The HR Cafe

Employee grief: How can you help?

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Dear HR Executive,

Many of us have a hard time dealing with death. At work, this often means bereaved employees don’t get the kind of help they need.

Here are three suggestions for dealing with grieving employees:

1. Offer a hand
People in the throes of grief can be overwhelmed by simple tasks. Ask co-workers to pick up a portion of the bereaved’s duties. Or even ask for volunteers to do chores like pick up the person’s dry cleaning.

2. Watch for warning signs
Many bereaved people “snap out of it” eventually without outside assistance. But some don’t. Have managers and co-workers watch for signs that outside help may be needed: failure to show any emotion, lapses in personal hygiene, increased absenteeism, weight loss.

3. Bring in an expert
Nobody is better trained to deal with grief than hospice personnel. Contact a local hospice if a bereaved needs professional counselling.

Helping people at times like these is both humane and good business. When the grief subsides, they'll remember that their employer cared.

Dave Clemens

Editor-in-Chief

HR Rapid Learning Center

Keeping employees focused on the mission

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Dear HR Executive,

It’s been a tough couple of years in the workplace: The Four Horsemen of Recession – layoffs, salary freezes, disappearing bonuses and heavier workloads – have combined to disillusion even the most enthusiastic employees.

These issues are larger than your company, of course. But they can still leave workers focused more on getting through the day than moving the mission forward.

And if you don’t address them, they can undermine all of your efforts to spur people to high performance. 

It’s all about trust
Recession-linked cost cutting, in and of itself, isn’t what makes people lose faith. They stop believing in the mission when they can no longer trust the organization.

Organizational dynamics expert Lior Arussy cites four big employee trust-busters, and offers ideas on what you can do to keep people committed to the vision:

1. Acting funny about money
Money’s always a touchy topic, and when it’s in short supply, it’s tempting for managers to say little and promise nothing. The best way to build trust is to overcommunicate about the company’s finances.

Consider these steps:

• Together with top management, put out the message that the organization has a realistic turnaround strategy. Communicate this message frequently and consistently.
• Facilitate venting and discussion of legitimate concerns. Suggest that managers keep their doors open to worried employees. Even if the news is bad, silence is worse.
• Anticipate workers’ concerns and address them proactively: “We can’t do anything about raises right now, but we haven’t forgotten.”
• Focus employees on what they can control. They can’t control big economic trends, but they can control, say, customer satisfaction. A sense of control will help restore morale and trust.

2. Business losses
When a new or newly aggressive competitor takes a chunk out of your business, employees will wonder whether the organization is still on track and if the mission still makes sense.

Here’s what HR can do to build trust in the face of a competitive challenge:

• Encourage your naturally resilient employees to speak up. Some people are energized by competition. Recruit them to lead the charge.
• Target negative “opinion leaders.” To counter the grapevine, put out a positive message without minimizing or ignoring the threat: “Yes, we are facing more pressure from low-cost producers. And here’s how we are responding.”

3. Ignoring veterans
Over time, even the most highly motivated employees can lose their edge and their commitment to the mission. It’s just human nature.

Don’t assume veteran workers are too jaded to motivate. It’s worth re-selling and re-energize these veterans: They remain key players because of their organizational knowledge and wisdom.

Put a fresh face on the mission. For example, share recent positive feedback to emphasize the value your organization provides to customers – value the veteran once knew about but may have forgotten.

4. Changing direction
Often your most committed employees are heavily invested in the most familiar course of action. 

When the organization shifts course, these people may become skeptical. They may try to “protect” the status quo, especially if they think customers were better served before the change. 

HR and line managers can help beat this skepticism by letting them have their say. Hear them out first, then help them see why the new direction is necessary.

Dave Clemens

Editor-in-Chief

Human Resources Rapid Learning Center

Change management best practices: Your mom was right – tell the truth

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Dear HR Executive:

I have a friend who worked for a company that had an enviable relationship with its workforce. Employee retention was high. People worked hard and liked their jobs. The company and its employees prospered.  

Then came a recession (not the current one). The company fell on hard times. It imposed 10% pay cuts across the board. Top managers told workers they were working hard to turn things around, and that the company’s #1 priority was to restore salaries as soon as possible.

Nobody was happy with the cuts, of course, but employees understood why they were necessary. They took their medicine and pitched in to get the company moving.

The company never did restore the pay cuts. It had its reasons – business was up and down over the years.

Understandably, employees were disgruntled about not getting their money. But something else made them even angrier:  Top management just stopped talking about it.

Maybe the execs didn’t have the information they needed to give definitive answers. Maybe they just didn’t know what to do.

But employees saw it differently. They assumed the company had either (1) forgotten its commitment to try to restore salaries, or (2) had decided to go back on that commitment and not tell anyone.

Eventually, employees got tired of asking about the money. But they never stopped thinking about it. And what hurt even more than the lost pay, my friend says, was the loss of trust. The silent treatment from management signaled a lack of  respect. People lost faith in the company – and the company never recovered.

Change management starts with the truth
In this recession, the same fate could happen to lots of organizations. Employees have seen their wages and hours cut. They may not like it, but they get it. Times are tough.

The problem is, lots of them are expecting those cuts to be restored once business picks up. And for many of them, that’s not going to happen.

Watson Wyatt has released a survey of 179 HR execs that shows:

• 40% of companies that made salary cuts either don’t plan to restore pay levels or don’t know when they will. 
• 33% that reduced employees’ hours don’t plan to return to full hours or don’t know when they will.
• 25% that shut down a facility don't know when or if they'll reopen it

Of course, with the economy still limping, nobody’s crystal ball is working very well these days. So it’s hard for companies to say when, or if, pay cuts might be restored.

But there’s a difference between not knowing what will happen and not saying what might happen. If there’s even a chance that cuts won’t be restored, now’s the time to level with employees. 

The truth is that the economy is undergoing huge – and probably permanent – shifts. Businesses will have to adapt. Whatever happens, the old days aren’t coming back. It’s worthwhile for employers to communicate that message to their workers. Employees can handle the truth – and in the long run, straight talk builds trust and loyalty in the workforce.

Michael Boyette
Editor
HR Café Training Center

The blues may be sapping employee productivity more than you imagine

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Dear HR Executive,

Would you believe a quarter of your employees are depressed – putting your company at risk of lost employee productivity in at least four different ways?

That’s a shocking figure, but it’s what researchers at the Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI) claim. Working with data from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Health and Work Performance questionnaire, IBI found that 28% of employees self-report as depressed.

Stark comparison
This compares with just 10% of the working population if you use only data from medical and disability claims.

True, most employees aren’t doctors, and their depression diagnosis might not agree with that of a medical professional. But the 28% figure does suggest that depression may be a much bigger roadblock for employee productivity than you knew.

IBI also estimated that of lost productivity associated with depression – whose money value has been put at $44 billion a year – 64% comes from presenteeism: employees who are at work but not performing adequately. Another 18% comes from sick days taken because of depression.

The other 18% is associated with short-term disability claims – 5% from STD claims with a diagnosis of depression and 13% from employees who go on STD and then get depressed.

Early treatment
What can HR and Benefits pros do to increase employee productivity? At least three things:

• Promote the idea that “real men” (and women) don’t suffer in silence with depression. WHO says it takes, on average, eight years from the onset of depression until it’s first treated. That’s too long, and productivity can suffer throughout.

• Make sure your health insurance plan covers mental health treatment.

• Consider some kind of Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

Dave Clemens
Editor-in-Chief
The HR Café Newsletter

Employer health care costs: Eligibility audits save money ... but beware the backlash

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Dear HR Executive,

What do you – and your employees – hear when somebody says “health plan eligibility audit”?

It’s the latest hot trend being pushed at employers – largely by those who do the audits – as a way of restraining employee health care costs.

Essentially, in an audit you go over your plan rolls with a microscope, looking for employee dependents who shouldn’t be on there. Or if you’re a bigger company, you pay somebody to come in and do it.

Health care costs reduced as promised
Advocates, such as Mercer Consulting, claim that employer health care costs are reduced by $1,900 each time they find one dependent who’s covered but shouldn’t be. Other audit consultants claim that companies find between 5% and 12% of those enrolled fall into this category.

Experts say it’s relatively rare to find outright fraud.

Most times, either the employee didn’t understand the terms of coverage, or the situation of the dependent has changed so that he or she is now ineligible.

That’s often the case with 20-somethings who were covered while in their teens, but now either aren’t in school or have recently graduated. (Note: Some states now require health plans to continue covering these young folks through their late 20s.) Or with ex-spouses who are no longer entitled to coverage but are still on the plan.

Sometimes it’ll be a case of dependents whose ties to the insured employee aren’t close enough to qualify for coverage – like that sickly uncle who lives with the family, or even stepchildren, who may not be eligible under some plans.

Rules are rules
Well and good. Rules are rules, and if you can save meaningful bucks by making sure they’re adhered to, why shouldn’t you?

The problem is simply this: Is the money you’re going to save worth the potential alarm, discontent and resentment that employees may feel, knowing they’re being “audited” – something they will likely interpret as a reduction in their benefits?

After all, you’re probably already concerned about employee motivation and engagement at a tough time like this. Do you want to do something that will loosen the strings of commitment that tie people to the organization?

Clearly not.

What’s in it for them?
That’s why if you’re going to do a full-fledged health plan eligibility audit – or just go poking around yourself for ineligible dependents – it’s a good idea to link it with this powerful idea: Any health care costs you save will either help you avoid premium hikes to employees in the future, or reduce their severity.

This isn’t just blarney: According to consultants Watson Wyatt, companies that have done eligibility audits over the past three years say they’re less likely to raise employee co-pays or premium contributions, or place further restrictions on eligibility.

So sure, make certain you’re not insuring people you shouldn’t be – but let employees know what’s in it for them.

Dave Clemens
Editor-in-Chief
The HR Café Newsletter

Sexual harassment: "You probably did it. That’s what men do.”

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Dear HR Executive:

When you field a sexual harassment complaint, it can feel like you're walking a tightrope. Often, you’re dealing with an emotional complainant and an indignant accused – both of whom swear their version of events is the true one and the other is a big liar. It’s easy to get sucked into the story of one party or the other – especially that of the unhappy victim. But only trouble is ahead if you do.

Boys will be boys?
Case in point: In Sassaman v. Gamache, a female employee accused a male colleague of sexually harassing and stalking her. The man’s boss told him that if he didn’t resign, he’d be fired. 

The employee resigned, but later sued for sex discrimination. He recounted a climactic conversation in which the supervisor told him: “I’m afraid she’ll sue me. And besides, you probably did what she said you did because you’re male and nobody would believe you anyway.”

In court, the employer claimed the supervisor was only giving his opinion as to what other people thought, not justifying the forced resignation. But a federal appeals court thought otherwise, and allowed the male employee’s case to go to trial. The court said the supervisor defended his decision to side with the female employee “by pointing to the propensity of men, as a group, to sexually harass women.” This made it look like the man was forced out because of  “invidious sex stereotypes,” the court said.

“Guilty until proven innocent”
The court wasn’t sympathetic to the employer’s argument that it feared a lawsuit from the female employee if it didn’t get rid of the man. “Title VII requires employers to take claims of sexual harassment seriously,” the court said. But “it also requires that, in the course of investigating such claims, employers do not presume male employees to be ‘guilty until proven innocent.’ ”

That puts HR right back on that tightrope. Assuming a harassment allegation is male-on-female (still by far the majority of cases), you’re delinquent in your duty if you lean toward “he said.”  But if you lean toward the “she said,” you risk discriminating against the man as a man.

What’s the solution? A thorough and impartial investigation. In this case, the court was clearly swayed by the fact that the employer didn’t do such an investigation. The employer made “minimal, if any” efforts to verify the female employee’s allegations, the court said.

Although the supervisor did refer the matter to the local sheriff’s office – which found no indication of criminal activity – he didn’t investigate. Nor did he have his assistant look into the allegations. And he didn’t refer the case to the employer’s Equal Opportunity Officer. 

So although there were plenty of people around who could have investigated the female employee’s allegations – as well as the man’s counterclaims – nobody did.  And the employer ended up holding the bag. 

Dave Clemens
Editor-in-Chief
The HR Café Newsletter

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Free training program -- How to talk to employees about money

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Dear HR Executive:

Business 21 has a new product line we'd like our HR Cafe blog readers to take a look at. It's a training and information resource called the "HR Cafe Training Center" and I guarantee you you've never seen anything like it. We'd love to know what you think of it.

The HR Cafe Training Center combines two services that HR executives will find useful:

1. A fast-read HR newsletter -- nothing too unusual here. Subscribers get a print and online version that keeps you current on employment law, benefits, comp, etc.
2. Fast-paced online training modules -- now these ARE unusual, and the feedback we're getting from early users (see below) suggests they're helping HR executives increase their perceived value in their organizations. Imagine a library of remarkably affordable training modules, all a very watchable five to 10 minutes long, that you can deploy with a click of a mouse when a need arises. You email them to employees; they click on a link and program launches right on their screen.

OPTION 1: See for yourself. Learn more about the product and sign up for a no-risk 60-day trial to test drive the HR Cafe Training Center.

OPTION 2: Click here to view a quick-launching online training module for supervisors who struggle when talking to subordinates about money (that group includes just about ALL supervisors, by the way). It's called: "Don't You Love Me Anymore? How to Drain the Drama and Emotion from Annual Salary Reviews."

We'd love your feedback on both the Quick Take and the HR Cafe Training Center platform. Please feel free to post a "comment."

Stephen Meyer
B21 Publisher

P.S. Here's what HR executives are saying about the Quick Take training modules in the HR Cafe Training Center:

How to Conduct Effective Exit Interviews - 6 mins 32 secs
"This is the first time I have heard your approach to exit interviews, but I intend to use it. The Quick Take format is great for those of us with really busy schedules and limited free time. I can learn something new in only a few minutes. Karen Morton, Town of Ledyard, CT

How to Conduct An Excruciatingly Difficult Conversation With An Employee - 8 mins 43 sec
"Provides a lesson that any level supervisor can understand and use. Very clear and specific. Even helpful for 'HR specialists.' " Marcie Johnson, Virginia Department of Transportation

Employee communication: Let workers know that management shares their pain

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Dear HR Executive:

With all the reports recently of big bonuses being handed out to top execs at failing firms, your rank-and-file employees may be looking at their next salary discussions with a pretty skeptical eye. They may be wondering whether everybody’s sharing the pain. 

Right now, management communication should address how everyone is carrying his or her part of the load. You might want to let employees in on this new data: Nearly one fifth of employers are freezing pay for executive and top managers in the current economic slump, according to a new survey by World at Work. The organization questioned more than 1,000 companies and found that employers are clamping down hard on big bosses’ pay. In April 2008, only 3 percent planned zero increases for 2009. By last December, it was up to 17%.

Shared sacrifice
HR can craft strategies to let employees know how the higher-ups are helping shoulder the sacrifices needed to get through the recession. What are you doing along these lines? Is your management communicating enough about salary discussions and wage issues to the rank and file?

Michael Boyette
Editor, HR Café Training Center

B21 Survey: How's the economy affecting you?

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Dear HR Executive:

Our most recent survey shows that three quarters of HR executives find the current economy scary. Nearly half are confident they're going to survive. But nearly a third aren't so sure.

Whoa! Almost a third of you feel your company's very survival is at risk?

Here are the survey results:

Q. Which statement below most accurately captures how you're feeling about the recession's affect on your business?

• It's terrifying; Our leadership seems frozen by fear -- 5%
• It's very scary. We've made all the right moves, but we fear it might not be enough -- 27.2%
• It's scary, but we made the right moves and adapted to hard times. We'll be okay  -- 43.2%
• We haven't been hit too hard. Pretty much business as usual -- 22%
• Things are better than ever -- 2.3%

At a recent executive forum, I got a snapshot of the problem facing us all today. A successful consultant to the manufacturing industry said his bank just turned him down for a loan to buy his building. He's been with them 20 years. He's always been profitable. The bank just said, "No hard feelings; we don't do those loans anymore."

Next to him was a builder who said, pointing to the consultant, "He's the reason my business is in the toilet. If he can't get a loan, who can?"

As an HR executive, you're a leader in your company and rank-and-file employees no doubt try to gauge how optimistic you are about the future. You probably feel an obligation to put on a happy face, even when you can't see even a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel. I know I wake up every day trying to find something to be optimistic about, but the morning paper and the nightly news have been relentless downers for as long as I can remember. So I'm getting creative, scratching and clawing for a reason to be optimistic. Let me share some hopeful thoughts I've had in the past week:

• At my executive forum one member, a steelmaker who'd been through the harsh recessions of the early 80s and early 90s, reminded everyone that when customers stop spending their inventories deplete, creating huge pent-up demand. That demand is building now. Tough this out and it should come roaring back.
• I had breakfast in Montana last week with a 68-year-old retired fellow who'd run several businesses in his life. He said early in our conversation that he loved recessions because he knew he was good enough to survive, and that he'd come out of them stronger. That sounded like bluster at first, but by the time I'd finished my last pancake I'd learned that the guy was for real. And I walked away hopeful that someday I'd be able to say that the people in my company were tough enough, and unified enough, to survive the 2008-2009 meltdown and come out of it swinging.
• And finally, I heard a segment on the radio yesterday morning where a Japanese economist compared his country's economic meltdown in the 90s with what we're seeing in the U.S. today. The similarities are remarkable (although Japan's crisis was even worse). But I found economist Richard Koo's assessment encouraging because he spoke with great authority and confidence about what Japan did wrong, and offered hope that if our government makes all the right moves, we'll be okay. Here's a link to a summary of what he said:

One last thought. Nowhere near a third of those surveyed will see their companies fail. In recessions most companies survive. The ones that don't are those where leadership simply freezes up and can't make decisions. Relax. Make necessary cuts. Come up with a good plan and stick with it.

See you at the other end of the tunnel.

Stephen Meyer
B21 Publisher

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.