New analytics tool helps employers dig deep into turnover trends
A new analytics tool aims to help employers troubleshoot what might be causing issues with your hiring and talent retention. Continue reading this blog post to learn more.
One HR software provider is aiming to help employers better understand why workers fly the coop.
Namely has added a machine learning and data analytics product to its suite of offerings for HR departments, the company said Wednesday. Its tool, dubbed Benchmarking Package, allows HR teams at midsize employers to take a deeper dive into what might be causing issues with a company’s hiring and talent retention.
The machine learning technology distills company turnover data and compares it to information from similar employers in the system, says Eric Knudsen, manager of people analytics at Namely. The comparison data is taken from the more than 1,000 employers and 175,000 employees using Namely’s platform.
“Midsize companies who have historically lacked the skills to uncover these insights are getting a new view on the workplace that they’re building,” he says.
The turnover data is anonymous.
Reviewing termination data can give employers insight into the types of employees who are leaving and potentially lead to broader insights on workplace diversity. It also can help employers better understand how they stack up against the competition and whether the company has a healthy turnover rate, Namely says.
Lorna Hagen, chief people officer at Namely, says information like this can help employers get a sense of issues that may arise in the future.
“If I’m seeing pockets of people come from a certain area of work background with higher levels of attrition, what does that mean to my recruiting strategy; what does that mean to my product strategy? It impacts how you think about your company’s future,” she says.
HR departments are placing a higher value on data analytics, and HCM software developers are taking note. For example, Paychex recently added a data analytics feature to Paychex Flex, its HCM and payroll administration platform. The feature also provides users with data on hiring and turnover trends, and companies can anonymously compare data with similar employers.
During beta testing of Namely’s benchmarking product, Knudsen says the company was able to identify certain trends by looking at employer data. In particular, he says, Namely found a notable uptick in job abandonment, or ghosting. The rates of abandonment were higher for companies in the retail and real estate industries, he says, and lower for those in the non-profit sector. The company also found that managers with eight or more direct reports had higher rates of turnover.
Hagen says that employers who look at granular data are better able to understand why workers are leaving, which can help them take steps to reduce turnover immediately.
“It’s a much more interesting conversation, quantifying what is happening with your people,” she says. “The rolling 12 month turnover rate is an interesting metric but it’s not actionable. The ability to look by level or by department — those are ways to start thinking about action.”
Namely says the benchmarking package is available to all current clients, including identity access management provider OneLogin, retailer Life is Good, financial services company The Motley Fool and recruiter software company JazzHR. The price of the product varies based on company size, but typically varies per employee per month.
SOURCE: Hroncich, C. (16 January 2019) "New analytics tool helps employers dig deep into turnover trends" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/news/new-analytics-tool-helps-employers-dig-deep-into-turnover-trends?feed=00000152-a2fb-d118-ab57-b3ff6e310000
Recruiting in the Tight(est) of Labor Markets
Are you struggling to attract top talent? Recruiters are left searching for ways to recruit top talent in a seemingly shrinking talent pool. Read on for tips on recruiting in the tightest of labor markets.
The Job Market in 2019 is drastically different than the one we all became accustomed to for so many years. The unemployment rate is two percent for college graduates, and an even tighter market in the growth areas of Digital Strategy and Data. The result is more and more companies going after a seemingly shrinking talent pool of available candidates. What is a Recruiter to do?
Develop a Relationship
Enter into the mindset that everyone is a (passive) candidate, not just anyone that responds to your job post on Indeed or Linkedin. I find that the right passive candidate is very responsive to the inquiry along the lines of “you have an exceptional background, would you have 10/15 minutes for an informational call so we could learn more about you and tell you our story?” This accomplishes two things: the potential candidate’s defenses come down so they can’t say they are not in the market, and it develops a consultative relationship between organization and candidate. Now you can start to develop a robust candidate bench!
Tell Your Story
Today’s Candidate, especially those in the millennial generation, aren’t motivated solely by salary, but by the type of work they are doing. Is it innovative, is the workplace diverse (and is that reflected in the organization’s leadership), what is the organization’s standing in their industry and what is their social impact in the community? How is the organization viewed on Glassdoor and other workplace review websites? Develop a strategic plan bringing out the value of your organization, with an emphasis on your employees, and have a vision for your future. It’s mandatory in 2019 that a corporation has to be storytellers, using Video and Social Media, and that story has to be a compelling message to bring in the right candidates. Today’s workplace culture is not a “Grind it out” until retirement, it’s one focused on doing great work and being personally fulfilled.
Employee Growth
Identify multiple successful employee ambassadors throughout your organization that a candidate can speak with before going forward. Think of these conversations as positive interactions of transparency, more fact-finding for both parties and less “selling” the organization, the most sought after candidate pool is also the most sales-resistant. These ambassadors can also help report back to hiring managers their own honest feedback of the candidate and how they would fit into your unique culture. Finally, have clear examples of employee growth throughout the organization, and not always through title. It could be a successful cross-departmental project that an employee led, or skills acquired that made them the SME in the organization. Genuine accomplishment and fulfillment will always resonate more than financial metrics to your key candidate. EQ should be just as valued as IQ in finding the right hire!
SOURCE: McKinley, C. (17 January 2019) "Recruiting in the Tight(est) of Labor Markets" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://blog.shrm.org/blog/recruiting-in-the-tightest-of-labor-markets
Why it might be time to say goodbye to exit interviews
Do you still take part in the practice of asking departing workers to sit down for a final interview? Many companies, large and small, are ending the practice of exit interviews. Read on to learn more.
The exit interview is a long-time staple of HR departments. But an increasing number of companies large and small are ending the practice of asking departing workers to sit down for a final interview.
The concept seems sound. You can take the opportunity to hear unvarnished opinions about what your company or team does well and what it needs to improve on, and then take that back to management and implement changes that’ll help attract and retain great talent.
In practice, however, the process is often uncomfortable and many HR pros report that the folks who are interested in talking are often the ones who complained the most while on the payroll. The litany of gripes and rehashed personality clashes rarely adds much to the organization’s insight into building a better workplace.
If you can’t say anything nice…
Most of the rest, if they even will agree to an exit interview – and you can’t make them do that, of course – are going to be very careful to say only positive or neutral things about their experience at your organization. That helps to prevent bridge burning for them, in case they ever want to come back or they run into a colleague at a job interview later in their career. But for your team, the result is likely the same as with the complainer in the first example: A one-sided, probably inaccurate picture of what you are doing right and how you can improve in areas that need work.
Finally, much of the work your HR team does to schedule an interview as workers are packing up their personal stuff is likely to be wasted. Advice on employee-focused employment websites and other social media leans heavily towards “How to Avoid the Exit Interview.” Suggested tactics range from saying you can’t spare the time because you don’t want to leave your soon-to-be-ex colleagues hanging to asking to schedule after the leave date and then just ghosting the phone call altogether.
It’s still worthwhile to do a formal review to close out individual projects and to debrief contractors as they wrap up, but it’s probably time to say goodbye to the “tell us what you really think” sessions with employees who have decided to move on.
SOURCE: McElgunn, T. (27 December 2018) "Why it might be time to say goodbye to exit interviews" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.hrmorning.com/why-it-might-be-time-to-say-goodbye-to-exit-interviews/
4 ways to help employees master their HDHPs in 2019
Now is a great time to help your employees better understand their High Deductible Health Plans (HDHP) for 2019. Continue reading this blog post for steps HR can take to help employees stay on the right track.
As 2018 draws to a close, it’s a great time to give HDHP veterans and newbies at your company some help understanding — and squeezing more value out of — their plans in 2019.
Here are four simple steps your HR team can take over the next few months to put employees on the right track.
1. Post a jargon-free FAQ page on your intranet
When: Two weeks before your new plan year begins
Keep your FAQ at ten questions (and answers!), maximum. Otherwise, your employees can get overwhelmed by their health plans and by the FAQ.
When writing up the answers, pretend you’re talking directly to an employee who doesn’t know any of the insurance jargon you do. Keep it simple, straightforward, and free of insurance gobbledegook.
[Image credit: Bloomberg]
Make sure your questions reflect the concerns of different employee types: Millennials who haven’t had insurance before, older employees behind on retirement, employees about to have a new kid, etc. To get a clear sense of these concerns, invite a diverse group of 5-7 employees out for coffee and ask them.
Some sample questions for your FAQ might be:
• Is an HSA different from an FSA?
• Do I have to open an HSA?
• How much money should I put in my HSA?
• This plan looks way more expensive than my PPO. What gives?
2. Send a reminder email about setting up an HSA and/or choosing a monthly contribution amount
When: The first week of the new plan year
When your employees don’t take advantage of their HSA not only do they miss out on low-hanging tax savings, your company misses out on payroll tax savings, too.
So right at the start of the new year, send an email that explains why it’s important to set up a contribution amount right away.
A few reasons why it’s really important to do this:
- You can’t use any HSA funds until your account is fully set up and you’ve chosen how much you’re going to contribute.
- If you pay for any healthcare at all next year, and don’t contribute to your HSA, you’re doing it wrong. Why? You don’t pay taxes on any of the money you put into your HSA and then spend on eligible health care…which puts real money back in your pocket. (Last year, the average HSA user contributed about $70 every two weeks and saved $267 in taxes as a result!)
- There’s no “use it or lose it” rule! Any money you put into your HSA this year is yours to use for medical expenses the rest of your life. And once you turn 65, you can use it for anything at all. A Mediterranean cruise. A life-size Build-a-Bear. You name it!
3. Give your HDHP newbies tips on navigating their first visit to the doctor and pharmacy
When: The week insurance cards are mailed out
When employees who are used to PPO-style co-pays realize they have to pay more upfront with their HDHP, they can get…cranky. And start to doubt their plan choice — or worse, you as their employer choice.
So set expectations ahead of time to avoid employee sticker shock and to prevent you from getting an earful. Specifically, remind employees which types of visits are considered preventative care (and likely free) and which aren’t. Then explain their options when it comes to paying for — and getting reimbursed for — the visit.
4. Share tips on saving money on care with all your HDHP users
When: Any time before the end of the first quarter of the year
Specifically, you might recommend that your employees:
- Check prescription prices on a site like Goodrx.com before they buy their meds
- Visit an urgent care center instead of the ER, if they’re sick or hurt but it’s not life-threatening
- Use a telemedicine tool (if your company offers one) to get free online medical advice without having to leave their Kleenex-riddled beds
Sure, following this communication schedule requires extra elbow grease. But if you defuse your employees’ stress and confusion early, they’ll feel more prepared to take control of their healthcare and get the most out of their plans. And as a bonus, you and your team get to spend less time answering panicked questions the rest of the year.
SOURCE: Calvin, H. (17 December 2018) "4 ways to help employees master their HDHPs in 2019" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/opinion/4-ways-to-help-employees-master-their-hdhps-in-2019?brief=00000152-14a5-d1cc-a5fa-7cff48fe0001
Call today, work tomorrow: The future of hiring?
A recent article from the Wall Street Journal states that more and more employees are being hired without a formal face-to-face interview. Continue reading to learn more about the future of hiring.
You just called a prospective candidate with a job offer, and they accepted. Pretty standard procedure — except you won’t meet the new hire until their first day of work.
In a hot job market, more workers are being hired without ever doing a formal face-to-face interview, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. Hiring agencies and HR professionals are hearing more and more about hiring sight unseen, and the reviews are mixed. Agencies say it’s a fast and more efficient way to hire, while some HR professionals argue there’s no substitute for human interaction.
“We basically advertised jobs as call today, work tomorrow,” says Tim Gates, senior regional vice president of Adecco Staffing, which recently filled 15 openings without a formal in-person interview. “It makes it convenient for everybody involved.”
Adecco Staffing uses a digital hiring platform to prescreen candidates before setting up phone interviews. Applicants who ace the 20-minute phone conversation will likely be placed at a job site contracting Adecco. Gates says the practice gives his staffing agency a competitive edge by hiring people before they accept another position. He also believes this fast, straightforward approach is more attractive to job seekers seeking immediate employment.
Adecco hires sight unseen for entry level, manufacturing and specialized positions — like graphic design. They’re not alone. Susan Trettner, founder and director of direct hire placement firm Talent Direct 360, works with industries across the board but often hires workers for engineering, IT, HR, sales and marketing roles. Trettner says hiring without meeting a candidate is becoming more commonplace, especially for retail and e-commerce employers who have to hire large numbers of workers.
“Making a hiring determination over the phone is acceptable, and I think a lot of companies are doing that,” she says.
During the holidays, for example, retailers may not have the time to interview hundreds of candidates for a position, Trettner says. But, she adds, many companies that hire employees without meeting in person often have a “game plan” for onboarding that gets workers quickly up to speed on what they will be doing on the job. Making the hiring process more efficient is better for everyone, she says.
“It all comes down to filling the positions so they can remain productive,” she says.
Trettner says she would consider hiring workers without meeting them, but at the end of the day, it’s up to the employer client. If a client, for example, needs 300 new workers in a short period of time, Trettner says she would suggest they consider expediting the hiring process a bit to help save money and time.
“I open them up to anything I think is efficient,” she adds.
Some organizations would rather take extra time choosing candidates. Kathleen Sheridan, associate director of global staffing for Harvard Business Publishing, says she knows from 20 years of experience that phone interviews can’t tell you everything about a person. She once sat down with three candidates for a sales position; they all performed well during a phone interview, but completely fumbled while answering questions during a sit-down meeting. None of them were hired, Sheridan said.
“You can come across as a completely different person over the phone,” Sheridan says. “As cumbersome as interview process can be, the value of bringing people in and allowing them to see you is worth it.”
As someone who works with people on a daily basis, Sheridan says she would be distrustful of any job offer from someone she’s never met. She says higher-level executives at Harvard Business Publishing will travel out of the country to meet with prospective hires.
“A decision to join a company is emotional as well as very practical. I think you need to give people a chance to check their emotional response and get a feel for the culture and vibe,” Sheridan says. “I would ask myself, ‘what is it about your organization that you would deny me the opportunity to meet the people who are in the headquarters of this company that I’m going to represent?’”
Peg Buchenroth, HR director of employment agency Addison Group, says most of her clients request in-person interviews for job placements in the IT, engineering, healthcare and finance accounting industries. She says it’s unlikely to change.
“It’s maybe more common in the seasonal retail industry for the holiday season. For our types of positions, there’s no reason not to interview when we have the ability to do Skype interviews,” Buchenroth says.
SOURCE: Webster, K. (5 December 2018) "Call today, work tomorrow: The future of hiring?" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/news/call-today-work-tomorrow-the-future-of-hiring?brief=00000152-14a7-d1cc-a5fa-7cffccf00000
The Importance of Working For A Boss Who Supports You
Do you work for a boss who supports you? Trust and commitment are at the core of any professional relationship, and employees who work for a boss that supports them is crucial to professional and company success. Continue reading to learn more.
Employers seek loyalty and dedication from their employees but sometimes fail to return their half of the equation, leaving millennial workers feeling left behind and unsupported. Professional relationships are built on trust and commitment, and working for a boss that supports you is vital to professional and company success.
Employees who believe their company cares for them perform better. What value does an employer place on you as an employee? Are you there to get the job done and go home? Are you paid fairly, well-trained and confident in your job security? Do you work under good job conditions? Do you receive constructive feedback, or do you feel demeaned or invisible?
When millennial employees feel supported by their boss, their happiness on the job soars — and so does company success. Building a healthy relationship involves the efforts of both parties — boss and employee — and the result not only improves company success, but also the quality of policies, feedback and work culture.
Investing In A Relationship With Your Boss
When you’re first hired, you should get to know your company’s culture and closely watch your boss as you learn the ropes. It’s best to clarify any questions you have instead of going rogue on a project and ending up with a failed proposal for a valuable client.
Regardless of your boss’s communication style, speaking up on timely matters before consequences are out of your control builds trust and establishes healthy communication. Getting to know your boss begins with knowing how they move through the business day, including their moods, how they prefer to communicate and their style of leadership:
- Mood: Perhaps your boss needs their cup of coffee to start the day. If you see other employees scurry away before the boss drains that cup of coffee, bide your time, too.
- Communication: The boss’s communication style is also influenced by their mood. Don’t wait too late to break important news. In-depth topics may be scheduled for a meeting through a phone call or email to check in and show you respect your boss’s time. In return, your time will be respected, too.
Some professionals are more emotionally reinforcing that others. Some might appear cold, but in reality, prefer to use hard data to solidify the endpoint as an analytical style. If you’re more focused on interpersonal relationships, that’s your strength, but you must also learn and respect your boss’s communication style.
- Leadership: What kind of leader is the boss? Various communication styles best fit an organization depending on its goals and culture, but provide both advantages and disadvantages. Autocratic leaders assume total authority on decision-making without input or challenge from others. Participative leaders value the democratic input of team members, but final decisions remain with the boss.
Autocratic leaders may be best equipped to handle emergency decisions over participative leaders, depending on the situation and information received.
While the boss wields a position of power over employees, it’s important that leaders don’t hold that over their employees’ heads. In the case of dissatisfaction at work, millennial employees don’t carry the sole blame. Respect is mutually earned, and ultimately a healthy relationship between leaders and employees betters the company and the budding careers of millennials.
A Healthy Relationship With Leaders Betters The Company
A Gallup report reveals that millennial career happiness is down while disengagement at work climbs — 71% of millennials aren’t engaged on the job and half of all employed plan on leaving within a year. What is the cause? Bosses carry the responsibility for 70% of employee engagement variances. Meanwhile, engaged bosses are 59% more prone to having and retaining engaged employees.
The supportive behaviors of these managers to engage their employees included being accessible for discussion, motivating by strengths over weaknesses and helping to set goals. According to the Gallup report, the primary determiner of employee retention and engagement are those in leadership positions. The boss is poised to affect employee happiness, satisfaction, productivity and performance directly.
The same report reveals that only 21% of millennial employees meet weekly with their boss and 17% receive meaningful feedback. The most positive engagement booster was in managers who focused on employee strengths. In the end, one out of every two employees will leave a job to get away from their boss when unsupported.
Millennials are taking the workforce by storm — one-third of those employed are millennials, and soon those numbers will take the lead. Millennials are important to companies as technology continues to shift and grow, and they are passionate about offering their talents to their employers. It’s vital that millennials have access to bosses who offer support and engage their staff through meaningful feedback, accessibility and help with goal-setting.
In return, millennial happiness and job satisfaction soar, positively impacting productivity, performance, policy and work culture. A healthy relationship between boss and employee is vital to company success and the growth of millennial careers as the workforce continues to age. Bosses shouldn’t be the reason that millennial employees leave. They should be the reason millennials stay and thrive in the workplace, pushing it toward greater success.
SOURCE: Landrum, S. (8 December 2018) "The Importance of Working For A Boss Who Supports You" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahlandrum/2017/12/08/the-importance-of-working-for-a-boss-that-supports-you/1?
How employees really feel about asking for time off during the holidays
A new study reveals that 51 percent of employees feel uneasy about asking to use their vacation days during the holidays. Continue reading this blog post to learn more.
Are employers checking their PTO list? They may want to check it twice, according to new data, workers may be leaving vacation days on the table during the holidays because they feel uncomfortable asking for time off.
More than half of employees (51%) feel uneasy about asking to use their paid time off during the holidays, according to a new survey of more than 2,000 employees from management and technology consulting firm, West Monroe Partners. This discomfort was even more prevalent in smaller companies with smaller staffs, where employees work more closely with their managers and colleagues.
Michael Hughes, managing director at West Monroe Partners, says part of the reason employees are so nervous about asking for time off is the expectation that they have to be available 24/7. An employee may also be concerned they will appear to be slacking if aren’t in the office with many companies being short staffed to begin with, he says.
“With the war for talent, people are being asked to do more and more because either they’re shorthanded or can’t find people,” Hughes says.
Nearly two-thirds of employees working in the banking sector felt uncomfortable asking to use their PTO, according to the survey. Although Monroe Partners did not specifically review why this might be the case for banking, Hughes says he thinks that, like other service industries, bank employees often have to work during the holidays to attend to customers.
Banks were hit hard during the 2007 economic recession, he adds, and some have been cautious about beefing their workforce — forcing current employees to carry heavy workloads. But, he adds, this is fairly common across many industries.
“I think it’s something that impacts industries across the board,” he says. “[But] just based on the study banking is one that sticks out.”
West Monroe Partners recommends companies close the office on days other than just federal holidays and accommodate for remote working or flexible scheduling.
Training managers to fairly process PTO requests may also be necessary, the report notes. Managers can do a better job of having open conversations with employees around PTO and job satisfaction.
Despite worker’s anxieties, employers should communicate the importance of taking time off during the holidays, Hughes says. It’s good for workers to get time to rest, he adds. If employees are unhappy in the office, it will likely trickle down to the customer experience.
“A lot of it is just personal health,” he says. “If you give people the opportunity to recharge, they’re going to be more productive when they’re happy.”
SOURCE: Hroncich, C. (7 December 2018) "How employees really feel about asking for time off during the holidays" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/news/how-employees-really-feel-about-asking-for-time-off-during-the-holidays?brief=00000152-14a7-d1cc-a5fa-7cffccf00000
How to retain good employees? Make them feel valued.
Training industry reports that U.S. companies spend $161 billion on training development every year. Read this blog post to learn how you can make employees feel valued.
Trucking as an industry is not known as being woman-friendly, but Volvo Truck wants to change this and recently completed a landmark Women in Leadership experience for selected women employees.
For Volvo, retaining female employees is a strategic objective and demonstrating the potential for women to advance and move into leadership roles is key to keeping women in the company. The six-month Women in Leadership program demonstrated that the company valued the participants, just by inviting them to the program.
“Being nominated was like winning something,” said Volvo employee Tyletha Hubbard. “It felt good to know that I was considered a key talent in the organization.”
All people like to be recognized as valuable to their organizations. This principle holds for men, women, ethnic minorities and people of different generations who appreciate employer-provided training and development. What better way to show an employee that they are needed and that they have a place to grow and move up?
Training and development is big business. Training Industry reports that US companies spend $161 billion on it annually. But it’s also a cost-effective benefit to provide your employees. Classroom programs can reach dozens at a time for a flat fee. And then you can add back the valued gained from having a more effective workforce.
Training can address the hard skills of the job or the soft skills of interpersonal relations and emotional intelligence.
In the benefits industry, you’re constantly explaining complicated products that are often fraught with emotion and stress, e.g. health insurance. Presenting benefits plans to clients in a competitive bid is a high-wire act for most salespeople. So, training that focuses on presentation skills, public speaking and body language can give your firm a competitive edge, while building a more confident workforce.
When starting up a training initiative, presentation skills are a great “101” course to include. Most people don’t get it in school and most people need a lot of help with it. Not only does learning about presentation skills and interpersonal communication help people sell better, but it also helps them “read” other people better and interact more effectively with coworkers.
Presentation skills training is a cornerstone for further development. People who have better interpersonal communications tend to do better in higher level training and, generally, better outcomes in all of their work experiences.
Team building, decision making and leadership development are learning experiences that can also “show the love” from the organization to the employee, while also improving the performance of the firm. The term “learning organization” has become a positive goal for many companies, as a means of becoming more effective through better employee engagement and opening new opportunities within the company.
At Volvo, there is a practice of allowing employees to move laterally from department to department in order to learn new skills and keep work interesting. Its Women in Leadership program encouraged staff to think and talk about what job they might want to try doing next. The policy invites workers to be open about their goals and understand that there’s always a place for them. Contrast this with feeling like you’re in a dead-end job.
And this is where HR and training can team up.
A recent study by Right Management revealed that, when asked, 68 percent of employees say they really want to talk about their careers with company management. There’s even an HR term for it: career conversations. But these conversations are not happening very much.
According to the Right Management white paper, “Only 16 percent of employees indicate that they have ongoing career conversations with their managers and about their career.”
It turns out most people get their career conversations from managers, colleagues and family. When a promising young manager starts wondering about where her career is going, she might seek out advice from her workmates of parents, but not human resources.
Why not integrate career conversations with training? It’s a golden opportunity for your human resources team. Most training engagements include personality assessments and feedback that help participants better understand themselves and others. Also, training often concludes with some sort of “what’s next” discussion or action plan about how to use what’s been learned.
A career conversation that follows such focused introspection will be better informed and will benefit from the afterglow of learning.
It’s well documented that financial compensation isn’t always the main factor that keeps people from leaving a company. Andrew Chamberlain, an economist with Glassdoor recently wrote about this in Harvard Business Review.
“One of the most striking results we’ve found is that, across all income levels, the top predictor of workplace satisfaction is not pay: It is the culture and values of the organization, followed closely by the quality of senior leadership and the career opportunities at the company,” writes Chamberlain. “Among the six workplace factors we examined, compensation and benefits were consistently rated among the least important factors of workplace happiness.”
Not feeling valued by management can become an incentive to exit even if it means taking less money in the next job.
Training, development, continual learning experiences and career conversations are proven cost-effective ways to show employees that they are unique individuals who are needed by the organization.
SOURCE: Warrick, D. (29 November 2018) "How to retain good employees? Make them feel valued." (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitspro.com/2018/11/29/how-to-retain-good-employees-make-them-feel-valued/
4 mistakes to avoid at the intersection of FMLA and PTO
Administration of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) can become extremely complex, especially when other leave entitlements are added. Read this blog post to learn about the four mistakes employers should avoid when it comes to FMLA and PTO.
By now, many employers can recite the basic requirements of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in their sleep. The law provides eligible employees (those who have at least one year of service and 1,250 hours under their belt) with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave over a 12-month period for qualifying family-related or medical reasons. FMLA covers companies with 50 or more employees located within 75 miles of each other.
While the law itself is conceptually straightforward, administration can become incredibly complex — especially when you throw other types of leave entitlements into the mix such as workers' comp, disability leave, and paid time off (PTO).
HR Dive recently spoke with three employment law attorneys about the most common — and costly — leave administration errors employers make when it comes to the intersection of FMLA and paid leave.
Mistake #1: Not running leaves concurrently
"I would say that the biggest issue that we see is a lot of employers do not have policies that provide for the use of paid time off concurrently with the FMLA," said attorney Molly Batsch, an officer at the St. Louis office of Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C. "[Because] the FMLA regulations allow employers to require employees to use any paid time off concurrently with unpaid FMLA leave, we really encourage employers to put that specifically in their policies."
Attorney Jeff Nowak, a partner at the Chicago office of Franczek Radelet P.C., concurred via email: "A decent number of employers don't realize that they can run FMLA leave concurrently with paid leave benefits such as worker's compensation benefits — or they forget to run both at the same time."
Failing to run leaves concurrently, when permitted, can be costly for employers. A series of consecutive leaves strung together can mean longer absences and increased workplace disruption.
Mistake #2: Policy confusion
A similar mistake employers make is that they don't explicitly outline the concurrent rule to employees. Your FMLA policy should make clear that any paid time off will run concurrently with unpaid FMLA time, advised Batsch: "I think that employers have a few misconceptions about that.
"The first misconception would be that the employee gets to pick," she said. "If the employee doesn't want to run the two concurrently, then they can go ahead and take 12 weeks of unpaid FMLA and then they can take their five weeks of vacation after that, and that is not the case. It is permissible for an employer to require that time to run concurrently. So that's the first mistake I see."
Make sure your policy is abundantly obvious about that so employees don't get upset about that requirement when it's being administered.
Mistake #3: Missing an important caveat about FMLA and paid leave
There is an important exception to the general rule that employers may require an employee to use paid leave during unpaid FMLA leave, one that many employers miss, according to all three attorneys HR Dive spoke with.
"If an employee is on FMLA leave and simultaneously in receipt of a paid benefit, in any amount, FMLA leave is considered paid. When it's paid FMLA, an employer may not require that the employee substitute PTO — but it can permit that," said attorney David Mohl, a principal at the Atlanta office of Jackson Lewis PC.
For example, he said, if short-term disability provides 70% income replacement, an employer cannot require that the employee use PTO (or other paid leave) to make up the difference. If, however, there is a waiting period before that paid benefit kicks in — say, seven days — an employer may require the use of paid leave during that seven days.
Batsch noted that even if the employee is receiving paid time off via a third-party disability plan rather than an employer disability plan, "that's still a situation where you can't require an employee to run their paid time off concurrently with their FMLA time." This was clarified by the Seventh Circuit in a 2007 case (Repa v. Roadway Express, Inc., 477 F.3d 938).
Mistake #4: Forgetting to consider the patchwork of local laws
"The growing number of state and local laws heap a load of additional compliance concerns onto employers," said Nowak. "Not only are there additional considerations for accrual, carryover, and reasons for leave, but these new leave laws tend to provide job-protected leave in situations where the medical condition is not covered by the FMLA. As a result, employers cannot discipline an employee for an absence when he or she is utilizing leave covered by one of these leave laws."
Of course, those laws only make the interactions with FMLA management more complex.
"Paid parental leave policies interact with FMLA and gender discrimination laws," said Mohl. "PPL policies are, of course, a type of paid leave; some operate as a disability benefit."
Paid leave will likely continue to expand in scope in the coming months as more states and cities consider mandating it. Currently, 10 states and about 30 localities guarantee some type of paid sick leave. A number of federal policies have also been proposed, but no movement has been seen at that level yet.
SOURCE: Carsen, J. (27 November 2018) "4 mistakes to avoid at the intersection of FMLA and PTO" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.hrdive.com/news/4-mistakes-to-avoid-at-the-intersection-of-fmla-and-pto/542962/
More pay? Nah. Employees prefer benefits
A new report by the Institute of CPAs revealed that workers would choose a job that offers benefits over a job that offers 30 percent more salary but does not offer benefits. Read this blog post to learn more.
Workers across the country say you can't put a price on great benefits, according to a new survey.
By a four-to-one margin (80% to 20%), workers would choose a job with benefits over an identical job that offered 30% more salary with no benefits, according to the American Institute of CPAs, which released the results of its 2018 Employee Benefit Report, a poll this spring of 2,026 U.S. adults (1,115 of whom are employed) about their views on workplace benefits.
“A robust benefits package is often a large chunk of total compensation, but it’s the employees' job to make sure they’re taking advantage of it to improve their financial positions and quality of life,” said Greg Anton, chairman of the AICPA’s National CPA Financial Literacy Commission. “Beyond the dollar value of having good benefits, employees gain peace of mind knowing that if they can take a vacation without losing a week’s pay or if they need to see a doctor, they won’t be responsible for the entire cost.”
Employed adults estimated that their benefits represented 40% of their total compensation package, according to the study. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, though, states that benefits average 31.7% of a compensation package. Still, workers in the report see benefits as a vital part of their professional lives.
“Despite overestimating the value of their benefits as part of their total compensation, it is concerning that Americans are not taking full advantage of them,” Anton said. “Imagine how employees would react if they were not 100% confident they could get to all the money in their paycheck. Leaving benefits underutilized should be treated the same way. Americans need to take time to truly understand their benefits and make sure they’re not leaving any money on the table.”
Other notable findings from the report include:
- 63% of employed adults believe that being their own boss is worth more than job security with an employer, while 18% added that they will likely start or continue their own businesses next year.
- Millennials were the most likely generation to believe that being their own boss is worth more than job security. They were also the most likely generation to start their own businesses.
- 88% of employed adults are confident they understood all the benefits available to them when they were initially hired at their current job. However, only 28% are "very confident" they are currently maximizing all of their benefits.
- When asked which workplace benefits would help them best reach their financial goals, 56% of adults said a 401(k) match or health insurance, with 33% citing paid time off and 31% citing a pension.
- Baby boomers favor health insurance and having a 401(k) match more than younger generations, while 54% of baby boomers also prioritized a pension, versus only 16% of millennials.
- Millennials put the highest priority on work-life balance benefits, such as paid time off, flexible work hours, and remote work.
For the full report, visit the AICPA’s 360 Degrees of Financial Literacy site here.
SOURCE: McCabe, S. (3 December 2018) "More pay? Nah. Employees prefer benefits" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/news/workers-prefer-benefits-over-more-pay?brief=00000152-1443-d1cc-a5fa-7cfba3c60000