HR Industry Brief

According to a new poll, half of American workers support workplace vaccine mandates. Among other findings:

• Interestingly, more remote employees (59%) favor vaccine requirements in their workplace than those working onsite (47%).
• 50% of onsite workers favor mask mandates, and 29% oppose them.
• Over half (59%) of remote workers support a mask mandate.
• 6 in 10 college graduates support both mask and vaccine mandates, compared to about 4 in 10 workers who aren’t college graduates.

Employers and employees don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye about how to attract and retain employees, according to a new study. Among the findings:

• Employees rank salary and wages as the top reason they look for a new job. Only about half of employers (41%) say that this is why workers are leaving.
• The number two reason workers say they look for a new job involves benefits, but only 23% of employers agree.
• Employees rank career advancement and flexibility as the third and fourth reasons they look for new work, while only 33% of employers see career mobility as a concern and just 34% identify flexibility.
• 88% of executives say their company is experiencing higher turnover than nomal.
• 40% of marketing executives say that worker shortages are having a major negative impact on the customer experience.
• Women (46%) are more likely than men (34%) to be seeking higher salaries.
• Similar percentages (77% and 72%) … [Read more...] about (8/26) Employers, Workers Have Different Recruiting and Retention Incentives in Mind, Report Suggests

With workforce shortages, rampant employee burnout, and turnover at an all-time high, building great teams can be challenging. These five practices can help:

1. Put people first. Surround yourself with people who are capable, engaged, and connected. Employees with these qualities will have the greatest influence on team productivity, profitability, and customer satisfaction.
2. Establish clear goals and roles. Make sure everyone understands their role and that their goals are aligned.
3. Have effective core processes that facilitate efficiency, scalability, and performance. Ensure that team members know which of these are relevant to and essential for their success.
4. Problem-solve important issues. Empower and engage the team to be problem-solvers. Emphasize that every team member’s input is valued and have explicit agreements for the next steps and who will be accountable for what.
5. Create a high-trust environment. Create a culture of … [Read more...] about (8/25) 5 Leadership Practices for Building Great Teams

In a new survey, 89% of workers say they’ve experienced burnout this past year. When they were asked what benefits would help, they didn’t say ‘more vacation.’ Instead, they want flexible work hours, mental health resources/support, paid sick days, a wellness program, and a four-day workweek. Among other findings from the survey:

• 27% of workers say they experience burnout all the time. The highest levels of burnout are reported by Gen Z and millennial workers.
• Women (91%) have more burnout than men (86%).
• Respondents report several causes for burnout, including an unmanageable workload, a toxic or unsupportive workplace culture, and world events (including the pandemic).
• One-third of workers say they feel pressured to check in with work during time off, and half say they can never fully disconnect. Preparing to take time off, then catching up afterwards, also contribute to stress, workers say.

In the past 20 years, “rogue risks,” such as a pandemic, have rocked risk management efforts and accounted for 92% of major sustained value losses in large organizations. Here are a few keys to successfully planning for and managing these types of risks:

• Create a risk radar. Have a team, including junior people on the ground who will see issues first but don’t know what they mean. Teach them what to look for and when to sound the alarm.
• Install mechanisms that ensure early warnings are heeded.
• Categorize rogue risks by the types of impact they have on you, your customers, your competitors, and your vendors. Prepare how to exploit entire categories, even if you don’t know the exact event that will happen. Start by thinking about the impact of different rogue categories on financial, operational, external, and strategic risks.

In light of the influx of the Delta variant of the coronavirus and the uptick in COVID-19 infections, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has revised its guidance on masking:

• Vaccinated workers in close quarters or high community transmission areas should wear masks to protect unvaccinated workers.
• Vaccinated employees who come into close contact with COVID-infected people should wear masks for up to 14 days unless they have a negative test at least 3-t days post contact.
• The updated guidance is advisory, rather than mandatory. However, it does offer practical indications for employers about how to satisfy their lawful dties to provide a safe and healthy workplace free from recognized hazards.

There’s an old saying: Everyone complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it. To some degree, the same thing is true of frontline staffing shortages. There has been a lot of talk and several initiatives, but there’s been little widespread or lasting impact. It’s time, many suggest, to make a real investment in staffing. The Biden-Harris administration has proposed significant funding to improve jobs for all direct care workers. So what is the economic case for this investment?

• It will decrease public assistance expenditures. Currently 47% of direct care workers use some type of public assistance, including Medicaid, food/nutrition support, and cash assistance. The total cost for this assistance is considerable. LeadingAge has estimated establishing a living wage for direct care workers would reduce this spending by 16.8% or more.
• It will stimulate consumer spending and job growth. One analysis suggests that paying direct care workers a … [Read more...] about (8/19) The Economic Case for Improving Direct Care Jobs

No doubt, the world has changed, and we need to rethink work and life post-pandemic. You can help your employees adjust in a healthy, happy, productive way with these five tips:

• Enable reasonable time management. People are at their best when they have time to plan, prepare, and organize for the week ahead. Try to avoid throwing unexpected tasks, deadlines, and scheduling changes on your employees. Do your best to respect their time off by not sending business-related emails or texts after hours.
• Create and maintain boundaries. Establish boundaries that enable people to focus and be fully present in one role at a time.
• Encourage and enable healthy relationships. Create a culture of support where managers understand the importance of day-to-day support to meet relatedness needs. Help employees to re-establish social bonds with their colleagues and to show care and concern for those who are still experiencing trauma, PTSD, or other pandemic-related … [Read more...] about (8/18) 5 Tips to Help Employees Navigate Post-Pandemic Work, Life

Hourly wages for certified nursing assistants (CNAs) rose 7.13% this year, according to a report from the Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service. This increase is almost double the 4.76% boost in 2020. LPNs and charge staff nurses also saw wage hikes of 4.82% and 4.27% respectively from 202o to 2021. Workers across job categories in some organizations saw their pay go up as much as 30% this year. However, despite the wage growth, staff turnover jumped from 39.38% in 2020 to 59.95% so far in 2021. Read the full article. … [Read more...] about (8/17) COVID-Related Wage Increases Haven’t Curbed Turnover

Expecting your team – or any particular employee – to be expert problem-solvers can lead to errors, missteps, frustrations, and finger-pointing. Instead, it is useful to engage the entire team in problem-solving. This can start by asking three questions:

1. What do you recommend? Encourage people to come to the discussion with a hypothesis. Take time to brainstorm, but ask everyone to come back with possible solutions at a later date. Let your team know that you trust them and have confidence in their ability to problem-solve.
2. How can we test that? Walk ideas through scenarios to ‘road test’ them; discuss potential costs and risks.
3. What do you need from me? Consider obstacles that the team will face as they contemplate ideas. Try to be supportive as possible, with money, a testing environment, access to teammates or experts, etc.