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Tips for Promoting a Safe and Healthy Work Environment

In California, every employer with 10 or more employees is required by the State (Cal/OSHA) to have an effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP). This program must be a written plan that includes policies and procedures on topics such as safe work practices, periodic inspections, what to do in the event of an accident, safety training, workplace threats, and recordkeeping.

The plan should be periodically updated and communicated to employees on a regular basis.

In addition to the plan, and in light of these stressful times, there are a number of preventive actions employers can take to promote a safe and healthy work environment for employees.

Here are some tips:

Offer mental health awareness and resources. Many employees are struggling to adjust to being back in the office. Commute woes (and gas prices), childcare issues, change in routine, rusty social skills, in some cases a change in job role or management, fear of another COVID wave, etc.

Recognize this and provide resources, e.g., a Lunch & Learn where a wellness expert speaks to employees about general mental health awareness and ways to relieve stress. In many cases, your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) can provide access to wellness experts at a low cost or no cost to the employer. If your insurance plan offers an EAP, be sure employees know about it and encourage them to take advantage of it. As a leader, let your employees know that you are available if they need a sounding board. Be flexible in adapting work schedules/workloads as they work through it.

Also, there is information on the EEOC website about medical accommodations under the ADA.

Promote camaraderie. One of the major causes of stress for employees is the sense of isolation that has built up over the past couple of years during COVID. Research has shown that when people have strong social connections at work they are happier and healthier which can translate into higher motivation and engagement. Many companies offer new hires a buddy to assist them during the on-boarding process. This is especially important for employees who will be working remotely.

Build connections via non-work-related group activities, such as a walking group. Walking is a no-cost, accessible activity that requires no equipment and has the added benefit of the great outdoors. Promoting these connections is especially important for those employees who may have started with the organization via Zoom. Walking, as an example, is something that any employee can do whether working remotely or in the office.

Watch for signs. If you notice changes in the behavior of one of your employees – e.g., lashing out at others, isolating, frequent tardiness or absence, deteriorating performance – initiate a conversation to determine the cause and find out whether, and how, you can help. Sometimes all the person needs is someone to listen and/or a referral to available resources. And other times, it could be more than that.

Remember, an employer is obligated to begin the interactive process and possibly provide a medical accommodation under the ADA for anyone who may become disabled due to their mental health condition and is under their doctor’s care. It’s important to check in with your employees to see whether stress is impeding their ability to perform their work. So, if you see something, say something. Don’t wait.

For additional ideas on how you can support employee wellness, check out this Fast Company article.

If you need help implementing these or other preventive measures, please contact me at michelle@connecttohr.com

Help Prevent Workplace Violence: Be Aware

It’s no secret that we are living in stressful times. Inflation, ongoing concerns about COVID, political and racial divide, anxiety around returning to the office after months of isolation…the list goes on. Sadly, some of this frustration has led to heinous acts of violence such as the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, and the many others since then.

Everyday situations turned deadly.

This calls on us all to be more aware of our surroundings – whether at large public events or at the smaller venues where we learn, where we play, where we shop, where we worship.

And where we work.

If you see something, say something. You may prevent someone from harming others or from harming himself/herself.

Pay attention when a coworker’s behavior or demeanor suddenly changes. Check in with them. Maybe they just need someone to talk to. If you’re not comfortable doing that or they resist, consult with your manager or HR. If you see behaviors that are particularly alarming – bullying, threats (face-to-face or in writing), etc. – contact HR immediately. If you perceive that you or others are in immediate danger, call your security team or the police.

The hotline number for Workplace Violence Prevention and Response is: 1.877.987.3747.

Often, we get so busy with the multiple obligations we have – work, home, family – that we don’t notice the human interactions around us. Pay attention.

And leaders, if you are faced with or become aware of a potential harmful situation, send security or someone trained to deal with such incidents rather than putting staff members in that position.

There are a number of preventive measures that organizations can take to reduce the possibility of violent and harmful situations in the workplace. We’ll talk about those in my next article.

If you need help preparing for or dealing with employee issues, please contact me at michelle@connecttohr.com

Supporting a DEI Culture Through Coaching

Creating a strong DEI culture doesn’t happen overnight.

Even when senior leaders implement all the suggestions I’ve made in my last two articles (catch up with them here and here) there will be those leaders and employees who have a hard time outgrowing baked-in biases and ways of communicating.

Such was the case with one of my coaching clients. Although his team praised him as a leader who supported them and had no problem pitching in to help when things needed to get done, they also described him as someone who was often insensitive and judgmental, making assumptions about people based on preconceived notions rather than actual evidence.

This is called unconscious bias. “Unconscious” because often we don’t even realize that we are making judgments about someone’s abilities, intelligence, experience, credibility, etc., based on factors that have nothing to do with those qualities. The first step in overcoming these biases is to be made aware of them and the impact they have on others.

In this client example, I was brought in to help my client develop awareness around his communication style, his leadership style and the impact that both had on the people who worked for him and with him. We used a 360-assessment tool, which gives stakeholders the opportunity to comment on the leader’s strengths and areas for development. The 360 is a very powerful tool because it helps leaders develop self-awareness while giving stakeholders (direct reports, colleagues, and the person’s leadership) the ability to provide feedback anonymously. Leaders need honest feedback from various sources to be able to learn and grow.

A key requirement for an effective leadership coaching engagement is for the leader to be coachable. In this case my leader/client was very responsive to the feedback. He recognized that he often made snap judgments and that sometimes his communication style could be interpreted as insensitive. In addition to our coaching sessions, he also completed a DEI training class.

At the end of our coaching engagement, I performed a follow-up assessment to determine (from stakeholders) how he was implementing what he’d learned and to identify and create a plan for areas for continued growth. I was pleased to learn that stakeholders saw marked improvement in his self-awareness and in better adapting his communication style. They also remarked that he had implemented practices that he learned in the DEI training.

Effective leaders continue to learn and grow and one of the ways to do that is through Executive Coaching. Contact me today at michelle@connecttohr.com and let’s discuss how my coaching services can help the leaders in your organization.

To Improve DEI, Choose Culture ADD Over Culture FIT

As I wrote in my last article, building a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) begins with leaders.

Leaders need to create an environment where ALL employees, regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, etc. feel welcome, valued, and included. An environment where ALL employees have opportunities for advancement and where ALL employees are treated equitably in matters of compensation, development, and benefits.

Equity and inclusion don’t just happen on their own. They need to be intentionally woven into HR strategies, policies, procedures, and leadership expectations. DEI shouldn’t be focused just in the hiring practice. It needs to continue throughout the employee experience. The commitment to DEI needs to be talked about at new hire orientation and reinforced at team meetings and at all hands meetings.

A recent Fast Company article – 5 Things You Probably Haven’t Thought of That Will Help You Be More Inclusive – provides some additional ways for companies to become more inclusive. Two of their tips stood out to me.

Focus on culture ADD not culture FIT. Too many workplaces are focused on hiring for culture fit. This framing is exclusionary and biased, especially when it comes to hiring for leadership roles. If your organization is made up of white men, then you’re consciously or unconsciously going to pattern match for a ‘culture fit.’”

As you do your workforce planning, think about hiring for people who aren’t already represented by race, gender, age, educational background, languages spoken – people who will add to your culture.

Cultivate cultural humility, not cultural competency. The difference is that cultural competency means learning about other cultures while retaining the idea that your culture is dominant. This approach assumes that the non-dominant culture’s way of doing things is often exasperating or exotic—a quirk to accommodate, not something to respect or learn from. Cultivating cultural humility means recognizing that you do not know everything about another’s culture, and that there may be a lot to learn from it.

The most inclusive companies evaluate their practices on a regular basis, collaborate with employees at all levels on how they can improve, and monitor their progress. They celebrate and reward those who add to the culture and recognize leaders who see potential in employees who may be different than the established norm.

If you need help improving diversity, equity and inclusion in your organization, please reach out to me at michelle@connecttohr.com.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – How to Lead the Way

Numerous studies have shown that a diverse workforce can have a positive effect on the bottom line. But building and maintaining that workforce is more than just hiring people of color and from different backgrounds. Unless you follow through with equity and inclusion once they’re on board, your commitment to diversity is just lip service.

So how do you create a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion? It needs to be a concerted effort – starting at the leadership and systems level – that considers all activities – hiring, promoting, communications, company gatherings, development, team assignments, terminations, etc. – through a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Here are some tips.

Regularly confirm your commitment to diversity and inclusion by ensuring that teams, projects, promotions, development, and other opportunities are open to the broader definition of diverse individuals – gender, ethnicity, points of view, sexual orientation, etc.

Encourage conversation to promote understanding. Consider organizing group conversations of diverse employees where participants share their different perspectives and experiences. Hearing personal stories about the impact of exclusion can be powerful in creating empathy and understanding.

Build awareness around microaggressions. Often, seemingly innocuous statements or questions can make others feel uncomfortable. “Where are you from originally?” “Wow! You are so well-spoken.” “You’re strong for a girl.” Statements and questions that subtly imply assumptions based on gender or race do not promote inclusion.

Implement a mentoring program. Match peers one-on-one or in mentoring circles to provide a safe place to talk about challenges. Or consider creating affinity groups. A workplace affinity group is a group of employees with similar backgrounds, characteristics, or life experiences, such as: women, people of color, or Veterans. The purpose of an affinity group is to provide diverse populations within an organization the opportunity to share ideas and experiences.

Learn more about the small steps you can take every day to implement a culture where everyone feels valued, heard, and included in this podcast from my amazing colleague, Lisa Duerre, CEO of RLD Group.

Building a culture of diversity and inclusion takes time and effort. It’s about changing mindsets and creating an environment that allows all to feel welcome and to thrive. It begins with you, as the leader, leading the way.

If you need help incorporating diversity, equity and inclusion into your culture, please contact me at michelle@connecttohr.com.

Hiring for Diversity Isn’t Enough

Back in 2014 the hi-tech industry made a public goal to increase diversity in their workforces. CEOs pledged millions to the cause, diversity recruitment programs emerged, and companies shared annual reports to show their progress.

To date, however, little real progress has been made. While the number of Blacks and Latinos recruited and hired in hi-tech has increased slightly (a couple of percentage points at most) the efforts to create and maintain a truly diverse workforce seem to stop there.

Take Google, for example, which is now the subject of a lawsuit claiming that it treats Black workers unfairly by “steering them into lower-level and lower-paid jobs and subjecting them to a hostile work environment if they speak out.”

The person who filed the lawsuit, a recruiter who was hired in 2014 to set up a diversity program, claims that she noticed a pattern of discrimination as qualified Black employees and other people of color were paid less and passed over for promotions. She says she was fired from her job after speaking out about it. Other former employees have made similar complaints since the lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, was filed.

This is an important lesson for business leaders. Diversity in hiring is not enough. It may look great on a report, but unless you do more it’s just for show. To create and maintain a diverse workforce you also have to practice equity and inclusion in all of your people practices – compensation, opportunities for promotion, learning and development and so forth.

Without taking those next steps to embrace and practice Diversity AND Equity AND Inclusion (DEI) you are just checking a box and not making a difference.

Next time we’ll talk about how you can increase equity and inclusion in your organization.

Things to Consider When Hiring Outside of California

As “work from anywhere” becomes a more common practice in our new world of work, many organizations are hiring employees who live in other parts of the U.S., or even outside of the U.S.

Since we have the technology for a remote workforce, it shouldn’t matter where they are, right? Wrong!

Here are some of the items you need to consider:

Do you need to establish a local business entity? Most states in the U.S. and foreign countries require this.
What is the job market paying in the location where your employee works? Is it similar or different from your corporate location? Will you pay a differential if the person works remotely?
What about wage and hour laws or meal and rest breaks in the city, state, or country where the employee works?
How do you ensure equity in benefits, for example, vacation and holidays? European employees typically receive more vacation than U.S. employees. How do you handle that?
What other benefits are required by the employee’s location?
What about leave laws? How are parental, medical, and other types of leaves handled? Canada and many European countries offer up to a year of paid time off for certain leaves.
What are the local requirements for laying off or firing an employee? Many European countries require lengthy advance notice for a layoff, for example.

If the majority of your employees are in California, where required benefits may be more generous than in other parts of the U.S., do you offer your employees in other states California benefits? Can you afford to? If not, follow the laws where the work is performed and consider taking small steps to reach equity with your California employees.

It’s important to note that if a manager is working elsewhere but manages people in California, the California law requiring that managers receive anti-harassment training every two years applies.

Employment laws vary from state to state and certainly from country to country. To be in compliance, you need to follow the laws related to the state or country where your employees are located. It’s important to work with an employment attorney who is familiar with the legal requirements for recruiting, hiring, terminating, paying, and managing employees in that specific area.

Onboarding New Hires in a Hybrid Work Environment

A positive onboarding experience is and always has been key to the success (and retention!) of new hires. Yet a 2019 Gallup poll found that “after experiencing onboarding at their organization, only 29% of new hires say that they feel fully prepared and supported to excel in their new role.” And that was before a global pandemic, a mostly remote workforce, and The Great Resignation.

Effective onboarding is now more important than ever. Many of the employees hired over the past two years have not met their teammates in person, or walked down the corporate hallways, or chatted with a fellow employee at the coffee station.

So, how do you convey the company culture and create team connections in a hybrid work environment?

Here are some tips.

Provide all new hires with a company Orientation that includes information about the company history, mission, vision, goals, and objectives. Talk about the culture and give examples of how it’s demonstrated internally and externally. Consider having (positive) long-time employees share their experiences relative to the culture. Be sure to allow time for introductions, interactions and questions.

Promote connections. Create opportunities for new hires to connect one-on-one with other team members – via Zoom, or, if practical, via scheduled in person meetings.

Add a personal touch. Millennials and Gen Z new hires in particular expect a high touch onboarding experience. One way to do this is to assign a “buddy” or mentor to help the new hire get oriented to the new company. This is especially important for summer interns/college students who are being onboarded remotely. They need an assigned 1:1 person who is not their manager to help them learn the ropes and to be available to answer questions.

Communicate. Before the new hire’s first day be sure that they have the equipment they need and that their email is set up and working. Send out an announcement to the rest of the team with the new hire’s name, role and a brief bio. Designate a team member(s) to send the new hire a “welcome” message on or before their first day. Be sure the new hire is looped in to all company-wide communications.

Consistently demonstrate the culture. Culture is more than just perks. It’s how leadership and employees demonstrate company values, how they treat one another, how they treat customers, vendors, etc.

Involve the new hire’s leader. The new hire’s leader plays a key role in acclimating them to the organization. According to Microsoft research, when managers played an active role in their new hire’s onboarding, employees were 3.5 times more likely to say they were satisfied with their onboarding experience. They were also 1.2 times more likely to feel that they were contributing to their team’s success.

Remember, employee retention starts on Day 1.

Courtesy Never Goes Out of Style!

One of the frustrations I’ve heard from hiring managers is the increased number of incidents of candidate “ghosting,” that is, not showing up for interviews, not returning calls, and not responding in a timely manner to a verbal or even a written offer. In some cases, accepting offers and then never showing up for their first day on the job.

Job seekers: common courtesy never goes out of style, even in a market when job seekers have the upper hand.

I’ve learned over my many years in HR that this is a very small valley. Recruiters talk. Hiring managers talk. Colleagues talk. Don’t burn employment bridges.

One recruiter shared with me that she had called to remind the candidate about the interview the day before the appointed time. He said he would be there. She called again two hours before the interview. Again, he confirmed. The interview time came and went. The candidate didn’t show. Not only that, he did not call or even send an email to explain or to apologize.

Skipping an interview, not responding to phone calls and emails, and not following up are just plain rude.

As I said in my last article, BE HONEST. If you are close to the offer stage with another company, let the hiring manager know. If you decide you don’t want to interview with a company – let them know before your scheduled interview (ideally 24 hours before the interview).

Another recruiter shared a positive story with me about a candidate who, a couple of days before the interview, called to say she’d thought about the position and realized that it didn’t align with what she really wanted to do. She politely thanked the recruiter for the opportunity. This advance notice saved everyone time and effort and left the recruiter with a positive impression of the candidate.

After an interview, always, always send a thank you note to the hiring manager, HR and anyone else you spoke to. Written thank you notes are ideal, but email is also acceptable. Just send one.

And while we’re on this topic, I’ve also heard from job seekers I’ve worked with that they’ve gotten far into the hiring process – several interviews, indication that they were one of the top two candidates for the role…and then nothing.

Courtesy works both ways. When you, as a hiring manager or recruiter, make a selection from the final few, you need to inform those who were not selected. Yes, it’s hard to let someone down, but it is much better than leaving them hanging. You don’t have to go into details. Thank them for their interest and their time and wish them the best in their search. Again, this is a small valley and bad hiring process experiences very often end up on Glassdoor.

Be courteous!

2022 CA Supplemental COVID-19 Paid Sick Leave

Governor Newsom has signed into law SB 114 California State Supplemental COVID-19 Paid Sick Leave, which goes into effect February 19, 2022. The new law applies to employers with 26 or more employees and requires them to provide up to 80 hours of supplemental COVID-related sick pay to employees who are:

Attending a COVID-19 vaccine or booster appointment for themselves or a family member
Experiencing symptoms or caring for a family member with symptoms
Subject to a COVID-19 quarantine or isolation period
Caring for a child whose school or place of care is unavailable due to COVID-19

In 2021, California passed a supplement COVID-19 paid sick leave bill that provided similar benefits to employees. However, these benefits expired on September 31, 2021 and were not replaced with additional leave. SB114 was a pathway for the California legislature to bring back this benefit due to the recent COVID surge. Please note, this would be a new allotment for employees.

The bill covers the period from January 1, 2022 through September 30, 2022. Employees who took COVID-related leave between January 1 and February 19 and were not provided with paid leave may make an oral or written request to their employer for payment.

Employers are required to post a notice about the supplemental paid sick leave. The Labor Commissioner’s Office is currently working on and will make available a poster. Employers are also required to provide employees with written notice of the supplemental paid sick leave that the employee has used in the applicable pay period. Read the full bill here.