Workforce - November/December 2018

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November/December 2018

2018

2018 OPTIMAS WINNERS AMB Group’s HR Team Brings Community Together Under Atlanta’s Domed Stadium

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From Our Editors

FROM PERSONNEL TO WORKFORCE

For most organizations, investing in human resources is a necessity.

That doesn’t mean it is seen as valuable.

People and the payroll, benefits and costs associated with hiring, housing and equipping them are the single biggest cost on balance sheets.To some, HR is just an extension of that cost — needed maintenance to keep the machine running.

That’s a limited view.

There are plenty of nuts-and-bolts activities HR does that are essential to keep things humming.

But that neglects the role HR plays as a source of upfront advantage, not just back-end competence.

Take a look at the winners of this year’s Workforce Optimas Awards.

From top to bottom, you’ll see prime examples of HR as innovator and inventor, proving time and again the pivotal role your profession plays in the future of work.

— Mike Prokopeak, Editor in Chief 4

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

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

Looking Back at a Look Ahead,

NOVEMBER 1961

Predicting dystopian life in the mid-1980s was not the exclusive territory of George Orwell.

The writers and editors of Personnel Journal were all over it, too. In the November 1961 issue, noted organizational development authors Wendell L. French and Elvar O. Ebling Jr. cast their vision toward the future workplace with a piece titled “Predictions for Personnel and Industrial Relations for 1985.”

They referenced Orwell’s “1984,” but the forecast was not as dire. Centralizing personnel management and industrial and labor relations under one executive with a VP title who reports to the president would be almost universal by 1965, they said. Hello, CHRO. And by 1985, graduate degrees — not certifications — would be the rule for personnel, they surmised. Data would play a bigger role in staffing and hiring:“Statistical tools such as discriminant analysis and differential prediction will allow for multi-variate statistical analyses of data in a number of companies by 1985,” they wrote.

The also proffered this warning:“The personnel director’s private battle will be a battle against mediocrity. … A mediocre personnel man may very well bring about mediocrity in his organization before he is supplanted.”

A dystopian society indeed, personnel man.

— Rick Bell

Corporate America’s Diversity Movement, DECEMBER 1998 The effectiveness of diversity programs is a controversial subject in 2018, but it was even questioned 20 years ago, when Workforce Editor-at-Large Gillian Flynn, now more well-known for writing the popular novel “Gone Girl,” wrote “The Harsh Reality of Diversity Programs.” “Women and minorities are sick of the status quo,” Flynn wrote, and they’re cynical about diversity programs.

Their complaints about diversity programs are abundant. Many promote stereotypes, the article stated. “All it does is translate a negative stereotype (women are emotional) to a positive one (women are intuitive). [This] does little to foster individual respect.”

Women and minorities dislike being treated like a homogenous group. “They feel this approach is condescending,” Flynn wrote.Women aren’t always more collaborative, creative or emotional than men, and men aren’t always more logical, linear or competitive than women.

Elsewhere, columnist Shari Caudron made a strong statement that HR people should tell the truth all the time, no matter what, instead of “wimping out” under pressure. “If you’re mad at your boss, tell her. If the budget is unrealistic, say so. If employees want to know how restructuring will affect their jobs, tell them,” she wrote.

Also in this issue, a wellness brief suggested that to prevent repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, one option is Jazzercise. And a financial column focused on how “the era of affordable health care costs may be coming to an end.” Twenty years later, it’d be hard to find an employer who disagrees with that.

— Andie Burjek november/december

2018

The Need for Workplace Financial Wellness Has Never Been Greater

Help your workforce reduce stress and increase productivity with Smart About Money Free 45-60 minute self-paced online courses Budgeting tools and worksheets No advertisements

Visit www.SmartAboutMoney.org/HRBenefits to learn more

A PUBLICATION OF Month 2018 | Volume 97, Issue 6 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER VICE PRESIDENT, RESEARCH AND John R. Taggart ADVISORY SERVICES jrtag@workforce.com Sarah Kimmel PRESIDENT skimmel@workforce.com Kevin A. Simpson RESEARCH MANAGER ksimpson@workforce.com Tim Harnett VICE PRESIDENT, tharnett@workforce.com GROUP PUBLISHER DATA SCIENTIST Clifford Capone Grey Litaker ccapone@workforce.com glitaker@workforce.com VICE PRESIDENT, VIDEO AND MULTIMEDIA EDITOR IN CHIEF PRODUCER Mike Prokopeak Andrew Kennedy Lewis mikep@workforce.com alewis@workforce.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR MEDIA & PRODUCTION Rick Bell MANAGER rbell@workforce.com Ashley Flora MANAGING EDITOR aflora@workforce.com Ashley St. John VICE PRESIDENT, EVENTS astjohn@workforce.com TREY SMITH ASSOCIATE EDITORS tsmith@workforce.com Andie Burjek EVENTS CONTENT EDITOR aburjek@workforce.com Malaz Elsheikh Ave Rio melsheikh@workforce.com ario@workforce.com WEBCAST MANAGER ASSISTANT MANAGING Alec O’Dell EDITOR aodell@workforce.com Christopher Magnus EVENTS GRAPHIC cmagnus@workforce.com DESIGNER EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR Tonya Harris Theresa Stoodley lharris@workforce.com tstoodley@workforce.com BUSINESS MANAGER EDITORIAL ASSOCIATE Vince Czarnowski David Chasanov vince@workforce.com dchasanov@workforce.com MARKETING DIRECTOR Aysha Ashley Househ Greg Miller ahouseh@workforce.com gmiller@workforce.com

MARKETING SPECIALIST Kristen Britt kbritt@workforce.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

REGIONAL SALES MANAGERS Derek Graham dgraham@workforce.com

Carol Brzozowski

Robert Stevens rstevens@workforce.com

Sarah Fister Gale

Daniella Weinberg dweinberg@workforce.com

Patty Kujawa

DIRECTOR, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Kevin Fields kfields@workforce.com DIRECTOR, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT Cindy Cardinal ccardinal@workforce.com

Jennifer Benz Brandi Britton

FREE, LIVE, WEBINARS.

Camille Cooper Lauren Dixon Kris Dunn Jon Hyman Rita Pyrillis Michelle V. Rafter Daniel Saeedi Rachel L. Schaller Jay Starkman Rocio Villaseñor

DIGITAL & AUDIENCE INSIGHTS MANAGER Lauren Wilbur lwilbur@CLOmedia.com DIGITAL COORDINATOR Steven Diemand sdiemand@CLOmedia.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

UPCOMING! OCTOBER 31

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NOVEMBER 1

How AI Is Changing the Way You Recruit and Hire Top Talent

CHECK OUT WHAT YOU’VE MISSED! OCTOBER 23

Impact Employee Engagement and Business Success With Employee Learning Available live on the air date and on-demand for one year after unless otherwise specified. Check them out today and keep the education going! www.workforce.com/wf-events/

EARN RECERTIFICATION CREDITS!

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CONTENTS

ON THE COVER 2018 OPTIMAS AWARDS

Workforce announces the Optimas Gold, Silver and Bronze winners in this, the 28th anniversary of the Optimas Awards.

COVER PHOTO BY IAN CURCIO

2018

46 SECTOR REPORT

FEATURES

60 FINANCIAL WELLNESS

26 TIME AND AGAIN

62 RELOCATION

32 FESTIVE OR RESTIVE?

About half of employers offer financial wellness programs, and for those who do, just a third of employees use it.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is showing its effects on employee relocation programs.

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To avoid penalties from predictable shift laws, more organizations are adopting worker-friendly time policies.

44 TITANS OF HR

From athletic venues to health care, recognizing this year’s outstanding initiatives.

Give out the year-end gifts that employees will really appreciate: less stress, more time and a big thank-you. november/december

2018

ON THE WEB SPEAK UP!

26

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

FOLLOW US: twitter.com/workforcenews

32

JOIN THE GROUP: workforce.com/LinkedIn

WATCH US: workforce.com/youtube

FOR YOUR BENEFIT COLUMNS 4

YOUR FORCE

Optimas winners demonstrate to show HR as innovator, inventor.

14 WORK IN PROGRESS

Traveling the 5 Paths of Falling Into HR

16 MELLOWING OUT

Mindfulness training adds new peace of mind to corporate wellness.

17 TALK IS A BENEFIT

Employers must focus on communication solutions that work for their employees.

20 BENEFITS BEAT

Make Benefits, Internal Communications Inseparable

24 THE PRACTICAL EMPLOYER Cybersecurity for Insider Threats

66 THE LAST WORD

Alcohol and Work Don’t Always Mix

november/december

2018

17 DRIVER’S SEAT

General Motors cuts out health insurers and contracts directly with providers.

18 HITTING THE BULLSEYE

Target-date funds continue to find the mark among employees for several reasons.

TRENDING 10 JOBS WITH PURPOSE

Veteran turnover has employers turning to veterans advocates.

11 PEOPLE MOVES AND

BY THE NUMBERS

Apprio names Madden CHRO; performance reviews.

12 WAY OF THE WARRIOR

Author Keri Ohlrich asks, are you an HR warrior or weenie?

12 NO-BUDGE BUDGETS

Survey shows that organizations aren’t boosting compensation.

LEGAL 22 PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION

Pregnancy Discrimination Act’s workplace protections.

23 LEGAL BRIEFINGS

Harassment; clocking out.

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

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TRENDING

Helping Veterans Find Jobs With Purpose Employers turn to vets groups to help curb alarming turnover rates among veterans.

By Rita Pyrillis ost employees want a meaningful ians don’t understand the nuances of job, but for returning military military life. veterans finding private-sector work “I was in the military with seven that offers a sense of purpose can be a years active duty and promoted twice big challenge, and that can lead to job and not once did I have to sell myself dissatisfaction and high turnover for or rely on personal branding,” said employers.

Chris Crace, veterans advocacy leader “In service you wake up every morn- at PwC. “Your body of work speaks ing and the mission is defined and for itself. We come out and it’s a brand clear,” said former Marine Corps intel- new industry where everything is forligence officer Elliot Parks, a cyberse- eign and we’re just not comfortable curity consultant at PwC based in selling ourselves. It’s always about the Philadelphia. “You have a clarity of team, the ‘we,’ not the ‘me.’ That’s a purpose, but in the private sector it’s big challenge.” not always clear.”

Crace, a former Marine captain, While more companies are hiring works with recruiters and hiring manveterans — 40 percent planned to re- agers at PwC to educate them on the cruit them in 2018, up from 37 percent skills and talents that veterans bring and “Having somebody who can speak the previous year, according to a 2017 oversees the firm’s recruiting efforts. both languages is really helpful. And survey by CareerBuilder — nearly half having a forum or advocacy network of U.S. veterans leave their first where we can connect with each other post-military job within a year. Many is also important.” large employers have turned to veterSo far, FourBlock has served more ans groups such as Hiring Our Heroes than 1,700 veterans with 70 percent and Veterans Employment Initiative for staying with their first employer for at help, resulting in a marked decrease in least one year, according to Eric Ahn, the unemployment rate for post-9/11 the organization’s director of marketveterans from 12.1 percent in 2011 to ing. Ahn experienced the program in 3.8 percent as of August 2018, accord2014 after retiring from the military ing to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statisdue to an injury. tics.Yet, turnover remains high.

“I joined the Marines in 2004 and To help turn this trend around, PwC, spent 10 years in infantry,” he said. “I Google, Citigroup, T-Mobile and other was in Iraq and Afghanistan and bases large employers are partnering with in Greece and Germany. I had combat FourBlock, a nonprofit that provides experience but also worked with coaprofessional development and netlition forces and that gave me a broad working opportunities to veterans who “At a minimum, the hiring manager sense of what people in other counjoined the military after 9/11. The needs to know the different branches of tries experience. But I think people New York-based organization, which military and the pay scales,” he said. looked at my résumé and said he did was founded in 2012, offers a semes- “They need to also be prepared for the XYZ in the military so he can do ter-long, university-accredited pro- fact that résumés won’t jump off the XYZ job. People only saw my infantry gram that features classes taught by top page as meeting job requirements. They code and saw me as a law-enforcecorporate executives. Veterans learn need to be open to having conversa- ment candidate or a security company how to translate their military skills tions with vets about what they do.” candidate, which was fine but I was and experiences into career opportuniAt PwC, newly hired veterans go injured and needed to find something ties, creating a pipeline to leading com- through an onboarding program that more suited to my injury and my edupanies through its Career Readiness pairs them with a mentor who is also a cation. FourBlock helped me connect Program, a semester-long course devel- veteran and can join an affinity group the dots.” oped with Columbia University. that supports veterans and their families.

Self-promotion is difficult for mili“It’s important to identify mentors Rita Pyrillis is a writer in the Chicago area. tary veterans, especially when civil- with military experience,” said Parks. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

M

SELF-PROMOTION IS DIFFICULT FOR MILITARY VETERANS, ESPECIALLY WHEN CIVILIANS DON’T UNDERSTAND THE NUANCES OF MILITARY LIFE.

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2018

TRENDING

PEOPLE

moves

HEATHER MCLINDEN Sauce Labs Inc. named Heather McLinden vice president of people operations. McLinden will oversee the development of global people strategies, including organizational design, culture and inclusion, talent management and recruiting. McLinden brings more than 18 years of strategic people experience to her role.

CHLOË MADDEN Apprio named Chloë Madden as chief human capital officer. Madden is responsible for Apprio’s talent acquisition in alignment with the company’s mission, culture and growth objectives. She comes to Apprio with a deep background in HR management and has strong consulting acumen in diverse areas, including matters unique to government contracting, M&A and international projects.

MEGAN MASONER DETZ Varidesk named Megan Masoner Detz as chief people officer.

Detz will lead all human resources functions and develop people strategies to help Varidesk’s business growth. As senior vice president of human capital at NTT Data Inc. she helped grow the employee base to nearly 46,000 in seven years.

LARRY CLARK Harvard Business Publishing named Larry Clark managing director of global learning solutions in corporate learning. As managing director of global learning solutions, Clark will lead the team of learning solutions managers around the globe who partner with clients to design and develop learning experiences.

PAUL SKIEM Children’s Minnesota named Paul Skiem vice president of human resources. Skiem will provide leadership, direction and oversight for Children’s human resources department, including employee and labor relations, organizational effectiveness, talent acquisition and compensation and benefits. He brings more than 30 years of experience in human resources, holding leadership positions for several large health systems in the Chicago area.

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

Based in Seattle, he will report directly to Chairman and CEO Michelle Seitz and serve as a member of the firm’s executive committee.

Raffone joins Russell Investments from Navigant, a global professional services firm, where he served as vice president, chief human capital officer, overseeing all aspects of the firm’s people agenda since 2013.

To be considered for People Moves, email a brief announcement and a high-resolution color photo to editors@workforce.com.

Include People Moves in the subject line. november/december

2018

By the Numbers compiled by Rick Bell

In Review How’s your performance review performing?

75%

91%

companies doing annual reviews.

Companies that believe an annual review is core to engagement.

Source: Hollister Staffing

58 51 % %

Time Suck

Managers: Ineffective use of time.

Managers and employees sound off.

Source: 15Five

Emp Annua loyees: are inal reviews ccurat e.

Missing the Point

Spot-on

77% — HR executives believe performance reviews aren’t an accurate representation of employee performance.

80% Gen Y prefers on-the-spot vs. formal reviews.

Source: CIO

Source: LinkedIn Talent Blog

Power of Positivity How employees react to reviews of strengths and weaknesses More motivated by discussion of strengths

61% Productivity drop by talk of weaknesses Source: CIO

27%

Constant Contact 89% — HR says ongoing check-ins have a positive impact on organizations.

Source: Globoforce

orkforce.com workforce.com | w Workƒorce 10| Workƒorce

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TRENDING

No-Budge Budgets

By Aysha Ashley Househ

C

FINDING THE WAY OF THE HR WARRIOR

By Rick Bell

Keri Ohlrich, author

Author Keri Ohlrich asks whether you’re an HR warrior or HR weenie in her new book, “The Way of the HR Warrior.”

Workforce Editorial Director Rick Bell caught up with Ohlrich via email.

Workforce: Are HR practitioners viewed as second-class citizens in the corporate world?

Keri Ohlrich: Short answer: Yes. If we’re being cheeky here, we might wish to be second-class citizens, but we’re more like third– or fourth-class.

Long answer: It depends. There are wonderful leaders and cultures who adore HR, understand the value and expect high performance from the HR department. Unfortunately, the majority of businesses and employees do view HR as second-class citizens and a department that does not contribute to the bottom line.

Why second-class citizens? Let’s look at leadership, HR and society. Leadership sometimes only wants tactical and administrative HR support. Why wouldn’t they want a strategic HR professional? There are leaders who don’t want to be challenged. They simply want HR to do compliance work and payroll. You can spot companies who view HR as second-class when they have HR reporting to finance or legal. Professions that are human focused are often not given the respect and/or paid like technology-focused professions. Then let’s consider that the majority of HR professionals are females. Do I need to discuss how females are often viewed as second-class citizens?

WF: Since the beginnings of the #MeToo movement there were a lot of questions surrounding, “Where was HR?” So, where was HR? Ohlrich: There are HR professionals who knew about harassment and did nothing.

There were also amazing HR professionals who were horrified by the behaviors of their leaders. They brought issues to the attention of those leaders and nothing happened.

There are many HR professionals who had the courage to address hostile work environments, discrimination and harassment, and if leaders or the board of directors don’t care about it, HR becomes stuck. So, here’s my question: Where were the leaders?

WF: Your book in part is titled “HR Warrior.” But you also cite the HR weenie. How can it be both ways?

Ohlrich: I think there are two main reasons why there is a question of why HR weenies and why that low expectation persists. One, HR is very visible in companies, and two, they are involved in emotional events (hiring, performance issues, lay offs). Therefore, when there are HR weenies, that behavior is magnified. But just as there are HR weenies, there are HR warriors who can change the perception. HR warriors can counteract the negative image of the HR weenie one employee at a time. And the same HR warrior might have been an HR weenie in the past. However, a true HR weenie wants to stay in a static position. They refuse to do the hard work to become a resilient and exemplary member of their organization. There were times in my career when I was sure I was more on the weenie side than the warrior side!

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ompanies aren’t budging on salary budgets. A new survey reveals that with a tight labor market and low unemployment rate organizations aren’t boosting compensation to help retain employees.

Mercer’s “2018/2019 U.S. Compensation Planning Survey” surveyed more than 1,500 mid-size and large U.S. employers. Results show that employers only plan on increasing their salary increase budgets for 2018 by 2.8 percent, and it’s estimated that employers will only increase them by 2.9 percent in 2019. These past five years have seen the percentage drop below Great Recession levels.

“No longer is the U.S. operating with just U.S. resources as their labor,” said Mary Ann Sardone, partner and Mercer’s North America rewards practice leader. “They’re taking advantage of labor sources all around the world, which may not require increasing wages and actually [could] be more cost effective.”

Findings show salary-increase budgets have been flat year after year, even though most companies are concerned about attracting and retaining employees in an environment with high competition and a low unemployment rate. Even following December’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, just 4 percent say they are planning to redirect tax savings into their salary increase budget for 2019.

“When we look at these salary increase budgets, everybody is investing in a very similar way instead of taking a more strategic approach and saying, ‘For my human capital, I’m going to invest differently this year. I may break out of the pack and do something different,’ ” Sardone said.

“We just aren’t seeing enough of that, which is a little troubling because most companies will talk about their human capital being their top priority. But most companies also see that as just a cost of doing business rather than an investment.” november/december

2018

november/december

2018

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TRENDING

THE 5 PATHS OF FALLING INTO HR

By Kris Dunn |

R

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

aise your hand if you grew up dreaming of a career in HR. No one? Of course not.

The dirty little secret of HR is that most of us didn’t have a master plan to end up managing people functions and maximizing human capital ROI inside the modern workplace.We grew up with bigger dreams, which is cool because no one grows up dreaming of being a director of account management, financial analyst or marketing manager, either.

Those dreams all stink when you’re 16.

Instead, our teenage selves dreamed of being movie stars, recording artists or professional athletes. The freaks among us were entrepreneurial from the time they were 5 and likely knew they’d own their own business. The rest of us float, usually until the time we pick a major in college, at which time our career paths and ambitions solidify.

But the choice of HR as a career path happens later than most on average. For all the undergraduate programs in HR, the ubiquitous nature of the Society for Human Resource Management and the increasing importance of the human capital function, many HR pros don’t solidify a path into HR until they’re in the workforce doing other things.

Translation: Many HR pros will tell you they “fell” in to HR. Falling into things can be a blessing and a curse. It’s all relative to the outcome. From my experience talking to the talented high performers who make up the world of HR, here’s some common ways people “fall” into HR without a real plan to enter it.

1. I started at the bottom, now I’m here. You are a bootstrapper! Right out of college, these people took entry-level roles in our function, usually doing transactions as an HR coordinator, payroll specialist or similar role.They enjoyed the function and in many cases rose to run the whole thing.

2. I’m a people person. These HR pros were generally present in a company and were identified as someone who was “good with people,” subsequently flipping into HR from another department. When looking at this group, “good with people” is a broad designation that can mean they are extroverted, a good listener or willing to

take large amounts of abuse without exploding. It can also mean skill in solving other people’s problems and maximizing their performance inside the organization.

3. I got dropped into HR on an interim basis and never left. Big companies have rotational programs for high potential employees as part of succession strategies, and HR is generally part of that rotation. From time to time, HIPOs are rotated into HR, love it, are highly effective and never leave or come back to HR after their rotations are complete. In other circumstances, high performers are parachuted into HR on an interim basis to put out a Dumpster fire, find their perfect match and stay for the good times.

4. I was good at a specialty related to HR and ended up running the whole HR show.

Feeder groups for HR include some specialties that are considered a distant or related cousin to the HR function like training or recruiting. This close proximity to the HR function provides a natural exposure and transition point to HR for the professionals in those functions with the chops to handle the chaos that awaits them in the big show.

5. I failed in another job at our company and they moved me into HR so they didn’t have to fire me. I didn’t want to include this one, but no rundown of all the ways people fall into a HR career would be complete without it. HR has a reputation in some company cultures as a backwater, a way station for average people doing average things. This leads to the perception that good people struggling in other areas can be dumped in HR. This seems to be decreasing in frequency, but it’s a historic reality of our lives together in HR. You can probably add to the list of ways that people fall into HR. If you’re an HR pro who has an HR degree and has always possessed the clarity that comes with knowing you’d be in HR since you were 12, Godspeed to you. Don’t mess up your dream.

The rest of us woke up one day in HR with the Talking Heads song “Once In A Lifetime” playing in the background. I’m glad I’m here; I bet you are as well.

MOST OF US DIDN’T HAVE A MASTER PLAN TO END UP MANAGING PEOPLE FUNCTIONS AND MAXIMIZING HUMAN CAPITAL ROI INSIDE THE MODERN WORKPLACE.

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

november/december

2018

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A non-profit university, Bellevue University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (hlcommission.org), a regional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. november/december

2018

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FOR YOUR BENEFIT

Mindfulness Training Adds New Peace to Wellness Programs Programs are offered by some health plans, hospitals, schools and even office complexes.

By Carol Brzozowski

T

eam Horner Group, a pool-supply manufacturing and wholesale distribution company with a nationwide footprint of 480 employees, focuses on employee well-being to the extent that it was one of five companies nationwide to win the 2014 American Psychological Association’s Psychologically Healthy Workplace award.

Not surprising, given that the company has offered employees meditation, financial and life coaching, and personal training at its in-house gym and exercise room, as well as a discounted massage program.

Team Horner has taken it up a notch recently, adding mindfulness education for its employees as an antidote to stress.

“According to the American Institute of Stress, 80 percent of workers feel stress on the job,” said Jeska Brodbeck, a Miami-based mindfulness and performance coach who taught Team Horner Group employees practice mindfulness training.

Team Horner employees. “Stress is a tremendous issue at the onsite benefits representative for the city of Hollywood, Florida, workplace and is often only addressed minimally. Nearly half say in its human resources office. they need help in learning how to manage stress and 42 percent With roots in the corporate world, Brodbeck understands firstsay their co-workers need such help. Two-thirds of doctors of- hand the challenges employees and executives face in the workfice visits are for stress-related conditions.” place. She has practiced mindfulness and yoga for more than 14 While a modest amount of stress in the workplace is normal, years, having trained at the U.S. Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. sustained levels can be harmful and lead to numerous health She is training in mindfulness-based stress reduction, a program issues, affect professional and family relationships, and contrib- based on the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Stress Reute to poor work performance, said Carol Ann Rydahl, a health duction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, strategy consultant with Minnesota-based managed health care a preeminent meditation-based clinical program. company UnitedHealthcare.

Through her business, Be Light Consulting, Brodbeck brings A recent UnitedHealthcare survey indicated almost 90 per- her Mindful Performance Training program to C-level private cent of employees report a positive impact from meditation or and public-sector executives and employees, teaching them mindfulness on their overall health and well-being, with 41 per- practices such as mindfulness “that can act as triggers for the cent indicating a significant impact. ‘flow state,’ also known in science as transient hypofrontality or Mindfulness may help lower employee stress and improve by athletes as being in ‘the zone,’ ” she said. productivity through freeing employees of habitual patterns of “When a person is in the zone, they can perform with high thinking, judging, feeling and acting, and may help them per- levels of creativity, little to no negative stress and complete focus form better, ignore distractions and make better decisions and engagement,” Brodbeck said. “This training creates a parathroughout the day, Rydahl said. digm shift in the way employees are working and living so that As such, “employers also may benefit by experiencing more they can get their work done and also enjoy the process.” productivity, with an enhanced sense of culture and connectedBrodbeck’s science-based course is taught in eight modules ness that can drive more creativity and innovation while reduc- that delve into meditation, shifting from stress to calm in under ing absenteeism, burnout and turnover,” Rydahl said. five minutes, reducing emotional reactivity, and moving into Mindfulness also can boost working memory, reduce emo- the flow against distractions. tional reactivity, offer greater cognitive flexibility and reduce Other topics include time management, relaxation techrumination, Brodbeck said. niques and mindful communication.

Following a solid body of research on mindfulness by univerBrodbeck’s mindfulness lessons bring something different to sities and institutions that prove its multiple benefits, mindful- the table, said Kim Kent, who coordinates the well-being deness programs are now offered by some health plans, including partment at Team Horner.

UnitedHealthcare, and medical centers, hospitals, schools and Brodbeck’s course “ties it together like a thread, putting togethbusinesses, Rydahl said. er techniques that are takeaways you can implement in your daily “Many times, we think of wellness programs as only focusing life,” Kent said.“Mindfulness is not just about addressing stress, but on nutrition and exercise and not mental health and the differ- also time management, which can be stressful if you don’t manage ent ways of dealing with everyday stress,” said Joel Staco, Cigna’s MINDFULNESS continued on page 64 16

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2018

FOR YOUR BENEFIT

GM Driving Care

Talk Is a Benefit

Automaker parks with providers.

It behooves everyone when benefits are front and center.

By Rita Pyrillis

By Andie Burjek

G

eneral Motors Corp. has joined a small but growing number of large companies taking a different approach to improving the health care delivery system by cutting out health insurers and contracting directly with providers.

Late this summer, the Michigan-based auto manufacturer signed a deal with Henry Ford Health Systems to provide health care and wellness services to salaried GM employees and their families throughout southeast Michigan. In doing so, the company joined Walmart, Boeing, Intel and other employers shaking up the system by adopting alternative pay and delivery models, such as accountable-care organizations and high-performance networks.

The way large employers see their role in health care is changing, with nearly half adopting a more activist role in shaping health care delivery, according to a 2018 survey of large employers by the National Business Group on Health.

“The reason for this activism is the confluence of several things,” said Suzanne Delbanco, executive director of Catalyst for Payment Reform, a nonprofit coalition of about 30 employers seeking improvements to the health care market.“There is an awareness of the variations in quality and cost, which often have no relation to one another, and how that is a reflection of the provider market power. There is an awareness of consolidations, which allows providers to command high prices.

And there is an awareness that employers have to get creative by contracting directly with providers.”

Although the percentage of employers contracting directly with health systems and providers is small, it has more than tripled in the past year, from 3 percent to 11 percent for 2019, according to the recent NBGH survey.

The GM plan, which launches in January, will provide access to more than 3,000 providers, including primary care and more than 40 specialties, behavioral health services, and hospital and emergency care. It will be available to nearly 24,000 salaried employees and their families.

“It’s a sign that more employers in different markets like Detroit are getting involved in engaging providers on a local level,” said Steve Wojcik, vice president of public policy for the NBGH. “It’s not only companies on the West Coast or tech companies like Intel that are adopting these innovative approaches.” november/december

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E

lkay Manufacturing Co. is on the cusp of something new as benefits open enrollment season rolls around.

After successfully meeting the needs of employees and the budget of the employer for years, its health care offerings just weren’t popular anymore.

“Because of either new businesses or how things are trending, you find your plan design after a period of time doesn’t fit anymore. That’s when you realize you need to shelve it, start with a clean slate and see what’s a good design to be competitive in your work environment for your employees,” said Carol Partington, corporate senior manager of total benefits for the Oak Brook, Illinois-based plumbing-fixture maker.

Elkay scrapped its previous health plans to introduce three completely new lifestyle plans that will go into effect in 2019, she said. The three plans are meant to appeal to employees at different stages of life and include a core plan, another plan with a higher deductible and lower premium, and one with a lower deductible and higher premium. One challenge was communicating the new plans’ advantages to Elkay’s 3,138 employees.

The vast changes in the health care landscape can be confounding even to seasoned benefits professionals. Employees whose jobs don’t revolve around benefits can get frustrated with multiple offerings.That’s why employers must focus on communication solutions that work for their employees.

Almost half of U.S. workers spend 30 minutes or less reviewing their benefits, according to Unum research released in August 2018.The same survey found that of the 1,227 respondents, many reported feeling stressed (21 percent), confused (22 percent) or anxious (20 percent) while enrolling.

Communication during open enrollment is a large task for any employer, even one that didn’t revamp its entire plan design. Elkay had the added challenge of dealing with a rural, dispersed workforce that didn’t necessarily have regular access to the internet. Their communications solution was to bring the top HR leaders to local HR staff at outside locations to copresent benefits information.

“We get so entrenched in where we are, [and] we have to spend time sitting in the shoes of the employee or their family when they’re making that decision,” Partington said.“With these changes, we’re being mindful that we want them to make successful decisions.”

Elkay wanted to be present instead of solely rely on online material or videos. By holding the mandatory meetings, employees can ask questions, she said.

Also, the company schedules conference calls in the evening where family members of employees cans listen to the presentation and ask questions.

Communicating health care information in a way that employees and their families can understand is especially important to ensure the success of these new programs.

“The change in [health plans] will only be successful if we get the majority of our employees and their family members understanding what they’re doing and comfortable with the decisions they’re making,” Partington said. w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

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Employees Increasingly Put the Bullseye on Target-Date Funds A few potent factors contribute to the investment option’s popularity with younger workers.

By Patty Kujawa

T

arget-date funds had been in the 401(k) lineup for more than a decade at Zurich American Insurance Co., but it wasn’t until 2014 that the company started using the investment to automatically enroll workers.

After doing an evaluation at that time, target-date funds were the best option for the company to automatically put workers into a professionally managed investment account at a reasonable and low cost, said Dawn Carthan, benefits consultant at Zurich.

“Target-date funds went hand-in-hand with auto-enrollment,” Carthan said.

Today, the commercial insurer’s reasoning is similar to many companies using target-date funds when automatically enrolling workers into 401(k) plans. In its “How America Saves 2018” report, investment management giant Vanguard found that 51 percent of participants were invested in a target-date fund. For plans automatically enrolling participants, 96 percent were enrolled directly into a target-date fund.

Because of the rapid growth of target-date funds, Vanguard expects 70 percent of participants will be invested in them by 2022.

At Zurich, 94 percent of plan participants are using target-date funds, with 68 percent invested entirely in one. That second number is largely because of a re-enrollment project that took place in the first quarter this year. Prior to the initiative, less than half of participants were invested entirely in one target-date fund, a Zurich spokeswoman said.

“Target-date funds have definitely taken off,” said Jean Young, author of the Vanguard report and senior research analyst for the Vanguard Center for Investor Research.“These professionally managed options are so much easier today.”

Young said target-date funds are popular for three reasons: first, they are professionally managed investments that start at a higher rate of risk when a participant is younger, and continually rebalance, mov18

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ing to a more conservative asset allocation as that person reaches retirement age. Second, costs have come down considerably over the past few years and are certainly well below what it would cost to have all these investments managed individually.

Finally, the Pension Protection Act of 2006 allowed plan sponsors to automatically enroll workers into what is called a qualified default investment alternative, or QDIA, a type of investment that would meet a participant’s retirement needs. Target-date funds fall under that umbrella.

BECAUSE OF THE RAPID GROWTH OF TARGET-DATE FUNDS, VANGUARD EXPECTS 70 PERCENT OF PARTICIPANTS WILL BE INVESTED IN THEM BY 2022.

The QDIA qualification catapulted target-date fund growth. Last year, target-date mutual funds pushed over the $1 trillion mark compared to $158 billion in 2008, according to Morningstar’s Target-Date Fund Landscape Report. Net inflows surged to $70 billion in 2017, compared to the $40 billion in net flows every year since 2008.

Three providers,Vanguard, Fidelity and T. Rowe Price, have dominated the field, holding a combined $774.6 billion in total assets in 2017. Within the space, 95 percent of all inflows last year built on the longstanding trend in going to low-

cost funds. The average expense ratio for target-date funds was 0.66 percent in 2017, compared to 1.03 in 2009.

Low cost doesn’t necessarily mean best fit, said Jeff Holt, director of multi-asset and alternative strategies for Morningstar Research Services.

“There has been this huge move to low cost,” Holt said in a recent webinar. “But plan sponsors and investors should be aware that it’s not a guarantee that they are going to get the better results despite having the fee advantage.”

Plan sponsors should be wary of having a false sense of security with this QDIA, said Ron Surz, president of Target Date Solutions, an investment management firm based in San Clemente, California.

Surz said many plan sponsors offering target-date funds assume that any available ones will work as the QDIA for their 401(k) plan. Plan sponsors often choose funds out of convenience for themselves rather than the best fit for participants, Surz said.

It’s no coincidence, he added, that two of the three largest target-date fund providers are also the largest record keepers in the retirement benefits industry.

“Many plan sponsors think they are safe,” Surz said. “As fiduciaries, they need to be aware of their duty of care to find the best target-date fund for the beneficiaries and not the most convenient one.” november/december

2018

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Visit hoganhipo.com to learn more.

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FOR YOUR BENEFIT

MAKE BENEFITS, INTERNAL COMMS INSEPARABLE

By Jennifer Benz |

A

Benefits Beat

sk any HR professional what they think of their internal communications group and you’re likely to get an answer at one extreme or the other.

Either you’ll hear about an incredibly strong and strategic working relationship or you’ll get an eye roll with a story about how impossible they are to work with. When meeting your HR goals requires reaching and engaging employees — like during open enrollment — ensuring that relationship is working becomes even more critical.

While sometimes seen as a roadblock or gatekeeper, an internal communications team can be a vocal advocate for the benefits team’s goals and vision, supporting their efforts and ensuring campaigns resonate with employees. That is why making that relationship strong and successful is a key goal in our work.

With that in mind, my colleague Lindsay Kohler identified these helpful guidelines for working with internal communications teams. As part of our team, she’s designed and orchestrated global internal communications strategies. In her prior role she was part of the benefits team at Nordstrom, managing all benefits communication and working with Nordstrom’s internal communications group.

Appreciate their role. Internal communications teams are responsible for ensuring that what every department communicates is clear, on brand, in support of business priorities and timely. They need to make sure communications are scheduled so that employees aren’t overwhelmed by competing messages but also don’t miss key events or deadlines.

Internal communications teams have to strike a delicate balance. They are the liaison between every department within every business unit and the employee. At the same time, they’re often accountable to the marketing and PR departments, which have different objectives than HR teams.

By understanding their priorities and how they want to support HR, you can better partner with them to make your communications shine.

Understand what’s important to your executive team. Your internal communications partners will share those same organizational priorities, which should drive your benefits goals as well. Keep those strategic goals in mind as you think through what you want to communicate, and you’ll find it easier to win their support to make it happen.

Bring in your internal communications partner early. When you make sure they’re in the loop from the

get-go, internal communications can prioritize resources on your behalf and be your advocate and champion. They can point out potential issues before you’re too far along to change direction. And they can even lend a hand in drafting and delivering communications.

Be open to their point of view. HR teams and communications professionals are bound to have differences of opinion at some point. These disagreements don’t need to be adversarial. By being open to their feedback, you can create a better partnership on behalf of employees.

Treat them as equals, not as gatekeepers. Often, we hear HR teams complain that “everything has to go through so-and-so in internal communications.” On the flip side, internal communications teams assume that they have to say something about every deliverable, because they’re being treated as if they are gatekeepers. A slight change in the way you ask for their review can help you shift to a more strategic working relationship.“Here’s what I’m planning to send; I’d like your advice” is much more collaborative than “Can you review and approve?”

Recognize that your priorities may differ from those of your organization. Internal communications teams do their best to accommodate content from all departments. But there will be times that certain initiatives will have to be prioritized over yours. Don’t let that be discouraging. And remember that getting early buy-in will ensure you don’t get many “no’s.”

Ask your internal communications team to schedule regular summits. Communication summits are an ideal way to generate a holistic view of the communication landscape within an organization. With a deeper understanding of everything employees are being expected to absorb and act on, you can adjust your own communication plans accordingly.

HR and benefits teams and internal communication teams play different roles within companies, but your goals align around doing what’s best for employees.You’ll find that working in collaboration with your internal communications partners will make it easier for you to achieve success.

AN INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS TEAM CAN BE A VOCAL ADVOCATE FOR THE BENEFITS TEAM’S GOALS AND VISION, ENSURING CAMPAIGNS RESONATE WITH EMPLOYEES.

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

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

To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

november/december

2018

We Know People Hogan pioneered the use of personality testing to predict job performance more than three decades ago. In the years since, our research has set the global standard, ensuring that our products and services are second to none. There simply is no more reliable and useful source than Hogan for excellence in employee selection, development and leadership practices.

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2018

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | WorkĆ’orce

21

Legal Avoiding Pregnancy Discrimination It’s not just large companies but all organizations need to recognize the workplace protections provided by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

By Jay Starkman and Camille Cooper

N

ews broke earlier this year that Walmart was facing a potential class-action lawsuit in New York for allegations of pregnancy discrimination.

This lawsuit is one of several nationwide that claim that some of the nation’s largest businesses are systematically punishing pregnant employees with discriminatory policies.

Employers are facing increased exposure and liability for pregnancy discrimination claims.The number of pregnancy discrimination claims filed annually with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been steadily rising for two decades and is hovering near an all-time high. In 2017, more than 3,174 cases of pregnancy discrimination were filed with the EEOC. The federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act is an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and it makes discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions unlawful.The act covers employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments.Women who are pregnant or affected by related conditions must be treated in the same manner as other applicants or employees with similar abilities or limitations.The law’s protections include: Hiring and working conditions: An employer cannot refuse to hire a woman because of pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, or based on the prejudices of co-workers or customers. The act prohibits discrimination when it comes to working conditions, including pay, job assignments, promotions, layoffs, training, firing and any other condition of employment.

Pregnancy and maternity leave: An employer may not single out pregnancy-related conditions for special procedures to determine an employee’s ability to work. For example, if an employer does not require its employees to submit a doctor’s statement concerning their inability to work before granting leave or paying sick benefits, the employer may not require employees affected by pregnancy to provide this documentation.

Pregnancy and temporary disability: An employee that is temporarily unable to perform her job due to pregnancy must be treated the same as any other temporarily disabled employee.

Health insurance: Any health insurance provided by an employer must cover expenses for pregnancy-related conditions on the same basis as costs for other medical conditions. Preg22

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nancy-related expenses should be reimbursed exactly as those incurred for other medical conditions.

Fringe benefits: Benefits must be the same for pregnancy as other medical conditions. If an employer provides any benefits to workers on leave, the employer must provide the same benefits for those on leave for pregnancy-related conditions, including accrual and crediting of seniority, vacation calculation, pay increases and temporary disability benefits.

Further, it is unlawful to retaliate against an individual for opposing employment practices that discriminate based on pregnancy or for filing a discrimination charge, testifying or participating in any way in an investigation, proceeding or litigation under Title VII. Although pregnancy itself is not considered a disability, some pregnant workers may be eligible for additional protection under the amended Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act due to conditions related to pregnancy. The ADAAA applies to employers with 15 or more workers.

Affordable Care Act Under the Affordable Care Act, employers must provide two things to employees for one year after a child’s birth: (1) a reasonable amount of time to express milk each time that she needs to express milk; and (2) a location to express breast milk (not a bathroom) that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public. november/december

2018

Employers are not required to compensate nursing mothers during breaks to express milk, but if an employee has compensated breaks and she uses them to express milk, then she must be compensated in a similar way.

The ACA provides an “undue hardship” exemption for certain employers that employ fewer than 50 employees. An undue hardship will be found if the requirement imposes on the small employer significant difficulty or expense when considered in relation to the size, financial resources, nature, or structure of the employer’s business.

Importantly, the ACA provides a “floor” not a “ceiling” for regulation in this area. States remain free to adopt laws that provide additional protections beyond those provided in the ACA.

Best Practices In some instances, employers may claim that excluding pregnant or fertile women from certain jobs is lawful due to a bona fide occupational qualification defense, or BFOQ. This defense, however, is extremely narrow and the employer must show that pregnancy actually interferes with an employee’s ability to perform the job based on objective, verifiable skills required by the job.

Employers have rarely been able to establish a pregnancy-based BFOQ. Liability under the federal and state laws can be avoided with the following best practices: • Effectively train managers on applicable laws, workplace policies, and how to respond to requests for assistance and accommodation.

• When complaints occur, respond promptly.

• Implement strong policies against pregnancy discrimination and harassment.

• Evaluate leave policies to ensure restrictive provisions or practices do not discriminate on the basis of pregnancy or related medical conditions.

• Evaluate any workplace accommodation policies and ensure they are available to workers with pregnancy-related impairments.

• Never require — explicitly or constructively — a pregnant employee to take leave, light duty or other work accommodations that she does not want or did not request.

• Make sure policies and facilities comply with breastfeeding requirements under the ACA. • Check state and local laws for additional requirements.

Jay Starkman is the CEO of Engage PEO, a professional employer organization providing HR outsourcing to small and mid-sized businesses across the United States. Camille Cooper is the assistant general counsel and HR consultant for Engage PEO.

november/december

2018

Legal Legal Briefings SUPERVISOR’S UNCHECKED HARASSMENT In Sheri Minarsky v. Susquehanna County (Pennsylvania), Minarsky alleged that over four years, her supervisor had repeatedly made unwanted advances, including by touching her inappropriately, attempting to kiss her more than 10 times and sending her inappropriate emails. Throughout the four years, she never reported that her supervisor’s actions made her uncomfortable. She filed suit against the county alleging state and federal claims for sexual harassment. The county moved for summary judgment based on the Faragher-Ellerth defense. Because Minarsky did not report the conduct for four years, and once she did, the supervisor was terminated, the county argued that it could not be held liable for the supervisor’s harassment. The Third Circuit Court found it could not conclude that the county exercised reasonable care to prevent the harassment or that Minarsky unreasonably failed to report her supervisor’s conduct. Minarsky testified that she did not report her supervisor because management knew the supervisor had harassed at least four other women in the office but failed to take action. Even though the county had an anti-sexual harassment policy, reprimanded him twice, and terminated him in response to Minarsky’s complaint, the court held a jury could conclude the county failed to effectively deal with the supervisor’s pattern of misconduct. Sheri Minarsky v. Susquehanna County, No. 17-2646, 895 F.3d 303 (3rd Cir. 2018) IMPACT: Employers should not ignore or minimize less serious incidents of sexual harassment, particularly where there is a pattern of misconduct. Allowing such conduct to continue unchecked could result in employer liability.

EVERY MINUTE COUNTS IN CALIFORNIA Donald Troester was a shift supervisor for a Los Angeles Starbucks. Starbucks’ software required Troester to clock out of every closing shift before initiating “close store procedure.” After completing the procedure, Troester was required to activate the store alarm, exit the store and lock the door.

Troester wasn’t compensated for the 4 to 10 extra minutes per shift he spent performing these duties. Troester filed a class-action lawsuit under California’s state wage and hour statute. Starbucks filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the time Troester claimed was minimal and trivial and not compensable. The district court agreed with Starbucks but on appeal the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit certified the following question for the California Supreme Court to answer: whether small minute windows of uncompensated time give rise to a claim. The high court held that California’s wage and hour statute provided more protection than the federal FLSA and did not incorporate the FLSA’s de minimis doctrine, whereby small working windows of minutes or seconds were trivial time and not compensable. The court held that even mere minutes of work beyond the scheduled hours are a burden that should not be the employee’s to bear and are recoverable.

Troester v. Starbucks Corp., 421 P.3d 1114 (Cal. 2018) IMPACT: Employers should re-evaluate their time-keeping policies and procedures in order to make sure that an employee is compensated when performing job duties.

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

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Legal

Cybersecurity for Insider Threats Jon Hyman |

The Practical Employer

D

o you remember the movie “When a Stranger Calls”? internal users who are accidentally exposing their compaThe movie opens with a teenage babysitter receiving ny to hackers or malicious insiders attacking the company. a telephone call from a man who asks, “Have you checked These ‘systems,’ however, can prove costly, especially for the the children?” She dismisses the call as a practical joke. But, small-business owner. While investment in a technological as the calls continue, and become more frequent and threat- solution is one way to tackle this serious problem, it’s not ening, she becomes more and more frightened, and calls the the only way. ” police. Ultimately, she receives a return call from the police, Aside from the expense of costly monitoring programs, telling her that the calls are coming from inside the house. what types of issues should employers include in an insider (Cue ominous music.) threat program? Here are seven suggestions: Your employees are your company’s weakest link and, • Heightened monitoring of high-risk employees, such as therefore, your greatest threat those who previously vioto suffering a cyberattack lated IT policies, those who and resulting data breach. seek access to non-job-reWhile employee negligence lated business information, (that is, employees not knowand those who are, or are ing or understanding how likely to be, disgruntled (i.e., their actions risk your comemployees who express job pany’s data security) remains dissatisfaction, who are on a the biggest cyber-risk, anothperformance improvement er also demands your attention — the malicious insider. plan, or who are pending termination).

According to one recent report, malicious insiders are re• Deterrence controls, such as data loss prevention, data sponsible for 27 percent of all cybercrime. Darkreading.com encryption, access management, endpoint security, moreports on a recent survey, titled, “Monetizing the Insider: bile security and cloud security.

The Growing Symbiosis of Insiders and the Dark Web”: • Detection controls, such as intrusion detection and pre“‘Recruitment of insiders is increasing, and the use of the vention, log management, security information and dark web is the current methodology that malicious actors event management, and predictive analytics. are using to find insiders,’ said researcher Tim Condello, tech• Inventories and audits for computers, mobile devices and nical account manager and security researcher at RedOwl. removable media (i.e., USB and external hard drives), “Cybercriminals recruit with the goal of finding insiders both during employment and post-employment. to steal data, make illegal trades, or otherwise generate • Policies and programs that promote the resolution of profit. Advanced threat actors look for insiders to place employee grievances and protect whistleblowers. malware within a business’ perimeter security.”

• Preemployment background checks to help screen There are three types of people who fall into the “insidout potential problem employees before they beer” category, according to Condello: negligent employees come problems. who don’t practice good cyber hygiene, disgruntled em• Termination processes that remove access as early as ployees with ill will, and malicious employees who join possible for a terminated employee. organizations with the intent to defraud them.

Do you think you’re too small to worry about devotWhat is a company to do? Train your employees about ing resources to these issues? Consider, according to proper password safety, the dangers of public Wi-Fi, recogniz- Darkreading.com, that 98 percent of all companies have ing and avoiding phishing schemes and scams, and handling suffered a cyberattack, the average company suffers a lost or stolen devices.This will help in arming your employ- minimum of 11 cyberattacks per day, and 40 percent of ees with the necessary tools to defend against making a mis- companies lack any type of cyber-incident response plan. take that exposes your organization to cybercriminals.

No company can make itself bulletproof from a cyberatNo amount of training, however, will stop a disgruntled tack. Indeed, for all businesses, data breaches are a when employee with ill intent, or a malicious employee who issue, not an if issue. However, ignoring the serious threat wants to cause harm to do damage. insiders pose to your company’s cybersecurity will only These latter two categories need specialized attention: an serve to accelerate the when. insider threat program.The Wall Street Journal explains: “Companies are increasingly building out cyber pro- Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in grams to protect themselves from their own employees.… Cleveland. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Follow Businesses … are taking advantage of systems … to find Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.

Your employees are your company’s weakest link and, therefore, your greatest threat to suffering a cyberattack.

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SECURE. AUTOMATED. INTELLIGENT. Workforce management solutions with a human-centered workflow in real time.

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Making Up for Lost Time To avoid financial penalties from predictable shift laws, more organizations are adopting worker-friendly time and attendance policies.

BY MICHELLE V. RAFTER

G

ap Inc. was an early supporter of predictable schedules for hourly workers in its stores. In 2015, the San Francisco-based retailer started posting employees’ shifts at least 10 days in advance. It also stopped assigning on-call shifts, a practice that low-wage workers and their supporters claim makes income less reliable and things like child care harder to plan.

That was well before July 2017, when Seattle passed a citywide secure scheduling ordinance requiring that large employers in service industries like retail offer more predictable schedules. However, in the first 10 months the law was in effect, one of the 11 employers that the city investigated based on employee complaints was none other than the global clothing giant.

In February, Gap agreed to pay $20,186.24 in back wages to 268 employees at several of its Seattle stores to settle the complaint, according to city records. As part of the settlement order, Gap also agreed to put local store managers through mandatory training and to allow city inspectors to visit its stores to check shift-scheduling record keeping. In exchange, the city didn’t charge Gap with a violation and dropped further investigation.

The clothing retailer’s situation highlights the plight that service-industry employers could find themselves in as a growing number of cities and states pass laws to make hourly workers’ schedules more reliable and schedule changes less frequent.

Predictable scheduling laws passed in the past few years cover an estimated 1.8 million workers and 1,000 employers in at least four cities and one state, according to a July

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research report from the Economic Policy Institute, an independent nonprofit think tank. In addition, New Hampshire and Vermont have passed laws that give workers the right to request scheduling accommodations, according to the EPI report.

Gap isn’t the only major U.S. employer forced to pay back wages or penalties after failing to comply with newer city or state requirements. Since early 2017, government agencies have collected at least $108,000 from multiple employers for running afoul of the laws.

Whether companies and their human resources departments are compelled to adopt predictable schedules because of the laws or decide to make the switch on their own to gain a competitive edge in a tight labor market, they may find that it’s one thing to embrace the policy in theory and quite another to implement it.

IN ADDITION TO PAYING BACK WAGES, LAWS MAY DIRECT EMPLOYERS THAT FAIL TO COMPLY TO ALSO PAY FINES AND IN SOME CASES DAMAGES. “There’s a gap in communication between corporate and HR and the managers on the ground carrying out the policies,” said Karina Bull, policy manager for Seattle’s Office of Labor Standards.

As the laws become more widespread, it remains to be seen whether they will spur employers to change how they create schedules, an often arduous undertaking that for many still relies on spreadsheets or pencil and paper. Currently only 45 percent of employers use any type of electronic labor scheduling system, making it one of the least used workforce management applications, according to the 2018-19 Sierra-Cedar’s annual “HR Systems Survey.”

“Scheduling is one of those applications that is seen as a utilitarian tool like payroll, but can have a major impact on peoples’ lives and work environments,” said Stacey Harris, Sierra-Cedar vice president of research and analytics.

Part of the lag could be attributable to scheduling not having a clear owner within a company. Depending on an organization’s orientation, the function could be run by HR, IT, finance or a combination of all three, said Lisa Disselkamp, a longtime workforce management consultant and managing director at Deloitte who advised the Obama administration on labor-scheduling issues.

Regulations are prompting organizations to take more action, including making modifications to ensure they’re compliant, Disselkamp said.

Adopting better scheduling systems can pay for itself by eliminating costs associated with absenteeism, high turn28

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over and a disengaged workforce, Disselkamp said. More efficient scheduling also provides top-line benefits in the form of additional revenue, especially at companies that have not reviewed labor standards and scheduling in a year or two, she said.

Aside from that, treating employees better by giving them better schedules can improve a company’s public image, Disselkamp said. “It becomes a brand issue. People don’t want to shop at places where they don’t think companies are treating their employees well, especially retail.”

Making Schedules Work for Workers The past few years have witnessed an uptick in city and state laws meant to make work more equitable for low-wage earners and other workers, including laws enacting higher minimum wages, paid sick leave and paid family leave.

Predictable schedule laws are the latest manifestation of that trend. The laws generally require larger employers in retail, fast-food, hospitality and other service industries to give hourly workers some amount of advance notice of shifts and shift changes — typically seven to 14 days. Depending on the jurisdiction, the laws may direct employers to offer additional hours to existing part-time employees before hiring new help or guarantee new employees the minimum hours they were promised when they were hired. Some laws also direct employers to pay employees extra for last-minute schedule changes. In addition to paying back wages, laws may direct employers that fail to comply to also pay fines and in some cases damages.

Anecdotal evidence shows that the laws are already starting to help low-wage earners. “Getting the hours I need means I can count on my paycheck. I always have enough money to buy groceries and save whatever’s left,” said Aubrie, a Starbucks barista, in a statement issued last summer by the activist group Working Washington about Seattle’s new law.

In New York, where a Fair Workweek law took effect in November 2017,“Workers have told us that just having the law in place meant employers’ attitudes changed and that they are already benefiting from it without any enforcement,” said New York City Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Lorelei Salas.

Academic researchers studying the impact of laws in Seattle and elsewhere expect to release some of the first data-backed findings later this year or in early 2019.“The real question is going to be whether these laws in general will be enforced and complied with,” said Kristen Harknett, an associate professor of sociology at University of California at San Francisco, and a collaborator on the Shift Project at University of California at Berkeley, which studies service-industry employment. “It’s not small task. Compared to minimum wage, this is much more complicated.”

Some cities have already begun bringing the hammer down on employers that failed to bring their scheduling practices in line with new laws. Since Seattle’s Secure november/december

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Scheduling ordinance took effect in July 2017, the city has received 200 worker inquiries — not all of which became formal complaints — and investigated 13. By mid-July, the city’s labor standards office had collected close to $100,000 in back wages for 500 affected employees from Gap, Red Robin, Tesla, California Pizza Kitchen, and a Seattle location of pub chain Elephant & Castle. As of mid-September, another 18 investigations were active or pending.

Bull, the Seattle OLS policy manager, would not discuss complaints against specific employers, including Gap. A Gap spokesperson also declined to comment on the investigation, but said there are occasions when store teams go through a period of transition as they get up to speed on new regulations and compliance practices.

Gap “is fully committed to complying with all applicable laws and standards,” spokesperson Lauren Wilkinson said.

“We hold our employees accountable for doing what’s right. We’re continually working to make meaningful improvements that benefit our employees and balance the needs of our business and customers.”

Laws Spreading to More Cities, States Seattle is not the only area investigating complaints.

Since New York City’s Fair Workweek ordinance took effect, the city’s consumer affairs department has followed up on more than 115 complaints that led to 69 investigations, and collected $6,175 in payments for workers and $2,000 in fines.

The city’s Fair Workweek law established different requirements for employers in retail and fast food because of those industries’ differing scheduling needs. To date, most complaints have been against fast-food employers, primarily for failing to give new employees an estimated number of hours they could expect to work, as stipulated by the law, according to Salas. Employers also have been fined for making schedule changes without notifying employees within the designated time period, she said.

But because the law is still so new, the city has focused on education rather than penalties. DCA has held 220 training events and had outreach teams walk door to door to hand out business background information and worker notices to post. “Our goal is to get employers to comply, not to fine people left, right and center,” Salas said.

San Francisco’s secure schedules law is part of a package of protections the city passed specific to retail workers. Since 2016 when it became the first city in the country to pass a predictable shift law, San Francisco has launched 11 investigations, all of which are ongoing, according to Patrick Mulligan, director of the city’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement. He declined to share details about the investigations.

Oregon has investigated three complaints since becoming the first state to enact a predictable shift law, which took effect July 1. Employers under review include a Dollar Tree location in Warrenton for allegedly failing to post information about the new law; a Safeway grocery store 30

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location in Portland for an overtime pay dispute, and a Portland-area Domino’s pizza franchisee for allegedly failing to give enough advance notice of schedules, according to state records. As of mid-September, investigations by the state’s Bureau of Labor and Industry were ongoing.

PREDICTABLE SHIFT LAWS COULD LEAD MORE EMPLOYERS TO AUTOMATE OR IMPROVE EXISTING SCHEDULING PROCESSES. Cities that are considering adopting similar regulations include Philadelphia and Chicago. In Washington, legislators were expected to hold hearings on a statewide measure in mid-October. “They’re keeping a close watch on what’s happening in Seattle,” Harknett said.

Creating More Predictable Schedules Predictable shift laws do not dictate how employers must create the schedules they are bound to offer, but could lead more of them to automate or improve the existing processes.

The scheduling systems that employers use to comply with the new laws are all over the map, according to city labor officials involved with training and enforcement.

That includes bare-bones paper and pencil schedules, Excel spreadsheets and shift scheduling software that can be customized to comply with laws, or a combination of one or more of those, they said.

Larger employers are likelier to use electronic scheduling apps. Fifty-six percent of enterprises with more than 10,000 employees use some form of labor scheduling application, according to the 2018-19 Sierra-Cedar survey.

That compares with 46 percent of midsized organizations with 2,500 to 10,000 employees, and 43 percent of organizations with 2,500 or fewer workers, according to the survey, which polled 1,636 global organizations representing 23.6 million workers.

Labor scheduling systems are the least used of any workforce management application with the exception of labor budgeting systems, according to the survey. For example, 90 percent of employers of all sizes use some kind of time and attendance system, twice as many as use a scheduling system.

Employers would be smart not to wait for cities to pass predictable shift laws to act, since they won’t get the employee-side recognition from doing the work but they’ll still have to do the work, said Clay Robinson, director of solution architecture at Shiftboard, a shift-scheduling software vendor.

PREDICTABLE SHIFT continued on page 64 november/december

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Year-end gifts your employees will really appreciate: less stress, more time and a big thank-you.

BY BRANDI BRITTON

B

alancing personal and work obligations is a struggle for busy professionals any time of the year. But the holiday season — when intense work deadlines collide with a whirlwind of shopping, parties, travel and more — adds an extra layer of pressure and stress that can make employees feel, shall we say, less than festive.

And then, just like that, the holidays are over. Employees are back at their desks, facing a mountain of to-dos that they were desperate to finish before the break but just couldn’t find the time to get to. Silently, they promise themselves that next year will be different: “Next year, I will do everything I can to make sure I have time to actually enjoy the holidays.”

Managers can help them out. Supervisors can make it easier for their workers to find time to experience the joy of the season by rethinking office traditions such as the company-hosted holiday party. While

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Handling the Workplace Holiday Rush For some businesses beyond retail, the holiday season — November through February — is the busy season.

This means heavy workloads, tight deadlines and the need for collaborative teamwork more than ever as many companies are winding down. Research from my company’s research arm, the Limeade Institute, shows that burnout happens when employees have high stress but low well-being.

So we’ve come together as a company to keep our people balanced, productive and healthy during this time.

Here’s what we found works best: Reorganize annual events to alleviate employees’ schedules: Like most companies, we launched annual employee reviews at year-end. Now we’ve moved our annual reviews to February, so employees can approach them thoughtfully and reflect on all they’ve accomplished. We also pushed our holiday party to midyear so our employees can spend their time with family and friends. And while most companies send customers holiday gifts in December, we send gratitude gifts just before Thanksgiving.

Push for real PTO: We encourage employees to use their vacation time by year-end. In fact, our research shows those who take all of their vacation days are more engaged. Some employees prefer to take a long break just after the busy season. Because of this, we roll over up to 160 hours of PTO per year.

Support employee well-being: Throughout the busy season, we developed a Refresh Yourself campaign that promotes employee well-being — something often neglected when the pressure is on. We’ve offered chair massages, fruit-infused water, smoothies, yoga and meditation sessions, stretching stations, brain games and had the leadership team cook breakfast for employees. An optional office decorating contest and ugly sweater competition brings spirit to the office. In the meantime, remote employees receive care packages so they feel included and supported.

Help employees manage stress: Stress is inevitable during the busy season, so we help employees feel energized and motivated versus run-down or overwhelmed. We coach managers on how to help their team deal with stress and bring in guest speakers on how to stay positive in stressful times.

Our advice to those whose busy season ramps up during the holidays? Test new ideas, measure success and improve every year.

— Laura Hamill is chief people officer at Limeade and chief science officer of the Limeade Institute.

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this annual celebration can be fun and meaningful, it is also one more commitment for employees in an ultra-hectic season. In fact, only about one-third (36 percent) of workers surveyed by my company, OfficeTeam, describe this event as entertaining. A nearly equal percentage of professionals — 35 percent — give it a big thumbs down.

However, there shouldn’t be a rush to cancel the eggnog and tinsel just yet. Taking a different approach to how the office celebrates the holidays could be all that’s needed to make employees feel they’re attending an event that’s well worth their time — and for the company to feel satisfied that its budget is well spent.

Take Justin Gray, founder and CEO of LeadMD, a marketing and sales consultancy company based in Scottsdale, Arizona. He brings his entire team together for an annual holiday weekend at a local resort. The company pays for remote team members and their significant others to travel to the event.

“It’s a great team-building exercise, and it lets people know that we care,” Gray said. “I think of everything we do for our teams as an investment. If you want the best from your employees, you have to create experiences where they feel appreciated.”

Hosting a low-key get-together before the holiday break can be a good option for employers, too, said Susan M. Heathfield, a human resources expert and writer. Heathfield is the owner of two Michigan-based businesses: management consulting firm Heathfield Consulting Associates and software company TechSmith Corp.

“We decided a long time ago that the holiday season is the absolute worst time of year to have a company party,” she said. “It’s so hard to get people together. They just don’t have the time. Plus, they would rather spend what time they do have with their family and friends.”

Heathfield said TechSmith officially closes for the holidays at noon on Christmas Eve and hosts a casual lunch at a local tavern for any employees who want to attend — and they are welcome to bring their family members, too. Then, in February, the firm really pulls out all the stops.

“We hold an extravagant party to celebrate our company’s founding birthday,” Heathfield said, adding that almost all of TechSmith’s 285 employees usually attend this annual event, and most invite their family and friends along, as well.

Giving All Employees a Break Shutting down the office between Christmas and New Year’s Day has become a common practice for many employers. Heathfield and Gray both agree that doing so has a strong, positive impact on employee morale — and can help with retention and november/december

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recruitment efforts, too. Gray said he has received “so many notes ” from staff members over the years, expressing their appreciation for this simple gesture.

“And we have an unlimited paid time-off policy, too!” he said.

For companies that can’t close down their office during the December holidays, Gray offers a suggestion: “Consider providing a ‘floating week’ option that can be used around Thanksgiving, during the Christmas holiday season, or during the summer,” he said. “There are low productivity valleys in every business. You can capitalize on them to provide big value for your team while still providing great service to your customers. Just be sure to clearly communicate to your teams the number of staff who can be off at a given time.”

Flexible scheduling practices throughout the year can also help workers maintain their work-life balance — and prevent them from facing a mad rush during the holidays, said Heathfield. “A lot of pressure at the holidays is self-imposed,” she said. “People are trying to do too much in too little time.”

Like Gray, Heathfield also encourages employees to take their vacation at less busy times of the year, when they can really rest and come back to work recharged.

Welcome in the New

4 Simple Ways to Help Employees Stress Less During the Holidays Small gestures can have a big impact. Managers looking to make the holidays less intense for their workers could consider applying the following strategies.

1. Give workers time to shop. As Cyber Monday has become an increasingly important holiday shopping day, companies have become more accepting of their employees seeking out deals online while at work. Forty-three percent of workers surveyed

by Robert Half Technology said their boss or company allows them to shop online during Cyber Monday. However, a majority in that same survey (65 percent) said they’d prefer to have a work-free day on Black Friday.

2. Eliminate the “secret Santa” pressure. Don’t worry; scrapping this holiday tradition won’t make you a Scrooge. It’s an easy way to give workers the gift of time. They’ll have one less gift to shop for and wrap. Of course, ask employees what they’d like to do. If they truly enjoy the secret Santa tradition, keep it. If not, do something else — like donating directly to a local charity that everyone on the team has a say in choosing.

While the end of the year is a logical time to reflect on team accomplishments and set new goals, managers might want to wait until after Jan. 1 to dig into numbers and talk strategy with their staff. However, they need to be careful not to pile on too much too soon in the new year: Taking time off and then coming back to heavy workloads can be stressful for professionals during the holidays.

Instead, managers can consider planning a team celebration to ring in the new year and get energized for the first quarter. This event could take the place of the traditional team celebration in December — thereby also helping to reduce employees’ end-ofyear stress. In early January, when all staff members are back from the holiday break, everyone can be taken out to a restaurant. Just going out for burgers doesn’t cut it: Supervisors should try to invite employees somewhere special.

During the meal, people are encouraged to talk about their holiday experiences. After everyone has had a chance to catch up, the conversation can shift to business. Leadership should outline the company’s objectives for the year and get everyone focused on working toward them.

“Goal setting is important at both the individual and departmental level,” Heathfield noted in an article that discussed the New Year’s lunch strategy.

3. Schedule a desk-clearing day. Break out the holiday cookies, turn on some festive music, and give employees an afternoon in early December to clean their inboxes, organize their calendars and fully assess what they may — or may not — be able to finish before the holidays. This process will help them prioritize their work in the weeks ahead. They can also alert managers to potential workload issues that can be addressed before they become major headaches.

HOLIDAYS continued on page 65

Name blurb. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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4. Avoid setting big deadlines for year-end. If possible, don’t set too many (or any) major deadlines for staff members during the holiday season. “Try not to make the end of the year a deadline for everything,” said Heathfield. “Think about setting major due dates around Nov. 15 or even earlier. Businesses have more flexibility to do this than they often think.”

If a pre-holiday work crunch is inevitable, managers may want to bring in reinforcements. Interim employees can help ensure that critical work gets done at this chaotic time of year when team stress is running high. Temporary staff can also cover for workers taking extended vacations during the holidays.

Another tip for managers: Set a good example for employees.

Supervisors should take vacation time when they can and participate enthusiastically in the company’s holiday activities. Also, refrain from emailing or calling your team members about work-related matters when they’re off unless it’s an absolute must.

— Brandi Britton

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Beyond Onboarding How HR staffing firms can improve the candidate experience with digital signature solutions

By Adina Sapp

Economic improvement over the past 10 years has led to new trends impacting staffing firms, and even more change is ahead. While unemployment has reached its lowest rate since 2008, the current high turnover rate of 18.5 percent¹ means that staffing firms are handling huge volumes of paperwork. Talent shortages also increase the time to fill open positions. Since 2010, the average time to fill an open position has almost doubled. This creates an extremely competitive landscape for staffing firms.

Julien Faure, senior product marketing manager for DocuSign, points out that moving to digital signature solutions that integrate with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and various Human Capital Management (HCM) applications will dramatically improve the candidate experience and cut the onboarding process, yielding immediate savings. Additionally, as staffing firms diversify lines of service and strive to become more strategic partners to corporate customers, building a digital System of Agreement will be fundamental.

Improve Onboarding Providing a positive onboarding experience is crucial in this competitive staffing landscape, since all players are chasing a limited number of candidates, especially in technical, scientific and engineering fields. “Staffing firms lose their best candidates, the ones that are tech savvy (the easiest to place and that yield the most margins), when there are roadblocks during the hiring process,” Faure points out.

Sixty percent of candidates report having a bad hiring experience. Of those, 72 percent will publicly share their experience, negatively impacting those staffing companies. Conversely, 60 percent of candidates who have positive experiences will go out of their way to encourage their friends to apply.² If you’re looking to increase your NPS score among new hires, note that 47 percent of organizations with digital recruiting models

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report greater levels of candidate satisfaction, thanks in part to streamlined digital processes.³

Remove the Headache Often, filing documents is the primary source of frustration for candidates. In-person signing requires travel or time off work. Mailing involves postage costs, driving to a store and sometimes printing incompatibility issues. Emailing has challenges too, due to varying system needs, application versions and attachment issues.

On the other hand, digital solutions inspire confidence by providing an easy process that can be completed remotely from any device. Recruiters can track digital progress in real time and candidates are able to sign and comment directly in the digital text. This frees up the staffing firm to spend more time recruiting and less time doing administrative work.

Providing a positive onboarding experience is crucial in this competitive staffing landscape, especially in technical, scientific and engineering fields.

Drive Savings In addition to shortening the onboarding cycle and reducing the cost of open positions, digital signatures drive immediate document savings. While the amount ranges across industries, the average savings is $36 per document, and many firms report savings up to $45.

This adds up quickly considering that each candidate must sign 10 to 15 documents. Even with a conservative savings estimate of $25 per document multiplied by 10 documents, a mid-size firm of 100 recruiters placing 50 candidates per year could save $1.25 million annually.

“With all the staffing firms I’ve engaged with, the cost savings are between high and huge,” Faure states.

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By switching to DocuSign in 2017, staffing firm Robert Half used 1 million fewer envelopes and saved $14 million in the first year.

Look Forward The U.S. workforce is anticipated to be 69 percent agile (i.e., composed of temporary employees) by 2025, so having the right systems in place will be critical for staffing firms. A System of Agreement is foundational to feeding new lines of consulting services that will help staffing firms build differentiated value.

A digital System of Agreement is correlated to crucial insights into behavior.

Already, online job boards and recruiting portals have built strong market positions by collecting and leveraging rich datasets through user-generated content. With data as a source of competitive differentiation, staffing firms can target candidates more accurately with the right job offers and provide an increasingly personalized experience to job seekers. They can also differentiate by providing end-to-end or specialized services to their corporate customer accounts.

background checks, resumes and certification — while easily integrating with various onboarding, HCM and ERP systems — a digital System of Agreement creates a datarich picture of the candidate profile. The information is correlated to crucial insights into behavior, such as the average number of iterations required to lock down a job offer, the average time taken to sign and the average number of document views before reaching an agreement.

“Based on the high rate and cost of churn, a digital System of Agreement will not only be foundational to providing a better candidate experience; it will help predict which candidates are likely to be a good long-term fit,” Faure says.

Staffing firms that start now to build their digital System of Agreement will have a solid foundation to enrich future lines of service.

To learn more about DocuSign, visit docusign.com.

Both of those evolutions can be enabled and accelerated by a digital System of Agreement, which does much more than enable digital signatures. By storing and interconnecting the information provided through

As the pioneer and global standard for Digital Transaction Management (DTM) and eSignature, DocuSign® is changing how business gets done by empowering more than 300,000 companies and more than 200 million users in 188 countries to send, sign and manage agreements digitally. DocuSign eliminates printing, faxing, scanning and overnighting paper documents to transact business online quickly, easily and securely—anytime, anywhere, on any device—with trust and confidence. DocuSign enables individuals and organizations of every size, industry and geography to make every agreement digital to keep life and business moving forward. ¹ Jennings, A. (2017). Employer turnover trends in 2017. Compdata. ² RecruitingSocial (2015). “The Data Speaks: How to Ace Your Candidate Experience, with Gerry Crispin.”

3 KellyOCG (2017). Digital Recruiting: Disruption by Design and Not by Default. n⁴oRandstad vember / d e cWorkplace e m b e r 2025: 2 0 1 8Embracing

(2016).

Disruption in a Post-Digital World.

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Discovering Humility, Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness Identifying truly effective leaders through personality assessments

By Adina Sapp “There are two key things successful businesses do,” says Ryne Sherman, chief science officer at Hogan Assessments. “They make good decisions about money and they make good decisions about people. Wisdom about money can be taught in formal business classes, but wisdom about hiring decisions is harder.”

This is where the personality experts can help. Sherman is one of the world’s leading personality psychologists, and he stands behind the insight that Hogan’s assessments and other well-validated assessments can provide, especially when it comes to leadership selection.

“What makes Hogan’s assessments exceptional is the underlying science,” Sherman says. “Many assessment firms out there are run by computer scientists rather than psychologists. The assessment industry is currently the Wild West with a lack of regulations. In response, Hogan adheres to higher standards. Hogan was founded by a psychologist, and we perform continual research to improve the validity of our products.”

Traditional promotion methods have flaws that need to be weighed against other methods. Hogan’s assessments measure people’s strengths, weaknesses, values and problem-solving approaches. Most importantly, its assessments support decision-making by identifying the qualities of a truly effective leader, rather than just an emergent leader. “Most organizations have leaders who fly under the radar, who are quietly getting the work done and being loved by their team,” Sherman says. “They are the organization’s truly effective leaders, but they often go unnoticed and un-promoted.”

Leadership emergence versus leadership effectiveness isn’t a new concept (psychologists have understood it for decades), but those who make decisions about leader promotion aren’t necessarily aware of the research around humility and organizational effectiveness. “The academic literature on leadership focuses on people

1

CLO 2018 State of the Industry survey.

who are in leadership roles,” Sherman says. “The problem is that the people in leadership roles are often there for the wrong reasons.”

All too often, it’s the charismatic people who tend to rise quickly in organizations. “They’re good at playing politics, they’re good at seeming to have good ideas, and they rise quickly,” Sherman says. “But research shows charisma isn’t related to performance. Charisma is associated with narcissism, which leads to all sorts of problems. Despite the stereotype that you want a charismatic CEO out doing dramatic things, the data doesn’t reflect that. Humble CEOs do better.”

Well-validated assessments can help decision-makers identify the emotional intelligence that is both a key attribute of a humble, effective leader and among the top targeted skills for executive leadership, according to Chief Learning Officer research.1 “Humble leaders are good at picking up on how others are feeling because they’re paying attention,” Sherman says.

On the other hand, charismatic leaders are more likely to dismiss negative feedback as lies or ignorance. “Humble leaders come across as more emotionally intelligent because they listen to reporting,” Sherman says. “They listen to feedback and criticism from others, and they see it as a learning opportunity. They’re more coachable.

They learn from mistakes and try to get better, whereas leaders without humility tend to blame others or deny that mistakes ever occurred.”

Humility isn’t self-defeating; it isn’t low self-esteem. In fact, humble leaders can be fiercely competitive. Their strength isn’t showy, but it is effective. “The leaders who are best at identifying and retaining talent care more about the organization than themselves; the charismatic or narcissistic leaders care about self-advancement and promotion,” Sherman says.

Chief Learning Officer research shows that for most organizations, growing the succession pipeline is the most important goal for leadership development. This makes an investment in personality assessments a top priority as well. On the other hand, C-suite hiring mistakes can cost companies millions of dollars, create downstream problems and have a host of other consequences.2 “The danger of not using assessments is financial ruin for the business,” Sherman says.

Another great danger in not using assessments is the potential of legal dangers due to discriminatory hiring practices. “Even if you’re not aware of them, you’re at risk,” Sherman points out.

Personality assessments contribute to effectively leveraging diversity in the workplace by identifying culturally sensitive 2

leaders. “The beauty of personality tests is that everyone gets the same questions; it levels the playing field,” Sherman says.

There is, however, the possibility of over-relying on assessments. “I would never recommend that someone make a hiring decision based solely on a personality assessment,” Sherman says. “The personality assessment is a data point that should be evaluated along with the other data points, such as job history and relevant job tests. Structured job interviews are also more effective than unstructured job interviews.”

To learn more about how Hogan Assessments can contribute to organizational effectiveness, visit www.hoganassessments. com/forget-charisma-look-for-humility-in-a-leader/.

Jones, Don. The Million Dollar Hire.

The international authority in personality assessment, Hogan Assessments has three decades of experience reducing turnover and increasing productivity by helping businesses hire the right people, develop key talent, and evaluate leadership potential.

Grounded in a more than a century of science, the Hogan assessments predict job performance by assessing normal personality, derailment characteristics, and core values.

Hogan’s portfolio of employee selection, development and leadership tools allow companies to better manage their most valuable assets – their people. www.hoganassessments.com

Apprenticeships are hot again There’s a good reason for that.

Modern apprenticeships are the model “earn while you learn” recruitment and development tool for all types of occupations, ranging from front-line supervisors, to bank tellers, to behavioral health counselors, and more. In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor reports there are more than 150,000 employers offering apprenticeship programs in more than 1,000 occupations.

Modern apprenticeships include these features: • The intent of making the candidate job ready for a specific role • A combination of classroom learning and on-site, on-the-job training • A living wage paid to the apprentice • An opportunity to convert to full-time employment immediately upon successful completion of the program

Apprenticeships work – for employers and employees.

classroom on their jobs. And vice versa – they bring real work experience to their classroom discussions.

They grow in confidence as they advance in knowledge and skills. And structured compensation that aligns with accomplishments reinforces their confidence, engagement and abilities.

Registered Apprenticeships designed in collaboration with the “Gold Standard” U.S. Department of Labor Apprenticeship Program The U.S. Department of Labor is strongly backing modern apprenticeships and actively supports companies that offer these programs. Registered Apprenticeships are the “Gold Standard” for these programs. Participants who successfully complete a Registered Apprenticeship receive a Certificate of Completion from the U.S. Department of Labor.

5 Guidelines for an Effective Registered Apprenticeship Program.

For employers: According to the U.S. Department of Labor, effective apprenticeship programs produce a 150% ROI for employers.

If you’re interested in creating a Registered Apprenticeship Program, download a free white paper, designed to give you a starting point for designing your program. It’s available here: CorporateLearning.com/Apprenticeships

The key advantage is employers’ ability to cultivate a pipeline of talented workers for needed positions while structuring payment to align with accomplishments.

Registered Apprenticeship Education Partner

Another benefit of apprenticeships is they open the door to a wider group of job candidates. The “earn while you learn” feature makes upskilling or reskilling affordable for more people and builds an affordable pipeline of talented workers.

For employees: Current employees and job candidates want relevant skills and knowledge. Apprenticeships give job candidates a way to learn them while being supported with payment, internal coaching, and strong academic knowledge that teaches the “why” as well as the “how.” Apprentices say they are able to immediately apply what they are learning in the

Corporate Learning Solutions powered by Bellevue University currently works with more than 50 national corporations to provide education, training, tuition assistance programs and curriculum design. Bellevue University has designed and offered Registered Apprenticeship Programs for the following occupations: • Office Manager/Front-Line Supervisor • Behavioral Health: Substance Use and Treatment • Banking Tellers and Personal Bankers Call or click: CorporateLearning.com 877-824-5516

3

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Registered Apprenticeships are the perfect way to create a pipeline for hard-to-fill positions. If you’re looking for people in the above occupations, call us. If there’s an occupational area for which you’d like to see a Registered Apprenticeship program created, we’ll work with you to launch it.

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FREE WHITE PAPER

CorporateLearning.com/Apprenticeships

Real Learning for Real LifeTM

CorporateLearning.com • 877-824-5516 A non-profit university, Bellevue University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission (hlcommission.org), a regional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

9th Annual Wellness in the Workplace Study Employers make moves to keep pace with market forces.

Improving the health care experience for employees requires a deliberate plan to keep up with market forces and industry trends.

Results from the Optum® 9th Annual Wellness in the Workplace Study demonstrate that overall investment in employee health and well-being has remained strong.

At the same time, the trends impacting health care are driving meaningful change to age-old approaches.

Market forces inspire bold, new moves Financial concerns, shifting workplace demographics, technological advances and other market trends have all forced employers to think differently when it comes to their health and well-being strategies.

In response, employers are making purposeful moves to make sure employee benefits keep pace with — and positively affect — these key trends impacting their health and well-being strategies. These market trends include:

improving navigation and accessibility. This includes services such as health advocacy, which saw a notable increase of 58 percent from 2015 to 2017.

Other services showing increases include transparency tools (such as cost estimators), which increased 16 percent. Telemedicine increased 80 percent and relationships with near-site and on-site medical clinics increased (31 percent and 29 percent, respectively). in to women’s health 3ALeaning variety of women’s health programs and services offered by employers saw an increase across the board from 2016 to 2017.

Employers offering maternity programs grew from 59 percent to 72 percent. Neonatal increased from 41 percent to 60 percent, and first-year-of-life programs grew from 40 percent to 60 percent. Preconception rose from 37 percent to 56 percent, and fertility solutions increased from 30 percent to 52 percent.

in strategies that create health care Rethinking the purpose of health and well-being 1 Investing 4programs value for both the employee and employer Beyond implementing plan design changes, employers are also attempting to prevent costly medical claims that impact the organization’s bottom line and employees’ wallets.

Specifically, they are pursuing clinical strategies that proactively address costly and complex health conditions.

These conditions often have a range of treatment options across multiple sites of care, with wide outcome variations.

As one of the top medical cost drivers, back and joint pain are becoming a high priority for many employers. The number of employers that offered musculoskeletal (MSK) programs increased significantly from 8 percent in 2015 to 31 percent in 2017.

Modifying the program mix to reflect the rise of 2the consumer Employers are focusing on services that simplify the health care experience for consumers; specifically, 1

Of those addressing social health in the workplace.

Employers are starting to rethink the value proposition for employee health and well-being programs. Leveraging these programs to build a loyal, highly engaged workforce culture may not only drive improved program outcomes, but also inspire program innovation.

Survey results show significant changes over the past two years as new value markers focused on building employee morale and recruiting and retaining employees emerge.

Key growth areas — reasons employers offer health and well-being programs: • Promoting productivity (64 percent to 74 percent) • Improving morale (57 percent to 74 percent) • Recruiting/retaining employees (64 percent to 72 percent) Survey results also demonstrated that employers are investing in culture-enabling programs.1

Optum is a leading information and technology-enabled health services business dedicated to helping make the health system work better for everyone. With more than 135,000 people worldwide, Optum delivers intelligent, integrated solutions that help to modernize the health system and improve overall population health. Optum is part of UnitedHealth Group https://www.optum.com/solutions/employer.html

• 84% offer organized, work-sponsored activities • 80% offer team-based programs Employers also know that the physical work environment can have an influence on our well-being. As a result: • 56% have made changes to the physical work environment • Top changes: healthier food in vending machines and cafeterias, on-site fitness centers, ergonomic programs, smoke-free campuses and standing desks

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Fast-tracking technology Over the last three years, employers have made noteworthy gains in the adoption of engagement technology. In fact, 86 percent of employers are now subsidizing or plan to subsidize activity tracking devices.

However, they have yet to fully embrace technology as a key engagement enabler. Wearable tech adoption has doubled since 2015; however only about half are using it (53 percent). More could be done to integrate mobile apps, game like features and health-related messaging into their health and wellness programs.

Addressing persisting and emerging behavioral 6health needs There is a significant opportunity to address a complex continuum of employee behavioral health needs, from excessive stress to opioid use disorder.

The reality is that 79 percent of employers report that their health and wellness strategy addresses physical health. That’s compared to 67 percent of employers who report their strategy addresses behavioral health.

Clearly, a significant gap remains between these two important dimensions of well-being. persisting and emerging behavioral 7Addressing health needs Powerful new technology has created exciting opportunities for the health care industry to mine and leverage vast quantities of data in more useful ways than ever before.

While excited about this new promise, employers have yet to find partners who can help them drive incremental health care value for their populations.

There is a significant opportunity to do more — mining and aggregating data relating to pharmacy claims, electronic health records, and social-demographic and lab data in addition to medical claims.

In fact, only 42 percent of employers said they were highly effective at leveraging data and analytics to make decisions about their population health management strategy. And three-fourths (74%) would like a partner to help them do so.

Conclusion By harnessing the power of data, leveraging consumerfriendly technology and offering specialized programs (such as behavioral health and women’s health) that drive health care value, employers can continue to stay ahead of critical market forces impacting the health and wellbeing of their employees.

Read more about the study at optum.com or contact Optum at engage@optum.com

2018

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Expanding the Winner’s Circle:

Introducing 2018’s

TITANS HR

of

From athletic venues to health care, recognizing this year’s outstanding initiatives.

T

here was no challenge too big for this year’s Optimas Awards winners.

For the first time in Optimas Awards history, we’ve decided to give some extra love and add a bronze award to the mix. This year’s stack of strong entries made it impossible to decide on just two winners.

Now in its 28th 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 embraced “giveability” and adopted a noteworthy Corporate Citizenship initiative, donating 10 percent of its profits to charities as well as creating a fund that financially supports employees going through struggles like domestic violence. Another company, inspired by one of the most famous time machines in motion picture history, created an innovative solution for maintaining employee engagement.

Our gold winner for Vision saw the challenging nature of the nursing profession cause turnover for the organization and burnout for the workers. The program — created by nurses, for nurses — strives to retain nurses by supporting their career growth and allowing patients to nominate exceptional nurses so that the organization can recognize them for their efforts.

And then there’s our General Excellence winner, AMB Group LLC, which, as many sports fans know, is the parent company of Atlanta’s National Football League and Major League Soccer teams. The Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta opened its doors in August 2017 for the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United FC, as well as all their fans. With a venue-opening as large as this, AMB Group wanted to make a great impression on stadium visitors with a dedicated group of new associates.

Congratulations to all of our 2018 Optimas Awards winners, which have shown us how motivated and creative so many organizations are to tackle HR’s biggest challenges.

— Andie Burjek

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A Different Kind of Draft Day AMB Group LLC hired and trained 4,000 new employees in four months to open a new sports stadium, all while incorporating the community around them.

BY ANDIE BURJEK

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A

PHOTOS BY IAN CURCIO

tlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened Aug. 26, 2017, with a preseason football game between the hometown Falcons and the Arizona Cardinals.

The clock for hiring, training and prepping some 4,000 employees to open the $1.5 billion domed palace started ticking just four months prior. In short, there was no time for a fumble.

The stadium needed to staff virtually every function — ticketing, food and beverage services, security, leadership, finance and beyond. More importantly, the 4,000 workers had to embody the organization’s core values, and culture building efforts had to be highly impactful.

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General Excellence

Kali Franklin is director of human resources operations at AMB Sports and Entertainment at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The AMB Group — the stadium ownership organization in charge of hiring and training — knew the importance of finding quality staff in a short amount of time. But they also strived to do so in a way that benefited Atlanta’s nearby Westside neighborhood, according to Karen Walters, director, training and associate engagement at AMB Group.

AMB Group is the 2018 Optimas Awards winner for General Excellence, an award given to the organization that has excelled in at least six out of 10 Optimas categories. AMB’s efforts to hire and train its Mercedes-Benz Stadium workforce showed excellence in corporate citizenship, innovation, managing change, partnership, recruiting, training and vision and place it among this elite group of organizations.

“Arthur believes the stadium project will be a failure if the transformation of the Westside communities around the stadium is not a success. The team was challenged to proactively collaborate with community partners to weave Westside residents into the stadium family,” Walters said in her Optimas application, referring to Arthur M. Blank, chairman of the Blank Family of Businesses. Blank, 75, the co-founder of Home Depot, leads this family of businesses made up of the AMB Group, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Atlanta 48

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Falcons, Atlanta United FC of Major League Soccer and PGA Tour Superstore, among others.

The Westside community partners include Westside Works, a neighborhood program focused on creating employment opportunities and job training for Westside residents, and the Center for Working Families, an organization whose mission is to ensure economic success for Atlanta’s families and which provides job training, work support and financial literacy.

The stadium is a catalyst for transformative change, said Alison Sawyer, director of foundation communications at the Arthur M. Blank Family of Businesses. “For us, what that has meant is the power of the many and the collective in creating long-term, positive change in the Westside communities,” she said.

Blank leads his businesses by six core values: give back to others; lead by example; innovate continuously; put people first; listen and respond; and include everyone.

Although financial success is important to the company, equally important is following these six values to attain that success.

These six core values were present in the recruiting process for the stadium from the start. The AMB Group HR team partnered with Utah-based software company Hirevue, which uses video interviews and artificial intelligence to help companies make hiring decisions.

Blank was involved, asking values-based interview questions, as was Falcons head coach Dan Quinn and running back Devonta Freeman.

Candidates who passed the video interview attended a Draft Day Hiring Fair at Mercedes-Benz Stadium where they participated in a group interview with more values-based questions. In these group interviews, candidates got the opportunity to show their “smile on the face and smile in the heart,” according to Walters.

“The interviews are fairly light-hearted because we want to see who lights up the room with their energy, care and warmth,” she said. “We ask candidates to get to know each other, introduce each other to the group in a fun way, and seek to understand times in the past when they have positively impacted the lives of others.”

After AMB made its hiring decisions, it invited the new associates to an onboarding event in which they were warmly greeted by the HR staff and then got the chance to take an “I’ve Been Drafted!” picture with the Falcons NFC Championship trophy. This experience also included a personal, one-on-one onboarding process between an HR associate and the new hire, which was enabled through a partnership with Workday.

After onboarding, the 4,000 new employees participated in an eight-hour training program called Welcome Home. HR designed this training in partnership with professional training and coaching company LDR Worldwide, and much of the training involved building trust and family bonds, as well as instilling the six core values in trainees. november/december

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General Excellence New staff watched a video detailing Blank’s career, then met in small groups to have more intimate and personal discussions.

During the training, “trust-based connections formed, and the organization continues to benefit from these early, positive interactions,” Walters said. “We are reaping the benefits of this strong start through daily accolades given to Mercedes-Benz Stadium associates.”

Meanwhile, stadium supervisors had their own twoday Welcome Home training program in which they also learned more about the core values and the importance of building that culture among their employees.

“The energy in the building from the staff and fans was palpable,” Walters said of that first preseason game.

“The guest-services associates were electric as they welcomed guests to their new home and the fans seemed to be in awe.”

Fans were enthusiastic to experience the game in the new stadium, she added, saying that there was an aura of excitement as they engaged with stadium staff and explored the concourses and concessions.

“THE TEAM WAS CHALLENGED TO PROACTIVELY COLLABORATE WITH COMMUNITY PARTNERS TO WEAVE WESTSIDE RESIDENTS INTO THE STADIUM FAMILY.” — KAREN WALTERS, DIRECTOR, TRAINING AND ASSOCIATE ENGAGEMENT, AMB GROUP LLC

Meanwhile, thanks to its community outreach efforts, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium has hired more than 150 Westside residents, and through the youth-centric Westside Ambassadors Program, more than 100 internship positions were filled by Westside neighborhood youths.

Also, each of founding sponsors of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium has committed to transforming the Westside in some way, “whether it is time, talent or treasure,” said the Arthur M. Blank Family of Businesses’ Sawyer. Financially, that has resulted in more than $15 million committed by sponsors, she added.

The supervisors’ Core Leader training continues, and HR has selected 30 of these core leaders to act as culture builders, Walters said. In this role, they continuously and strategically try to instill the Welcome Home spirit from the initial training. This could be by including that spirit in event-day huddles or by rewarding employees with a Values in Action award when they exhibit that Welcome Home spirit.

For its workplace initiative, which demonstrates excel“The guest-services associates were electric as they welcomed guests … and the fans seemed lence in the Optimas categoin awe,” says Karen Walters, director, training and associate engagement at AMB Group LLC. ries of corporate citizenship, Beyond that first game, the hiring and training initia- innovation, managing change, partnership, recruiting, tive has sparked positive feedback from NFL fans, ac- training and vision, AMB Group is the 2018 Optimas cording to the fan surveys conducted by the NFL. In Award General Excellence winner. the 2017 survey, the Falcons earned “Most Improved” club. The team also ranked in the first quartile among all Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. To comment, email NFL clubs for fan satisfaction. editors@workforce.com. november/december

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Benefits GOLD

Cherokee County, Georgia, Board of Commissioners Health Management Strategy

C

herokee County, the seventh largest county in Georgia, wanted to revamp its employee benefits program.

Such a lofty goal — reducing the cost of the health plan without reducing coverage or increasing employee premiums — would be daunting for any organization, and the county had the special challenge of needing to do just that for 1,600 public employees in 30 separate agencies.

Coinciding with the hiring of a new chief people officer in February 2016, the county began designing its health management strategy. In May, it also hired a new benefits consultant.With this new team and new strategy in place, the county assessed the health plan areas where there was room for improvement. The components of the new health management strategy included addressing pharmacy costs, telemedicine and preferred networks.

Rising costs and lack of transparency for pharmacy costs was a major concern of Cherokee County, which addressed this by choosing a new, fiduciary pharmacy benefits manager whose incentives are aligned to its own.

At this PBM, there’s no spread pricing and all rebates and manufacturer’s incentives are returned to the county.

Plan members also have no deductibles or copays for telemedicine, which has helped lower overall spend by reducing urgent and emergency care spending.

Other components of this improved health management strategy included unbundling certain services for the carrier and implementing six new vendors who could improve spend, for example an imaging vendor at which members can get CAT scans, mammograms and MRIs at no cost. Also, Cherokee County needed to make a significant education and communication effort to let plan members know about these major changes.

The county officially launched the new health management strategy Jan. 1, 2017, and has seen positive results so far. Pharmacy spend decreased by 38 percent, or $1.3 million year-over-year; inpatient hospital costs decreased by 50.8 percent; and the adoption of telemedicine led to savings of $144,243. In addition, compared to 24 large claims costing $4,790,879 last plan year, the current plan year has only seen nine large claims totaling $1,554,785.

For its efforts to develop and implement a health management strategy for the 2017 plan year, Cherokee County, Georgia, Board of Commissioners is the Optimas Award Gold winner for Benefits.

— Andie Burjek

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SILVER

Banfield Pet Hospital Health & Wellbeing at Banfield: A Holistic Approach to Energize Associates

T

he veterinary profession is going through a dramatic demographic shift, and as the workforce becomes younger and more female, workforce concerns like high student loan debt and common mental health issues that often plague young doctors impact organizations like Washington-based veterinary practice Banfield Pet Hospital.

To address the wellness challenges — such as cyberbullying, poor work-life balance and increased risk for suicide — that exist in the profession, whose industry turnover is 20 percent, Banfield launched a new health and well-being initiative in 2017.The initiative focuses on five areas of well-being including mind, body, finances, career and community.

Some components of this holistic approach were discounted gym memberships, the veterinary student debt relief pilot program, continuing education reimbursement programs and a hurricane relief program for pets and owners after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico.

Though the program is new, it has still had some measurable results, with 46 percent of the doctor population participating in the student debt relief program and a 30 percent reduction in the dropout rate of candidates.

For its efforts to gradually increase employee well-being on a holistic level, Banfield Pet Hospital is the Optimas Award Silver winner for Benefits.

— Andie Burjek BRONZE

Panda Restaurant Group

F

or its efforts to use the Panda Associate Assistance Fund to financially assist employees going through crises including death, illness and natural disasters, Panda Restaurant Group is the Optimas Award Bronze winner for Benefits.

—Andie Burjek november/december

2018

Business Impact

GOLD

Gas South Amazing Employee Experience. Amazing Customer Experience.

A

fter Gas South observed the inconsistent experiences their customer care agents were providing, an extensive relational training was created to improve their customer care experience from good to amazing.

In May 2012, after years of having its customer care center staffed by contractors and housed off-site, the Southeast natural-gas provider decided to bring its customer service operations in-house.They wanted to create a connection with their customer agents and improve that relationship for their more than 300,000 Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina customers.

Additionally, in early 2016, Gas South redesigned its workplace experience. They shifted the process from transactional to relational, which prepared employees to handle problems and requests effectively while staying respectful and empathetic. Gas South also shifted communication from bottom-up instead of top-down, which resulted in employee engagement and buy-in.

The second phase centered around employee happiness and flexibility. Gas South implemented a new workfrom-home policy — once a week, every week — and more user-friendly system changes and employee engagement initiatives like a customer advocacy team and peer-to-peer recognition.

Finally, Gas South’s leadership team became more visible and accessible in 2017. This allowed the executive team, including CEO Kevin Greiner, to sit with employees to learn about their pain points, personal goals and to talk about the company’s direction.

“Being named as a finalist for an Optimas Award affirms we are working on the right things and it motivates us to continue to focus on our employees to ultimately create an incredible customer experience,” said Manon Brochu, vice president and general manager of mass markets at Gas South. “What makes us even prouder is to see that our employees are satisfied with their jobs, and they understand how the work they do contributes to our success and the overall company culture.”

For its efforts in revamping its customer service experience, Gas South is the 2018 Optimas Award Gold winner for Business Impact.

— Rocio Villaseñor november/december

SILVER

Cherokee County, Georgia, Board of Commissioners Successful Implementation of a Risk Management Program

A

fter workers’ compensation costs had incurred more than $1,000,000 in 2011, the board of commissioners in Cherokee County, Georgia, created a five-year risk management plan.

In 2013, the county hired a risk manager. It then reached settlements with the help of the county’s workers’ compensation attorneys, a third-party administrator and medical providers.

The three key phases were: risk planning, risk assessment and risk monitoring.

A number of programs were created, including a comprehensive county safety program; a county safety committee; a vehicle accident review committee; a distracted driving policy; return to work/transitional duty program; workers’ compensation providers; workers’ compensation provider manual; workers’ compensation and vehicle accident packets; and a safety-communication program.

“As a self-insured public entity with limited revenues, this has saved taxpayers money, which can be better utilized in other areas,” stated the organization in its nomination application.

For its efforts in implementing a successful risk management program, Cherokee County, Georgia, is the 2018 Optimas Award Silver winner for Business Impact.

— Rocio Villaseñor BRONZE

LaSalle Network

F

or its efforts to use its employee engagement and retention strategies, LaSalle Network is the 2018 Optimas Award Bronze winner for Business Impact.

— Rocio Villaseñor

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Corporate Citizenship

GOLD

O.C. Tanner Giveability

G

iving back to the community has been a part of O.C. Tanner’s culture from the company’s earliest days.

The company’s founder, Obert C. Tanner, would ask his accounting team, “What’s our giveability this month?”

Giveability is the Utah-based company’s initiative for measuring how many philanthropic efforts the company can contribute to after its financial reports have been assessed, according to its Optimas application. Today, 10 percent of profits are donated to four areas: the arts, education, human need and the environment.

“Giveability should be a priority at every organization because it extends the value and mission of the company to its surrounding communities,” said Mindi Cox, senior vice president of people and great work at O.C. Tanner.

“It allows employees to connect with the community they serve and upholds a company’s social responsibility.”

Among food drives and monetary donations, O.C. Tanner also supports programs such as One Refugee.

This program provides education to displaced immigrants and helps pair them with hiring companies. Community efforts are also made based on employee feedback and which organizations they want to donate to. Employees are also provided paid volunteer leave so they can have the time to personally participate in the causes they care about outside of the workplace.

After a number of employees revealed their personal struggles, domestic violence among them, O.C. Tanner started the Tanner Cares Fund as a way to support its workers while providing that same support to outside organizations.

“The fund is created by a company match determined by employee donations to other local charitable causes. This idea grew out of day-to-day, organic interactions with employees and involves pooling both company and employee resources to help support one’s own team,” said Cox. For its efforts to use Giveablity as a way to give back to the community and help its employees, O.C.Tanner is the 2018 Optimas Award Gold winner for Corporate Citizenship.

— Aysha Ashley Househ

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SILVER

AAA of Northern California, Nevada and Utah AAA Community Champions

A

AA of Northern California, Nevada and Utah gives back to the community while increasing employee retention through its AAA Community Champions program.

Community champions serve as managers at AAA locations and are bridges between the community impact team and local communities.The company’s philanthropic efforts focus on child passenger safety, school safety and disaster preparedness, such as earthquakes.

By appointing 131 community champions across seven U.S. states, it ingrained the initiative into the business’s culture.

Since launching the program in 2016, the company saw a rise in employee engagement numbers, moving from 82 percent in 2016 to 88 percent in 2017.

AAA also lends its community a hand by providing free car seat inspections and running the AAA School Safety Patrol program, which teaches children leadership skills and safety awareness.

For its efforts to keep its communities safe, AAA of Northern California, Nevada and Utah is the 2018 Optimas Award Silver winner for Corporate Citizenship.

— Aysha Ashley Househ BRONZE

StratEx

F

or its efforts to use StratEx Serves to give back to the community based on employee feedback, StratEx is the 2018 Optimas Award Bronze winner for Corporate Citizenship.

— Aysha Ashley Househ november/december

2018

Global Outlook

GOLD

UN Development Programme Develop Yourself. Develop the World

U

nited Nations Development Programme is the UN’s oldest and largest agency.

Its mission of eradicating poverty and ensuring sustainable economic and social development to more than 170 countries and territories requires its staff to be on the cutting edge of international development and to be constantly innovating. However, due to a decrease in governmental funding and changing needs globally, UNDP was faced with a management challenge on how to best equip its 18,000 employees to deliver these ambitious goals.

A 2016 global staff survey showed employees were “not receiving sufficient training relevant for their job,” according to the nomination application. This emphasized “the demand for improved talent development opportunities.”

A new chief of talent development joined UNDP in 2016 and had a bold vision “to disrupt the way things were done for the last decade [at] UNDP’s administrative ‘learning resource center’ by introducing a ‘continuous learning culture,’ ” according to the application.

The supporting strategy to this vision was created and approved

by UNDP’s senior management.The learning resource center was transformed into a new Talent Development Unit made of teams covering topics including capability development, leadership and senior executive development, and career management. Thus, the “Develop Yourself. Develop the World” initiative was created.

Out of this initiative, the TDU created various learning and leadership programs: manager toolkits; a new online learning and development portal; a talent hub; newsletters to promote L&D topics; a leadership development portfolio; and a series of broadcasted thought-leadership talks.

The TDU’s career management team established a growthbased career model.Virtual career labs, career conversation guides with tutorial videos, virtual career management workshops and speed mentoring events were available throughout UNDP. Overall, the initiative provided “stronger contributions to achieving UNDP’s objectives — with increased retention rates,” according to the nomination application.

Marvin Hoff, manager of talent and leadership development, said, “Introducing ‘Develop Yourself. Develop the World’ has expanded UNDP’s talent development portfolio and has shifted the way we develop our staff.”

For its efforts in creating and fostering a continuous learning culture for its employees, United Nations Development Programme is the 2018 Optimas Award Gold winner for Global Outlook.

— Rocio Villaseñor november/december

SILVER

AbbVie Learn. Develop. Perform.

T

he need to achieve faster results for their patients prompted AbbVie, a research-driven biopharmaceutical company that targets treating diseases and chronic conditions globally, to create a developmental organization.

AbbVie wanted its employees to be more highly engaged, show improved behaviors and focus on advancing skills. Therefore, in 2016 “Learn. Develop. Perform.” was created as a call for employee self-development.

Learn. Develop. Perform. was launched in January 2017 with a voluntary weeklong global event. AbbVie vice presidents and industry experts held webinars on the topics of careers; feedback; goals and development; and education and strategies. AbbVie also delivered additional solutions several times each month and offered a dedicated week in January 2018. The initiative continues today.

The event allows development conversations between management and employees, and the actions and results are posted to the “Learn. Develop. Perform.” social site, according to the company’s nomination application.

For its efforts to raise awareness and engage employees about developmental organizations, AbbVie is the 2018 Optimas Award Silver winner for Global Outlook.

— Rocio Villaseñor BRONZE

Tata Consultancy Services

F

or its efforts to use its onboarding and integration program as a workforce management initiative, Tata Consulting Services is the 2018 Optimas Award Bronze winner for Global Outlook.

— Rocio Villaseñor

2018

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Innovation

GOLD

SmartSimple Software Inc.

NCSoft

The Flux Capacitor of Innovation

NC Launch Onboarding

A

W

s SmartSimple Software Inc. found its team growing, they realized an innovative solution was needed to ensure ongoing employee engagement.

Inspired by the time machine from the movie “Back to the Future,” the cloud software provider built its model to manage the flow of incoming issues, ideas and comments, allow discussion and collaboration and finally output the solution, according to the application. It also provides a structure and concrete road map for fostering and developing innovative thought.

Growth in a company can be good, but it also comes with its challenges. SmartSimple began to gain interest from organizations outside of its traditional clients, causing them to move into unexplored territory and causing the company to face a steep learning curve. Because of this, additional talent was recruited to help provide insight into the unknown fields.

“The Flux Capacitor of Innovation is a concentrated dose of the processes and activities that were part of our everyday when we were a smaller organization and innovative thought flourished organically. It has enabled us to carry on our testand-learn, curiosity-driven, start-up mentality that has brought us to where we are now,” said Alex Wong, director of marketing at SmartSimple.

Before the Flux Capacitor of Innovation was implemented, communication and ideas weren’t being developed past each team or department. The company realized that communication is key and now encourages every person in the company to share their opinions.

“The Flux Capacitor of Innovation changed this entirely because it introduced an element that every department had common ground in working with — our clients,” said Wong. “The feedback mechanisms that inherently feed the top end of the Flux Capacitor funnel foster inter-team collaboration and communication because every department has a stake in managing the client relationship.”

For its efforts to use the Flux Capacitor of Innovation as a structured road map for communication within the company, SmartSimple Software Inc. is the 2018 Optimas Award winner for Innovation.

— Aysha Ashley Househ

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hy not start the first day on the job with a game? NCSoft executives realized they needed to up their game where employee onboarding and retention was concerned.

Their onboarding program, NC Launch Onboarding, is a way to make the process more effective and increase employee retention. The site is filled with characters from the company’s games and takes new hires on “quests” to finish items like payroll, playfully referred to as “loot.”

The gaming business knew it needed a change when departments such as IT complained equipment wasn’t being set up on the first day and there wasn’t enough communication between managers and new employees.

The program has succeeded since launching in 2017. Future plans include incorporating more of an employee’s journey into the program, such as leaves of absence and training.

For its efforts to improve its onboarding process with a new platform, NCSoft is the 2018 Optimas Award Silver winner for Innovation.

— Aysha Ashley Househ BRONZE

Riverside Healthcare

F

or its efforts to use its Well in Mind Employee Support Program to provide strong mental wellness to its employees, Riverside Healthcare is the 2018 Optimas Award Bronze winner for Innovation.

— Aysha Ashley Househ november/december

2018

Managing Change GOLD

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory HR Management International Services

T

he U.S. immigration system is undergoing major changes.

That’s significant to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, whose mission is to enhance the nation’s defense and respond to scientific issues of national importance. Lisa Hsu, Lawrence Livermore’s strategic human resources management operations manager, said the advancement of science and technology is tied to the organization’s ability to attract and retain worldclass scientists from around the world.

Hsu said the recently revised mission statement of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services suggests protectionism and isolationism in America.

“That reflects the widespread, unprecedented implementation of procedural changes and reinterpretations of existing immigration law that will have a lasting impact on U.S. immigration,” she said. “Within this landscape of uncertainty, managing immigration has evolved into a practice of managing change.”

With the changes in immigration policy and practice, there are unforeseen challenges in hiring and training global talent. Lawrence Livermore’s International Services Office aims to harness the multiple perspectives and experiences of their international employees. Hsu said the lab’s population strives to be diverse and inclusive. “Science today knows no borders,” Hsu said.

Since 2013, Lawrence Livermore’s International Services Office has improved its human resource management practices in leadership and diversity and inclusion, including improving its J-1 program through feedback from exchange visitors and internal stakeholders. Hsu said Lawrence Livermore’s International Services Office embraces the fundamental privilege of stewardship of the lives entrusted to them.

Lawrence Livermore brings in more than 600 international employees and visitors each year into the STEM field, which plays an important role in the economy. By managing international services internally, Lawrence Livermore also reduced its costs in this area by 50 to 75 percent rather than using a third party.

For its efforts to use its strategic human resources management international services initiative to conduct science at a large-scale with the most qualified international candidates, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is the 2018 Gold winner for Managing Change.

— Ave Rio november/december

SILVER

Antah Schindler Sdn. Bhd. Employee Engagement and the Flexi Hour

A

ntah Schindler Sdn. Bhd., a service provider for Schindler elevators and escalators in Malaysia, is learning the importance of employee engagement.

Management made a conscious effort to change the organizational culture of the company from a “getting your work done” and “deadline driven” mindset to one driven by employee engagement.

In the company’s new workforce management initiative, they implemented “Flexi Hour,” which allows employees to adjust their daily working hours if the specified number of hours within the day is fulfilled.

They also extended their leave policies to one and a half months maternity leave and five days paternity leave.

Further, they implemented an event calendar with monthly events and activities for employees such as dinners, celebrations, motivational talks, diversity days and more. The final effort was to roll out an employee-ofthe-month program to recognize specific employees.

Since the company’s last employee engagement survey in 2016, engagement rose from 76 percent to 84 percent. In addition, its turnover rate dropped from 14 percent to 6 percent.

For its efforts to improve employee engagement, Antah Schindler Sdn. Bhd. is the 2018 Optimas Award Silver winner for Managing Change.

— Ave Rio BRONZE

Neymours Children’s Hospital

F

or its efforts to use its physician leadership development program to improve physician retention, engagement and alignment, Neymours Children’s Hospital is the 2018 Optimas Award Bronze winner for Managing Change.

— Ave Rio

2018

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Partnership

® GOLD

HR Acuity Employee Relations Roundtable

T

here aren’t many roundtables that focus on employee relations, so HR Acuity built a community for companies that want to talk, strategize and navigate all things employee relations.

The Employee Relations Roundtable Community is a platform that brings together chief human resources officers and senior employee relations leaders from more than 100 organizations and across different industries.A unique element is that HR Acuity doesn’t promote its own services.The community was developed to provide a forum specifically tailored to employee relations after numerous calls from employee relations practitioners.

“Time and again, these leaders expressed the need for a forum to help them build their teams, do their jobs better and, most importantly, affect change,” said Deb Muller, HR Acuity’s CEO. “Since HR Acuity was already committed to helping organizations manage employee relations the right way with its technology solution, the company was uniquely positioned to take a leadership role in creating a partnership of leaders.”

Even though it was something that stood out to the California-based company and they went ahead and organized the roundtable, they knew they were taking a bit of a risk.

“If we build it, will they come? Since the roundtable was the first of its kind for the employee relations functional area, the initial challenge was whether or not HR Acuity could fill the table. And once people were there, would they be willing to share sensitive information with other practitioners they did not know?” said Muller.

However, the company had nothing to worry about.

Since forming it in 2015, the roundtable has received overwhelming support from attendees and grew from a four-hour event to an ongoing one throughout the year.

For its efforts to use the Employee Relations Roundtable Community as a way to connect employee-relations professionals, HR Acuity is the 2018 Optimas Award winner for Partnership.

— Aysha Ashley Househ

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SILVER

Arise Virtual Solutions Operation Irma 2017

T

hanks to two departments teaming up, Arise Virtual Solutions doesn’t let natural disasters — including hurricanes — get in the way of their work.

The Florida-based company created Operation Irma 2017 as a way to ensure employees are safe and sheltered while maintaining business continuity during hurricanes and severe weather. The process involves decommissioning thousands of call center agents, the ramp-up of call center agents in non-threat zones, evacuation of key personnel and the set-up of temporary command centers.

On the employee side, the company allows and encourages them to take time to make personal preparations such as shuttering their homes. Human resources partnered with the IT department to set up an employee emergency line and partnered with other departments to fly people to locations where they can work without storm impact.

For its efforts to work with other departments to prevent workflow disruption, Arise Virtual Solutions is the 2018 Optimas Award Silver winner for Partnership.

— Aysha Ashley Househ BRONZE

Bloomingdale’s

F

or its efforts to use its Bloomingdale’s Business Impact of Training program to increase employee retention and provide consistent safety training, Bloomingdale’s is the 2018 Optimas Award Bronze winner for Partnership.

— Aysha Ashley Househ november/december

2018

Recruiting

GOLD

SSM Health Improving Graduate Nurse Recruitment

A

mid a health care worker shortage, SSM Health needed to improve its recruiting practices. The St. Louis-based Catholic, not-for-profit health care system includes 24 hospitals, more than 300 physician offices and many other services that require an influx of nurses. Despite great need to hire quality graduate nurses, SSM struggled to do so, sparking its graduate nurse recruitment program.

“It’s a scarce talent market, and the needs of our communities need to be met and filled,” said Tom Ahr, vice president of talent at SSM Health. “We have to continue to get better every day to attract the best talent for us.”

To do so, Ahr’s team interacted with schools and identified goals and metrics to plan ahead of hiring needs and move candidates through the hiring process efficiently. A team of educators, operations leaders and new graduate nurses met in spring 2016 to review programs to best explore the needs of an improved recruitment plan.

By June 2018, SSM implemented a variety of solutions, particularly around the candidate experience.To make the process efficient, the team enhanced communications, using texting, email and phone while also pre-screening via video interview to best fit the busy schedules of nursing students.These and other efforts helped SSM to share the job decision within two business days, as well as share detailed feedback with the candidate.

In addition to the recruiting process improvements, SSM revamped its residency program to better retain talent.

Results include identifying internal demands earlier, thus going to market with the positions more than 30 days sooner than last year. SSM then filled all open nursing positions in June 2018; in June 2017, 33 positions went unfilled. In the same time frame, operation costs were reduced to save $90,000.

“Any time that our business can tell us what they need and we’re able to deliver and do it in a really timely way and in a way that is really efficient with our resources, then we consider that a successful initiative,” Ahr said.

For the organization’s efforts to improve graduate nurse recruitment, SSM Health is the 2018 Optimas Award Gold winner for Recruiting.

— Lauren Dixon november/december

SILVER

Choptank Transport Inc. #ChooseChoptank

C

hoptank Transport Inc. needed to grow its hiring strategy in conjunction with its increasing headcount.

To meet aggressive hiring goals for 2018, the third-party logistics company created #ChooseChoptank, a hiring and recruiting initiative that focuses on employer branding, candidate experience, employee referrals and digital optimization.

Branding efforts include pushing a fresh brand logo in all photos and videos to “ensure a consistent, well-branded presence that candidates will see and remember,” according to its award application. To get more eyes on job postings, the company added digital advertising for jobs and increased the referral program’s payouts. Through advanced training for new employees and outlining potential career paths, retention efforts also improved.

Results include a 16 percent increase in employee referrals and 70 percent increase in candidates who reach the first in-person interview.

For its creation and use of #ChooseChoptank, Choptank Transport Inc. is the 2018 Optimas Award Silver winner for Recruiting.

— Lauren Dixon BRONZE

ReedTMS Logistics

F

or ReedTMS Logistics’ creation and implementation of its 212 initiative, the third-party logistics provider is the 2018 Optimas Award Bronze winner for Recruiting.

— Lauren Dixon

2018

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Training GOLD

Siemens Healthineers Healthcare Integrated Learning Solution

S

iemens Healthineers is committed to advancing human health and enabling health care providers worldwide toward forward-thinking products and solutions to shape and transform the health care industry.

The company reinvented itself and determined the need to strengthen its position for educational excellence through an online strategy that is globally accepting and relevant within the health care industry.

The educational online strategy began in 2011 when its Personalized Education Plan — knowledge-based online training, skill-based exercises and ability-based assessments — was launched. In 2012, the Personalized Education Plan administrator was developed to assign and track a plan’s completion. However, in 2015 it was replaced with PEPconnect, which provides access to virtual education and performance support activities for health care professionals. The PEPconnect app was launched in 2017 and enhanced the user-friendly concept.The device’s camera can scan an object and access associated learning activities instantly, according to the company’s nomination application.

Additionally, Virtual Education Solutions, which executes the learning strategy in alignment with the vision for Siemens Healthineers, announced in 2017 their “one way of learning,” according to the nomination application.This resulted in a reduction of 37 learning management systems to just one: the global Healthcare Integrated Learning Solution, also known as HILS. HILS is an internal education enterprise solution comprised of multiple integrated tools for both front-end and back-end management.The public interfaces for HILS are PEPconnect and PEPconnections, which was also delivered in 2017 and is a premium subscription to virtual education services that manages the health care institution’s performance growth with integrated group management and administration features; it gives health care managers the ability to assign, track and manage group education.

HILS provides access to education and information at time of need to Siemens Healthineers customers in 120 countries, including 48,000 employees and partners, according to the nomination application.

William Magagna, vice president of virtual education solutions, said, “HILS offers evolving content that is rich in interactivity, multimedia objects and adaptable for future evolution of the virtual education element expansion.”

“We are once again excited and honored to be recognized

by Workforce and look forward to continuing our relationship with this program,” Magagna said. “The commitment of Siemens Healthineers to revolutionizing virtual education for the future has been the most influential factor.”

For its efforts in global health care education, Siemens Healthineers is the 2018 Optimas Award Gold winner for Training.

— Rocio Villaseñor

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SILVER

Tata Consultancy Services Leader in You

T

CS transitioned their learning framework to focus on strengthening leadership development in the organization — specifically for middle managers.

The Leadership in You, or LiY, program was launched a year ago for leaders in the operational tier — middle managers as team leaders or as individual contributors.

LiY is voluntary and focuses on three aspects of internal certification: managing self, managing teams and managing the business. It is designed to anticipate and manage change through curated Skillsoft content combined with expert and mentor sessions and webinars.

“A healthy pipeline of ongoing registrations and growing adoption among middle and tactical level leaders across the organization and global coverage assures us that the program is in the right direction,”TCS stated in the nomination application.

For its efforts in leadership and management competencies, Tata Consultancy Services is the 2018 Optimas Award Silver winner for Training.

— Rocio Villaseñor BRONZE

Raytheon Co.

F

or its efforts to use its Export/Import Compliance Program as a workforce management initiative, Raytheon Co. is the 2018 Optimas Award Bronze winner for Training.

— Rocio Villaseñor november/december

2018

Vision

GOLD

University of Utah Health Thrive@theBedside

F

aced with a high turnover rate and unable to afford losing nurses because of a new ambulatory care complex and rehabilitation hospital set to open, the University of Utah Health searched for a solution.

Thrive@theBedside is the medical center’s program was created by nurses for nurses, according to the application. It focuses on bedside nurses but is available to all nurses. Key program areas include recognition, growth and financial strength to help attract and retain employees.

“In the annual listening tour, I heard over and over again that we were not doing enough for those nurses who choose to stay at the bedside, foregoing promotions and other job paths that would require them to leave direct patient care,” said Margaret Pearce, chief nursing officer at University of Utah Health.

Due to the demanding nature of nursing, the center found it difficult to maintain a stable workforce of nurses in direct patient care roles. Nurse leadership had help from the human resources department to put together the program.

“We created Thrive@theBedside as a comprehensive package to retain our bedside nurses.The program would also be key in recruiting new nurses to support growth of our health system,” said Pearce.

With the new program, nurses now get a number of perks including rewards and recognition. Patients nominate nurses who left an impact on them, and then they are recognized for their efforts.The program also allows nurses to grow their careers professionally and academically. For new associate degree nurses, Thrive@theBedside provides instructor funding to the university’s College of Nursing.

For its efforts to use Thrive@theBedside as a solution to their turnover rate and attracting new hires, the University of Utah Health is the 2018 Optimas Award winner for Vision.

— Aysha Ashley Househ november/december

SILVER

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Livermore Laboratory Employee Services Association Work-Life Programs

S

urrounded by Fortune 500 companies can prove to be a challenge for a company like Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where the competition is high. The research company realized they needed to add perks to attract and retain employees.

Lawrence Livermore partnered with the Livermore Laboratory Employee Services Association, or LLESA, a nonprofit, to create the LLESA work-life programs in 2013. The goal was to provide quality recreational, educational and convenience programs to the company’s 7,000 employees. With companies like Google and Apple in the same vicinity and offering competitive compensation packages, Lawrence Livermore realized the importance of work-life balance to employees. Some programs include onsite fitness, a children’s center and blood drives.

The company has seen an overall increase in the employee satisfaction rate since introducing the newly organized work-life programs run by LLESA. For its efforts to rise among the surrounding competition, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is the 2018 Optimas Award Silver winner for Vision.

— Aysha Ashley Househ BRONZE

Ultimate Software

F

or its efforts to use Women in Leadership to help women reach their maximum potential, Ultimate Software is the 2018 Optimas Award Bronze winner for Vision.

— Aysha Ashley Househ

2018

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SECTOR REPORT

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

What Ails Financial Wellness Plans Divergent employer opinions combine with low user numbers to show flagging plan vitals.

By Patty Kujawa

F

inancial wellness programs are not well today.

Despite the vast number of new providers and products in the market, employers are still scratching their heads in determining the worth of financial wellness, and even fewer employees are using what is available at work.

Only about half of employers today are offering financial wellness programs, and for those who do, only about a third of employees are taking advantage of what is available, a recent study from Bank of America Merrill Lynch reported.

The study surveyed 657 employees participating in company 401(k) plans and 667 employers that offer 401(k) and financial wellness programs. It found a sharp disconnect between what employees want and what employers are offering. Employees want to work on end goals like reaching financial freedom and want to focus on one thing at a time.

Employers are going big, emphasizing controlling overall finances and want employees to think about how employer benefits can impact personal money issues.

“These employers think they understand [workers’] needs and yet they don’t,” said Gao-Wen Shao, director of retirement and personal wealth solutions for BofA Merrill Lynch.“It points to a gap in understanding.”

Terminology can be confusing, too. In general, financial wellness is a plan tailored to a person’s monetary needs today and tomorrow and can include things like budgeting, 401(k) education and debt repayment. Another term commonly used is financial well-being, which tends to suggest a more holistic approach that addresses ways to support physical, financial, social and emotional needs simultaneously.

The difference in definition points to the myriad interpretations financial wellness has to individual organizations, said Peter DeBellis, vice president total rewards research leader at Bersin, Deloitte Consulting.

But despite the lack of understanding or which term to use, financial wellness tools are the top items growing in demand, according to Shortlister’s “Well-Being Industry Prospectus.” In addition, Shortlister’s data show that financial wellness tools are ranked fourth in point solutions expected to get the most traction this year.

Yet there is much discontent. Some 43 percent of industry experts see value in financial wellness tools but think providers and programs need to improve.

Joe Miller, the author of the prospectus, said users are struggling to find the right solution at a reasonable price. Currently 12 percent of respondents found little value in financial wellness

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products and 7 percent aren’t sure of its benefits. A little more than a third said financial wellness tools are important and will continue to grow in popularity.

Lots of employers are looking at financial wellness, but few are actually installing products, Miller said. In the past 20 months, Shortlister has tracked 72 financial wellness searches (of which 50 have been in the last year). Many, Miller said are still in pre-proposal stage.

“The forward progress has not been where it needs to be,” Miller said.“While we’ve seen the volume of interest increasing, the number of successful transactions has been very low compared to other areas.”

GETTING TO KNOW YOU Success comes when employers take the time to get to know the employees, experts agree. DeBellis said that companies that treat employees like customers and hype niche solutions tailored to their workforce will be the ones winning the war on talent.

“The results of employers willing to step out to get to know employees better and are unapologetically different will be more successful,” DeBellis said, predicting that some employers will outright say things like “if you like pet insurance, come check us out.”

There are a lot of workers who don’t want the typical 401(k) education, but are still stressed about finances, said Pamela Chan, project director, human insights for the nonprofit financial advocacy group Prosperity Now. Learning how to build credit, paying down student loans and personalizing financial learning are top items employees want from their employer, she said.

Solutions can often be hard to find, especially for small employers. Prosperity Now created a database of financial wellness providers as well as a primer about the strategy.

“Employers need to look at the needs of their employee groups and think beyond retirement,” Chan said, adding that several non-profit organizations like Working Credit NFP have entered the space to offer low-cost solutions for employers with tight budgets.

The Merrill Lynch report showed that 91 percent of employees who use workplace financial tools say the help has helped them. Meanwhile, employers who offer them said the tools have helped the organizations reach certain goals, including employee satisfaction, low turnover, productivity and lower health care costs.

Iron Mountain employees participate in focus groups and give other personal feedback to help management create an november/december

2018

effective lineup of benefits products. Currently, the company offers 33 well-being programs and intends to add more, said Scott Kirschner, director of benefits strategy for the Boston-based information systems company.

“As part of our business case, we needed to find out what employees were saying,” Kirschner said. “We needed to address what is going on in their lives and how that might impact work.”

The company creates voluntary challenges, which help employees engage with the programs offered. About a third of eli-

gible employees completed a range of challenges, including one called Budgeting for Life and a second called Making a Date (with a significant other).

“We have been very open to evaluating solutions,” Kirschner said.“My challenge is to not roll out every new cool thing I see.

I have to think about how it fits and whether it is different from everything else we already offer.”

Patty Kujawa is a writer in the Milwaukee area. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

HOT LIST Financial Wellness Providers Listed alphabetically; compiled by Aysha Ashley Househ; editors@workforce.com

COMPANY NAME & Web Address

Year founded

Percentage of company focus on Financial wellness services for employers

BANK OF AMERICA MERRILL LYNCH bankofamerica.com/ financialwellness

1914

90 percent

In-person educational meetings; personal, virtual consultations with licensed financial wellness specialists

Services offered

# of clients

Notable/key clients

450

Would not disclose

25

YWCA Metropolitan Chicago; United Way Denver

BEST MONEY MOVES bestmoneymoves.com

2016

100 percent

Budgeting tools and detailed financial calculators; content to address employees’ financial questions

EDUKATE edukate.com

2013

100 percent

Financial wellness

400

Buffalo Bills; The Breakers Palm Beach, Florida

MERCER mercer.com

1937

WND

Insights and road maps; proprietary research covering financial wellness solutions

28,000

Would not disclose

PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL prudential.com

1875

100 percent

Financial wellness self-assessment; plan design benchmarking/analytics; budgeting tool

N/A

Cintas, Samsung

SUM180 sum180.com

2015

100 percent

Personalized next steps and comprehensive financial plan; adviser coaching; notifications/tips via mobile

3

KFC Foundation; Yum Brands

TRANSAMERICA transamerica.com

1904

100 percent

Insurance; annuities; retirement

29,000

Would not disclose

Note: Wells Fargo declined to participate Source: Companies november/december

2018

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SECTOR REPORT

Relocation

Taxing Mobility How the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is hurting relocation programs.

Sarah Fister Gale

L

ast year, President Donald Trump signed into law a sweeping corporate tax cut that has upended relocation budgets for many companies.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which Congress passed in December 2017, eliminated tax exemptions for many costly aspects of employee relocation programs including the shipment of household goods, storage and final moving expenses. “Anything other than a home sale is now taxable,” noted Cindy Madden, director of Cartus Global Consulting in Danbury, Connecticut.

That translates to significant extra cost, either for the employee or the employer or both. The loss of these exemptions can add thousands of dollars to moving expenses. Even when companies cover the added cost through “tax protection,” the government views this as additional income, which could boost employees into a new tax bracket, Madden said.

The change led to a lot of chaos at the start of the year as relocation managers tried to figure out what impact it would have on their programs and how to deal with it.

Most companies decided to cover the added taxes for 2018 but plan to revisit the decision in 2019, she said. “Things are calm for now, but we expect a lot of changes next year.”

Relocation experts expect to see some upheaval in the types of packages offered and the scope of costs covered as companies look for ways to manage the tax burden and costs in general. The changes will vary depending on who’s moving and why, said Steve Nurney, a partner and relocation expert at consultancy Mercer in Norwalk, Connecticut.

“Some companies will go to lump sum programs, especially for early career employees, because there is longer

70

%

OF COMPANIES SAY IMMIGRATION IS A BIGGER PROBLEM THAN LAST YEAR, DUE IN PART TO VISA COMPLEXITY AND POLITICAL INFLUENCES.

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a benefit to providing deductible services,” he said. They may also consider temporary assignments and/or remote work opportunities to give lower level employees an opportunity to take on stretch assignments with the added cost and disruption of a move.

‘ANYTHING OTHER THAN A HOME SALE IS NOW TAXABLE.’ — CINDY MADDEN, CARTUS GLOBAL Others are likely to reduce the overall number of relocations, focusing their investments on higher level executives and those on a fast-track career path.

“Some companies feel like they need to offer certain employees these experiences, and they are willing to pay more to ensure their success,” he said. Even if that means offering fewer relocations overall.

“Capped moves” may be another trend to re-emerge, suggested Madden. Instead of giving lump sums of cash to employees to spend as they like, these programs cap relocation spending to a certain limit, but the spending is doled out through services offered with the company picking up the tab. Companies also usually provide advice on what services will fit their budget. It’s a way to offer flexible options with more guidance, though Madden argues than these programs can be difficult to manage as they are based on cost estimates. If employees underestimate how much they need to move, or it takes longer to find a home, they can be left with unexpected bills, she said. “It’s a lot of work with no guarantees.”

THEY NEED HELP With so many options to choose from, companies will rely on their vendors to help them figure out how to adapt their flexible service offerings and manage costs while still giving employees the support they need. That will likely include more online consulting tools and calculators to help employees make better choices, according to Madden.

“Employers want every relocation experience to be positive, and providing more time with consultants will help them make the best use of that money.” november/december

2018

42

%

OF COMPANIES SAY TAX COMPLIANCE RELATED TO MOBILITY HAS BECOME A LARGER CONCERN.

Employers are also looking for ways to provide more information about relocation opportunities and mobility program to employees. A recent survey from Wakefield Research found that more than 40 percent of professionals weren’t even sure if their companies had relocation opportunities (even though 99 percent of them do). “Companies need to do a better job of communicating with employees about these programs,” Nurney said. “In today’s world of information, everyone expects full transparency.”

He urges companies and relocation vendors to build out their mobility portals so employees can see what positions are open and what assistance the company will offer to help them make those moves. “Working abroad is seen as a perk that can help attract and keep the best talent,” he said. The more companies can be transparent about these opportunities and what support the company is willing to offer, the more valuable these programs will be.

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

HOT LIST Relocation Service Providers Listed alphabetically; compiled by Aysha Ashley Househ; editors@workforce.com

COMPANY NAME Company website

Number of client companies for most recent four quarters

Employee-assisted moves in most recent four quarters

Percentage of clients that are full-service relocation clients

ALTAIR GLOBAL altairglobal.com

150

80,000

91 percent

CARTUS CORP. cartus.com

800

162,000

Would not disclose

IMPACT GROUP impactgrouphr.com

402

6,455

23 percent

NUCOMPASS MOBILITY SERVICES INC. nucompass.com

100

7,000

100 percent

SIRVA WORLDWIDE RELOCATION & MOVING sirva.com

1,835

197,000

Would not disclose

Cornerstone Relocation Group declined to participate.

Source: Companies november/december

2018

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PREDICTABLE SHIFT continued from page 30 The Seattle-based company has sold its shift-scheduling app to employers in and outside the city limits. Forward-thinking customers use it as a strategic advantage for attracting and retaining workers, Robinson said. “We had a customer that wasn’t inside the city who came to us after the city council approved the law and wanted to offer it to employees in order to be able to say they had taken care of it before they had to.”

Gap has continued to update its shift-scheduling management. After testing several options, last spring the company rolled out an app from Shyft that employees can use to swap shifts. The technology, which the company introduced to all its brands, “helps provide additional flexibility to our store employees while ensuring that our stores are staffed appropriately,” said C. David Ard, senior vice president and global head of people for Gap Inc.’s Gap STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT & CIRCULATION brand, in a pre(Required by 39 U.S.C.3685) 1. Publication title: Workforce pared statement.

2. Publication number: 4286-0000 3. Filing date: October 1, 2018 Among other ac4. Issue frequency: Bi-Monthly 5. Number of issues published annually: 6 tions, Gap changed 6. Annual subscription price: $195 7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: 150 N. Michigan Ave. Ste 550, Chicago, IL 60601 staffing levels to Contact: Cindy Cardinal at 847-438-4577 8. Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office of track traffic instead publisher: Mediatec Publishing, 150 N. Michigan Ave. Ste 550, Chicago, IL 60601 9. Full names and complete mailing addresses of publisher, editor, and of projected sales. managing editor: Cliff Capone, Publisher, 150 N. Michigan Ave. Ste 550, Chicago, IL 60601; The company’s Mike Prokopeak, Editor, 150 N. Michigan Ave. Ste 550, Chicago, IL 60601; brands — which inRick Bell, Managing Editor, 150 N. Michigan Ave. Ste 550, Chicago, IL 60601. clude Old Navy and 10. Owner: John R. Taggart, 1401 Park Avenue, Ste 502, Emeryville, CA 94608.

11. Known bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders owning or holding 1% or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other Banana Republic — securities: none 12. Tax status has not changed. also are testing other 13. Publication title: Workforce 14. Issue date for circulation data below: July/August 2018 scheduling systems 15. Extent & nature of circulation Avg. no. copies No. copies each issue of single issue based on store size during preceding published nearest 12 months to filing date and markets. a. Total no. of copies (net press run) 36,376 23,585 b. Paid/requested distribution: “There’s no quesb1. Outside county paid/requested mail subscriptions stated on form PS 3541 (Including advertisers’ proof tion that store schedand exchange copies) 31,614 21,437 b2. In-county paid/requested mail uling is an issue that subscriptions stated on form PS 3541 (Including advertisers’ proof and exchange copies) 0 0 challenges our entire b3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales and other industry,” Ard said. non-USPS paid/requested distribution 55 52 b4. Other mail classes through the USPS 0 0 “As a company that c. Total paid and/or requested circulation 31,669 21,489 seeks to attract and d. Nonrequested distribution: d1. Outside county nonrequested retain the best talent copies stated on form PS 3541 3,196 886 d2. In-county nonrequested copies stated on form PS 3541 0 0 in the business, we d3. Nonrequested copies distributed through the USPS 0 0 recognize the imd4. Nonrequested copies distributed outside the mail 0 0 portance of finding e. Total nonrequested distribution (sum of 15d 1, 2, 3, 4) 3,196 886 ways to enhance and f. Total distribution (sum of 15c & 15e) 34,865 22,375 1,511 1,210 g. Copies not distributed improve the store h. Total (sum of 15f & 15g) 36,376 23,585 i. Percent paid and/or requested circulation (15c ÷ 15f × 100) 90.8% 96.0% experience for our 16. Electronic Copy Circulation.

2,238 a. Requested and paid electronic copies 3,487 employees and cusb. Total requested and paid printed copies (line 15c)+requested/paid tomers alike.” electronic copies (Line 16a) 35,156 23,727 c. Total requested copy distribution (line 15f)+requested paid electronic copies line 16a) 38,352 24,613 d. Percent paid and/or requested circulation (both print & electronic copies) (16b divided by 16c X 100) 91.7% 96.4% ✔ I certify that 50% of all my distributed copies (electronic and print) are legitimate requests or paid copies).

17. This Statement of Ownership shall be printed in the December 2018 issue of this publication.

18. I certify that on October 1, 2018, all information furnished on this form is true and complete. Kevin Simpson, President.

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Michelle V. Rafter is a Portland, Oregon, business reporter and Workforce contributing writer.

MINDFULNESS continued from page 16 it well.We learn about mediation, focus and flow.”

Of all of the wellness programs Team Horner has offered, Brodbeck’s has drawn the highest participation percentages from warehouse employees to vice presidents, Kent said.

Kent also favors Brodbeck’s scientific approach, which helps participants not only understand the impact of mindfulness on brain function but why it is important.

“We are so thrilled with what Jeska has done, taking the mystery out of this buzzword ‘mindfulness,’ ” Kent said.

“People are embracing how the strategies she’s given us can really help our lives.”

At Team Horner, the course is taught during the lunch hour, with lunch provided by the company.

The wellness programs — especially the mindfulness presentations — have benefited the company, Kent said.

Employee surveys indicate positive feedback. Employees also are getting bigger insurance discounts based on annual health risk assessments.

“We see upticks on data like employees’ blood pressure getting better because we’ve been teaching people about stress,” Kent said. “This is an employee-owned company with the understanding that when you invest in your teammates, your teammates feel valued.”

Of the city of Hollywood’s 1,300 employees, 25 to 30 voluntarily participated in Brodbeck’s program, Staco said, adding those who have participated in it have offered positive feedback.

As was the case at Team Horner, the driving factor for launching the mindfulness program was to provide a different aspect of wellness for city employees, Staco said.

“We all look forward to that hour respite from our daily work duties,” said Hollywood City Attorney Doug Gonzales. “The skills taught in that short period of time are invaluable and certainly lead to more productive employees, which in turn benefits everyone involved.”

Gonzales sees value for the program for anyone “who can use a relaxing moment to themselves during an otherwise hectic day.”

Health care facilities can be one of the most stressful workplaces and mindfulness can play a key role in stress reduction, said Tracy Duberman, president and CEO of The Leadership Development Group, a global talent development firm that works with health care leaders.

“In our experience coaching leaders, we incorporate mindfulness practices to center our clients as they begin and end a coaching session,” Duberman said. “This allows their minds to focus on the session goals rather than their next work task.

“Leaders begin to see the results of the practice in its ability to promote resiliency and the ability to lead in complex conditions,” she said.

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

november/december

2018

HOLIDAYS continued from page 35 “Employees also need to see where their job and goals fit into the bigger picture.”

She urges employers to keep the atmosphere of the post-holiday lunch “positive, uplifting and forward-looking.”

Managers should also make a point to let all their employees know how much they are appreciated — both before and after the holidays, and really, all through the year. Failing to do so could not only undermine employee morale and productivity but also jeopardize the firm’s ability to retain talent.

The top three types of recognition that employees value most? Money, paid time off and a personal thank-you from their employer. And the return on in-

vestment for a sincere thank-you can be significant for managers, according to Gray. “I hand-write notes to each employee every year, and that has been one of the most appreciated activities I do — beyond even big commission checks, charitable donations and sharing stories of customer success,” he said.

He added, “To create a connection with your staff, you have to be willing to go one-on-one. I know that if I foster individual connections with my employees, in return, they are going to go deep when I need them to.”

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w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

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LAST WORD

Rick Bell

BOOZE & WORK: SHAKEN AND STIRRED TO ACTION

I

was a little annoyed — actually I was a lot annoyed — when a friend mentioned that he was pressured to attend monthly post-work happy hour outings with his colleagues.

“I was told I need to be there because I supervise people,” he said, adding the events often extend well past happy hour.

My friend likes his co-workers and enjoys his job, and like Justice Brett Kavanaugh he likes beer. But after a long day at work he just wants to head home. Instead, the edict leaves my friend stressed out and irked because he’s compelled — attendance is not required but strongly suggested — to spend several more hours with the same people he just endured the entire day.

BOOZE ALONE DOESN’T MAGICALLY TRANSFORM A WORKPLACE INTO A MORE PRODUCTIVE, POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT. I get team building. As a manager I also understand the value in creating a bond with your staff. I’ve found that often grows organically, and a supervisor is crucial to fostering the camaraderie between employees.

Supervisor or subordinate, employees should be free to choose whether they hang out together after work.

Still, there’s a bigger picture here that bothers me.

It’s the implication that drinking unifies a team.

Ummm, well, maybe. If you agree, why does it have to be happy hour? There are plenty of positive postwork outings that can involve alcohol. There’s softball and bowling and team cribbage. Or what about gathering for trivia night? I mean, who wouldn’t want to meet up with co-workers for an evening of beer and Adam Sandler-themed questions?

Perhaps we’ve been conditioned over the years to believe alcohol and the workplace make for great drinking buddies. We had Hawkeye and Trapper John of “MASH” fame throwing back snootfuls with their boss, Col. Henry Blake. And ad execs from Darrin Stephens to Don Draper basked in the glory of landing an account over martinis — two olives and a twist, please.

Such stereotypes vanished through the 1980s and ’90s.

Why? Let’s just blame it on uptight boomers and Gen Xers who are generally overly anxious about everything.

But over the past decade the ascent of the millennials has taken drinking and work to transparent new levels as kegerators and wine down Wednesdays pull bottles of booze out of desk drawers to transform the office kitchen into a workplace watering hole.

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Be warned though, says this uptight boomer who enjoys an after-hours cocktail as much as anyone: Alcohol and work can be a slippery slope.

I’ve experienced well-intentioned “you really must be there” post-work drinkfests taking a big-time wrong turn after too many hours together, too many drinks and too few inhibitions. Instead of managing your garden-variety sober workplace-related snit at the office, you’re forced into refereeing an alcohol-fueled scrum that never would have surfaced had everyone just gone to accordion practice or home to walk Chester the dog.

Now that we’re on the cusp of another holiday season, do I need to remind you of the perils of mixing alcohol and decking the halls at work? Of course I do!

Several workplaces ago, some genius replaced our traditional white elephant gift exchange with a secret Santa. You know, pick a name then figure out what your selectee likes. In other words it gets personal, which also complicates things.

I didn’t know this person very well so I gleaned shreds of intel from co-workers. Frankly it didn’t help. I was destined to buy a Harry and David’s gourmet fruit basket or a Sammy the Singing Salmon — something totally awesome but impersonal.

Then came a last-minute tip: My recipient liked going to Mexico. Perfecto! Bueno! Each day I would sneak a little something onto their desk leading up to the big secret Santa reveal. Day One: A map of Mexico. Day 2: A lime. Day 3: A six-pack of Corona. And finally … a bottle of tequila!

I was so proud of myself, all the sleuthing and planning and secrecy only to discover later that the recipient of my secret Santa-ness was a recovering alcoholic who at the time was wearing an ankle bracelet for a DUI. Way to go, Sherlock. Just call me clueless.

As much as I understand that a drink or two can build relationships between employees who might otherwise never socialize, beware the perils presented by alcohol at work. Booze alone doesn’t magically transform a workplace into a more productive, positive environment.

I’m not against mixing the two. Just let your colleagues choose whether they’d prefer Alex Trebek testing their trivia skills from the comfort of their couch or an obligatory night of answering “Happy Gilmore” and “The Waterboy” questions in a bar with their co-workers.

Rick Bell is Workforce’s editorial director. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

november/december

2018

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