Rethinking the Modern Accumulation of Technology
In an article from SHRM.org, Natalie Kroc addresses how technology is impacting security measures.
Original post from SHRM.org on June 16, 2016.
It wasn’t the latest gadget or platform or program that the speakers discussed at a recent conference session on how to keep teleworkers and remote workers connected. Instead, it was the most basic of modern technologies that kept being stressed:
E-mail. An Internet connection. Maybe a webcam (though this proved controversial).
“I am a Millennial, and I … primarily communicate through e-mail,” said Greg Caplan, founder and CEO of Remote Year, a year-old startup that has brought together a group of 75 people to travel the world while holding down various remote jobs. Caplan believes that, for work purposes, e-mail is still king.
The other panelists at the Telecommuting, Remote and Distributed (TRaD) Works Forum, held June 9-10 in Washington, D.C., agreed that the simplest of technologies can successfully keep offsite employees connected. TRaD refers to the different kinds of offsite employees: Telecommuters are those who work from home sometimes, remote workers do their entire jobs from home and a distributed workforce is when an organization doesn’t have a physical location so its employees all work remotely.
Employees who work offsite only need “an Internet connection. Anything else we can work around,” said Carol Cochran, director of people and culture for Boulder, Colo.-based FlexJobs, a job search site that focuses on telecommuting, part-time and other flexible work opportunities. FlexJobs was a co-host of the forum.
Organizations may want to consider providing their remote workers a cellphone with Internet capabilities as a backup. This all but guarantees that employees will be able to work—even if they are having difficulties with their home Internet connection.
A chat function can be useful as well, if the work that employees are doing would benefit from the ability to reach out and have real-time conversations.
Many organizations that employ remote workers have the routine of a “daily huddle” or something similar, wherein employees are expected to check in at the start of the day, whether in a brief meeting or by writing their day’s plans in a shared document.
When an organization’s workforce is made up of remote or teleworking employees, or a mix of offsite and onsite workers, it’s especially important to use the time when everyone gets together effectively. Meetings should be “30 minutes, if not 15 minutes, instead of an hour,” Cochran said. If certain employees are inclined to speak for long periods of time, establish a time limit—and then stick to it.
Video: Love It or Hate It
“I hate video,” Cochran said. “I’m really reluctant to put it on, it’s so awkward.” FlexJobs uses it only rarely, and even then it’s often for social occasions. Cochran said she has found that workers become preoccupied knowing they are being viewed on screen, and worry about their hair and clothes and background surroundings.
This was a point of fierce contention among the panelists and forum attendees alike, though. Some organizations believe that video is essential, and that any initial awkwardness that employees may feel will disappear with habitual use.
Alex Konanykhin, CEO of Transparent Business, a platform that aims to help companies that employ teleworkers and freelancers, offered a solution: Get the organization’s leaders to work from home—and to exercise right before the meeting. When they dial in, they should be in full post-workout gear, including messy hair or a baseball cap. “All it takes is one time” of seeing that, he said, to have a workforce that can be comfortable with being on screen.
Video is a way of giving voice to remote workers and “making them feel part of the organization,” he added.
For those organizations that decide to incorporate webcams into the remote-worker experience, the panelists had some advice:
- Don’t keep the webcams on all day—turn them on at specific times, such as for meetings or training sessions.
- Suggest to employees who express reluctance that they may want to purchase a simple screen or backdrop to place behind them so that their home surroundings will not be visible on screen. This also may help to convey a more-businesslike feel.
- Consider making video an option, not a requirement, for meetings.
- Finally, if the organization’s video capabilities prove to be less than ideal—and repeatedly involve technical snafus such as the video shutting off or freezing, then stop trying to make video happen.
Adopt New Tools Cautiously
The speakers had their individual favorites among newer technologies, such as messaging app Slack, electronic signature platform DocuSign, Google Drawings for collaborating on charts and diagrams, and Zoom for streamlining remote communications. However, the panelists also derided many new offerings as being unnecessarily confusing and others for seeming to be more about entertainment than practical application.
Tools that are adopted by an organization need to be fully embraced by both remote and onsite workers, the speakers agreed. “When you take on a tool, you have to have a very clear expectation of how it is to be used,” Caplan said. “And that’s just culture.”
That said, it’s important for organizations to pick their tools wisely. Each new tool should represent an improvement from whatever employees were using before to accomplish a particular task. And while entertainment shouldn’t be a priority, each new tool should make employees’ jobs easier, the panelists said.
“Why do people love Facebook?” asked Konanykhin. “It’s instant gratification.” Employees expect the same ease of use and sense of satisfaction with the tools they use for work.
Natalie Kroc is a staff writer for SHRM.
See the original article here.
Source:
Kroc, N. (2016, June 16). Rethinking the modern accumulation of techonology [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/technology/Pages/Rethinking-the-Modern-Accumulation-of-Technology.aspx
Put Down Your iPhone! The Biggest Hurdles to Employee Engagement
David Goldstein digs into what are the biggest challenges in getting employees engaged. See what his findings are in the article below.
Original Post from SHRM.org on July 5, 2016
As a company that works with HR leaders and executives who are looking to build stronger teams within their organizations, naturally, employee engagement is a topic that is near and dear to us. It’s a term that’s been buzzing over the past couple of years as organizations search high and low for the perfect formula to decrease turnover, increase enthusiasm and maximize productivity amongst employees.
With countless views on ways to increase employee engagement abound, we wanted to take a look at the other side of things and identify specific barriers that business owners and managers are facing. We surveyed 500 small-mid sized business owners and managers across the US and asked them to identify the number one challenge when it comes to getting employees engaged. These respondents either own or manage a business with fewer than 100 employees. Here’s what they said.
1. (31%) GETTING EMPLOYEES OFF THEIR PHONES
Turns out, when it comes to small businesses, forget the more complex problems of increasing engagement amongst virtual workers or getting multigenerational workers to integrate into cohesive teams. Owners and managers at small businesses face a much simpler problem: getting employees to put down their phones! Is it really a surprise that the majority of respondents reported this as their biggest challenge?
Mobile devices have turned us into screen-addicts, averting our eyes and attention at a startling rate. This is an especially big problem when we begin to look at low wage jobs and positions in rural areas. Small business owners and managers that are making less than $24,000 themselves a year, or those living in rural areas, were the most likely to list it as their biggest employee engagement problem (44%).
Young business managers also find it most difficult to get workers off their phones with 34% of 18-34 year olds reporting it as their largest roadblock to employee engagement. Workers phones are consistently integrated into both personal and work life so it’s hard to incentivize workers to step away from the device and into a conversation with fellow employees. Especially when 74% of employers report that their organization use or plan on using a BYOD program (bring your own device), the odds of getting distracted with social media or unrelated apps get higher and higher.
Finally, women managers and small business owners (34%) were more likely than men (28%) to note that getting employees off their phones was the biggest challenge in getting them engaged. One potential solution to this problem that HR teams can leverage? Embrace employees’ device addictions rather than trying to cure them. For example, utilizing mobile scavenger hunts or mobile-friendly engagement surveys can help build a compromise and solution to the over-used phone issue. And if that doesn’t work, you can always just create a policy.
2. (24%) HIGH TURNOVER & GETTING NEW HIRES ENGAGED
Losing employees more frequently in the worker-friendly job market and having to get new employees engaged more often is also a considerable issue for small business owners and managers. It’s most pressing in rural areas (29%), where it’s probably harder to find new talent that fits with an organization.
Turnover rates as a barrier to employee engagement were of most concern to managers and business owners in the midwest and south regions, and of least concern to those in the northeast.
That’s one reason it’s important to factor company culture into the interview process to ensure the fit is right. Then, get creative with the flexibility options for your employees. In other words, give your employees reason to stay. Then work on their engagement from there.
3. (23%) GETTING MULTIGENERATIONAL EMPLOYEES ENGAGED
The third most pressing issue for small business owners and managers is the battle between Boomers, Gen X’ers and Millennials being waged within multi-generational workplaces.
Generational differences can be a stumbling block that hinders employee engagement within an organization. On one hand, you have 45% of Baby Boomers & Gen X complaining about millennial’s lack of managerial experience while, on the other hand, you have millennials who just want flexibility and fun.
It was interesting to see that getting multigenerational employees engaged was actually the most pressing employee engagement issue (28%) for respondents that were 35-44 years old. These folks find themselves toeing the line between the two diverging generations in the workplace.
So what’s the best thing to do in this situation? Find common ground. Satisfy both sides by creating activities that everyone can partake in. Food and laughter are pretty effective across generational lines. So is getting outdoors in the summer!
4. (22%) GETTING REMOTE AND VIRTUAL WORKERS ENGAGED
While the trend of remote working was the least pressing challenge for respondents, there were groups that found it more challenging than others. Managers and owners that earn more than $150,000 a year (presumed to be working within larger organizations) found it to be the biggest hurdle to achieving employee engagement (43%).
While sweet in the sense that it breeds more freedom for workers around the world, its lack of in-person interaction can become a bitter challenge for many companies seeking strong employee engagement. In fact, 65% of remote employees report that they have never had a team-building session.
To address this issues, owners and managers may want to embrace the small talk and chit-chat online. When workers aren’t in the same office they don’t have the interactions that allow them to truly relate to each other on a personal level. Opening up internal communication platforms like Slack and HipChat, and encouraging workers to express themselves outside of work dialogue (hello GIF’s!) is important.
Another idea? Coffee Shop Days! While remote workers and work-from-home freelancers may appreciate their time outside the office, they can become bored and lonely. If you have workers on your team working remotely, consider suggesting a Coffee Shop Day once a month where you have managers work alongside the remote team members for the day. Finally, there are actually virtual team building and engagement activities out there that stimulate a day in the life of a virtual team.
See the full article and infographic here.
Source:
Goldstein, D. (2016, July 5). Put down your iPhone! The biggest hurdles to employee engagemet [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://blog.shrm.org/blog/put-down-your-iphone-the-biggest-hurdles-to-employee-engagement.
Is your culture keeping up with your growth?
Found a great read on the shift in culture within organizations by Ranjit Jose.
Original Post from SHRM.org on July 5, 2016
The other day, I grabbed coffee and caught up with a friend who is Founder & CEO of a fast growing startup here in San Francisco. The last time we had spoken, his company had around twenty employees. But over the last year, they have been growing at a torrid pace and are now at more than a hundred employees. While this has been an amazing ride for him, the growth has come with its own special brand of challenges. And according to him, the top one has been the question of how to maintain the great culture they have built through the tough first few years of the company.
His story reflects one of the key challenges most growing companies face: ensuring that the original corporate culture develops at the same speed as the business. Corporate culture is defined as “the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company's employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions.” A corporation’s ideologies and actions are not explicit but rather become clear over time.
At young companies like my friend’s, the founders and early employees are the ones that create the culture and company values. As long as the company is small, it is very easy to ensure that the culture is well sustained. However, as soon as the company starts expanding, and as new employees start filling the ranks, most businesses witness a dissipation of the workplace methods and beliefs previously practiced if the culture is not intentionally managed.
Here are a few chief signs that your flourishing company’s culture is in danger.
Lack of openness
As a company expands, it becomes challenging for the employers to keep in continuous and thorough contact with their employees. It is far easier to get feedback from a small team; when newer employees expand these original teams, the culture of open communication and direct feedback begins to dissolve.
This is often in part due to the previous workers’ unfamiliarity with the newly hired staff. Dr. Keith Denton, from Missouri State University, explains that when this lack of confidence exists, employees “are more likely to be evasive, competitive, devious, defensive or uncertain in their actions with one another."
With the absence of openness between team members, the initial trust that is developed at the foundation of a startup slowly dissipates. Make sure that you have mechanisms and tools in place to ensure that a thriving open environment is maintained.
Isolated Employees
Your employees should all be working together for the common goals of the company. Employees can reach common goals through department collaboration, regular team and general discussions, socializing, and consistent motivation.
When a company expands, contact between employees from different departments start becoming less frequent, and workers may feel as though their opinions and feedback are not heard. The Catalyst Research Center for Advancing Leader Effectiveness surveyed 1,500 people from six different countries and discovered that workers feel important when they “ feel that they both belong…[and] are unique.” Understandably, when the number of workers grows, employees may witness a decrease in attention and feel as though their opinions are drowned in the monotone of their many colleagues.
When this happens, they do not feel like a valued team member and may begin to isolate themselves to just get their job done. To prevent this, ensure that you have structures in place to encourage and promote interaction between employees across departments and seniority levels.
Cliques
Another sign that your corporation’s culture is not growing at the same speed as your workforce is the formation of cliques. Cliques form when employers are not in touch with all employees; workers with similar beliefs and behaviors begin to group together instead of maintaining the corporation's previously overarching culture.
David Parnell, for instance, a communication coach, legal recruiter, and author of In-House explains that forming groups is innately human: “minimal group paradigm studies have shown us to form groups within minutes in a novel situation, and if there are no salient reasons for doing so, groups will even form based on irrelevant criteria such as shirt colors.” To illustrate this, one CareerBuilder survey found that 43% of surveyed employees admitted to having a “work clique.”
More often than not, these subdivisions start with staff who have previously worked together. When the new staff enter the workplace, due to the differences in experience, familiarity, and opinions, the workforce divides further into varying groups, and a uniform employee culture begins to break down.
To ensure that the overall corporate culture is not compromised by the beliefs and actions of smaller groups, it is important that companies have methods of hearing from both experienced and newer employees so that a uniform intra-corporate culture is better circulated.
How to strengthen company culture alongside growth
A big part of safe-guarding your culture is ensuring your people are engaged across the whole organization. And in order to keep employees engaged, growing corporations must first strengthen their internal communications by giving their workforce a channel to consistently give their opinions and feedback. If employees know that their input is heard and respected by their company, they will invest more into the relationships with their co-workers. They will also feel heard and valued engendering a deeper connection with the organization, resulting in higher loyalty and retention.
Once you have opened up the ability to conveniently hear back from employees, it is important to track problems that arise, monitor engagement, and respond to any issues in a timely and strategic way. This will not only continuously improve your company, but show employees that their participation and feedback really matters, because it truly does!
All of this eventually serve to ensure that as you grow, your newer employees feel valued and as much a part of the team as the founding members. Recognizing any sense of disconnect with your people and acting to re-engage employees can ensure that, even as you grow, your culture grows with you.
Read the original article here: https://blog.shrm.org/blog/is-your-culture-keeping-up-with-your-growth
Source:
Jose, R (2016, July 5). Is your culture keeping up with your growth? [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://blog.shrm.org/blog/is-your-culture-keeping-up-with-your-growth
5 adjectives you want to hear job candidates say
Christian Schappel gives some great tips on hiring the right person for your company.
Original Post from HRMorning.com on June 22, 2016
It’s difficult to tell what kind of person someone is just by their resume. Heck, it can even be difficult to tell when face to face with the person. But there are some approaches that will do the trick.
Obviously, you want a hire who’s self-motivated, honest and trustworthy — in addition to having the background you’re looking for, of course.
While candidates will likely tell you they’re all those things if asked, it’s also likely they’re doing so because they know that’s what you want to hear (whether it’s true or not).
As a result, Dave Porter, managing partner at Baystate Financial in Boston, a company that holds its recruiters and managers accountable for the results of those they bring on board, says companies should ask candidates to describe their character.
Five words Porter says you want to hear candidates say that indicate they’re made of the right stuff:
- Honest
- Respectful
- Punctual
- Curious, and
- Accountable.
Whether or not you hear adjectives like these will tell you “how much the candidate cares about others and about doing the right thing,” Porter says in his book Where Winners Live: Sell More, Earn More, Achieve More Through Personal Accountability.
‘When nobody was looking’
Porter has another suggestion as well. Ask candidates this question: When in your life have you made a decision that you’re proud of — when nobody was looking?
If candidates take a while to answer, they’re likely not good fits for Baystate Financial. Porter says, candidates with integrity should have little trouble recalling situations — and the decisions they made in them — that reveal their true character.
In his book, Porter said one candidate, Leonard, told a story about finding a camera in the back seat of a Boston taxi. When the driver told Leonard he was going to keep the camera, Leonard refused to give it to the driver and instead took it to the taxi company’s lost and found. Leonard got the job.
Those are the kinds of stories you want to hear — along with adjectives like those described above.
Bad indicators
What you don’t want to hear, Porter says, are indicators the candidate has what he describes as an “all-about-me” attitude.
Some of those indicators could be dropping adjectives like:
- Carefree
- Fun
- Laid back.
However, describing themselves in those ways aren’t necessarily deal breakers. Those qualities can actually be good things, Porter says, when balanced out by professional attributes. But finding out whether that’s the case requires deeper probing.
Read the original article here: https://www.hrmorning.com/5-adjectives-you-want-to-hear-job-candidates-say/
Source:
Schappel, C. (2016, June 22). 5 adjectives you want to hear job candidates say [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.hrmorning.com/5-adjectives-you-want-to-hear-job-candidates-say/
Let's Taco 'bout This Dish Kevin
This month, we are bringing you some food favorites of our own Kevin Hagerty!
Kevin joined the Saxon team nearly 4 years ago, but has over 20 years of experience specializing in financial planning solutions. When he isn't focused on helping his clients, he is attending school and sports events with his wife and two sons.
His favorite place to eat is right across the Ohio River in Covington, KY. Blinkers Tavern "is a favorite spot of mine. My wife and I found it as we decided to try a new place. We found that the chef used to be at another well known Cincinnati restaurant. They have a great variety of food which is always very good. The back patio and back room are so unique. I like this place so much, my wife had my surprise birthday party there."
At home, Taco Night is a big deal. "My wife puts together a whole bunch of toppings and you can have a Taco, burrito or Taco Salad."
There is no recipe for this one because it is completely up to you! All you need is some seasoned beef and the toppings are up to you. Have a taco night with your friends and family or check out Blinkers across the way!
3 keys to creating an employee-centric wellness plan
Interesting read by Rae Shanahan highlighting how technology can be incorporated into your wellness plan. See the full article below.
Original Post from BenefitsPro.com on July 14, 2016
As smartphones become more entrenched in our daily lives, the wellness technology industry has exploded to more than $8 billion, driven largely by wearable devices and more than 160,000 wellness-relatedmobile apps.
Employers are capitalizing on the tech advances, making workplace wellness programs more digital, social, and connected.
Particularly as more mobile-focused millennials enter the workforce, companies are expanding web-based competitions and incentives for getting physically healthy.
Programs that allow employees to track FitBit data and awarding prizes for workers with the highest monthly step totals are becoming much more common. Even savvier companies are tying wellness to their overall benefits offerings, offering employees the chance to compete for an extra vacation day by reducing their body fat percentage.
While these incentivized programs are developed with the best of intentions to encourage employees toward better health habits, the unintended consequence is backlash from employees who are wary of revealing personal health data — especially on the internet.
Also, those employees who find themselves at the bottom of the online leaderboard may feel discouraged and demoralized, the opposite of an employer’s objective. Moreover, there is a concern that incentivized wellness programs tend to penalize those who don’t participate or are less successful.
Obviously, employers don’t want to disregard employees who don’t feel comfortable sharing sensitive health information. If employees don’t feel comfortable sharing these personal details with their employer, they should still have the opportunity to chase the incentives, and ultimately benefit from the wellness program.
Keeping all employees in mind, there are three keys to creating successful, employee-centric wellness programs that increase engagement while respecting privacy concerns.
Survey
A simple but effective first step is to survey employees on their thoughts and concerns around wellness programs. Providing employees a platform to voice their opinions allows employees to feel heard and for employers to empathize with their workforce while developing wellness programs. This step conveys the care and effort behind creating employee-centric programs that give everyone the opportunity to participate.
Accommodate
According to Businessolver’s Workplace Empathy Monitor, 1 in 3 employees would switch companies for equal pay if the other employer was more empathetic. The research reveals that embedding empathy in the workplace operations, such as wellness programs, is a key factor aspect of building trust and loyalty with employees.
At the end of the day, workplace wellness programs are designed to encourage a healthy lifestyle — not win points or prizes — and it’s important to keep that end goal in mind.
For example, rather than a competition to lower employee body weight or BMI, employers can instead offer employees a free yoga class once a week. This allows employees to participate in a healthy activity while connecting with colleagues, without having to worry about revealing personal and private information.
Being flexible with wellness programs is an empathetic behavior that broadens the circle of those wanting to participate, maintains the end goal of improving health, and ultimately benefits a company in recruiting and retention.
Communicate
Of course, the most fun, effective, and empathetic program does no good if employees don’t know about it and aren’t engaged.
So, the most beneficial step employers can take in creating a wellness program is effectively communicating with all employees that the program is open, what is necessary to participate, and keeping feedback channels open.
Make sure employees are completely briefed — maybe develop and share one-pagers for employees to quickly reference. Also, it’s imperative to provide an onsite contact who can be a champion for the program and answer any employee questions or concerns. With this, trust is built between employers and employees, and a wellness program has a stronger chance of succeeding right from the start.
Read original article here: https://www.benefitspro.com/2016/07/14/3-keys-to-creating-an-employee-centric-wellness-pl?ref=hp-in-depth&page_all=1
Source:
Shanahan, R. (2016, July 14). 3 keys to creating an employee-centric wellness plan [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.benefitspro.com/2016/07/14/3-keys-to-creating-an-employee-centric-wellness-pl?ref=hp-in-depth&page_all=1
Office Chatter: Your Doctor Will See You In This Telemedicine Kiosk
Original Post from KHN.org
By: Phil Galewitz
On the day abdominal pain and nausea struck Jessica Christianson at the office, she discovered how far telemedicine has come.
Rushing to a large kiosk in the lobby of the Palm Beach County School District’s administrative building where she works, Christianson, 29, consulted a nurse practitioner in Miami via two-way video. The nurse examined her remotely, using a stethoscope and other instruments connected to the computer station. Then, she recommended Christianson seek an ultrasound elsewhere to check for a possible liver problem stemming from an intestinal infection.
The cost: $15. She might have paid $50 at an urgent care center.
The ultrasound Christianson got later that day confirmed the nurse practitioner’s diagnosis.
“Without the kiosk I probably would have waited to get care and that could have made things worse,” she said.
Endorsements like Christianson’s demonstrate how technology and positive consumer experiences are lending momentum to telemedicine’s adoption in the workplace.
Less than a decade ago, telemedicine was mainly used by hospitals and clinics for secure doctor-to-doctor consultations. But today, telemedicine has become a more common method for patients to receive routine care at home or wherever they are — often on their cellphones or personal computers.
In the past several years, a growing number of employers have provided insurance coverage for telemedicine services enabling employees to connect with a doctor by phone using both voice and video. One limitation of such phone-based services is physicians cannot always obtain basic vital signs such as blood pressure and heart rate.
That’s where telemedicine kiosks offer an advantage. Hundreds of employers — often supported by their health insurers — now have them installed in the workplaces, according to consultants and two telemedicine companies that make kiosks, American Well and Computerized Screening, Inc.
Employers and insurers see the kiosks as a pathway to delivering quality care, reducing lost productivity due to time spent traveling and waiting for care, and saving money by avoiding costlier visits to emergency rooms and urgent care facilities.
Jet Blue Airways is adding a kiosk later this year for its employees at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Other big employers providing kiosks in the workplace include the city of Kansas City, Missouri.
Large health insurers such as Anthem and UnitedHealthcare are promoting telemedicine’s next wave by testing the kiosks at worksites where they have contracts.
Anthem has installed 34 kiosks at 20 employers in the past 18 months. John Jesser, an Anthem vice president, said kiosks are a good option for employers too small or disinclined to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in creating an on-site clinic with doctors and nurses on standby.
“This technology should make it more affordable for employers of many sizes,” Jesser said.
Kiosks are typically used for the same maladies that lead people to see a doctor or seek urgent care — colds, sore throats, upper respiratory problems, earaches and pink eye. Telemedicine doctors or nurse practitioners can email prescriptions to clients’ local pharmacies. Employees often pay either nothing or no more than $15 per session, far less than they would pay with insurance at a doctor’s office, an urgent care clinic or an emergency room.
Despite kiosks’ growing use in telemedicine, it’s unclear whether they will be supplanted as smartphones, personal computers and tablets enable people to access health care anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection or cell service. Some employers already offer kiosk and personal device options, including MBS Textbook Exchange in Columbia, Missouri, which has 1,000 workers.
Workplace kiosks’ appeal is they are quiet, private spaces to seek care. Consumers can get their ailments diagnosed remotely because the kiosks are equipped with familiar doctors’ office instruments such as blood pressure cuffs, thermometers, pulse oximeters and other tools that peer into eyes, ears and mouths. The instrument readings, pictures and sounds are seen and heard immediately by a doctor or nurse practitioner.
“The kiosk gives the doctor more tools to diagnose a wider range of conditions,” Anthem’s Jesser said.
The downside is that the machines cost $15,000 to $60,000 apiece, which may still be too much for some employers.
“Telemedicine kiosks look promising and may still take off, but I don’t see explosive growth,” said Victor Camlek, principal analyst with Frost & Sullivan, a research firm.
Employers’ experiences are mixed.
Officials in Kansas City, Missouri, estimate the kiosk placed in city hall almost a year ago has saved the local government at least $28,000. That’s what Kansas City hasn’t spent because employees and dependents chose the telemedicine option instead of an in-person doctor visit. The city also estimates it has gained hundreds of productive work hours — that’s the time employees saved by not leaving work to see a doctor.
In contrast, fewer than 175 of the 2,000 employees at the Palm Beach County School District headquarters have used the kiosk there in its first year, said Dianne Howard, director of risk management.
Howard remains hopeful: “This is the future of health care.”
The district’s kiosk was supplied at no cost by UnitedHealthcare, as part of a test also involving two other employers in Florida.
Those kiosks connect employees to nurse practitioners at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. The hospital employs an attendant at each kiosk location to help workers register and use some of the instruments, such as the stethoscope.
Other telemedicine kiosks, such as those made by America Well, are designed to be totally self-service for employees. They also offer users immediate access to a health care provider. American Well has deployed about 200 kiosks and is in midst of rolling out 500 more, mostly to employers, the company said. It also places kiosks in retail outlets and hospitals.
Telemedicine’s increasing sophistication is winning over some traditional-minded physicians.
The WEA Trust in Madison, Wisconsin, a nonprofit that offers health coverage to public employers, installed a kiosk for the benefit of its 250 workers last fall.
Dr. Tim Bartholow, a family doctor by training and chief medical officer for the trust, said he was cautious about physicians treating patients they haven’t seen in person. After observing employees using it, Bartholow is convinced it can help them get good care.
“I don’t think telemedicine is making a doctor being on site quite agnostic, but it is certainly reducing the premium on being in the same space as the patient,” Bartholow said.
Insurers declare they are moving carefully, too, recognizing that telemedicine has its limits and they must depend on practitioners to tell patients when they have to see a doctor — in person.
“We have to rely on their experience and judgment,” Jesser said.
The Death of an Employee's Spouse
Original Post from BenefitsPro.com
By: Amy Florian
How often does it happen? An employee has returned to work after experiencing the death of a spouse. At first, she gets hugs and people tell her they are sorry for her loss. But after a few days, you notice that co-workers talk about everything and everyone except the person who died, even when it would be natural to include something about him in the conversation. They all tiptoe around it and avoid even mentioning his name. Why is everyone so afraid?
The truth is, they are well-meaning but uninformed. Most are afraid that if they say his name, they will make her sad or spoil her day. They think it is their job to cheer their co-worker up or take her mind off the reality.
They don’t realize it is not their job to “fix it.” They can’t take her grief away anyway. The loss is always on her mind, no matter how hard others try to avoid bringing it up. Nor do they realize how much she longs to hear his name, how badly she wants to know that someone besides herself remembers, or how hungry she is to share stories and memories.
Co-workers can be much more comforting if they can acknowledge and accept her sadness, continue to give her an understanding smile or a hug for weeks afterwards, or even cry with her. Grief that is shared is diminished, but grief that is repressed or denied festers inside until it finds a way to come out.
Besides, tears are healthy. Despite our fears to the contrary, no one in the history of the world has ever started crying and not been able to stop. Most people report feeling relieved or freed or even cleansed after a good cry, because tears contain physiological chemicals that relieve stress; we are supposed to cry when we are sad.
So what can you do when you notice that people are afraid to say the name? The easiest thing is to say the name yourself. Bring up a story or a memory that involves the spouse — maybe an interaction at a company event. That gives others permission to say the name, too.
Then you can coach your colleagues to do the same by addressing the issue explicitly, saying, “Sometimes people are afraid to mention the name of a deceased family member for fear of making the person sad. We always want to follow her lead, but most survivors love to hear their loved one’s name and share stories and memories of the person’s life. Please don’t be afraid.”
Continue on to talk about tears: “It’s true that she may cry, but that doesn’t mean you made her sad. The tears are there anyway, and every once in a while, they spill over. It’s better that her inevitable tears can be shared with people who care about her.”
In spite of your efforts, you will still find that some people are uncomfortable with grief and sadness. There will be others, though, who can learn to freely share whatever their grieving co-worker is experiencing. It is good for her, and it also builds the kind of camaraderie and bonding that help the business thrive. It’s the right thing to do, all the way around.
9 Tips for Closing the Gender Pay Gap
Original Post from SHRM.org
By: Jonathan A. Segal
Everyone knows there is a gender gap in how employees are paid, though estimates vary as to how large it is. But compensation inequity of any size does more than expose an organization to litigation; it can cause disengagement and lower productivity, which can translate into lower profits.
It can also push talented employees out the door in search of greener pastures (and higher paychecks). In fact, often the smartest and most marketable employees are the first to leave. Bottom line: The gender gap is everyone’s problem.
So let’s begin with the assumption that your organization is smart and wants to eliminate this business inhibitor and legal wrong. What do you do?
1. Lawyer Up on Data Collection
Sometimes HR professionals will collect data to demonstrate that a problem exists. I understand why, but this can be dangerous.
The information likely will be discoverable, and your good-faith efforts could be used against you. If you need data to break through denial at your company, you may want to work with your employment lawyer to collect it under attorney-client privilege. Then have it delivered in the form of legal advice.
Even then, the underlying data may not be privileged if, for example, it is gathered from existing nonprivileged documents and information. However, data compilation and analysis done by—or at the direction of—counsel might still be protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege and/or the work product doctrine.
The bottom line is that the scope of the attorney-client privilege is deceptively complex, so give careful and thoughtful consideration to how you work with your employer’s lawyer to maximize the likelihood that the privilege will apply.
One thing is clear: Simply copying your employer’s attorney on an e-mail does not make the information within the e-mail privileged; it simply makes the attorney a witness to it.
2. Analyze Positions Qualitatively
Once you’ve documented pay gaps, don’t automatically assume they are all attributable to gender.
There may be totally legitimate business reasons for wage differences. For example, someone who took four years off to have and raise a child might earn less than someone who did not spend time away from work and who has received regular raises over that time span.
So, while quantitative data provides a starting point, a qualitative assessment of the relevant factors at play—one that ideally is also done under attorney-client privilege—is needed to determine if changes are in order.
3. Allow Negotiation …
Ellen Pao, former CEO of Reddit, tried to ban salary negotiations at her company based on the theory that allowing such bargaining inherently benefited men. Let me count the reasons I disagree with this tactic. Actually, I’ll stop at three:
First, it reinforces the stereotype that women aren’t capable negotiators.
Second, it takes away a woman’s (or a man’s) power to play a role in determining her (or his) own pay.
Third, whether and how someone negotiates may be relevant to whether you hire them. It is better than a behavioral question—it is a behavioral simulation.
4. … But Reconsider Asking About Salary History
When we ask about prior salary, we may be unwittingly perpetuating the gender gap created by prior employers. If someone was paid too little at her previous employer, the low part of your range may result in a material increase in compensation but still be less than the candidate deserves.
Consider eliminating the salary history question from your applications. After all, what does prior compensation really have to do with what someone should earn for a new opportunity? Ask only if it is truly relevant to the job—and document why you believe it is.
5. Create Pay Ranges But Recognize Exceptions
Establish pay ranges for positions to maximize consistency, and develop criteria for how you will place a new hire or promotion in the range.
But also realize that there will be times when exceptions are necessary. Develop a procedure to determine when and why you should depart from the norm, and conduct periodic audits to make sure that exceptions are not made only for men.
6. Consider Access Issues
Pay is often linked to performance. At certain levels, I think that works (at least to some degree). But I firmly believe that you cannot perform as well as your peers if you don’t have access to the same opportunities that they do. In my view, this is where many employers miss the mark, big time.
I hate unnecessary bureaucracy as much as anyone, but if there is no structure as to how work is distributed, the plum assignments too often may go to someone “just like” the manager. While slights like this are not intentional, they are often very real. Are the highly desired assignments typically meted out among the guys while playing golf or drinking at the neighborhood watering hole? If so, the boys’ club may be rearing its ugly head in a way that perpetuates the access gap and, with that, the gender gap.
Access to key assignments, customers, clients and information is essential to successful performance and the resulting link to higher pay. Of course, managers must have some discretion, but there should also be guardrails in place so that access issues don’t translate into unequal opportunity.
7. Appraise Performance Appraisals
Gender bias is often evident in performance appraisals, which are linked to pay. Two examples:
- A man is refreshingly assertive, while a woman engaging in the same behavior is labeled with the scarlet “B.”
- Or, a new twist on the double standard: A woman and a man are both involved in equally unacceptable behavior, but he is described as having engaged in “abrasive conduct,” while she is simply labeled “abrasive.” It’s a subtle but important difference—between a behavior that can be changed and a fixed character trait.
Train your leaders on these and other potential biases.
8. Be Aware of Persistent Biases and Their Effects
Yes, some of what an employee is paid is a result of his or her ability to negotiate. So workers have a major role to play, too: An employee should not complain with impunity about making less than others if he or she did not ask for more or apologizes for having done so.
Unfortunately, ambition is not always viewed as laudably in a woman as it is in a man. Sheryl Sandberg makes that point in Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (Knopf, 2013) multiple times. Here is the sad but persistent reality: A woman may have to decide between conforming to the societally accepted stereotype of being nice (and making less money) or being liked less because she asks for what she has earned.
9. Train Your Leaders
Of course, a woman who leans in should not have to choose between being well-liked or well-paid, so educate your leaders about the unconscious biases that can come into play in cases where women negotiate no differently from men. Once people are made aware of their own prejudice, they are less likely to unconsciously engage in it.
Inevitably, some folks on the leadership team will deny that the bias exists at all because they have not personally experienced it. Let me conclude by saying this: I have never experienced labor pains. But I would be foolish to deny their existence based just on my life experience. You can take the analogy from there.
Jonathan A. Segal is a partner at Duane Morris in Philadelphia and New York City. Follow him on Twitter @Jonathan_HR_Law.
- See more at: https://shrm.org/publications/hrmagazine/editorialcontent/2016/0616/pages/0616-gender-pay-gap.aspx#sthash.U3Uaj98m.dpuf
Bridging the Gap: What HR Managers Wish Their Front Line Mangers Knew About Effective Leadership
Original Post from SHRM.org
By: Paul Falcone
John is a successful manager, but he’s concerned about potential staff turnover in light of today’s hot job market. He’s wondering what he could do to proactively avoid employee resignations and is taking an objective, introspective look at his leadership style. So John reaches out to the vice president of human resources at his company for advice, and learns a lot more than he bargained for.
As John soon realizes, retention of key employees comes from both leadership offense and defense practices. More importantly, it stems from exercising leadership wisdom that allows team members to motivate themselves, find new and creative ways of solving problems and finding solutions, and, when necessary, removing roadblocks that may impede team growth. Minimizing the effects of unwanted turnover and building a team with solid tenure comes from each leader’s ability to foster motivation in teams and instill a strong sense of accountability. Therefore, as unnerving as it sounds, John realizes that he needs to reassess his own strengths and shortcomings in order to reinvent his relationship with his team.
Leadership Offense
Getting all your company’s managers on the same page in terms of motivation, employee satisfaction and engagement is no easy feat.
“But first get one thing straight: Your job as a leader is not to motivate your employees; motivation is internal, and you can’t motivate them any more than they can motivate you,” said Jo-Anne Smith, outplacement executive, career coach and equity owner with Career Partners International in Southern California. “Your job as a successful leader, however, is to create an environment where your workers can motivate themselves.”
It may sound like a fine distinction, but it’s an important one. For example, try delegating what you enjoy most and are particularly good at as a means of professional development for the employee taking on the task (not of offloading work). Monitor what you’ve delegated by asking your employee how she’ll follow up with you and what the concrete and measurable outcomes will be throughout the delegation exercise. Then be sure to celebrate successes along the way.
Further, conduct “stay interviews” by asking your top performers what motivates them, what suggestions they have for improving the work flow and how you can help them prepare for their next career move.
“This is your chance to recognize and acknowledge their contributions, and employees will always feel engaged and excited when they’re making a positive difference at work while building their resumes,” Smith said. After all, top performers will always be resume builders, and learning is the glue that binds an individual to a company, despite offers from headhunters or competitor organizations. You’re always better off conducting proactive stay interviews rather than needing to make reactive counteroffers once a top performer has tendered notice.
While stay interviews are a smart longer-term strategy, you may have a turnover crisis that’s suddenly thrust upon you, and under certain circumstances, extending a counteroffer may make sense. Just make sure that if you’re going to make such an offer, you do it the right way.
According to Smith, “Counteroffers should always remain the exception, not the rule, because of their potential to backfire. After all, most employees [think], ’Why should it take my resigning to trigger a salary increase or promotion?’ ”
But if your strategy is to openly address what’s been plaguing the individual beyond money and identify ways where you can help the individual reconnect and regain a sense of value, the counteroffer may make sense.
Invite the individual to consider a counteroffer like this: “Even though I can’t promise anything at this point, I hope that you’ll allow us to explore some new avenues with you. If we can’t develop an overall career development strategy and growth trajectory that would motivate you to remain with us, then we’ll certainly support your transition to the new company. But we want to keep you, Sarah, and we appreciate your contributions every day. Would you be willing to engage in those kinds of discussions with us?”
Leadership Defense
One key reason for employee dissatisfaction that drives top performers to pursue greener pastures is a perception of unfairness or a leader’s inability to hold everyone accountable to the same performance standards.
John realizes he needs to develop some critical muscle around addressing subpar performance and certain poor behaviors that have calcified in his team over time. The wise vice president of HR counsels him, however, that suddenly addressing substandard performance and conduct issues can shock employees and potentially open up the organization and John personally to employment-related liability. Therefore, in a spirit of full transparency, John will announce to his team that he’s committed to reinventing himself as a leader in this critical area of accountability and setting high and consistent expectations for everyone.
Taking precautions to avoid litigation land mines protects the individual supervisor and the organization as a whole.
“While 1 in 4 managers will likely be involved in employment-related litigation at some point in his or her career, it’s important that leaders like John remain aware of potential pitfalls that might blindside an otherwise unsuspecting supervisor,” said Sharon Bauman, partner in the employment and labor practice group at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP in San Francisco.
Employees are very sophisticated consumers and often realize that the best way to protect themselves from managers’ complaints about their individual performance is to strike first by filing complaints about their supervisors’ conduct. John learns from the vice president of HR why he should run, not walk, to HR when he needs a partner to address a subordinate’s subpar performance or inappropriate workplace conduct. Leadership is a team sport, and it’s shortsighted to think that he can do it all on his own.
After all, whoever gets to HR first triggers the investigation—either focusing on John’s subordinate’s performance problems (if John gets to HR first) or on allegations regarding his conduct as a supervisor (if the employee gets to HR first). That’s when terms like “hostile work environment,” “harassment” and “retaliation” come into play.
John’s lesson? Don’t allow employees to engage in the pre-emptive strike of “pretaliation” by lodging complaints about him before he has a chance to speak with HR about problems that certain staff members may be causing.
Next, John is advised to avoid the biggest problem facing corporate executives today: grade inflation on the annual performance review. Too many unsuspecting managers take staffers through the progressive discipline process all the way to the final written warning stage, only to issue a “meets expectations” overall score on the annual performance evaluation. John now understands that by doing this, he’ll end up creating a major roadblock if the company wants to terminate the employee in the future. After all, by giving a “meets expectations” rating, he’ll have validated an entire year’s performance despite the final written warning on file.
In short, it is John’s responsibility to demonstrate consistency between a subordinate’s corrective action history and overall performance review score. When these documents contradict one another, the company will likely have to continue with the documentation process in order to clarify the record. When both are in alignment, the company should have the discretion to terminate the employee upon a clean final incident.
John’s final lesson from the meeting with the vice president of HR: From a practical standpoint, you can’t just terminate, lay off or “give a package” to someone who’s not fitting in or otherwise contributing to your team’s overall success.
“The employment-at-will defense will not guarantee a summary judgment of a wrongful termination claim at the hearing stage, so you’ve always got to assume that a case will make it all the way to the trial stage, and that the jury will be looking for a really good reason to justify the termination decision,” Bauman said. Therefore, John recommits to engaging in those challenging but necessary conversations and to documenting his findings in the form of progressive discipline to reduce or eliminate the possibility of the claim coming back to bite him and his company in litigation. Bauman advises, “Remember, it’s not just the potential dollar cost of being sued; it’s the time and disruption of interrogatories, depositions, hearings, mediations and potentially trials that will zap your team’s energy for six months to a year—or more—after the termination that are the biggest challenges you face.”
As a leader, you can give your company no greater gift than a motivated, energized and engaged workforce. Spikes in turnover may happen from time to time, but what’s critical is your response, the counsel you seek and your willingness to reinvent yourself so that everyone benefits from the crisis. Follow these offensive and defensive leadership practices not only to cultivate your own leadership capabilities but also to foster an environment where motivation, engagement and satisfaction become the hallmarks of your shop. That’s the greatest workplace wisdom of all.
Paul Falcone (www.PaulFalconeHR.com) is an HR executive in San Diego and has held senior leadership roles with Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon and Time Warner. A long-time contributor to HR Magazine, he’s also the author of a number of SHRM best-sellers, including 96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire (Amacom, 2008), 101 Sample Write-Ups for Documenting Employee Performance Problems (Amacom, 2010), 101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees, and 2600 Phrases for Effective Performance Reviews (Amacom, 2005). His newest book, 75 Ways for Managers to Hire, Develop, and Keep Great Employees (Amacom, 2016), will be released this month.
- See more at: https://shrm.org/hrdisciplines/orgempdev/articles/pages/effective-leadership-to-keep-and-inspire-valued-employees.aspx#sthash.10OS9KTt.dpuf