Tag Archives: human resources

A Human Resources Prescription for 2013

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That’s change on the horizon for your employees and organization. Are you ready to help them embrace it?

Well, the end of the Mayan calendar came and went late last year, and many of us were relieved to find that much is the same as it was before.  The earth still orbits the sun, coffee and pizza remain as delicious as ever, and we are heartened to observe unemployment rates inching slowly downward. 

But if there’s anything we’ve learned from apocalyptic prophesy, recent global weather patterns, and the specter of the “fiscal cliff,” it’s that 2013 is likely to be a challenging year for many Americans. In particular, ongoing tax reform and roll-out of Obamacare may have weighty implications for the average worker.

Facing these likelihoods, Human Resources executives planning for the year ahead must be ready to assess and communicate potential changes to employee benefits and take-home pay, so that unpleasant surprises do not occur and employee engagement levels can remain high.

The Fiscal Cliff and its Aftermath

President Obama and top economists have acknowledged the need for further reform of taxation and government spending in order to address the soaring national debt. According to Workforce magazine, experts predict that tax reform in 2013 could reduce the maximum pretax amount employees are permitted to contribute to 401(k) retirement accounts, thereby increasing the taxes paid by workers. While this would not decrease the monies employees have available to address the day-to-day costs of living, any such measure could affect their ability to save for retirement. Understandably, employees will be concerned and are likely to have questions.

Sea Change in Healthcare

Meanwhile, business leaders across the nation are poised to respond to the roll-out of Obamacare, with many organizations already investigating alternatives to their current employee benefit offerings. According to the Wall Street Journal, some organizations may opt out of providing employee healthcare insurance, because the penalty for not doing so would be less in many cases than the cost of covering employees. Other employers are considering cutting back on the number of full-time workers they employ, or raising employees’ premium contributions. Whatever tactic is chosen, your approach to communicating benefits changes will determine whether employees are able to understand and accept them.

Communicating Change

When communicating significant change, utilizing a blend of methods is advisable. Whenever possible, incorporate live, interactive communications, such as town hall–style meetings, into your strategy.  Live meetings allow employees to see the human side of the change—your tone and body language can convey compassion and encourage togetherness, which are harder to get across in written communications. Provide employees with an opportunity to ask questions, and encourage managers to hold smaller group “huddles” after the meeting, so employees can raise concerns they may not feel comfortable sharing in a larger group setting.

When change involves pay or benefits, providing written notification may be required by law, but in any case it is highly recommended. Written notification gives employees a resource they can digest at their own pace, and which they can return to as need arises. Ideally, written communications should be concise, address all pertinent/actionable points, and reflect a neutral, unbiased tone. Written communications may also encourage employees to approach their manager or Human Resources with any questions they may have. Finally, use your annual employee survey or pulse survey to assess the efficacy of your communication strategy and adjust accordingly.

Revisiting Value

Whether change is the result of internal decision-making or the influence of external pressures on the organization, employees are likely to view developments concerning their paychecks or benefits as impacting the employee-employer value proposition. To support employee engagement, it may be wise for employers to try to rebalance the proposition through low-cost initiatives and resources available to them. If, for instance, your organization must switch to a high-premium insurance option from a lower-premium plan, consider holding free annual wellness clinics for employees. Or if tax legislation significantly decreases take home pay, look into low-cost financial seminars that can help employees do more with less. While certainly no magic bullet, these efforts, when effectively communicated, can help employees to see that their employer cares about them and takes seriously the responsibility to provide fair value to employees.

In Sum

The coming year need not be one of gloom and doom, but it surely holds challenge in store for everyone—from the line-level worker up through the C-Suite. But isn’t that what work and growth are all about? With the right combination of careful planning, robust communication, and a little elbow grease, Human Resources executives can steer their organizations through difficult change so that their organizations aren’t better in spite of those changes, but because of them. That’s what I call a positive, productive, and very happy New Year.

What “Tomkat” Can Teach Us about Workplace Culture

When a giddy Tom Cruise surprised millions by jumping on a couch on the set of the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005, few daytime TV viewers predicted his relationship with Hollywood ingénue Katie Holmes would last very long.

Yet Cruise and Holmes—or “Tomkat,” as the celebrity tabloids nauseously nicknamed the couple—bore on full speed ahead, as though completely oblivious to any of the signs that their relationship was doomed from the start.  After only two months of dating, they announced their engagement.

Five years later, they’re now back in the spotlight, this time announcing their split.

Photo by Jay Tamboli. Published under Creative Commons license.

Familiar as this kind of story is to pop culturists, seasoned managers and HR leaders may be reminded of a similar lesson gleaned in the offices and conference rooms of the workplace.  This is the story of the hotshot new hire—the one with the perfect resume and all the right skills—who after just a few months on the job surprises everyone by seeming unable or unwilling to meet the high expectations placed on them.  Or, just as likely, who unceremoniously decamps to another company.

Both Tomkat and the superstar new hire teach us about the importance of hiring for cultural fit.  If Holmes, who has reportedly expressed concerns over Cruise’s strong ties with Scientology, had taken a sober inventory of her budding relationship with Cruise and his faith, she may have saved herself a headache in the process.  So too can managers make informed hiring decisions by taking cultural fit into consideration.  Here are just a few ways to do so:

Understand Your Workplace Culture

For a starlet in the Hollywood dating scene, understanding one’s unique personal culture is the first step to attracting a partner who will mesh well with one’s goals and values.  The same can be said for the HR leader searching for candidates who will fit their organization’s culture.  However, as an amorphous, multifaceted concept encompassing the shared values of many, culture can be difficult to define and understand.  Employee engagement surveys help leaders in this regard by pinpointing the areas where employees strongly identify with the organizational culture, and areas where there may be some room for improvement.  Surveys essentially allow you to see the culture through the employee’s eyes.  Once senior leadership has used your survey to action plan toward a culture reflective of your values, you are in an excellent position to define your culture, understand its facets, and hire employees who will thrive in its midst. 

Communicate Your Workplace Culture

In our hyper-connected world, it is important not only to understand yourself and your own special culture, but also to be mindful of how you communicate your culture to the world.  Never is this truer than when searching for a partner, as through communication we provide others with a means to identify in ourselves what may or may not align with different personal cultures.  The clothes we wear, the way we talk, the topics we choose to discuss, our spiritual professions, or our behavior on a nationally syndicated daytime talk show enjoyed by millions—all these things can help others understand our culture.  In the workplace, developing an internal brand and communication strategy serves this end beautifully.  Once you have defined the values that underpin your organizational culture, develop communications that reflect those values, such as a newsletter with articles highlighting positive employee behaviors.  Through such a publication, your team not only rewards employees who exhibit behaviors aligning with your corporate culture, but you also reinforce those behaviors in your employee population at large.   During your hiring cycle, leverage this style of branding in your communications with candidates, in whose best interest it is to begin to understand your culture as soon as they make first contact.  Even your job advertisements can clue them in.

Expose Interviewees to Your Workplace Culture

In the case of Tomkat, greater pre-marriage exposure to each other would likely have done much to prevent the fallout Holmes and Cruise are now suffering as a result of their cultural clash.  In fact, Holmes has described having nursed a youthful crush on the older Cruise prior to meeting him, and had she spent more time with him before rushing down the aisle, she might have realized they didn’t truly “click” as a couple.  Likewise is it important to expose job candidates to your organizational culture.  With a deep understanding of your workplace culture and a framework in place for sustaining it through communication and expert management, the hiring process becomes, in part, a practice in identifying whether a skilled candidate will fit with your culture.  As such, a favorite best practice of many hiring managers is to facilitate interaction between the candidate and their potential coworkers, allowing each party to gain a sense of whether there is a cultural match.  Since employees are the true standard bearers of your culture, they should be encouraged to provide their honest feedback on whether they feel the candidate is right for the team—and why or why not.  This practice provides a more complete sense of the cultural fit and, when the right candidate is identified, allows employee engagement to be achieved before the new hire’s first day of work has even begun.

Whatever the methods chosen for making cultural fit a part of the hiring process, the main takeaway should be that cultural compatibility is absolutely essential to any relationship—whether in the workplace or in a marriage.  So the next time your job candidate starts jumping up and down on the couch a la Tom Cruise, think about whether their behavior evinces a cultural match with your organization.  If you’re a carnival impresario hiring for an acrobat, you may just have found your new star employee.