Blog | Connect to HR | Strategic HR Advisors & Executive Coaching

Performance Management is a Process, NOT an Event

Despite the fact that leaders and employees alike dread the annual performance review, a 2018 survey by research firm WorldatWork found that 80% of companies still use a formal performance review process.

Employees need to know how they’re doing. And they shouldn’t have to wait to some future date to get that feedback. No news is NOT good news when it comes to keeping employees engaged (by acknowledging their accomplishments) and keeping your team and organization on track (by addressing performance issues). A review meeting once a year is not effective. In fact, research shows that annual employee reviews have minimal if any effect on individual or organizational performance.

So what’s the alternative?

Make performance management a process not just an event. Give employees regular, timely feedback. Be specific. Acknowledge their accomplishments and share how their performance positively impacted the team and/or organization. Discuss any issues “in the moment” to help reestablish expectations and initiate the improvement process sooner rather than later. If you allow a performance issue to continue without bringing it to the employee’s attention, he or she may not even realize it’s a problem.

Adopt a coaching mindset. Feedback shouldn’t be a report card, but rather a development tool. Help your employees build on their strengths and develop in the areas where they are not as strong – relative to the needs of the organization – today and tomorrow – and to their own career goals. When there’s an issue, ask good questions to determine the root cause – is it an ability issue? A training issue? An attitude issue? Then mutually decide the appropriate solution.

Ask for their feedback. Create an environment where employees seek feedback and view it as a growth opportunity. Do this by setting the example. Ask for their feedback – “What can I do better?” “How can I help you?” – and then act on it, as appropriate.

Effective leaders work on helping their employees develop and grow, and also work on growing themselves in all the skills and competencies they need to successfully lead their teams and organizations. This takes focus. Daniel Goleman, author and psychologist, says that leaders need three kinds of focus: Inner Focus – the ability to monitor your own thoughts, feelings and emotions; Other Focus – the ability to empathize with others; and Outer Focus – the ability to understand larger forces or systems.

Tune in next time when we’ll look at how you incorporate these three focus areas into your performance management conversations.

How Women Rise – Breaking the Habits That Are Holding You Back

In my last article I talked about a couple of the self-limiting behaviors that Marshall Goldsmith and Sally Helgesen discuss in their book, How Women Rise.

This time I’d like to talk about a few more of those behaviors and share some suggestions around how women might transform those behaviors to get to where they want to be.

Reluctance to claim achievements. Women tend not to brag about their accomplishments and often go out of their way to give credit to others. But here’s the thing. Those who are making decisions around pay, opportunities, and advancement need the data to make those decisions. Periodically take stock (and write down) what you’ve achieved and the value you’ve provided to the organization. And don’t hesitate to share it. Don’t wait for others to “spontaneously notice and reward” your hard work. Be bold.

Failing to enlist allies from day one. Goldsmith and Helgesen suggest that, when starting a new job, instead of isolating yourself to spend time getting up to speed, begin immediately building a network of partners at all levels. “The more inclusive your ally web, the more robust your support.” Another author, successful businesswoman Carla Harris, says that to be successful in business people need three key relationships – an advisor, a mentor and a sponsor.

Putting job before career. This is one of the areas where a strength – loyalty, commitment to the team – may be working against you. You do your job so well and get recognized for it (what would they do without you?) that you lose sight of your career goal. Again, take stock of what you are doing and how it contributes to where you ultimately want to be.

The disease to please. This is an area that may be the result of the gender-related messages received as children – girls rewarded for putting others ahead of themselves. The authors say, “Even women at senior levels tend to be most highly rewarded when they fulfill expectations in ways that others find pleasing rather than when they act boldly or assert independent views.” Take a step back and think about what your personal priorities are.

Allowing yourself to be minimized. Goldsmith and Helgesen say that women may inadvertently minimize their presence and impact by being too willing to squeeze into a circle (while men will let others adjust), by speaking softly, or by understatement: “I was just thinking,” or “I could be wrong, but…” or by using “I feel” instead of “I propose” or “I think.” These physical or vocal signs may be perceived as a lack of confidence and could hold you back from getting to where you want to be.

For the rest of the 12 habits in How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion, or Job, I suggest you buy the book!

Women in Leadership – Are Old Habits Holding You Back?

It’s rather alarming that we are in the 21^st century and yet there are still so few women in top corporate positions. According to Pew Research, women make up only 5.2% of CEOs in Fortune 500 companies and 5.4% of CEOs in Fortune 1000 companies.

Why is that?

Some of it is the result of inherent challenges that women still face in the workplace – being given equal consideration for leadership opportunities, being paid equally, sexual discrimination and harassment, finding a mentor or champion to guide them in their career, balancing work and home life.

Some of it is perception – many corporate cultures still think of men as the natural choice when it comes to leadership, adopting an attitude of “men take charge, women take care.”

And some of it is that the skills and behaviors that help women early in their careers may be working against them as they strive to advance up the corporate ladder.

World-renowned executive coach Marshall Goldsmith and women’s leadership expert Sally Helgesen took a look at these self-limiting skills and behaviors in their recently-published book, How Women Rise.

Based on their combined 60 years of experience working with leaders all over the world, the authors identified 12 habits that hold women back from getting their next raise, their next promotion or their next job. Although these are not uniquely women’s behaviors, Goldsmith and Helgesen observed that these 12 habits are the most likely to create a barrier for women in getting to where they want to be – in their career or in their life.

One of the first habits the authors talk about is women’s reluctance to point out their achievements. They don’t want to appear to be bragging. And they have a natural tendency to want to share credit with others – “it was a team effort.” Men, on the other hand, are less likely to feel shy about sharing what they’ve accomplished. By not promoting their personal achievements, women often don’t get the recognition (or the opportunities) they deserve.

Another habit they discuss is “The Perfection Trap.” Goldsmith/Helgesen attribute this behavior to the differing messages girls and boys get from their families growing up. Girls are often praised for their precision and for supporting others. Boys are praised for their daring exploits, competitiveness and winning. As children turn into adults, the messages evolve into personal beliefs about success and how to function in society and the workplace.

The good news is, How Women Rise doesn’t just provide insight about the particular habits that may be holding women back. The authors also provide detailed tutoring on how to replace those habits with behaviors that will lead to better results.

Tune in next time when we’ll explore more of the 12 habits and how to turn them around.

The Best Leaders Continue to Learn

It’s easy to get complacent once you’ve reached the top. You’ve worked hard to get there and now you’re ready to guide others as they work toward achieving team and organizational goals. But here’s the thing. Change is constant – challenges, the work environment, people, goals, business needs – and unless you keep learning you will not be prepared to effectively respond to those changes.

So, what are the skills that are important to continue to develop?

If you look at the myriad lists of “top” skills and competencies for leaders (and there are many of them!) there are several skills that consistently bubble to the top: strategic thinking, effective communication, interpersonal skills, a desire to develop others. These are some of the traditional skills that make an effective leader. But there are some additional skills that have become increasingly important over the past few years as we look at a new way of working in the 21^st century. Skills like emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and collaboration.

There was a time when “emotions” did not enter into workplace conversations, at least not in a positive way. Leaders managed actions, not emotions. Today, however, emotional intelligence, or EQ – the ability to recognize and manage your own emotions as well as those of others – is seen as perhaps the most essential skill to succeed as a leader.

One of the elements of emotional intelligence is self-awareness. Leaders who are self-aware, who know their strengths and are willing to admit the areas where they need development, tend to have stronger, more trusting relationships with their teams and colleagues. Self-awareness means understanding your strengths, and also recognizing behaviors that may be working against you. In a previous blog, Your Personal Best Starts with Self-Awareness, I talked about how certain “triggers” in our environment may prevent us from performing at our best. Learning to identify and manage our response to those triggers helps us grow as leaders.

Another element of emotional intelligence is empathy. Although we’re not seeing it demonstrated much on the national stage, empathy has been called THE skill for the 21^st Century.

Empathy is described as “the ability to understand, recognize and appreciate the way others are feeling, even if it is different from what you are feeling.” A more visual description is from the book To Kill A Mockingbird, when Atticus Finch says, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

Learning to understand someone else’s point of view – to figure out “where they’re coming from” – has myriad benefits in the workplace and in life in general. It improves interpersonal relationships, teamwork, negotiations, collaboration, sales, customer service, even parenting! And the good news is, as I discussed in a previous blog, Empathy: An Essential Skill for Leaders, empathy can be learned!

Often when we talk about leadership and communication, the focus is on the leader as a provider of information – vision, goals, feedback, updates, solutions – and how frequently and forthrightly that information is provided. But communicating effectively as a leader is more than just giving information. It’s about listening to your employees and conveying that you heard and understood. It’s about ensuring that your tone and body language are in sync with your words.

Leaders who demonstrate to their employees and their teams that they listen – really listen – build trust, promote engagement and inspire loyalty. In a previous blog, Are You Listening? Really Listening? I gave some tips on how to be a better listener.

As I work with leaders in the executive coaching side of my business, my goal is to help them become the best leader they can be. And that always starts from a place of helping them develop self-awareness and promoting continuous learning.

Are you, or is someone in your organization looking to improve their effectiveness as a leader? Contact me for a free consultation to learn about the benefits of coaching.

Get the Best from Your Team – Be an Effective Coach

In my work with leaders over the years, I’ve found that the most effective leaders are those who embrace their role as a coach – to their teams and to their individual employees. These are leaders who listen, who develop and empower their people, and who earn respect through their actions and how they treat others.

Developing your skills as a coach is one of the best ways to grow as a leader.

A great reference tool for this is the book, Trillion Dollar Coach, which profiles Bill Campbell, a football coach turned C-Suite executive who created a third career coaching some of the top CEOs in Silicon Valley. The book is written by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle, Google executives who witnessed firsthand “Coach Bill’s” ability to “build trust, foster personal growth, and inspire courage.” The authors interviewed more than 80 people to create a compendium of Bill Campbell stories, insight and wisdom.

Here are 5 key takeaways from Coach Bill’s principles that the authors shared.

Your title makes you a manager, your people make you a leader. Build relationships with your team – show them that you care about them as people. Get to know them. Ask about their lives outside of work, their families. Be generous with your time, connections and other resources.
Respect must be accrued, not demanded. The command and control style of leadership doesn’t work anymore. Treat your employees with respect. Listen to them. Be an evangelist for courage by believing in people more than they believe in themselves. Don’t tell them what to do – offer stories and help guide them to the best decisions for them.
Honesty is key. Practice complete candor. Pair negative feedback with caring. And give feedback as soon as possible. If it’s negative feedback, deliver it privately. Feedback is necessary for growth, and your responsibility as a leader and coach is to help your people grow.
Pick the right players. Look for those who have the ability to learn fast and are willing to work hard. Choose people with integrity, grit, empathy and a team-first attitude.
Create a decision-making process that ensures all perspectives and points of view are heard. Look for the best idea, not necessarily consensus. If necessary, break a tie and make the decision.

Stay tuned for future blogs when we’ll talk about more ways you can grow as a leader.

50 or More Employees? Here’s What You Need to Know

When your organization reaches 50 or more employees there are some additional federal, state and local laws you need to start following to ensure you are in compliance. Here are two important areas of compliance that affect employers with 50 or more employees.

Harassment Prevention Training

Since 2005 employers with 50 or more full-time, part-time, and temporary employees or independent contractors have been required to provide supervisory employees with two hours of sexual harassment prevention training within six months of hire or promotion, and once every two years thereafter.

Under recently passed legislation, employers with five or more employees are now required to provide anti-harassment training to all employees – both supervisors and non-supervisors – every two years. California SB 1343 requires that all employees be trained by the end of 2019. Training for non-supervisors must be at least one hour. Training for supervisors must be two hours.

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that requires covered employers to grant an eligible employee up to a total of 12 work weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for one or more of the following reasons:

For the birth and care of the newborn child of the employee;
For placement with the employee of a son or daughter for adoption or foster care;
To care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition; or
To take medical leave when the employee is unable to work because of a serious health condition.

Companies fall under FMLA when they have 50 or more employees in any (not just consecutive) 20 calendar weeks of the current or preceding year.

Eligibility

Employees who satisfy certain criteria are eligible for Family or Medical Leave of up to 12 weeks during each rolling 12-month period in accordance with applicable law. Employees eligible for Family and Medical Leave are those who:

Have completed 12 months of employment with their employer;
Have worked at least 1,250 hours for their employer during the previous 12 months; and
Work in a facility with at least 50 employees or in a facility where there are at least 50 employees within 75 surface miles. Employees with no fixed work site will be considered to work from the site to which they report, or the site from which their work is assigned, or the site designated as their home base.

NOTE: Companies must continue the same health plans in which the employee was enrolled before the first day of the leave at the same level and under the same conditions of coverage as if they had remained an active employee for the lesser of the duration of such leave or 12 work weeks.

California Family Rights Act (CFRA)

The California Family Rights Act (CFRA) is very similar to FMLA and applies to employers in California. CFRA allows eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave during a 12-month period.

CFRA covers private employers with 50 or more workers within 75 miles of the worksite, and public employers with any number of workers. CFRA runs concurrently with FMLA.

CFRA was enacted to provide employees with work leave rights for reasons such as:

Birth of a child.
Placement of the employee’s child through adoption or in a foster care home.
A serious health condition incurred by the worker’s spouse, child, or parent.
The employee is unable to work because of a serious health condition.

Eligibility

Employee eligibility for CFRA is similar to FMLA. For both CFRA and FMLA, time off for sick leave, vacation/annual leave, administrative time off (ATO), compensating time off (CTO), holidays, informal time off (ITO) or personal leave (PL) are not to be counted toward the 1,250 hours of work.

Training Leave for Emergency Rescue Personnel

Employers with 50 or more people must allow temporary leaves of absence — up to a total of 14 days per calendar year—for employees who are volunteer firefighters, reserve peace officers and emergency personnel to engage in fire, law enforcement or emergency rescue training.

You cannot terminate, threaten with termination, demote, suspend or otherwise discriminate against an employee who takes time off to engage in fire or law enforcement training. An employee who suffers any of these consequences is entitled to reinstatement and reimbursement for lost wages and work benefits. The employee can file a claim with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE).

San Francisco Paid Parental Leave

This San Francisco ordinance requires employers with 50 or more employees to supplement California’s Paid Family Leave (PFL) for employees working in the city. The purpose is to allow employees to receive 100% of their gross weekly wages while on a parental leave of absence. PFL currently provides eligible employees with up to 55% of their regular wages. Employees may receive these benefits for up to six weeks in a 12-month period. San Francisco’s law requires covered employers to provide additional wage replacement benefits of up to 45% of the employee’s wages, subject to the weekly maximum.

Please contact me at michelle@connecttohr.com for more information about what you need to consider as a business with 50 or more employees.

The ABC Test – Defining Independent Contractor vs. Employee

I have been getting a lot of calls recently from clients asking for clarification about the distinction between an independent contractor and an employee.

Misclassification can be extremely costly for employers in legal fees, back wages and benefits, and penalties. In addition, you run the risk of having the IRS or Department of Labor audit your business. This can be extremely time consuming and costly.

Of course, you should always consult your employment attorney for questions about specific situations, but here are some guidelines.

Last year, based on a decision in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, the California Supreme Court adopted the “ABC Test” as a standard for determining whether workers in California should be classified as employees or independent contractors. In their decision, the Court held that workers are presumed to be employees and that it is up to the employer to prove that they should be classified as an independent contractor based on the ABC Test.

Under the ABC Test, in order to classify a worker as an independent contractor the hiring entity must establish that the worker meets EACH of the following three factors:

The worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact; AND
The worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; AND
The worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed.

One of the things I tell clients is that it’s essential to consider how you define your core business (B) and how does the worker assist you in that core business.

In light of this change in the way employees and independent contractors are determined, it’s a good (and timely!) idea to do an overall review of how you’ve classified your workers. Again, as a reminder, it’s important to consult with an employment attorney if you plan to audit your records and reclassify your contractors.

Please feel free to contact me at michelle@connecttohr.com if you need assistance.

Check Out Our New Connect to HR Website

As I shared in a previous blog- “Pardon Our Dust,” I have added executive coaching as a service offering in addition to the strategic HR Consulting work I have been doing with small and mid-sized companies since 2010.

I’m happy to announce the launch of my new website, which reflects the two areas of Connect to HR focus: Executive Coaching and HR Advisors.

Here are some of the areas we cover on the Executive Coaching side of the business:

Transition coaching
Career planning and role progression
Successful onboarding of executives
360-degree feedback
Development plans
Leadership development
Executive influence

On the HR Advisors side, we work with organizations in the areas of:

Workforce planning
Talent development
Recruitment and hiring
Employee relations
Terminations and outplacement support
HR compliance

My experience over the years has been that often when I engage with a client in an HR Advisor role, an issue is uncovered that requires some executive coaching. For example, an employee relations issue that indicates a need for one-on-one coaching with a leader around specific behaviors. The value I provide to clients in these instances is the continuity of knowledge about the organization and an established relationship.

The reverse can happen as well. Through a coaching relationship we may discover a need Connect to HR can address through an HR Advisor role. For example, a stressed-out leader who is struggling to find the right talent to take on some of his or her responsibilities.

As we move forward with my blog articles, I’ll be alternating between topics that relate to executives and those that apply to more general HR issues.

Please take some time to visit our new website, and contact me at michelle@connecttohr.com if you would like to schedule a consultation to discuss your needs.

Managers Increasingly Held to a Higher Standard

As I discussed in my last blog, recent legislation establishes that managers can now be held personally liable for not following the law, even if they do so unintentionally. Two key areas where this has played out in court are hostile work environments and wage and hour violations.

Managers are being held to a much higher standard.

This means that business owners and senior leaders must be sure they understand and follow the laws, and they must also ensure that their managers and supervisors understand and follow the laws. Some ways to accomplish this are through management training, effective communication, and/or one-on-one coaching.

In the wake of the #MeToo Movement and other workplace harassment situations, the threshold for acceptable behavior has been revised. In the past, plaintiffs had to show a pattern of behavior for a workplace to be deemed a hostile work environment. Today it can be considered as such based on one or two incidents. “But we’ve always had an informal, joking environment,” is not an acceptable excuse.

Managers need to pay attention to behaviors that may be offensive to some and stop them before they become part of the culture. If not, they could be held personally liable for creating a hostile environment. Encourage managers to periodically gauge team interactions and speak with individuals to proactively identify any issues and to promote a positive culture.

Also, senior leadership and all managers and supervisors should model the appropriate behavior they expect from others.

In the past it was very rare for a manager to be named in a wage and hour dispute. Not so today. California’s Labor Code 558.1 states that “a company’s owners, directors, officers and even managing agents can be held personally liable for wage and hour violations.” It’s not enough to say that not following the law was unintentional, or a mere oversight.

If you need help ensuring that you are legally compliant, or in coaching managers around any of these issues, please contact me at michelle@connecttohr.com.

New Laws on Harassment, Wage and Hour Violations

In my work with organizations I have two focus areas – Executive Coaching and HR Consulting. Keeping clients abreast of new and changing legislation in the dynamic world of California labor law falls into the HR Consulting bucket, but is also important for the executives I coach.

Here’s an update on some key legislation affecting employers in 2019.

New Restrictions on Sexual Harassment Settlement Agreements

Two recently enacted laws will make it more difficult for employers to resolve workplace sexual harassment and discrimination disputes.

The Code of Civil Procedure Section 1001 prohibits settlement agreements that bar the disclosure of facts related to claims filed for:

Sexual assault
Sexual harassment
Workplace harassment or discrimination based on sex
Failure to prevent harassment or discrimination based on sex
Retaliation against a person for reporting harassment or discrimination based on sex

The law allows the identity of the claimant, and any facts that could lead to the discovery of that identity, to remain confidential if requested by the claimant. Employers are still allowed to enter into settlement agreements that prohibit the disclosure of the settlement amount.

Another new law, SB 1300, amends California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) by placing additional limits on settlement agreements. Employers are now prohibited from requiring an employee, as a condition of employment or in exchange for a bonus or raise, to sign a non-disparagement agreement that prevents the employee from disclosing information about unlawful acts in the workplace. The law also adopts a lower standard for liability, as such:

A plaintiff does not need to prove that tangible productivity has declined as a result of the harassment.
A single incident of harassing behavior may be enough to create a hostile work environment. Proof of a pattern of harassing behavior in the past is no longer required.
Harassing behavior is not acceptable based on historical norms, or industry or company custom.

As an employer you should review your harassment policies to ensure that they align with the recent changes in law. Also, take complaints seriously! Remember to always investigate claims using qualified, impartial investigators, and take corrective action. Create a culture that makes it very clear to leaders and employees that harassment of any kind will not be tolerated.

California has expanded mandatory anti-harassment training to smaller employers

Employers with at least five employees must conduct mandatory sexual harassment training by the end of this year to comply with SB 1343, passed in 2018. SB 1343 requires that training of both supervisors and non-supervisors be completed by January 1, 2020. Training for supervisors must be at least two hours, and training for non-supervisors must be at least one hour. Training must be repeated at least every two years. Remember to keep records of training received by employees and supervisors.

Managers may be personally liable for wage and hour violations

According to a recent decision by a California appellate court (Atempa v. Pedrazzani), an owner, officer or managing agent of a corporate employer can be held personally liable for civil penalties for unpaid wages or overtime.

The plaintiff in this case worked at a restaurant owned by Pama, Inc. He sued the company for unpaid overtime, meal period and rest break violations. When Pama, Inc. filed for bankruptcy, the plaintiff successfully pursued recovery from the restaurant owner, Paolo Pedrazzani.

What this means for you as an employer is that you need to be sure that you and your managers consistently follow wage and hour rules. Even unintentionally failing to comply with the law can create personal liability.

Other legal decisions of note

Caldera v. Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The plaintiff in this case sued for harassment on the basis of disability after being taunted by his coworkers about his stuttering over a period of two years. The employer argued that the company had an informal, “joking” culture and that the behavior was not severe. The plaintiff won a $500,000 settlement.

This goes back to what I said earlier about creating a culture that is non-tolerant of harassment in any form. Again, the threshold for harassment has been lowered and a pattern of behavior is no longer necessary to prove harassment. If one of your employees is offended by harassing conduct you face potential liability even if the majority of employees are not bothered by the behavior. Again, take complaints seriously and investigate claims right away.

Hurley v. Department of Parks and Recreation. In this case a manager had disclosed private information about a subordinate to a non-manager, violating the plaintiff’s right to privacy. This decision points up the fact that managers should only disclose information about subordinates on a need-to-know basis and never to non-managers. The manager in this case maintained a “drop file” on the plaintiff, containing work performance as well as private information. Private information about employees should only be stored in files maintained by human resources with proper confidentiality protections.

Important updates on the use of arbitration agreements in CA

Epic Systems v. Lewis. In this case the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) does not prevent employers from making mandatory arbitration agreements a condition of employment, even with a provision waiving the employee’s right to a class action claim.

Along these same lines, two other opinions favored employers with regard to arbitration agreements.

In Sonic Calabasas Al, Inc. v. Moreno, the court ruled that an employer may require an employee to resolve wage disputes through binding arbitration. In Iskanian v. CLS Transportation Los Angeles, LLC, the court rule that an employer may require an employee to pursue claims as an individual and not as part of a class action suit. If you have not implemented mandatory arbitration agreements, I suggest you seek legal advice about the pros and cons of implementing an agreement for your organization.

If you would like more information about any of these legal updates and how they apply to your organization, please contact me for a consultation. Michelle@connecttohr.com.