Governments often require employers to develop programs that promote diversity in the workplace. Employers must understand the specifics of the requirements in order to avoid any legal problems when they create these plans.
In the United States, satisfying the Affirmative Action Program (AAP) laws can be tricky. Employers need to know whether the organization is required to have an affirmative action plan, know how to set the plan up, and how to ensure that it's enforced.
The following tips apply to fulfilling the needs of an AAP plan in the United States, but are good tips for developing a diversity strategy in most other countries as well. (But always remember: legal requirements change depending on where and when you live!)
Assessing Need for an AAP Plan
Setting up an affirmative action plan is necessary for any business covered by the affirmative action requirements. If your company has 50 or more employees and meet any of the following conditions, then an affirmative action plan is probably necessary:
- Hold a federal contract paying $50,000 or more per year.
- Your business is overseen by a federal agency such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (as in the case of a financial institution) or the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.
- Serves as a depository of federal funds.
In addition to U.S. federal requirements, many states have their own requirements detailing when employers must set up an affirmative action plan. You need to check the laws in your state or country before you make a decision.
AAP Requirements
If a program falls under the federal AAP requirements, there are a number of standards that employers must meet. These components include an analysis of the organization, its job groups, and its placement goals.
Also, employers must have plans in place to keep all information related to the plan confidential. They must also maintain personnel and employment records and track applicants. Finally, they need a system for enforcing these requirements.
Companies should conduct regular audits to avoid employment discrimination. You should do an audit every time an employee is hired, promoted, or a group of employees are laid off.
Regular audits help the organization see how employees are doing in an organization. This helps to ensure that vulnerable groups aren't being given less desirable positions in the workplace. Audits help identify how personnel decisions are implemented in your company. You want to know if gender, race, culture, or disability have unfair influences on HR decisions.
Self-audits mean looking at employees in different job groups (i.e. employees that shares similar employment characteristics, like pay and opportunities). Within each of these job groups, make sure you identify who holds the position. You'll need to keep records in case you the government decides to conduct an audit of its own.
Companies and legally required to uphold the requirements of the AAP, or whatever regulator you report to in your own jurisdiction. But implementing AAPs and promoting diversity aren't just about meeting legal requirements—they're about making your business better.
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Most companies know that if a member of their team leaves, they'll need to make a replacement hire. But especially for smaller companies, it's often hard to know when it's time to make a new hire.
Does your hire have experience? Fit your brand?
Have good connections to a target market?
flickr/victoriafee
In most industries, growth means improving and refining the sales process. Competent salespeople are experts in exactly that—selling things.
So when do you hire them? Should they be your first new employee? Do you need to understand the sales process before you make a hire, or will they help you figure it out? Is a good salesperson a good manager?
Colleen Francis and OpenView Partners can help! They have 10 tips for hiring your first sales manager:
- Your first salesperson should be you.
- Your first hire should be an expert in selling.
- Identify the results you want—and it’s not always about the money.
- Consider the compensation package before you begin the hiring process.
- Use your network and current employees.
- Focus on experts who are skilled in your sales process.
- Ask them to walk you through their accomplishments.
- Ask about their losses.
- Communication and listening skills are essential.
- Look for a cultural fit.
Check out the full article over at Openview Labs.
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Have you ever considered that sitting at your desk could be as detrimental to your health as smoking? Well, if you spend hours on your rear, start worrying, experts say. Blood clots, cardiovascular disease, weight gain, diabetes—the hazards are real.
The reality TV world may contend that crab fisherman have the deadliest job, but “desk jockey” may not be far behind. People are increasingly becoming more sedentary, and our bad habits are pushing us towards a healthcare epidemic.
America in crisis
According to Steve Blair’s report to the American Psychological Association, physical inactivity is the “biggest public health concern of the 21st century.” A professor of exercise science and epidemiology at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health, and the senior scientific editor of the 1996 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health, Blair has conducted extensive, long-term studies on the effects of inactivity on Americans.
Some animals are built for sitting. You're not one of them.
Flickr/Kevin Dooley
Nearly 50 million Americans are sedentary, his research has determined, and their risk of developing “numerous health conditions” is double compared to those who are moderately active. In fact, Age and Aging has reported that sitting daily for long periods, as well as decreased activity more generally, lead to higher rates of mortality, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, poor cholesterol, and obesity.
At the University of Western Australia, researchers concluded that that several other factors associated with desk jobs contribute to poor health. Fluorescent lighting and maintaining a constant focus on a computer screen can result in chronic migraines. Meanwhile, working long hours has been shown to increase the risk of short-term memory loss, potentially leading to dementia.
If you’re a frequent flyer you’ve probably heard the warning that sitting in your seat for long flights may cause blood clots. This is also true for sitting for extended durations at your desk in an office. The longer you’re in the chair, the higher your risk for developing deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolisms.
Employers to the Rescue
Employers can take simple steps to help ease this potential crisis.
- Encourage healthier lifestyles.
Help establish weight loss challenges and walking clubs, replace birthday cakes with fruit platters and offer healthier options in vending machines. You can post charts in the bathrooms listing calories burned by particular activities or demonstrating simple exercises people can do at their desks. (Check out this great infographic of the danger of sitting all day.)
- Remind workers to take computer breaks.
People need to rest their eyes. A break or lunch room with natural lighting can be a big relief for those who are putting in more screen time than is good for their physical and mental health.
- Offer alternative seating solutions.
Provide balance balls, which help provide muscle engagement and encourage balance and good posture. Employees can switch out their desk chairs for an hour or two a day. Also experiment with standing desks and kneeling desks. These aren’t for everyone, but you can introduce the option.
- Partner with a local fitness club.
See if you can work out a deal so your employees get membership discounts or perks. Investigate whether your health insurance provider offers health lifestyle mentoring and guidance programs in exchange for lower premiums.
The chronic diseases that result from inactivity can be prevented and in some cases even reversed. By taking steps to ensure a healthier workforce, you can keep costs from spiraling out of control.
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By Angela Stringfellow. Angela is a PR and marketing communications consultant and social media strategist.
What’s better than a salad with crispy, dark green lettuce and fresh croutons, or a club sandwich piled high with turkey, bacon, and perfectly ripe tomatoes? A free salad and a free club sandwich.
Yes, there is such a thing as a free lunch, and it can be found at companies large and small throughout the country.
Why do business owners offer food perks? Two reasons:
- Many believe well-fed workers are happier, more loyal and more productive. Business owners consider the cost of food and drink an investment in their employees and in their companies.
- Let’s face it. Some companies aren't interested in happy employees per se. They believe if their employees don’t have to leave the office to find lunch, they’ll end up spending more time at their desks—and thus be more productive.
Either way, business owners, regardless of their level of compassion toward their employees, wouldn’t offer food perks if they didn’t think it would benefit their companies.
Wall Street firms have been doing this for years, and Silicon Valley companies have followed their lead.
Google provides lunch and dinner by in-house chefs, and snacks and coffee throughout the day. Facebook goes one step further and offers its employees breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including international cuisine. It also provides snacks and coffee.
LinkedIn gives it employees catered lunches, ice cream, snacks and coffee.
Twitter provides its employees with catered breakfast and lunch, snacks, and Happy Hour once a month on Fridays. Tagged tops Twitter by offering its employees breakfast, catered lunches and dinners, snacks, and a Happy Hour every Friday.
Eventbrite provides catered meals and snacks. And Gaia Online gives out restaurant-catered lunches and snacks.
Many companies you’ve never heard of offer food perks, such as:
- Catered lunch-time meetings or training sessions. Food is a definite lure if you want good attendance at voluntary events. Pizza or sandwiches work well. Companies often provide the eats at mandatory meetings scheduled for first thing in the morning or around the lunch hour, too.
- Bottled water. Local and state building codes often require companies to have water fountains, but many companies go beyond that and stock their lunch room refrigerators with bottled water.
- Fresh fruit. Bowls of fruit on lunch room tables were a rarity as recently as 10 years ago, but many employers are trying to model healthy eating by giving their employees food that's good for them. Healthy employees take fewer sick days and are more productive.
- Candy bowls. Okay, candy isn’t a health food, but it’s a happy food. This is one of those cases where small gestures, when done consistently, can go a long way. Companies set out bowls of candy throughout their buildings and assign administrative assistants to make sure they remain full.
Full candy bowls. Full stomachs. Fulfilled employees?
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By Mark Di Vincenzo. Mark is a journalist with 24 years of experience and a New York Times best-selling author.
You've probably noticed them shoved in the far back corner of that unused conference room on the second floor, the place where abandoned desk chairs go to die. Should you worry that employees reject so many pieces of office furniture? The answer is a resounding "yes!"
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Doctors who study the spine agree that people should sit in a supportive chair at a desk that is the right height. In fact, ergonomics, the study of making the work environment fit the physical and psychological needs of the employees, is really hot these days. And for good reason: comfortable workers are better workers. Workers who don’t strain their bodies at their desks take fewer sick day.
Incorporating ergonomics into the set-up of the office can reduce instances of neck pain, back pain, headaches, and eyestrain, and even prevent bursitis or tendon problems that come from doing the same tasks over and over.
Some of the simple suggestions include making sure the office chairs and desks are adjustable so that each person is working at the correct height, and placing computer monitors directly in front of each user so employees don’t need to stretch or slouch.
Cessi: Ergonomics, a company that works with offices on ergonomic issues, supports the idea that an ergonomic environment helps reduce workplace injuries and fatigue. Plus, when you increase employee comfort, you increase job performance too.
Gretchen Rubin, author of the best-selling book, The Happiness Project, says happiness at work mostly depends on how much you like your job. But she adds that a properly adjusted chair, good lighting, and even some attractive desk accessories can't hurt.
Comfort, of course, can be taken to an extreme. The Google offices in San Francisco feature spectacular bridge views (nice for the eyes), free food (good for the stomach), and even a slide instead of a staircase.
The Whatif! meeting bed. 23hq/Alexander Kjerulf
The London-based Whatif! Innovation Company, known a few years back for having a meeting bed in the office, uses a slide show on its website to spotlight its office interiors: Overstuffed chairs and couches. Ottomans. Employees spread out on the floor for meetings.
So what’s the bottom line? You don’t need to put a colorful slide in the stairwell, but companies do need to pay attention to their employees’ desks and chairs. Expect to spend a chunk of money. A quick trip through the online shopping world reveals that “ergonomic” office chairs cost anywhere from $99 to $699 and up.
The more expensive chairs are often better constructed, and come with more features like support and swivel and roll—and will last longer. But so will your employees’ backs.
Good chairs mean comfort, and comfortable employees are the most productive. Spend a bit now; you’ll reap the benefits later.
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By Carla Turchetti. Carla is a print and broadcast journalist who likes to break a topic down and keep her copy tight. That's why this bio is so brief!
By Mark Di Vincenzo. Mark is a journalist with 24 years of experience and a New York Times best-selling author.
What Not to Give at Work
Christmas has come and gone. If you work in an office, you very well may have given a colleague or a supervisor a gift of some kind.
So you probably know (or should know) that giving gifts in the workplace can be tricky. Giving the wrong gift—one that's too personal (perfume), romantic (red roses), or offensive (a sex toy)—can lead to a meeting with HR or an unhappy supervisor.
Any sort of gift, especially an expensive one, and even one that meets every definition of appropriate, can make your co-workers feel uncomfortable if they didn't get one for you.
It’s a good idea to review what not to give Ralph in Accounting or Betty in Marketing. Here are eight things to avoid:
flickr/bfishadow
1. Cash. This is unacceptable unless, of course, the company is giving end-of-the-year employee bonuses. It’s never OK for a supervisor to pass out $20 bills, even though only a rare employee would turn them down. Gift cards or gift certificates, however, are just fine.
2. Red roses (or Chia pets). Red roses are something you give your sweetheart, not anyone you work with (unless you work with your sweetheart, and that's another post entirely). Red roses are associated with love. Many other types of flowers might give a co-worker the creeps, too.
A good rule of thumb is that if they last a long time—say, a cactus or a potted plant—they are less likely to be interpreted as a romantic gesture. Flower bulbs are also fine. Chia pets? Just plain tacky, though that can be good for a laugh.
3. Personal care products. These are just too personal, especially when given to a member of the opposite sex. You also run the risk of offending the recipient, who will wonder if you think they're poorly groomed. Scented hand lotion is probably harmless, though be careful that the recipient doesn't have allergies, or they might re-gift it (see below).
4. Adult items. This should go without saying, but don't give gifts that are sexual in nature—toys, artwork, books or anything that depicts nudity—even to long-time colleagues. A rare exception is co-workers who are also close friends, but these gifts shouldn't be exchanged at the office.
5. Most clothing. A company T-shirt is OK (swag swag swag), and scarves and gloves are fine. But just about any other item of clothing is too personal. Shirts, pants and even socks are things your girlfriend or husband can buy you, but not Shirley in Risk Management.
flickr/Dan Century
6.Alcohol. Tread carefully with alcohol. Many businesses don’t even allow unopened bottles or cans on their premises, which should be a clue. But even if your company has more lenient alcohol policies, you never know who is struggling with alcoholism. Or imagine you give a nice bottle of Champagne to a colleague, only for them to open the bottle in the car right after work, and cause a car accident on the way home.
7. Most jewelry. This is out for the same reason that most clothes make inappropriate gifts for co-workers. Not only is jewelry personal, traditionally it's something associated with loved ones. If you must get jewelry for a colleague, go for something clearly inexpensive, or socially conscious.
8. Potentially offensive gifts. This should also go without saying, but never give gifts that include potentially offensive or off-color messages about race, ethnicity, culture or sex. This may include gifts with political or religious messages. If one of your colleagues is a friend who you know would like an item with a certain political or religious message, present it outside the office.
When it comes to something homemade, the rule is give if it's legitimately good. If you bake delicious oatmeal raisin cookies or you knit awesome scarves, go right ahead. However, if you’ve just started to learn how to play the guitar, don’t give your co-workers a CD of your music.
When it comes to re-gifting, do so if you know the recipient will like it and if it didn't originally come from someone else in the office.
Keep in mind that not exchanging a gift is often better than giving the wrong one. So maybe now is a good time to start shopping for next year's secret santa?
Looking for the perfect gift for a co-worker? Give kudos to someone on TribeHR today!
NOTE: TribeHR's team is away for the holidays from December 24th to January 1st, inclusive, but we'll continue to monitor all of the usual support channels (email, Twitter, and the support community). We apologize if our response times are slightly slower than usual during this period. Happy holidays!
By James O'Brien. James is a correspondent for The Boston Globe, The Consumer Chronicle, and Boston University's Research magazine.
Holidays in the air, snowflakes everywhere: it's easy to get caught up in the spirit of the season—unless you're working out the holiday schedule for your employees. Ho-ho headaches, that's a tricky task.
Sure, you could just shut up shop for a week and "take a break." But for many small businesses, the holidays are a major money-making season, especially storefront shops and other purveyors of gift-type products.
So, let's take a look at holiday hours and at some criteria for meeting the demands—getting employees the time they need with their families and friends, while keeping your operation running.
Employees and Employers: Holiday Worries
Gift-buying, kids out of school for a week or two, relatives coming to town, parties to plan (and attend)—all of these things can get in the way or normal everyday work responsibilities.
Chicago Transit gets into the holiday spirit. How about you? flickr/professionalwannabe
The Institute for Employment Studies, in the UK, has identified some common characteristics when it comes to how employees feel about the work-life/home-life equation. These apply more than ever around the holidays:
- Commitment Anxieties: It's easy for staff who ask for vacation time to tell themselves that their boss and coworkers will think they're less committed to their job.
- Sick-Day Angst: Employees are concerned about using—and typically don't want to ask for—sick days for holiday leave.
- Short-Notice Susceptibility: When school is on holiday break, for example, and childcare suddenly falls apart, employees who need to be at home feel like they don't look reliable.
Chances are your employees feel pulled in two directions. That doesn't make the holiday dilemma any less difficult.
Over time, shuttering a store can hurt demand. Customers tend to dislike the experience of closed doors. If your business booms during the holidays, you just can't afford to go dark for a week. On the other hand, hiring seasonal workers can critically cut into smaller companies' bottom lines.
Take caution, however: studies like the once published by the IES show that not giving employees a reasonable break around the holidays can have unintended consequences moving forward. Employees who lack reasonable vacation time tend to get sick more often, are less productive, and can be less engaged.
Strategy Time: Handling the Holiday-Hours Question
Here are some reasonable ways for businesses to give workers a family-friendly break without closing for a week or hiring heaps of expensive temporary staff:
- Annualized Hours: Instead of building your employees' schedule around hours per week, you can build it based on hours per year. Employees can then indicate in advance where their holiday time will fall, and hours can be distributed throughout the year so that blocks of time-off are created for each employee's needs. There are complications, of course: absenteeism throws off the system, and there's still going to be overlap between employees' requested hours. If you're looking to make systemic change, however, research shows that this can help solved the puzzle.
- Half Days: Another potential solution is to offer employees a number of half days around the holidays. Businesses can keep some coverage, but everybody gets some home-time, too.
- Seniority System: When it comes to full days off, you might put in place a system in which there's a pool of days available: say seven days for a staff of four. Based on seniority, your most senior employee gets to pick (perhaps) three days off. Next senior: two. The two junior staff each get one. Combine that with half-days, and your staff will probably come out feeling decently cared for.
Of course, you could impose a schedule, if that suits your management style. Or, you can take a tip from Bizznesscard on the topic: have them draw straws. Sometimes the perception of random chance is a way for people to come away feeling like favoritism never played a role.
Remember, holiday breaks have been shown to rejuvenate your workforce. If you can't close for a few days, make sure everyone gets a day or two off—give them (and yourself) a little extra time to be merry, come the season. Happy holidays!
Have a fantastic New Year! Workplace Tribes will be back in January.
By Mark Di Vincenzo. Mark is a journalist with 24 years of experience and a New York Times best-selling author.
Every year, soon after Thanksgiving, associates at the largest New York City law firms await the announcement of their year-end bonuses. The venerable firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP typically goes first, followed by other firms which often try to match Cravath’s bonuses, to keep their own promising young lawyers happy.
This year the bonuses ranged from $37,500 for the top and most experienced associates, to $7,500 for those who started their careers in 2011.
TribeHR's holiday gift? Swag!
Were they happy to hear these four- and five-figure numbers? They were not. Consider that some senior associates at Cravath and the other firms received a bonus of as much as $110,000 as recently as 2007.
The bottom line is that what makes a good year-end bonus really depends on who's giving it and who's receiving it. This year, sadly, most workers aren’t getting a dime.
According to a recently released survey of 500 business owners by American Express OPEN, only 29% of small-business owners are planning to give bonuses this holiday season. That’s up slightly from last year, when just 25% gave year-end bonuses, but way less than in 2005, when 54% of small businesses did.
A similar survey by Hewitt Associates found that of the companies that will give bonuses, fewer than half will give cash, spending a median of $250 per employee; less than 40% will give gift cards, with a median value of $35 per employee. The rest will give food.
Many companies that award bonuses do so based on seniority. Unfortunately, that’s not a good way to motivate employees, according to Ronald Riggio, Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology at Claremont McKenna College. Bonuses need to be tied to performance, Riggio says, and the bonuses must be large enough to be seen as worth the effort.
Companies that don’t have the cash should give Christmas gifts. If you go this route you need to do three things:
- Be honest. Let your employees know the company doesn’t have money for bonuses, but you appreciate their efforts and hope they’ll accept the gifts in that spirit.
- Make it clear that the gifts are not tied to performance, so employees won’t think the value of the gifts they receive is what the company thinks they’re worth.
- Personalize the gifts. Give a round of golf to an employee who you know plays golf. Give a nice box of chocolate truffles to someone who you know has a sweet tooth. Personalized, heartfelt year-end gifts can make employees feel valued more than cash.
Can’t afford even small gifts? Then how about giving the gift of time? Paid time off. Many employees appreciate a paid personal day or two, and clever business owners can find a way to let their employees know what it will cost the company. Make up a company “gift card” that says something like:
This card—with a value of $320 (16 hours of work multiplied by your hourly rate of $20 an hour)—is your pass for two additional days of paid time off next year. Enjoy!
Give your employees the gift of a fun-to-use self-service HR system. Get started with TribeHR today.
Startup HR 101 has come and gone. If you couldn't make it out, and you missed the live broadcast, lucky for you we filmed the whole thing.
TribeHR asked a panel of HR experts how they find, hire, train, pay, manage, and motivate their staff. Ali Asari, CEO of Well.ca, said HR "is to not just disappear after recruiting someone. It's to be part of those conversations, to embrace them, and to give people the excitement... and feedback."
The introduction is embedded here for you, or you can skip ahead to view the juicy parts of the workshop.
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Trends in Outplacement
Whether you have to downsize, or are just looking to be a top tier employer, it makes sense to help your staff transition to new jobs when they need to. Doing so makes the rest of your team feel safer about their futures, and offers a subtle push out the door for your not-so-effective staff.
"Meet qualified candidates who have been affected by the recent layoffs at Ebay." Flickr/Gabriella Yazickr
According to Christine De Cock, career solutions director for Insala, there are a number of outplacement best practices that can be put into place. De Cock, who has more than 20 years of outplacement and career management experience, suggests things like:
- Setting up an online portal where employees and managers can tap into company-specific content. Such a site can broaden the company's outplacement initiatives, provide an online presence, help people transition more easily, and show that the company is innovative.
- Offering easy ways for people to access content from home over the Internet—such programs eliminate travel costs for departing staff, and can be a helpful tool long after their presence on-site would make other staff uncomfortable.
- Making sure the information and tools the company provides are relevant and current—and available in one place. When setting up a site, have the networking, company research, resume, tracking, and other tools incorporated into a dashboard view. Provide users with training so they can get the most out the services.
- Not re-inventing the wheel by setting up outplacement services in-house. Outsource the job, or parts of the content, to outplacement experts.
Personal coaching is fast becoming the most valued piece of outplacement services—a trend that outplacement firms are seeing replace traditional time-based support and other services.
In a study by career transition services company CareerCurve, 55% of job seekers said they preferred to have a career coach available to them. Coaches can help them define career goals, establish job search strategies, succeed in salary negotiations, and settle into a new job once they land a position.
“Career transition coaches offer a competitive advantage in today’s challenging job market. They assist in helping job seekers maximize their search efforts,” says Pattie Wagoner, President and CEO with CareerCurve.
“The coach's role is to help individuals position their skills, experience and interest in a way that resonates with prospective employers. As a career transition expert, the coach owns the quality and rigor of a process that provides support and encouragement to the job seeker."
CareerCurve has seen a shift away from offering outplacement services onsite in favor of more online services and on-call assistance—offerings that are relatively simple to set up in our high-tech society.
The benefits of offering outplacement and separation packages can have a lasting effect for the company too, says DBM, a multinational career transition firm. In a study of 1,200 business leaders from 45 countries, 71% of respondents listed "protection of the company brand and reputation" as a benefit of offering separation packages and outplacement services to departing workers.
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