The HR Cafe

Employee responsibility (or lack thereof): It’s driving co-workers crazy

What’s the thing that gets employees most angry and frustrated at work? Lousy pay? Long hours?

Nope. A new Australian study found that workers’ number-one irritant is lack of employee responsibility among their co-workers. Specifically, they say lazy and underperforming colleagues drive them nuts.
 
And all those issues that managers worry about? Not such a big deal. Workers ranked compensation 32nd on their list of concerns. Work/life balance didn’t make the top 50.

Undoubtedly things are different Down Under.  But perhaps not so different. Take a look at the top 10 gripes and see if any ring true for your organization: 

• Lazy and underperforming co-workers
• Being unappreciated and unrecognized
• Communication issues
• Lack of accountability and employee responsibility
• Negativity in the workplace
• Customers
• Annoying and inconsiderate co-workers
• Lack of teamwork
• Gossip and backstabbing
• Unrealistic deadlines and time restrictions

These issues touch on a range of HR issues – productivity, retention, recruitment, communication.  But they suggest that we may not be focusing on the right priorities to keep employees motivated and productive.

Here are some specific implications to consider:

First, don’t underestimate the impact of keeping marginal workers on the payroll. It’s easy to assume that firings and layoffs hurt the morale of workers left behind. Cutting underperformers loose may actually improve morale.

Second, take a hard look at accountabilities. Workers cited “lack of accountability” as a big turnoff. It’s not clear from this survey whether they meant their own accountabilities or their colleagues’. Either way, they’re seeking clarity. Consider whether job descriptions and performance evaluations are giving people the specific feedback they’re craving.  

Perhaps most important, consider what your organization is doing to foster respect and cooperation in the workplace. These kinds of initiatives sometimes earn HR a bad rap from hard-nosed line managers who think they’re too touchy-feely. But if this survey is any indication, these “soft” issues are taking a big toll on productivity and morale.

Michael Boyette
Editor, HR Café Training Center 

UPCOMING AUDIO CONFERENCE: Don't miss B21’s upcoming audio conference, "Personal Accountability: How Supervisors Can Get Workers to “Own” Their Jobs and Their Results"  On Thursday, April 9, our speaker, Valerie Grubb, will show you why some supervisors are better than others at achieving goals? They all have the same motivational tools at their disposal: They can give employees raises, promotions and nonmonetary rewards when deserved. They can all use the performance review process to provide positive feedback and fire people up. But why do the best managers dramatically outperform the rest? What’s their secret? Two words – personal accountability. 

Is your paid time off policy clear? Really, really clear?

Here’s a cautionary tale about the cost of sloppy language: 

Years ago, Radnor Township, Pennsylvania, let a teeny tiny bit of ambiguity creep into one little part of its employee handbook, the section on paid time off policy.

Now that mistake is bleeding the township of more than $1 million a year.

A million bucks every year. From now until forever. Or at least until the next time the union contracts come up for renewal.

The township has hired a special counsel to try to fix the mess, but he hasn’t had much luck so far. He says the township will have to amend its administrative code and adopt new resolutions. And that’s just to “start the process of correcting what has gone on.”

Two little words

It’s all a problem of “interpretation,” Special Counsel Neil Morris says. Back in the 1970s, the township’s paid time off policy specified that employees could carry over a maximum of two weeks’ vacation.

Specifically, the policy said: "Employees must take their vacations during the calendar year and the vacation time may not be carried over the year’s end unless approved, in writing, by the Manager. Such accumulations shall not exceed two weeks."

Seems pretty clear, right?

Except someone decided that meant two weeks every year, not two weeks total.

So when they found out they fixed it, right?

Right.

In 1990, the board of commissioners adopted an employee handbook, which Morris said paraphrased the 1970s policy "and I think maybe changed it a little bit" -- by stating that even more time could be accrued with approval from the manager.

One employee who took the township's early retirement package in 2007 had amassed 1,179 hours over 11 years under the paid time off policy.

The mess is just the tip of the iceberg. The township is also facing questions about its sick-day buyback policy and comp time accruals.

According to township data, among 26 employees who retired in 2007, the top three people who cashed out their accumulated vacation, sick and personal time were: the director of public works ($141,376 after 34 years); the payroll coordinator ($130,968 after 32 years) and a township secretary ($110,423 after nearly 32 years).

As for me, I still have a couple of days from 1979 that I'm hanging onto....

Michael Boyette

Editor, HR Cafe Training Center

UPCOMING AUDIO CONFERENCE: Don't miss B21’s upcoming audio conference, "Paid Time-Off Banks: Can They Save You Time, Money, and Headaches?"   On Tuesday, March 3, our speakers, Kevin P. Nussbaum, SPHR, CPA and Jennifer Berman, J.D., SPHR,  will explain how you CAN do something to control the “unexpected”  absences – and avoid the administrative hassle of trying to keep track of sick leave, personal days, vacation time, etc. The solution: Paid Time-Off Banks – a system that combines all time off (sick days, vacation, personal days, etc.) into one “bank” that employees can use however they’d like.

Healthy workplaces don’t require complex and expensive fixes, study finds

Dear HR Executive:

Simple changes in the workplace, such as signs reminding workers to choose healthier foods and get more exercise, may help reduce obesity and other health problems, reports a study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Researchers made a series of simple and inexpensive changes at several locations of a large company – offering healthy foods in vending machines and cafeterias, setting up marked walking paths and posting signs encouraging people to exercise more. Then they compared workers at these locations with those at other sites that didn’t receive the “healthy workplace” makeover.

These low-cost strategies – which virtually any organization could implement – made a difference. One-year follow-up data on more than 3,000 employees found small but significant health improvements. For example, obesity was lower at the test sites – not because people got thinner, but because they held the line while workers at other locations gained about 2 percent. High blood pressure was reduced at the test sites.

Here’s an interesting twist: Researchers also tried more intensive interventions, with a more active role for senior management. These interventions worked too – but no better than the simple stuff.

Although small, the changes were significant, and researchers said the results may improve more with continued follow-up. The researchers also plan to study whether healthy workplace modifications affect productivity and utilization of health services.

Michael Boyette
Editor, HR Cafe Training Center

Stimulus package helps defang COBRA health plan payments

As you know, COBRA’s a killer. In 41 states, according to a recent survey by Families USA, average COBRA health plan payments amounted to more than three-quarters of the average unemployment benefit.

The new federal stimulus package includes a subsidy to take some sting out of COBRA health plans. That’s good news for laid-off workers – but you’ll need to be prepared to handle more participants and more paperwork.

Here are the details, provided by human resources consultants of the New York-based Sibson Consultants:

• The subsidy applies to employees laid off between September 2008 and December 31, 2009.

• It works by giving a tax credit to employers. Former employees pay their discounted share first, and then employers can claim the credit for the difference.

• If an eligible worker opted out of the COBRA health plan originally, you’ll have to offer him or her another chance to sign up.

• The subsidy isn’t retroactive. If the laid-off employee already signed up for COBRA, he or she can’t get reimbursed for payments they’ve already made.

• Eligibility for the subsidy is a maximum of 12 months, and ends when the worker becomes eligible for coverage under another group health plan (excluding health flexible spending accounts).

Michael Boyette

Editor, HR Cafe Training Center

UPCOMING AUDIO CONFERENCE: Don't miss B21’s upcoming audio conference, "How to Handle an Excruciatingly Difficult Conversation with an Employee"  On Wednesday, February 25, our speaker, Amy Henderson, will show how in most companies, lots of managers run away from these conversations. They think, “If I ignore it, it’ll go away. Or somebody else will do my dirty work for me.” The costs of practicing avoidance are huge. Problems fester. Employees lose respect for do-nothing bosses who can’t handle conflict. Morale suffers. Productivity plummets. And it’s totally unnecessary because teaching managers to conduct difficult conversations isn’t complicated. Armed with a handful of tools, they can quickly make the toughest conversations happen sooner, go more smoothly and produce better outcomes.

Staff turnover: What’s a NASCAR team to do?

Mergers, liquidations, staff turnover. Sounds like another day on Wall Street.

But the declining economy is hitting home with another bunch of fast-track workers as well: NASCAR pit crews. As many as 1,000 crew members have lost their jobs in the last year as teams combined, downsized or shut down, Fox News reports.

Layoffs have hit nearly every team. Even Hendrick Motorsports, which has won the past three Sprint Cup titles and employs about 500 people, cut its workforce last year.

Small competitors get top picks

It’s bad news for the big boys.

But not all bad news for their smaller, leaner competitors. As big-ticket race teams fall victim to high costs and declining sponsorships, small-budget teams are getting their pick of top-level talent. As a result, they’re learning how to play – and win – against the larger and better-known teams.

That could be a winning formula in many industries right now – and a strategy worth exploring with your top management: Stay lean, but keep an eye out for top talent that your larger competitors are cutting loose.

You may be able to turn their staff turnover to your advantage. After all, these folks will know better than anyone how to compete against their ex-employers. And they just might have a little extra motivation to do so.

Michael Boyette
Editor, HR Café Training Center

UPCOMING AUDIO CONFERENCE: Don't miss B21’s upcoming audio conference, "Engaged Performance: The Key to a High-Performance Culture in Recessionary Times"  Engaged employees are your secret weapon in a recession. Here’s why: In good times, low-performance cultures do okay while high-performance cultures get off-the-charts results. In bad times, high-performance cultures do okay and low-performing cultures go out of business. That’s right, they die. On Thursday, February 19, our speaker, Tim Wright,  a leading expert on employee engagement, will provide a fast-paced, fun, and informative session that will provide you with a host of tips, tricks, tools and techniques you can use right away to transform minimally engaged employees into a workforce that goes the extra mile for your business.

The business case for onboarding

Turnover kills.

It kills productivity, relationships with customers, morale, and organizational memory.
Those losses eventually show up in the balance sheet.

Now there’s evidence that onboarding really can have a dramatic impact on these costs. According to a new survey, best-in-class companies are reporting big gains from onboarding, including:

• a 31% increase in employee retention
• a 24% decrease in time to productivity for new hires
• a 31% increase in employee engagement (as measured by employee satisfaction and achievement of specified goals)

The numbers come from a new benchmark report on onboarding from Aberdeen: "Fully On-Board: Making the Most from Your Talent in the First Year.” You can get a free copy at http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?spid=30410182&cid=5729.

Best practices in onboarding

What does a best-in-class onboarding program include? The report offers plenty of details. Here are four ideas you can put into practice immediately:

• Schedule new hires for a meeting with senior leadership
• Recruit brand ambassadors from your workforce, who can answer prospective employees’ questions before they’re hired
• Use social networks like LinkedIn to hook up new recruits with future colleagues before their first day of work
• Make sure their computer and phone is set up and working before they arrive.

What onboarding techniques are working in your organization? Leave a comment to share your best onboarding ideas.

Michael Boyette
Editor, HR Café Training Center

UPCOMING AUDIO CONFERENCE: Don't miss B21’s upcoming audio conference, "On-Boarding: A Four-Step Process to Ensure that New Hires Succeed in their First 90 Days."  A recent B21 survey of HR execs showed that 80% of companies do either a poor or mediocre job of acclimating new employees. That means that many of us are spending huge amounts of money on advertising, search fees, testing, background checks and pre-employment interviews to find the “perfect” candidate – then throwing it all away by mishandling the candidate’s transition into the organization.  On Tuesday, March 17, our speaker, B. Lynn Ware, will show how you can dramatically improve your success rate and avoid the staggering cost of failed hires if you implement a systematic “on-boarding” process at your company. 

Protect confidential employee information: Lock up those laptops!

Companies just make it easier and easier for thieves to walk away with confidential employee information. 

They’re switching from clunky old desktop machines to sleek little laptops, which are a heck of a lot easier for someone to slip into a bag or briefcase. It could be anyone – a disgruntled employee, a temp worker looking for some extra cash, or a casual visitor who’s running a little identity-theft business on the side.

Case in point: Just last week, someone stole a laptop computer from Parkland Hospital in Dallas that may have contained the names, birthdates and Social Security numbers of 9,300 employees. (More details here.)

Hospital officials said they didn’t think any confidential employee information was on the laptop. But they weren’t 100% sure. So they decided to take “extra precautions,” urging employees to enroll in a free, one-year online credit monitoring service to detect fraudulent activities.

How do you say you’re sorry 9,300 times?

"We regret this unfortunate event occurred and are working to mitigate any possible adverse impact on our employees," said Dr. Ron Anderson, Parkland's president and chief executive.

Okay, his lawyers probably made him say that.

But he probably meant it anyway: It turns out Dr. Anderson’s own personal data may have been stolen along with that of all the hospital’s nurses and resident physicians in this massive breach of employee confidentiality.

It’s easy to second-guess, but if your horses aren’t stolen yet, it might be a good time to lock the barn:

• Install locks on all laptops and insist that employees use them.
• Remind everyone information on their laptops is a lot more valuable than the machine itself – starting with their own personal data and passwords.
• Work with IT to be sure confidential employee information is protected and can’t be downloaded to laptops.

Michael Boyette
Editor
HR Rapid Learning Center

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Celebrate mistakes to keep employees engaged in their work

Dear HR Executive,

Everybody's heard about, and probably tried, rewarding employees for good performance. But maybe organizations should also celebrate mistakes.

Provided they're the right kinds of mistakes, of course. 

Not mistakes caused by laziness, carelessness or low standards.  "Good" mistakes are the ones that happen when engaged employees try something new. Or aim high and miss.  Mistakes that promote learning are good mistakes too -- when they point out a false assumption or uncover knowledge gaps. In a healthy corporate culture, people and organizations see mistakes as opportunities for improvement.

No cover-ups

To drive home the point that you want to glean all you can from these inevitable foul-ups -- and discourage people from covering them up -- consider measures that offer positive reinforcement for engaged employees who admit errors.

You might want to:

• Create a "Lessons Learned" award, with a gift certificate for the person whose acknowledgment of error proves most helpful or instructive.
• Establish a system that allows people to report their own mistakes -- anonymously or otherwise -- with no repercussions. 
• Set up a meeting with top management to explain -- in the employee's presence -- how his or her admission helped improve a process or correct a systemic inadequacy.

Of course, if the same person has to be recognized over and over for making mistakes, maybe thanks is no longer the appropriate response... 

Dave Clemens

Editor-in-Chief

The HR Cafe Newsletter

UPCOMING AUDIO CONFERENCE: Don't miss B21’s upcoming audio conference, "Engaged Performance: The Key to a High-Performance Culture in Recessionary Times"  Engaged employees are your secret weapon in a recession. Here’s why: In good times, low-performance cultures do okay while high-performance cultures get off-the-charts results. In bad times, high-performance cultures do okay and low-performing cultures go out of business. That’s right, they die. On Thursday, February 19, our speaker, Tim Wright,  a leading expert on employee engagement, will provide a fast-paced, fun, and informative session that will provide you with a host of tips, tricks, tools and techniques you can use right away to transform minimally engaged employees into a workforce that goes the extra mile for your business.

Retaliation alert: More employees to handle with kid gloves

Somebody in your company has complained about sexual harassment. So of course you conduct a thorough investigation, interviewing not only the parties involved, but other workers who might have seen or heard something.

Guess what? You just created a whole new bunch of protected workers who can cry "retaliation" if you try to fire or discipline them later. 

Here's the deal: You already know that a worker who has complained of discrimination in the workplace is protected by law against retaliation. So you must be certain that any discipline decision is backed by ironclad documentation of misconduct or poor performance.

Now the court has extended that rule to somebody who's merely been interviewed in an internal investigation of discrimination in the workplace -- not just those who come forward to complain on their own initiative. That's what the Supreme Court's new ruling in the case of Crawford v. Nashville Metropolitan Government means.

An incendiary answer

The employee in this case was asked about a supervisor's improper conduct during an internal sexual-harassment investigation. The worker gave an answer that put the supervisor in a bad light.

The supervisor received an oral reprimand. The worker was fired, ostensibly for embezzlement. She denied any wrongdoing and the employer didn't pursue the charge. She sued for retaliation.

Initially, the federal appeals court covering Tennessee said this employee didn't have a retaliation case because she didn't "oppose" conduct prohibited by Title VII.

But the Supreme Court begged to differ. The court said that it would be "freakish" for the law to protect "an employee who reports discrimination on her own initiative but not one who reports the same discrimination in the same words when her boss asks a question."

Disciplinary dangers

So from now on, you'll want managers to be aware of the dangers in disciplining somebody who has testified in a company investigation of discrimination in the workplace.

As with other potential cases of retaliation, it may be wise to delay discipline until at least a couple of months have passed since the person's testimony. And whatever you decide to do, remember that having ample documentation of the person's shortcomings will be critically important if he or she decides to try to hang a retaliation charge on you.

The facts in this case are pretty narrow, but here's the broader issue: this unanimous decision makes four retaliation rulings from the Supreme Court in less than three years that have gone in favor of employees. No wonder that Justice Alito, who supported this new ruling with what appeared to be a grain of salt, noted that EEOC retaliation filings doubled from 1992 to 2007 and cautioned that, "an expansive interpretation of protected opposition conduct would likely cause this trend to accelerate."

There you are. Be careful. 

Dave Clemens

Editor-in-Chief

The HR Cafe Newsletter

UPCOMING AUDIO CONFERENCE: Don't miss B21’s upcoming audio conference, "Employment Law Outlook Under the New Administration"  On Tuesday, February 17, our speaker, employment law attorney Melissa Fleischer, will share her research into which legislative changes we can most likely expect and what they’ll mean for your company. She’ll also provide guidance for updating policies, forms and handbooks to ensure you’re in compliance.

Are you union-ready?

After long decades in the wilderness, labor unions must feel they’ve finally made it to the Promised Land. When President Obama signed three executive orders last week strengthening the hand of organized labor on federal contracts, he was unapologetically pro-union. He said the orders would “reverse many of the policies towards organized labor that we’ve seen these last eight years, policies with which I’ve sharply disagreed.” When Joe Biden announced that The Obama Administration’s “Middle Class Task Force” will focus on “restoring the balance in the workplace” – well, you know what he meant.

And in a just-released report, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that union members accounted for 12.4 percent of employed wage and salary workers in 2008, up from 12.1 percent a year earlier. With a new Administration and Congress, you can count on unions making even bigger inroads in 2009.

It’s no surprise, of course, that nervous employees will be more sympathetic than ever to unions’ message. But even so, many employers will be caught flat-footed. They’ve never had to face a serious organizing effort, and they’re going to be outplayed by newly energized and experienced unions who see an unprecedented opportunity to increase their ranks. Now’s the time for HR managers to start thinking about how their companies will respond.

Michael Boyette

Editor, HR Cafe Training Center

UPCOMING AUDIO CONFERENCE: Don't miss B21’s upcoming audio conference, "The Employee Free Choice Act: What You Need to Know"  On Thursday, February 5, our speaker, employment law attorney Matthew Gilley will detail what compliance with EFCA will require and what penalties companies will face for non-compliance. He will show how the Employee Free Choice Act threatens to strip employees of their right to a secret ballot when deciding on union representation.  Employers would have to radically alter their responses to unionization, and employees will be subject to open pressures from the unions and their pro-union peers.