HR Industry Brief

When the pandemic hit and many workers suddenly found themselves out of a job, this seemed to present an opportunity for home care providers. Many hoped they would see their pool of potential workers grow exponentially. Well, that did happen…and it didn’t. According to data from a new study:

• 57% of home care agencies say they’re struggling with recruiting.
• 71% say they have turned away a new case or requests from a current client because they had insufficient caregiver staff.
• 89% of agencies consider their organization to be competitive in terms of pay.
• Not quite half (38%) of agencies say that COVID has increased their business, 67% are “bullish” about growth in the new year.
• 72% say COVID has made retention harder, while 87% say the pandemic has made recruiting harder.
• Most say COVID hasn’t impacted their internal teams. Only 14% say the pandemic caused a reduction in staff, while 29% they’ve increased their … [Read more...] about (11/6) Home Care Careers ‘Are Suddenly on the Map,’ But Recruiting Remains a Challenge

Look around your organization. Despite the smiles and veneer of calm, morale and productivity could be at risk as your teams work their way through the pandemic. To ensure that your culture encourages engagement, satisfaction, and commitment, focus on these goals:

• Ensuring fair compensation. Clarify for employees what goals they must reach to receive raises and bonuses. Make sure the rules apply consistently for everyone.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate. Make the best use of digital communication to get information to and seek feedback from employees, whether they are working onsite or remotely. Don’t bombard staff with Zoom meetings or emails but find ways to communicate regularly.
• Ramp up team building. Make some time for teams to have fun together. This may mean an entertaining guest speaker at your next meeting, gift cards for food or beverages, contests with prizes, or something else your employees will enjoy.
• Encourage … [Read more...] about (11/5) 5 Steps to a Positive, Supportive Work Culture

The 2020 election has been a contentious and polarizing event. But do you really know how it impacted your organizational culture and your employees? Consider some eye-opening new data from HR professionals across the country:

• While 75% of respondents say that political clothing or signage onsite is not permitted at their business, 11% say they don’t if their organization has a policy on this.
• 25% of respondents say that they’ve heard complaints about employees being too politically vocal or combative.
• Only 16% of companies offered civility training ahead of the 2020 election.
• About a third of respondents say that having at least some employees working remotely has helped curve companywide political talk.
• More than half (58%) of employers say they informed workers about voting locations and times, and about a third (39%) say they offer employees paid time off to vote.

While managers may think they are doing a great job of leading their teams, employees may not agree. According to a new survey, employees often think their managers could do better. Among the results:

• There is a significant gap between what leaders believe motivates their workers and what employees actually want and need to stay motivated.
• 74% of managers say that they find one-on-ones with employees helpful, while less than half of employees agree. At the same time, however, employees with less frequent one-on-ones are 1.4 times more likely to say they are looking for a new job.
• To be successful, managers need strong ongoing relationships with their teams. However, managers feel challenged to juggle relationship-building with their daily responsibilities during the pandemic. Two-thirds (63%) of managers say they find it more difficult than usual to be effective right now. The more responsibility the manager has, the more difficult they find it to … [Read more...] about (11/3) Managers Aren’t as Helpful as They Believe, Workers Say

COVID-19 has impacted so much of our work and our lives. Now a new white paper details how the virus and other factors have contributed to a disturbing rise in cyberattacks on healthcare organizations. Among the startling statistics from 2020 so far:

• 86% of data breaches are for financial gain, up from 71% in 2019.
• 67% of breaches are caused by credential theft, errors, and social attacks. Of these, 37 percent used stolen or weak credentials, 25% involved phishing, and 22% were the result of human error.
• 70% of breaches are done by external actors, with 55% involving organized crime.
• Ransomware increased from 24% in 2019 to 27% in 2020.
• 18% of organizations reported blocking at least one piece of ransomware last year

• What are the biggest threats to your industry and your … [Read more...] about (11/2) Cybersecurity Practices Necessary to Protect Senior Living Organizations, Residents: White Paper

You can educate your staff about the importance of following U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance on safety precautions to take during the pandemic. But what can you do if workers aren’t social distancing, avoiding crowds, or wearing masks when they’re off the clock? You need to follow anti-discrimination laws, but you also need to ensure that any disciplinary actions are neither too firm nor too lax. Here are a few steps you can take:

• Know state and local laws. Some states have laws protecting employees’ lawful off-duty conduct. However, if your jurisdiction has a mask mandate in place, not wearing one or refusing to mask up could be considered unlawful conduct.
• If you require workers to sign a document stating that they will follow all state directives at all times and they behave irresponsibly when they’re not working, you can discipline offenders for lying.
• Don’t jump to conclusions. Ask the employee about what … [Read more...] about (10/30) What To Do When Off-Duty Employees Aren’t Social Distancing

Election day is fast approaching, and the energy, anxiety, and anticipation are palpable. Now a new survey suggests that employees are looking to their companies to be civic leaders:

• More than two-thirds of workers say their company encourages them to vote.
• Employers who encourage voting have a higher percentage of workers who would recommend the company as a good place to work (86% versus 59%).
• Over three-quarter (83%) of employees who work for a company that encourages them to vote are more likely to say they intend to stay with their employer.
• Not quite half (40%) of respondents say they’ve had at least one political disagreement at work, and nearly half (48%) say it’s important that most people at work share their own political beliefs and attitudes.
• Nearly half (42%) of respondents say they’ve considered looking for a new job because of their co-workers’ political beliefs.

Up your game and enjoy greater success even as challenges mount and the national pandemic rages on. Eliminating these habits can enhance productivity and progress:

• Comparing yourself to others.
• Dwelling on regrets about past mistakes or decisions. Learn from them and move on.
• Mindless, unproductive scrolling the Internet, including time wasters like YouTube videos and entertainment sites.
• Toxic relationships that take time and energy and do more harm than good.
• These just eat at you and make you feel bad. Let them go.
• Waiting for a sign. Learn to trust your instincts once you have done your due diligence. You can miss important opportunities by waiting for signs about whether or not to act on something.
• Do the best you can but understand that no one is perfect.

Ideally, smart and successful go hand-in-hand, but it doesn’t always work that way. There are several ways smart people can hurt their chances to succeed and move up the ladder, but there also are ways to overcome the barriers they create for themselves.

• Smart people sometimes devalue soft skills like relationship building. To address this, use your strengths to overcome your weaknesses. Identify the behaviors and skills you need to sharpen and seek learning opportunities that work best for you (e.g., online courses, workshops, personal coaching, or books and articles).
• Teamwork can be challenging for very smart people. Open your mind to others’ ability to contribute and learn to appreciate what diverse minds and ideas bring to a team. Avoid knee-jerk reactions and the habit of quickly dismissing others’ ideas or contributions.
• Smart people may get much self-esteem from being smart and can decrease their resilience. Develop relationships with people … [Read more...] about (10/27) 5 Ways Smart People Sabotage Their Success

  Workforce management systems make life easier for employees, particularly during difficult times. They use these to report their hours worked, request vacation days and other time off, record their progress on projects, and check and adjust their work schedules. Real-time access to this information also makes it easier to managers to track what workers and doing and where there are coverage and other gaps that need to be filled. Here are five things you need to know before you purchase a workforce management system or update an existing one:

• Your system should help employees address workplace concerns such as flexibility, sick leave, and mental health support. It should be able to help you identify gaps and problems, such as workers who are taking lots of days off or falling behind in their tasks.
• A good system makes it easier for you to check in with employees frequently. The capability of an automated pulse survey is particularly helpful. For … [Read more...] about (10/26) How Workforce Management Systems Can Impact the Employee Experience & Employee Safety