Why employers should consider adding volunteer time off benefits
Employers are being pushed to become savvier with social responsibility causes and their benefit offerings with the strong job market. This is giving rise to volunteer time off benefits. Read this blog post from Employee Benefits News for more on why employers should consider adding volunteer time off benefits.
The strong job market is pushing employers to become more savvy about socially responsible causes. This is giving rise to volunteer time off benefits as one popular strategy for employers seeking unique ways to attract and retain talent.
Indeed, 65% of companies offered paid time volunteer programs in 2018, according to data from the organization Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose, which looks to help companies transform their social strategy. That figure represents a 4% rise from 2017.
Organizations that offer employees paid days off to volunteer their time and support the nonprofit causes they care about are going to be more attractive to job seekers.
“Offering VTO as a benefit for employees is one of the best ways to engage employees with their local communities through volunteering and donations,” says Jeff Fraley, vice president of corporate engagement at United Way of the National Capital Area, an organization that provides relief of social problems affecting the community. “It encourages employees to participate in social good and helps to foster meaningful relationships within a community and the company itself.”
About 75% of millennials expect their employer to participate in social good, either with donations or through volunteering, according to a Glassdoor survey. Additionally, 51% of workers expect their employers to allocate work time and resources for their employees to volunteer for social causes.
United Way took a look at VTO benefits across the country in an effort to better understand these programs from an employer/employee perspective. The survey looked at the demographics of 49 large U.S. companies that offer VTO in order to get a sense of the types of workplaces offering this benefit. What it found was that the majority of companies that offer VTO are headquartered in New York, and in or around Silicon Valley.
Additionally, of the 49 companies studied, 12 were in the professional services industry, 12 were in the information technology industry, and nine companies were in the financial services and insurance industries. The survey also uncovered that the maximum number of volunteer hours offered per year to each employee is 20 hours, which amounts to about two and a half days of volunteer time off.
If the company with the largest revenue headquartered in each state implemented one day of VTO, the projection of total volunteer hours in the U.S. would be over 75 million hours, or nine million days, according to United Way. It would cost companies, on average, $27.4 million to implement an annual eight hour VTO policy.
“VTO is just one option if you're looking to expand your impact in the community,” Fraley says. “An employer can also sponsor a nonprofit, match employee donations, or other philanthropic initiatives. What’s important is to think about some sort of incorporation of corporate social responsibility as we're seeing that it's an increasingly important criterion of employers for millennials.”
SOURCE: Schiavo, A. (2 December 2019) "Why employers should consider adding volunteer time off benefits" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/news/why-employers-should-consider-adding-volunteer-time-off-benefits
6 steps to enhance your recruiting strategy
According to recent data from PwC, more and more potential employees are turning down job offers because of bad recruitment experiences. Often, when job candidates have a poor experience while applying for a job, they share the details of their encounter with friends, family and social media. Read this blog post for six steps employers can use to enhance their recruitment strategy.
Employers may be contributing to their organization’s bad reputation without even knowing it during the recruiting process
A strong labor market is presenting employees with more options, allowing them to weigh potential employers against each other, and eliminating the need to accept the first offer they get. Unique and inventive recruiting strategies are vital in attracting the right talent to your organization, but more potential employees are turning down job offers because of bad recruiting experiences, according to data from PwC.
Employers can develop some bad habits when it comes to recruiting, like dragging out the process and even ghosting candidates. When potential employees have a poor experience applying for a job with a company, they are going to share the details of that encounter with friends, family and the world at large thanks to social media.
“Job seekers today expect the hiring process to be streamlined, efficient and customized to their personal preferences, with effortless technology and sincere human interactions,” says Bhushan Sethi, a workforce strategy leader at PwC.
However, very few organizations are providing this experience, according to the PwC survey of 10,000 job seekers. Not only can a bad recruiting experience drive candidates away, it can also create lasting damage to an organization’s reputation as an employer.
“Leaders have an opportunity to gain an edge in the battle for talent by delivering a superior recruiting experience to every candidate, even those who don’t receive an offer,” Sethi says.
But there are ways to make a candidate’s recruiting experience more positive, even if they don’t ultimately get an offer. Here are six steps organizations can take to deliver a “first-rate” recruiting experience to potential candidates.
Find a balance between tech and human interaction
The human interactions candidates experience during the recruitment process makes a stronger impression than any digital experience, the survey shows. “Candidates want positive, direct human interaction throughout the recruiting process, whether that’s in person, over the phone or via email,” Sethi says. “Two-thirds of candidates said personalized initial outreach makes them more likely to apply for a position.”
Technology does have an important role to play in the recruiting process. However, recruiting technology is typically designed with the enterprise, not the candidate, in mind, Sethi says. Employers should look to utilize technology that streamlines routine tasks or makes the hiring process easier for job applicants. About 44% of those surveyed by PwC say they’re open to using automation and technology options for routine touchpoints and to get information during the recruiting process. Another 65% said they would like if an organization had an application dashboard so they could track their progress.
Communicate often and keep the process quick
More than half of job seekers (56%) said they would discourage someone else from applying for a job with a company where they had a bad recruiting experience, according to PwC data. A majority of job seekers (92%) said they’ve experienced poor recruiting practices at some point in their career. Candidates pointed out the two most frustrating behaviors by recruiters: dragging out the process by more than a month and recruiters who withdraw communication with no explanation.
“These practices are rampant: 61% of candidates said they’ve simply stopped hearing from an organization during the hiring process,” Sethi says. “And 67% gave up pursuing a role because the recruiting process took too long.”
Ask for social media details
About 50% of job seekers said they’d be willing to share their social media data with potential employers if it helps to determine a better job and organizational fit. Checking out a potential employee’s social media allows HR to understand more about the candidate. But candidates are only willing to share their social media data if the right privacy measures are in place. Recruiters can gain candidate’s trust by being transparent. About 78% of those surveyed by PwC said they expect the recruiting process to be clear on how personal data is used. About 77% of candidates said they wouldn’t apply for a job if they felt their privacy and information wasn’t protected.
Highlight the rewards potential employees most desire
Upskilling, personal flexibility and inclusion are three key aspects of workplace culture that have become more desirable among candidates than salary, according to PWC. Additionally, candidates are willing to give up 11.7% of their salary for more flexibility and training.
Give candidates a way to experience the company’s culture first hand
Today’s candidates are looking for more than a job, the PwC survey notes. They want an employee experience that provides a sense of purpose and pride.
“Culture is so meaningful that 33% of C-suite-level candidates said they’d take a pay cut to work for a mission-driven company that aligns with their ideals,” Sethi says.
It can be challenging for recruiters to provide an accurate sense of a company’s culture. Recruiters can help candidates experience this firsthand by holding networking and other social events.
Always be mindful of your reputation
When candidates have a bad recruiting experience it does more damage than recruiters realize. “It can cause lasting reputational harm and even hurt your chances of hiring the workers who are hardest to find,” Sethi says.
Almost half of candidates (49%) working in high-demand sectors like tech, banking and energy say they would be more likely to turn down a job due to a bad recruiting experience. Of those surveyed by PwC 71% say working for a company with a good reputation as an employer is more important than working for a well-known customer brand.
“That’s good news for small brands jockeying for talent with big-name competitors,” Sethi says. “You can gain an edge by cultivating and promoting a strong, positive reputation. It’s also a call to action for bigger brands: you can’t rely on name alone to attract talent.”
SOURCE: Schiavo, A. (9 December 2019) "6 steps to enhance your recruiting strategy" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from 6 steps to enhance your recruiting strategy
How to maximize employee participation in HSA plans
According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), 96 percent of HSA account holders do not invest any portion of their contributions. Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offer account holders the option to invest and investments are not subject to taxation. Read this blog post to learn more about maximizing employee participation in HSA plans.
High-deductible health plans (HDHPs) not only offer employees the opportunity to save on their premium contributions, they also provide access to what are commonly touted as triple-tax-advantaged health savings accounts (HSAs).
HSA users can put away money tax-free, and account distributions for eligible healthcare costs aren’t subject to federal income tax. Plus, these accounts offer users the option to invest and any investment returns aren’t subject to taxation. Not even the storied 401(k) promises this much bang for the proverbial buck. In fact, HSAs offer the best of pre-tax 401(k) and Roth contributions.
But, no matter how sweet a tax deal this is, for most of the over 25 million account holders, investing takes a back seat to current healthcare needs. According to EBRI, 96% of account holders don’t invest any portion of their balance, which leaves just 4% taking advantage of all three tax-advantaged components of the HSA. Instead, HSA users fall into two distinct categories: spenders and savers, with spenders representing over three-quarters of account holders.
In 2017, the average deductible for employee-only coverage was $2,447 and almost a quarter of employees covered under one of these plans had a deductible of $3,000 or more.
Let’s imagine it’s 2017, and our sample employee — let’s call her Emily — has a $2,500 deductible. Emily funded her HSA to the 2017 maximum of $3,400. If Emily had healthcare costs that totally eroded her deductible and she used her HSA dollars to fund them, at the end of the year Emily would have $900 left in her account ($3,400 maximum minus $2,500 to cover her deductible). That assumes no additional cost-sharing or eligible expenses.
However, Emily is in the minority. Only 13% of employees are fully funding their accounts, rendering an investment threshold potentially out of reach for most people, especially when they are using their HSA dollars for out-of-pocket healthcare costs.
With such a small percentage of HSA owners taking advantage of investment opportunities, finding effective ways to support the spending or saving habits of the majority of users seems to be tantamount. So is helping them address their concerns about deductible risk. As employers help people become smarter consumers, they may be able to build their accounts over time and ultimately pull the investment lever.
So, how can employers support these spenders and savers?
Encourage people to contribute, or to contribute more. EBRI found that only half of account holders put anything in their HSA in 2017, and just under 40% of accounts received no contributions — including employer dollars. Employer contributions can help overcome employees’ reluctance to enroll in an HDHP, but the way they are designed matters. Matching contributions act as a strong incentive for employees to save while also protecting the most vulnerable employees from having to shoulder the entire burden of out-of-pocket healthcare costs.
Another technique to help address employees’ anxiety around a high deductible is to pre-fund out-of-pocket costs by allowing employees to borrow from future contributions. If the employee incurs costs but doesn’t have enough HSA dollars to cover them, they can use future contributions as an advance against current out-of-pocket expenses. The employer provides the funds up front and the employee pays back those funds through payroll deductions. This acts as a safety net for new account holders or those without substantive balances.
Drive people toward the maximum contribution. With fewer than 20% of employees fully funding their HSA, there’s certainly room to move the needle. While additional contributions may not be possible for all employees, reinforcing the tax advantages and the portability of the HSA may help people divert more dollars to insulate themselves against healthcare costs.
Highlight ways to save on healthcare costs. When employees are funding their care before meeting a high deductible, help them spend those HSA dollars wisely. Promote telehealth if you offer it and remind employees about the most appropriate places to get care (for example, urgent care versus the emergency room). Reinforce the preventive aspects of your healthcare plan, including physicals, screenings and routine immunizations. If you have a wellness program that includes bloodwork and biometric testing, make sure you tie this into your healthcare consumerism messaging. There’s generally a lot of care employees can get at no cost, and it helps when you remind them.
Don’t lose contributors to an over-emphasis on investing. The tax advantages of investing in an HSA are undeniable, but most people are just not there yet. When we describe HSAs as a long-term retirement savings vehicle, we may inadvertently be messaging to non-participants that these accounts aren’t for them. Speak to the majority with messaging around funding near-term healthcare costs on a tax-advantaged basis and the flexibility to use HSA dollars for a wide variety of expenses beyond just doctor and pharmacy costs. Investing information should be included, but it shouldn’t be the primary focus.
HSAs are gaining in popularity, and the majority of account holders are using them to self-fund their healthcare, which is a good thing. A small but growing number are taking advantage of their plans’ investment options. Employees eventually may become investors as their accounts grow and they better understand the opportunity to grow their assets and save for the longer term. For now, however, the educational and engagement focus for HSA plan sponsors should primarily be around participation, maximizing contributions and spending HSA dollars wisely.
SOURCE: Cosgray, B. (6 December 2019) "How to maximize employee participation in HSA plans" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/opinion/how-to-maximize-employee-participation-in-hsa-plans
Improving your employee experience during open enrollment
Is your company open enrollment hosted on an online platform? Employers often struggle with employee participation during the open enrollment season. Hosting enrollments online is one way to increase employee participation this year. Read on for more tips to help ease this open enrollment season.d
For HR professionals, open enrollment is one of the most stressful and demanding times of the year. Many employers struggle with employee participation and expensive, time-consuming roll-outs. They also have to provide resources to help employees make the right plan selections for themselves and their families. As we head into another open enrollment season, consider these tips to ease the process.
Switch your open enrollments to online platforms.
If you’re still relying on paper enrollment forms, you are likely spending more money and time than you need to in pursuit of your manual work process and its many inconsistencies. Online platforms provide optimum efficiency, accuracy and convenience for your workforce, offering employee self-service options that encourage employees to take initiative in selecting the best plan for their situation. Not only will members of your workforce benefit from the convenience of being able to explore their options on their own time, but you’ll be able to offer them multi-lingual enrollment materials and have more time to assist them than ever before.
Prioritize and diversify communication.
One of the top ways to ensure a smooth open enrollment period is to use multiple communication channels, including frequent reminders regarding open enrollment deadlines. Without consistent outreach on the part of your HR officers and general managers, you will likely find yourself hunting people down to meet your enrollment and extension deadlines. Using an online self-service portal as well as traditional in-person meetings allow you to remind your employees of critical dates and changes as enrollment closes in.
The robust benefits administration system you choose should offer enrollment tracking and reporting features so you can see at a glance who still needs to begin open enrollment, who has left enrollment documents incomplete, who has made changes to their benefits (such as adding a dependent) and more. You can arrange for the system to send automatic reminders to signal the employee that further actions are needed. Providing multiple reminders will improve participation and the completion of on-time enrollments.
Help employees choose the best health plan for their situation.
In order to have the most successful open enrollment period possible, educating your employees on the different plan options available will go a long towards ensuring employee satisfaction. Studies have shown that most employees don’t have the necessary understanding of terms like “deductible” and “coinsurance,” let alone the tools to know which plan is best for their individual needs. Incorporating at-a-glance comparison tools and charts into your online or print enrollment materials can help employees make the most informed decision possible. It can also be helpful to provide educational materials like videos and simplified plan charts or cost calculators.
Keep Up with Benefit Trends and Voluntary Offerings.
Given the current labor shortage and competitive talent market, you’ll want to make sure your company is up to speed on which new benefits your competitors are looking to add, as well as which ones are appealing to specific roles, locations or generations within potential candidates from your hiring pool.
Voluntary benefits, for example, are playing an increasingly important role in employee benefits portfolios and they don’t cost you anything. Some of the most popular voluntary benefits right now include identity theft protection, pet insurance, long term care insurance and critical illness protection. If you aren’t currently offering these types of additional benefits, they could be a cost-effective way to boost employee morale, increase participation in enrollment and attract more workers to your business.
SOURCE: Smith, M. (2 December 2019) "Improving your employee experience during open enrollment" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/opinion/improving-your-employee-experience-during-open-enrollment
How employers can prevent a new parent penalty in the workplace
The new parent penalty, a bias against new parents, often occurs when employees return from parental leave. The penalty presents itself in managers and colleagues who assume individuals are no longer interested in the upward growth of the company. Read this blog post from Employee Benefit News for ways employers can prevent a new parent penalty in the workplace.
Returning to work after parental leave is a rigorous experience for many employees. It can be a difficult time filled with adjustment pain points and career growth setbacks, all stemming from a surprising cause: the new parent penalty.
This penalty — or bias against new parents — presents itself by way of managers and colleagues assuming these individuals are no longer interested in or dedicated to upward growth in the company in the same way they were prior to taking time off. Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common hurdle. This bias often has a negative impact on the morale and career potential of employees who experience it.
Yet there are several actionable steps that HR leaders and employers, in general, should keep in mind to help new parents get back into the swing of things at work.
Evaluate your current leave options. The first step to ensuring a smooth re-entry to the workplace is implementing a leave policy that allows employees enough time to adjust to their new roles as parents. Only 14% of Americans have access to any paid family leave for the birth of a child, according to Pew Research Center. Even more, 23% of mothers are back on the job within 10 days of giving birth whether they're physically ready or not, according to the Department of Labor. This often results in mothers leaving the workforce, even if though they want to stay. Paid family leave is critical — it improves health outcomes for recovering mothers and new babies and improves retention of new parents.
Set the entire team up to succeed. One thing I often hear from clients at Maven who struggle with returning to work is that there is pressure from managers to resume a business as usual mindset, ignoring the significant shift in their lives. Managers should be trained to help mitigate this by providing better re-entry support. Employers can no longer expect parents to work at all hours or travel at the drop of the hat without some flexibility. Providing a transition or ramp time can be extremely successful in helping parents juggle their often competing work priorities and the needs of their children. Transition time also helps set expectations for other team members who may feel frustrated and overworked when parents come back to work unable to operate in the same capacity that they once did — enter parental bias.
Support career advancement with individualized plans. A client who recently returned to work after maternity leave was surprised to learn during a progress meeting that her manager had placed her on a so-called mommy track. She had requested a flexible work schedule upon her return from leave. Her manager assumed that meant she was no longer interested in opportunities for growth at the company.
This mother is not alone, many new parents face similar roadblocks in career advancement as a result of employers scaling back on assigning them responsibilities that would keep them on the leadership track. Instead of assuming what the new parents are looking for, employers should offer individualized paths for success. This ensures that new parents can continue to grow their careers even if they choose more flexible schedules.
Create a support system. Implementing employee resource groups can be an invaluable tool for new parents looking to connect and receive advice from their colleagues, who have been in their positions. Connecting employees with peers who can speak first hand about the pain points of new working parenthood, and how to make the transition easier can go a long way. Having easy access to a network like this lets employees feel like their concerns are heard and their needs are being met. These employees are in turn more likely to confidently stay in their careers rather than dropping out.
Employers are understanding that there are significant benefits to supporting their employees’ transition back to the workforce, including an increase in retention, culture improvements, and positive impact on their bottom lines. In short: paid family leave is a good thing, and when combined with individualized support from managers and team members, a parent’s return to work is smoother. By understanding the needs of their employees, employers are better equipped and more prepared to anticipate and prevent parental bias that hinders employee and company growth.
SOURCE: Ferrante, M. (5 November 2019) "How employers can prevent a new parent penalty in the workplace" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/opinion/how-employers-can-prevent-a-new-parent-penalty-in-the-workplace
Know your people, know your data: Keys to measuring employee engagement
According to research, over half of employees believe that health insurance is important in terms of their job satisfaction. Read the following blog post for ways employers can measure employee engagement.
Offering a total compensation and benefits package that fits employee needs drives morale, motivation and performance in the workplace.
Simply put, people who are happy and healthy are more productive. When an organization offers benefits that appeal to employees (and workers know how to use these benefits) employers should see an increase in total productivity.
On the other hand, if a company is off the mark with the total compensation package, or simply hasn’t communicated the benefits to people correctly, it will either see unchanged productivity or a decline. Organizations struggling to find improvement in productivity should look at their employee benefits offerings for answers.
Providing effective group health insurance and well-being programs is a good way to reduce the amount of sick leave worker's take. If employees promptly get healthcare when they’re ill, they’re more likely to be healthier overall. If an organization doesn’t offer appropriate health benefits, the result can be presenteeism.
Additionally, the cost of presenteeism multiplies when sick staff are contagious. One sick person refusing to take a day off can snowball into multiple people arriving ill to work on subsequent days. When illnesses reach critical mass and it’s harder for people to recover from things like the flu or a cold, organizations may find themselves short-staffed when employees finally pay to see a doctor.
Job satisfaction and morale are also linked to employee benefits. Research shows more than half of employees believe that health insurance is important in terms of their job satisfaction — even more crucial if staff live in an area where medical services are expensive.
Strategies to measure benefits engagement. HR staff have multiple ways of measuring how certain workplace functions are performing. Here are some effective methods organizations can use to measure benefits engagement.
Staff surveys. Questionnaires that seek to understand what benefits your staff know they have, and how they’ll use them.
Pulse surveys. Asking staff short, frequent questions about a benefits platform.
Focus groups. Gathering cross-functional groups of staff members together to have a facilitated discussion about benefits.
Exit surveys. Include questions about benefits and satisfaction levels during exit surveys, and then investigate what their next employer might be offering to have lured them away.
If organizations are not regularly questioning how well their benefits plan is performing, they may be missing an opportunity to get key insights into how employees feel about their packages.
Offering employee benefits isn’t just to support an organization’s staff, it should also support an organization’s long-term sustainability. Employee engagement is one key measure. The challenge for organizations is ensuring not only that they include benefits that will be relevant to staff, but also that they properly educate them in what those benefits are.
The less staff are educated on what benefits exist and how they can use them, the less likely they are to engage with them. Not having an appropriate communication strategy can often set benefits plan performance behind.
Working with analytics and claims data can indicate when specific benefits aren’t being used. Knowing what causes the lack of engagement requires a bit of discussion and investigation, but finding sustainable solutions is completely dependent on understanding whether the issue is the benefits themselves, or the communication to staff.
SOURCE: Rider, S. (1 November 2019) "Know your people, know your data: Keys to measuring employee engagement" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/opinion/using-data-to-measure-employee-engagement
Company Gifts That Workers Hate
Gift cards, water bottles and coffee mugs are just a few examples of workplace gift ideas that employees do not want or make them feel unappreciated. According to a new survey, more than 8 in 10 employees have received a workplace gift that they didn't want. Continue reading this blog post from SHRM to learn more.
Coffee mugs and water bottles emblazoned with the company's logo. Gift cards to stores that employees rarely visit.
These are among the gifts that companies give to workers—and that workers hate, that make them feel unappreciated, and that leave the impression that their employers are thoughtless.
So says a new survey by Snappy, the New York City-based employee engagement company, which found that more than 8 in 10 U.S. employees have received a workplace gift—mostly from managers—that they didn't want.
As the winter holidays approach, and as companies bestow gifts to show they appreciate their employees, the survey of more than 1,000 U.S. workers demonstrates that leaders may want to give more thought to workplace gift-giving.
No Logos, Please
Almost 3 in 4 workers would prefer to get a gift without their company logo on it, according to the survey, which Snappy conducted in September.
"Some employees have reported to me that they don't mind some gifts with logos, but they resent feeling like a 'walking billboard' for the company," said Paul White, who has a Ph.D. in psychology and is co-author of The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace (Northfield Publishing, 2019). "Others state that when they are given gifts that have the company's logo, the item immediately is disqualified as a gift—because the focus of the item is the company, not the recipient."
White's research into how more than 100,000 employees feel about the workplace found that only 6 percent identified gifts as the primary way they want a company to show appreciation—far below getting words of affirmation (46 percent), quality time with a supervisor or co-workers (26 percent) and getting help from supervisors or colleagues on a project (22 percent).
"Employees are not saying they do not want tangible rewards … for doing good work," White wrote. "But what the data show is that when choosing comparatively between words of affirmation, quality time or an act of service—receiving a gift is far less meaningful than appreciation communicated through these actions. For example, employees often comment, 'If I receive some gift but I never hear any praise, no one stops to see how I'm doing, or I never get any help—the gift feels superficial.' "
Are Companies Catching On?
One would think, given research and books like White's that demonstrate how people feel about workplace gifts, that companies would adjust their gift-giving practices. Often, they don't because no one asks employees what they thought about the present. Workers are in a tight spot: If they complain or don't seem enthused, they may be seen as ungrateful or demanding, White said.
In fact, the Snappy survey found that of those workers who got a gift they didn't like, 9 in 10 pretended they liked the gift anyway.
"The leader needs to be interested in what the meaning or message of the gift is, [but] most often, it is a rather thoughtless process," White said. "In work relationships, it is the thought that counts. For employees who value gifts, either giving everyone the same item or giving them a generic gift with no thought or personal meaning is actually offensive."
Cord Himelstein is vice president of marketing and communications for HALO Recognition, an employee rewards and incentives company based in Long Island City, N.Y. He said he thinks companies are paying attention to their gift-giving practices. He noted recent data from WorldatWork showed that about 44 percent of recognition programs get updated or changed every year.
"If management isn't actively listening and applying feedback in a systematic way, then there's no point in offering gifts at all," he said. "Nailing down the right balance of rewards that employees really love takes time and effort."
Best and Worst Gifts
Respondents said that some of the "worst" gifts employers ever gave them included a pin, a plaque, and a gift card to a store they'd never visited.
In fact, more than 3 in 4 said a gift card is less meaningful than an actual gift, and almost 9 in 10 admitted that they'd lost the gift card or forgotten that it had a balance on it.
"Gift cards feel transactional and impersonal," said Hani Goldstein, co-founder and CEO of Snappy. "Employers fail to realize that gift cards put a price tag on the recipient's value and make them feel like they're worth $25. Our research points to one key insight: The most appreciated gifts aren't impactful because of their actual monetary value. What matters most is what the gifts are and how they are given."
Employers should remember that things like pins and plaques, Himelstein said, "are commemorative add-ons, not whole gifts, and should always be supplemented with more substantial and appropriate rewards."
Employees also described some of the "best" gifts employers gave them, which included an espresso machine, a trip to Paris, an iPad and a television.
White noted that such expensive gifts can be impractical for a company. They may be appropriate in rare situations, White said, such as rewarding a worker who reached an exceptional goal or recognizing someone who's served long and well.
"Generally, meaningful gifts between employees and supervisors are more impactful when they are personal and thoughtful rather than pricey," he said.
Himelstein said more expensive gifts—at least those more expensive than mugs or pins—"aren't only practical, it's a best practice."
"Nobody wants a cheap gift for their hard work, and employees can always tell when the company isn't trying," he said. "Also, don't lose sight of the fact that you don't need to constantly shower employees with expensive gifts to make them feel appreciated."
SOURCE: Wilkie, D. (14 November 2019) "Company Gifts That Workers Hate" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/employee-relations/Pages/gifts-workers-hate-.aspx
DOL’s new fluctuating workweek rule may pave road for worker bonuses
The Department of Labor’s new fluctuating workweek rule could give employers additional flexibility when calculating employee overtime pay and could potentially make it easier for workers to get bonuses. Read the following blog post to learn more about this newly proposed rule.
The Department of Labor’s new proposal would give employers additional flexibility when calculating overtime pay for salaried, non-exempt employees who work irregular hours — and may make it easier for some workers to get bonuses.
The new proposal, released this week, clarifies for employers that bonuses paid on top of fixed salaries are compatible with the so-called “fluctuating workweek” method of compensation, or a way of calculating overtime pay for workers whose hours vary week-to-week. Supplemental payments, such as bonuses or overtime pay, must be included when calculating the regular rate of pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to the DOL.
"For far too long, job creators have faced uncertainty regarding their ability to provide bonus pay for workers with fluctuating workweeks," says Cheryl Stanton, wage and hour division administrator, at the DOL in a statement. "This proposed rule will provide much-needed clarity for job creators who are looking for new ways to better compensate their workers."
Paul DeCamp, an attorney with the law firm Epstein Becker Green’s labor and workforce management practice, says the DOL rule clears up ambiguity surrounding when employers can use the fluctuating workweek rule. A preamble in a 2011 Obama-era regulation suggested that bonuses were contrary to a flexible workweek, DeCamp says.
“The department’s past rulemakings have created ambiguity — paying employees a bonus makes the fluctuating workweek calculation unavailable,” DeCamp says. “During the last administration, some people with DOL took the position that the fluctuating workweek was only available when the compensation the employee received was in the form of salary.”
This new update may make it easier for employers to pay out bonuses or other kinds of compensation to a specific group of workers. Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia says the proposal will remove burdens on American workers and make it easier for them to get extra pay.
"At a time when there are more job openings than job seekers, this proposal would allow America's workers to reap even more benefits from the competitive labor market,” Scalia says.
DeCamp adds that the update will make it easier for employers to provide bonuses to these workers, without being concerned they are going to impact their overtime calculation.
“What this does is it makes it possible for employers who have salaried non-exempt employees to pay other types of compensation too — without worrying that in paying that bonus or other type of compensation they’re going to screw up their overtime calculation,” DeCamp says.
But DeCamp warns that employers should not confuse this regulation with the overtime rule that the DOL finalized in September, which raised the minimum salary threshold for overtime eligibility to $35,568 per year.
“These two regulations are not interlocking. They don’t really deal with the same subject,” he says. “They’re both talking about very different employee groups.”
SOURCE: Hroncich, C. (6 November 2019) "DOL’s new fluctuating workweek rule may pave road for worker bonuses" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/news/dols-fluctuating-workweek-rule-helps-with-worker-bonuses
A benefits wishlist for millennial employees
Did you know: 63 percent of millennials would struggle to cover an unexpected expense of $500. With millennials becoming the new core of today's workforce, many employers are tailoring their job postings, descriptions and benefits to correspond with the millennial wish list. Read the following article to learn more.
Millennials are the new core workforce. Their concept of work is different than the standards set by previous generations. They bring bold, new approaches of what work should be, how and where it should be performed, and what the rewards for work should be.
While this has made some employers uncomfortable, millennials are not likely to change their ways. Employers must reassess their concepts to bring out the best of the unique millennial personality.
When I look at the U.S. workforce, I see a dramatic shift in the attitudes, personalities and attributes of millennials, which makes up the majority of the workforce. Millennials bring many positive attributes to the table, including a preference for flat management structures, multiple degrees, technological skills, energy and self-confidence. They also have high expectations for themselves, prefer to work in teams, are able to multitask and seek out challenges.
However, millennials have the highest levels of stress and depression of any generation. About 20% of millennial workers have suffered work-related depression. Millennials want their own living space, but they’re less likely to become homeowners because of student loan debt. Only 6% of millennials feel they're making enough to cover basic needs, according to an Economic Innovation Group national survey of millennials. As a result, 63% of millennials would struggle to cover an unexpected $500 expense. This generation wants to live within their means, but they’ve never been taught how — they need and want to be educated on how to achieve financial independence.
Think about your corporate strategy for attracting millennials. Here are just a few of the ways companies are tailoring their job postings, descriptions and benefits to correspond with the millennial wish list.
Working with meaning. Millennials want to have meaning in their work. Past generations may have worked simply because they needed to pay the bills. Millennials want to get paid too, but they also want to know that their employer is doing more than making and selling products or services. They aspire to social causes and want to know why the organization exists and how they can personally participate and contribute in that culture.
Continued personal growth and career advancement. Millennials want to be coached and have work-life balance. They want management feedback, even if it’s negative. Regular pay increases and promotions are important to them too. It shows that you’re invested in their career path and value their contributions.
Flexible hours and the ability to work remotely. They want flexible hours and the option to work from a location of their choice. This flexibility also contributes to their desire for no added workplace stress. Technology has made it possible to connect 24/7 from anywhere on any device. If you have yet to adapt your culture to accept this new norm, you’ll likely be missing out on this generation of candidates.
Technology. Millennials are smart-device people. Who better to move your organization forward than the individuals who grew up knowing how to download and use an app, or create a widget that solves a problem? They think technology-first and is required for any organization looking to remain competitive.
Financial wellness. A robust financial wellness program that includes self-directed education, competitions, games and rewards will pique millennial interest. Products and services like financial coaching, cashflow tracking, early wage access and credit resources that address their financial challenges will keep them engaged. Above all, a financial wellness program must be tailored to each individual employee to achieve maximum participation and behavioral change.
Employers must be vigilant in order to keep the best and brightest talent. They should also be proactive in managing their employees on a personal level, especially millennials. Otherwise, they are likely to be disengaged and move on — and that will cost money.
As managers and leaders of the organization, it is your responsibility to ensure that millennials understand their future in the company and to communicate that they don’t have to go somewhere else to advance. Employers and leaders have a responsibility to provide millennials with a desirable place to land, and a culture that encourages them to thrive. Don’t give millennials reasons to leave your organization. We need to support them, engage them, reward them and give them reasons to stay.
SOURCE: Kilby, D. (6 November 2019) "A benefits wishlist for millennial employees" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/opinion/what-employee-benefits-do-millennials-want
7 Tips for Coaching Employees to Improve Performance
How do you align coaching with individual employees’ needs? Employee coaching is central to improving the performance of employees, as well as helping with employee onboarding and retention. Read this blog post for seven tips to effectively coach employees to improve performance.
Managers and leaders are critical to the success of a business, and so are effective coaching skills. Consistent coaching helps with employee onboarding and retention, performance improvement, skill improvement, and knowledge transfer. On top of these benefits, coaching others is an effective method for reinforcing and transferring learning.
While there are many important leadership skills and competencies, coaching is central to improving the performance of entire teams.
A coaching leadership style is proving to be much more effective with today’s employees than the more authoritarian styles that many business leaders operate under. Leaders who coach employees instead of commanding them are able to build a much more talented and agile workforce, which leads to a healthy and growing business.
Think back to your peewee soccer days (or any team sport, really). I bet you can think of three kinds of teams:
- The directionless group of kids running around aimlessly, taking frequent breaks for cookies and juice.
- The organized group who focused, but still had fun.
- The hyper-focused, aggressive group.
And how do you think these teams got the way they did? The coach, of course! The first group had a coddling coach, the second had a balanced coach, and the third had an intense coach living out his failed soccer dreams vicariously through a group of 6-year-olds.
Which seems like the healthiest group? Hopefully, you said the second one. But how do you coach in such a way that produces a healthy team?
Good coaching can be easy to spot, but hard to emulate.
First, you need to meet your team members where they’re at. Coaching isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Some people will need a lot more handholding than others, depending on where they’re at in their job role and overall career.
So before we get to our seven coaching tips, here’s a quick look at how you can align coaching conversations with individual employees’ needs.
How to Coach Employees at Different Levels
The best coaches don’t use the same coaching style for each individual team member. They’re flexible enough to adapt to the situation at hand.
There are five levels of employee performance, and you’ll have to adapt your style for each one to coach them effectively:
- Novices
- Doers
- Performers
- Masters
- Experts
Level 1: Novice
Novices are in the “telling” stage of learning. They need to receive a lot of instruction and constructive correction. If you’re confident in the people you’ve hired, then they probably won’t need to stay in this stage very long. Also, watch out for your own micromanaging tendencies – you don’t want to hold an employee back from moving to the next level!
Level 2: Doer
Once Novices begin to understand the task and start to perform, they transition to the Doer stage. They haven’t yet mastered the job, so there’s still a heavy amount of “tell” coaching going on. But they’re doing some productive work and contributing to the team. So, there are now opportunities to encourage new behaviors, and praise Doers for good results.
Level 3: Performer
As Doers start accomplishing a task to standards, they become Performers. Now they’re doing real work and carrying their full share of the load. And they’re doing the task the way it should be done. With Performers, there’s much less “tell” coaching, if any at all. But there’s still feedback, mostly focused on recognizing good results and improving the results that don’t meet expectations.
Level 4: Master
Some Performers may continue to grow on the job and reach the Master stage. At this point, they can not only accomplish tasks to standards, they can do so efficiently and effectively. Plus, they have a deep enough understanding of what should be done that they can teach and coach others on the task. And they know enough to actually help improve standard processes.
Level 5: Expert
Experts are valuable members of the team and may become front-line team leads. Experts don’t need a lot of direction – they’re highly self-sufficient. If anything, they can provide direction to others. Experts don’t necessarily require a lot of recognition and praise to stay motivated, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want any.
7 Coaching Tips for Managers and Leaders
So, now that we’ve gone over the different performance levels your employees can be at, let’s get to what you came for – the tips!
These coaching tips will work with any of those five levels and can help you have more mutually beneficial coaching conversations that will improve overall team performance!
1. Ask guiding questions
Open-ended, guiding questions lead to more detailed and thoughtful answers, which lead to more productive coaching conversations. As a manager or leader, it is critical that you develop strong relationships with your employees. This will help you determine if your employees are curious, have the capacity to perform and improve, and what kind of attitude they have towards their work.
This is where communication skills and emotional intelligence really come into play. Managers must guide conversations both by asking questions and listening, not by giving directives. Employees learn and grow the most when they uncover the answers themselves.
2. Recognize what’s going well
Coaching well requires a balance of criticism and praise. If your coaching conversations are completely focused on what’s not working and what the employee has to do to change, that’s not motivating, it’s demoralizing.
Your recognition of the things your employee is doing well can be a springboard into how they can build from that to improve. We’re not talking about the compliment sandwich here, though, because that coaching technique often devolves into shallow praise that comes off as insincere.
Giving compliments that you don’t actually mean can have a worse effect than not giving any at all, so take the time to think about specific things that are going well, and let your employees know that you see and appreciate them!
Another aspect of this is how the employee likes to be recognized. This is a good question to ask them from the start of your relationship – does frequent recognition help them stay motivated, or is every once in awhile sufficient? Do they prefer recognition to be given publicly or privately? The last thing you want to do is embarrass someone when you’re trying to be a good coach!
3. Listen and empower
Coaching requires both encouragement and empowerment. As a manager and a leader, your job is to build one-on-one relationships with employees that result in improved performance.
Your employees are likely to have a lot of input, questions, and feedback. It’s important for them to know you care enough to listen to what they have to say, so encourage them to share their opinions.
Some employees will have no problem speaking their mind, while others will need a LOT of encouragement before they share an opinion with you openly. Once they do open up, be sure to respect those opinions by discussing them, rather than dismissing them.
4. Understand their perspective
When you’re coaching employees to improve performance and engagement, approaching things from their perspective, rather than your own, will help enormously with seeing the changes and results you want.
Everyone has different motivations, preferences, and personalities, so if you ask questions to help you understand where their “why” comes from and what their preferred “how” looks like, then you can tailor your coaching conversations to align the way they work best with the improvements you’re both aiming for.
For example, maybe you recently moved from an office plan that had lots of individual offices to a much more open-plan, and one of the reps on your sales team has shown a drastic decrease in successful calls. If you start asking questions and find out that this is someone who is excellent in one-on-one conversations, but rarely speaks up in a group setting, then you can see how they’d feel like everyone is listening in on their call, making them less confident than when they had their own space.
With that perspective in mind, you can work with them more effectively on how to get their numbers back up.
5. Talk about next steps
Coaching conversations are meant to yield changes and results, so be sure to clearly define and outline what needs to happen next. This will ensure you and your employees are on the same page with expectations, and provide them with a clear understanding of the practical steps they can take to make changes and improve.
Also, these next steps should be mutually agreed upon – talk about what is reasonable to expect given their workload and the complexity of the changes being made.
6. Coach in the moment
If an employee comes to you with a question about a process or protocol, use this opportunity to teach them something new. If you’re not able to stop what you’re doing right away, schedule time with them as soon as possible to go over it.
Better yet, keep a weekly one-on-one meeting scheduled with each employee so you can go over questions and issues regularly, while maintaining productivity. Coaching employees with a goal of improving performance means making them a priority each week!
7. Commit to continuous learning
Make a commitment to improving your own skills and competencies. If you’re not continuously learning, why should your employees? Lead by example and your team will follow.
Show that you are interested in their success (why wouldn’t you be?). Ask questions about where they see their career going, or how they see their role evolving in the company. Even if they don’t have a plan laid out yet, these questions will make them think about their career and what they want to accomplish within the organization.
Show your employees that you don’t just want them to do better so you look better, but that you’re actively interested in their career, accomplishments, and professional success.
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is a critical aspect of coaching employees in a way that builds relationships, boosts engagement, and improves performance. Managers and leaders can see greatly improved coaching skills by taking steps to improve their EQ – they go hand in hand!
SOURCE: Brubaker, K. (24 September 2019) "7 Tips for Coaching Employees to Improve Performance" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.humanresourcestoday.com/?open-article-id=11617247&article-title=7-tips-for-coaching-employees-to-improve-performance