HR Industry Brief

Nearly 4 million Americans quit their jobs in June. There are numerous reasons for this, but the pandemic is a big factor. It has triggered new opportunities for workers that that luring them away from their current jobs. At the same time, many are using the changing job market as a chance to retrain, upskill, or reinvent themselves. You can prevent at least some rage quitting with a few steps:

• Scheduling regular check-in conversations. Be as upfront as possible and encourage an open dialogue.
• Show care and compassion. Watch and listen for signs that an employee may be having a hard time. Promote a work/life balance that gives employees time to recharge and energize.
• Show appreciation for employees and colleagues. Days off, flexible schedules, gift cards, transportation assistance, childcare support, and even an encouraging note can go a long way toward showing employees that they are respected and appreciated.
• Be flexible about … [Read more...] about (9/10) How To Get Ahead of Pandemic ‘Rage Quitting’

In a recent survey of front-line healthcare workers, 70.9% report feeling emotionally exhausted and 40% say they have moderate to severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Elsewhere, they identify several key pressures of working during the pandemic:

• Constant workforce and occupational disruption, including working longer, unpaid hours.
• Worries about being able to provide quality care for patients and the toll on everyone of visitor restrictions.
• Being blamed by co-workers when they were exposed to or infected with COVID-19.
• Worrying about people who were unable to get healthcare for other medical conditions during the pandemic because they were reluctant to seek care or because services were cut back and some procedures cancelled.
• A surge in mental illness among patients and colleagues.
• Concerns about being safe at work and worries about bring COVD home to their families.

A new report from PHI offers a snapshot of the direct care workforce in the U.S. Among the findings:

• The direct care workforce has rapidly expanded over the last decade, going from 3.1 million workers in 2010 to 4.6 million in 2020. This workforce sector is expected to add another 1.3 million new jobs by 2029.
• Despite high demand for direct care workers, their wages remain low, with a median hourly wage of $13.56 in 2020 and median annual earnings of just $20,200.
• 44% of direct care workers live in low-income households, and 25% rely on some form of public assistance such as Medicaid, nutrition assistance, or cash assistance.
• Nearly 9 in 10 home care workers are women, and 34% are 55 or older, compared to 23% of the  overall U.S. labor force.
• People of color make up 63% of all home care workers. Immigrants make up 31% of this workforce.
• 81% of residential care aides are women, and 53% are people of color.
… [Read more...] about (9/8) PHI Releases New Annual Data on the U.S. Direct Care Workforce

Diversity training is gaining traction as a key element of employee engagement and retention. Be prepared for the future of diversity training with the following tips:

• Don’t think diversity training is one and done. Nothing you do once is going to have widespread and lasting impact. Distributed learning, learning over time, is known to be more effective. People remember more if information is presented in smaller segments.
• Internal leaders is necessary to create connections and legitimacy. Top-level buy in and the involvement of organizational thought leaders are essential to the success and long-term impact of diversity training.
• Active learning is generally more successful than passive learning. Have learners take action by setting goals, working through case studies, etc. to engage them in learning and help them see how the information impacts them personally.
• Make learning personal. People learn from stories and real-life examples. … [Read more...] about (9/7) Advancing Diversity Training

There is no question that rebuilding your talent pool post-pandemic will be a challenge. But these 5 steps can help:

• Listen to your talent’s needs. You may think you know what’s important to them, but you could be surprised. Base benefits and offerings based on what they want and not what you think they want or need .
• Prioritize skills assessment and training. To start, determine how employees’ jobs may have changed during the pandemic. Then invest in training to help people boost their knowledge and skills to support these changes and take them to the next level.
• Keep pace with wage growth. Average annual salaries are growing, as are minimum wage and benefit offerings. Prepare to keep up with the competition, and don’t assume that things like workplace culture will make up for lower salaries.
• Support employees’ financial wellness. Only about half of employees say they feel financially well, down from 61% two years ago. Staff need and … [Read more...] about (9/6) 5 Must-Have to Win the Post-Pandemic War for Talent

The emergence of the Delta variant as the pandemic was starting to ease, tensions over vaccine mandates, staffing shortages, budgets stretched thin, and disasters from hurricanes and floods to wildfires have people on edge, stressed out, and anxious. It’s enough to move some people into the jerk zone. But it’s important to turn down the heat and create a jerk-free zone:

• Keep it civil. Treating people with respect needs to be a firm and fast rule. It is essential not to be judgmental and to allow everyone to maintain their self-esteem and confidence.
• Disagreement is okay. Conflicts happen, and they are a normal part of work and life. But it’s important to keep it civil and to listen with an open mind to the other side.
• Keep it solution-oriented. When there are problems, address them promptly and directly, while avoiding blame and finger-pointing. Look for root causes and system-related issues that led to the problem.
• Don’t ignore the … [Read more...] about (9/3) Jerks No More

Want to know why your employees are leaving and what you can do to keep them? A new survey gets into the minds of workers, and this is what they’re thinking:

• Nearly half (47%) of 2,000 survey respondents say they’re looking for a new job that provides clarity and growth opportunities.
• 54% of respondents say they’re looking to change jobs, while 43% say their careers have stalled or slowed down considerably.
• 17% are looking to move into a new job as soon as possible.
• 24% say they lack mentorship, and 21% say they lack clarity about a career path.
• 16% say a decrease in facetime/one-on-one meetings with their supervisors is a key reason they feel that their career is stagnant.
• 38% of Gen Z workers say they’re looking for jobs with greater transparency around job path and development, and 26% of millennials are looking for new jobs, more than 3 times the number of baby boomers who are job hunting.

At a time when stress, burnout, and turnover are high, taking a few steps to create an engaged, energized, and upbeat team can have a priceless return on investment:

1. Respond promptly as a matter of productivity and respect. When people don’t get a response within a few hours, it sends the message that they’re not important. This can be a morale killer. Make a commitment to promptly responding to emails, texts, or phone messages, even it’s just a few sentences promising to catch up later (then follow through as promised).
2. Be bold enough to be brief. Everyone is short on time, so respect that by keeping messages short, getting to the point, and not wasting people’s time.
3. Realize you could be wrong. Have the courage to admit when you make a mistake. Seek regular feedback from people on what you or your team could do different or better.
4. Let your writing reflect your clear thinking. Whatever you write, make it clear, organized, and supported … [Read more...] about (9/1) 5 Communication Practices to Boost Teamwork, Productivity, and Morale

With some training and occasional rewards, employees can help you fight cyberattacks:

• People act consistently with behaviors they have demonstrated in the past. If they have been trained, empowered, and encouraged to identify breaches, hacks, and other issues, these behaviors will become habit over time.
• Giving something to someone with no obligation for required behaviors encourages return favor-giving. Instead of punishing employees for accidentally enabling breaches or hackers, consider rewarding them for identifying and preventing problems.
• People are more likely to comply with requests when these come from someone in an authority role or a thought leader. Have an IT staff member or popular team leader talk to workers about the dangers of cyberattacks and why and how they need to be involved in preventing them.

According to one recent study, only 27% of employees say their company leadership encourages and recognizes suggestions for positive change or improvement. Empowering employees is a great idea, but it’s often difficult for management to give up control. These three statements can help determine if you’re really ready to practice empowerment:

• When employees give me alternatives, I avoid telling them which one I want. Instead, I ask for their suggestions.
• I’m open to using ideas/practices from outside the company to improve our team’s performance.
• I encourage and recognize my employees’ suggestions for improvement.