Workforce - November/December 2017 by Workforce

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November/December 2017

2017 OPTIMAS AWARDS Webasto Retools Its Culture

THE PRICE OF A THE FAMILY FRIENDLY AUTOMATION WORKPLACE OF HR

2017

COMPREHENSIVE. CONNECTED. CONVENIENT. WORKFORCE DATA FOR YOUR NEEDS

TALENT TRACKER: AN ANALYTICS SERVICE FOR TALENT

thetalenttracker.com

From Our Editors

Tapping for a Cause MillerCoors 2017 Tap Into Change program raised $72,000 in support of the LGBTQ community in select cities nationwide. The 2016 program, right, raised $35,000 to benefit key organizations in the Chicago area, including AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Center

“Show, don’t tell” is a well-known maxim among journalists and storytellers of all kinds. The basic technique is simple. Make people feel something rather than explain it to them. With that in mind, I can tell you the many ways HR professionals are doing important work. I can tell you good HR programs engage employees, attract and retain talented ones and deliver measurable and meaningful business results. But it’s much better if I show you. Look no further than the winners of the Workforce Optimas awards featured in this issue for inspiration. From Webasto Roof Systems — this year’s General Excellence winner — to each of the 20 other award-winners, these organizations aren’t just explaining what is good in HR.They are showing us what great looks like. — Mike Prokopeak, Editor in Chief 4

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on Halsted, the Howard Brown Health Center and Chicago House. Now in its sixth year, MillerCoors has donated $175,000 to local groups and organizations focused on LGBTQ Photo courtesy of MillerCoors

issues as a result of the program.

READER FEEDBACK Several readers sounded off on the September/October Workforce story ‘HR and the H-1B Visa.’ Said Perturbed Pundit: While lobbying Congress for more H-1B visas, industry claims H-1B workers are “the best and brightest.” Come payday, however, they’re entry-level workers. The GAO put out a report on the H-1B visa that discusses at some length the fact that the vast majority of H-1B workers are hired into entry-level positions. In fact, most are at “Level I,” which is officially defined by the Department of Labor as those who have a “basic understanding of duties and perform routine tasks requiring limited judgment.” Moreover, the GAO found that a mere 6 percent of H-1B workers are at “Level IV,” which is officially defined by the Labor Department as those who are “fully competent.”This belies the industry lobbyists’ claims that H-1B workers are hired because they’re experts that can’t be found among the U.S. workforce.This means one of two things: Either companies are looking for entry-level workers (in which case, their rhetoric about needing the best and brightest is meaningless), or they’re looking for more experienced workers but only paying them at the Level I, entry-level pay scale. In my opinion, companies are using the H-1B visa to engage in legalized age discrimination, as the vast majority of H-1B workers are under the age of 35, especially those at the Level I and Level II categories.The National Association of Colleges and Employers has never shown a sharp upward trend of computer science graduate starting salaries, which would indicate a labor shortage. In fact, according to their survey for Fall of 2015, starting salaries for CS grads went down by 4 percent from the prior year.This is particularly interesting in that salaries overall rose 5.2 percent.The H-1B visa is a cancer on American society. Workforce.com/H1BPerturbed

Practical Employer blogger Jon Hyman’s recent post ‘Dads Are Parents, too — Baby Bonding and Sex Discrimination’ drew this response from Don Turnblade: I see no danger in equal treatment of men and women under benefit programs.Yet a side danger that I see is that arguments based on disrespect of religion can be cast as if these are unworthy of consideration, archaic, obsolete or treated in any manner other than wise respect. Unequal treatment of religion in the eyes of the law is just as vile as unequal treatment on gender.Whether a religion does or does not propose that men or women may or should perform certain roles is its own choice. Often, a religion may have no preference concerning a gender-based role that would affect a workplace environment. The ability to respect those that may volunteer from some gender-based roles is neither archaic, obsolete nor worthy of disrespect.The equal treatment of all persons needs better arguments to support it. In some sense, the very notion of human rights owes a debt to the religious foundation that created such a concept. Even the idea of equal treatment under the law itself traces its foundation to religious concepts. None of the arguments are archaic or obsolete. I hope to benefit from support for equality such sacred materials long in to the future. America is of the many, one nation. I need no disrespect of religious views different from my own to favor wise and equal treatment for all persons, not just those with “modernist” perspectives that are quick to abuse words such as “archaic” when what they might rightly mean is “presumptive.” Workforce.com/Turnblade We welcome your comments on these stories and others on our website. Be sure to follow us and give us a shout on Twitter at @Workforcenews, too. Hope to hear from you! november/december

2017

A PUBLICATION OF November/December 2017 | Volume 96, Issue 6 VICE PRESIDENT, RESEARCH AND ADVISORY SERVICES VICE PRESIDENT, CFO, COO Sarah Kimmel skimmel@workforce.com Kevin A. Simpson ksimpson@workforce.com RESEARCH MANAGER PRESIDENT John R. Taggart jrtag@workforce.com

VICE PRESIDENT, GROUP PUBLISHER Clifford Capone ccapone@workforce.com VICE PRESIDENT, EDITOR IN CHIEF Mike Prokopeak mikep@workforce.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Rick Bell rbell@workforce.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Frank Kalman fkalman@workforce.com VIDEO AND MULTIMEDIA PRODUCER Andrew Kennedy Lewis alewis@workforce.com ASSOCIATE EDITORS Andie Burjek aburjek@workforce.com Lauren Dixon ldixon@workforce.com Ave Rio ario@workforce.com COPY EDITOR Christopher Magnus cmagnus@workforce.com EDITORIAL INTERNS Alexis Carpello acarpello@workforce.com

Tim Harnett tharnett@workforce.com DATA SCIENTIST Grey Litaker clitaker@workforce.com RESEARCH CONTENT SPECIALIST Kristen Britt kbritt@workforce.com RESEARCH GRAPHIC DESIGNER Theresa Stoodley tstoodley@workforce.com MEDIA & PRODUCTION MANAGER Ashley Flora aflora@workforce.com PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Nina Howard nhoward@workforce.com VICE PRESIDENT, EVENTS Trey Smith tsmith@workforce.com EVENTS MARKETING MANAGER Anthony Zepeda azepeda@workforce.com

WEBCAST MANAGER Alec O’Dell Marygrace Schumann mschumann@workforce.com aodell@workforce.com

EVENTS GRAPHIC DESIGNER Tonya Harris lharris@workforce.com BUSINESS MANAGER Vince Czarnowski vince@workforce.com REGIONAL SALES MANAGERS Derek Graham dgraham@workforce.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jennifer Benz Marty Denis Kris Dunn Sarah Fister Gale Jon Hyman Mark T. Kobata Patty Kujawa Max Mihelich Ariel Parrella-Aureli Rita Pyrillis

Daniella Weinberg dweinberg@workforce.com DIRECTOR, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Kevin Fields kfields@workforce.com DIRECTOR, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Cindy Cardinal ccardinal@workforce.com DIGITAL MANAGER Lauren Lynch llynch@workforce.com DIGITAL COORDINATOR Mannat Mahtani mmahtani@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. Digital free subscriptions are available worldwide. Nonqualified paid subscriptions are available at the subscription price of $199 for 12 issues. All countries outside the US and Canada must be prepaid in US funds with an additional $33 postage surcharge. Single price copy is $29.95 Workforce and Workforce.com are the trademarks of MediaTec Publishing Inc. Copyright © 2017, MediaTec Publishing Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction of material published in Workforce is forbidden without permission. Printed by: Quad/Graphics, Sussex, WI

FREE LIVE

ONLINE EVENTS

CONTENTS

ON THE COVER 2017 OPTIMAS AWARDS

Workforce announces the Optimas Gold and Silver winners in this, the 27th anniversary of the Optimas Awards. COVER PHOTO BY BOB DITOMMASO

2017

42 SECTOR REPORT

FEATURES

58 RELOCATION

32 FAMILY-FRIENDLY

60 FINANCIAL WELLNESS

38 TAKE US TO YOUR CHRO

There’s innovation with planning mobility assignments but firms struggle to prove their value. Workforce debuts its inaugural list of companies large and small offering financial wellness plans to employers.

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

Paid family leave remains an issue, and while its federal future is unknown, employers are stepping up their game.

CORRECTION In the September/October Sector Report story “Robots Take a Big Step in Staffing,” it should have been reported that Jim Stroud works for Randstad Sourceright and that Randstad Sourceright acquired Monster.

Workplace automation sounds scary but presents a great leadership opportunity for HR. november/december

2017

ON THE WEB SPEAK UP!

The Workforce online community provides you with virtual meeting places to chat about issues and trends affecting you and your workplace. LIKE US: facebook.com/workforce.magazine

JOIN THE GROUP: workforce.com/LinkedIn

WATCH US: workforce.com/youtube

FOR YOUR BENEFIT COLUMNS 4

YOUR FORCE

Workforce Optimas Winners Show Us What Great Looks Like.

14 WORK IN PROGRESS

Will You Be Leading an HR Function in 2024?

16 MORE EMPLOYERS ARE DROPPING DOMESTIC PARTNER BENEFITS

Decline is most evident among employers offering same-sex benefits.

17 EMPLOYERS EYE ACOs, TELEMED IN 2018

Employers continue to look for ways to manage health care costs.

20 BENEFITS BEAT

Short-Term Cravings Are Key to Long-Term Wellness Plan.

24 THE PRACTICAL EMPLOYER

LGBTQ Bias Is a Moral, Not a Legal Issue.

66 THE LAST WORD

Reviewing 2017: Bad Bosses and Disasters.

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17 PHASED RETIREMENT LARGELY

IGNORED DESPITE FLOOD OF RETIREES Flex retirement seems like a staple benefit to offer. It’s not.

18 GETTING OUT FOR INDAYS

LinkedIn uses themed days to boost company culture.

TRENDING 10 REBUILDING AFTER LAYOFFS

Handling staff cuts can predict a company’s ability to rebound.

11 FROM THE WEB, PEOPLE MOVES AND BY THE NUMBERS

Abercrombie taps Gabrielli as CHRO; veterans.

12 FINDING YOUR OASIS

Marilyn Paul preaches practicing the Sabbath at work.

12 SLEEP STUDY A WAKE-UP CALL

Studies show that a good night’s rest is crucial to a good day’s work.

LEGAL 22 AI: HARASSMENT’S WATERLOO?

Technology could help HR cut workplace claims.

23 LEGAL BRIEFINGS

Fluctuating overtime; breast-feeding bias.

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

TRENDING

The Less-Painful Way to Rebuild After Layoffs How companies handle staff cuts can forecast their ability to rebuild later. By Sarah Fister Gale

arlier this summer, Microsoft an- with the talent they have left that’s a big nounced plans to lay off workers as part problem. Instead, Martin encourages comof a restructuring to focus on cloud services. panies to be upfront about who is being A month later Nike made a second round of laid off and why, then to provide them layoffs, which included hundreds of IT staff, with support to find new jobs. with warnings of more cuts to come. “It’s important to help people leave with Big layoffs remain a painful part corpo- dignity,” he said. “That speaks volumes to rate culture despite being eight years past those who remain.” the Great Recession. It’s also a world where success is based on quarterly results Make Them Want to Stay and rapidly shifting markets can make Once a layoff is done, executives need to products and people obsolete. find ways to empower and engage emLayoffs may be inevitable, but how ployees while shoring up the business. companies handle them can make or break Talent development is a good way to their ability to rebuild, said Kevin Martin, address both of these needs, Martin said. chief research officer for the Institute for He points to Ally Financial, which was to a state of profitability on our own, but Corporate Productivity, or I4CP, a human forced to lay off 7,000 of its 30,000 em- that meant gutting the team,” he said. capital research firm. ployees during the economic crisis.To enClayton was honest with his staff about “Any time you introduce fear, uncertain- gage its remaining staff, the company of- the decision and took full responsibility ty or doubt into an organization it kills fered high performers a fast track to for the company’s failings. “Whenever performance,” Martin said. leadership roles and stretch assignments there is a layoff it’s because the CEO Unless companies take measures to ac- where they could develop new skills.“Ally screwed up,” he said. Then he worked to tively support those who remain, the losses gave them opportunities and responsibili- find the eight laid-off staffers new jobs. can be devastating to more than just the ties they couldn’t get anywhere else so Even though they all found work, the people let go. early in their careers,” he said. process was disheartening, and he wasn’t Managing morale in the wake of a layoff Giving employees authority to make sure they would be able to bounce back. begins with good communication, said decisions can also help, Sternberg said. He “There was a palpable element of uncerLarry Sternberg, president of Talent Plus, recalls working with hotelier Ritz-Carl- tainty in the office,” he said. an HR consulting firm in Lincoln, Ne- ton on how to reduce staff while mainTo get over the hump, Clayton focused braska and co-author of “Managing to taining excellent customer services. His on the original vision of the company — Make a Difference.”“Secrecy is one of the solution: When departments lose an em- to provide hardworking people a platform biggest mistakes companies make.” ployee due to attrition, let them choose to run a successful lawn care business. He Sternberg recalls being invited to give whether the fill that role or distribute the realized many of his staff never saw the an inspirational speech to a group of em- work — and half of that employee’s salary outcome of their hard work, so he decidployees at a high-end Miami resort several — among the remaining team. ed to show them by inviting Greenpal years ago.When he arrived, the leadership “Several teams took the deal, and cus- clients to the office to tell their stories at team told him that many of the group was tomer service never suffered,” he said.The the monthly all-hands meeting. about to be laid off, but no one knew. deal motivated them to find their own The visitors included a laid-off execu“They were afraid they would start look- ways to be more efficient. tive who started a lawn care business and ing for new jobs before the end of the seaFor smaller companies, a layoff can be was able to avoid foreclosure on his house; son,” Sternberg said. even more dire, especially if it is a last- and a single mother from Atlanta who Disagreeing with their approach, he ditch effort to survive, said Bryan Clayton, used Greenpal to expand from five cuskicked off his speech by announcing the CEO of Greenpal, a Nashville-based tomers to 60 and add two new crews to layoff, then spent the next hour talking “Uber for lawn care” that lets homeowners her business. “Hearing these real-life stoabout what the company and its remain- find lawn-service providers via an app. ries galvanizes the team,” he said. ing employees could do to make sure that After expanding Greenpal from one city His staff also uses the visits to collect it never happened again. to 12 and building a staff of 20 in less than feedback from clients about how to It may seem like a smart move to keep three years, Clayton couldn’t secure a sec- make the platform better. “It speaks to layoff plans secret, but not being honest ond round of funding, which meant either our culture and values, and ensures our leads to morale-killing gossip, suspicion laying off eight people or diluting the people understand that what we do and fear. For companies hoping to rebuild company’s equity.“We wanted to get back matters,” he said. 10

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TRENDING

PEOPLE

FROM THE WEB SPRUCING UP THE OFFICE Video Editor Andrew Lewis and Associate Editor Andie Burjek teamed up for an exclusive look at the modern workspace in this first-ever Workforce video story.You’ll meet a leading office space designer and a wellness company that went from drab to dramatic after instituting a massive interior redesign project. Workforce.com/ modworkspace

A Salute to the Military

RACHEL PLATT Ankura Consulting named Rachel Platt as a senior managing director and chief human resources officer. Platt joins the company’s leadership team with HR experience in diverse corporate situations including fast growth, turnarounds, private equity and professional services firms. She is based out of the company’s HQ in Washington, D.C.

1.3

tiv

i rso e-d llion nn uty el, 20 16

compiled by Rick Bell

November marks Veterans Day and the Marines turn 242 this year. Army Navy Air Force Marine Corps Coast Guard

471,397 326,276 309,682 183,917 39,084 129,049

Top 5 states, active-duty and reserve personnel

NC TX 173,118

CA 190,160

VA 117,084

94,288

Source: Governing.com

AMAZON’S SEARCH, EQUIFAX BREACH This edition of the “Talent10x” podcast features Workforce Editorial Director Rick Bell as he and Workforce Editor Frank Kalman discuss Amazon’s search for a second headquarters, workplace lessons from the Equifax data breach, as well as how some firms are opening offices in areas with a high percentage of underemployed employees. Workforce.com/amazon F LYING CARS AND FLYING THE FRIENDLY SKIES Workforce Editors Frank Kalman and Rick Bell consider classes to build flying cars. They also dissect United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz’s defense of his employees during a talk at a recent conference. Also, they uncover long-lost archival footage from yesteryear’s vaudeville series,“5 Minutes of Personnel.” Workforce.com/ vaudeville november/december

moves

By the Numbers

2017

JOHN GABRIELLI Abercrombie & Fitch Co. named John Gabrielli as chief human resources officer. This is a newly created position and Gabrielli’s promotion emphasizes the importance the retailer places on human resources as a critical strategic partner in the company. Gabrielli has been senior VP of HR since January 2015 and has been with the company since 2007. JENNIFER CYBUL Public accounting and consulting firm Bennett Thrasher LLP named Jennifer Cybul as chief human resources officer. Cybul joins Bennett Thrasher after 12 years at the legal outsourcing firm DTI, where she served as VP of HR and was part of a professional services firm that grew from 950 employees to nearly 7,000 employees.

What They Make

Source: Parade.com

$22,262

$186,998

$400,000

Commander-in-chief (annual)

Army private 1st class (E-3 pay grade, annual average)

U.S. Army general (annual basic pay, over 20 years)

Source: MilitaryRanks.org

Source: Salary.com

Remembering Their Service Vets on the Decline

453,000

20.0 million

unemployed veterans in 2016

2017

60%

age 45+

36% 25-44

18-24

Nearly 1 in 3 employed veterans with a service-connected disability work in the public sector

13.6 million 2037

Source: Veterans Administration, 2017

Source: Department of Labor, 2017

Veterans as a percentage of federal workforce (2014) 56.9%

49.7%

46.9%

42.7% 32.9%

To be considered for People Moves, 30 email a brief announcement and a 20 high-resolution color photo to edi10 tors@workforce.com. Include People 0 Moves in the subject line.

Air Force

Army

Defense

Navy

Veterans Affairs

Source: VetsHQ

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce workforce.com 10 | Workƒorce

TRENDING

FINDING YOUR WORKPLACE OASIS TIME By Ariel Parrella-Aureli Marilyn Paul’s best time in her week is spent with her family. These moments help the author and consultant succeed at living her truth — practicing a SabMarilyn Paul, Author bath, as she calls it, every week to rejuvenate from overworking, busy schedules and stress. Her latest book, “An Oasis in Time: How a Day of Rest Can Save Your Life,” focuses on the positives of taking a day a week as an oasis of rest from work. Workforce intern Ariel Parrella-Aureli spoke to Paul about the work benefits of taking breaks and her advice for employers and HR leaders to help employees find their “oasis time” in a culture that demands working excess hours. WF: Where does the idea to constantly work come from? Paul: We have become used to being consumers and producers. If you combine the inventive, innovative streak with the marketing and producing element and you add that into the competitive way to get ahead and do, do, do, you have what we are in — you throw in digital tech and we are overwhelmed. Even 2,500 years ago, as this notion of a Sabbath came into being, there was a need to stop the everyday and turn toward something else — if it’s awe, purpose, or if religious and feel themselves turning toward God; we need time for that.

WF: What’s the challenge here for HR practitioners? Paul: The question for a lot of HR people whom I’ve worked with is how do you start the conversation in your workplace so that people come around to the idea that frequent breaks, staying off email on the weekend, all contribute to increased productivity? Part of the challenge is to shift the norms of your workplace so people really grasp what good rest is. If they are resting, they are not scrolling through their Twitter feed; they are going out for a walk, practicing yoga or having a healthy snack.

WF: What advice do you give to people always working? Paul: It is counter-cultural but what we all need to do is look for examples of people who know how to rest well, and that doesn’t mean they are flying to Hawaii to the beach. We use busy as a badge of honor. If we are busy it means we are important. If we are running ourselves in the ground it means we are valiant. What I want to help do is change that to say we are not going to squeeze in our rest and our reflection; we are going to embrace ample playtime because that is what makes life worthwhile. There are people all around us who understand the value of this oasis time. We have to find each other and help each other off the clock and off the hook.

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Sleep Study an Alarm for Employers By Alexis Carpello

ost employees aren’t alone when the alarm clock rings and they yearn for 10 more minutes of shuteye. Studies show that 43 percent of working Americans don’t receive enough sleep each night, and 76 percent say that they feel tired at work, according to a survey by the National Safety Council. Sleep is one of the three pillars of living a healthy lifestyle, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Seven or more hours per night is a healthy amount of sleep for people 18 to 60 years old, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Fatigue and sleep loss have pretty much always been a problem in the workforce,” said Emily Whitcomb, senior program manager of the fatigue initiative with the National safety Council. “I really feel like in the past 10 years employers are starting to realize that their employees happen to be less productive, don’t make as good of decisions [and] make mistakes.” Restless nights don’t just harm employees but can cause employers millions of dollars annually, said one workplace expert. One employee alone can cost an employer more than $3,000 in health care costs each year. “This research reinforces that sleepless nights hurt everyone,” said Deborah A.P. Hersman, president and CEO of the National Safety Council, in a press release. Providing little to no cost for screening and sleep wellness programs for employees not only helps employees’ overall health, but also aids in saving businesses money. Doing this isn’t only about the monetary aspect. Employees that sleep better will have a more productive day in the workplace, will have less accidents and most likely less days of work missed, experts say. november/december

2017

VIEW LEADERSHIP THROUGH THE RIGHT LENS When it comes to career advancement, most organizations think in terms of people leadership roles. But what does that mean for high performers whose leadership potential lies elsewhere? Hogan’s Leader Focus Report has the answers. Through strategic self-awareness of reputation and unique personal brand, the Leader Focus Report empowers your organization’s leaders to better plan career paths and lead teams more effectively.

H O GA N A SS E SS M E N TS . CO M | 8 0 0 . 7 4 9 . 0 6 3 2

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TRENDING

Will You Be Leading an HR Function in 2024? By Kris Dunn |

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

get it.You’re an HR manager/director and you’re wondering if you’re on track to take the big chair in HR in the next decade. As luck would have it, I’m equipped with a crystal ball and the right amount of confidence/swagger to predict your future. Lucky you! The world is changing, and the people paying the bills want different things from HR. Here are five things to look at to examine and determine if you’ve got what it takes to lead an HR team and be a viable partner to the business leaders who will hire you in 2024. Remember, I’m talking about leading HR, not being a part of an HR team. I’m also providing a road map of what the 2024 HR leader looks like behaviorally — I’m assuming you’ve got the technical skills to do the job. Let’s go to the list: 1. You’ve got a worldclass processor upstairs. This means you’re better than most at taking large amounts of information and making quick, accurate decisions. It’s OK to take your time in other roles, but as a future HR leader, you’ll be expected to be as quick as the strategy person with your opinions and proposed solutions. 2. You’re as assertive as the salespeople in your organization. Great HR people have always needed to be assertive, but the need for comfort with confrontation continues to escalate. Chaos is everywhere, and if you’re going to operate efficiently, you’re going to need mix it up on a daily basis.You can be professional and still challenge others who are trying to play you, your department or your company. 3. A comfort with no rules at all. HR people have always been good at creating structure, but HR leaders are increasingly being asked to value structure less as we get deeper into this century.You’ll find that as you create your HR team, it’s easy to find HR people to help you execute structured solutions. It’s harder to find HR people that don’t want anything to do with the operations manual and instead want to develop the best solution for the situation at hand. Things change too rapidly these days for the old status quo to stick. High challenge, low rules and slightly ADHD HR leaders are on the rise. 4. You are organized enough at the leadership level to execute. Many of you would guess that low rules in turn means low details. The reality is that detail

orientation exists outside of rules orientation, and low rules with mid to high level detail orientation is a very hot profile across executives of all types — including HR. Low rules/high details means you have the ability to dream AND to execute. 5.You’ve got skin like a fat, old rhino. If you match this need for low sensitivity, when you receive bad news or the rare glimmer of negative feedback, you’re down for about 30 seconds, then you recover and move on. Companies are increasingly looking for HR leaders who aren’t afraid to fail. Failure is a necessary byproduct of attempting to add value. Safe sucks increasingly these days. Want an easy way to score it? Say “yes” or “no” to whether you really deliver each of these five features, add up the yes votes and use this key to score where you are: +5 — Welcome to the club. If you are who you say you are, I’d like your résumé for my clients, even if you’re 28 years old. +4 — Yes, please. You missed on one thing:You’re still a player. +3 — I’m going to call you an HR citizen. Good enough to get what the business line owners are talking about. Missing a DNA strand or two, but serviceable.You’re probably going to be working for someone younger than you by 2024, but that’s OK because you’ll add value and they’ll still depend on you. +2 — The world needs ditch-diggers, too. There’s still something for you to do in most HR departments with any size, but it’s not leading the function.You’re good enough, you’re smart enough and gosh darn it, people like you. But you’re going to cap out at the manager level. +1 — Darwin called. He said the kids these days are growing the HR equivalent of opposable thumbs, and I don’t see any thumb buds on the sides of your hand stumps. Too bad. That’s my list of the behavioral traits I see in play as we move toward the next decade.Will there still be +1 and +2 HR leaders? Yes. Will the replacements for those leaders look like their predecessors? My intel says no way.

THINGS CHANGE TOO RAPIDLY THESE DAYS FOR THE OLD STATUS QUO TO STICK. HIGH CHALLENGE, LOW RULES AND SLIGHTLY ADHD HR LEADERS ARE ON THE RISE.

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

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

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FOR YOUR BENEFIT

More Employers Are Dropping Domestic Partner Benefits The decrease occurred mostly among employers that provided health benefits to same-sex partners only. By Rita Pyrillis

he legalization of same-sex marriage was a win for civil rights but it could mean lost health care coverage for some American couples as more employers drop domestic partner coverage. In 2016, the year after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the country, 48 percent of employers provided benefits to same-sex partners compared to 59 percent in 2014 — a decline of 11 percent, according to a recent study by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, a research organization based in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Gay marriage was deemed constitutional in June 2015. “We expected to see a drop and it’s not insubstantial,” said Julie Stich, associate vice president of content at the foundation.“Many employers were covering same-sex domestic partners when they could not get married, but the ruling changed that.Another factor is that it’s an administrative complexity to have all these different programs and keep track of who is a domestic partner versus a spouse. It’s understandable that they wanted to get rid of them.” coverage to those who couldn’t legally marry.” Health care benefits for domestic partners has grown slowly In states that legalized same-sex marriage before the Supreme but steadily since 1992 when the first Fortune 500 company be- Court decision on Obergefell v. Hodges, some employers began gan offering them, according to statistics from the Human Rights dropping coverage after the legislation passed. Soon after New Campaign, a Washington-based LGBTQ advocacy group. At the York legalized same-sex marriage in 2011, Corning, IBM and time fewer than two dozen U.S. employers offered “spousal Raytheon began requiring same-sex partners to marry in order equivalent” benefits to same-sex couples. By 2006, more than half to qualify for coverage, according to The New York Times. of the Fortune 500 offered them, according to the HRC. Some employers cite the administrative headaches as one reason to drop coverage for domestic partners and require all couples to marry, according to Schilmeister. LARGE EMPLOYERS OFFERING SAME-SEX “In order to qualify for domestic partner coverage you need DOMESTIC PARTNER BENEFITS INCREASED TO show an affidavit, something that shows that you are financially interdependent, like a joint checking account or a mortgage,” he said. “That’s outside the automated administration system 62 PERCENT IN 2015 BEFORE SEEING A SLIGHT and it’s more cumbersome. Another administrative difference DROP LAST YEAR. involves taxes.” After the Supreme Court decision, executives at EnerNOC, The trend continued until 2015, according to figures provid- an energy software company, briefly discussed dropping domesed by consulting firm Mercer. In 2010, 39 percent of large em- tic partner benefits but decided to keep them, according to ployers offered same-sex domestic partner benefits increasing to Laurana Bianco, benefits manager at the Boston-based firm. 62 percent in 2015 before seeing a slight drop last year. The company began offering these benefits in 2008. “There was a gradual but steady increase in number of large “As you know, benefit offerings are a key factor in deciding to employers offering coverage but subsequent to the Supreme join an organization and being in a tight recruiting space we Court case we saw the first downturn in many years,” said Bar- want to attract the best and the brightest,” she said. “We have a ry Schilmeister, a consultant at Mercer. The drop occurred number of employees in domestic partnerships in both categomostly among employers that provided health benefits to same ries that had coverage and we didn’t want to take it away from sex partners only, he said. them. The ROI outweighs any administrative burden, which is “The data suggests that there were two employers out there: really quite minimal.” Those who covered same sex partners only and the much larger While more employers will likely drop coverage in the comgroup that covered both,” he said.“The employers who dropped ing years, the majority of companies will continue to offer bencoverage came from group that covered only same sex couples. efits to both same and opposite sex domestic partners, accordThe group that covered both same-sex and opposite-sex parting to Schilmeister. ners didn’t change very much. It suggests that those covering “I think the biggest shift has occurred already and we’ll see a both groups were doing it as a philosophical position, offering leveling off,” he said. 16

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november/december

2017

FOR YOUR BENEFIT

Employers Eye ACOs, Telemed in 2018 By Rita Pyrillis

mployers are continuing to look for innovative ways to manage health care costs and improve quality, and while costs continue to rise, they remain far below than those in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, according to a recent survey by the National Business Group on Health. “Looking ahead to 2018 employers are holding the line on increases to 5 percent, although we’d still like to see that lower,” said Steve Wojcik, vice president, public policy at the business coalition. “Employers are changing their tactics and focusing on changing the delivery system by looking at accountable care organizations, centers of excellence and worksite health centers, and other alternative models. Employers aren’t just sitting back, they’re taking an active role.” Cost increases have hovered around 5 percent over the past five years, according to the NBGH’s 2018 “Large Employers’ Health Care Strategy and Plan Design Survey.” While that is far lower than the skyrocketing premiums in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, it is not sustainable in the long term,Wojcik said. Interest in telehealth continues to soar, with 96 percent of employers making these services available compared to just 7 percent in 2012. This stability was also reflected in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2017 “Employer Health Benefits Survey,” which reported a 3 percent increase this year compared to an average increase of 20 percent in the ACA exchanges. However, employee contributions to family premiums have risen sharply since 2012 from 14 percent to 32 percent this year, according to the Kaiser report, with workers at small firms digging deeper into their pockets than those at large companies. Employees at small firms are paying about $1,550 more a year for family coverage. According to the NBGH survey, in 2018 it will cost an average of $14,156 a year to provide an employee with health insurance, up from $13,482 in 2017. While employers continue to tweak plan design to help manage costs, they are increasingly focused on changing the way health care is delivered and paid for. About 21 percent are actively promoting or contracting directly with ACOs in 2018 — a number that’s expected to double by 2020, according to the report. november/december

2017

Phased Retirement Largely Ignored Despite Flood of Retirees By Patty Kujawa

ive years ago, top management at Herman Miller realized its workforce wasn’t getting any younger. The Zeeland, Michigan-based office furniture company had a significant number of baby boomers and saw the potential for its talent to walk out the door at the same time. “We needed to create a process that benefited both sides of the equation,” said Tony Cortese, Herman Miller’s senior vice president of people services. In response, it rolled out a flexible retirement program. Workers who are 60 or older with at least five years of service under their belts are eligible. The flexible retirement participant works with a team leader to schedule a reduction of hours that lasts anywhere from six months to two years. During that time, participants transfer what they know about their job to younger workers and then retire when their term is over. Right now, more than 100 employees are doing flexible retirement, Cortese said. Before the program was implemented, employees could give two weeks’ notice before retiring but it didn’t give team leaders enough time to plan. With 10,000 baby boomers retiring daily, it would seem that flexible retirement would be a staple benefit within the workforce. It’s not, said Catherine Collinson, president at Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. In fact,Transamerica found that nearly two-thirds of employers erroneously think they offer programs and tools that are “aging friendly” like shifting to part time from full time or taking less stressful positions within the company. The “17th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey” found that only 31 percent of companies let their workers shift to part-time and only 27 percent let workers move to less stressful positions. But 72 percent of employers said they believe their employees will stay on the job past age 65, so why not create a benefit similar to Herman Miller? According to the Society for Human Resource Management, only 5 percent of companies had a formal phased retirement program in 2016, and less than 1 percent planned to offer it within the next year. Putting a formalized phased retirement plan in place has been on a lot of companies’ to-do lists, but has never been a top priority, said Tim Driver, founder and CEO at RetirementJobs.com. Collinson and Driver said anecdotally that employers may be worried about age discrimination, compliance or other legal issues that may arise as a result of a flexible retirement program. A recent study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office interviewed a number of employers with phased retirement programs. Each company reported that they worked through legal concerns and found the program helped ease workforce planning issues. Cortese said flexible retirement is explained alongside other benefits available to all workers and that it is up to employees to tell team leaders whether they want to participate. “We aren’t tapping them on the shoulder,” Cortese said. “It is something they are asking us about.” w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

FOR YOUR BENEFIT

Employees Use InDays to Improve the World Around Them LinkedIn is using themed self-improvement days to promote company culture and retain employees. By Andie Burjek

A monthly InDay theme pushes LinkedIn employees to benefit their community or themselves through volunteering and other efforts.

nity to do what inspired them, McQueen said. One team in India pooled their money and bought lunch for the office’s janitorial staff, she added. Another team in London bought several prepaid Starbucks cards and hung outside with a sign saying, “Let us buy YOU a cup of coffee.” “They take pictures, they come back, they tell their story,” McQueen said. Family was the theme in November 2016, and it provided a unique spin on a well-known work practice.

THEMES REMAIN THE SAME YEAR TO YEAR AND INCLUDE VISION, REFLECTION, ENVIRONMENT, PLAY, CULTURE, RELATIONSHIPS, WELLNESS AND LEARNING. vironment, play, culture, relationships, “Rather than do ‘Bring Your Child to wellness and learning. Employees, in Work Day’ we do ‘Bring Your Parent to groups of three or four, can either par- Work Day’ because we have quite a large ticipate in an event on a LinkedIn cam- millennial population and we understand pus or outside of it. They show their that parents are still a huge resource for participation by posting on social media young people,” McQueen said. The CEO with the hashtag #LinkedInLife. and head of HR also brought their parents. February’s InDay had the theme of Once an InDay ends, McQueen said, “Community” and each employee re- “We take visual accounts, participation ceived $25 with instructions to “pay it counts, we look at social media and see forward” through a random act of kind- how many posts we had and the different ness. Employees went into their commu- places it’s mentioned in social media.” A 18

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team then puts together a package for the executive staff on the following Tuesday’s executive meeting including photos and anecdotes of the activities LinkedIn employees accomplished around the world. Setting days aside for specific purposes isn’t unique to LinkedIn. “We’ve seen an uptick in companies taking time during the workday to promote self-care and self-improvement for employees,” said Richard A. Chaifetz, CEO of employee assistance program provider ComPsych. The Chicago-based EAP has received requests to host training sessions and workshops on topics such as legal, financial and caregiving matters. Other popular topics include stress, mindfulness and relationships, he added. SunTrust Banks provides employees a fiscal health day every year for employees to get their finances in order, according to The New York Times. Entrepreneur recently listed the types of activities companies plan correlating to the seasons, including a summertime camping trip by a Salt Lake City marketing company. “These practices are part of employers’ efforts to improve and enhance their culture,” Chaifetz said. “Which is especially important for attraction and retention of millennials, who value worklife balance and self-improvement.” november/december

2017

IMAGE CREDIT: LINKEDIN

n the third Friday of every month, a LinkedIn employee somewhere around the world may be telling young adults to call their parents or help pay for a wedding at city hall. Maybe they’re volunteering at their child’s school or with their favorite charity. These Fridays are called InDays. Each month has a theme chosen by someone on the executive team, and employees have that day to focus on transforming themselves, their team, the company or the world with that theme in mind, said Nina McQueen, vice president of global benefits and employee experience at LinkedIn. Five people run the program globally for the 30 countries in which LinkedIn has offices, and 240 “culture champions” help manage it in individual locations. “InDay is meant to have you catch your breath and focus on something that inspires you that you’re passionate about,” she said. “It fuels you for the next 30 days ahead.” These themes create the essence of what it means to work at LinkedIn, she added, and they stay the same year to year. They include vision, reflection, en-

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2017

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

FOR YOUR BENEFIT

CRAVINGS ARE KEY TO LONG-TERM WELLNESS By Jennifer Benz |

Benefits Beat

umans are very bad at making good decisions about things that matter in the long term. Whether it’s choosing to workout over watching TV, a cookie over a salad, saving money or a new car, there are so many ways we satisfy our desires today instead of doing what we know will set us up for success tomorrow. It’s not that we don’t know what’s good for us. It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that if we keep eating those cookies every day, we’ll eventually gain weight. Rather, it’s that we value what feels good in the moment more than what we know is right for us in the long term. This phenomenon is widely studied by behavioral economists and is called “hyperbolic discounting.” HR leaders and benefits pros see this in action — and are frustrated by it — every day. Much of benefits design and communication is about overcoming this incredibly ingrained human trait. We know employees can — and should — just do simple things today that would pay off big time down the road. But they don’t. Understanding why they don’t and how to counter this behavior can help you create more effective benefits programs and better outcomes for your organization. One of our favorite experts on the topic, Nir Eyal, published a recent guest post on his blog “Nir And Far” by Lakshmi Mani on this topic. Titled “Why You Make Terrible Life Choices,” it explained hyperbolic discounting and the ways to overcome it. Mani summarizes the dilemma perfectly: “A caveman did not have to contend with the same complex choices we do today. Cavewoman Lakshmi never had to choose between eating a pig today versus investing it in a pig 401(k) that would yield a 4x return in the future. Under harsher living conditions, we didn’t know if we would survive till the end of the day so our species evolved to choose the immediate option that most increased our chance of passing down our genes. Our brains are wired to choose immediate sure-things rather than the potential of a far-off future reward.” So, there you have it — getting people to save more in their 401(k) requires overcoming the cognitive traits developed over thousands of years of evolution. No easy task! But acknowledging this challenge gives us more

perspective into how to help people make good decisions. We must remember that what we ask employees to do today for their health or financial security doesn’t come naturally to them. Simply not having to worry about surviving every day is a relatively recent development for humankind. Even more recent is the idea that you should stash away a lot of money over the span of 40 to 50 years so you can spend it in the future. Or that you should give up a meal today so that you’re healthier in the future. Does this mean the situation is hopeless? Not at all. But we have to be realistic about what it takes to get people to trade short-term rewards for long-term potential. One of the lessons we have learned time and again is that education isn’t enough. We can’t just tell people what they should do — they still won’t make the trade-offs between now and the future. But we can make good decisions easier and bad decisions harder by taking a very deliberate and thoughtful approach to designing smart plans and systems. Whether that is by automatically enrolling employees in their 401(k) or putting the fruit on the counter and the candy in a drawer, there are countless ways to design programs and workplaces to support smart choices. Another way we can do this is through the messages we choose to push out. Instead of focusing on what someone needs to do in the future, focus on the things they want to do now. Someone may need to lose weight to prevent the onset of diabetes a few years down the road, but that same person may want to lose weight now to look good in the designer clothes they’ve been coveting. That’s exactly where you should focus: what feels good now. Most importantly, we can and should embrace HR’s role as the architect of these choices. We know what employees should do to protect their long-term health and financial security. Every choice about designing programs and communicating them should help nudge and influence the right behaviors.

WE KNOW EMPLOYEES CAN — AND SHOULD — JUST DO SIMPLE THINGS TODAY THAT WOULD PAY OFF BIG TIME DOWN THE ROAD. BUT THEY DON’T.

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

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.

november/december

2017

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Legal Curing Workplace Harassment … with a Robot? Artificial Intelligence is rising as a tech tool to catch inappropriate behavior at work, but with it comes balancing automation and the human touch. By Ariel Parrella-Aureli

he skills that robots have in the workplace are increasing rapidly from building cars to working factory lines to transcribing lengthy documents. But catching sexual harassment in the workplace? It offers some intrigue to legal experts. And considering sexual assault allegations in corporate America continue to occur with startling regularity, those experts say artificial intelligence could be a key tool in the future to help catch inappropriate behavior in the workplace. They quickly add, however, that such technology must work in tandem with HR professionals who can monitor and understand the data. Silicon Valley is looking at ways to change the culture that is enabling sexual harassment and poor treatment of women in the workplace. California employment and entertainment litigation lawyer Eve Wagner, a founding partner of Sauer & Wagner LLP, a boutique law firm in Los Angeles, wrote in an op-ed on Law360.com that women have been empowered by publicly telling their stories.

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 could protect employees, but once employees sign employee handbooks, they generally give consent to employer monitoring. She notes this cultural shift being seen around the issue is good, but told Workforce in a separate interview that there has been “a resurgence” of allegations. Although companies are considering artificial intelligence, or AI, to solve the problem, there are several factors to look at before it can work successfully, she said. “A lot of companies now are implementing [AI] monitoring software,” Wagner said, adding that the reasons could be numerous — checking an employees’ job satisfaction, productivity, behavioral issues and potential harassment and retaliation. “It’s a newer trend and has not been tested out na22

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

tionally to see the scope because obviously this infringes on people’s feelings of privacy.” It’s a hurdle that attorneys and employers must be most aware of, one that changes depending on each state’s privacy laws. In California, Wagner said the privacy laws are stricter and state mandates are in place to bar employers from getting employees’ social-media passwords and GPS locations without consent. Theoretically, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, which prevents the government from monitoring electronic communications of individuals and businesses without consent, could protect employees, but Wagner said that once employees sign employee handbooks, they generally give consent to employer monitoring. Although most workplaces don’t actively check employee communications, she said just knowing that companies have the option is an unsettling feeling for the employee. “It can create a stressful, demoralizing environment, even if it turns out that it’s not legally an invasion of privacy,”Wagner said. AI also brings into question the data it could uncover and what HR needs to do about it. Sheryl Simmons, chief human resources officer at Maestro Health, said the data AI uses to potentially find inappropriate behavior must be balanced with a person’s work. More importantly, she said companies must have best practices and analysis in place for how to use the data before relying on it. Determining its relevance and if its findings should be pursued is how it can help the HR field in a more efficient way, without throwing massive amounts of data to sort through. “Smarter should always mean more strategic, and that is november/december

2017

where AI is going to free up resources,” Simmons said, adding that she sees AI being helpful not only for catching sexual harassment but also in recruiting, benefits, onboarding and management. AI expert and principal analyst Ray Wang is passionate about technological tools and how people use them. As the founder and chairman of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc., Wang works with companies to make technology better assist their business strategy and future success. He said AI’s aid in the workplace will show trends on communication and office culture comfort by recording data through technology’s natural language processing engines, which examine sentences and analyzes them for different types of patterns. “As people start to pick up these patterns, you are learning culturally what are acceptable situations,” Wang said. “We are seeing these tools emerge as a way to help folks figure out what are normal types of communications.” Wang said AI will yield false positive results at times, so the goal is to improve the precision of those false positives by looking at the patterns the data brings in and knowing when to use automation versus manual intervention. He is confident AI will be a major tool for compliance and regulatory requirements and will be a rising trend culturally and corporately. Silicon Valley’s recent bouts with sexual assault allegations have tainted the tech hub’s image, and Wang said the area is being scrutinized because of it. Despite this, he sees many tech companies using AI tools to catch inappropriate behaviors that would otherwise go unnoticed. “There are definitely abuses happening but there is a witch hunt going on in the Valley at the same time,” Wang said. AI use will only grow in the workplace and outside of it, and attorneys agree that HR will need to be prepared on how to handle the data. Marko J. Mrkonich, an employment law attorney with Littler Mendelson in Minneapolis, said it is too soon to see case laws based on AI catching sexual harassment in the workplace. Wagner added that such cases could make their way to federal courts, but both lawyers said the data does not necessarily catch physical harassment if it is only looking at electronic interaction in the office. “Realistically, right now the most prevalent use of analytics is still in the recruiting and selection processes than it is in the workforce management process,” Mrkonich said. “There are all sorts of areas where data analytics have the potential to help drive better behavior and better decision-making.” Ariel Parrella-Aureli is a former Workforce intern. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

november/december

2017

Legal Legal Briefings NO APPETITE FOR FLUCTUATING WORKWEEK OT CALCULATION In 2014, a group of managers at General Nutrition Centers Inc. retail stores in Connecticut who received sales commissions in addition to a base salary filed a lawsuit alleging that GNC’s use of the fluctuating workweek method of calculating their overtime pay shorted them on overtime pay and was a violation of state wage laws and regulations. Under the fluctuating workweek method, which is allowed under federal law, an hourly pay rate is computed based on the actual number of hours an individual works in a given week. The U.S. District Court certified to the state high court the question of whether an employer in Connecticut could use the fluctuating workweek method at all to calculate overtime pay under the state’s wage laws and regulations. Although Connecticut’s wage laws don’t prohibit its use, a regulation by the state Department of Labor that governs the calculation of overtime pay for retail and mercantile employees prohibits the fluctuating method. The Connecticut Supreme Court held that the state’s wage regulation requires retail employers to determine an employee’s regular pay rate for overtime purposes by dividing their weekly pay by the hours they usually work rather than what they actually work in a week. The court held that “[b]y setting forth its own formula for mercantile employers to use when computing overtime pay, one that requires them to divide pay by the usual hours worked to calculate the regular hourly rate, the wage [regulation] leaves no room for an alternative calculation method.” Williams et al v. General Nutrition Centers Inc., et al, Case No. SC 19829 (Connecticut Supreme Court Aug. 17, 2017). IMPACT: An authorized method of calculating wages under federal law may not be available under certain states’ laws regarding the same subject.

BREAST-FEEDING COP WINS PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION CASE After returning from a 12-week maternity leave, Stephanie Hicks, a police officer, overheard her supervisor commenting to her captain about finding ways to “get her out of here,” apparently because her leave was longer than her supervisor had wanted her to take. After only eight days back on the job, Hicks was transferred from narcotics to the patrol division, where her pay was cut and she no longer had a vehicle or weekends off. The new job duties also required Hicks, who was breast-feeding, to wear a ballistic vest all day long, which she said wasn’t possible. When Hicks asked for an accommodation, she was told breast-feeding was not a condition that “warranted alternative duty” and that she could either wear a larger size — which left dangerous gaps — or not wear the vest at all. As a result, Hicks resigned. Hicks sued the City of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act and a jury decided in her favor. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit affirmed the jury award, holding that the overheard conversation and the temporal proximity of only eight days supported the inference that there was intentional discrimination. Hicks v. City of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Case No. 16-13003 (11th Circuit Sept. 7, 2017). IMPACT: Employers must accommodate breast-feeding mothers in the same manner they would employees with a similar ability or inability to work. Mark T. Kobata and Marty Denis are partners at the law firm Barlow, Kobata and Denis, which has offices in Beverly Hills, California, and Chicago. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

Legal

LGBTQ Bias Moral, Not Legal Issue Jon Hyman |

The Practical Employer

e could spend hours, perhaps even days covering em- In that court’s words: “The compelling social interest in proployers’ top 10 employee handbook mistakes. I recently tecting homosexuals (male and female) from discrimination took that wide-ranging topic and boiled it down to a webinar, justifies an admittedly loose ‘interpretation’ of the word ‘sex’ touching on a number of points including missing at-will dis- in Title VII to embrace homosexuality.” In other words, claimers, salary discussion bans, inflexible leave-of-absence pol- changes in society since Title VII became law in 1964 justify icies, and omitted or ineffective harassment policies. reinterpreting the meaning of the word “sex” using 2017’s I also addressed anti-discrimination policies that ignore societal norms.While most federal courts that have examined LGBTQ employment rights. Here’s the legal background on this issue agree with Hively, there are some outliers, not all that issue: courts have had the opportunity to weigh in, and the Su• Title VII is silent: No matter how many times you read preme Court has not yet offered its definitive opinion. Title VII, you will not find • The Trump administhe words “sexual orientatration is anti-LGBTQ tion,” “gender identity” or protections: Most recently, any other terms that expressthe Department of Justice ly include LGBTQ individhas offered its opinion that uals. At least four different because Title VII is silent on legislative sessions of Conthe issue, it does not prohibit gress have introduced ENDA, LGBTQ discrimination. the Employment Non-DisThus, the law is far from crimination Act, which clear as to whether it is illegal would amend Title VII to infor an employer to discrimiclude “sexual orientation” nate against an employee beand “gender identity” to its cause of that employee’s sexlist of protected classes. The first three times, the bill died in ual orientation or gender identity, although (Trump’s DOJ committee. The last time, in 2013, it made it to the floor of notwithstanding), it is trending in that direction. the Senate but failed to reach a vote. After explaining “the law,” I issued this challenge to webi• Some states and municipalities have acted: Twenty nar attendees:“Be on the right side of history.” states and the District of Columbia have their own laws that When LGBTQ discrimination becomes universally illegal prohibit sexual orientation and gender identity discrimina- in the United States (and it will), and history looks back on tion in employment. Another two states prohibit just sexual this era during which this brand of discrimination was quesorientation discrimination.Twenty-eight states have no such tionably legal, on what side of history do you want to be as protections. Additionally, at least 255 cities and counties pro- an employer? The side that condoned (or, worse yet, particihibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and pated in) this discrimination, or the side that took a stand gender identity for employees. against it? • The EEOC has been processing LGBTQ discrimLet me make this very clear. There is no good reason to ination charges under Title VII’s sex discrimination justify anyone being against protecting LGBTQ civil rights. prohibition: In July 2015, the EEOC formally announced Your best-case scenario? You don’t like LGBTQ people. that it would process LGBTQ charges as sex discrimination Even if I give you every benefit of every doubt, that’s as good charges. According to the EEOC,“When an employee raises as it’s going to get for you if you come out against LGBTQ a claim of sexual orientation discrimination as sex discrimi- civil rights. nation under Title VII, the question is not whether sexual Worst case? You’re an evil, hate-mongering bigot. orientation is explicitly listed in Title VII as a prohibited basis If you doubt me, in place of “LGBTQ,” substitute “Afrifor employment actions. … Sexual orientation discrimina- can-American,” or “women” or “Jews.” tion is sex discrimination because it necessarily entails treatHow does your denial of equal rights sound now? Are you ing an employee less favorably because of the employee’s sex.” still comfortable with your position? • Following the EEOC’s lead, most federal courts So, I ask again, on what side of history do you want to be? that have examined the issue have also concluded I know my answer. that Title VII’s prohibition against sex discrimination includes LGBTQ discrimination: The most notable Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in court to weigh in is the (usually conservative) Seventh Cir- Cleveland. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Follow cuit Court of Appeals, in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College. Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.

No matter how many times you read Title VII, you will not find the words “sexual orientation,” “gender identity” or any other terms that expressly include LGBTQ individuals.

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

november/december

2017

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industryinsights Organizational Collaboration’s Dirty Little Secret Much of your company’s collaborative success can be chalked up to only 4 percent of your employees. And those employees aren’t too happy about it.

By Carole Bernstein, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Across companies and sectors, people are being told that collaboration and teamwork are critical to their company’s future. The time spent by managers and employees in collaborative activities has ballooned by at least 50 percent in the past two decades. But in fact, a small number of employees are shouldering the collaborative burden, according to the recent Harvard Business Review article “Collaborative Overload” by Rob Cross of the McIntire School of Commerce and Reb Rebele and Adam Grant of the Wharton School. In a study of over 300 organizations, the authors found that 20 to 35 percent of value-added collaborations are being generated by only 3 to 5 percent of employees.

Collaboration as a Learned Skill Stress, burnout, and turnover are higher among these helpers or “extra milers.” In a study of 20 organizations, the authors found that leaders regarded as the most in-demand collaborators actually had the lowest engagement and career satisfaction scores. “Being a high performer is like winning a pie-eating contest and finding out the prize is more pie,” quips Harold Strawbridge, vice president of Innovation and Continuous Improvement at Inglis, agreeing with the authors’ observation that top collaborators are often not recognized adequately. He believes collaboration should be formally taught in schools. “When I see somebody’s resume cross my desk and I see MBA, I would love to… know that part of that master’s has been how to effectively collaborate,” Strawbridge says. Among the fundamental skills Strawbridge identifies is the ability to plan and run an effective meeting. Cross, Rebele, and Grant also discuss the use of meetings for effective collaboration, pointing out that sometimes less is more. They cite a Stanford study in which managers at Dropbox eliminated all recurring meetings for two weeks. The exercise forced employees to reassess which

meetings were actually necessary, and resulted in shorter yet more productive gatherings.

How Technology Can Help The authors state that digital tools can make for better collaboration. They cite programs such as Slack and Salesforce.com’s Chatter, which enable open discussion threads on various work topics and make information accessible to more employees. Other programs such as Syndio and VoloMetrix can help managers assess networks and make informed decisions about collaborative activities. Catherine Shinners, principal and founder of Merced Group, helps implement technology that supports collaboration and reduces over-reliance on meetings. She says that such technologies can also wean people from the inefficient use of emails, which causes versioning problems and broken conversational threads. Shinners further recommends having employees maintain a profile on a company-wide network similar to LinkedIn. She says this lightens the load on frequent collaborators by making others within the company more visible as potential helpers. Shinner notes that companies with teamwork problems actually may have deeper issues for which overcollaboration is only a symptom, like poor interaction and knowledge management practices. Some firms don’t recognize that these persistent issues are eating away at their corporate culture until the business finds itself at a competitive disadvantage. Savvier firms realize that professional development is essential to strengthen their executives’ competencies around collaboration. A good executive education partner program can be invaluable for helping leaders root out and address what’s actually causing the perceived “collaborative overload.”

Virtue Isn’t Its Own Reward Improving collaboration should be addressed at the

Partner with Wharton Executive Education for measurable impact. We can design programs that reflect your organizational strategy and corporate culture, and deliver on your business goals. Visit execed.wharton.upenn.edu/empower or call Wharton Client Relations at 215-746-8093 to learn more.

individual level too, say the authors. Managers can empower overburdened collaborators to filter requests, say no sometimes, or help in ways that energize them. The authors found that at one Fortune 500 technology company, 60 percent of collaborators wanted to reduce one-off requests, but 40 percent were open to increased coaching of others. And rewarding good collaboration with positive reviews and pay raises is critical. The authors found that roughly 20 percent of organizational “stars”—the individuals who get the praise and the promotions—hit their numbers but contribute nothing to their colleagues’ success. This phenomenon takes an even greater toll on women’s careers, the authors add, since often women are expected to behave helpfully and communally for less recognition. Leaders can find out more about how to navigate the complexities of collaborative work at Wharton Executive Education. There, luminaries including Peter Cappelli, the director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources, partner with firms to deliver in-depth knowledge for immediate impact. The programs at Wharton Executive Education teach high-performance teamwork that cuts down on wasted time and energy, distributes collaborative work effectively, and boosts companies’ overall performance. Of Wharton Executive Education, Cappelli observes, “The learning you get here makes sense. It’s not theoretical— it’s based on what we see going on in the world.”

Peter Cappelli, DPhil George W. Taylor Professor of Management; Director, Center for Human Resources, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

industryinsights How to Hire Top-Performing Salespeople in an Evolving Sales Environment By Thomas Schoenfelder, PhD

The rapidly evolving world of sales is causing significant changes in how companies hire and train their sales force. Because today’s buyers are much more aware of features and benefits, alternative offerings, and reviews from other customers, salespeople must now add value by conveying much deeper knowledge of the needs of the client organization, competitor activity, trends in the customer’s own client base, and how the product/service being offered will address strategic issues, provide real ROI, and help the client hone their competitive advantage. Although some elements of sales remain as important as they were in years past, such as initiating relationships, building rapport and establishing credibility, HR professionals are tasked with understanding this business shift as they look to bring salespeople on board who will remain engaged, loyal, and ultimately succeed in taking companies to the next level. Moreover, looking at current sales professionals and then understanding their strengths and areas of development can provide further areas of exploration as a company looks toward training and development initiatives. Research into sales performance over the past 15 years clearly demonstrates one thing: the business world must expand the traditional hunter/farmer conception of sales to more closely align with how customers buy in today’s complex environment. For HR professionals charged with supporting the performance of sales, it’s important to note that there are six approaches to sales that organizations may consider, depending on the type of product they sell and their client base:

The ‘Traditional’ Sales Category: New Business Development Often referred to as the ‘hunter’ model, these professionals are responsible for developing new business from new customers or existing accounts. This category of sales typically requires more ‘traditional’ sales competencies such as influencing and persuading, building relationships, negotiating, remaining resilient in the face of failure/

rejection, and negotiating to win-win solutions. Top performers in this role also need to be self-starters, so a strong desire to achieve goals, initiate action, and manage time effectively are critical aspects of performance.

The Other ‘Traditional’ Sales Category: Account Development This is often referred to as the ‘farmer’ sales model. While individuals in this category are not required to be as assertively persuasive or ego-driven as their ‘hunter’ counterparts, they are often charged with maintaining and building relationships with current customers. They are also tasked with working to develop new relationships through introductions or referrals. In addition to the ‘traditional’ sales competencies related to persuading, developing relationships, and negotiating, top performers exhibit strong tendencies in organizational savvy.

Sales through Service: Account Service Specialist This category of sales professional often finds success by providing strong service to existing customers/accounts, while strategically taking the opportunity to cross- or upsell at the appropriate times. Therefore, this category of sales typically requires sales competencies related to enhancing the overall customer experience and ensuring actions and decisions are supportive of service as well as being in the best interest of the company.

“Research into sales performance over the past 15 years clearly demonstrates one thing: the business world must expand the traditional hunter/farmer conception of sales to more closely align with how customers buy in today’s complex environment.”

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The Collaborator: Consultative Sales Top-performing consultative sales professionals, in addition to the typical sales competencies of persuasiveness and resiliency, exhibit a range of competencies that reflect the desire to develop common goals and objectives with each customer. They exhibit the motivation to provide insight or create tangible value in some way relevant to both the bottom line of the company and the organizational status of the primary decision makers. The competencies that support performance in this area include strong interpersonal sensitivity, active listening, and relationship building.

The Subject-Matter Expert: Technical Sales Technical sales professionals leverage their expertise to build credibility and gather important information or specifications, allowing them to propose targeted solutions and ultimately close the sale. This type of role requires strong performance in some core sales competency areas such as influence and persuasion, relationship building, information seeking, and negotiating. However, greater emphasis should be placed on such competencies as analytical thinking, business acumen, and learning agility.

The Knowledge Broker: Strategic Sales The strategic sales professional must establish the credibility to position her or himself as a confident, strategic partner. Through this sales process, they are challenging their clients to find a deeper understanding of their business, the issues they face, and their path moving forward. Successful strategic sales professionals manifest competencies that are reflective of organization-wide, conceptual, big-

picture thinking and strong cognitive ability such as strategic thinking, business acumen, learning agility, and organizational savvy.

A new paradigm and what it means for hiring and training So what does this mean for the company looking to hire and train successful salespeople? Because the business environment is changing rapidly, it’s imperative for both business strategists and HR professionals to first understand the makeup of their teams. What are the competency-based strengths and weaknesses of the current sales force? What do your top performers have that other salespeople seem to lack? Does your sales success model reflect any of the categories listed above? Where are the gaps? And how can these gaps be addressed via training and development? Many of these questions may not have an immediate answer, however, it’s critical to understand the competencies required for sales success so that you can train up to – or hire against – that benchmark to accommodate the business requirements for salespeople in today’s world. Once companies have an idea of how their teams look in terms of strengths and areas of developmental opportunity, they can create goals that include training and development as well as hiring to fill gaps if necessary. The nuances resulting from this evolution in the sales profession are important to understand for both salespeople in the field and those looking to hire them.

industryinsights A Different Kind of Talent Pipeline Frontline worker development offers retention and brand loyalty possibilities By Tim Harnett

With the economy improving and more people joining and rejoining the workforce, organizations will soon be faced with a new challenge: a tight labor market. As traditional pipelines shift, companies will need to find new ways to attract employees. “Today’s organizations are shifting to a build versus buy mentality toward talent because the tightening of the labor market means the talent simply isn’t there,” says Rachael Bourque, director of business development for Pearson. “In this new talent market, your frontline workers become an untapped resource.” Developing nontraditional pipelines may help mitigate the expenses caused by voluntary turnover. “Organizations may know generally about their turnover expenses, but don’t necessarily know exactly how much they’re spending to replace workers,” Bourque says. “Replacing workers involves time and money, when everything is considered between recruiting, hiring, onboarding and job shadowing. By developing current workers, organizations can increase their retention.” When putting together a business case for educational assistance, organizations should examine their costs caused by voluntary turnover and deploy programs that will develop workers and increase employee engagement. “For a lot of frontline new hires, many recruiters look to new hires’ friends, so brand reputation is crucial,” Bourque says. “Educational assistance can help develop loyalty, which in turn can lead to more hires coming through the doors.” However, frontline worker development has its challenges, such as cost, access and communication. “Some frontline workers might not know which manager they report to, especially if their labor

force is large with multiple layers of management,” Bourque says. “Deciding where the training lives is certainly an issue, if workers don’t have the ability to log into a computer at their workplace. Another issue is delivery, if the training is delivered in English and the worker needs skills in ESL, for example. These barriers should all be examined and addressed for successful frontline development to take place.” “Frontline workers face other unique challenges, such as third-shift workers trying to take advantage of training or educational benefits, or workers without basic computer literacy who are unable to benefit from computer-based training. Addressing these issues begins with a conversation that needs to happen but is often left out of traditional learning and development. Offered programs should also be communicated about more effectively. Organizations often say, ‘We’re offering this benefit; why aren’t our employees taking advantage of it?’ Part of the reason may be workers might not know how to take advantage of the programs — or even that they exist.” Sean Stowers, director of learning services for Pearson North America, agrees. “In many organizations, traditional educational assistance is typically hidden away where employees can’t find it, which may be done for cost reasons.” However, tucking educational benefits away on a website does employees a disservice. “Organizations don’t always have the same kind of connectivity with their frontline workers that they do with their office workers. Often, the way those organizations connect with their frontline employees is through manager-led meetings at facilities across the country. Certain industries also face issues such as franchising or co-employment. In those cases,

Pearson AcceleratED partners with organizations who are struggling with retention, recruitment, and cost of engagement by helping to reimagine the use of their education benefit in a strategic way. Our managed education services help provide more frontline employees access to skills development through educational pathways that complement your traditional rewards benefits. Our integrated network of regionally accredited schools and managed education services solutions help employees overcome traditional barriers to degree completion, including cost and access while providing a greater ROI back to our customers. Visit our website www.pearsonaccelerated.com

who is the employee’s boss and responsible for their development?” Sometimes, organizations don’t have any technological connectivity with their frontline workers. “When constructing a benefits program for frontline workers, one of the first challenges is understanding how to reach them,” Stowers says. “Not every frontline worker in every organization has a company email address, or even computer access. How do you get them information about the existence of these programs so they can take advantage of them?” Knowing who your frontline workers are and reaching out to them with development opportunities will be the key to creating new nontraditional talent pipelines for your organization. “U.S.-based companies invest more than $150 billion a year in training and development, with another $20 billion spent on tuition assistance —

“Educational assistance can help develop loyalty, which in turn can lead to more hires coming through the doors.”

often without requirements or oversight,” Stowers notes. “There’s no intention behind the outcome of that spend. Forward thinking organizations are beginning to craft strategies and policies regarding these investments so the money spent on tuition assistance is used more strategically and meets the needs of the workforce. Organizations are beginning to see some of those obstacles and are starting to craft solutions designed to get people past those obstacles, addressing access and affordability to reach the adult learner.” Learn more about how Pearson can help develop your frontline workers at pearson.com.

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The Price of a Family-Friendly Workplace Paid family leave remains a contentious issue for employers nationwide. Although its federal future is unknown, employers are stepping up their game. BY ANDIE BURJEK

he common argument by employers against instituting a more robust paid family leave policy is its prohibitive cost.That certainly was the thinking at Bora Architects, along with fears that employees would misuse the policy. That mindset quickly changed in 2015 for the Portland, Oregon, firm when a valued receptionist announced she was going to become a single mother. The pending birth and the possibility of losing a quality employee set off alarm bells for Amy Donohue, a principal with the firm, and Dawn Ridenour, the chief financial officer, launching them into a cost-benefit analysis. They had 65 employees at the time. Ridenour pored over company data from the previous five years and identified all the instances in which an employee could have triggered a paid family leave policy. Donohue said she discovered the cost was reasonable. Specifically, the events she looked at fell under the Oregon Family Leave Act, which covers maternity and

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IMAGE CREDIT: BORA ARCHITECTS

Bora’s Amy Donohue, center, with Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, right, who asked to meet about support for families in the workplace.

paternity leave, time off for adoption and foster care, and care for self, spouse, parent or child. “It was something we could put in our budget every year,” Donohue said. “Some years we’re going to spend less, and others we might spend more. But on average it’s not a significant expense, especially compared to what it would cost to replace that person if they left. It isn’t just the Googles of the world that can afford it. Smaller companies can, too.” The patchwork of paid family leave policies dotting the United States reveals a desire on the part of states, municipalities and businesses advocating for such programs. New York is the next state implementing paid family leave beginning Jan. 1, 2018, joining California, Rhode Island and New Jersey.

“ON AVERAGE IT’S NOT A SIGNIFICANT EXPENSE. … IT ISN’T JUST THE GOOGLES OF THE WORLD THAT CAN AFFORD IT. SMALLER COMPANIES CAN, TOO.” — AMY DONOHUE, PRINCIPAL, BORA ARCHITECTS Politically, paid family and medical leave is supported by 71 percent of Republicans and 83 percent of Democrats, according to the May 2017 “Paid Family and Medical Leave” report by the AEI-Brookings Working Group on Parental Leave. The disagreement for a comprehensive federal policy lies not in the real need for the United States to adopt a solution, but in the messy details of how leave is funded, how long it lasts and who is eligible, the report states. 34

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Although the Trump administration has not given any indication that federal paid family leave is on the horizon, first daughter Ivanka Trump has advocated for its implementation in some form, said Tracy Billows, partner at Chicago-based law practice Seyfarth Shaw. “Whether that will ultimately come to fruition, we’ll have wait and see,” she said. “I don’t think that paid family leave on a federal level is completely off the table as we’ve sometimes seen in prior administrations.” Meanwhile, a growing number of employers are adopting policies of their own. Financial service company State Street Corp., which employs 33,000 people, is one of the many companies to enhance its paid family leave policy. Part of the reason the company chose to improve the policy in 2014 was to be a more attractive employer. “Our global total rewards team is constantly looking at the competitiveness of our paid leave policies,” said Mike Scannell, senior vice president and president of the State Street Foundation, the company’s charitable arm. State Street also solicited feedback from employees through surveys and listening sessions, he said.The executive team wanted to create more channels for employees to share what’s on their minds. “A significant and consistent theme was the value of flexible work time, personal time off and the need for greater work life balance,” Scannell said. Larger employers with deep financial resources, such as State Street, may be able to afford to offer these policies more easily, while small to midsized employers may be more sensitive to cost or temporary lack of manpower while an employee is out of the office. There are ways around these challenges, though, as Bora Architects and others show.

Companies’ Practices The structure of Bora’s policy is such that employees would not take advantage of it, according to Donohue. november/december

2017

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Employees who have been there a year get six weeks and can receive 20 percent of their salary. Employees who have been there two years get six weeks at 40 percent. And those who have been there for three years or more get the full benefit, six weeks at 60 percent of their salary. “We want to make sure people have been here a while to realize the full benefit,” Donohue said. Even a person receiving the full benefit won’t be motivated to stay home from work longer than necessary, Donohue said, because 60 percent of one’s salary is still a challenge for a family to take on. These people would be living on a compromised salary for six weeks, and they’ll make the point to thoughtfully decide how much time to take. While an employee is on leave, work still must run smoothly for up to six weeks. This transfer of power can go well if the company culture is supportive, according to Donohue. At Bora, where teams usually run from four to 12 people, those groups may be able to function one person short if a project is winding down. It’s also possible for them to borrow someone from a different team for a short length of time. A supportive culture is also imperative at Change.org, said Allie Roseman, HR operations director for the petition website, which has 150 employees, 10 of whom took paid family leave in the past year. Stressing that if people are overworked, they hire a contractor. Roseman noted that taking on extra work can be a valuable learning experience. “It’s often a very good learning opportunity for more senior employees to be able to take on some work and learn something new outside of their scope,” she said. In 2015, Change.org began to offer 18 weeks of paid family leave for both mothers and fathers, Roseman said. The policy is flexible in that employees can take time off in one block or in smaller, staggered amounts of time, as long as the time is used within a year after the child’s birth. Roseman took on extra work when the HR department’s most senior member, who is now the chief operating officer, went on leave to take care of his baby. She felt like she was ready to take on new duties, and some have since become her responsibility. “I see that across the organization,” she said. “A more junior employee will take on a project that a more senior employee had when they were out on leave.” Then, she added, they have a new skill set that they’re happy with and they can contribute on a higher level.

Employers’ Attitudes and Actions These organizations were able to make something work, but that’s not a common theme for much of the business community. The AEI-Brookings Working Group report addressed the challenges employers may face and potential solutions. The working group, comprised of a politically diverse group of individuals, discussed paid family leave and came up with a compromise policy. Although it did not satisfy everyone, it 36

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Access to Paid Family Leave

Percentage of civilian workers with access to leave benefits, March 2016.

23% 16% 6%

5% Full-time workers

Part-time workers

High-wage workers

Low-wage workers

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics National Compensation Survey

was an idea that everyone could get behind, said Isabel Sawhill, senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. A major idea behind the compromise was that it could not take form as an employer mandate or as something that would burden businesses with more taxes. “Even if you have a payroll tax to both employers and employees, most economists think it ends up being paid by employees because the employer could pass that along in the form of lower wages,” Sawhill said. The group decided an additional payroll tax on employees was the best option. Despite the cost concerns of employers, the group ultimately believed it would be in employers’ best interests to offer paid leave. Research suggests that there is less turnover when a company allows paid time off. “Turnover is more disruptive and expensive than any temporary interruption,” Sawhill said. Temporary absences or inconveniences in the workplace while an employee is on leave is something employers will have to get used to if they care about supporting parents. “It’s going to be inconvenient when an employee gets pregnant and has a baby, period, whether there’s paid time off or not,” Sawhill said. The current paid family leave landscape, although riddled with its own contradictions, debates and tensions, is not nearly as controversial as other types of paid leave. FAMILY LEAVE continued on page 65 november/december

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The Automation of HR:

Take Us to Your CHRO

Like past instances of human labor displacement that saw the automation of many factory jobs, white-collar executive positions are more likely to be automated in the not-too-distant future. While it sounds scary, it presents a great leadership opportunity for HR. BY MAX MIHELICH

ack in 2014 the Associated Press started using automation software to write quarterly corporate-earnings reports. This software, known as Wordsmith, is able to produce 3,000 such stories every quarter, which, according to the AP, is a tenfold increase from what its writers and editors were able to produce in the same time period.

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By employing automation software to churn out corporate earnings stories, AP journalists are able to dedicate more time on reporting and breaking news. Journalism may not be the only traditionally white-collar field to be affected by automation if software expert predictions are correct. Automation software â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as well as artificial intelligence and machine learning â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is on the brink of be-

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coming ubiquitous in offices around the world, taking the repetitive, transactional work out of many traditional white-collar jobs, including many manual functions of human resources roles. In short, jobs once thought to be immune from automation are likely to be transformed by it within the next 10 years. As automation software begins to creep into more businesses, the role of HR is set for a major

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An Automated Nation Automation technology will create 14.9 million new jobs in the next decade, with automation creating jobs equivalent to 10 percent of the workforce through 2027, according to a Forrester report published in April. Michael Chui, partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, said many of the new jobs created by automation technology will be in the data science field, robotics and robotic repair and maintenance. There’s also the possibility that jobs likely to be greatly transformed by automation actually see a greater need for humans to do them — at least for a little while. For example, between 1970 to 2010, the number of bank tellers in the U.S. increased to about 600,000 from around 300,000, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. Because ATMs allowed branches to be run with fewer people, banks could open more branches, which also meant more tellers overall. However, the number of branches is declining now because of industry consolidation and technological change, according to the BLS. The federal agency predicts the number of bank teller jobs will decline to 480,500 by 2024, down from 520,500 in 2014. So while automation is predicted to create millions of new jobs in the coming decade, Forrester estimates 24.7 million jobs will also be displaced by 2027, which is about a deficit of 10 million jobs. These negative consequences are inevitable, but present another leadership opportunity for HR, according to Chui. “How do you redeploy the time that’s freed up by these technologies? Sometimes that means there will be a reduction in force. That’s another place for HR to step up,” he said. New technology is predicted to create 14.9 million new jobs in the next decade, with automation creating jobs equivalent to 10 percent of the workforce through 2027. On the other hand, automation will displace 24.7 million jobs by 2027, which is about a deficit of 10 million jobs, according to a Forrester report published in April. These negative consequences are inevitable, but present another leadership opportunity for HR, according to Chui. “How do you redeploy the time that’s freed up by these technologies? Sometimes that means there will be a reduction in force. That’s another place for HR to step up,” he said. In the future, the nightmare scenario of being replaced by a robot will be a reality for some workers, but ultimately, experts agree that people will still be the most important part of the workforce. —Max Mihelich

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transformation. In fact, the Society for Human Resource Management labeled automated HR one of its “Nine HR Tech Trends for 2017.” “I think there are two ways to think about the implications for HR: How does the department operate, and how does the HR function report to the rest of the enterprise?” said Michael Chui, partner at McKinsey Global Institute, a global management consulting firm. According to Carolyn Broderick, senior HR information systems analyst at SHRM, HR departments have their work cut out for them when it comes to workforce automation. “I believe HR has a role for planning in the future. Jobs will have to be redesigned. Certain jobs are going to be enriched if mundane tasks are going to be automated,” said Broderick. “HR has to consider how humans and machines will work together.”

The Wave of Automation Automated labor often leads to dystopian thoughts of a future where humans in the workforce are rendered obsolete by robots. However, the automation of tasks is nothing new for the American workforce, even in traditionally white-collar sectors. Spell checkers, Excel formulas and out-of-office replies are simple examples of automation already in use that make office jobs easier. Most occupations have the potential for some automation, and it’s estimated that about half of all the activities people are paid to do in the world’s workforce could potentially be automated by existing technologies, according to a recent report from McKinsey. “What this says to us is that there is a wide-ranging scope of automation technology, which, over time, will affect every role,” Chui said. “Not just workers who earn lower wages, but MBAs, JDs or MDs. We find the potential for automated work in many occupations.” The difference between automation already in use and the automation revolution many experts predict is that new advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning are able to automate tasks that were thought to be too difficult for a machine to do accurately. In other words, it was more efficient, quicker — and ultimately cheaper — for a human being to do them. “I can automate a lot of things like email, for example,” said Jason Hite, founder and chief people strategist at Daoine Centric, a Virginia-based HR consultancy. “It’s just a ping and an echo. But the difference between automation and artificial intelligence and machine learning is that an email is now read by an AI algorithm. The email you get back is now responding to you with an answer to the question you asked. You’re getting a tailored response.” Speed and efficiency have always been among the main drivers behind automation in the workforce, as it november/december

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allows for increased productivity. The same holds true for the current economic climate. “Automation of activities can enable businesses to improve performance by reducing errors and improving quality and speed, and in some cases achieving outcomes that go beyond human capabilities. Automation also contributes to productivity, as it has done historically,” the McKinsey report states. It’s possible that automation programs could displace highly skilled jobs in the distant future. But in the near future, the jobs most susceptible to automation are those in manufacturing, accommodation and food service, retail trade and some middle-skill jobs. These jobs share certain commonalities such as physical activities in highly structured and predictable environments, as well as the collection and processing of data. “There are certain jobs involving data prep or data entry that will be affected. People spend an awful amount time scrubbing data,” Broderick said. “With automation taking over that process, folks can spend more time analyzing data and writing about it. There are already programs that can do that.” When it comes to HR, Hite said there will be opportunities to automate many transactional tasks and noted that some forward-thinking companies have al-

SPELL CHECKERS, EXCEL FORMULAS AND OUT-OF-OFFICE REPLIES ARE SIMPLE EXAMPLES OF AUTOMATION ALREADY IN USE THAT MAKE OFFICE JOBS EASIER. ready started to do so. As an example, he pointed to companies using smart devices to help keep track of employees on leave. “There are a number of companies that have already integrated with Amazon Echo. As a manager, you can ask it, ‘How many people are on leave today?’ ” said Hite, a 2016 Workforce Game Changer. “There’s no need to call HR about that anymore.” Experts predict the adoption of automation technolAUTOMATION continued on page 64

2017

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CREATIVE OUTLETS This year’s Optimas Award winners prove that savvy organizations must get inventive to solve complex workplace issues.

s workplace challenges grow more complex, creative solutions to resolve these issues become increasingly crucial.What was evident among our 21 Workforce Optimas Award winners is the clever ways they addressed their problems. Now in its 27th year, the Optimas Awards celebrate HR’s success at solving some of the biggest business challenges of our time. Each year, the Optimas Awards are given by Workforce magazine to recognize human resources and workforce management initiatives that achieve business results for the organization. One company acknowledged the prevalence of the gig economy outside its corporate walls and created an internal gig economy for employees to build their skillsets. Another, much in line with the growing trend of rewarding employees for volunteering, created an initiative that aims to help combat local and global inequality. The gold winner for Benefits is a global organization with some 27,000 employees that was able to reconcile the necessity of streamlining benefits on an international scale while also being mindful of unique local needs. This company shows that balancing large-scale and small-scale needs, though it can seem impossible, can absolutely be accomplished. And then there’s the 2017 General Excellence winner, Webasto Roof Systems Americas, which faced an all-too-common problem: sliding financials coupled with a toxic workplace culture. It was so bad that Webasto’s corporate culture was ranked by McKinsey’s Organizational Health Index among the “worst ever seen” in 2014. It took the initiative to improve its organizational and financial health and employee satisfaction, and, just three years later, the impact they’ve made is truly impressive, as witnessed with the General Excellence honors. Congratulations to all of our 2017 Optimas Awards winners, which tackled these modern-day challenges with great resourcefulness. We look forward to what these companies will accomplish in the future. — Andie Burjek

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Worst Case

to First Place

Three years ago Webasto Roof Systems Americas had one of the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lousiest workplaces. With a commitment to culture and honesty, the 2017 Workforce Optimas General Excellence winner made a mighty effort to improve morale, communication and finances with noteworthy results. 44

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From left: Kristy Lake, Sylvia Blair, Anne Boone, Corey Stowell, Philipp Schramm, Alisha Easterling, Charles Braxton, Tamala Meyers, Liz Beatty, John Wilder and Andre Schoenekaes.

PHOTOS BY BOB DITOMMASO

BY ANDIE BURJEK

he Great Recession hit Detroit and the auto industry hard. The federal government bailed out General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automotive as sales took a huge hit. Webasto Roof Systems Americas, a Rochester Hills, Michigan-based automotive supply company, was not imnovember/december

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w o r k f o r c e . c o m | WorkĆ&#x2019;orce

General Excellence

From left: Tracy Tomalak, Philipp Schramm, Chelsie Price, Chuck Tatham, Andre Schoenekaes, John Wilder, Thea Dimitriu and Christina Gardner.

mune to the fallout. But unlike the automakers’ relatively quick turnaround, financial and cultural aftershocks of the economic decline lingered at Webasto, the North American division of Germany-based Webasto Group. “There was so much fear in the organization to be let go. It was unbelievable,” said Philipp Schramm, chief financial officer and vice president of human resources and IT at Webasto. “The industry around us, too, was not so good, like it is now. A lot of people were very worried. If you talked to someone on a Friday, people almost came into your office saying, ‘Do you want to let me go?’ ” In the face of financial difficulties as well as a demoralized workforce, the company had a choice. When both the financial and cultural health of the company is failing, which should it focus on first? The simpler, more direct route was to close plants and lay off employees. Instead Webasto took an unconventional and more long-term approach to financial improvement by first resuscitating its failing culture. In 2015 Webasto’s corporate culture was ranked among the “worst ever seen” by management consulting company McKinsey & Co. in their “Organizational Health Index.” Schramm, who at the time oversaw just finances, took over the HR role and inherited the sickly culture. Departments didn’t communicate with each other, he said. They were focused on their own objectives rather than the broader and bigger goals of the 46

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organization. Putting out fires was more important than doing things right in the first place, which took a financial toll on the company. The support functions themselves were siloed and flawed, and that spilled out onto the plant floors and other parts of the organization. “[A dysfunctional main organization] will lead, in every arm of the organization, to the same dysfunctional results,” Schramm said. Webasto’s solution to building a new culture was separated into several phases. First, the company identified a road map of desired behaviors by asking every employee what their cultural priorities were. The guide, called “Our Compass,” was to be incorporated into the organization’s core values because it inherently included the cultural needs of all employees. Then, Webasto set out to create an environment that encouraged listening. Meetings known as listening sessions resulted in crucial insights, Schramm said. A colleague, rather than a manager or executive, was trained to facilitate smallgroup discussions.This person would start a discussion among a large group of employees with a question like, “What are your hopes and fears at Webasto?” A lot of valuable information came out of these discussions because the facilitator didn’t interrupt or comment on the discussion but instead let people talk. For example, an employee didn’t know a bereavement policy was in place, Schramm said. Because it was a listening session, the goal wasn’t about november/december

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General Excellence correcting the employee’s misunderstanding about available benefits but to listen and learn. “It’s not on the colleague because he didn’t understand it,” Schramm said. “If he feels that way, then it’s our job as a management team to fix this and make it so clear that everyone in the organization understands it.” The company also had to overcome employee distrust. Many colleagues had been with the company for almost 30 years. “What they’ve shared with me is, ‘I’ve seen so much already. It’s just another flavor of the month,’ ” Schramm said. They didn’t want to invest themselves in the process only to be disappointed. Schramm relied on transparency to combat the dispirited attitude. “I cannot ensure you this will work out,” he told employees. “But everything I can do and what I can influence I will do to drive this to success.” The culture change project, which spanned from January 2015 to November 2016, provided positive results in a short period of time. Webasto did a re-survey with McKinsey’s OHI again in 2016 and came out with a score 18 points higher than before, the largest improvement McKinsey had seen in a 15-month period.

Initiatives from the project continue today, and in November 2016 Webasto hosted and funded a threeday event called the Strategic Planning Summit in Detroit to discuss its past problems, celebrate its cur-

“I CANNOT ENSURE YOU THIS WILL WORK OUT. BUT EVERYTHING I CAN DO AND WHAT I CAN INFLUENCE I WILL DO TO DRIVE THIS TO SUCCESS.” — PHILIPP SCHRAMM, WEBASTO

rent successes and plan for the future. “The summit was another advancement in Webasto’s way of listening to colleagues and engaging them in developing solutions to sustain momentum every day,” wrote Gwen Knapp, communications manager at Webasto Roof Systems Americas, in the company’s Optimas application. Participants at the summit developed 20 ideas to improve business performance, Knapp said. Today there is a team responsible for helping advance implementation on these plans. “Pushing the organization to achieve operational excellence without layoffs led to dramatic improvements both to culture and the bottom line,” she added. Schramm likened Webasto’s renaissance to Detroit’s gradual improvement, which emerged from the Great Recession as a “broken city” and has slowly emerged as a city on the mend. “We have evolved from the lessons learned from these hard times when we hit rock bottom, and came back up,” Schramm said. For its workplace initiative, which demonstrates excellence in the Optimas categories of Business Impact, Managing Change, Innovation, ViFrom left: Evi Baumert-Saxer, Gwen Knapp, Allen Tuttle III, Maike Aurnhammer, David Mudge, Kristy Lake, Michael Kelly and Alisha Easterling. sion, Training, and Benefits, Webasto Roof Systems Americas is the 2017 It also saw a drop in voluntary employee turnover. Optimas Award winner for General Excellence. And, after being in a grim financial situation in 2014, Webasto’s U.S. operations returned to profitability by Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. To comment, mid-2016. email editors@workforce.com. november/december

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Benefits

Bristol-Myers Squibb Gold

implifying employee benefits is difficult for any company no matter its size. When you consider the same challenge for a massive, global biopharma company with 27,000 employees scattered across 46 countries, a single solution seems impossible. Bristol-Myers Squibb had many challenges embedded in its paper-based, low-tech benefits process, including language barriers, resource constraints and conflicting priorities.The New York-based company set out to transform its benefits offerings through technology — a task easier said than done. It had to centralize benefits and administration while still keeping a local touch because of local tax laws, language, cultural expectations and employee lifestyles. Partnering with Thomsons Online Benefits, Bristol-Myers Squibb launched the Mybenefits initiative. It set out to achieve many goals, from streamlining administration without sidelining local teams to creating a portal that would engage both U.S. and international employees. Bristol-Myers Squibb achieved these goals across 25 countries within 12 months between November 2015 and November 2016. There were several components to the solution. Automated administration allowed for instant access to a single source of data, reduced administration

time and eliminated the need for paper. With this centralized data, Bristol-Myers Squibb could gain insights and view costs on benefits at both a country level and a global level. These streamlined, scalable processes freed benefits administrators from time spent on tasks they had to do manually. As a result of Mybenefits, the company has been able to modernize its benefits process while keep-

ing it local. It’s seen improvement across countries in certain tasks. Germany saw online pension administration time reduce by 33 percent. Belgium saw payroll processing time move from two weeks to five days. Brazil eliminated the need for an onsite broker due to how much simpler benefits enrollment had become. For its success in streamlining benefits in a large, global organization, Bristol Myers-Squibb is the 2017 Optimas Award Gold winner for Benefits. — Andie Burjek

Riverside Healthcare Silver

any employers say they want a culture of health. Riverside Healthcare is one that is achieving that culture through its employee wellness program, Riverside Employees Actively Choosing Health, or REACH. REACH focuses on holistic well-being rather than just physical health. Along with health risk assessments and annual wellness labs, employees can also access programs centered around emotional health, financial wellness and work-life balance through REACH. By creating an easily personalized, broad program that could be accessible to any employee, Riverside believed that the employees, the organization itself and the senior citizens Riverside serves could benefit.

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The health care system has seen impressive use of its wellness program. In 2017, 69 percent of benefits eligible employees and 88 percent of insured employees completed REACH’s requirements For its efforts to walk the talk and make employee wellness an integral part of its workplace culture, Riverside Healthcare is the 2017 Optimas Award Silver winner for Benefits. —Andie Burjek november/december

2017

Business Impact

GAI Consultants Gold

AI Consultants has a simple belief: As employees and leaders grow and succeed, the company will grow and succeed right alongside them. In order to put this belief into action, the engineering, planning and environmental consulting firm created a more effective training program with clearer, more precise directions. Their training program, GAI University, was designed in 2014 to develop the skills of employees and leaders alike. The program is constantly being evaluated and reworked to suit the company’s changing needs. The program includes a partnership with Point Park University in Pittsburgh, a tuition reimbursement program, GAI-funded technical training offered both within and outside of company, onsight leadership training, a yearlong Harvard Business School curriculum and regular coaching. Since the program was created, GAI’s employee turnover has dropped from 18 percent to 15 percent, gross revenue has gone from $110 million to $135 million, profit from $8.8 million to $13.5 million and the firm’s efficiency factor has moved to 78 percent. Customer satisfaction also has benefited from the GAI University training program. In communication, work quality and responsiveness, GAI is ranked 8.3, 8.6 and 8.7, respectively, on a 10-point scale by customers, far higher than average. Their employee engagement

also rose, when comparing a survey from 2014 to 2016, and improvements were noted in 12 areas. Patty Racz, senior training and development specialist, said that this award provides validation for their efforts in training. “We are honored to win the Gold Optimas Award for Business Impact. At GAI Consultants Inc., we strive to ensure all employees are provided the training and development necessary to do their jobs and continue to provide superior service to our clients,” Racz said. “Being recognized by Workforce Optimas is a meaningful acknowledgment of the success of our efforts.” For its efforts in quality training, GAI Consultants is the Optimas Award Gold winner for Business Impact. —Marygrace Schumann

Suffolk Silver

fter doubling in size from 2007 to 2016, Suffolk decided to prioritize the performance and development of its talent. A privately held building contractor, Suffolk delivers a “build smart” approach to construction management. The firm’s human resources team created an enterprisewide initiative to improve its performance management process, turning a “check the box” performance management culture into something modern and consistent. The result was a new structure with procedures designed to create a scalable system, including an annual performance management process. This helped Suffolk build a competency model that allows it to grow and set SMART (specific, measureable, achievnovember/december

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able, relevant and timebound) goals to ensure every employee has clear expectations. ® For its efforts in developing and improving its performance management, Suffolk is the 2017 Optimas Award Silver winner for Business Impact. — Marygrace Schumann w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

Corporate Citizenship

Advanced Group Gold

dvanced Group knows its employees want to make a difference in the world and be productive toward their community.The Chicago-based consulting group, which focuses on mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing and management, makes sure to reward its employees for their community volunteering through its four-year initiative, Community Works. It is ingrained in the company’s culture to find humanitarian ways to combat local and global inequality. When an Advanced Group employee volunteers their time to make a difference, Community Works provides rewards for the employee and the public. They give monetary donations to nonprofit and volunteer organizations, additional PTO for the employee, and donate money to their future workforce, people with disabilities, veterans and global health care innovation. According to its Optimas Awards application, the company contributed $165,000 to 44 community organizations, and as of mid-2017 had donated $60,000 to 22 organizations. Making these improvements for the public and the company comes with the culture, thanks to CEO Leo Sheridan. “Making a difference has been important at Advanced since I started the company almost 30 years ago,” Sheridan said. “Not only do we have a highly engaged workforce, we have an incredible amount of employees who want to give back to the communi-

ties we work in. We’re pleased to offer a variety of initiatives that support a strong culture of corporate social responsibility.” Another benefit the initiative has brought is cutting overall turnover by 20 percent in the organization of more than 380. In the four years of its implementation, the initiative has engaged half of the company’s workforce in corporate responsibility initiatives. True to the company’s mission, it is touching the lives of everyone they serve in multiple ways.

“Our goal is to give back by supporting programs, projects and organizations that create learning opportunities, promote academic and economic achievement and address community needs,” reads the firm’s mission statement. For their efforts engaging with the community and offering employee rewards, Advanced Group is the 2017 Optimas Award Gold winner for Corporate Citizenship. — Ariel Parrella-Aureli

General Assembly Silver

eneral Assembly is working with diverse groups to bring strong talent to its industry and open doors for underrepresented individuals. Understanding the lack of diversity in tech fields, New York-based General Assembly partnered with tech giant Adobe to open the Adobe Digital Academy in 2016 to close the tech skills gap and bring more women and minorities into the field. The academy works with nonprofits and minorities to educate them on web development and critical technology skills and gives them the experience to join the Adobe team and close the skills gap. Since 2016, Adobe has awarded 29 scholarships through General Assembly and eight full-time positions to students who went through the program. Adobe Lightroom software engineer Vanessa Farias

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shared her experience going through the academy: “Adobe Digital and the LrW team supported me the whole way and gave me an opportunity to work toward a role at Adobe and that is invaluable.”

The experiences General Assembly and Adobe have given to people like Farias, along with training programs and job offers to diverse candidates, makes General Assembly the 2017 Optimas Award Silver winner for Corporate Citizenship. —Ariel Parrella-Aureli november/december

2017

Global Outlook

Siemens Healthineers Gold

iemens Healthineers is known for its dedication to improving human health through the latest treatment and technology. As the world continues to move, with technology and human behavior evolving every day, Siemens Healthineers found it necessary to alter its strategy to learning. Its previous mission statement, “To become the largest provider of global virtual education, performance support and cloud-based performance,” was challenged and reworked as it sought to keep up with the changing business climate. Now, its mission is, “To become the partner of choice for next generation education and performance growth solution, services and experiences for the global healthcare professional.” The firm’s Virtual Education Solutions and Personalized Education Plan are key components of this new goal. As a part of the Healthcare Integrated Learning Solutions, PEPconnect and VES focus on three essential areas (people, technology and process) to meet people’s needs, stay up to date with the newest technology and produce revenue opportunities. In the past five years PEPconnect has had a customer satisfaction of eight out of 10, with an increase of 5 percent every two years, with more than 3 million completions and more than 7 million accesses. William Magagna, vice president of virtual education solutions, said that the company is constantly growing.

“Human capital is every organization’s greatest asset, and as educators our goal is to deliver global learning solutions to support their ongoing growth and education needs, and every year we

look for opportunities to benchmark our solutions across the global workforce community,” Magagna said. “Optimas and Workforce magazine have been excellent conduits for us at Siemens Healthineers to do just that. Every year we learn more about how and where others are successful, which is critical as we continually craft our vision for the future education experience. We are excited once again to have been recognized by Optimas for global business impact with PEPconnect and our other virtual solutions for the global health care professional community.” For its global efforts in advancing health care technology, Siemens Healthineers is the Optimas Award Gold winner for Global Outlook. —Marygrace Schumann

Mercer Silver

ercer, a global consulting leader in talent, health, retirement and investments, partnered with Active Ops Management to create MercerPulse. The initiative was designed to make sure Mercer’s business had consistent operations practices throughout its geographically diverse company. Specifically, the firm looked to empower managers to guide colleagues, introduce common standardization of operational routines, set precise performance goals and expectations, among other things. MercerPulse helped foster these practices by preparing individual contributors and managers with the necessary november/december

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tools and skills. MercerPulse also enabled the company to achieve a target of 10 percent capacity realization with 12 months. Ultimately, this ensures a business can becomes more agile and deliver back cost benefits, which leads to profitable growth. For its efforts in creating MercerPulse, Mercer is the 2017 Optimas Award Silver winner for Global Outlook. —Marygrace Schumann w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

Innovation

Ceridian

Gold Award

R software company Ceridian takes pride in working for people and looking to them as assets and not costs. Specializing in onboarding and transboarding (moving from one department to another), Ceridian’s innovative Dayforce Onboarding initiative increased employee engagement by giving new workers a detailed understanding of the organization on their first day and easily transferring employee information through HR processes that also led to accurate and effective time management. The Minneapolis-based company hired 1,650 new employees in the past two years and wanted to immediately include employees into the company culture. As a result, employees get to work faster and more efficiently and can set realistic expectations. The program also limits potential first-year attrition. Chief People Officer Lisa Sterling sought to modernize the onboarding experience. Technology, communication, collaboration and employee connectivity with personalized experiences were key parts to making the initiative successful. “It is an honor to be recognized with an Optimas award in the category of Innovation,” Sterling said.“Dayforce technology is about culture and is a force for transformation. As many have come to realize, career success is no longer just about having all the right skills, but also the right behaviors. Dayforce Onboarding’s focus on the cultural integration aspects of starting a new job or new role is a prime example of how cultural fit is coming to

the forefront of HCM technology.” Enhancing employee engagement was a cultural aspect sewed into the program, which focuses on personal interaction, happiness in the workplace and having career advice ready from HR professionals.

“By engaging individuals faster, Ceridian improves retention, bolsters the employer brand and better enables employees to do their jobs,” according to the award application. With the help of technological interaction to introduce teams through Dayforce TeamRelate by showing bios and pictures, co-workers immediately get to know their incoming colleagues and can get the ball rolling even before a new employee’s first day.This fast-moving direction has also garnered other awards for Ceridian’s program, which helps put them in good standing as an industry innovator. For its efforts to use its robust training and onboarding program as a recruiting tool, Ceridian is the 2017 Optimas Award Gold winner for Innovation. —Ariel Parrella-Aureli

Intel Corp. Silver

“O

hana” is what Intel Corp. calls its employees. The word means “family” in Hawaiian, and in creating the “freelance nation,” it also created a family-style culture that has reaped benefits for its network of employees. The program was designed to help internal employees find employment elsewhere that needed their specific skillset. Building off the gig economy model, Intel gave its employees quick work while still working full time, which allowed them to use their skills as freelancers and remain engaged in their daily tasks. Vikki Mueller Espinosa, senior HR manager and talent champion, said the team is honored to be recognized with an Optimas Award.“Creating an internal gig

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economy enabled Intel to move faster, optimize our specialist and generalist services, retain intellectual property and enable our most valuable resource — employees — to contribute in the most efficient and most cost-effective way possible,” Mueller Espinosa said.“When employees get to do what they do best every day, everybody wins!” For Intel’s efforts providing connections and development opportunities for employees, it is the 2017 Optimas Award Silver winner for Innovation. — Ariel Parrella-Aureli november/december

2017

Managing Change

Ottawa Medicine: Gold

n Ontario, Canada, aggressive behavior in the workplace is becoming a serious concern. The Legislative Assembly of Ontario recently passed an amendment to the Occupational Health and Safety Act stating that employers are obligated to assess the risks of violence and harassment in the workplace as often as possible to protect workers. The University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine, which is in Ontario, found it wasn’t immune to this spreading problem. Some 73 percent of residents have been on the receiving end of this aggressive behavior and 25 percent are uncomfortable to confront the people exhibiting this behavior.These results led them to implement the Crucial Conversations Training program. The two-day program involves role-play exercises and customized scenarios. Staff at Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine were trained to facilitate the program and leaders worked to personalize the workshop based on the most common experiences reported in the Postgraduate Medical Education’s environment. More than 1,200 faculty, residents and administrators took part in Crucial Conversations Training in the past three years. To measure the impact the program had on minimizing aggressive and disruptive behavior, 78 participants were interviewed and asked about the workshop and its results. The study concluded that harassment, intimidation and racism are

practically non-existent and that most participants believed the workshop was relevant to their work.There has also been a decrease in the amount of complaints referred to the Postgraduate Medical Education Professionalism Committee and in the number of complaints resulting in termination. Brittney Maxfield, director of content and marketing at VitalSmarts, said this was a rewarding way to recognize this initiative. “We are honored to be recognized in the Workforce Optimas program. What better way to provide the proper recognition for our client, the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine, and their change initiative than to get them the credit they deserve with this award?” Maxfield said. “The combination of VitalSmarts training paired with a client who can utilize the skills and principles taught in the course, results in changed behavior worth recognizing.” For its efforts to create a harassment free environment, The University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine is the Optimas Award Gold winner for Managing Change. —Marygrace Schumann

Office of Information and Technology at the Department of Veterans Affairs Silver

he Office of Information and Technology at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ goal is to create the best experience for all military veterans by providing unified veteran experiences through the delivery of new and innovative technology. To achieve its goals, the department’s chief learning office was tasked with creating new learning solutions. The firm’s work resulted in adding project management as a technical competency for all IT employees to support the emphasis on project-based development, managing a Leaders Developing Leaders change effort with six initiatives that reached more than 1,500 participants, and created a learning solution to strengthen stranovember/december

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VA tegic thinking in the Office of Information and Technology whose 18 learning projects saw a return on investment of more than 1,000 percent. For its efforts in creating the best experiences for veterans, the chief learning office at the Department of Veteran’s Affairs is the Optimas Award Silver winner for Managing Change. — Marygrace Schumann w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

Partnership

Baylor College of Medicine Gold

ost businesses agree that employee wellness in the workplace is vital to help prevent lack of productivity and performance. Maintaining and learning how to have a healthy lifestyle isn’t only a personal achievement, but it creates a better work environment for an employee. Baylor College of Medicine launched a fiveyear strategic plan that created a wellness program called BCM BeWell. The wellness program has won numerous local and national awards. BCM BeWell’s most recent award was being awarded in the top five “2016 Healthiest 100 Employers in America” by Springbuk Inc., a health analytics software company. Most companies worry about failing without expanding their company with the help of another company’s support. However that isn’t what it was like for Baylor College of Medicine. It created an immense amount of internal success with its health programs that it wanted to expand externally. After all of the recognition and success from the wellness program, Baylor College was approached by other companies looking for the wellness services of their own. “As the No. 1 charity in the Houston area, Baylor College of Medicine wanted to take its award-winning wellness program out to the community to improve the

lives of employees and their families,” the company’s Otimas application read. This is where Vitality Group came in. Baylor College sought out Vitality Group, which was its wellness portal provider, to see if it was interested in coming together to offer external wellness services. Both organizations have wellness as their core mission, and with that they formed a partnership. The partnership opened for business in May 2017 and transformed the HR department into a profit center. BMC BeWell keeps expanding and providing healthy lifestyle assistance to people who enroll in the program. Because of the partnership with Vitality Group, Baylor College of Medicine is the 2017 Gold Award winner in Partnership. —Alexis Carpello

Makespace Silver

tartups have shown the ability to grow into successful organizations seemingly overnight, even as they face the myriad challenges that come with scaling a new business. Makespace, a storage and pickup company, started with four drivers, an excel spreadsheet and paper punch cards in New York City and quickly grew to 180 drivers in four cities across the country. Because of its rapid growth, Makespace needed an easily accessible solution that could be effortlessly integrated with its payroll. So in 2013, it turned to Deputy. Deputy is an online human resource and employee management system that aims to help companies with employee scheduling, time, attendance and communication. “The simplicity of the platform and the user interface, particularly for drivers and managers, makes

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Deputy an indispensable solution to manage the workforce that is rapidly growing,” the company stated in the nomination application.

For developing an easy-to-use management system into a rapid growth company, Makespace takes the 2016 Workforce Optimas Silver Award in Partnership. —Alexis Carpello november/december

2017

Recruiting

SDI Gas LLC Gold

hen hoping to grow the company’s workforce, SDI Gas LLC faced a unique challenge: Americans not seeking operations work. The company set out to share the benefits of working in construction. Roundtable discussions with longtime employees and new hires helped the human resources team to develop a talent attraction strategy without the help of outside consultants. They dubbed the initiative R3, standing for recruit, retain and reactivate. Creating websites and brochures and attending trade shows were the first steps to educating and reaching potential hires. This included four websites, which the team overhauled from clunky to streamlined and mobile-friendly. Simplification and easier-to-read content led to a reduction in time needed to learn about each company that falls under SDI — MEC Construction LLC, Mid Atlantic Fabrication LLC, North American Directional LLC — and speedier job application. There was also a focus on company culture, emphasizing the overall business as “large enough to make a global impact, but small enough to be quick and nimble in many regards,” said Christopher Willis, director of human resources and marketing at SDI Gas. “Selling the benefits of being engaged in construction is a key element that we had to develop to gain an edge over other industries.” Social media branding was the next step, which involved creating new profiles and overhauling existing ones through Facebook, LinkedIn, Indeed’s em-

ployer profiles and Twitter. New posts highlighted company culture and unique projects in the works. Through posts to industry-specific groups on LinkedIn and at trade shows, recruiters interact with the next generation of engineering, construction and STEM talent. “Our employer branding and engagement efforts spawned by our social media and marketing campaigns have led to an overwhelming response from industry professionals,” Willis said.

GAS LLC The results of new recruiting efforts are a twofold increase in application intake. Professionals from household-name competitors have now joined SDI, coming on to work for an employee-centric and industry-passionate company. “We are happy to offer that opportunity, in more ways than one,” Willis said.   For its efforts to improve recruiting, SDI Gas LLC is the 2017 Optimas Award Gold winner for recruiting. —Lauren Dixon

Rochester Regional Health Silver

here are a lot of appointments to schedule at Rochester Regional Health, which encompasses five hospitals and more than 150 patient care sites. Turnover among those who schedule appointments was around 34.5 percent in 2014, costing around half a million dollars in recruiting and lost productivity. Recruiting quality hires who would succeed in the role was crucial to the health care organization. Rochester Regional Health partnered with Singola Consulting, which led the organization through an examination of its job descriptions, an expansion november/december

2017

of its recruitment strategy and improvements to its pre-employment screening and testing. These initiatives led to a 14 percent reduction in turnover, faster customer service and quicker onboarding. For its efforts to improve its recruiting process, Rochester Regional Health is the 2017 Optimas Award Silver winner for recruiting. —Lauren Dixon w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

Training

AT&T Inc. Gold

ack in 2011, telecommunications conglomerate AT&T realized its employees lacked the skills needed to run a growing software infrastructure. As tech talent is limited and competition is aggressive, AT&T determined it needed to retrain its 265,000 employees. Fast-forward to 2016. CEO Randall Stephenson appointed the company’s first chief learning officer, John Palmer, and invested about $250 million and 20 million hours in training its employees. In addition, the company spent nearly $34 million in tuition aid and collaborated with the University of Notre Dame to begin an online master’s degree with a specialization in data science. “We want our employees to evolve with our company; investing in training is nothing new for us and we continue to work to build a culture of continuous learning at AT&T,” Palmer said. “Engaging and reskilling our current employee base is the right thing to do for many reasons, not the least of which is providing those who have helped to build AT&T an opportunity to grow and succeed along with the company. We want them to be prepared for software-centric careers.” The majority of training happens at AT&T University using its flagship training program Leading with Distinction. The company also works with external partners including Udacity, Coursera and uni-

versities to offer additional degrees or certifications in specialized fields. Since Apr il 2017, the company has seen major improvements in training. After completing the Transformation Learning coursework, some 57,000 employees earned about 174,000 badge certifications, more than 2.6 million web-based transformation courses were completed, 2,000 employees enrolled in nanodegree programs and more than 400 employees enrolled in the company-initiated Georgia Tech-Udacity program. “To make the transformation succeed, we’ve focused on transparency and empowerment — creating tools and processes that help empower employees to take control of their own development and their careers,” Palmer said. For its efforts in engaging and reskilling its employee base and inspiring a culture of continuous learning, AT&T is the 2017 Optimas Award Gold winner for Training. —Ave Rio

Choptank Transport Inc. Silver

hile shipping and transport company Choptank Transport Inc. had a training program in place for many years, company leaders found it was outsourced and tailored to the industry instead of its particular business. In an effort to create a more customized training program, Choptank created a two-week classroom training structure for new employees in addition to its seven-week onboarding program. The first week of the training involves classroom learning and the second week moves to hands-on learning. Each classroom can train 24 people, with

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16 computers and eight outside video connections. The new training system began in early 2017, so while measurable results are still being calculated, Choptank has had positive feedback from both new and existing employees who say they’re excited about the possibilities for advancement because of the new LMS. For its work preparing new employees with a potential for advancement, Choptank Transport Inc. is the 2017 Optimas Award Silver winner for Training. —Ave Rio november/december

2017

Vision

WVU Medicine/University Health Associates Gold

he poor and elderly often find themselves unable to access quality health care, a huge problem considering they’re among America’s most vulnerable people. In West Virginia they lack access to care, transportation and health professionals. WVU Medicine/University Health Associates sought to ease the suffering of those without the proper resources. In August 2015 it began an initiative to recruit a minimum of 70 new physician positions with its Physician Recruitment & Retention Program. To expand recruitment they implemented virtual career fairs, built partnerships with medical schools and developed a system wide marketing effort. The firm also began monthly and quarterly meetings to partner with 19 specialized departments and improved its onboarding process, among other things. Since the initiative began, the firm has seen its highest number of physicians hired as well as the highest number of physician specialties. Through that, it was able to create the Heart and Vascular service line program and Critical Care signature line, which will become a statewide Comprehensive Stroke Program. In 2015, 70 new physicians were hired.To date, 85 physicians have been hired in 2017. Annette Belcher, senior physician recruiter and talent adviser at WVU Medicine, said the Optimas

Award validates its initiative. “WVU Medicine/University Health Associates is honored to be recognized by Workforce as the Gold winner for the Vision category of the Optimas

Awards,” Belcher said. “It means a great deal to be recognized for our hard work and strategic efforts during an extraordinary time of growth for our organization. We continually strive to anticipate the needs of physician recruitment at WVU Medicine/ University Health Associates and to create plans and programs to support this growth and drive business results. We appreciate the content and learning opportunities provided by Workforce.” For its efforts in improving the health of West Virginians, WVU Medicine/University Health Associates is the Optimas Award Gold winner for Vision. — Marygrace Schumann

Brad’s Deals LLC Silver

rad’s Deals LLC, a curated guide to the best online deals on the web, has a vision for supporting women without handholding. Through its Women’s Tech Accelerator, it aims to eliminate challenges women face in technology jobs so women-owned businesses can thrive.While women make up more than 50 percent of employees at Brad’s Deals, the team noticed it was difficult finding female talent in the engineering field. The firm believes this in part due to the lack of encouragement women receive in that sector. Though most traditional startup accelerators take equity in the business, Brad’s Deals gives these businesses resources rather than money. Currently, the program provides up to four women and their businesses access to Brad’s november/december

2017

Deals office resources and advice from a team whose specialty is helping companies grow. Though not the intention of the program, Brad’s Deals executives note that 70 percent of all new hires in its organization have been women. For its efforts in empowering women-owned businesses, Brad’s Deals LLC is the Optimas Award Silver winner for Vision. —Marygrace Schumann w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

SECTOR REPORT

Relocation

Finding Agility in Employee Mobility How flexible relocation packages are helping companies meet customer needs on a budget. By Sarah Fister Gale

usy HR professionals now have one more task to add to their to-do list — relocation manager. “When the economic crisis occurred, HR and relocation departments both took a hit,” said Melissa Seitz Medford, consulting services manager for TRC Global, an employee relocation company in Philadelphia.That caused many companies to merge the two teams, or to eliminate relocation experts all together and move those tasks to HR. The challenge: “HR people are not mobility experts,” she said. That’s putting additional pressure on relocation services companies to provide simple solutions that meet the needs of employees and companies, within increasingly tighter budgets. “Cost has been at the forefront of relocation decisions for a long time now, and it will continue to be a challenge,” Cindy Madden, director of the Cartus Consulting Solutions practice in Danbury, Connecticut. Cartus’ 2017 industry survey found that relocation cost was the biggest challenge companies face, and cost concerns have increased steadily since 2009. At the same time, however, they are facing pressure to attract and retain top talent, who often see overseas assignments as a necessary tool for career development. That’s driving employers and relocation companies to look for more flexible package options that cut cost from the process while still accommodating the needs of employees from multiple generations. “Having a standard threetiered program is no longer the case,” Medford said. While executives may still demand a robust relocation package with all the extras, millennials are often happy with minimal support to get them through the move. “Providing them with a full package many not be necessary, as long as they have what they need,” she said. What that means, however will differ according to each employee’s marital status, home ownership, duration of the move and related dependencies. As a result, companies today are much more interested in lump sum contracts that allow employees to pick and choose how they want to apply their relocation resources. But companies need to be careful about offering standard lump sum packages, Medford said. Employees need guidance on how best to use the funds, or they run the risk of burning through all their money and coming up short.That can leave both the employee and the employer in a difficult financial situation, she said. Managed lump sum contracts are a better option, be-

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

cause they provide the employer with guidance on what a relocation process involves and what benefits they can take advantage of. “That’s how you get the most bang for your buck,” Medford said. Companies are also increasingly adopting Coreflex plans, which offer “core” benefits like paying for movers and travel expenses with a variety of optional add-ons, like trips to look for a new home, or help with private schools. These coreflex models allow companies to achieve some level of consistency in their offerings, while still accommodating the flexible needs of employees at different points in their lives and careers, Medford said. The Cartus report shows that only 9 percent of companies currently have core-flex policy structure, but the industry is seeing growing interest in this approach.

COMPANIES REPORTING THE NUMBER OF FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES DEDICATED TO MANAGING GLOBAL MOBILITY HAS DECREASED.

DIGITAL MOVES Companies are also more interested in data to track how well these relocation investments are paying off, and advances in analytics tools are helping them get those answers. Greater access to robust data is making it possible to link mobility to talent management and overall business strategy, Madden said. Relocation companies are increasingly offering analytics and reporting tools to help companies to track their spending and benchmark their programs against competitors. “They want to see the business benefit on these investments,” Madden said. Compiling and reporting on that data can be challenging, especially when companies use a patchwork of vendors in their relocation programs. Madden notes that most larger relocation companies partner with many movers, mortgage companies and other service providers, but if clients go outside those networks, the data may not be accessible. november/december

2017

OF COMPANIES SAY RELOCATION ASSIGNMENTS ARE EXPECTED TO STAY THE SAME OR INCREASE BY 2018.

“In those cases we need to let them know what data we can and can’t access,” she said. As more millennials move into higher-levels roles — both as heads of mobility decision-making and as leaders who expect lucrative relocation benefits — these programs will

continue to evolve. “They are bringing new ideas, new policies and new technologies to the mobility industry,” Medford said. “Companies need to be open to the fact that the old ways of doing things may not be relevant for much longer.”

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

HOT LIST Relocation Service Providers Listed alphabetically; compiled by Ariel Parrella-Aureli; editors@workforce.com NUMBER OF CLIENT COMPANIES FOR THE MOST RECENT FOUR QUARTERS

EMPLOYEE-ASSISTED MOVES IN THE MOST RECENT FOUR QUARTERS

PERCENTAGE OF CLIENTS THAT ARE FULL-SERVICE RELOCATION CLIENTS

813

163,000

Would not disclose

CORNERSTONE RELOCATION GROUP crgglobal.com

2,624

58,373

Would not disclose

CROWN WORLD MOBILITY crownworldmobility.com

1,016

113,753

Would not disclose

IMPACT GROUP impactgrouphr.com

425

2,980

52 percent

NUCOMPASS MOBILITY nucompass.com

6,500

85 percent

SIRVA WORLDWIDE RELOCATION & MOVING sirva.com

1,800

180,000**

Would not disclose

WEICHERT WORKFORCE MOBILITY, INC. weichertworkforcemobility.com

397

28,102

80 percent

XONEX RELOCATION xonex.com

116

9,948

98 percent

COMPANY NAME & Web Address CARTUS CORP.* cartus.com

Note: *Numbers are as of the 4th quarter of 2016 **Corporate relocation and moving events exclusive of ancillary mobility events Source: Companies november/december

2017

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

SECTOR REPORT

F i n a n c i a l We l l n e s s

The Pressures of Financial Wellness

Small wins and baby steps are helping personal finance make a good first impression with workers, but like a trip to the dentist, a little courage goes a long way toward long-term health. By Patty Kujawa

or a lot of American workers, dealing with personal finances is a lot like the anxiety they feel about going to the dentist: they know it would be better to go and get it over with but the fear of what they may find out can be overwhelming. Stress about money pervades every age, income level and gender, a new survey from Charles Schwab Corp. showed. It even affects the ones who are saving for retirement. People don’t know where to start and they don’t think they can manage their daily money issues on their own, said Nathan Voris, managing director for Schwab’s Retirement Plan Services. Most people work every day, so that worry is spilling into their jobs. In fact, employers may be the biggest losers, facing losses of up to $250 billion anually over people stressing about money issues, according to a new survey from Mercer. As a result, organizations are looking for a superhero-like remedy and are paying a lot of attention to financial wellness. In general, financial wellness is a holistic financial plan tailored to a person’s needs today and tomorrow. Plans can offer budgeting, debt repayment, short- and long-term savings goals or other financial issues affecting workers. With the growing demand, the number of companies offering plans is increasing dramatically too, said Joe Miller, president of Shortlister, a consulting firm that tracks companies offering all types of wellness plans. Of the 39 financial wellness companies tracked by Shortlister, 10 have cropped up in the past three years. “It is a constant process for us to chase down and find out who the new vendors are,” Miller said.“There is an opportunity here, and you’re seeing lots of folks enter the market.” Last year, Fidelity Investments formalized its financial wellness program. Fidelity, the top record-keeper in the 401(k) industry, has pulled 98.5 percent of its defined-contribution plan sponsors, including companies like Nike Inc. and Potbelly Sandwich Works into the financial wellness space. Experts agreed that employers are making financial wellness a priority, but not all are adopting programs. Employers that are looking at these plans cut the amount of time workers are spending on financial issues, several observers noted. In a recent look at well-being overall, Shortlister found that 81 percent of employers responding said they planned to add niche solutions like diabetes management, health coaching and financial wellness to their benefits lineup. Miller said that employers are looking beyond their workers’ physical health and are seeing financial wellness and other similar programs as a way to attract and retain talent.

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

When asked about prioritizing financial wellness, employers cited it was the top growing demand, but it finished last in the must-have category. One of the reasons it hasn’t shifted to a necessity for employers is because it isn’t well-defined and employers want vendors who can provide all benefits on one platform, not piecemeal arrangements for their niche programs, Miller said. “We see a lot of kicking the tires right now, but employers are not taking it through the finish line,” Miller said. “This year is one of discovery. Next year is when employers will put it in place.” Plans that teach financial courage first are finding success, said Neil Lloyd, head of U.S. defined-contribution and financial wellness research at Mercer. Lloyd said financial courage is a person’s confidence in their ability to get started in addressing their financial issues. It’s like settling into the dentist’s chair, he added. “We are beginning to realize that we need to help people feel confident before they start,” Lloyd said. “You have to bolster people who are not courageous.” That begins with small wins, not gigantic financial wellness seminars or kickoff campaigns. For many people, getting a financial score can completely turn them off to the idea of fixing their finances because the score may seem too low to fix. “Give people the courage to engage in these issues, and we find there are lots of things we can do,” Lloyd said. As expected, larger employers are the first to dive into financial wellness initiatives. Alight Solutions, a benefits administration provider formerly part of AonHewitt, found that innovators in this space offer a broad spectrum of financial wellness programs, are linking health and financial wellness and are customizing messages to different types of users. Rob Austin, Alight’s director of research, said innovative companies are starting to fold financial wellness into annual enrollment. Instead of simply selecting a medical plan or 401(k) option, pioneering companies are offering modeling tools to show how programs fit together. Nearly 60 percent of innovative companies are communicating the connection between health and financial stress and 37 percent are providing workers with help on their health and retirement decisions, Alight’s latest survey showed. “We are constantly going to see this evolving,”Austin said. Patty Kujawa is a writer based in the Milwaukee area. To comment email editors@workforce.com.

november/december

2017

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SECTOR REPORT

F i n a n c i a l We l l n e s s

HOT LIST Financial Wellness Providers Listed alphabetically; compiled by Ariel Parrella-Aureli; editors@workforce.com

COMPANY NAME & Web Address

FOUNDED

% OF FINANCIAL WELLNESS SERVICES FOR EMPLOYERS

SERVICES OFFERED

NUMBER OF EMPLOYER CLIENTS

KEY CLIENTS

450

WND

BANK OF AMERICA MERRILL LYNCH bankofamerica.com/ financialwellness

1914

90 percent

In-person educational meetings via workshops; personal consultations with licensed financial wellness specialists

EDU(K)ATE edukate.com

2013

100 percent

Financial wellness platform

300

WND

FINANCIAL ENGINES financialengines.com

1996

100 percent

Managed accounts; online investment advice; comprehensive financial planning

731

Delta Airlines; Northrop Grumman; Dell

FINANCIAL FINESSE financialfinesse.com

1999

100 percent

Online financial learning center; financial helpline

Aetna; Viacom; NFLPA; Nestlé USA

INSTANT FINANCIAL instant.co

2015

100 percent

Allows employees to access a portion of their earned income after every shift without fees

Casper mattresses; McDonald’s

KASHABLE kashable.com

2013

100 percent

Alternative to loans taken from retirement plans; help prevent 401(k) leakage

N/A

Agro Merchants Group; Corestream

MERCER mercer.com

1945

N/A

Financial wellness strategies

28,000

Virgin Pulse

PRUDENTIAL prudential.com/we

1875

100 percent

Financial wellness analytics and diagnostics

WND

SUM180 sum180.com

2014

100 percent

Access to qualified financial advisers

WND

TRANSAMERICA transamerica.com

1904

N/A

Employer-sponsored retirement plan solutions

43,000

WND

WELLS FARGO wellsfargo.com/ retirementplan

1852

100 percent

Defined contribution; defined benefit; trust & custody

5,100

WND

Source: Companies

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

november/december

2017

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PLEASE JOIN US AT ONE OF THESE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP EVENTS NEAR YOU. Visit our HR Workshop website to learn more about the educational and fun events Ultimate Software is hosting and participating in this year. Go to www.ultimatesoftware.com/events2017 for details.

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AUTOMATION continued from page 41 ogy will push HR in new directions, drastically transforming the department’s role within organizations, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence and machine learning.

It’s an Automated World and HR’s Just Livin’ in It One of the benefits of automating transactional HR tasks is, like AP using Wordsmith to allow reporters to focus on breaking news, that HR departments can focus on activities that bring value to the organization. By adopting sophisticated automation technology with artificial intelligence, HR will have the opportunity to focus more energy on the employee experience. For example, a benefits expert will no longer need to spend time answering emails with simple questions about the company’s benefits packages. That person can set up a chatbot, which is a computSTATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT & CIRCULATION er program that (Required by 39 U.S.C.3685) 1. Publication title: Workforce conducts a conver2. Publication number: 4286-0000 3. Filing date: October 1, 2017 sation via auditory 4. Issue frequency: Bi-Monthly 5. Number of issues published annually: 6 or textual methods. 6. Annual subscription price: $195 7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: The chatbot would 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1200, Chicago, IL 60601 Contact: Cindy Cardinal at 847-438-4577 8. Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office of respond with the publisher: Mediatec Publishing, 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1200, Chicago, IL 60601 9. Full names and complete mailing addresses of publisher, editor, and correct information managing editor: Cliff Capone, Publisher, 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1200, while the employee Chicago, IL 60601; Mike Prokopeak, Editor, 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1200, Chicago, IL 60601; gets to focus on the Rick Bell, Managing Editor, 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1200, Chicago, IL 60601. analysis of how 10. Owner: John R. Taggart, 1401 Park Avenue, Ste 502, Emeryville, CA 94608. 11. Known bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders owning or workers are using holding 1% or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: none 12. Tax status has not changed. the organization’s 13. Publication title: Workforce 14. Issue date for circulation data below: July/August 2017 benefits packages. 15. Extent & nature of circulation Avg. no. copies No. copies each issue of single issue “The creative part during preceding published nearest 12 months to filing date of benefits will need a. Total no. of copies (net press run) 40,629 40,439 b. Paid/requested distribution: to be handled by hub1. Outside county paid/requested mail subscriptions stated on form PS 3541 (Including advertisers’ proof mans,” Broderick and exchange copies) 33,097 33,114 b2. In-county paid/requested mail said. “ ‘What’s the subscriptions stated on form PS 3541 (Including advertisers’ proof message?’ ‘How do and exchange copies) 0 0 b3. Sales through dealers and carriers, we tailor it and street vendors, counter sales and other non-USPS paid/requested distribution 59 59 b4. Other mail classes through the USPS 0 0 change it?’ and ‘How c. Total paid and/or requested circulation 33,156 33,173 will people react?’ d. Nonrequested distribution: d1. Outside county nonrequested There should probacopies stated on form PS 3541 6,062 5,875 d2. In-county nonrequested copies bly always be some stated on form PS 3541 0 0 d3. Nonrequested copies kind of human touch distributed through the USPS 0 0 d4. Nonrequested copies distributed outside the mail 0 0 point in HR come. Total nonrequested distribution (sum of 15d 1, 2, 3, 4) 6,062 5,851 munications. Every f. Total distribution (sum of 15c & 15e) 39,218 39,024 g. Copies not distributed 1,411 1,415 company is different, h. Total (sum of 15f & 15g) 40,629 40,439 i. Percent paid and/or requested every culture is difcirculation (15c ÷ 15f × 100) 84.5% 85.0% 16. Electronic Copy Circulation. ferent. I don’t really 3,902 a. Requested and paid electronic copies 3,922 b. Total requested and paid printed see that being taken copies (line 15c)+requested/paid electronic copies (Line 16a) 37,078 37,075 over by a computer.” c. Total requested copy distribution (line 15f)+requested paid electronic copies line 16a) 43,140 42,926 Similarly, autod. Percent paid and/or requested circulation (both print & electronic mated recruiting copies) (16b divided by 16c X 100) 85.9% 86.4% ✔ I certify that 50% of all my distributed copies (electronic and print) are programs would allegitimate requests or paid copies). 17. This Statement of Ownership shall be printed in the December 2017 issue of this publication. low companies to 18. I certify that on October 1, 2017, all information furnished on this form is true and complete. Mike Prokopeak, Editor. improve the human 64

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

element of their talent acquisition processes. Currently, 82 percent of job seekers are frustrated with an overly automated recruiting experience, according to a Randstad U.S. report released in August. While automation has seemingly created a problem for organizations, it has also created an opportunity for HR to develop a solution that makes the recruiting process more enjoyable for job seekers. In fact, 82 percent of job seekers said the ideal interaction with a company is one where innovative technologies are used behind the scenes and come second to personal, human interaction. “Even if parts of recruiting can be automated, there are certain things that can’t be replaced. The grunt work can be automated. Entering data about candidates, if that’s automated, recruiters can be more strategic on selecting the best candidates,” Broderick said. What’s more, automated recruiting technology may help organizations stay compliant with hiring laws since, theoretically, bias and emotional decisions could be removed from the recruiting process. However, Broderick said that would only be true as long as the process, which was first developed by a human, is free from bias to begin with. Hite agrees with Broderick on this point. “If the data is bad, the output will be bad. That’s why we need to start thinking about where this is going,” he said. “I think this is really going to be a big moment for HR. It’s going to test who’s leaning forward.”

Change Management Perhaps the biggest opportunity for HR related to automation technology is managing the change that will take place within organizations. On one hand, processes in place will need to be evaluated and possibly revamped in order for the benefits of automation technology to be fully realized. Furthermore, HR will need people to create communication strategies related to automation changes. And strategies to train — or even re-train — employees to use these new tools will need to be developed. “Change management is going to be huge,” Hite said. “It’s going to force HR to look at the end user. I really think the break point will be when HR starts to understand how these advances will improve the lives of their stakeholders. If it only complicates the end user’s life even a little bit, that’ll be an issue.” Higher productivity is a clear benefit of a more automated workforce. However, as organizations stand to gain from this impending technological shift, HR will also need to plan for the negative impact that a portion of the workforce will ultimately endure. Max Mihelich is a writer in Chicago. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. november/december

2017

FAMILY LEAVE continued from page 36 Seyfarth’s Billows compared the current employer attitudes about paid family leave with that of paid sick leave, which confuses employers because of the variations in state laws. Acceptable reasons of use, family members covered and employee eligibility could differ widely between states, which creates an administrative nightmare for nationwide employers. She doesn’t expect the same concern regarding paid family leave. “Many companies are supportive of paid parental leave and they’re doing so for a number of reasons. For many clients, they’re already doing this because they know it’s an important benefit for recruiting and retaining top talent,” Billows said. “From my perspective, I don’t think there will be any backlash to paid parental leave or paid family leave.” The voice of businesses is important

in the discussion of paid family leave. Bora Architects’ Donohue met with Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to talk about paid leave policy. She, along with other business owners, discussed with the governor what the companies were doing, what had been successful, what the challenges were and what could potentially be implemented at a state level. Donohue also testified in front of the Oregon House of Representatives as a business owner who supports a statewide paid family leave policy. “Businesses have taken this into their own hands because the governments have been slow to act,” she said. “It’s nice to see people understand this is an investment that pays off in the future.” Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. To comment email editors@workforce.com.

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w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

LAST WORD

Rick Bell

REVIEWING 2017: BAD BOSSES AND DISASTERS

onsidering that there’s only 50 or so shopping days until Christmas, the shift from managing a bad boss to dealing with a bad Santa at the office holiday party is coming fast. But before the season turns, turns, turns, let’s take a deep breath, a cheery pull off the vat of eggnog and wince as we glance back at 2017’s bounty of bad-boss behavior that can only leave HR leaders thinking,“That Christmas tree farm in Oregon sounds pretty good right about now.” Let’s start with co-founder and CEO Mike Cagney of SoFi, the billion-dollar student loan unicorn, who said adios in September after the startup’s frat-house culture he oversaw was exposed. Cagney’s parting words to his troops? “The combination of HR-related litigation and negative press have become a distraction from the company’s core mission.”

TRANSLATED: HR, I’M OUTTIE. YOU CLEAN UP THE MESS WHILE I START MY NEW PHI ZAPPA KRAPPA SOMEWHERE ELSE. Translated: HR, I’m outtie.You clean up the mess while I start my new Phi Zappa Krappa somewhere else. Then there’s conservative news talker Bill O’Reilly, who was forced out of his prime-time slot in April by chronic sex harassment charges. Fox News, being Fox News, hesitated to pull the trigger on dismissing their big-ratings blabber until dozens of organizations pulled their ads. Among them: the Society for Human Resource Management, whose actions were symbolic of standing up to bullies and harassers everywhere. As Hank Jackson, who retires as SHRM’s CEO at the end of 2017, told us during his farewell press conference in June, “It wasn’t much of a decision. There are certain values we adhere to, and we have to live up to those values. It was an easy call.” And there’s Uber and its mercurial ex-leader Travis Kalanick. The former CEO’s resignation in June was long overdue anyway, but after January’s #DeleteUber debacle, he was caught chewing out one of his own drivers followed by a plea for “leadership help.” Finally, the revelation of ongoing organizational sex harassment and some incredibly arrogant corporate responses gave “pickup” a whole new meaning for the ride-hailing company. Now, this would be the ideal time for me to pause and take a shot at HR. You know … where was HR during these incidents? Did they turn a blind eye? Are they just oblivious? Is the corporate culture such that HR merely shrugs off these despicable actions that starts at the top 66

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

and permeates an entire organization? Nope, not going there. However, it’s time for high-profile conferences like SHRM, ATD, WorldatWork and even HR Tech to band together to address poor executive behavior, harassment and bias in the workplace. Quit the back-slapping, take a page from Great Place to Work and do several deep-dive sessions with CEOs and HR leaders who are addressing these topics head on. Rather, these incidents as well as dozens of other terrible tales from the front lines prompts me to feel for you, HR. Seriously, I wonder whether you have enough bandwidth to handle your daily responsibilities, let alone think strategically in light of all the bad behavior. You likely aren’t contending with Harvey Weinstein-level harassment headlines but if 2017 is proving anything it’s that bad-boss behavior is escalating to new levels. Your new “strategic:” keep executives from royally screwing up the company. As you grapple with bosses run amok, let me offer a 2017 people-management issue that’s a relatively quick fix. The United States has suffered through an extraordinary amount of natural disasters this year. Wildfires devastated the West while hurricanes swamped the Southeast, destroyed Puerto Rico and ravaged other U.S. territories. As people’s lives, businesses and livelihoods have been torn asunder, what’s been the overarching message from the federal government? You’re on your own. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a glaring lack of federal response to a disaster. Previously it was ineptitude and finger-pointing. Now it’s just plain arrogance from our bad-boss-in-chief. Let them drink toxic swamp water; the feds can’t be there forever, Puerto Rico. So, you better be prepared should a disaster strike. The touching images of people helping each other and businesses stepping up was heartening. But such assistance only stretches so far in our sad new era of DIY disaster preparedness. Create an emergency preparedness plan if you don’t already have one. HR can control this.They should own it. From Weinstein-esque sex scandals to Equifax’s executive malfeasance, 2017 presented HR with a cornucopia of headaches. As the holidays near, break out the pretty paper, wrap up a preparedness plan and top it with one of those SUV-sized red bows. Disaster comes in many forms. You may not have a quick solution for a mean-spirited boss, but a DIY preparedness plan will bring a measure of calm, comfort and cheer when you may need it most. Rick Bell is Workforce’s editorial director. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

november/december

2017

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