HR Industry Brief

As the new year approaches, take some time to review your employee handbook and make sure it’s up-to-date:

• Even before the pandemic, most companies were starting to relax dress codes. Even as people have returned to work, it’s become clear that more casual business attire actually may acceptable on a regular basis. It also is advisable to look at policies about hairstyles. This isn’t just about what employees want. The CROWN Act actually bans race-based hair discrimination in the workplace.
• Work arrangements. Policies about hybrid or remote work, as well as flexible schedules should be clarified so that rules are applied consistently across the board.
• Technology policies, such as rules and responsibilities around cybersecurity, need to be outlined in detail. For instance, can employees purchase and use their own technology? Is multi-factor authentication required?
• Sick leave. Make sure these policies are compliant with current sick leave laws in your state and locality.
• Marijuana use and testing. As more states legalize marijuana use, you need policies that are in line with what is happening in your jurisdiction. For instance, in California, employers can’t discriminate against workers for legal marijuana use outside of work. Even if marijuana isn’t legal yet in your state, it is advisable to plan for that possible inevitability.

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According to new data, quitting can spread in an organization. After one person resigns, the team members left behind are more likely to follow suit. In fact, when one member of a team quits, their colleagues are 9.1% more likely to do so as well, and they usually quit within 135 days of the first resignation.

If a team member is fired or forced to resign, their colleagues are 7.7% more likely to follow suit within 105 days. Interestingly, the larger the team, the more likely people are to quit after the first resignation/firing. In fact, in teams of 6-10 people, turnover is 14.6% more likely to be contagious.

To stop the quitting contagion, managers should watch for signs such as decreased productivity. They also should have career conversations and provide opportunities for team members to meet their goals and opportunities for career advancement.

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According to a new survey, some companies may be taking the wrong approach to diversity, equity, and inclusivity:

• Nearly half of 1,000 hiring managers say they’ve bee told to prioritize diversity over qualifications.
• 1 in 6 report being told to deprioritize white men when evaluating job candidates.
• 25% say they strongly believe and 28% somewhat believe they could lose their job if they fail to hire more diverse workers.

However, on a brighter note, 87% of respondents say their companies has been successful in increasing diversity because of DEI policies and initiatives; and over half (60%) say these efforts have improved their organization.

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Bold leadership means managing with a clear purpose and conviction, drive, and passion. Here are some tips on how to be a bold leader:

• Have a clear purpose and conviction.
• Take smart, win-win risks. If they result in failure, learn from them and use the lessons to do better moving forward. Don’t dwell on mistakes or let them shake your confidence.
• Seek opportunities and avoid settling for the status quo.
• Don’t wait for turbulence; anticipate it and prepare.
• Always be asking: Are my employees/residents happy? What can I do differently?
• Be a disruptor. Don’t be afraid to change course when the evidence suggests it is the right thing to do.
• Be curious. Learn, but also unlearn – seek new paths and directions.
• Have confidence in your decisions. Avoid Monday morning quarterbacking.
• Create an environment of continual growth, learning, and improvement.

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Working parents want and need support to help them balance work and family. If you want to attract and keep working moms and dads, consider the following:

• Offer one-off work from home dates when possible.
• Let eligible employees work remotely a set number of days each week or month.
• Let employees set their own schedules in an organized way.
• Set a 10-hour period during which workers must complete their 8 hours of work.
• Designate a few hours during the day as mandatory for all workers to be onsite.
• Provide a child care service or app to enable workers to find child care when they need it.
• Add on cash subsidies to offset the cost of child care.
• Offer family benefits such as elder care or pet care.

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Increasingly, businesses face the need to establish an allyship, that is, being accountable for the support and inclusion of marginalized groups such as LGBTQ. To foster accountability, consider these four strategies:

1. Be conscious of intersectionality. People often identify more with one group than another. Therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach isn’t likely to be effective. Instead, find ways to value people’s differences in race, gender, sexual orientation, age, and more.
2. Be proactive about inclusion. Include people from different backgrounds and identities to strengthen your teams, encourage creativity, and change how you think and approach problem-solving.
3. When you have difficult, uncomfortable conversations, resist the urge not to respond or to be defensive. Have interactive conversations; don’t lecture or pontificate.
4. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Open, honest dialogue can be difficult. However, it also helps expand understanding and appreciation for each other. Create safe spaces to share experiences and views without fear of judgment or retribution.

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Force multipliers, which involve doing something to improve the effectiveness of an existing resource, are a popular concept in the military. But these can be useful in the workforce as well. Consider using multipliers in these five areas when you need to boost productivity or reach more challenging goals:

• Information. This involves having complete and accurate information, which can increase the chance that you and your team will make the best possible decisions. Remember that better doesn’t necessarily mean more.
• Collaboration. Move away from top-down decision-making and sharing of information. Cross-functional teams enable deeper knowledge and a broader range of skills and insights.
• Technology. Instead of spending money on more technology, look for ways to extend the effectiveness of existing tech. This may as simple as linking smartphones to software.
• Psychology. Increase efforts to improve morale to motivate team members to stay focused on tasks and work together.
• Leadership. Managers should be willing to get in the trenches with their teams and work together on tasks. This includes modeling behaviors such as taking time off for illness and maintaining a work-life balance. At the same time, when managers ask workers to come in over the holidays, they should be willing to do so as well.

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A recent survey suggests that while the senior living industry has more work to do to address diversity and inclusion, it is starting from a place of strength. Among the findings:

• 95% of providers say they are taking steps to recruit potential employees from underrepresented groups.
• 90% say they focus on gender, race/ethnicity and sexual orientation, with less effort to address age and religion as dimensions of diversity.
• 73% senior living professions and organizations participating in the survey are women, 53% are white, and 46% are people of color.
• 56% of survey participants’ companies have a formal diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) committee responsible for developing and implementing DEIB strategies or initiative, while 27% say they have a formal DEIB program.

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Many people suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and the shorter days that come from Daylight Savings Time can impact their mood and performance on the job. According to new data, where people living can determine how much of an issue this is.

 

Not surprisingly, workers in Hawaii are least susceptible to SAD, The percent of time between sunrise and sunset in the state – even in the winter – is 65%, compared to the overall U.S. average of 49%.

Other states where SAD is less of a problem include:

• Missouri
• Florida
• Arizona
• Idaho

States where workers are more likely to experience SAD are:

• Alaska
• Ohio
• Minnesota

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PHI held a series of focus groups earlier this year, and here is some of what direct care workers have to say about their jobs:

• “You have to be able to come in to work, have a plan for the day but also be able to change it….Anything could happen.”
• “Every week, it is never the same. So sometimes, it gets tiring, mentally tiring, too.”
• “Although you are working, and you are not well compensated for what you do, we still go out and do it, because that’s our nature, especially migrant. You are accustomed back in my home country to show love.”
• I find it very rewarding – not only for helping seniors, as well as young folks, too, because sickness doesn’t have age.”
• “I always want to be there to help, so I go the extra mile.”

Workers also weighed in on the pandemic. Some said they stopped going to work because of illness or worries about getting sick; and others left their jobs altogether. Workers also are stressed by staffing shortages, especially when they’ve had to work extra hours and double shifts. However, many workers say they are committed to staying on their jobs because they love their residents.

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