HR Industry Brief

At a time when the pandemic crisis has affected morale, employee satisfaction, and retention, constant complainers can make life difficult or even miserable for everyone. Consider these steps to manage these workers:

• Try humorous commiseration. Don’t minimize their concerns, but give them a positive, light twist. Share a similar story with a positive result.
• Think of complaint as a preventative measure. Instead of taking a complaint as an insult or challenge, consider how it can be used to improve processes or systems or reaffirm that you are doing the right thing.
• Turn the complainer into an intelligence source. Redirect the complainer’s focus from your own team to a competitor. Ask questions like, “Do others on the team feel the same way you do about this process?”
• Collect and share a positive perspective. Help the complainer adopt a new perspective. Send along positive comments from colleagues and coworkers.
• Offer to pass … [Read more...] about (7/30) How to Manage a Constant Complainer

A new study analyzed interviews with workers at all levels to identify reasons for vaccine hesitancy. Among the findings:

• In racial and ethnic minority groups, vaccine concerns and hesitancy were affected more by perceptions of institutional and structural discrimination.
• Minority employees have fears and suspicions of being pressured or forced by their employer to be vaccinated.
• Efforts to improve vaccination rates among racial and ethnic minority healthcare staff need to include recognition of the power of current and historical societal processes/structures that discriminated against marginalized communities in the past.

Even as pandemic pressures ease somewhat, the stress, anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems employees have been experiencing aren’t going away any time soon. Here are some steps you should be taking right now:

• Have open discussions while maintaining privacy. Don’t assume that mental health is destigmatized. Have and encourage open discussions about mental health challenges. At the same time, be sure to respect employee privacy.
• Model desirable behaviors and attitudes at the top. Embrace and promote good mental health practices such as maintaining a work-life balance, getting exercise, mindfulness, and eating right.
• Share information. Lack of information contributes to anxiety. Be transparent with information about the pandemic and how it is impacting your organization. Give employees opportunities to share their concerns and questions without fear of retribution. Let workers know about mental health benefits available to them and … [Read more...] about (7/28) Taking on Mental Health Challenges Post-Pandemic

According to a new report, employee experience is a top management priority amid the pandemic; and organizational success is being defined by how managers shape the ways employees live and work. The report suggests several goals:

• Create a standard definition of the term “employee experience.”
• Explain, through research and examples of excellence, why employee experience must be a critical focus for HR, IT, and business leaders.
• Identify which practices have the most significant impact on employee experience and overall business, innovation, and people outcomes.
• Offer guidance on how to improve employee experience and achieve better business outcomes.

With new outbreaks of COVID being reported, you and your staff can’t relax just yet. You need continued vigilance and strong infection prevention and control measures in place:

• Rethink plans for big events. A crowded July 4th concert at a CCRC in Florida is suspected as the source of up to 30 cases of COVID in the state. Even if residents are mostly or all vaccinated, masks can help prevent infection spread.
• More nursing homes are mandating staff vaccinations. Talk to your legal counsel and other leaders to determine if this is a viable, necessary, and appropriate step for your organization.
• Consider voluntary testing and plans to reduce programming and suspend indoor dining if cases rise or as a preventive measure even if your numbers are … [Read more...] about (7/27) Vigilance Must Continue

Here is the cold, hard truth: professionals want to collaborate, but they don’t know how. If your team is making any of these mistakes, it could be keeping you from collaborating effectively:

1. Your team doesn’t understand that collaboration is uniquely different thatn cooperation and coordination. Collaboration involves creating new knowledge. To accomplish this, power needs to be dispersed and ideas must be allowed to flow. Define collaboration in advance and ensure everyone involved is working from the same definition.
2. Your team believes that collaboration is required in all engagements with cross-functional colleagues. Determine up front whether your goals really require a collaborative effort if you just need to focus on empowering an individual or small group.
3. Your team believes their collaborative efforts must result in consensus-style decision-making. Don’t allow debates to go on too long. Make sure all voices are heard and vetted, then move … [Read more...] about (7/23) 3 Mistakes Teams Make When Collaborating

You talk to team members, customers, and others every day. You send emails and texts, and you have Zoom meetings and leave voicemails. But are you communicating like a leader? True leaders embrace these ideas:

• They build a persuasive case. They strategize and prepare when they need to sell an idea or convince people to move in a certain direction. They use accurate information and ironclad conclusions.
• They synthesize and communicate their reasoning. They gather lots of information but share it selectively – choosing only the most compelling and relevant points.
• They lead their people to do some creative thinking with good, compelling, and provocative questions.
• They speak clearly and confidently. The way they talk and use their words tells others that they know what they are talking about, stand behind their comments, and believe in their convictions.

Don’t underestimate the value of every employee, suggests an employment expert. Encourage your teams to embrace an “all hands-on-deck mentality” when it comes to coworkers. Each and every person – new hires and veteran workers alike—should be treated with value and appreciation:

• Adopt a mentality of flexibility and equity to address workforce challenges.
• Be more creative about how to award and recognize people.
• Recognize the influence management can have on retention. Good managers attract and keep good employees.
• Understand and address generational differences. Realize that millennials are driven by passion and the desire to make a difference. At the same time, younger employees are looking for more money from the start; so you need to determine how you will manage salary and raise equity.

An ongoing shortages of physicians to serve as medical directors may be having a negative impact on facilities’ ability to get workers vaccinated. Authors of a new article suggest:

• Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) have great faith in their medical directors, and an engaged medical direct helps ensure that staff is educated, informed, and empowered to make important healthcare decisions, such as whether or not to get vaccinated.
• CNAs trust their medical directors over the leadership at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and other government entities.
• If facilities are going to convince CNAs and other staff to get vaccinated, medical directors need to do more to engage with staff. This means going beyond public events such as town halls. They need more personalized interactions and one-on-one conversations.
• To date, about 45% of the nation’s 1.5 million nursing home staff are unvaccinated against … [Read more...] about (7/20) Medical Directors Are in Short Supply When Their Expertise Is Needed Most

A new report details the extent of ageism in the global workforce:

• Workers aged 45 and up often are seen as weaker job candidates than their younger counterparts.
• Hiring managers say that only 17% of middle-aged candidates are “application-ready” and just 18% have relevant skills or experience.
• According to hiring managers, only 15% of older job candidates have the right fit with company culture.
• 71% of current job seekers over age 45 see their age as a major obstacle.

• Improving national and global employment statistic tracking and reporting to reflect narrower age brackets that better address the unique issues the 45-plus population faces.
• Linking training programs directly to employment opportunities and providing stipends to support older workers.
• Changing hiring practices to suppress potential age biases and better … [Read more...] about (7/19) Ageism Stifles Middle-Ages Job Seekers Across the Globe