Retention Ideas in a Recession

Retention Ideas in a Recession

Employee engagement is the top priority of respondents to HR Exchange Network’s latest State of HR survey. Obviously, employers are keen to engage employees to increase productivity and retention. However, the economic downturn and inflation is complicating matters, and Human Resources leaders are seeking new ways to reach talent.

Recently, Eric Mochnacz, strategic senior HR leader and Director of Operations at Red Clover, shared his ideas about how to move forward and keep morale up, even in lean times. Here’s what he had to say:

HREN: First of all, do you think employees are going to continue with the leverage that they have? Or is that going to shift again?

EM: We’ve argued that it’s a job seekers market. Job candidates and employees can demand more. I think job seekers are more in the driver’s seat. However, they will probably come to future employers with more reasonable expectations. Recently, I got into it on LinkedIn with an individual who was honest. He said that if you were in talent acquisition, and you were making x amount of dollars, you have to be realistic about what some of these companies are willing to offer you. You may need to take a salary cut.

Obviously, we want people to feel like they are paid their worth. But I think what happened – and this is true for many of our clients – is they were getting people stolen from them because these companies were just throwing an exorbitant amount of money to win talent. That’s where a lot of people got burned.

Employees and job seekers will have the opportunity to say, ‘Listen, I still want remote work. I still want flexible scheduling. I think that’s still a good negotiating point for people. I think where employers will get savvier is that they will not throw money at job candidates like they did before. They’re going to be a little more conservative. Job seekers will have more realistic expectations about what they’re going to be able to find. If you’re from Meta or Twitter, when you think about becoming a software engineer at a 10- to 15-person firm, you must realize that they probably cannot afford what Meta and Twitter were able to provide.

However, we tell our tech clients to remind people that they will have a constant stream of customers, so they can offer job security. That’s the difference.

HREN: What are some of the best practices for employee engagement to keep productivity and morale up?

EM: It’s critical that how they communicate from this point on with employees helps them understand their standing in the organization. There’s been a lot of hot takes, and I’ve participated in some about how Elon Musk handled Twitter versus how Mark Zuckerberg handled Facebook.

If the company ultimately believes that the decisions they make will right set the organization, and they don’t think they’re going to need to make any layoffs in the near future, HR should say, ‘Listen, this was why we did X, Y, and Z. We think we will be successful in addressing the problem. We are relatively confident that we won’t need to do another round of layoffs.’ Again, nothing is ever guaranteed. I also think it probably requires HR leaders to get a little more face time with employees.

There’s probably this pervasive feeling of I’m doing more with less, and I’m not going to have the opportunity to find someone to relieve some of the work pressure. So, what are we doing? What’s the company doing? What are we doing to look forward? HR – I hope it’s part of the strategic leadership team – should be able to adequately respond to those questions. They must be able to listen and say, ‘So, you’re saying that you’ve now taken on the work of two other people, because we let them go? The solution to this problem is that we need to show your value. We don’t want to lose you.’

What needs to happen? I think it’s just more intentional communication with the remaining workforce, helping them feel valued, really listening to what they have to say. Then, you must use that to develop strategy into Q1 and Q2. Continue to communicate that effectively. Say, ‘We can’t hire more people now, but if things adjust, we might be able to do so in the next quarter.’

By Francesca Di Meglio

Originally posted on HR Exchange Network

What Is Empathy in Human Resources Management?

What Is Empathy in Human Resources Management?

Empathy in Human Resources Management is something that comes up often. The idea of a stern leader, who rules with an iron fist, is outdated. Today’s leaders are expected to build relationships and trust to ensure they get the most out of employees. HR has the double burden of demonstrating empathy and teaching executives to model this kind of behavior. Rarely, however, does anyone dissect what it means to be an empathetic leader.

Define Empathy

Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share feelings of another. When it comes to leadership, it means to care for employees and consider their feelings. Lots of research points to the fact that empathetic leaders help lead teams to better business results, according to Forbes.

For example, Catalyst found that those with empathetic leaders are more productive and innovative. They burn out less often. They foster inclusion. Most importantly, they are less likely to leave their employers. All this is proven to give an edge to companies. After all, these factors lead to better business outcomes.

How to Be Empathetic

To be an empathetic leader is about finding one’s humanity and acting upon it. Some of it may seem obvious. Trying to understand what others are going through and facing is a great place to start. In this time of divisiveness, when leaders’ earnings are further apart from workers than ever before, this idea of relating to one another becomes paramount. Communication is a big part of this style of leadership. Here are some other best practices when striving to have empathy:

Ask people how they are doing and actively listen.

In other words, pay attention to what they say, and repeat it to ensure you understand them. Learn to stay quiet and let people share their thoughts and feelings. Then, follow up with appropriate questions. When necessary, offer ideas for problem solving or simply comfort the person. The time when people could not cry at the office are over.

Respond to the employees’ unique needs.

Part of the new leader’s goal is to develop relationships with employees. Once managers do so and understand how each person feels and what motivates them, they can take action. This could mean providing flexibility to a working mom, who is trying to do it all or providing personalized employee benefits. Perhaps, it means providing the right bonus or gift to encourage retention.

Get comfortable with feelings.

Even before the pandemic, eight in 10 people had said they cried at work, according to Monster.com and reported by various news outlets, including CNN. More than 44% of C-suite executives said crying at work is okay from time to time, and another 30% said it has no negative effect on how one is perceived at work, according to Robert Half Talent Solutions and as reported by Harvard Business Review. Emotions are running high in this post-COVID era, so people need to be comfortable with the various ways people may be feeling.

Some employees – not to mention managers – could be sad, angry, frustrated, stressed, and so on. Being more open and transparent about human feelings will make others more comfortable. It will help shed stigma, too. Obviously, if people are overly emotional, then colleagues and managers should provide them with resources and access to help with mental health and wellness. But no one should expect managers or HR professionals to serve as psychologists or even counselors. It is simply a matter of being comfortable in one’s skin.

Check in regularly. At the start of each meeting, find out what’s happening in the life of employees. The response might be about the anxiety of completing a big project, for example. Or it can simply be about what everyone has done over the weekend. By making it a habit to start meetings with this personal catch up time, empathetic leaders are building a forum for people to come to them with problems or concerns. When managers and HR professionals see signs of burnout or mental illness, then they should direct people to the appropriate help.

By Francesca Di Meglio

Originally posted on HR Exchange Network

Effective Leadership Begins with You!

Effective Leadership Begins with You!

There may not be an “I” in team, but there is an “I” in disengaged.

What does this have to do with leadership? Well, regardless of what, why and where you lead, you — as the leader — are directly responsible for the engagement of those who follow you.  It’s up to you to decide whether you are leading positively or negatively — and whether you choose to focus on engagement or merely output.

Effective leadership results in increased employee happiness, engagement, and retention rates.  But that’s not all. An engaged workforce leads to 17% higher productivity, a 10% increase in customer ratings, a 20% increase in sales, and 21% greater profitability.

Improving leadership is an idea that can be difficult to grasp in tactical or practical ways.

The first step to improving it is to define it.

Leadership is “the act of getting individuals aligned and moving in the same direction toward a desired outcome.”

A key to effective leadership is the ability to define outcomes, but then helping individuals put their talents to use to get there.  The best leaders know their people and are aware of their strengths and also their weaknesses.

This level of leadership is achievable when you work at building the leader-muscles in you. Here’s a quick list of the traits that leaders possess so you can begin exercising these muscles in your next leadership workout:

  1. Self-manage: Make a list in your planner or phone that outlines your goals for the week and how you plan to achieve them. You cannot manage others if you cannot manage yourself.
  2. Good communication: Many of us have heard the phrase “You have two ears and one mouth so you can listen twice as much as you talk.” An effective leader “knows when to talk and when to listen.” Leaders can communicate company goals and tasks to all levels in the organization and can gather information from all levels by listening.
  3. Accountability: A successful manager gives credit where it is due and is not afraid to take responsibility for mistakes made by them or the team. Shifting blame does nothing more than undermine your team. Taking all the praise does the same thing. Leaders evenly distribute both in a respectful manner.
  4. Promote teamwork: When building a team, it is important for the leader to create a culture of teamwork. This is beyond the task of sharing workload, it is also the leader’s skill of team-led problem-solving, communication, and reliability.
  5. Set clear goals with vision: Good employees can follow instructions and complete tasks. Good leaders share vision and good employees are motivated by it. “Vision can be defined as a picture in the leader’s imagination that motivates people to action when communicated compellingly, passionately and clearly.”

Just as you cannot build strong muscles in your body by occasionally going to the gym, you cannot shape leadership muscles by sporadically flexing these traits—you have to work them out daily. By continually doing the hard work of leading a team, you will be able to effectively build your team’s culture of respect and cooperation.

Ways Leadership Affects Culture and Culture Affects Leadership

Ways Leadership Affects Culture and Culture Affects Leadership

There has been so much written on leadership in the last year, it’s hard to keep track of it all. Leaders should be storytellers, communicators, holistic, strategic, encouraging, creative, conservative, risk taking, ethical, competitive, inspiring and a whole host of other attributes.

There are countless books currently available on the subject, and it would not surprise me if there were close to over half a million articles on the subject. It is the bread and butter of every consulting firm throughout the world. With so much content offering thought and insight, you have to wonder why leadership still an issue?

The answer lies with culture. The entire purpose of leadership is to create a culture. In a large and well-established organization, it can be difficult for an outsider to implement a new culture. So, does leadership create a culture or does culture create leadership? The answer to both questions is yes.

Culture Affecting Leadership

“I have been here 25 years,” said the director of a large municipality. “I have outlasted three city managers so far, and I will outlast this one.” This is the attitude many leaders face, especially when they are brought in from outside organizations to run or manage large, well-established ones.

The negative cultures can especially undermine positive leadership as initiatives are actively undermined by managers who have a stake in the old culture or struggle to accept the changes inherent in the modern workplace. Whether it’s through manipulation or complacency, negative cultures can create significant challenges for change. At the same time, positive leadership can overcome negative culture and turn the tide over time. A few encouraging results and positive experiences can go a long way.

Negative leadership, however, can have a fast, dramatic effect on a positive culture. WorldCom was a telecom leader and had a very innovative culture until Bernie Ebbers took over. While squeezing every cent he could from the environment and putting pressure on employees to work harder with less, he was pillaging the company. Turnover soared and, within a few years, WorldCom was bankrupt.

Culture as a Function of Leadership

Companies reflect the ethics of the leaders who run them. We’ve seen in recent times the reaction employees and the public have to companies who fail to address their stance on social issues, harassment, pay gaps and whose political leanings go against what employees view to be the common good.

As a result, leaders find themselves having to publicly make statements condemning systemic racism, political violence and other topics that aren’t easy to talk about without offending someone or putting oneself at risk. But ultimately, the ethical stands a leader takes becomes a part of the organization’s culture.

Bob Page felt like an outsider and had to hide his sexuality. When he built Replacements, Ltd., he ensured everyone it would be a place that accepted diversity—not just of lifestyle but of thought—and would invest in building their community. Anita Roddick founded The Body Shop to build an environmentally-friendly corporation, which reflected her commitment to environmental activism. Jim Goodnight’s commitment to work-life balance is part of the culture at SAS, the largest privately-held company in the world. Jack Welch’s commitment to being the best created an environment of excellence at General Electric. In each of these cases, the ethics of the leader became a central part of the culture.

The Obstacles to Culture Change

The real obstacles to culture change are internal obstacles. False ego, fear, complacency and preconceived ideas create a negative environment. When change is introduced there is resistance, even when the change is positive. People learn different coping mechanisms to avoid the change, such as hiding behind procedures, “water cooler” talk or actively undermining the initiative.

The remote work landscape changes some of this as employee communications can be more easily monitored and there are fewer “water cooler” moments on offer to begin with. But negativity can me a bit like trying to contain water in an enclosed space. If there’s a place for it to leak through, it likely will. The question then becomes how leadership can have a positive impact on the culture of an organization?

Ways Leadership Can Positively Affect Culture

People are inspired by vision. They want to follow a leader who shows concerns and values that are important to them. A positive leader will inspire 100% effort from everybody. Here are some signs of a good leader and how the leader affects the culture:

  • Visionaries and strategic thinkers: A boss tells you what to do, while a leader inspires you to want to do it. Leaders who lay out a vision that people buy into and a strategy that they understand will create a culture of engagement. People know where the organization is headed, how it will get there and their role in helping achieve the vision.
  • Ethics that support values: People look at what you do and not what you say. Values are words, ethics are actions. When leaders demonstrate values through their actions, they lead by example and create an ethical culture.
  • Empowerment: There are three requirements for: responsibility, accountability and authority. Leaders who empower people to make decisions that affect their lives, give them the authority to act and make them take responsibility for consequences create leadership on all levels of the organization. Micromanaging means people are not entrusted to be leaders and very little gets done because all decisions need to be made by one person.

By David Whiting

Originally posted on hrexchangenetwork.com.

9 Books Every HR Pro Should Read in 2020

9 Books Every HR Pro Should Read in 2020


Quarantine leaves us with a healthy chunk of time to reassess and spend time with the ones we love. But as quarantine goes on, the work must go on as well and for HR professionals, that means developing professionally as much as everyone else within the organization.
With all this time on your hands, a nice relaxing read is not only good for your development, but also your health. To help you develop a reading list that can fuel your own growth, we’ve provided a quarantine reading list of the best HR focused books to read in 2020.
Enjoy.

  1. HR on Purpose: Developing Deliberate People Passion by Steve Brown

A well-known thought leader in HR, Brown spends a great deal of time facilitating conversations about the possibilities in HR. In this book, he looks to challenge assumptions and preconceived notions about what HR should be and instead challenges the reader to think of the possibilities and tap into their passion for HR.

  1. HR from the Outside In: Six Competencies for the Future of Human Resources by Dave Ulrich, Jon Younger, Wayne Brockbank and Mike Ulrich

A cast of HR veterans has put together a handbook of competencies that sets the modern HR professional up for a more strategic role within the business. The put forward the argument that one of the most important roles of an HR practitioner is to be a credible activist, both for the employee and for the business as a whole.

  1. Generation Z: A Century in the Making by Corey Seemiller and Megan Grace

When Millennials (Gen Y) hit the workforce it created a shift in expectations of employers, workplace cultures and the way employers think about processes and employee relationships. Now, a new generation is entering the workforce and their lifestyles, expectations and world view are once again different.
To manage the Gen Z demographic effectively, HR leaders need to look at how the way this generation manages money, pursues education, values their relationships and what they want for their careers. This book explores these topics in a way that will help HR teams manage the generational diversity of their teams.

  1. Unleashing the Power of Diversity: How to Open Minds for Good by Bjørn Z. Ekelund

As cultures collide and the nature of work becomes more global, there are differences which could divide teams if we can’t develop a common language and a culture that highlights our common struggles. In this book, the author unveils a step-by-step program for communicating across cultural lines to develop a culture of trust that facilitates greater diversity within the organization and the construction of global teams.

  1. Talent Wins: The New Playbook for Putting People First by Ram Charan, Dominic Barton, and Dennis Carey

Talent planning is changing and requires a new way of doing things. This book uses examples from some of the world’s largest companies all the way down to Silicon Valley startups to show how HR can become the partner the business needs to acquire, develop and manage talent that can meet the technological and analytical demands of the modern workplace.

  1. Feedback (and Other Dirty Words): Why We Fear It and How to Fix It by M. Tamra Chandler and Laura Dowling Grealish

Good, honest feedback can be difficult to take, but as HR leaders, collecting feedback and being able to package it into constructive conversations that fuel employee growth is an art. In this book, the authors take a deeper look at where negative reactions to feedback come from and how to limit negative physical and emotional responses to it. It introduces the three F’s of feedback, (focused, fair and frequent) to help ease the tension that sometimes accompanies these discussions.

  1. Predictive HR Analytics: Mastering the HR Metric by Martin R. Edwards and Kirsten Edwards

Advanced HR metrics can be difficult, but are becoming a necessary part of the modern HR professionals work as employee engagement and experience take center stage. Being able to predict turnover, analyze and forecast diversity and fine tune employee interventions are all key skills discussed in this book. The authors focus on statistical techniques and predictive analytics models that can help improve the HR practitioner’s ability to do those things in an ethical manner.

  1. Talent Keepers: How Top Leaders Engage and Retain Their Best Performers by Christopher Mulligan and Craig Taylor

Through six case studies, the authors of this book reveal how organizations can develop and implement employee engagement plans that use tactics which have shown proven results. Starting from the time a new hire walks through the door to years into their development, this systemic approach will help HR leaders create a culture that retains and nurtures employees to grow within the organization.

  1. Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall

Culture is everything, but there are misconceptions and lies that pervade the workplace and cause dysfunction. That is the central tenet behind this book which seeks to identify those lies and highlight freethinking leaders are able to see through the fog to see the unique nature of their teams and reveal truths about the workplace or what the authors call the real world of work.
Originally posted on HR Exchange Network