The time is now for mobile HR

It’s inevitable that HR departments will have to deliver services to employees and business partners via mobile devices. Strategy Analytics reports that 174 million smartphones were shipped worldwide in 2011 and that number will continue to grow. And it’s not just your young workers who are taking advantage of mobile technology. Almost half of people age 30 to 49 are smartphone owners, according to a Pew Research Center poll.

So dive in before you find yourself trying to make up for lost time and opportunities. From time-and-attendance functions to payroll, recruiting, and training, the opportunities are endless.

The resources, start-up time, employee training, and security issues may seem daunting, but the change is coming. Let’s face it, mobile devices and apps are supposed to be easy to use. Early adopters are using mobile devices to deliver the following programs, according to an Aberdeen Group study:

• Workforce management
• Informal learning and development
• Talent acquisition/recruiting

A blog post from Blogging4Jobs offers some basics for getting started with mobile communications in the workplace. Boost employee engagement and recruiting efforts with text messaging, social media and apps.

Kyle Lagunas, a software analyst for Software Advice, lists a sampling of easy-to-use HR apps. They include technology to measure HR metrics, deliver diversity training to employees, and approve job requisitions on the go.

What are your thoughts on using mobile technology to deliver HR services? Share your questions and ideas in our comments section.

Engaging Employees to Increase Engagement

By Kevin Eikenberry

Our guest blogger Kevin Eikenberry is an expert on team and leadership development and is the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group. He leads the Bud to Boss training seminars, and his client list includes the American Red Cross, Chevron, John Deere, Purdue University, Southwest Airlines, TriHealth, the U.S. Marine Corps, and the U.S. Mint.

Leaders everywhere these days are talking about how to create more engaged employees. Consultants, authors, and speakers are consulting, writing, and speaking about the importance of increased employee engagement.

It is a trend that makes good sense.

In Gallup’s most recent survey, they found only 28% of employees actively engaged, which they define as:

Engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward.

28% engaged, means 72%, at some level, aren’t.

Many studies have found nearly immediate and drastically positive correlations between increased engagement and higher productivity and profitability (among many other wonderful outcomes).

And the issue is important for human reasons too – it is just the right thing to do, to have a place and an environment where people can spend so many hours being closer to their best selves, rather than waiting for quitting time and their paycheck.

The best recent work I’ve read about employee engagement, isn’t about employees at all, but about students. Students at Lebanon High School in Lebanon, Indiana have been involved in helping the school decide how to create greater student engagement.

The research they have done is described by my friend and former Indiana State Teacher of the Year, Byron Ernest, on his Byron’s Babbles blog. Over a couple of posts, he talks about their overall process. I encourage you to read this post as a supplement to my thoughts that follow. Here is their process:

1. Ask students what teachers need to do to keep them engaged.
2. Ask students what they need to do be more engaged.

Could it be more obvious and brilliant than this?

Here are the results in short.

Students about Teachers

Students said they are best engaged (and learn best) with teachers who:

• are passionate and energetic.
• are prepared and creative.
• provide material that is relevant to them.
• genuinely care about them.

Would you be a more engaged employee if your supervisor/manager/leader was energetic, passionate, prepared, provided relevance, and cared about you?

Put it where you can read it everyday – it is a good list.

Students about Students

If you want greater engagement, why not ask the people, whom you want to be engaged, what role they play? (Have you done this with your team or organization as a whole?)

The student’s themes about what they could do to be more engaged included:

• Get more sleep.
• Eat breakfast.
• Maintain positive attitude and motivation.
• Show respect/be respectful.
• Take responsibility/have a good work ethic.
• Be committed.
• Be actively involved.

This list might not seem directly related to the workplace, but you might be surprised – how often do you find yourself tired at work or skipping breakfast, for example? While this list itself maybe useful, the big key here is asking people what they can do.

If the goal is to increase engagement, you must engage those you want engaged in creating the goals and the means for reaching them.

If you are thinking about and working on employee engagement for your team or organization, before you hire another consultant or schedule another leadership retreat, read this post again. There are many lessons here, ready for application.

Here’s a place to begin:

Stop thinking and start engaging.

This post originally appeared in the Leadership & Learning with Kevin Eikenberry blog.

Hiring a humble worker pays off

We all love the outgoing, confident job candidate who knocks our socks off in the job interview. That may be the best person for a sales or managerial position. However, a new study says that humility may be a more desirable personality trait for success in certain jobs. In fact, looking for aggressive, overconfident employees for customer-facing positions may turn off more clients than keep them.

“A New Trait on the Market: Honesty–Humility as a Unique Predictor of Job Performance Ratings,” reports that workers who are willing to admit mistakes and tell the truth do better in certain jobs than those who score lower in those areas. The Baylor University study surveyed 269 home healthcare workers who provided services to challenging patients. The study defined honest and humble workers as those who exhibited fairness, generosity, sincerity and modesty.

Researchers said that the honesty-humility trait has the most significant benefit in jobs that require servicing client needs. Someone in a sales or technical position may not be able to translate honesty and humility into a higher performance level.

So the answer still boils down to a deep understanding of what qualities are necessary to do a job. Then you have to decide how those traits will integrate with other departments in your organization.

For example, how will a customer service rep with high honesty-humility scores interact with a hard-driving, aggressive production manager? The service rep is striving to grant customer needs no matter what it takes, while the production team can only deliver based on their resources and time. Setting guidelines and boundaries for the opposing goals of various departments limits disagreements and the temptation to plant unrealistic customer expectations.

What’s new in 2012? Two services that reveal growing trends

I am constantly scouring the Web for HR news. This week, I came across two interesting vendor announcements. They focus on hot areas that are evolving with the changing business and political climate.

The first is a resume service called Resunate. It adds another layer of automation to the hiring process. More companies are using computer systems to screen candidates’ resumes. Now, candidates are integrating their resumes with job descriptions to ensure their personal style and their ability to fulfill the job requirements shine through to catch a hiring manager’s (or an electronic screening system’s) eyes. Resunate was developed by CPP Inc., publishers of the Myers-Briggs personality assessment.

Although not a new company, I was struck by a recent announcement from Virgin HealthMiles that said a majority of employees don’t understand their wellness programs. That statistic from Forrester Research is a stake in the heart of any employer looking to bring down healthcare costs. And Virgin HealthMiles, a member of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, is poised to pick up the slack. It’s the healthcare equivalent of the insurance industry’s good driver discount. The company’s website is full of testimonials and resources to ensure that employees fall in love with their wellness programs. It’s notable that a savvy business person like Branson is in the workplace wellness business. He obviously sees growth in the industry.

What are your favorite new products, services or gadgets for 2012? Post your top picks in our comments section.

Performance appraisals just can’t get a break

If you are still doing traditional performance appraisals, here’s another industry expert who may just convince you to abandon your annual reviews. Dr. John Sullivan’s recent article “The Top 50 Problems with Performance Appraisals” is an impressive listing of what’s wrong with the typical annual performance review. He joins Samuel Culbert, author of “Get Rid of the Performance Review,” in stinging commentary about the ubiquitous workplace practice.

Here are a few of Sullivan’s intriguing insights:

• Performance reviews are too personal. They don’t assess measureable output, but instead focus on personal traits, such as commitment, or on technical knowledge. Sullivan says that performance should be measured by quality, volume, responsiveness, and bottom-line value.

• There’s no penalty for delivering poor performance reviews. Companies focus on whether evaluations have been completed, rather than on the quality of the review. Sullivan shares an extreme example of a company that wanted to terminate a difficult employee. When they reviewed the personnel files, they found the manager had given that worker the highest ranking in the department and even recognized that person as employee of the year.

• The process is daunting. In desperation to complete reviews, managers may recycle comments from previous years.

What are your managers’ biggest challenges with the review process? Do you foresee a time when companies may eliminate the traditional performance review system?

Top 10 HR Stories in 2011

Following are the top HR stories published in Workplace HR & Safety in 2011. Enjoy looking back on an interesting year.

1. Landscape Changing on Employee Background Checks
2. Paid Family Leave on the Horizon
3. Will EEOC Ban Passive Candidate Searches?
4. Gen-Y is a Hoax
5. ‘Horrible Bosses’ are a Reality
6. Accuser Becomes the Accused
7. Wacky Resumes Noticed for the Wrong Reasons
8. Pulling a Knife Isn’t Funny
9. Are Experienced Employees Salaries Inflated
10. Battling Overwork is HR’s New Responsiblity

Show you care in 2012

This is a guest post from Kevin Eikenberry and was originally posted on his blog.

From Green Eggs and Ham to the Cat in the Hat, I, like many kids, grew up with Dr. Seuss. But I can’t say I really became a fan until I was an adult — reading those classics and others to my children (Horton Hatches an Egg is a favorite.) If you’re a fan too, you might enjoy this very cool video reading of Horton Hatches an Egg).

As an adult, I also read a biography of Theodor Seuss Geisel that I found fascinating and fun.

Since then, I’ve taken his rhymes more seriously, and I share one of those today.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
– Dr. Seuss in The Lorax

Questions to Ponder

• What do I care about?
• Why do I care?
• What am I doing about it?

Action Steps

1. Decide what you care about.
2. Take action to make it better.
3. Otherwise, stop complaining.

My Thoughts

My thoughts are simple.  If it matters to you — if you care about something, figure out what you can do to make it better.

Even if you don’t know if it will work.

Even if it only makes a small dent.

Do. Something. Now.

Nothing will change until someone changes by taking action.

You can wait for others to act, but it may be a long wait, and you can’t rightfully complain while you wait.

Winners act.

Whiners wait.

Challenging the millennial stereotype

I work in a small company, so I tend to interact with the same colleagues on most projects. My teams haven’t included many co-workers from the millenial generation, so I’ve been curious about the hubbub surrounding people under the age of 30. The few I’ve encountered seem as dedicated and hard working as gen Xers or baby boomers in our organization.

So why all the bad press about millenials? I’ve come to the conclusion that their differences are just more pronounced than workers of other generations.

I’ve heard that they are addicted to technology: Their generation grew up with the Internet boom that has changed just about everything in our lives.

I’ve heard that their expectations are high and they crave excessive amounts of praise: They came of age during the transition from more authoritarian parenting to an emphasis on positive feedback and understanding.

I’ve heard that they don’t want to work extra hours and expect flexible work schedules: They are influenced by their parents’ workaholic tendencies. They saw the result of favoring work over personal life—more divorces and layoffs.

A few commentators echo the same feeling. In his Forbes article “Leading the ‘Lazy’ Generation,” Ty Kiisel says that “grey hairs” tend to misinterpret the wishes of millenials. They don’t mind rolling up their sleeves, but if paying your dues means staying late hours doing busy work, millenials aren’t interested.

In another Forbes article, Lauren Rikleen says that millenials’ skillful use of technology allows them to get more done without the “face time” valued by previous generations. Millenials want their managers to recognize their contributions, no matter whether they do their work in a cubicle or at a coffee shop. Rikleen reminds employers that the millenials represent the first generation in history in which dual earning families will be the norm. With fewer stay-at-home parents, managers can expect workers to seek more flexibility.

What is your experience with millenial workers? Are the stereotypes ringing true or are the differences between the generations overplayed?

Get Rid of HR?

It’s the season to be jolly, but business analysts and owners aren’t being generous toward the contributions of HR. In fact, the blogosphere is teeming with articles and advice on how to eliminate HR departments or replace an existing team. Here are a few examples:

• The Harvard Business Review Blog Network featured a post titled “Ten Clues It’s Time to Replace Your Head of HR.” If you aren’t keeping up with technology or your competitors, and you are unpopular with your workforce, read this blog and take heed.

• Some business owners say they simply can’t afford an HR department. “Operating your business without human resources” offers a roadmap on how to survive without a professional dedicated to hiring, firing, payroll and employment law compliance. The solution is to place those responsibilities in the laps of managers (who are probably already overworked). Fortunately, the author recommends training to avoid mistakes and lawsuits.

• Finally, a travel company executive touted how he eliminated his HR department because it was hampering his business goals. He said HR stifled innovation among his 1,300 staff members. His HR department just focused on avoiding errors, rather than creating a strong talent pool that could grow the business, he said in the article “Should you fire your HR department?“

Do you see a trend toward minimizing the contributions of HR? State your opinion in our comments section.

Massachusetts sheds light on outcomes of healthcare reform

By Pat Haraden

Pat will present an audioconference on the financial cost of healthcare reform on Dec. 7. Click here for more information.  

In 2014, the major provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will impact both employees and employers. Many employers look to Massachusetts and its experiences with healthcare reform laws for insights on how they will/should respond.

Many of the provisions of PPACA are similar to the Massachusetts healthcare reform law, which was passed in 2006. Two of the key aspects of the Massachusetts law—the individual mandate and the employer responsibility provisions—are contained in PPACA and are scheduled to take effect in 2014. There have been several surveys and predictions regarding behavior of the uninsured as well as employers when they are subject to penalties and rules regarding the offering and enrolling in health insurance.

Massachusetts’ results are interesting to review, but only in the proper context. Prior to the passage of the state’s healthcare reform law, there was already a low rate of uninsured individuals (less than 5 percent), generous employer-sponsored coverage availability, and many health plans and healthcare delivery systems to choose from. Most supporters of the law point to the remaining uninsured population (currently less than 2 percent) as a success. However, most of these previously uninsured (approximately 430,000) are now enrolled in either free or subsidized insurance plans. They are not purchasing insurance or subject to the individual mandate penalties.

To date, the law has also had no impact on reducing healthcare costs, or the rate of healthcare premium increases for businesses. In fact, the premium rates for small businesses have risen so dramatically since the healthcare reform law’s passage that lawmakers had to pass special legislation to broaden the Commissioner of Insurance’s authority over small group rate filings and review.

Employers have not responded by dropping employer-sponsored coverage. The majority of the penalties collected for the employer responsibility provisions have been on employers that do not offer coverage to certain classes of employees, but are subject to the law due to the hours the employee has worked. The primary reason that employers have not dropped coverage is not the low amount of the annual per employee “penalty” (currently $295 per employee per year), but rather the unavailability of an exchange for employees to purchase coverage.

Massachusetts has an exchange, the Commonwealth Connector; however its purpose is primarily for those who are eligible for free or subsidized insurance. It is difficult for employers to direct their employees to the Connector as there is little support provided for employers, and not all carriers participate. In addition, rates are age driven, so older employees pay more, younger pay less, which is difficult to explain to employees who are used to group rates.

Massachusetts has yet to pass a law or issue regulations to reconcile the differences between the federal and Massachusetts healthcare reform laws, making long-term strategic planning even more difficult for employers.

Pat Haraden, CEBS, CLU, ChFC, REBC, RHU, MBA, LIA, is a principal at Longfellow Benefits. He is responsible for new business development, brand awareness, client service, and Longfellow associate management and development. He provides financial and compliance advice to primarily large self-insured employers, municipalities, purchasing groups and small employers. He also provides education and awareness on funding arrangements, cost saving techniques, alternative purchasing groups, and legal and regulatory matters. Internally, Haradan serves as the regulatory and healthcare reform subject matter expert on the Longfellow team.