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
It’s time to consider a wage and hour audit
A record $322 million of unpaid wages were recovered for the 2019 fiscal year, according to the Department of Labor (DOL). With the new salary threshold taking effect January 1, it may be a good time to consider conducting a wage and hour audit. Read the following blog post from Employee Benefit News to learn more.
Those who believed the Trump administration would scale back the Obama-era Department of Labor’s aggressive enforcement of wage and hour laws may be surprised to learn that the DOL recently announced that it recovered a record $322 million in unpaid wages for fiscal year 2019. This is $18 million more than that recovered in the last fiscal year, which was the previous record.
The agency has set records in back wages collected every year since 2015, according to data released by the DOL. This year, the average wages DOL recovered per employee were $1,025. The agency’s office of federal contractor compliance also announced that it had recovered a record $41 million in settlements over discrimination actions involving federal contractors, an increase of 150% over the last fiscal year.
Effective Jan. 1, the new salary threshold that most salaried employees must earn to be exempt from overtime pay will be $35,568, or $684 per week, under the final rule issued by the DOL in September.
With the new salary threshold taking effect soon, and the DOL continuing to aggressively enforce wage and hour laws, it is a good time to consider conducting a wage and hour audit to ensure that employees are properly classified as exempt or nonexempt and that other pay practices comply with the law.
Employers who did this in 2016, only to find out later that the Obama administration’s proposed hike in the salary threshold would not take effect, may have a strong feeling of déjà vu. But this time, there does not appear to be any viable legal challenge that would delay or block the salary threshold change, so employers must be prepared to either increase salaries of “white-collar” exempt employees (who earn less than $35,568) or reclassify them as hourly employees by January.
Among other things, a wage and hour audit should include the following:
- Review all individuals classified as independent contractors;
- Review all employees classified as exempt from overtime under one or more “white-collar” exemptions (administrative, executive, and professional), who must earn at least the $35,568 salary threshold beginning January 1, 2020;
- Review all other employees classified as exempt from overtime, including computer and sales employees; and
- Review all individuals classified as interns, trainees, volunteers, and the like.
In addition to ensuring whether employees are properly classified as exempt or nonexempt, a thorough wage and hour audit should look at a number of other issues, including timekeeping and rounding of hours worked, meal and rest breaks, whether bonuses and other special payments need to be included in employees’ regular rate of pay for calculating overtime, and payments besides regular wages, such as paid leave and reimbursement of expenses.
SOURCE: Allen, S. (8 November 2019) "It’s time to consider a wage and hour audit" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/opinion/employers-should-consider-a-wage-and-hour-audit
Subway’s new program helps workers get degrees
What voluntary benefits does your organization offer? Subway is now offering a program that gives workers access to career readiness and high school diploma programs. Read the following blog post to learn more about this new benefit.
Subway is making it easier for employees to get high school and college degrees.
The sandwich franchise is launching a new education benefit for employees in 331 restaurants in central Florida. The program, which began piloting last month, gives workers access to a career readiness and high school diploma program.
“I think something like this really does bring value and improves the lives of [our] employees,” says Michael Robling, an operations specialist at Subway for North America.
Subway’s program includes a career readiness boot camp and high school degree program offered through Penn Foster. Robling says the company has partnerships with several universities to help employees get college degrees at a discount. The company also offers scholarships for employees through the Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation, a private foundation created by one of Subway's co-founders.
“This is definitely just a start,” Robling says.
This move comes after Mexican-inspired restaurant chain Chipotle began offering free college degrees to its 80,000 employees from 75 business and technology degree programs. Employees at Chipotle can earn their associates or bachelor degrees online from the University of Arizona, Bellevue University, Brandman University, Southern New Hampshire University and Wilmington University.
More than half of employers offer a tuition assistance benefit to employees, according to data from the Society for Human Resource Management. Indeed, companies including Disney, Walmart and Discover, Chick-fil-A, Hulu, Lowe’s, McDonald’s and Taco Bell all also announced education benefits last year.
Robling says he thinks more employers will begin to invest in benefits that help workers achieve higher education goals. Employees at Subway are appreciative of the opportunity and it may help the company retain workers long-term, he adds.
“If the franchise owner is looking out for me, I’m going to be happier at work,” he says. “That’s one of the big positives of this program.”
SOURCE: Hroncich, C. (11 November 2019) "Subway’s new program helps workers get degrees" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/news/education-assistance-for-college-and-high-school-diplomas
IRS updates rules on retirement plan hardship distributions
Recently, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) finalized updates to the hardship distribution regulations. These new regulations make the requirements more flexible and participant friendly. Read this blog post to learn more about these updated regulations.
Employers who allow for hardship distributions from their 401(k) or 403(b) plans should be aware that the Internal Revenue Service recently finalized updates to the hardship distribution regulations to reflect legislative changes. The new rules make the hardship distribution requirements more flexible and participant-friendly.
Hardship distributions are in-service distributions from 401(k) or 403(b) plans that are available only to participants with an immediate and heavy financial need. Plans are not required to offer hardship distributions. But there are certain requirements if a plan does offer hardship distributions. Generally, a hardship distribution may be made to a participant only if the participant has an immediate and heavy financial need, and the distribution is necessary and not in excess of the amount needed (plus related taxes or penalties) to satisfy that financial need.
An administrator of a 401(k) or 403(b) plan can determine whether a participant satisfies these requirements based on all of the facts and circumstances, or the administrator may rely on certain tests that the IRS has established, called safe harbors.
Over the last fifteen years, Congress has changed the laws that apply to hardship distributions. The new rules align existing IRS regulations with Congress’s legislative changes. Some of the changes are mandatory and some are optional. The new rules make the following changes. The following changes are required.
Elimination of six-month suspension.
Employers may no longer impose a six-month suspension of employee elective deferrals following the receipt of a hardship distribution.
Required certification of financial need.
Employers must now require participants to certify in writing or by other electronic means that they do not have sufficient cash or liquid assets reasonably available, in order to satisfy the financial need and qualify for a hardship distribution.
There were also some optional changes made to hardship distributions.
Removal of the requirement to take a plan loan.
Employers have the option, but are not mandated, to eliminate the requirement that participants take a plan loan before qualifying for a hardship distribution. In order to qualify for a hardship distribution, participants are still required to first take all available distributions from all of the employer’s tax-qualified and nonqualified deferred compensation plans to satisfy the participant’s immediate and heavy financial need. The optional elimination of the plan loan requirement may first apply beginning January 1, 2019.
Expanded safe harbor expenses to qualify for hardship.
The new hardship distribution regulations expand the existing list of pre-approved expenses that are deemed to be an immediate and heavy financial need. Prior to the new regulations, the list included the following expenses:
- Expenses for deductible medical care under Section 213(d) of the Internal Revenue Code;
- Costs related to the purchase of a principal residence;
- Payment of tuition and related expenses for a spouse, child, or dependent;
- Payment of amounts to prevent eviction or foreclosure related to the participant’s principal residence;
- Payments for burial or funeral expenses for a spouse, child, or dependent; and
- Expenses for repair of damage to a principal residence that would qualify for a casualty loss deduction under Section 165 of the Internal Revenue Code.
The new regulations expand this list of permissible expenses by adding a participant’s primary beneficiary under the plan as a person for whom medical, tuition and burial expenses can be incurred. The new regulations also clarify that the immediate and heavy financial need for principal residence repair and casualty loss expenses is not affected by recent changes to Section 165 of the Internal Revenue Code, which allows for a deduction of such expenses only if the principal residence is located in a federally declared disaster zone. Finally, the new regulations add an additional permissible financial need to the list above for expenses incurred due to federally declared disasters.
New contribution sources for hardships.
The law and regulations provide that employers may now elect to allow participants to obtain hardship distributions from safe harbor contributions that employers use to satisfy nondiscrimination requirements, qualified nonelective elective contributions (QNECS), qualified matching contributions (QMACs) and earnings on elective deferral contributions. However, 403(b) plans are not permitted to make hardship distributions from earnings on elective deferrals, and QNECS and QMACs are distributable as hardship distributions only from 403(b) plans not held in a custodial account.
As this list indicates, the new regulations make substantial changes to the hardship distribution rules.
The deadline for adopting this amendment depends on the type of plan the employer maintains and when the employer elects to apply the changes. Plan sponsors should work with their document providers and legal counsel to determine the specific deadlines for making amendments.
SOURCE: Tavares, L. (01 November 2019) "IRS updates rules on retirement plan hardship distributions" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/opinion/irs-updates-rules-on-401k-403b-plan-hardship-distributions
Strategies for communicating with all five generations in the workforce
Did you know: Thirty-eight percent of Americans work for a boss who is younger than they are. According to the Labor Department and U.S. Census Bureau data, there are more employees over the age of 85 working than ever before. Read this article for strategies for communicating with all five generations in today's workforce.
The age gap in today’s workforce is getting increasingly wide. Just look at the Democratic primary for the nation’s highest office.
With Pete Buttigieg, 37, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, 78, running for president, the age range of the job applicants for the biggest job in the U.S. now spans four decades. There are also more workers over 85 working than ever before, according to Labor Department and U.S. Census Bureau data.
Here’s another fact: Today 38% of Americans work for a boss who is younger than they are, said Lindsey Pollak, author of “Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace,” at the Atlantic’s Aging Up conference on Wednesday.
“This is the first time in our country's history that we have five distinct generations in the workplace,” said Pollak, who has spent more than 10 years researching and studying millennials. “They are the largest generation in the workplace. You've heard a lot from millennials today, but all of the rest of us are here too.”
“To succeed in this environment, however you approach it, you have to think about all of those generations,” she said.
How can employers win the war on talent with such a diverse age range in the modern workforce? Pollak uses the example of a music remix to frame various engagement strategies — an idea she got based on her interview of a DJ. For example, playing a remix of a classic song at a party could entice both the younger and older generations to get on the dance floor, she said.
“[The DJ] said the trick is to play a remix because the older people at the party recognize the classic and say I know that song. And they come and dance,” Pollak said. “The younger people recognize the remix… and they come and dance. So the solution to a five-generation workplace is not either-or. We did it the millennial way or we do it the boomer way. It's always about, how can we bring everybody together?“
Pollak offered three examples of how employers can appeal to multiple generations. The first centers on recruitment. Employers should recruit from across generations. One example was a solution by a pool and beach club in Galveston, Texas, which began recruiting older workers after they experienced a downturn in teenage applicants, she said.
“[The beach club] looked around and said, who really comes and swims here every day? It's the people over 50 who want a low-impact exercise,” she said. “And so they started putting up posters saying, do you want to turn your passion into a career?”
The idea worked. Lifeguard staff became people over 55 including one 83-year-old lifeguard, Pollak said.
A second strategy involves communication, she said. Asking employees about their preferred communication style is one key way to ease multigenerational differences.
“The simple [strategy] here is to not look for the one way that everybody wants to communicate. There isn't one. It depends on your personality. It depends on the work that you do. It depends on your personal preferences,” she said.
The solution is to simply get in the habit of asking everyone at work how they prefer to communicate. Asking employees their communication style of preference — whether that be over text, a phone call or social media — can help improve communication.
Employers should look for mentoring opportunities, along with reverse mentoring experiences, where younger workers can help guide older workers on new skills, she said.
“Mentoring is an example of a classic practice that should never go out of style. There is nothing old fashioned or outdated about mentoring,” she said.
Mentoring also goes in both directions. Junior staff may be more proficient using various apps, for instance, and be good candidates to train other colleagues. To have a successful multi-generational workforce, employers should consider input from employees in a variety of age groups.
“Think of yourself as having a multigenerational board of advisers,” Pollak said. “What if you had a person from each generation who was advising you on how to look at the world and how to think about your job and your career?”
SOURCE: Siew, W. (31 October 2019) "Strategies for communicating with all five generations in the workforce" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/news/strategies-for-communicating-with-all-five-generations-in-the-workforce
DOL proposes rule on digital 401(k) disclosures
A new rule has been proposed by the Department of Labor (DOL) that is meant to encourage employers to issue retirement plan disclosures electronically. This rule would allow plan sponsors of 401(k)s and other defined-contribution plans to default participants with a valid email address to receive plan disclosures electronically. Read the following blog post to learn more.
The Department of Labor proposed a rule Tuesday that's meant to encourage more employers to issue retirement plan disclosures electronically to plan participants.
The rule would allow sponsors of 401(k)s and other defined-contribution plans to default participants with valid email addresses into receiving all their retirement plan disclosures — such as fee disclosure statements and summary plan descriptions — digitally instead of on paper, as has been the traditional route.
Participants can opt-out of e-delivery if they prefer paper notices. The proposed rule covers the roughly 700,000 retirement plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
"DOL rules have largely relied on a paper default," said Will Hansen, chief government affairs officer for the American Retirement Association. "Everything had to be paper, unless they opted into electronic default. This rule is changing the current standing."
Proponents of digital delivery believe it will save employers money and increase participants' retirement savings. The DOL also believes digital delivery will increase the effectiveness of the disclosures.
Plan sponsors are responsible for the costs associated with furnishing participant notices, and many small and large plans pass those costs on to plan participants, Mr. Hansen said. The DOL estimates its proposal will save retirement plans $2.4 billion over the next 10 years through the reduction of materials, printing and mailing costs for paper disclosures.
Opponents of digital delivery maintain that paper delivery should remain the default option. They have noted that participants are more likely to receive and open disclosures if they come by mail, and claim that print is a more readable medium for financial disclosures that helps participants better retain the information.
"We are reviewing the proposal carefully and look forward to providing comments to the Department of Labor, but we already know that in a world of information overload, many people prefer to get important financial information delivered on paper, not electronically," said Cristina Martin Firvida, vice president of financial security and consumer affairs at AARP. "The reality is missed emails, misplaced passwords and difficulties reading complex information on a screen mean that most people do not visit their retirement plan website on a regular basis."
President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order on August 2018 calling on the federal government to strengthen U.S. retirement security. In that order, Mr. Trump directed the Labor secretary to examine how the agency could improve the effectiveness of plan notices and disclosures and reduce their cost.
The DOL proposal, called Default Electronic Disclosure by Employee Pension Benefit Plans under ERISA, is structured as a safe harbor, which offers legal protections to employers that follow the guidelines laid out in the rule.
Retirement plans would satisfy their obligation by making the disclosure information available online and sending participants and beneficiaries a notice of internet availability of the disclosures. That notice must be sent each time a plan disclosure is posted to the website.
A digital default can't occur without first notifying participants by paper that disclosures will be sent electronically to the participant's email address.
The 30-day comment period on the proposal starts Wednesday. In addition, the DOL issued a request for information on other measures it could take to improve the effectiveness of ERISA disclosures.
SOURCE: Lacurci, G. (22 October 2019) "DOL proposes rule on digital 401(k) disclosures" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.investmentnews.com/article/20191022/FREE/191029985/dol-proposes-rule-on-digital-401-k-disclosures
Putting Humanity into HR Compliance: 3 Steps to Active Listening
How is your HR department communicating with your employees? One of the most common complaints people hear about HR professionals is that they don't listen. Read this blog post from SHRM for three practices of active listening.
When I work with executives and managers, a common complaint I hear about HR professionals is "They don't listen. They just tell."
So when I work with HR professionals, I encourage them to adopt three practices of active listening:
- The period-to-question-mark ratio.
- The EAAR listening method.
- Confront, then question.
The Period-to-Question-Mark Ratio
When you're engaged in a conversation, what's the ratio of your sentences that end with periods to those that end with question marks? If you're like most people, the ratio is overwhelmingly tilted toward sentences that end with periods. This could show that you are telling people what to do more often than you are looking for consensus on how to solve a problem. When you engage in a discussion with an executive, manager or employee, keep the ratio in mind. Strive to correct the imbalance by making yourself ask questions. The fact that you ask matters more than what the question is.
People I've coached have found that keeping the ratio in mind acts as a self-regulating device to ask more questions.
The EAAR Listening Method
E: Explore
A: Acknowledge
A: Apply
R: Response
It's a sequence. Begin the discussion with an exploratory, open-ended question: "Ms. Manager, what are the reasons that led you to conclude Mr. Employee should be fired?" "Tell me more." "Please share some examples." "Help me understand."
Once you've explored the other person's position and reasons for it, move to acknowledgment. Get the person to acknowledge that you understand his or her point. "So, Ms. Manager, if I understand you correctly, you believe Mr. Employee should be terminated because of the following reasons… Is that correct?
Although critical, the acknowledge step is often overlooked. Instead of confirming the understanding, the listener makes an assumption, which often proves erroneous and leads to unnecessary conflict. The EAAR method eliminates this possibility. If the person says, "No, that's not my position," simply go back to the exploration step: "I'm sorry. Please explain what I missed."
In your response, apply portions of what the person said, even actual words the person used. Even if your response isn't substantively what the person originally sought, this approach creates optimal conditions for acceptance.
"Ms. Manager, I agree with you that Mr. Employee's behavior is unacceptable. What you described [list the employee's actions] makes a compelling case. However, because of the following reasons, I think termination now would be premature and present undue legal risk.
"Nevertheless, I'm happy to work with you on an intervention strategy. If Mr. Employee is willing and able to close the gap in your legitimate management expectations, he will do so. If not, we will be in a much stronger position to terminate his employment, and I will support you."
Many HR professionals have told me that when they've used the EAAR method, conversations they feared would turn ugly became positive. Instead of a clash of wills and arguments, the discussion became collaborative and solution-oriented.
Confront, Then Question
What if you are the bearer of bad news? You must deliver a message you know won't make the recipient happy.
The approach here is to confront, then question. Make a short opening statement. State your position succinctly and without elaboration. Next, switch to question mode.
You can think of this approach as beginning the EAAR method with a short opening response to frame the conversation.
"Mr. Executive, based on our investigation, we found that Mr. Employee in your department engaged in actions that violate our anti-harassment policy. Although we understand he has been with the company for a long time and is one of your best performers, given the seriousness of the misconduct, we believe the appropriate action is termination of his employment."
Next, go to question mode: "What do you think?" "What questions do you have?" "How do you see things at this point?"
Assuming the executive doesn't respond by saying "Great idea! Go for it!" and wants to argue his or her point, pivot to exploration and start the EAAR process at that point. "I want to make sure I understand you, so please tell me what you agree with, what you disagree with and your reasons."
After that comes your acknowledgment: "Let me make sure I understand you. You agree that Mr. Employee's behavior was unacceptable and violated policy. However, you disagree that the proper remedy is termination. Instead, you recommend a suspension and written warning for these reasons. [List the reasons.] Is that accurate?"
Now you're ready to apply. From what the executive said, extract what you can use in your response.
"I appreciate the fact that you support our investigation and finding of misconduct. Our only disagreement is the appropriate remedy. Your points about Mr. Employee's long service and stellar performance are valid. Yet for these reasons [list them], I still believe termination is called for. How do you suggest we resolve our differing views? For example, should we present them to the CEO and let her decide?"
These types of conversations can go in all sorts of directions, including ones you don't anticipate. That's OK, so long as you don't lose sight of the value of questions during a dispute.
Avoid cross-examination questions, such as "Isn't it true that … ?" Your questions should not state or imply your view. They should be curiosity-based, as you're genuinely trying to find out what the other person thinks.
The confront-then-question approach allows you to go directly to the heart of the matter. Even if you sense rising tension and hostility, the negative emotions will soon be arrested by your open-ended, exploratory questions.
When HR professionals make a commitment to active listening, executives, managers and employees become their biggest fans instead of being their biggest critics.
SOURCE: Janove, J. (9 October 2019) "Putting Humanity into HR Compliance: 3 Steps to Active Listening" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/putting-humanity-into-hr-compliance-active-listening-.aspx
6 Practical Ways to Recruit More Strategically
How can HR departments recruit more strategically? Successful recruiters will go above and beyond and come up with ways to change how they work in order to deliver better results. Read this blog post for six low-cost things recruiters can do to become more strategic and to improve the hiring process at their organizations.
DALLAS—The most successful recruiters will go beyond doing more of the same and instead come up with ways to fundamentally change how they work in order to deliver better results.
"Every hiring manager wants more strategy from recruiters," said John Vlastelica, former recruiting director at Amazon and Expedia and founder of Recruiting Toolbox, a Seattle-based recruitment management consulting and training firm.
But what does that mean? "Just calling yourself a talent advisor doesn't mean you're going to be strategic," Vlastelica told attendees at the recent LinkedIn Talent Connect 2019 conference for recruiting and HR professionals. "PowerPoint decks do not make you strategic. Strategic does not mean being innovative. Business executives want speed, quality and diversity."
He shared six low-cost, practical things recruiters can do to become more strategic and to improve the hiring process at their organizations.
1. Get Hiring Managers Involved Early
The companies that are most strategic about pipeline recruiting get hiring managers engaged at the start of the process, Vlastelica said. "Every hiring manager I've spoken to wants pipelines, and they see that as being your job, not theirs," he said. But candidates are more likely to respond to outreach from hiring managers than recruiters.
Vlastelica advised talent acquisition professionals to train managers on how "to show up online"; by that, he meant "be thought leaders who engage with the communities they will be sourcing from and have conversations across social media channels that aren't just interviews of potential candidates.
"Getting them to be more visible among the communities they want to hire from is key to getting passive talent," he said. Hiring managers can also help by hosting meetups, game nights, sourcing jams and thought-leader webinars.
2. Know Your Source-of-Hire Mix
Vlastelica said facilities management company Sodexo recently realized that 90 percent of the source of hire for one of its core higher-volume jobs was internal candidates, so it changed the role to an internal requisition.
"Take a look at common roles and see what kind of internal versus external fill you have," he said. "Have a conversation with your department leaders about the hiring mix they want and then allocate your resources to the jobs you intend to hire externally. That saves the company time and money and provides a good development opportunity for employees."
3. Give the Gift of Time
Hiring managers are busy, and most of the time recruiters are giving them more to do.
"Whenever you are able to give back time, you are winning," Vlastelica said.
The Walt Disney Co. recently decided that hiring managers didn't need to screen all candidates.
"What if recruiters were qualified to screen candidates and send finalists to onsite interviews?" he asked. "You'd be giving managers hundreds of hours back."
Another way to streamline the interview process is to reduce the number of people involved. Too many interviewers in the process leads to slow hiring and bad consensus decisions. How many interviews are needed depends on job function, but "you don't need 16 interviewers for most jobs," he said.
4. Help Your Candidates Out
If the candidates you bring in don't have much experience with interviewing, "it's important to set them up for success," Vlastelica said. "I want candidates to bring their best selves to the interview."
He recommended that recruiters coach them on what to expect and ask them if they would like to meet with any employee resource groups.
5. Change the Approval Process
One of the biggest misalignments between recruiters and the business is when the time-to-fill countdown starts. To talent acquisition professionals, the clock begins when the requisition is approved, or even when the job is posted. But for hiring managers, the process started weeks prior.
"Hiring managers hate the approval process for opening a new requisition," Vlastelica said. Talent acquisition leaders at KPMG studied turnover and discovered that they could predict position vacancies in advance for certain jobs.
"Why wait for people to resign before starting the hiring process? Start it earlier, so the approval is already done. This is a planning issue. Tell the business you need to open certain requisitions now if you want the jobs filled quickly when they're needed."
6. Conduct Batch Interviews
Batch interviews—grouping several onsite interviews on one day—serves both speed and quality, he said. "One of the biggest constraints we find in time-to-fill is scheduling. Scheduling can add five, 10, 20 days to your process, which is ridiculous."
Instead, Vlastelica recommended "finding high-volume open jobs you always need and plan the interview days far in advance—have dedicated sourcers and recruiters to fill 12 interviewing slots each day."
He said that was the strategy when he was at Amazon, with Mondays and Fridays reserved for interviews. "We made same-day decisions and sometimes same-day offers," he said.
SOURCE: Maurer, R. (14 October 2019) "6 Practical Ways to Recruit More Strategically" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/6-practical-ways-to-recruit-more-strategically.aspx
As Daylight-Saving Time Ends, Wages & Hour Problems Begin
On November 3 this year, daylight saving time will end in most states. This change presents challenges for employers who have nonexempt employees working at 2 a.m. when the clocks are set back one hour. Read this blog post from SHRM for wage and hour implications that stem from the end of daylight savings time and how to prepare to "spring forward".
On Sunday, Nov. 3, 2019, at 2:00 a.m., daylight saving time will end and in most states clocks will be set back one hour. As it does every year, this change presents a challenge for employers whose nonexempt employees are working during that time.
This wage and hour issue will affect all employers that employ nonexempt employees with the exception of those working in Arizona and Hawaii, both of which do not observe daylight savings time.
Below are some of the wage and hour implications stemming from the end of daylight savings time:
- Employers are required to pay employees for all hours worked. However, employers whose nonexempt employees are working at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 3, must pay them one additional hour of pay unless the start/end times of their shifts are adjusted in anticipation of the time change. In essence, such an employee will have worked the hour from 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. twice.
- Employers whose nonexempt employees are working at that time might owe those employees overtime compensation as a result of the time change. That is, employers must include the additional hour of work in determining the employee's overtime compensation for the week.
- In addition, employers must take this additional hour of work into account when computing the employee's regular rate of pay for purposes of calculating the employee's overtime rate.
Preparing to 'Spring Forward'
Employers also should be aware of their pay obligations at the beginning of daylight savings time in the spring. Nonexempt employees who are working on Sunday, March 8, 2020, at 2:00 a.m.—when clocks will spring forward to 3:00 a.m.—are entitled to one less hour of pay than they otherwise would have been. So, an employee scheduled to work an eight-hour shift from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. will only have worked seven hours because essentially the employee did not work from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.
Employers that decide to pay such workers for a full eight-hour shift are not required under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to include that extra hour of pay in calculating employees' regular rate of pay for overtime purposes. In addition, the FLSA prohibits employers from crediting that extra hour of pay towards any overtime compensation due to the employee.
Employers, however, should ensure that they do not have any additional obligations under a collective bargaining agreement or state law.
Hera Arsen, J.D., Ph.D., is managing editor of Ogletree Deakins' publications in Torrance, Calif. Ogletree Deakins is a national labor and employment law firm. © Ogletree Deakins. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission. Updated from an article originally posted on 11/1/2017.
SOURCE: Arsen, H. ( 2 October 2019) "As Daylight-Saving Time Ends, Wages & Hour Problems Begin" (Web Blog Post) https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/compensation/pages/daylight-saving-time-wage-hour-problems.aspx
Key elements to consider when researching financial wellness programs
With financial wellness programs becoming a staple employee benefit, organizations find themselves implementing programs that only offer a few tools or resources. Read the following blog post from Employee Benefit Advisor for key elements to consider when researching financial wellness programs.
Financial wellness programs are becoming a staple in the employee benefit universe. But what should a successful financial wellness program encompass? As a rapidly growing industry, we often lack a consistent definition for financial wellness. This leads to organizations believing they have implemented a financial wellness program, when they may only be offering a few tools like education or counseling.
I define financial wellness as the process by which an individual can efficiently and accurately assess their financial posture, identify personal goals, and be motivated to gain the necessary knowledge and resources to create behavioral change. Behavioral change will result in improved emotional and mental well-being, along with short- and long-term financial stability.
As the administrator of your company’s benefits, you are responsible for bringing the best possible solution to your employees. That’s a tough ask, given the growing number of service providers. So, what is the most efficient and effective way to assess financial wellness services to determine which solution best fits your organizational needs? Ask yourself these questions:
Does the platform offer a personal assessment of each employee’s current financial situation and help them identify their financial goals? If the answer is yes: Does the assessment return quantifiable and qualifiable data unique to each individual employee?
Does the platform address 100% of your employee base, including the least sophisticated employees at various levels of employment? Much of your ROI from a financial wellness program does not come from your top performers. It comes from creating behavioral changes within your employees who need the most financial guidance.
Does the platform integrate the various components to provide a personalized roadmap for each employee? It should connect program elements like personal assessments, educational resources, tools, feedback and solutions to ensure the employee is presented with a cohesive, comprehensive plan to attack and improve their financial situation.
Does the platform offer solutions for short-term financial challenges like cash flow issues, as well as long-term financial challenges associated with saving and planning? A major return on your investment comes from reduced employee stress, which is substantially driven by short-term needs versus long-term objectives. The program must help employees deal with current financial challenges before they can focus on their longer-term vision.
About 78% of U.S. workers live paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet, according to data from CareerBuilder.com. The need for financial wellness is clear, but there are consistent pillars that must be addressed in any successful financial wellness program to affect change: spend, save, borrow and plan. When evaluating financial wellness programs, it’s important that these dots all connect if you are truly going to motivate behavioral change and recognize the ROI of a comprehensive financial wellness program.
SOURCE: Kilby, D. (13 September 2019) "Key elements to consider when researching financial wellness programs" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/opinion/key-considerations-for-employee-financial-wellness-programs