Posted on Sunday, November 26, 2017

Effectively Dealing with Sexual Harassment in the Workplace – Do the Blocking and Tackling

Since sexual harassment is currently such a big issue these days, I’m going to talk about the tools I’ve effectively developed and used over the years. I’m writing this in November of 2017 and you can’t watch TV, listen to the radio, or read anything online without learning about some high profile politician, media personality, or famous celebrity being accused of some form of sexual harassment.

What frustrates me is how it has become such a “popular” thing to expose all of a sudden. If we are being honest with ourselves, we all already knew this kind of behavior has been going on for years but nobody ever did anything about it. At the highest level possible, we had a two term President in the 90’s who we all knew engaged in it. And we now have a current President who was recorded bragging about it before winning the election. We also all knew about the infamous “casting couch” in Hollywood which has been around since the 1920s and probably even earlier.

I’m frustrated that our society tolerated it for so long.

It’s about time that women are finally feeling comfortable about coming forward with their stories of harassment. There is no place for sexual harassment in our workplace and private lives. Never has been and never will be.

While all of the stories, so far, have been from women, and I fully recognize that most of the victims are going to be women, I’m waiting to hear some men start coming forward telling their stories of how they were harassed – it happens to all genders, in every industry, in every socioeconomic status, etc.

In fact, two of my three biggest sexual harassment investigations were with women as the instigators. So I know it’s only a matter of time before we hear about a woman politician, media personality, or celebrity harassing a subordinate. Let’s not forget how many female teachers, a female dominated profession, are being caught having sex with their male underage students. So it cuts both ways. Both men and women can be deviant creeps.

So how do we stop sexual harassment? I’ve been reading a lot of articles about how the old traditional ways of dealing with it – an up-to-date policy, training, and investigate quickly and fairly to all complaints – no longer work. That we must do something different to put an end to it, things like promoting more women and implementing predictive analytics!

There is no easy solution and, sadly, no matter what we do, sexual harassment will never end. It is, unfortunately, part of human nature. Harassment, sexual and other types, have been around since the beginning of time and will be around until the end of time.

The only way to deal with it from an HR standpoint, in my opinion and experience, is to effectively and consistently do the basic blocking and tackling of having a strong and updated policy, conduct training annually and during onboarding, and conducting quick and fair investigations.

I’ve had a lot of experience handling sexual harassment complaints and investigations. And I can say that by effectively executing the basics I listed above is the best way of slowing it down and keeping it under control. It creates a culture that clearly demonstrates that sexual harassment is not tolerated in the workplace and will be quickly addressed.

I have three steps of a Harassment Policy process that I find work best.

First, during onboarding,while reviewing the employee handbook, I stress that there is no tolerance of sexual or any other type of harassment in our workplace.

When setting up the employee handbook, I make sure the policy is the first one listed so as to emphasize it’s importance. I also make sure I review it, along with our legal council and/or an employment lawyer, at least once every two years (I would do it right now regardless of when it was done earlier because of the current high profile cases in the media) to ensure it’s up to date. It’s also good to make sure the policy is written in plain english, not in legal handbookese that nobody understands.

Make sure each employee’s signee Acknowledgement of Receipt is in their file so there’s evidence that you reviewed the important policies with them.

Second, later in the onboarding schedule, I have a Harassment Training session. I will conduct either a live presentation or show them a video depending on the size of the onboarding class. I have two compliance trainings during onboarding, Harassment Prevention and Drug and Alcohol Prevention, and this again emphasizes the importance of our policy by putting such a primary focus on it during their onboarding. AION Recovery Rehab Center provides professional care in this respect.

I also have two mandatory annual all-hands Harassment Prevention training sessions, one for the general employee population and one for the supervisors and managers. I require managers and supervisors to attend the general employee population session so they are seen by all employees to be part of and fully supportive of the process. This also emphasizes to the managers the importance of the policy.

Each of these training sessions has a quiz that I require each employee to take and turn in after we review the answers. This gives you a document for their file that they’ve attended the training session and interacted by taking the quiz. Also make sure the employees sign an attendance sheet and file those sheets with your training materials.

Third and finally, when a complaint is received, I immediately jump into action and start an investigation. I once drove five hours from my office in Denver, CO to a remote location in central Wyoming the same day I received a complaint and immediately started the investigation. I stayed there for two days to interview people, have discussions with management, decide on proper corrective action, communicate our conclusion to affected employees, and conclude the investigation.

I then write up a final report documenting the process of my investigation, who I spoke to and what was said, my conversations with management, and the results of the final decision and corrective action taken. This document goes into the accused’s file and I like to have a copy in a separate investigation file with other investigations I conducted.

As you can see, I will always drop what I’m doing and immediately start an investigation when I get a harassment complaint because harassment is the most toxic workplace situation. It creates all sorts of serious legal, morale, productivity, ethical, safety, and many other similar problems. Problems that I can head off if I address the complaint immediately.

While it’s important to keep the investigation as confidential as possible while on site, we all know that the grapevine will communicate why you’re there and what you are doing. Employees will see the corrective action and understand why.

This final step of a quick and fair investigation followed by the appropriate corrective action, if warranted, sends the strongest message possible to employees that harassment is not tolerated and will be dealt with swiftly. And it only really takes one or two instances to send a clear message and make a positive impact on the culture.

Now, remember, these steps will not completely eliminate harassment but they will go a long way in significantly reducing it to the point there will only be a few cases.

But you have to do the day in and day out blocking and tackling consistently in order to minimize harassment and keep your company culture one that makes it clear it’s not tolerated.

Posted on Sunday, January 8, 2017

An Interesting Alternative to the Traditional Annual Performance Appraisal

Adobe's Check-in Performance Approach

It’s a new year and now that the holidays are over, it’s time to start thinking about everybody’s favorite topic – THE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL!

Yay.

I’ve written extensively about the traditional annual performance appraisal and believe there is a place for it in certain organizations but I also think it’s time to explore something new and innovative that will be more effective in today’s modern workplace.

There’s a lot of talk about scrapping the performance appraisal altogether. I’m starting to believe that the traditional annual PA is becoming obsolete in today’s modern workplace. There still needs to be some sort of tool, however, to set employee objectives and expectations and then to measure how the employee did against those expectations.

Today, I’m going to explore an alternative to the annual performance appraisal that, in my opinion, is one of the better systems. I did some research and landed on one that seems to be the best, Adobe’s Check-in Performance Approach.

There are three components that make up the Check-in Framework. It’s important to note that the Framework emphasizes that it is the employee’s responsibility to take ownership of their career. I love this approach because it aligns very closely to a similar feedback system I’ve been using and refining in the field for years called Responsibility Based Performance, something I will write about in the future.

1. Expectations, which is driven by the manager. This is where the manager works closely with the employee to establish the employee’s expectations and goals. The manager also helps the employee clarify their role, responsibilities, and success criteria throughout the year.

The first step in any sort of performance appraisal discussion is the need to establish clear expectations and objectives. The Check-in Framework is no different. Employees want to know exactly what’s expected of them and how their performance aligns with the organization’s objectives.

Employees and managers need to meet annually to establish and outline the employee’s objectives in writing. The objectives should be clear to both the manager and employee on what needs to be accomplished and how it should be accomplished. Once the objectives have been agreed upon, they will need to be reviewed and refined throughout the year. The frequency of this periodic review will depend on the department or business unit.

In order to hold everybody accountable to this Framework, employees will need to be surveyed several times throughout the year to make sure they have set expectations with their managers and are having regular follow-up meetings to review and refine their objectives. It is also critical that senior leaders show their support for the program and are following up to make sure this is happening.

2. Feedback, which is driven by both the manager and the employee. Feedback is the key to the entire Framework and will require the most amount of training. This is where both the manager and the employee give and receive ongoing feedback. The manager also provides ongoing and timely feedback that recognizes good performance and works to improve and address performance issues.

Again, feedback is the key to the entire Framework and is the most difficult component to get right. It will require quite a bit of training of the organization’s managers and follow-up by HR in order to get it right. The goal with the feedback component is to have employees at all levels of the organization give and receive feedback.

Feedback needs to be timely and relevant to the needs of the business and the employee. It needs to be given with the honest intention of helping the employee understand that they are doing a good job or that they need to improve. Remember also that feedback should be both positive and constructive.

If employees are not meeting their objectives or performing up to their expectations, they will need to enter into the organization’s corrective action process.

Adobe uses the Specifics, Ask, Impact, Do (SAID) model of giving feedback.

Specifics – State what the person has or has not done by using concrete examples.
Ask – Ask open ended questions to understand their perspective. (How do you see the situation? Did I contribute to the problem in some way?)
Impact – Express the impact on the business, team, or you. When framed as a means to reach a specific business goal, it becomes an opportunity to solve a problem or understand how their actions impacted the business directly.
Do – State what needs to continue or change.

I also strongly recommend taking a look at the Manager Tools Feedback Model for advice on how to give effective feedback. It’s similar to SAID but leaves out the Ask element.

Its also worth taking a look at my friend Morag Barret’s recent article on delivering tough feedback.

Again, to hold everybody accountable, employees will need to be surveyed throughout the year to make sure they are receiving regular feedback from their manager. Senior leadership will also need to support and follow up to make sure this is happening.

3. Growth & Development, which is driven by the employee, supported by the manager, and enabled by the organization. Here, the organization and manager must provide opportunities to the employee to develop and increase their skills, knowledge, and experience in their current role. These opportunities, of course, must be aligned with the business needs of the organization and the employee’s individual ambitions.

The organization must provide a work environment that encourages and helps employees grow and develop their skills and knowledge as it relates to the organization’s business. Giving them different job experiences, providing training and opportunities are ways to help employees expand their skills in their current roles and to develop them for future roles within the organization.

The skills and knowledge that are being developed must, of course, align with the needs and objectives of the organization in order for the employee’s growth and development to be relevant and actionable.

The organization should create a form that will help employees communicate their interests, career goals, and professional aspirations. The employee and manager should discuss these so that the appropriate opportunities can be provided by the organization and supported by the manager.

Once again, to hold everybody accountable, employee surveys will need to be taken to measure the effectiveness of the Growth & Development component as it relates to employee engagement.

I really like this Framework and would love to help an organization implement a version of it. It’s an innovative system that would be very effective measuring employee performance and developing employees in today’s modern workplace.

As a reminder, last week I started a new feature called the HHHR Weekly Survey (using SurveyGizmo) where I survey my readers and listeners on the current blog post and podcast. Remember to take the survey I’ve included for this post which is located on the top of the sidebar or can be found by clicking here.

Posted on Sunday, January 1, 2017

Some Predictive HR Analytics to Start Using

Fourth Entry in the Metrics and Analytics Series

Today I’m going to review and explore a number of actual predictive HR analytic measurements that Jac Fitz-Enz discusses in his book, The New HR Analytics. The first eight are ones that Fitz-Enz considers the most effective based on his actual experience working with many different organizations since the 1980s. The additional three are from other experts and are equally useful as leading indicators.

Fitz-Enz uses ratios but I like to use percentages instead, so I tweaked his definitions a bit.

1. Professional/Managerial Percentage: This is the number of professionals and managers compared as a percentage to the total number of employees in the organization’s workforce. (e.g. Let’s take an organization with 2500 employees and 1352 professionals and managers. They would have a Professional/Managerial Percentage of 54.08% (1352/2500=.5408)). Typically, a organization with a higher percentage would be considered as having a greater chance for future growth and profitability. In this example, the organization may or may not have a potential problem because it would depend on the nature of the business and/or industry.

2. Readiness Percentage (Succession): This is the percentage of key jobs with at least one qualified person ready to take over. (e.g. An organization with 82 key jobs has determined through their succession plan review and analysis that they currently have 36 employees who can effectively step in and take over if those key jobs are vacated. This would be a Readiness Percentage of 43.9% (36/82=.4390)). The closer this number is to 100%, the better so in this example, the organization has a fairly serious gap in their succession planning strategy for their key positions. This will likely result in slower growth while these positions remain vacant during the talent acquisition process and increased costs as they recruit for outside and often expensive talent.

3. Commitment Percentage: This is the percentage of the organization’s staff that is committed to the organization’s overall mission and vision. This percentage is measured by an employee survey. (e.g. An employee survey was conducted and it was discovered that only 739 of the organization’s 2500 employees knew and believed in the organization’s mission and vision. This would be a Commitment Percentage of 29.56% (739/2500=.2956)). The higher this percentage, the better. In the example, the organization shows signs of a serious lack of commitment and employee buy-in of the organization’s values and mission. A lack of commitment shows a lack of engagement which leads to lower productivity and increased turnover.

4. Leadership Rating: This is the performance rating of the organization’s current leadership as measured by the organization’s staff. This is also measured by an employee survey. (e.g. In a survey, using a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being Unsatisfactory, 3 being Meets Expectations, and 5 being Outstanding, the organization’s staff rated their leadership at an average score of 2.43). According to the scale, the organization’s leaders are below expectations. This rating is predictive of employee retention and turnover rates as it is well known that the most common reason people quit their jobs is because of poor managers and leadership.

5. Climate-Culture Rating: This is the rating the organization’s staff gives as to whether the organization is a good place to work and is also measured by an employee survey. (e.g. In a survey and using the same 1 to 5 rating scale, the employees give the organization a Climate-Culture Rating of 2.12 which would be below expectations). This rating is also predictive of retention and turnover rates because the second most common reason people quit their jobs is based on the poor working climate and culture of the organization.

6. Training Rating: These are the scores from the organization’s current training programs that develop skills that help employees get their jobs done now. Interestingly, this rating is not concerned in training for skills needed for the future because having skills you don’t use or need now does not add positively to corporate value.

7. Accession Percentage (Turnover): This is the number of new and replacement hires as compared to the total number of employees in the workforce. (e.g. An organization with 2500 employees had 1750 new and replacement hires during the previous year for an Accession (turnover) Percentage of 70% (1750/2500=.700)). Of course, this is a negative indicator and the lower the number the better. There are both hard costs, conservatively estimated to be six to nine month’s of the employee’s salary to hire and train that employee, and the soft costs, lower engagement and morale from the remaining staff and lower productivity from the new hire.

8. Depletion Percentage (Turnover): This is the percentage of the top talent the organization lost in a year. (e.g. An organization with 2500 employees lost 126 of their top employees in the previous year for a Depletion Percentage of 5.04% (126/2500=.0504)). This is also a negative indicator and a lower number is better. The higher the number, the worse the organization’s future ability to maximize profitability as they are losing their best innovators, producers, and leaders not to mention the hard and soft costs we discussed earlier associated with turnover.

As I mentioned at the beginning, in addition to these eight measurements, there are three more predictive HR analytic measurements mentioned in the book that also serve as very good leading indicators. There isn’t a lot of detail in the book on these measurements but they seem interesting and ones that I will explore further in the future.

1. Executive Stability Ratio and Separation Rate: This rate shows that executives with more than three years of executive experience lowers voluntary employee turnover in the organization.

2. Management Ratio and Promotion Rate: The number of employees that each manager in an organization supervises impacts the number of promotions that those employees have available to them. Managers with a smaller span of control, supervising fewer employees, have fewer promotion opportunities for them. This affects employee engagement, morale, and retention.

3. Training Investment Factor and Promotion Rate: This measurement shows that the more an organization spends on training programs, the more employee professional development will occur which should increase employee engagement, morale, and productivity.

These 11 predictive HR analytic measurements are all excellent and a great place to start.

Most of the data you need can be found on your current HRIS and you can run an employee survey to collect the data you need for the remainder. I suggest using SuveyGizmo or SurveyMonkey to create and administer an employee survey. They both have free accounts and trial periods where you can test run some surveys with no financial risk.

I prefer using SurveyGizmo and have decided to add a new feature, using SurveyGizmo, called the HHHR Weekly Survey based on my latest post and podcast, if appropriate. So take a look at the top of the sidebar on the right or click on this link and take the survey.

Posted on Sunday, March 20, 2016

Week Six of the PA Cycle: Delivery Week

ID-10040852 We’re getting near the end, Crew! This week is when the managers actually deliver the Performance Appraisals to their direct reports and finalize the upcoming year’s Objectives. This is the reason we did all the work the past five weeks! This is where it all comes together.

Let’s start off by explaining what employees expect from their PA. Every employee who works for a manager and organization wants the answer to three basic questions and during the Delivery Week, all three of these questions are answered as described below.

The first is what do you expect of me? This is answered by establishing and finalizing the upcoming year’s objectives.
The second is how am I doing at meeting your expectations? This is answered by delivering the PA based on the previous year’s performance.
Finally, what do I need to do to meet expectations? This is answered when giving feedback during the objective setting and delivery of the PA on what the manager expects from the employee to meet the expectations of the manager and the organization.

In the HHHR PA Cycle, these three questions are answered at the beginning of each year, when managers sit down with their direct reports and discuss their objectives, expected behaviors, and key job responsibilities. This is done through establishing the employee’s Objectives during the PA cycle. During Week Two, Writing Week of the cycle, managers meet with their direct reports and start the discussion of setting objectives for the upcoming year. I will discuss the specifics of how to establish objectives in a later post.

An effective performance appraisal system is an important tool that gives the senior leaders of an organization the information they need to allow them to make some very important human capital decisions such as:

Which employees deserve a raise based on their performance over the previous year? Which employees shouldn’t?
Which employees should the organization promote? Can the organization promote them? Is there a position in the organization now or will there be one in the near future? If not, how can the organization retain these employees until there is a position?
What’s the depth of the organization’s internal talent? Are there people with the skills, experience, and/or potential the organization needs for the future? If not, what are the organization’s plans to hire or develop these people?
Who are the organization’s best performers and what are the plans to retain them? If no plans, it needs to be seriously discussed.
Who are the organization’s weakest performers and why are they still employed? Are any of them salvageable? Has their poor performance and conduct been documented? If not, why not?
And most importantly, in my opinion, an effective performance appraisal system requires managers to inform their employees of exactly what is expected of them and how they are doing at meeting those expectations.

It’s a moral obligation.

Employees who don’t know what’s expected of them and how they are doing at meeting those expectations are not engaged and not nearly as effective as they could be. Unfortunately, this may be the one time in an entire year when an employee gets feedback on their performance from their manager.

In small organizations, there typically is not much of a training budget for “silly” things such as management training so this leaves a lot of your managers without the tools to provide effective feedback throughout the year. HHHR will provide some of those tools in the future but for now, the best tool we have is the annual Performance Appraisal where providing feedback at least once a year is better than nothing.

Since we are talking about the week where your managers are delivering the PA to their direct reports, here are some important steps to remind your managers to take in order to make the process worthwhile and effective for them, their direct report, and the organization.

Schedule and clearly communicate the time and place of the meeting with the employee. Do not call them into your office without warning and deliver the PA. Give them time to think about and prepare themselves. This should be an interactive two-way discussion. It’s not fair to ambush them with their PA. You’re doing all this work so that the employees perceive the process is fair, so don’t ruin it by not giving them a heads up.
Schedule at least a half hour for each PA. This should give you plenty of time to review the PA with your direct report without being rushed. You owe them that time so give it to them. Some of your PAs might take an hour and you probably will know which so schedule appropriately.
Sit on the same side of the desk or table as the employee, if possible. Don’t play the power game during this meeting where you are behind your desk in an elevated chair looking down at them while you deliver the PA. Get out from behind your desk and sit next to them. It shows respect which they will remember.
Do it in an office with the door closed, if possible. I understand that this may be difficult in some office environments but do everything you can to deliver the PA in a private room with the door closed. Nobody wants to have other employees overhear their PA being delivered to them.
Hibernate your computer, mute your phones, and dedicate 100% of your attention to the employee. Eliminate all distractions for this period of time and focus on your employee. The PA is very personal, show them the respect.
At the meeting, have two copies of the PA, one for you and one for employee. They need to be able to read the PA while you are going through it with them.
Establish some ground rules and before starting the meeting and review them with your direct report. Below are a few examples:
- Promise to start and end the meeting on time but your willing to extend the meeting if needed.
- There will be no comparisons to other employees.
- Both of you promise to remain professional throughout the meeting.
- Either of you can end the meeting or take a break at any time
- Both of you promise to listen actively to each other when speaking.
- Encourage your employee to ask questions if they don’t understand anything.
Review the message you want the employee to take from the meeting and make sure they clearly understand it by the end of the meeting. (More on this in a future post)
Show your employee the respect they deserve during the meeting.