Managers: Be Upfront with Staff to Build Workplace Resilience
Anew pandemic-related study found that workplace resilience—how employees respond to obstacles—is developed when managers and senior leadership keep employees informed about organizational challenges and the near-term future of the business.
Workplace engagement expert Marcus Buckingham, head of the ADP Research Institute, surveyed 26,500
employees from 25 countries in June to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the workplace. Buckingham revealed results of the study at the HR Technology Conference and Exposition held virtually Oct. 27-30.
The main conclusions were that workers' resilience levels around the world are low— just 17 percent of workers overall from the surveyed countries were shown to be highly resilient—but resilience increases with direct, personal experience with the coronavirus.
"We humans do better psychologically when we deal with reality head-on," Buckingham said. "We do not need senior leadership to sugarcoat things and pretend that things will go back to normal. People need facts, not blithe reassurance. Their well-being is preserved, not diminished, when they can see the reality of the situation and respond to it, rather than when it is hidden from them or unknown."
He added that the realization should be eye-opening for managers. Mollifying employees or being vague about what is happening during a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic "will not make them feel better," he said. "When people know what is happening, they can build resilience, overcome fear and access their capacity."
The ADP Research Institute came up with a series of questions to measure resilience at work, including questions about autonomy, the ability to compartmentalize, the ability to find strength in work, optimism about the future, and whether or not managers and senior leaders are trusted. Survey participants were also asked how they had personally been affected by COVID-19, what workplace changes they had experienced and which of those changes they thought would become permanent.
"We were able to calculate which employees are highly resilient—demonstrating agency and the ability to compartmentalize, while feeling psychological safety and demonstrating trust in their leaders' ability to anticipate the future, communicate and follow through on commitments," Buckingham said.
His prediction going into the project was that the respondents from countries that had responded most effectively to the pandemic, such as Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, would display the most resilience, while workers from countries more severely impacted by the virus like Brazil, India and the United States would show comparatively lower levels of resilience.
"To my surprise, this thesis did not hold up," he said. The countries with the highest percentage of highly resilient employees were India (32 percent), Saudi Arabia (26 percent) and the United Arab Emirates (24 percent), followed by the United States (16 percent).
The countries with the lowest percentage of highly resilient employees were South Korea, Sweden and Taiwan (all with 8 percent).
The data showed that there was no statistically significant difference in resilience based on factors such as gender or age. But one variant factor made a big difference—more direct experience with COVID-19 led to higher resilience.
If someone responded that he or she had had COVID-19, cared for a loved one with the virus, or knew a friend or work colleague with it, that individual was three times more likely to be highly resilient than someone who didn't. If the respondent answered "yes" to all the COVID-19 impact questions, he or she was four times more likely to be highly resilient.
Experiencing workplace changes and disruptions, such as the use of protective gear, sudden remote work, and layoffs or furloughs, also led to high resilience.
"Workers who experienced at least five changes at work were 13 times more likely to be highly resilient," Buckingham said.
The experience of change also influenced expectations for the future of work. The more changes workers experienced, the more likely they were to predict that such changes would become permanent.
The study also found that while employee engagement and resilience are related, they are independent of one another. "You can be highly resilient but not very engaged, and very engaged but not very resilient," he said.
There's one thing managers can do to build both engagement and resilience, Buckingham added: "If things are changing quickly, like the year we just experienced with COVID-19, an antidote to that is frequent check-ins. Ask your employees at least weekly, 'What are you working on?' and 'How can I help you?' "
SOURCE: Maurer, R. (11 November 2020) "Managers: Be Upfront with Staff to Build Workplace Resilience" (WeB Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-news/pages/managers-be-upfront-with-staff-to-build-workplace-resilience.aspx
The Miserable Middle Managers
Did you know: 18 percent of supervisors and managers report signs of depression. Middle managers tend to struggle with spending too much time on administrative tasks, and not enough time leading their workplace, which can lead to being dissatisfied. Read this blog post from SHRM to learn more.
They make dozens of decisions each day, but usually not the big ones that shape a company's future. They're saddled with all the busywork of managing subordinates, yet also answer to higher-ups whose policies they must enforce—even when they don't have a say in making those policies and their direct reports object to them.
They're middle managers, and research finds they are the unhappiest employees at U.S. organizations.
But they don't have to be, employment experts say—not if they take advantage of new technologies, suggest changes in workplace policies and invest time in professional development.
Misery by the Numbers
In 2015, researchers at Columbia University surveyed nearly 22,000 full-time workers. They found that 18 percent of supervisors and managers reported symptoms of depression. The share of blue-collar workers reporting depression was 12 percent; for owners and executives, it was 11 percent.
A separate 2014 study found that when it comes to job satisfaction, managers fall in the bottom 5 percent. The study authors, both executives at leadership development consultancy Zenger Folkman, based in Orem, Utah, gathered data from more than 320,000 employees in various organizations. They identified those employees whose engagement and commitment scores were in the bottom 5 percent and compared their responses with those of the rest of the study group.
"You might think these would be the people with poor performance ratings or the ones in over their heads—people with inadequate training, education or experience for the job," the authors wrote. "But when we examined the demographic characteristics of these employees, we found instead that they could best be described as those 'stuck in the middle of everything.' "
The most common profile for the bottom 5 percent, they found, was that they:
*Had earned a college degree, but not a graduate degree.
*Had five to 10 years' tenure.
*Worked as midlevel managers.
*Had received a good (as opposed to a superior or a terrible) performance rating in the past year.
Technology Can Help
So what can be done about the dissatisfied middle manager? Experts suggest that part of their discontent stems from spending too much time on administrative tasks, leaving them little time for leading.
Technology can help them conduct tasks that were once considered "managerial," from scheduling to training to performance reviews. Yet some managers still don't take advantage of these tools, according to Montreal, Quebec-based WorkJam, which provides digital platforms for shift scheduling, onboarding, communication and other tasks.
"Across industries, from retail to hospitality to health care, the arduous task of scheduling falls to managers, who have to synchronize individual schedules and often assign shifts without knowing associates' availability," said WorkJam CEO and president Steven Kramer. "By migrating this process onto a digital workplace platform, employers can put the power in the hands of the associates [and] … are freed from this burden."
Andrew Sumitani, senior director of marketing for Seattle-based TINYpulse, which creates employee engagement surveys. He has worked on several projects focusing on middle management.
"By using simple but effective technology, middle managers can balance their roles more effectively," he said. "What's critical is for that technology to create a safe space for transparent, candid feedback to reach all levels of the organization. Subsequently, middle managers won't be spending as much time collecting and providing feedback for upper managers. They'll have that time to properly coach, mentor and lift their direct reports and become outstanding leaders themselves."
For instance, TINYpulse offers software that continuously measures the decisions made by employees on a team, and that gives middle managers information on the strengths and limitations of those decisions.
Accounting giant PwC has created an app that helps companies evaluate strengths and weaknesses within their workforce, while also suggesting learning and development opportunities that can help employees improve their performances.
Too Many Meetings
Some research suggests that these managers find it frustrating and exhausting to constantly switch between the role of "leader" to subordinates and the role of "follower" to their own supervisors. It also suggests that this frustration is exacerbated when middle managers are inundated with meetings.
"Keeping middle managers in meetings is a way for upper managers to listen to the entire organization," Sumitani acknowledged. "However, if upper managers demand increasingly detailed feedback from middle managers, a problem occurs: The middle manager's job of managing a team and reporting to upper management becomes profoundly unbalanced."
Here, again, technology can help, he said.
"More forward-thinking managers are utilizing technology that [helps] employees to provide feedback, solutions and suggestions to upper management to act on," Sumitani explained. "This shortcuts the communication flow in a way that eases the burden on middle managers. This leads to reduced feelings of being overwhelmed, higher productivity and significantly higher middle manager happiness."
Professional Development
Sumitani also suggested that continued learning for middle managers can make their jobs easier.
"Many middle managers have not been in their industries for their entire careers," he noted. "Therefore, they could be trying to learn the industry, do their jobs and stay on top of their craft, all at the same time. Anything that companies can do to invest in learning also shows their commitment [to] and confidence in those managers."
For instance, PwC's app identifies ways managers can focus on digital training and directs them to personalized learning recommendations and access to more than 300 courses, videos and white papers.
"These lessons can no longer come within the office, over an hour of coffee and scones," PwC said in a statement. "It needs to be personalized, digitally accessible and in line with work-life balance and flexibility needs that are now the norm."
SOURCE: Wilkie, D. (19 February 2020) "The Miserable Middle Managers" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/middle-managers-are-miserable-.aspx
Beware the Legal Pitfalls of Managing Unpaid Interns
With many college students and recent graduates trying to start a career, their first step to getting introduced to what their degree can hold for them is working as an intern to learn different roles and to learn how a business operates. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has raised concerns regarding what makes an intern an "employee" or a "trainee". Read this blog post to learn more about the guidelines that pertain to bringing an intern or a "trainee" into the workplace.
A college student or recent graduate is eager to make an impression. So is the early-in-career professional who’s been laid off by another company. You placed them both in an unpaid internship program because you want to give your company a chance to evaluate them as future employees. What could go wrong?
At job sites across the United States, interns not paid or earning less than minimum wage are given all sorts of jobs: answering phones, loading paper in the copiers, managing company social media campaigns.
But, federal guidelines released by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in April 2010 raise concerns that employers might decide to provide fewer internship opportunities. The guidelines, which apply to “for-profit” private-sector employers, define what makes an intern an “employee” as opposed to a “trainee.” If a court or government agency decides that interns’ work qualifies them as employees, the company could face penalties that include owing back pay; taxes not withheld; Social Security; unemployment benefits; interest; attorneys’ fees; plus liquidated damages, defined by federal law as double the unpaid wages.
Six Standards
The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division lists six factors to use in determining whether an intern is a trainee or an employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
- The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to what would be given in a vocational school or other educational institution.
- The training is for the benefit of the trainees.
- The trainees do not displace regular employees, but instead work under their close observation.
- The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees, and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually be impeded.
- The trainees are not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the training period.
- The employer and the trainees understand that the trainees are not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.
If all of the factors listed above are met, then the worker is a “trainee,” an employment relationship does not exist under the FLSA, and the act’s minimum wage and overtime provisions do not apply to the worker.
Federal and state labor departments are cracking down on unpaid internships “due to a concern that paid jobs are being displaced and to increase payroll tax revenues,” says employment lawyer Terence P. McCourt of Greenberg Traurig in Boston.
With so much at stake, it’s a good time for HR professionals to review their companies’ internship policies to ensure that they are in compliance with government requirements.
Legal Exposure
The DOL standards state that most nonexempt individuals “suffered or permitted” to work must be compensated for the services they perform for an employer unless certain conditions are met. In general:
- The internship program must be similar to training that would be given in an educational environment, such as a college, university or trade school.
- The intern and the employer must both understand that the intern is not entitled to wages.
- The company must receive no immediate advantage from the internship and in fact may find its operations disrupted by the training effort.
- The intern must not take the job of regular employees.
Unpaid Programs on the Rise
Despite the risks, unpaid internships appear to be on the rise. In a May 2010 survey by Internships.com, an online clearinghouse for companies and would-be interns, two-thirds of the more than 300 college and university career center professionals who responded said that overall internship postings on their campuses increased from 2009 to 2010. However, more campuses reported lower numbers of paid internships than those reporting increases.
“Unpaid internships do appear to be on the rise,” says attorney James M. Coleman of the labor and employment law firm Constangy, Brooks & Smith LLP in Fairfax, Va. Whether the rise is in “reaction to the difficult economy and an effort to save on labor costs is not completely clear.”
Companies can protect themselves by having the college intern ask his professor for academic credit for the internship. Employers should coordinate with an intern’s school to determine requirements mandated by the educational institution, experts say.
An internship is more likely to be viewed as training if it provides interns with skills that can be used in multiple settings, as opposed to skills that are specific to one employer’s work environment.
Interns should be “allowed to observe aspects of the employer’s operations, such as job shadowing, without needing to perform services at all times,” McCourt says. He adds that an intern should not supervise regular employees or other interns, and the company should define the arrangement clearly and in writing, specifying that there is no expectation of a job offer at the conclusion of the internship.
HR professionals and lawyers say it may be useful for companies to keep written records of what an intern expects to gain from an unpaid program. Attorney Oscar Michelen of Sandback & Michelen in New York City suggests preserving memos, e-mails and other documentation covering what each intern does, such as attending scheduled training sessions and luncheon meetings with regular employees, and what type of training and supervision will be provided.
SOURCE: Taylor, S. (17 January 2020). "Beware the Legal Pitfalls of Managing Unpaid Interns" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-news/pages/managingunpaidinterns.aspx