliance; maintenance and reliability

4

N/A

7

Manufacturing; oil/gas; chemical; food; utilities

Operations; military; compliance

3

250

3,000

Defense; aerospace; life sciences; finance

Sales performance and effectiveness

25

150

175

Technology; financial services; retail; professional services

SKILLSOFT skillsoft.com/

Business skills; leadership development; digital skills; IT skills and certification

5

70

129

U.S. government; financial services; health care; manufacturing

STUDY.COM study.com

College degree pathway; workforce skills; leadership; frontline leadership;

3

15 to 20

3 to 5

Airline; retail; hospitality; manufacturing; technology; real estate; finance

Crucial conversations; crucial accountability; influencer; getting things done

4

N/A

9

Health care; technology; education; executive training

COMPANY NAME & Web Address

AXONIFY axonify.com

DUPONT SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS training.dupont.com GENERAL DYNAMICS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY gdit.com MILLER HEIMAN GROUP millerheimangroup.com

VITALSMARTS vitalsmarts.com/

Key knowledge and skills topics covered

Select key industries served

NOTE: Knowledge Synonyms and NIIT did not respond to requests for information.

SOURCE: Companies. j u ly / au g u s t

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51

CRISIS continued from page 47 their network and still show the caring and support that way, it’s more strategic.

“It’s more time-consuming, but it will give you a pulse on what’s going on in the organization.”

In the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas shooting, “many people were concerned about how to speak to their children about violence,” Cierzan said.

Pazdra’s team was flexible in giving employees time off to tend to their children or other tragedy-related matters.

Crises that originate externally but require an organization’s internal response often thrust employees into the media spotlight. Pazdra praised the city’s communications team for their handling of an event that attracted international attention.

John Fortunato, a Fordham University communications and media management Stan Steinreich professor and cr isis management expert, advises organizations to train employees who might appear at press conferences to anticipate the types of questions and provide responses that don’t reveal too much information or speculation.

Stan Steinreich, president and CEO of Steinreich Communications, recommends issuing an immediate holding statement to respond to media inquiries, provide useful updates, communicate internally as well as externally and fix any erroneous messages. He added that in post-crisis situations, law enforcement typically takes the communications lead.

Media-relations staff should monitor multiple platforms including social media for message consistency.

Fortunato suggested developing crisis prevention exercises based on top-down identifiable risks, testing the approaches through a mock crisis and taking corrective action limiting the possibility of a recurring crisis.

Pazdra noted the city has a long-standing 95 to 97 percent employee satisfaction level.

“The employees know we care and we certainly didn’t disappoint with this response,” he said, adding that he found the community’s desire to help impressive.

“I wanted to have a month of kindness and caring for employees and make them feel special. Sometimes they’re overlooked or neglected,” Pazdra added. “I never expected it to happen in response to something so horrible.”

Carol Brzozowski is a Florida-based independent journalist whose work has appeared in more than 170 media outlets. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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ESOPS continued from page 17 Having that kind of culture makes it easier for employees to feel empowered to offer ideas for improvement to their company, he said.

“If you are interested in preserving your legacy and rewarding people, ESOPs make sense,” Rosen said. “Selling to someone else makes all of this go away.”

Litigation, cost and lack of guidance are the trifecta that heavily influences doing an ESOP, experts agreed. ESOPs are not as straightforward as 401(k)s, and things get tricky when stock valuations are done to set the price for the stock to be purchased by the ESOP from the owners.

Most lawsuits center on bad stock valuations, said Michael Keeling, president and chief staff officer of the ESOP Association. Often, the Labor Department, which oversees ESOPs, files a lawsuit on behalf of the ESOP against the trustee and/or the owner for the overvaluation.

“Sellers can’t be too greedy, and I think that is what happens,”Wise said.

While it’s important to be fair, Keeling said that the Labor Department tends to focus on the offenders more than the thousands of success stories. For example, according to the Labor Department’s “Private Pension Plan Bulletin Historical Tables and Graphs,” ESOPs outperformed 401(k) rates of return 10 out of the 15 years between 2001 and 2015.

“No doubt that ESOPs will benefit if bad actors are caught,” Keeling said. “But there are so many good examples out there.”

Keeling added he would like to see the DOL issue clearer guidelines for valuations. There are accepted procedures in the industry, but an official best practice guide is what is needed.

Cost of valuations is also a hard pill for many companies to swallow. NCEO’s Rosen said initial valuations can cost between $100,000 and $150,000, and many owners are unable to do that.Wise said she was quoted for valuations going as high as $250,000 before she settled on the best price of $110,000.

Meanwhile, Congress has turned its attention to promoting ESOPs with the introduction of two bills in the House and Senate. The House bill is aimed at giving the Small Business Administration broader authority in helping companies establish ESOPs. The legislation in the Senate also empowers the SBA to promote employee ownership.

Rosen is reasonably optimistic about this round of legislation because Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, and Gary Peters, D-Michigan, along with Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-New York — all members of Congress sponsoring ESOP legislation — seem to be more serious about providing opportunities for workers to save more for retirement. “The real trick [to passing legislation] is not so much getting the votes, it’s getting someone to make it a priority,” Rosen said. “I think we have that now.” j u ly / au g u s t

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AGE continued from page 27 younger workers, offsetting the deficit of talent as baby boomers enter retirement.

The benefits of retention will flow in all directions. Younger workers will be able to obtain institutional knowledge and wisdom through job shadowing and mentorship, leading to long-term stability and protection of the businesses interests.

Incorporating a longevity strategy will develop a competitive edge in the tech industry, where many are willing to discard valuable talent based on age.

• Develop and implement best employment policies and practices to cater to the needs of the increased longevity of the workforce.

• These benefits should meet the needs of the employee but also capitalize on the experience and talents of the older workers while adding value to the workforce through intergenerational collaboration.

• Provide training and awareness to colleagues across the board, educating them in the changing demographics of the workforce and shifting preconceived conceptions of the

older workers to stamp out ageism and maximize collaboration.

While the current situation may seem unfavorable for many older workers, smart employees will continue to develop their skills while wise CEOs will be hiring older workers for their untapped potential.

Over a short period of time the industry’s focus will shift to this cohort and the most successful companies will identify how to create a workplace that understands how to manage a diverse age group appropriately and beneficially toward their long-term strategies.

A company that can accommodate diversity and recognize their employees’ needs will always produce results far ahead of their competition. It will be interesting to see how perceptions shift as diversely aged workers pave a way for innovation through collaborative views and approaches to challenges.

Sasha Poljak is the executive chairman at Ximble, a workforce time management suite of applications and a principal at Acumenics, a leading BPO organization.

To comment, email editors@workforce.com

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53

LAST WORD

Rick Bell

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN FOR GEN Z

I

never made a commencement speech. Class salutatorian or valedictorian? More like class clown.

My kids would probably tell you that the wisest piece of advice I offered them at our post-graduation party was, “Order the chicken; the burgers are really greasy.”

But that won’t stop me from providing you, the graduating Class of 2018, a bit of advice. I know, you’ve already heard the insights and anecdotes of irrelevant politicians, has-been actors and ol’ State U’s biggest donor. Serial, what can the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am possibly impart on any graduating class?

So I didn’t create anthems like “Let’s Get It Started” or “My Humps.” Will.i.am may be a wizard of the soundboard but let me be your workplace sounding board.

And then there is the millennials. Be happy you are not among them. Generation Y has been poked, prodded and overanalyzed in the workplace to the point of near-paranoia.

Over the past decade I have watched this jaw-dropping fixation. Hundreds, if not thousands of books offer overhyped drivel like, “what’s wrong with millennials in the workplace” to “tips to help you manage millennials” to simply “understanding millennials in the workplace.”

Swap out millennials with any generation, fam.

Bosses and co-workers of past generations had the same concerns as they do today: How do I deal with these whippersnappers?

This generational obsession is a load of crap. I never got it and still don’t, even on the cusp of you all joining us in our workplace sandbox.

Gen Zers will be adulting just like we fossils did: with difficult and awesome bosses; overbearing and enjoyable co-workers; layoffs, downsizings and off boardings; pay raises, bonuses and pay cuts.

Hear me out, ay? Gen Z is predicted to occupy over Today’s headlines trumpet that there are more jobs 20 percent of the workforce by 2020. I can help launch than people who are out of work. Hooray for jobs! your career and simultaneously boost the spirits of the That is, until the next recession hits, like it did in 2008 fine folks operating Chez Mom y Dad by prodding you (totes ask millennials about that one), and in 2001, and out of your cozy suburban bedroom and into the cold 1991, and 1980, and … well, you will tolerate several reality of a two-room studio with a rotating flow of during your working life. roommates and god-knows-how-many random visitors Then as senile boomers and sullen Gen Xers phase out, crashing on your couch, floor and bathtub. you and those doddering old millennials will roll your No probs, you’re Generation Z! Boomers existed eyes at new generations of workers. And they will have when there were just three channels on TV. Generation the same workplace experiences as all of us from that X thought Billy Idol was cool. And millennials? They’re bottom rung. just … old. Fail!

Some experts contend that you can be choosy about You got this. Except … well, those millennials. your job in this economy. Don’t accept your first offer, They’re gonna be your bosses. one so-called culture expert wrote, since you may be Gen X will be your bosses, too. And yes, even some stepping into a dangerous company culture. of those ancient boomers will be your bosses. In other What an incredibly arrogant and ignorant statement. words, you are on the low rung.

You can’t even know if there will be a second offer. And Cheer up. We’ve all been there. Do you think for a if you have to move out of state for a job — say, the new second that boomers were running Eastman Kodak or weekend news anchor at WOMP in Tublone, Texas — Ma Bell (Go ahead, Google it; I’ll wait) in the late 1960s experience eats culture for lunch every day of the week as they en masse entered the workforce? and at 5 and 11 on weekends.

They were protesting the Monsantos and Dow ChemI don’t know if “Let’s Get It Started” played during icals of the corporate world, not to mention smoking USC’s commencement ceremony, but if so, will.i.am weed and tripping out on Hendrix playing “The may have imparted some perspective on those grads afStar-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock. ter all. Gen Z, as you begin your careers, just like the When the 1980s rolled around and that sullen, self-ab- rest of us when we stood in your Adidas Superstars, you sorbed (some say independent and self-sufficient) cohort defs have no where to go now but up. we call Gen X was joining the workforce, they could only look up as Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak built their Rick Bell is Workforce’s editorial director. To comment, email tech empires. editors@workforce.com.

SWAP OUT MILLENNIALS WITH ANY GENERATION, FAM. PAST GENERATIONS HAD THE SAME CONCERNS AS THEY DO TODAY.

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