OrgEssentials Archives | Page 4 of 4

As they seek to broaden and mature their position on the diversity and inclusion agenda, most organizations agree that enhancing their accessibility is important. However, what many have not yet realised is the sheer scale of the opportunities that exists by proactively addressing this issue.

The UK government has recently produced an updated House of Commons research briefing on disability which highlights a 4% increase in those legally defined as disabled (now 22% of the population) with numbers having risen over the last decade from 12.7 million people to over 14.6 million.

Similarly in the US, the Centre for Disease Control’s Disability and Health Data System has found that approximately 1 in 4 US citizens have accessibility needs, which equates to 61 million individuals.

These are big numbers, and organizations need to adopt an accessibility mindset if they are going to effectively engage with these potential customers and employees.

From a customer perspective, a report from Click-Away Pound shows the commercial incentive for making the online shopping experience as accessible as possible. Their research found that almost 70% of individuals with access needs will ‘click away’ from an inaccessible site which, in the UK alone, equates to £17.1 billion in lost annual sales.

When it comes to hiring new employees, organizations will typically look at a candidate’s digital competency. Indeed, more than 82% of mid-level job advertisements demand that applicants have a proficiency in using digital tools. This, however, risks individuals with online accessibility issues being overlooked, despite being able to bring other valuable experience and skills to the table. A company that is flexible in its approaches to these needs will find that they gain access to a much larger pool of talent – as well as diverse mindsets that can help further develop a workplace’s culture. And this does not account for the third of all potential job candidates who said they would not consider working for an organization where there was a lack of diversity amongst its staff.

How to Improve your Accessibility

The first step towards improving your organization’s accessibility is to start by understanding how it impacts your business. Every organization is as individual as the people who work within it and the customers that it serves – and this is where we can help.

Step by step we can help assess where your organization is on its accessibility journey and then work with you to develop and shape your organizations capabilities to form a more inclusive business model. Get in touch with me at gavin.jones@orgshakers.com, or head over to our contact page.

The ability to be adaptable is becoming gold amongst leaders in the contemporary corporate world. A post-pandemic perspective has seen working life in a continuous state of flux, and if leaders want to stay on top of these shifting conditions, then they need to consider adopting a new, flexible management style.

One struggle that leaders may come across is the generational differences they face with their staff. Most people in leadership positions tend to be in their midlife, with statista finding that the average age of CEOs and CFOs in America was 54.1 and 48.9. Now, with Gen Z filtering into the workforce, along with them comes a new set of values that will likely differ to those in leadership positions. The recent ‘quiet quitting’ phenomenon is a prime example of this.

In order to overcome these potential barriers, leaders should start practicing a more adaptable approach to how they manage their people. This will allow them to create a common language to communicate with their younger staff so that they can respond to the needs of these employees more effectively and optimize their talent.

The Centre for Creative Leadership outlines three components of flexibility that leaders should incorporate to help them seize every opportunity:

Cognitive Flexibility

This is about using different thinking methods to be able to approach each problem from the best angle. Embedding these varying strategies and frameworks into their planning and decision-making will allow them to recognise when a change is needed. Leaders who are flexible and open with the way they think will be able to recognize new trends in the workplace and respond to them promptly.

Emotional Flexibility

Leaders who are empathetic towards periods of transition will be the most prepared to guide their staff through change, as well as manage their own potential feelings of angst and resistance. In this sense, those that are willing to show their own vulnerabilities can make their staff more willing to express theirs, and this leads to an open and honest culture in the workplace which allows for proper support through a transitional period.

Dispositional Flexibility

This concerns finding an equilibrium between being blindly positive and pessimistic. These leaders take on an optimistic perspective that is grounded in realism, and can acknowledge when a situation is bad but look ahead to how to make it better for the future. These leaders have a mindset which allows them to view change as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Leaders who are using all three of these components will be able to interact with change as and when it comes. And with a workforce who have emerged from lockdown with new perspectives on what it means to work , as well as an entirely new hybrid working model, learning to respond to change swiftly and effectively will allow leaders to excel, while also propelling their people and their company forwards.

To discuss these flexible leadership strategies further, you can contact me at stephanie.rodriguez@orgshakers.com

It is no secret that the workforce is changing, and with these changes comes a sharper focus on attraction and retention strategies. But between flexible working schedules and varying benefit schemes, employers are overlooking a key process that can help optimize their ability to secure the talent they have – management training.

Managers play a vital role in the creation of a positive workplace culture and engaging with employee concerns. They are the ‘connecting leaders’ for helping to build relationships between those at the top and bottom of the hierarchy. Ensuring that they are properly equipped to take on this role can help an organization thrive, as many potential problems can be avoided by strengthening the company at its managerial roots.

To begin with, leaders need to know how to go beyond the words of their company’s mission statement. While having a clear statement is excellent for highlighting what the business’s aims and values are, they need to be put into practice. Managers must know how to demonstrate these principles in their approaches and enact them in real-time to increase the trust staff place in them. By building this trust, organizations are more likely to increase retention rates, which can also reflect positively on their reputation when recruiting future staff.

Secondly, there is now an expectation for managers to have more personal and tailored relationships with employees. The rise of a carpe diem ideology post-pandemic has resulted in people wanting to make every day count by finding purpose in their work. Leaders have to be properly equipped with contemporary strategies to help remind them of this purpose in order to sustain engagement levels.

The needs of the workforce have shifted since the pandemic, and managers will require a refreshed set of training to keep up with this. By doing so, they mitigate the risk of employees quitting due to uncaring and uninspiring leaders, which was the third highest reason (34%) for people leaving their job according to a study by McKinsey.

Additionally, there also needs to be a focus on the retention of managers themselves. The CEB conducted research which found that 60% of all new managers fail within their first 24 months – and the main reason cited for this was a lack of proper training. Leadership roles come with a lot of responsibility, and so companies that prioritise giving their new managers the right tools and skills will help them seize all that the opportunity has to offer.

It is a chain reaction. Equip managers on how to engage with their people properly and they will avoid falling into the twenty-four-month trap. And having a good manager leads to a workforce who are engaged because they feel understood by their leader(s). Culture matters, and having a positive one focused on developing people, including mangers, will benefit colleagues and businesses.

Avoidance of legal issues is the final benefit. With the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) set to become firmer when filing discrimination cases against employers and overall trends in filing of claims, having managers who can correctly engage with employee concerns is more crucial than ever. Leaders who are perceived as approachable will be trusted with queries, and this helps avoid the use of third-party channels like the EEOC.

Navigating the heightened sensitivity that has developed post-pandemic is a delicate thing, and so requires a refreshed and expert approach. Having successfully worked with clients to build programmes that can identify and mitigate these issues, we see positive results in productivity, culture and risk management. Investing in managers is worth the expense.

With the cost of living continuing to rise, supporting the wellbeing of staff has been at the forefront of employers’ minds.

According to a LendingClub report, 64% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck in 2022, so organizations are trying to support their employees financially wherever they can.

But if you are a small business or a start-up, having the financial means to help your staff may not be possible.

So, what are the other things you can be doing to improve employee wellbeing?

1. Apps to help manage personal finances

Earning money is one thing, but knowing how to manage it is another. There are many apps available for companies to promote to their staff which can help them track spending habits and expenses. Examples of these are Mint (cashflow tracker and planner) and EveryDollar (budgeting and savings).

2. Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and 401(k) loans

Companies can discuss with their investment broker about setting up FSAs for their employees. These are essentially saving accounts to put money aside that is solely for healthcare or dependent care costs. As long as the money in this account is used for eligible medical expenses, the staff member will not have to pay income tax on it.

Alternatively, businesses offering a 401(k)-retirement plan can find out what loans are available to them. This will allow your employees to take a loan out of their retirement money and then pay it back over five years with a low interest rate. What’s even better is that any interest paid goes back into the employees 401(k) fund.

3. Giving employees space

Sometimes, distance can be good. In times of high stress and financial unrest, it can be a good idea to offer working flexibility – hybrid and remote working mean people are more comfortable and spend less time (and money) coming into the office. Not applying extra pressure to attend networking events or other gatherings outside of work can also help relieve stress and allow for a focus on what their job actually is.

4. Subscribing to mindfulness and meditation apps

The Stress in America report from earlier this year found that 87% of respondents were stressed about the rise in prices of everyday items due to inflation. Employers placing a real focus on the mental health of their employees is very important during such an uncertain time, and so organizations can purchase subscriptions to mindfulness apps such as Calm or Headspace to help their staff ease rising stress levels.

5. Discounted/free gym memberships

Physical fitness has been widely known to have mental health benefits, as well as helping to relive stress. Exercise causes the release of endorphins in your brain, which trigger a positive feeling in the body.

6. Talk to your staff

As simple as it may sound, communication is key. Making a conscious effort to speak to your staff and listening to their needs can be extremely beneficial for their wellbeing. For start-ups, being malleable with job roles can help boost engagement while also helping you get off the ground. Where someone may feel they are burning out in one area and someone else is hungry for development in another, this can be used to your advantage by swapping the two. Finding creative ways to improve development and learning is vital during such a testing time.

The cost of living is a sensitive time for all of us. It is difficult to avoid feeling its effects, and so if your small business needs guidance on how to support the wellbeing of your employees, get in contact with me at brittany@orgshakers.com

Hybrid and remote working have become a post-pandemic norm, and have paved the way for an entirely new working environment – the metaverse. This is a virtual reality environment where employees can meet and interact from anywhere around the world through avatars – digital versions of themselves – which they have designed.

The concept of the metaverse has started to gain significant traction, with a poll conducted by HR Magazine finding that over a third of respondents thought the technology was suitable for business, and that they were excited about using it. Many companies have even started rushing to buy virtual ‘offices’ in prime locations in these simulated universes.

On the one hand, the introduction of a digital working world can offer those working remotely the ability to interact with their colleagues more authentically. However, the rise of the metaverse also brings with it the question of how to approach it from a HR perspective.

How do you monitor diversity and inclusion when people can choose what they want to look like?

The process of designing one’s avatar is important for the metaverse to work. Having face-to-face interaction is what makes this technological development so attractive to organizations, but this will require a different set of people policies to those we currently have in the real world.

For example, when someone is creating their avatar, they will probably want it to look like them – but it will likely be an ‘enhanced’ version of themselves. After all, this is an opportunity to make yourself look the way you have always wanted! This is known as the ‘Proteus effect’ with employees adjusting their height, age, wardrobe, etc. to fit their desired self-image.

However, this risks creating an expectation that avatars should be physically ‘perfect’ which, in turn, could undermine the self-esteem and mental wellbeing of some individuals.

And while altering your avatar to have features which are manifestly different to your own might be considered harmful (or even offensive), organizations will need to decide whether there certain circumstances where significantly changing your avatar’s appearance might be acceptable. For example, if a wheelchair user were allowed to create an avatar which does not use one, would this create a workplace culture where people can be recognised for their ability to do their job rather their physical differences – or one where physical conformity is a requirement for an individual to feel that they belong? These are difficult ethical choices.

How do you design people strategies for people that are no longer physical?

Creating policies surrounding the creation of avatars is one thing, but the way employees behave towards each other in the metaverse workplace in another.

‘Trolling’ is a common internet phenomenon in which people will bully and harass others online through harmful comments. In the context of the workplace, if a colleague is offensive to you online it would probably be considered equally as severe if they were offensive to you in person. Most organizations already have procedures in place to deal with this type of verbal harassment – digital or otherwise.

But what about ‘physical’ harassment in the metaverse?

There have already been issues of avatars being assaulted by virtual colleagues, which begs the question whether this would (or should) be dealt with by employers in the same way they would respond to a similar assault in the real world. If I virtually strike your avatar, is that as bad as actually striking you?

So, the full implications of working in the metaverse are yet to be determined, but it is already clear that the HR strategies and policies we will require for this virtual workplace to be safe and inclusive for every employee will require careful consideration.

And although this may be a vision of the future, organizations should be starting to think about it in the present.

On a number of occasions in the past I’ve been asked to fire employees for reasons such as “they are not a cultural fit”, “they are not performing well” and, once, when their boss simply didn’t like the color of their shirts.

“Fire them”, I was told on each occasion, “it’s employment-at-will, right?”

Experienced HR professionals will agree that the answer is not that straightforward, evidenced by the fact that the EEOC alone has received close to one million discrimination claims in the past decade, with charges filed with state or local Fair Employment Practices Agencies adding to that number.

This lack of familiarity with the employment-at-will doctrine means that employers in the US are prone to make uninformed decisions, which can lead to thousands or even millions of dollars in wrongful termination lawsuits.

Another question I’ve been asked is “the employee is under 90 days and not working out – can I let them go?” The answer may be a bit clearer in this situation, but if the employee is not performing to expectation, always be cautious and document reasons for termination.

Whatever the reason for wanting to terminate an individual’s employment, you should consider the following three questions:

1. Is it Legal? YES, it is legal to terminate at will, meaning for any reason, at any time, unless the reason you are terminating is, itself, illegal.

Under EEOC, Applicants, employees, and former employees are protected from employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, and genetic information (including family medical history). They are also protected from retaliation (punishment) for filing a charge or complaint of discrimination, participating in a discrimination investigation or lawsuit, or opposing discrimination, e.g., threatening to file a charge or complaint of discrimination.

Also consider checking your state/local specific laws protecting employees, e.g., the State Montana employment-at-will only applies during the probationary period’s first six months. Many other states allow public policy exceptions, covenants of good faith, and implied employment contract exceptions.

2. What are the risks of terminating this individual? The employer may risk a wrongful termination lawsuit if it does not evaluate it correctly. Poor performance and behaviors should be well documented to prove the legality of the termination.

3. Am I compliant? Ensure the company has defined employment policies in place, such as a well-written handbook aligned with the company’s practices. Policies should apply to all similarly situated employees, e.g., if an employee is terminated due to attendance: (a) the employer should have a well-drafted attendance policy, and (b) that policy is applied the same way to all employees in the same situation.

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So, when considering a termination either because an individual is not a cultural fit, is not performing well, or you simply didn’t like the color of their shirt, before saying, “you’re FIRED!” always consider legality, risks, and compliance as this will lower the probability of a wrongful termination claim.

Better still, speak to an HR Professional with a sound knowledge of employment law and how to apply it. It’s a conversation that could save you a great deal of time and money!

Throughout my career I’ve found myself gravitating towards startup assignments.

I’m a builder, so I find creating a business from scratch and calming the chaos extremely fulfilling.

Entrepreneurs who have chosen to create, develop, and execute a service or product are, by necessity, focused on growing the business.

External consultants, on the other hand, can deal with the time-consuming – but essential – details that keep the business on track:

Bringing a consultant on board gives entrepreneurs the freedom to focus on strategy and innovation, without getting bogged-down in the tactical aspects of scaling a business.
Experienced consultants are likely to have experienced similar growth environments and can share with entrepreneurs valuable ‘tricks and tips’ to drive organic growth. With a consultant’s guidance business founders can make and invest in better decisions from the start without the experimentation that wastes time, money, and energy.
Consultants are outside the business team and vested in the success of their assignment. As a result, they can rise above the office politics and interpersonal dynamics that inhibit the execution of strategy. Indeed, they can give business founders the honest, objective feedback they need to address these issues before they become problems.

On a recent assignment I found myself executing on all the above, allowing the business founder to shift their focus away from tactical areas best left for functional leaders and to spend more time fundraising for the company’s next investment series.

This is where we can help.

OrgShakers consultants have the knowledge, tools, and expertise across a wide range of People disciplines to give business founders the reassurance that what they have already built is in good hands … while freeing them up to focus on the growth of the company.

Rise to the challenge of #TheGreatResignation by CHARM-ing your people.

More than 15-million people have quit their jobs since April 2021, and there’s no way of knowing if this the exodus is temporary – or a long term shift in how people manage their careers.

Organizations can take control, however, by understanding why employees are leaving and taking measures to not only retain talent, but also attract and develop new and future leaders.

Do you know why your employees are leaving? Do you know where they’re going?

Employees exiting companies are citing a smorgasbord of culture-related reasons from toxic leadership and stifled growth opportunities to poor communication and lack of vision.

So, either the culture organizations thought they had pre-pandemic wasn’t truly aligned with their people’s values, or the pandemic has created a situation in which their people’s values are shifting.

Are you CHARM-ing your employees?

However, understanding the “why” behind the exit is only part of the battle; employers must be able to swiftly enact CHARM-ing strategies to attract, retain, and develop their workforce.

Committing to your vision and ensuring your culture aligns with the company’s values as well as the type of person you seek to employ.

Helping your leaders navigate the changing scope of work and equipping them with the tools and resources needed to inspire, coach, and develop their teams. And helping your employees manage competing priorities, their growth, and outside factors that can cause stress.

Attracting the best talent by partnering with your HR teams to maximize results in recruiting. Focus on the type of person you want to employ and what they want in an employer. When you identify those qualities, use them as the foundation for your recruiting strategy.

Re-recruiting your good people! Retaining key talent needs to be done with the same energy that you invested in recruiting that talent in the first place.

Motivating your people by taking the time to know what’s going on in their work and personal lives and offer support. Take care of work-life balance and recognize your people’s achievements. People become most motivated when their leader shows interest in their whole lives and not just work output.

The OrgShakers team have extensive experience in analyzing why employees are leaving, where they are going, and what will attract and retain your ideal employee. So, if you would like insight into how #TheGreatResignation is impacting your team and guidance in developing your strategy to combat the mass exit please get in touch: hello@orgshakers.com.