The HR Digest October 2021

Editor’s Note October 2021 A year ago, Covid-19 forced companies worldwide to send employees home.

Now, with coronavirus cases waning and vaccinations rising, the likelihood of returning to offices has turned into a game of ‘The Great Wait.’ As of late September, 66% of organizations are delaying their return-to-office plan due to Covid-19 variants, according to a Gartner survey of 238 business leaders.

The Great Wait is a reminder that 18 months into the pandemic, the future of work is as uncertain as ever – and senior executives are spending a lot of money to prepare for the ‘next normal.’ As you flip through the next pages of the October issue, you’ll be able to read a variety of articles on designing the post-pandemic world, accelerating transformation strategies, and of course innovation in a post-Covid-19 world.

I hope you take time to read what the contents of The HR Digest have to offer.

There’s so much to read, so much to ponder, and so much to learn, after all, we are truly always learning.

Cheers!

As ever, we look forward to your feedback (editor@thehrdigest.com, @TheHRDigest on Twitter, Facebook.com/TheHRDigest).

The Team Editorial

Design

Anna Domanska Editor-in-Chief

Kevin Paul Sr. Graphic Designer

Priyansha Mistry Editor Anna Versai Sub-Editor

Project Management

Diana Coker Sub-Editor

Tony Raval Project Director

Jane Harper Content Writer

Jay Raol Project Director

Marketing

Advertising

Jason Miller Sr. Project Director

Jay Raol Director – Ad Sales

Technology John Hancock Head-Web Department

Finance Control R R Baratiya

Le Manh Coung Sr Software Coordinator

Julia Hunt Magazine Production

Contents October 2021 HR Drift “Let me work from home, or I will find another job”/ p.08

Leadership Insights How HR leaders can deliberately shape their worker-employer relationship/ p.24

Q&A With Jane Can your employer require you to get a COVID-19 vaccine?/ p.34

Employee Benefits Workplace Wellness: What it can do for you/ p.42

Cover Story Driven to Specialize: World’s Leading Management-Consulting Firms/ p.48

Legal Hub Every Employer’s Nightmare: Denying remote work accommodation spurs EEOC lawsuit/ p.66

HR Tools & Technology HR Trends: 2022 Report/ p.74

Success Story The Hybrid Workplace: Is this the future of work?/ p.86

Workplace Culture A look at companies with the BEST HR practices/ p.96

Training & Development Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: The New Business Imperative/ p.106

HR Events Top picks of conferences and professional events around the world./ p.114

“LET ME WORK FROM HOME, OR I WI

The traditional 9-to-5 job is dead for a majority of young worke The pandemic, as horrible as it is, has been a wake-up call. It has shaken us out of our complacency. We have begun looking into the way we live our lives. Many of us have concluded that our jobs were mere impasses, and quit during the “Great Resignation” wave. This mass exodus shows that people no longer want to spend their lives doing work they don’t like and will search for opportunities that offer a sense of purpose.

The advent of remote work has shown that it is fruitful for both employees and management. It’s a good idea to see what other standardly acknowledged practices should be changed for the future of work. So for what other reason is it important to work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., five days per week, in a cubicle far under harsh lights, with little to no access to window views, poor ventilation?

The recent shift toward remote work has also shifted to other areas of our work lives. The coronavirus pandemicinduced remote work experience has proven to be an undisputed success. Companies, such as Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, recorded profits. The stock market has hit all-time highs. Studies have proven

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The HR Digest Magazine | October 2021

ILL FIND ANOTHER JOB”

ers, study says.

Studies have proven that workers spend longer hours glued to their home desks working into the night and during weekends. Their productivity was – beyond a shadow of a doubt – remarkable.

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that workers spend longer hours glued to their home desks working into the night and during weekends. Their productivity was – beyond a shadow of a doubt – remarkable.

Alok Alstrom, founder of the Future of Work Institute, said: “This month many workplaces will be looking to bring staff back to the office for the first time since March last year.

“Many people will have grown accustomed to the flexibility and various benefits working from home can bring, and we think they won’t be willing to give them up so easily.”

The change in 9-to-5 is on its heels. The Millennial and Gen-Z generations watched their parents face job burnout again and again. They saw them laid off, disregarded for promotions and leading lives in distress.

They don’t want this for themselves. Being stuck within a cubicle farm feels boorish to the younger generations. They are seeking flexibility and control over their hours. Eventually the Baby Boomers, who have spent all of their lives repeating the 9-to-5 grind and are so used to the cycle, will retire.

Employers shouldn’t wait that the baton will be passed to the future leaders. They should act now by rolling out changes to the 9-to-5 structure. Middle management may not be ecstatic, as they’ll lose a portion of their significant powers, however the workers will be happy.

With the Great Resignation taking place, it’s evident that workers are making quite a statement. If they feel unappreciated in the workplace, they’ll walk out and find a new gig. Progressive companies will leave their 9-to-5 schedules, in a bid to attract top talent.

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WALL STREET BANKS OPT FOR GREATER AUTOMATION FOR GRUNT WORK TO RETAIN TALENT “The goal with this is to allow younger bankers to do more and more of the meaningful, and less and less of the menial,” said Dan Dees, co-head of investment banking at Goldman.

An internal survey by Goldman Sachs junior employees detailing the crushing workload and the accompanying stress due to demanding bosses has led to some stocktaking about the working conditions in the industry and the high attrition rates. Banks now insist on weekend offs, no excessive overtime, and greater use of technology for routine work.

Wall Street banks are trying to automate as much grunt work as possible to save the younger bankers from feeling overwhelmed.

According to bank executives, companies including Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Moelis have introduced programs to automate basic functions such as generating pitch books and valuation modeling.

The junior bankers—fresh graduates—are lured in by lucrative pay, but very few can take the grueling hours, and the high-stress atmosphere and the attrition rates are sky-high in the industry. This pivot to automation is an attempt to stop the revolving doors. “The goal with this is to allow younger bankers to do more and more of the meaningful, and less and less of the menial,” said Dan Dees, co-head of investment banking at Goldman.

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The juniors are dumped with scanning the news stories to prepare the public information book (PIB), collecting all possible data for financial metrics, formatting each and every report, preparing power points, doing due diligence on queries for reports, the list can get endless.

Goldman Sachs had initiated around 100 automation and efficiency projects. It has developed tools that automatically update charts in presentations with the latest data so bankers do not have to edit them manually.

Barclays has formed a task force to automate all possible tasks that were dumped on junior bankers. “We’re investing to automate elements of the junior banker’s role in an effort to improve efficiency and enhance their work experience,” said John Miller, Barclays’ co-head of investment banking in an interview.

Moelis is concentrating on making the pitch book task as easy as possible by making data scrolling automatic.

This automating of routine, repetitive tasks might lead to some cost savings with lesser hands required. “Headcount in the banking industry is likely to get reduced, aided by technology.

The mantra has been, remains and will only 12

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This is not about less. This is a working on thin says Huw Richa Chase’s global investment bank the bank form

t people working about people ngs they value,” ards, JPMorgan head of digital king, an initiative med in 2018

increasingly be: do more with less,” said Mike Mayo, a banking analyst at Wells Fargo.

The Goldman Sachs survey was done as there was increased activity due to many companies adopting the SPAC route to go public. “We recognize that our people are very busy, because business is strong and volumes are at historic levels,” said Nicole Sharp, a Goldman spokeswoman. “A year into Covid-19, people are understandably stretched pretty thin, and that’s why we are listening to their concerns and taking multiple steps to address them.”

Banks have even increased compensation packages to attract talent, with first-year remuneration rising from $80,000 to $100,000.

Another factor playing in the fewer graduates opting for banks is that the new generation of workers—the millennials and GenZ—believe in work-life balance and see a career as a life choice, which means something that they can enjoy.

Their attitude to their profession is more relaxed.

Banks have recognized that money is not the deciding factor for most new entrants and if they want to retain top talent, they need to offer more.

“This is not about people working less. This is about people working on things they value,” said Huw Richards, JPMorgan Chase’s global head of digital investment banking, an initiative the bank formed in 2018.

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NO JAB, NO JOB! Delta variant squashes return-to-office plans for many workers.

The White House wants CEOs to lead in the fight against the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus.

Some of the nation’s largest employers, after months of skirting around the fraught issue, have in recent days been compelled to make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for workers. This may be legally inconsequential, however, the recent vaccine mandate has left many business leaders worried about its political implications.

While a growing number of CEOs are in favor of requiring workers to be vaccinated, the rest are gauging if the time is right to change their vaccination policies in the workplace without standing out from the crowd. After the initial trickle of panic came a stream of announcements from companies mandating vaccines for all or some employees.

The rapid rise of the highly transmissible Delta variant has left many companies grappling with the decision to delay reopening offices by as long as six months. A report by Envoy, a workplace platform that helps teams manage hybrid work, notes that most office workers prefer to work from home in some capacity. The report titled Return to the Workplace gauged sentiments among 1,000 office workers who have returned to the workplace within the past year.

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Employers like BlackRock, Chevron, Google, Johnson & Johnson and more are now requiring inoculation against Covid-19 for their workers.

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According to the survey findings, roughly 45% of workers said they didn’t have a choice in their return to offices. Around 37% of workers said they are more stressed since returning to the workplace. More than a third (35%) of workers say they are more likely to hand in their notice compared to 18% of those who had a choice. Moreover, 51% of women compared to 40% of men feel they were given no choice but to return.

However, if given the option, most office workers prefer to work from the office in some capacity. The findings note that 70% of workers would choose a hybrid work model, while only 12% would prefer to work remotely on a daily basis.

At this point, every organization is – and should be –asking: When should we return workers to offices? Should we mandate vaccines in order to keep offices open?

“One major takeaway from these data points is that companies that demand a return to pre-pandemic ‘business as usual’ will fail. We need to earn our employees back,” said Larry Gadea, CEO and founder of Envoy. “COVID isn’t going anywhere — people need to know that their health is the top priority. And leaders need to ask the hard questions about what’s working and what’s not, and then begin experimenting with technology solutions that make the work experience better.”

For now, employers must focus on the health, welfare and safety of their workers. This calls for a greater amount of flexibility and empathy, and a willingness to retrace back-to-work decisions as circumstances surrounding the Delta variant change. A good decision would be to take a pulse on employee sentiment.

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DISAPPOINTING US JOB REPORT LIKELY TO DERAIL PLANS TO SCALE BACK STIMULUS PACKAGE August’s jobs data has shot every bit of optimism.

The U.S. August jobs report showed a sharp decline with only 235,000 new positions added.

There are concerns that this will force the Federal Reserve to postpone plans to scale back its stimulus help for the pandemic affected. The new Delta variant of the Coronavirus has led to a surge in cases derailing the economic recovery.

The June and July job reports were very good. Nearly 1.1 million jobs were added in July and the US central bank was getting ready to reduce its $120 billion a month asset purchase program, which it said it will keep in place until it saw “substantial further progress” on its goals of maximum employment and average 2 percent inflation.

The most regional Federal presidents were calling for an early readjustment to this stimulus as the numbers were good. But August’s weak payrolls report, has upset the September timeline.

The Covid-19 Delta variant appears to be weighing on broader economic growth, including consumer spending and confidence. “There was this

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sense that we were heading in the right direction on the labor market front [but] this slowing pace of job creation and the fact that the Delta variant remains a key downside risk is likely to favor a patient approach,” said Lydia Boussour, senior US economist at Oxford Economics. “It rules out a September announcement for the start of a reduction in asset purchases,” added Joseph Song, senior US economist at Bank of America.

“The key question moving forward is if this is a one-off print or if we are going to continue to see a deceleration.”

The unemployment rate has come down by two points in August from 5.4 to 5.2 percent, while many industries that were showing signs of recovery have again stagnated due to the Delta variant surge.

The leisure and hospitality industry posted no job gains for the month, whereas it was consistently showing an average monthly increase of 350,000 positions over the past six months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Retailers and restaurants were also forced to cut back, resulting in roughly 70,000 job losses.

“To date we’ve seen central banks in general look through the Delta variant [and] it hasn’t pushed 18

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“There is a hug contradiction h have an economy 5 million fewer p than before Co have record job Simona Mocuta, at State Street G “Clearly there is one knows how

ge conflict and here when you y with more than people employed ovid-19, but you openings,” said senior economist Global Advisors. s friction, and no long it will last.”

them off their policy path,” said Ellen Gaske, chief economist at PGIM Fixed Income. “But the slower data is starting to come in, and the Fed may become more cautious here and pause.”

Most economists and investors still expect the central bank to announce a cut back in its support.

At the Federal Bank symposium last month, Jay Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, said the inflation threshold to proceed with slowing the central bank’s bond buys had already been met, and there had been “clear progress” on the labor market front. He was of the opinion that the unemployment benefits and the reluctance among the workforce to join back will soon be over.

August’s jobs data has shot down this optimism.

There is a labor shortage and hard-pressed employers are having to raise wages to attract new people. Average hourly earnings jumped 0.6 per cent from July.

The pressing concern is whether the Fed will announce the tapering of its stimulus package at its November meeting, which will be highly dependent on the October job report, say analysts.

It might be pushed to the next year of deferred until December; no one is sure.

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Alibaba founder Jack Ma was a staunch supporter of 996, saying that it had enabled Chinese tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent to grow.

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THE END OF 996?

Let employees rest and vacation, rules China’s top court.

China’s 996 culture of working from 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week, has been called illegal by China’s top court and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

The Supreme Court and the labor ministry issued guidelines for proper work hours and what should be deemed as overtime. The court has published a memo of 10 clear examples of what it thinks are violations in work places.

The cases cited were mainly from the tech sector, which is seen as promoting allegedly toxic work hours.

“Recently, extreme overtime work in some industries has received widespread attention,” the Supreme People’s Court wrote in its statement, which it issued with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Workers deserve rights for “rest and vacation,” adding that “adhering to the national working hour system is the legal obligation of employers,” the court wrote.

The court reviewed many examples of overwork and exhaustion, including one media employee collapsing and dying in the office and a courier company that forced employees to work long hours.

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There has been a public outcry about the working conditions in such offices and places of business. There have been regulatory crackdowns on tech companies indulging in undue overtime.

Under China’s existing labor law, overtime hours should not exceed 36 hours per month. But if an employee goes by 996 schedule, the monthly overtime can touch 128 hours of extra work.

Owing to the public backlash, several tech companies have taken a step back and cut down on the toxic work hours. TikTok owner ByteDance announced its decision to end the weekend overtime policy from August 1. Another video company, Kuaishou, has also promised to cut down extra work hours.

While many Chinese internet companies saw the 996 arrangement as a “gift” to employees, it clearly violated the China’s labor law and ruined work-life balance, according to former finance minister Lou Jiwei Lou, who was speaking during the online ESG Global Leader Summit organized

by Sina Finance.

“If there is no proper regulation, everyone will adopt 996, which will reduce jobs and be harmful to society,” he said.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma was a staunch supporter of 996, saying that it had enabled Chinese tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent to grow.

But recently, he has changed his tune and said that companies looking to profit by forcing staff to work overtime are “foolish” and doomed to fail.

Lou also said the country should reject gender discrimination in the workplace.

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There has been a public outcry about the working conditions in China.

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LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

HOW HR LEADERS CAN DELIBERATELY SHAPE THEIR WORKER-EMPLOYER RELATIONSHIP BY: Kraig Eaton, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP

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Shannon Poynton,Senior manager, Deloitte Consulting LLP

The HR Digest Magazine | October 2021

The need for organizations to be attuned to their workforce’s values and needs has never been more critical. After reflecting on what’s most important to them throughout the pandemic, 40% of the global workforce is considering leaving their employer this year.1 Organizations that are able to build a sustainable and differentiated worker-employer relationship will be able to stem attrition, traverse shifts in marketplace conditions, and thrive not just through the pandemic, but future disruptions as well.

workforce strategies that will shape their employer brand, strengthen their relationships with current and future workers, and help them achieve business outcomes that will allow them to rise to the top, rather than race to the middle.

But this may be easier said than done, as organizations that are looking to compete in today’s competitive talent market feel compelled to match competitor moves and respond to workers’ expressed preferences as quickly as possible. As table stakes keep shifting, HR has an opportunity to lead the organization by prioritizing Microsoft, “The next great disruption is hybrid work – Are we ready?,” accessed July 5, 2021

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LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

HR NEEDS TO PROGRESS ON ITS JOURNEY FROM STATIC REPORTING TO DYNAMIC WORKFORCE INSIGHTS AND JUSTIN-TIME SENSING AND LISTENING In our 2020 Global Human Capital Trends research, only 11% of organizations said they were able to produce information on the state of their workforce in real time, with 43% telling us they produce it either ad hoc or not at all.2 But in today’s dynamic environment, even retrospective metrics and measurements offer limited value.

For example, traditional diversity

metrics (e.g., demographic data) alone cannot tell an organization if they’re creating an environment that fosters belonging, offers equitable opportunity for all voices to be heard, or celebrates diversity of thought and perspective.

Nor can it tell organizations if they’re placing diverse leaders in positions of influence.

However, organizations who focus on sensing and listening will be able to gain

Erica Volini et al., The social enterprise at work – 2020 Global Human Capital Trends, Deloitte Insights, May 2020.

2

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Organizations that expand their sensing and listening capabilities will be able to stay ahead of industry disruptions and future of work trends.

deeper insights about their organizational culture and employee experience that can equip them to actively manage their workforce and business strategies.

That means employing tactics that pulse the workforce more frequently, help differentiate values from preferences, focus on both formal and informal communities and networks, and incorporate the voice of the worker in decision-making practices.

Organizations that expand their sensing and listening capabilities will also be able to stay ahead of industry disruptions and future of work trends. For instance, external marketplace triggers can help organizations understand how new technologies are disrupting jobs and roles and can help organizations anticipate emerging skills needs to inform their talent access and development strategies.

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LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

HR SHOULD ESTABLISH A CLEAR VISION FOR THE WORKEREMPLOYER RELATIONSHIP THAT’S ROOTED IN ORGANIZATION AND WORKFORCE VALUES. Instinctively, organizations may want to respond quickly to stay in line with industry peers. But focusing on what matters first may get in the way of establishing the strategies that matter most. And trying to react to every emerging preference and trend could put organizations in a seemingly endless cycle of roll-outs and reforms. HR can lead the organization by aligning the

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broader c-suite on a workeremployer value proposition that ties to the organization’s broader mission and purpose – and by using that value proposition as a guiding force against which to weigh decisions.

But it is not enough to merely communicate that employer brand; organizations must back up their statements and stances

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with action. 86% of executives in our 2021 research say that workers will increasingly value organizations who offer a meaningful mission and provide them with opportunity to make an impact on that mission.3 For HR leaders, that means incorporating the employer brand into every aspect of the talent lifecycle; helping business leaders model purpose through their daily actions; putting governance and infrastructure in place to measure progress against clear, tangible goals; and finding ways to co-create with the workforce to advance the organization and workers’ collective mission.

7 in 10 leaders today say they’re challenged to find talent with the right skills and capabilities to meet their growing business demands.

Erica Volini et al., The worker-employer relationship disrupted – 2021 Global Human Capital Trends Special Report, Deloitte Insights, December 2020.

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LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

HR SHOULD CREATE SUSTAINABILITY IN ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH WORKERS BY DESIGNING CAREERS FOR CHOICE, MOBILITY, AND ADAPTABILITY. As the half-life of skills decreases and technology continues to disrupt business processes, an employer brand that focuses on the needs of the workforce today without building sustainability for tomorrow will not support organizations as they navigate the next disruption on the horizon.

HR can lead the organization by re-architecting work in ways 30

that make it more meaningful and help amplify strengths that are uniquely human – like creativity, problem-solving, and experimentation. Doing so will require organizations to develop education and career paths that allow workers to grow with the organization rather than falling behind. That includes helping employees understand how their skills might match new roles or opportunities in the organization.

The HR Digest Magazine | October 2021

This isn’t an entirely altruistic action on the employer’s part. 7 in 10 leaders today say they’re challenged to find talent with the right skills and capabilities to meet their growing business demands.

And 53% of respondents in our 2020 research said that between half and all of their workforce would need to change their skills and capabilities in the next three years.4 With virtual work models disrupting traditional talent development programs in many organizations, employers need to refocus on this imperative quickly or risk falling behind.

86% of executives in Deloitte’s 2021 research say that workers will increasingly value organizations who offer a meaningful mission and provide them with opportunity to make an impact on that mission.

Erica Volini et al., The social enterprise at work – 2020 Global Human Capital Trends, Deloitte Insights, May 2020.

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LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS In today’s competitive talent market, it’s difficult for organizations to step outside of the “here and now” to adopt a forward-looking lens, but the value of doing so was on full display during the pandemic.

The 15% of executives who said their organizations were best prepared for COVID-19 were taking actions to futureproof their organization while navigating the disruption. That group was twice as likely as their less-prepared counterparts to pivot investments for changing business demands, use technology to transform work, and recognize the importance of organizing work to facilitate rapid decisionmaking.5 HR leaders, who proved their ability to lead their organizations through crisis during the pandemic, now have an opportunity to lead again – this time, to build a strong worker-employer relationship that will help them thrive in the next set of disruptions to come.

Erica Volini et al., The social enterprise in a world disrupted – 2021 Global Human Capital Trends, Deloitte Insights, December 2020

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Q&A with Jane 34

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The brutal and straightforward answers to HR-related queries and concerns.

Send in your queries with the subject line ‘Ask JANE HARPER’ at info@thehrdigest.com

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Can Your Employer Require You to Get a COVID-19 Vaccine?

The coronavirus pandemic is far from over for the U.S., but the Delta variant means the “war has changed,” as leaked report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made clear. The development and production of coronavirus vaccines are certainly one of humanity’s greatest achievements, but unless and until more of us are vaccinated, Covid-19related hospitalizations, and deaths are likely to rise across the country. In mid-September, the administration announced that the federal government would require federal workers to attest they have been inoculated against the coronavirus or else have to comply with rules on mandatory masking, social distancing, weekly testing, and other health measures.

Major companies like Facebook, Google, and Lyft are considering mandatory vaccination for their workers. Many universities have already rolled out vaccination mandates unless a religious or medical exemption is granted. Without a doubt, 47% of ABA-accredited law schools in the country have effectively done so and as more news from Delta surfaces we should expect more companies and institutions to join the growing list.

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One thing that has restricted a few employers and colleges has been whether or not such mandates are legal—Houston Methodist Hospital recently faced a lawsuit from over 100 employees who did not want to be vaccinated. A few students at the University of Indiana challenged that school’s vaccination mandate as unconstitutional. The last couple of weeks given assurance that such mandates can be lawfully set up, a claim that legal experts have been making for quite a long time.

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The U.S. has a long precedent for vaccine mandates. At the turn of the 20th century some schools and employers required proof of smallpox inoculation, some even resorting to a “show the scar” requirement where there was concerns about forgeries of a document. Rather than reject that the state might force immunization necessities, a point the U.S. High Court confirmed in 1905, those opposing vaccination mandates have zeroed in on the way that the current COVID-19 immunizations have been approved as a feature of the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) measure and not yet supported as a full Biologics License Application (BLA). That may before long change with signs that FDA might give a BLA endorsement to Pfizer’s immunization in which case this contention would disappear. Regardless, the main court to manage on it, the U.S. Area Court for the Southern District of Texas, adequately dismissed the “EUA = no command” position in the Houston Methodist Case. It held that the EUA statue “neither expands

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nor restricts the responsibilities of private employers; in fact, it does not apply at all to private employers like the hospital in this case.” The court also rejected the claim that this was coercive.

This conclusion was additionally supported by the release of memo from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel, that was approached to weight in for the President on whether the law allows mandating a vaccine authorized under an EUA and not yet receiving a BLA. The memo unequivocally presumes that relevant provision of the EUA statute “concerns only the provision of information to potential vaccine recipients and does not prohibit public or private entities

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from imposing vaccination requirements for vaccines that are subject to EUAs.” While this determination isn’t restricting on courts, its analysis is likely going to be powerful and shows the perspectives on the executive branch on the question.

So, what about state entities, like government offices or public universities? Against them, those opposed to vaccine mandates can raise constitutional claims cases since they are “state actors.” In the primary analysis of the question, on July 18, 2021, the U.S. District Court for Northern District of Indiana dismissed such a challenge to Indiana University’s vaccine mandate in an intensive 101-page opinion. This opinion was deferential and took seriously the students’ claims, however, it ultimately rejected it, stating: This university policy isn’t forced vaccination. The students have options—taking the vaccine, applying for a religious exemption, applying for a medical exemption, applying for a medical deferral, taking a semester off, or attending another university. This policy applies for the fall 2021 semester only.

Students may make their choice after being advised of the risks and benefits of the vaccines, thereby giving informed consent. The court recognizes that for certain students this may prove a difficult choice, but a choice nonetheless. The choice isn’t so coercive as to constitute irreparable constitutional harm. Although it proves a condition to attend this fall, it is reasonable under the Constitution.

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W

orkplace

ellness

What It Can Do for You By: Anna Verasai

I

t’s a competitive job market. Unlike in years past, today’s workers are willing to pursue opportunities with other employers if they believe their lifestyle will upgrade. Health and benefits packages are becoming an essential tool for employers when it comes to attracting and retaining talent, not just in the most popular sectors and geographies, but across the board.

Consider the following statistics: A survey by the National Business Group on Health last year found that more than 78% of employees feel that their employer’s wellbeing programs make the company more attractive for potential recruits and 70% say it is one of the top reasons they stay loyal to their employers. Meanwhile, a report from Future Family revealed that 67% of women making between $75,000 to $99,999 and 52% of those making more than $150,000 would change jobs for better fertility benefits.

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The HR Digest Magazine | October 2021

Employers are finally responding to this need by reshaping how they use employee benefits programs to attract, retain and engagement with the right talent. Today, nearly nine-in-10 employers cover infertility benefits through their employee benefits packages, according to data from the National Business Group on Health, which include in-vitro fertilization (IVF), egg freezing, adoption and surrogacy. Nine out of 10 global companies offer some sort of employee wellness program.

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MAKE IT

W

PERSONAL

hen health is made personal, employees discover the true value that wellbeing can hold in their lives. Johnson & Johnson, which has one of the longest-standing employee wellness programs in North America, understands that employees don’t strive to get healthy because it’s the right thing to do in some theoretical sense. For a lot of people, wellbeing is simply a means to an end. The employee wants to be there for their family, to get off hypertension or diabetes medication, to perform better at work.

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The HR Digest Magazine | October 2021

The employee wellness industry in North America is estimated to be worth over $6 billion, with private vendors selling companies either stand-alone wellness plans or ones that are a part of the health insurance.

If the employer can tap into the workers’ personal motivations, it can more readily impart the worth of employee wellbeing.

Employers like J&J use a platform called “Energy for Performance in Life,” which is designed by the Human Performance Institute division of Wellness & Prevention.

Its goal is to teach workers how to maximize their energy in order to improve their lives. The program is designed to be less clinical and more of a lifestyleadvancing tool. Making the wellness program more relevant in day to day existence has drastically increased the number of workers engaging in it.

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COLLECTIVE IMPACT FOR WELLNESS

W

ellness needs to be done with employees, not without them, or to them.

When workers feel a particular initiative is their own, their engagement increases. Some of the best employee wellness programs actively design for “grassroots” partnership and saddle the force of shared responsibility to support commitment. It is important to let employees design their own wellness initiatives relevant to their division’s needs. This sort of empowerment goes a long way. The employer may encourage employees to become their own health and wellness representatives in their office – initiating drives such as yoga and zumba, and

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recruiting other employees to join in their collective wellness programs. This helps in spreading the message that their wellness is important to you and also guarantees the initiative’s reach. It also keeps workers accountable for their personal wellbeing and gives them the support they need during life’s most crucial moments.

Employers need to quit challenging the legitimacy or effectiveness of wellness programs. Instead, we must celebrate wellbeing focused initiatives on a day-to-day basis more than ever. Our society is dependent on the reach and influence of people, and to rethink the debate from

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More than 66% of U.S.-based employers offer some type of employee wellness program. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, 99% of employers with 200 or more employees offered at least one wellness program in the past decade. Of these, employers, 70% offered gym membership discounts or on-site gyms, 72% offered stop smoking support program, and 59% offered weight loss programs. A majority of these employers also offered some form of financial assistance, such as reduction of insurance premiums on dental care. a focus on sick care to a focus on overall wellbeing is more important than ever. A range of employee wellbeing programs have made headache into our lives – and with the help of private companies offering wellbeing-focused plans, there is greater hope for support. Let’s give our employees the support that will encourage them to lead healthy lives.

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WO

CO

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ORLD’S LEADING

MANAGEMENT ONSULTING FIRMS

T

he global strategy and management consulting industry is estimated to be worth $179 billion by 2027. Big corporations around the world depend heavily on consulting firms to get a better understanding of their competitive edge. It’s not a stretch to say that management consulting firms are at the core of successful careers, stronger companies, and a better world.

According to The HR Digest, consultants McKinsey & Company is the nation’s most prestigious management consulting company. PwC’s Strategy&, Kearney, Oliver Wyman, Bain & Co. have also joined the ranked as America’s very best consulting firms. Among our list are also companies that are nowhere near the size of big-name consultancies like McKinsey, Bain & Co., and Boston Consulting Group, but come close in influence.

Let’s take a look.

BY: PRI MISTRY

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MCKINSEY & COMPANY

M

cKinsey & Company was founded 92 years ago in 1926 by James O McKinsey and Marvin Bower. Under the name James O. McKinsey & Company, it offered consulting services on accounting principles as a management tool.

The company not only survived The Great Depression, but it also it thrived in the 1940s and 50s, especially in Europe.

Back in the 50s, it was known to cherry-pick consultants from Harvard Business School’s Baker Scholars – the top 5 percent of the graduating class. At one point, more than a third of McKinsey’s consultants were from the Harvard Business School shop.

To this day, it is known to hire the best-credentialed people,

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and pays them well, too.

The notion of “corporate culture” was obscure until McKinsey consultants Tom Peters and Robert Waterman deep-dived into it in their book In Search of Excellence, which sold 6 million copies.

McKinsey & Company is known for giving organizations access to the latest management fads. Take, McKinsey’s War for Talent, for instance. The term was first coined by the firm’s Steven Hankin in 1997 and popularized by the book of that name in 2001. It signified “promoting a star performer” even if they don’t have the ideal experience.

Today, McKinsey & Company provides its services worldwide.

It is headquartered in New

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York City with a network of 127 offices spread across the 90 countries. The firm employs 27,000 employees and generates $8.8 billion in revenues. Many of McKinsey’s alumni went to become CEOs of Fortune 500 companies including Boeing, Google, and Morgan Stanley.

A 2008 study by USA Today found that the odds of a McKinsey’s consultant becoming CEO at a public company were the best in the world, at 1 in 690.

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BAIN & COMPANY CONSULTING REVENUE: $4,500,000,000

B

ain & Company is one of the Big Three management consultancies along with Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey Company. It was formed in 1973 when Bruce Henderson’s protégé Bill Bain left The Boston Consulting Group to form his own management consulting firm.

One of Bain & Company’s core principle to success is founded on Bill Bain’s approach to consulting, i.e. investing in the outcomes of work. If the client attained success, Bain & Co. would be rewarded accordingly, and vice versa – if the client failed to perform, Bain & Co. would leave with a smaller cheque to cash.

Bain & Co. is said to have revolutionized the consulting industry by taking an innovative approach to client relationship

management. This enabled the firm to focus on developing long-term relationships with these clients. Earlier, consulting work was mostly done on a project by project basis. It was quite unheard of to win multiple projects from single clients.

Today, Bain & Co. advises several Fortune 500 companies in corporate strategy, private equity investments, mergers & acquisitions, market analysis and finance. It functions from 56 locations worldwide and has an average annual revenue of $4.5 billion. The company’s CEO Bob Beckek boasts an approval rating of 99% on Glassdoor, reflecting how well Bain & Co. consultants are taken care of.

The firm has won several “Best Firm to Work For” awards and is well-known for its culture of work-life balance.

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OLIVER WYMAN CONSULTING REVENUE: $2,100,000,000

I

n 2007, three global consultancies (Mercer Oliver Wyman, Mercer Delta and Mercer Management Consulting) joined forces to form Oliver Wyman.

Mercer Oliver Wyman was oldest of these firms, founded as Oliver, Wyman & Company in 1984. Its founders were Alex Oliver and Bill Wyman, both are former Booz Allen Hamilton partners turned entrepreneurs. The firm was founded with the aim to provide an innovative approach to business through practical consulting and providing clarity to strategy.

In 1984, Mercer Oliver Wyman was acquired by Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC).

The firm was then bought by

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Temple, Barker & Sloane in 1987 and Strategic Planning Associates in 1989.

These two companies merged to form Mercer Management Consulting in 1992. It was then acquired by Delta Consulting in 2000. In 2007, Mercer Management Consulting merged its subsidiaries under the name Oliver Wyman.

Oliver Wyman had made a name for itself for its deep industry expertise which is reflected in its many cutting edge reports they publish each year. For instance, the firm’s “State of the Financial Services Industry” report is known to have made great contributions to the finance sector since its inception in 1997.

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Oliver Wyman hires applicants from top schools like Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, MIT, Kellogg, and Duke. At Oliver Wyman, one doesn’t require an MBA degree to climb up the ladder.

Currently, the management consulting firm is spread out over 60 offices in 27 countries and boasts a workforce of 4,500 employees.

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MERCER CONSULTING REVENUE: $1,600,000,000

M

ercer LLC started in 1945 as the employee benefits departments of Marsh and McLennan. The firm took the name of “William M. Mercer” in 1959, when Marsh & McLennan acquired William M. Mercer Limited, a Canadian firm founded by William Manson Mercer in Vancouver in 1945.

In the 1940s, Mercer grew to become a premier provider of actuarial and benefits consulting services. In the 50s, it expanded through rapid growth and acquisitions to become a global leader in three key areas: Career, Wealth, and Health. With more than 25,000 employees based in 44 countries, Mercer is also the world’s largest human resource consulting firm.

Mercer consultants have a client relationship with top companies

like Fortune 500 and FTSE 100.

For generations, Mercer has provided clients with actionable insights and forward-thinking solutions. The firm works with clients spread out in 130 nations across the world, helping them continue to make the future brighter for their employees.

In recent years, Mercer has made a name for itself for redefining the future of work. The firm helps create an ideal workforce ecosystem by understanding data and applying it with a human touch across key areas such as employee health plans, retirement plans, and employee performance system.

Mercer was “2018 Vault’s No. 1” in the list of best HR consulting firms.

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BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP CONSULTING REVENUE: $6,300,000,000

B

ruce Henderson, a former Bible salesman and Harvard Business School dropout founded The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 1963. Initially, BCG was a subsidiary of the Boston Company (an asset manager), before becoming independent in 1975. In 2019, the management consulting firm dropped the “The” from its name to better reflect the digital era.

It is said that Henderson revolutionized the corporate world with his brief and highly provocative essays. He called these essays on business strategy ‘PERSPECTIVES, they remain a BCG tradition and are still influential in today’s times.

Boston Consulting Group became renowned for Henderson’s signature concepts which renewed views on business strategy: BCG Matrix, cash cow, time-based consumption and the experience curve. These corporate planning

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tools helped firms better allocate resources within their portfolio of activities.

Like its American counterparts, Boston Consulting Group was also known for the quality of its recruitments. Rapid expansion in Europe gave Boston Consulting Group a muchneeded radical boost in growth in the 1960s.

Boston Consulting Group suffered a slight setback in 1973 when its vice-president Bill Bain left to found his own consulting company, Bain & Co. It quickly recovered between the 80s and 90s as it grew and expanded overseas.

Boston Consulting Group is big on humanitarian contribution to the world. It works on over 350 social impact projects with over 200 organizations across the globe each year.

Partnerships with organizations like Save the Children, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Teach for All enables the firm to extend their impact beyond management consulting.

It has a workforce of 19,000 employees and makes an average revenue of more $6.5 billion. The firm is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts with more than 90 offices in 50 countries.

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STRATEGY& (PWC) CONSULTING REVENUE: $4,500,000,000

S

trategy& was born in 2014 when Booz & Company joined the PwC network to create a new kind of consulting business – one that uses strategy expertise with the technology and scale to make it real.

The firm is enriched by a unique heritage which is 106 years old.

Booz & Company was founded in Chicago back in 1914 by the forward-thinking Edwin Booz. It was the first firm to use the term “management consultant.” It proudly calls itself “the oldest continually existing strategy consultancy in the world.” To this day, the firm’s focus remains on practical strategy or “strategywith-execution,” as Booz called it. In fact, the name Strategy& is derived from Booz’s well thought of publication “Strategy + Business”.

The management consulting firm continued to expand in the

50s and 60s, reaching annual revenue of $55 million in 1969.

By 1980, its revenues were at $150 million.

For more than a century, the firm has boasted an impressive list of accomplishment including: the developing of supply chain management theory; the merger between the National and American Football Leagues in the 1960s; helping Chrysler with its historic turnaround in the 70s; and, more recently, developing the concept of organizational DNA in the 2000s.

When it comes to industry expertise, the firm has expert talent across a wide array of areas including: aerospace and defense, oil and gas, automotive, energy, consumer products, media and entertainment, healthcare, retail, financial services, and others.

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KEARNEY CONSULTING REVENUE: $1,400,000,000

A

.T. Kearney was founded

by Andrew Thomas Kearney, a former partner of McKinsey & Co. in 1926. In January 2020, the global consulting firm dropped its founder’s initials as part of global rebranding efforts.

Kearney was founded on three fundamental principles – drawing inspiration from the future, creating a portfolio of competitive opportunities, and being organizationally inclusive.

The management consulting firm grew exponentially in the 1960s as it expanded to London, Paris, Milan, San Francisco, and Düsseldorf.

Kearney continued to grow in the 70s.

With the mantra of, “Growth, 62

Globalization, and Leadership,” the late 1980s and 1990s were the unquestioned golden years, with 18 consecutive years of double-digit growth, at an annual rate of 25 percent per year.

Kearney specialized in management consulting focusing on strategy and operational issues in businesses and government agencies and institutions, businesses across the globe.

Kearney has its headquarters in Chicago and functions out of 60 offices in 40 countries.

It boasts a workforce of 3,500 employees out of which 2,300 are consultants.

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The management consulting firm began to lose in revenues after its purchase by EDS in 1995. With much efforts, it made $1.5 billion in revenues in 2000. The firm was bought back by its partners in 2005.

Kearney’s current goal is to double its revenue by $2 billion by the end of this year, as part of its Vision 2020 strategy.

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GARTNER CONSULTING REVENUE: $4,200,000,000

G

artner Inc. was founded in 1979 as an information technology research and advisory company. In past few decades, it has established itself as one of the most renowned research and advisory companies in the world.

In 2017, Gartner expanded its research coverage to include major organizational functions including legal, human resources, sales, finance, marketing and communication, and supply chain. The company positions Chief Information Officers and IT leaders for success through actionable insights, and tools that support its initiatives from strategy to execution. Gartner operates

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through three key areas: Conferences, Consulting, and Research. Research consists of subscription-based research material, peer networking services, access to research inquiry, and membership programs.

Gartner has a workforce of more than 15,000 associates in 100 countries. Its clients account for 73% of the Global 500.

The global management consulting industry is estimated to be worth $155 billion with a market size of $250 billion as of 2020. Companies across the globe depend on these consulting firms to get a competitive edge.

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DENYING REMOTE WORK ACCO EEOC LAWSUIT. By: Jane Harper After the COVID-19 pandemic required employers to implement remote work plans (both to continue with their day-to-day operations and to comply with new state and government guidelines), many employers – and employment lawyers – have wondered what this improvement would mean for organizations’ commitment to allow employees to work from home as an accommodation to a disability in the future. The result? A first-of-its-kind case was filed last week by the U.S. Equal Employment

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OMMODATION SPURS

Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Employers may now get a glimpse at EEOC’s attitude towards the future of work. What lessons can employers learn from this recent lawsuit?

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THE FIRST EEOC Files First PandemicRelated Remote-Work Bias Suit The case, which was filed in federal court in Georgia, involves Ronisha Moncrief, a former health and safety manager for ISS Facility Services (ISS). In March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, she says she requested a reasonable accommodation to telework due to her chronic obstructive lung disease and hypertension. Not long after her request, the claim alleges that Moncrief suffered from multiple physical ailments including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and hypertension. After becoming ill and being diagnosed with COPD, Moncrief’s doctor recommended she work from 68

home and take frequent breaks.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, ISS’s staff, including Moncrief, were working in the facility on modified work schedules, resulting in Moncrief and other employees working from home for four days per week. Although, in June 2020, ISS required all employees to return to work in-person at its facility five days per week. This is when Moncrief requested a reasonable accommodation to continue to work remotely two days per week and be allowed frequent breaks while working onsite.

The EEOC claims that Moncrief

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presented ISS with documentation indicating that her set of history of serious ailments and increased her risk of getting infected with COVID-19. The EEOC further claims that her work obligations required her to be in close contact with other employees and that other employees had been allowed to work from home following the June 2020 return of work.

While other HSE managers were allowed to continue to work remotely, ISS denied Moncrief’s request, and shortly thereafter, fired her.

(As per the lawsuit, ISS denied

Moncrief’s requested accommodation in July 2020.

Subsequently, in August 2020, her boss then allegedly contacted HR recommending her termination based on performance. At the start of September 2020, the EEOC lawsuit claims that ISS fired Moncrief due to performancerelated issues. The EEOC claims that she had not been advised that her performance was reason of termination any time prior to her termination.)

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What does the lawsuit mean to your operations?

The EEOC has always championed that telework requests be approved as an accommodation under the Americans with Disability Act (ADA). The EEOC is now attempting to use an employers’ previous work from home arrangements during the Covid-19 pandemic as proof that employees should have been allowed to accomplish the fundamental elements of their job role in a remote capacity. This gives perspective on probable factors that will be utilized against businesses who deny remote work demands.

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How should you respond?

1.

Apart from following regular protocols, you should give special regard to telework demands. It is possible that workplaces that have had the option to operate under telework arrangements will be expected to make remote work accessible as an accommodation in the near future. The contentions adopted by the EEOC will presumably be used by the agency

and enterprising plaintiffs’ attorneys across the country to undermine the credibility of businesses that argue that work from home requests cannot be accommodated. If you determine that continued work from home will create a burden on your company operations, you should be able to articulate how that burden is to be understood.

Albeit this claim is in its infancy, and ISS has not even yet had a chance to react to the EEOC’s charges, you can in any case take in certain lessons from the cases to limit risks at your company. The following are three tips for managers to consider considering this suit:

the company’s response to the employee’s initial request for a reasonable accommodation. Permitting an accommodation to work remotely, likely any request for an accommodation, should be considered on a case-by-case basis. The EEOC’s position in this situation shows that an employer’s denial of such a solicitation will be investigated more closely going forward – especially if the employee in question teleworked for

Review existing accommodation requests for remote work: While the lawsuit doesn’t give insights regarding

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a short period of time or if others have been allowed to continue to telework.

2.

Review job responsibilities and position descriptions: The first and foremost step in determining whether an employee can fulfil their job responsibilities with a reasonable accommodation such as telework is to know unequivocally what the worker’s fundamental job duties are and how often they perform those tasks.

Outdated job responsibilities or understandings of an employee’s actual job role can hamper this analysis.

For instance, a task that requires continuous or daily vis-à-vis client or customer interaction may no longer be the expectation. Instead, the pervasiveness of meeting through any of the numerous videoconferencing tools that have proliferated over

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the past year may be more acceptable as a means of communication for clients or customers. Moreover, many businesses have had to provide employees with the tools and access needed to work remotely subverting arguments that doing so would represent an unjustifiable burden.

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3.

Ensure that solicitations are being taken care of reliably: As shown by the EEOC’s claims for this situation, proof that other workers – particularly those in the same or similar positions – have been permitted to work remotely or keep on working remotely might be significant proof that a business has abused its commitments under the ADA. In case you are challenged with more than one request for remote work as a reasonable accommodation, you should have the option to articulate why it can accommodate a few workers and not others. This might be for permissible reasons like information security or to be actually present to access or use equipment or products.

Whatever the explanation, you should not adopt a blanket strategy to remote work demand and instead engage in a case-by-case assessment of each employee’s

solicitation considering what was done during the Covid-19 pandemic.

We also advise employers to continuously monitor the developing legal landscape around pandemic-related remote work lawsuits. The oldest of the Covid-19 inspired lawsuit is only recently starting to yield judicial precedent that you can use to make decisions.

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Tools & Technology

HR TREN OF 2022 By: Diana Coker

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NDS 2

More than a hundred years ago, Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management laid the foundations for modern human resource management.

At the core of his management theory was the idea that employers should turn their workplaces into psychology labs, measuring and monitoring employees’ every move to boost their productivity and reduce their stress levels. This theory, practiced by industrialists like Henry Ford, led to unprecedented innovations in human engineering, with the creation of the assembly line, and a formula for optimizing performance in the workplace.

Today, some of the largest, most successful companies, such as Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft, are scaling up use of data science, recruiting experts in organizational psychology, and expedite their digital transformation to deploy technologies like AI and ML in the workplace to improve their people analytics. In a world of work that is increasingly evolving it is worth reflecting on HR trends we’re expecting in 2022 and the years beyond.

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Tools & Technology

1.AI&

MACHINE LEARNING

T

he advent of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and the herculean amount of data available with companies are making it easier for recruitment professionals to streamline their hiring workflow, including prescreening and onboarding. New-age employers can address recruiting flaws such as subconscious bias among recruiters when evaluating candidates.

For workers, AI and ML can help amplify productivity by taking on mundane data entry tasks so that employees can focus on more creative and high-value work. This also translates into more opportunities for workers to upskill in a new arena in which they may excel. In a study

by PwC, 72% of business leaders said AI can enable workers to focus on meaningful work, while 34% of business leaders said AI can help free up time for more meaningful, valuable work.

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Tools & Technology Key Takeaways: Recruitment professionals can rely on the power of AI to streamline or automate some part of the recruiting workflow, especially repetitive, high-volume tasks.

Workers can have more time to focus on more meaningful, valuable work as AI steps in to automate mundane data entry tasks.

AI can help avoid replicate subconscious bias that may already exist in the hiring process.

2.

UPSKILLING

I

n a Mercer study, only 34% of HR leaders said they are actively investing in reskilling their workforce. Hopefully, this figure will increase in the coming years as more business leaders play a critical role in preparing Americans for the jobs of the future. Without the right skills, employers and employees will struggle to be agile in the future.

The modern workforce expects change and is willing to adapt and learn to be future-ready for it. Businesses must promote upskilling to help workers prepare and to avoid a workplace in which some workers are ready for change and others are not.

Key Takeaways: Savvy leaders need to act now and plan how their businesses will upskill their workers to thrive in a digital world.

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Companies need to understand what the future capability profile looks like, and figure out how to bridge the skills gap.

O

rganizations sit on a goldmine of data. But this ‘data’ without insights is rendered meaningless. Businesses need the right framework, model or expertise in order to ensure that data acquires meaning, so when the time comes they can leave guesswork and take data-driven decisions. For HR professionals, using data for people analytics can help them drive better business results and improve workforce management.

The rise of SaaS and cost-effective HR tools and technologies have helped HR professionals properly measure KPIs and employee performance. For example, with the right data, HR professionals can dig deeper into strategic HR metrics such as revenue per employee, performance turnover in jobs, quality of hire improvement, diversity hires in customer-impact positions, etc., and create a quantitative impact on organizations.

Key Takeaways: By leveraging people analytics, HR professionals can create more efficient systems, develop better client experience and create a quantitative impact on their bottom line.

Solve everyday problems about hiring, efficiency, behaviors or any other major shifts in culture.

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Tools & Technology

T

he Covid-19 pandemic has given business leaders a peek into the personal lives of their workers. They have realized that by supporting workers in their whole lives, not just their experience as workers, will affect their ability to perform in the workplace. Employee experience will continue to be a top priority for HR professionals. This no longer pertains to concepts of individual strength such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, etc. A completely new concept that emerged in the workplace and that is a sense of belonging.

Studies have shown that a sense of belonging at work can not only increase productivity but also be a better motivating factor than monetary rewards. A high sense of belonging in the workplace increases employee performance to 56%, reduced turnover risk to 50%, and decreased sick days leave to 75%.

Key Takeaways: A sense of belonging in the workplace increases the number of high performers.

Employee experience includes diversity and inclusion, which cover a range of concepts like age, gender, sexual orientation, culture, etc.

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Tools & Technology

V

R training is a game changer in the workplace. It is immersive enough for workers to take training seriously, but also creates a sense of privacy where workers who are more self-conscious can speak freely to their trainers. By 2022, VR in enterprise training market is estimated to peak $6.3 billion. If trends continue, we can expect VR training to replace traditional training methods in industries, such as retail, insurance, customer service, and safety training.

VR training was beginning to catch on before the coronavirus pandemic, but the recent shift towards remote work has fast-tracked its role in the modern workplace. A growing number of companies are looking towards VR to train employees safely, effectively and efficiently.

Key Takeaways: VR offers a fun, engaging, safe and immersive training environment.

The fully immersive training experience gives workers a chance to learn new skills faster.

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T

he global pandemic forced organizations to quickly adopt remote work tools and solutions in order to provide flexible work options to their workers. But even before the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems that workers have been putting a high value on remote work arrangements. For example: A FlexJobs’ 2019 survey noted that 69% of workers said flexible work options are one of the most important factors when evaluating a job offer. Moreover, 78% of workers believed that a flexible work schedule would allow them to lead a healthier life, while 80% responded saying they would be more loyal to their employer if they were given flexible work options.

How do you win the fight for top talent? If companies want to attract talented workers and decrease their attrition rate, they need to look into ways how they can offer remote work arrangements.

Key Takeaways: Businesses need to break away from the 9 to 5 work culture.

Workers want to continue working remotely after the pandemic.

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Tools & Technology

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I

t is said that soft skills are the new ‘power skills.’ As a result of AI taking over repetitive tasks in the workplace, employers are now focusing on power skills when looking for candidates. Examples of important power skills include problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, and learning agility. Recruitment professionals may want to search for candidates not just for their current set of skills but also for their curiosity and motivation to continuously gain new skills throughout their career.

Numerous studies have shown that the costs associated with upskilling are far lower than letting go workers and replacing with new ones.

Workers need to adapt power skills in order to gain a sense of control over their career direction. Employers can provide a tailwind with the right set of training, which will create an agile workforce, and help the bottom line.

Key Takeaways: Recruitment professionals should search for candidates for their job trainability and aptitude in a tech-human environment.

Workers should adopt a new set of power skills to increase their chances of employability in the future.

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Hybrid The

workplace:

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Is this the future of work?

By: Anna Verasai

T

he coronavirus pandemic has upended the way we work. Employers have been forced to re-invent work for the digital age.

Telecommuting, which was rare, turned into a necessity as more than half of American workers turned into workat-home population.

Of course, some jobs simply cannot be done at home.

More employers are agreeing that the traditional 9-to-5 job is dying and that a more flexible approach needs to be adopted to reflect the needs of the modern workers. With the gradual return to the office arrives a new set of workforce models acting as an antidote to the good ‘ol sea of cubicles.

For major companies like PwC, Unilever and Microsoft, hybrid models are the future of work, particularly post-pandemic.

A hybrid work model is the new-age workplace model that allows employers to reshape existing office layouts, attract talent across geographic barriers, and increase diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. A growing number of companies have also seen the positive impact remote working has had on employee engagement and productivity.

As companies try to decide the best way forward for their employees, it’s clear that the hybrid workforce model is the way to go.

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A

WHAT IS A HYBRI D WORKFORCE MODEL?

hybrid model is one that combines aspects of remote working and in-office working. It generally grants more autonomy around when to work as well as where.

A company that has adopted a hybrid approach to work can have one or more offices where a portion of their workforce regularly works from office, while the remaining workers work remotely. The hybrid

workforce model is completely different from a fully remote model of working, in which an organization does not need an office and everyone works remotely.

The HR Digest found three different types of hybrid work models being offered to the modern workers: hybrid, split and fully remote.

1. FULLY REMOTE MODEL This hybrid workforce model is best suited for the digital nomad. It allows workers to carry out their job duties from wherever, whether that’s their grandma’s patio, a shared coworking space, or on top of the Himalayas. As appealing as the fully remote model of working may sound, it comes 88

with several challenges for employers and their workers.

Even with careful planning a company may fail to bring people together to celebrate and socialize. With workers split across different time zones, it may get difficult for companies to solve problems, collaborate on projects, or even innovate.

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2. SPLIT MODEL A split model is where one team is divided into two or more offices. Their offices are interdependent and could be thousands of miles across the globe or right across the street

from each other. A split working model allows the team to operate just like a hybrid team, with each half working remotely from the other.

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3. HYBRI D MODEL A hybrid model is a blend of remote working and office working. This means that a small portion of the workforce could be working in a fixed location while the rest of the employees 90

are working remotely. It offers workers a range of options to choose from, which typically include an in-office option, a remote option, and a flexible work option where employees

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work from an office two to three days per week. It’s attractive from a recruitment standpoint as a growing number of Gen Z and Millennial workers seek to work with progressive companies where work-life balance is easy to achieve.

The post-pandemic office scenario is going to be different.

Realizing the advantages of work from home and remote settings, many companies have concluded that a hybrid model would be a good solution.

Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Walmart have already announced proposals for hybrid work models that will allow employees to continue to work at least a few days a week remotely.

PwC, the consulting firm, taking cognizance of its own survey on the future working scenario, has told its accountants and consultants in the UK that they will spend an average of two to three days a week in the office after the pandemic ends and has promised them a half-day

on Fridays this summer.

The company, part of the Big Four consulting firms, in tune with its peers, has told staff that they will typically spend 40 to 60 percent of their time at its 20 UK offices or at client sites, with the rest of the week spent working remotely. It will also allow the employees greater flexibility to decide their working hours and log on at times that suit them best. This will be a strong departure from the strict logging in at work by latest 9 sharp in the morning and with no set time to go home in such high-profile companies.

“The future of work is changing at such a pace we have to evolve continually how we do things to meet the needs of our people and our clients,” said Kevin Ellis, chair and senior partner at PwC. Many companies are making peace with the new norm and realities. More than 80 percent of companies are embracing a hybrid model whereby

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employees will be in the office three days a week, according to a new survey by KayoCloud, a real estate technology platform.

Great office spaces of yore will now contract surely. “We really

are at an inflection point,” said Meena Krenek, an interior design director at Perkins+Will, an architecture firm that is revamping offices, including its own, for new modes of working.

The pandemic has shown the productivity does not suffer due to remote working. Efficiency and focus have seen work results improve.

Here are some numbers gathered from various surveys done by Global Workplace Analytics, CoSo Cloud and Statista: •

30% of telecommuters save upward of $5,000 a year

•

$11,000 is how much companies can save annually for each employee that works remotely half-time

•

People who work remotely earn $4,000 more per year on average

•

99% of remote workers want to continue telecommuting in the future

•

90% of remote workers would recommend working remotely to a friend

Nationwide, a British mutual financial institution, told 13,000 of its office-based staff that they would be allowed to work from wherever they liked after 57 percent of employees told the 92

building society they did not want to return to the office after lockdown. David Solomon, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, on the other hand, says working from home is an “aberration”.

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PwC has opted for the middle path trying to marry the merits of office attendance for certain tasks like training and collaboration to the advantages of working from home.

The firm calls its hybrid plan

“the Deal”. Kevin Ellis said: “We’ve long promoted flexible working, and we hope the announcements make it much more the norm rather than the exception.” On top of that, most PwC employees were given a

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half-day on Fridays in July and August this year. If the half-day scenario works out, then it will be adopted for the future, too, a spokesman said.

KPMG last month said it would spend £44m on technology 94

and refitting its offices to accommodate distancing norms. Deloitte has closed shops in many centers all over the UK, allowing about 500 staff the option of working from home full time. Microsoft released a “hybrid workplace” plan

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outlining its new work policy once the pandemic is over all over the world and people can choose to continue to work from home. In a blog post on the site, Microsoft explained that it will now allow employees to work from home for less than 50 percent of their working hours, or for managers to approve permanent remote work.

The company will cover the expenses of setting up a permanent home office. If employees want to relocate to a place of their choice then it will be allowed though pay scale, benefits will be reworked and the company will not pay for the relocation costs.

In the blog post, Kathleen Hogan, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer wrote how everyone has had to adjust to the new reality of connecting over the net with one’s teams, adjusting to working around a family schedule and more.

“At the same time, the pandemic has raised questions about what our employees can expect in

the future, so we provided some guidance to employees on our thinking about work flexibility.

Moving forward, it is our goal to offer as much flexibility as possible to support individual workstyles, while balancing business needs and ensuring we live our culture,” Hogan wrote.

According to a survey by SHRM, 64% of US employees are working from home now.

A recent Gallup survey put the number at 62%. The same survey says three in five (59%) of U.S. employees, who have been working from home due to the pandemic would prefer to continue to work remotely as much as possible, once public health restrictions are lifted.

But 41% would prefer to return to their workplace or office to work, as they did before the crisis. A getAbstract survey said 43% of remote workers would prefer to continue their work from home schedule as it gives them flexibility, prevents commute and is overall more productive.

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COMPANIES WITH

Best HR PRACTICES BY: DIANA COKER

HR services aren’t complete until employees feel valued in their work position, workplace and career path. Creating an effective feedback channel is a great way of ensuring that your employees make contributions in seeing to the betterment of the workplace.

Let your employees know that their opinions also count in the company’s decision making.

When these channels are made available and active, employees would be enabled to communicate with the management on their experience. In HR, employee satisfaction is important, and 96

hence, every channel to achieve that is explored.

Based on the organization’s culture and goals, HR professionals have the obligation to tailor other practices such as improving communication channels to accentuate their business performance and its sustainability.

However, no business strategy can invalidate the efficacy of the important HR practices mentioned above.

Here are have a few inspiring companies with some of the best HR practices in the world.

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DELOITTE

A Purpose-Driven Culture One of the draws to building a purpose-driven culture is the level of engagement and motivation it creates. We seek to engender an environment of exploration, creative problem-solving and learning in the work itself. People are motivated and involved in their work for all sorts of personal and professional reasons.

Engagement and a feeling of purpose in one’s work is a key factor to fighting burnout, creating greater performance, and even improving well-being at work. We motivate our people by empowering them, mentoring them and giving them the tools they need to thrive along with continuous learning opportunities.

STEVE HATFIELD,

GLOBAL FUTURE OF WORK LEADER, DELOITTE

DOORDASH

A Workplace That Inspires Passion At DoorDash, we have 12 values that are in place to guide the behaviors of our people, such that everyone amplifies our culture vs. needing to fit into it. We organize them in these 4 buckets:

1. We are Doers

Creating solutions that will lead our company and our industry is what we do — on every project, every day.

2. We are Learners

Everyone here is learning on the job, no matter if we’ve been in a role for one year or one minute.

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3. We are Leaders

Leadership is not limited to our management team. It’s something everyone at DoorDash embraces and embodies.

4. We are One Team

The magic of DoorDash is our people, TOGETHER making our ambitious goals attainable and driving us to greater heights.

Many of our values are operational in nature; however, execution alone does not drive a winning culture. The balance of our values between what we do and how we work together to do it is the secret sauce at DoorDash. We execute, while collaborating. We get to the lowest level of detail, while remaining positive, optimistic and empathetic.

We obsess about our customers, while working together across teams to deliver for them. It truly is an AND, not either/or culture at DoorDash.

SARAH WAGENER,

CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER, DOORDASH

PWC

A CULTURE OF EXCELLENCE We believe that to be your best at work, you need to embrace practices that energize you and be your best self at home and in your community. That’s why we launched Be Well, Work 100

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Well long before the pandemic and it has become even more important. Part of that effort is for each team to create a plan for how they will manage their energy and well-being.

These types of activities help create a culture where our people are encouraged to bring their best selves to work, have a sense of belonging and are supported through policies of flexibility and consciously working to better physical, mental, spiritual, financial and emotional well-being.

Our innovative benefits packages are leading in the business world along with employee resources that include flexible work arrangements and unprescribed sick time. We were among the first companies to provide a student loan paydown benefit in the US, which for example disproportionately impacts Black students, and to date we’ve paid nearly $40 million of student debt for our people.

We’ve also been able to adapt quickly throughout the pandemic and provide employees with enhanced benefits based on their unique situation. For example, we increased our back-up dependent care reimbursement program limit from $1,000 to $2,000 twice when COVID-19 first began, and again to offset the cost of emergency back-up child/family care no matter if the care comes from an agency, a friend or a family member.

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It can be used for child, spouse and adult/elder care when your usual care provider is not available. We are also offering new tools for families working with kids at home, new virtual mental health resources and coaching as well as a range of flexible work arrangements.

MIKE FENLON,

CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER, PWC

3M

CULTURE OF INNOVATION We launched a new culture framework in 2019 to articulate what our culture is – and what we aspire it to be – with a focus on building on our strengths and committing to stretch ourselves into the future. The very first thing we did was deploy multiple listening channels to bring the voices of our employees all over the world into the process of defining our aspirational culture.

We crowdsourced globally, and received more than 200,000 ideas and reactions. We led focus groups, created advisory and steering teams, and engaged our executives in workshops and feedback sessions. In response, we created five culture elements that reflect what we heard.

From there, we used a grassroots cascade to bring the elements into our teams, empowering all 3Mers to define 102

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how they would bring the culture to life. It was not a top-down approach, even though this work was sponsored by our CEO and senior team.

As we continue to bring our culture to life in our operating model and our HR practices, we continue to use surveys, crowdsourcing, focus groups and other tools to ensure our people are heard. For example, before launching a new performance review system this year – dubbed Performance Everyday and hinged on our culture elements – we used crowdsourcing and other tools to hear directly from 3Mers about how to best improve our approach.

KRISTEN LUDGATE,

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, HUMAN RESOURCES, 3M

CISCO

A CONSCIOUS CULTURE We have a team called the “Department of Good Questions” whose mission is to seek out and understand the bright and dark spots at Cisco.

We asked, “How can we proactively

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identify problems – and fix them – before they become formal complaints?” The answer made us realize that we needed to reimagine Employee Relations, moving traditional case management and investigations into a deep, proactive view of our organizations so we can pinpoint cracks in the system before they break our people.

We asked, “Are we operating in a way that serves our people and our business?” Quickly we knew that it was time to create new communities to serve groups based on common needs, build solutions that deliver higher value to our business and people alike, and revitalize our people experience throughout the enterprise. This meant moving many people into new roles, including my entire senior leadership team who stretched into new areas and are delivering incredible results.

We asked, “Does the name Human Resources reflect what we do and who we serve?”. The answer was emphatically, “No!” so we changed our name to People & Communities which reflects who we are; We are a workforce of courageous ambassadors to the company, our people and society.

FRANCINE KATSOUDAS,

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER, CISCO

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:

THE NEW BUSINESS IMPERATIVE By: Arthur Woods,

Co-founder, Mathison

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is not a new concept. But historically it has been seen often as tangential to, rather than integral to, talent and business strategy. For the first time, a critical mass of companies are starting to view equity and inclusion as an imperative to attracting and retaining top talent.

Over the past few years, DEI and racial equity, in particular, have become more and more central to our national dialogue, and

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74% of job seekers believe that employers need to rethink the benefits they offer, citing healthcare and sick and parental leave as very important and worth taking a lower-paying job for.

businesses are recognizing that the role of the corporation in our society must evolve accordingly.

Companies have begun to take more proactive leadership roles in advancing equity within their organizations and in society more broadly. In practice, these important shifts mean that businesses are leaning heavily on their HR departments to source, hire, and advance more diverse talent and build more inclusive workplace cultures. As a result of the pandemic, which

has disproportionately harmed already vulnerable populations, this equity imperative is even stronger.

Additionally, as businesses work to recover, the labor market is extremely competitive. People returning to work are expecting more from their employers, and much more readily leaving jobs if they are not receiving adequate wages and benefits, flexible work arrangements, or clear growth opportunities. For example, 38% of former hospitality

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workers report that they are not considering returning to the industry as they search for roles with higher pay, better benefits, and more flexible schedules.

Furthermore, 74% of job seekers believe that employers need to rethink the benefits they offer, citing healthcare and sick and parental leave as very important and worth taking a lowerpaying job for. Some employers have begun to adapt to this new 108

reality by increasing wages, but businesses must consider the full range of in-demand job characteristics not only to ensure equity within their companies but also to remain competitive in the labor market and maintain trust with their customers and clients.

In the coming months and years, the strongest businesses will be those that continue to prioritize an equitable recovery from the impacts of Covid-19.

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Our new report, 10 Proven Actions to Advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, provides a digestible, practical blueprint to help companies understand where they can and should invest to drive equity and inclusion. The report features a summary of available research for each action, recommendations for how employers can most successfully implement each action, and

examples of employers that have demonstrated leadership within each of the 10 actions.

Our analysis also reveals that half of the 10 actions are not yet mainstream in the private sector despite the strong research behind them, presenting significant opportunity for companies wondering how to take action.

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• Express C-suite

commitment, and

formalize accountability.

• Adopt a skills-first

approach to talent acquisition.

• Diversify talent pipelines

through work-based experiences.

• Provide family-sustaining

wages and benefits.

• Communicate skills based career pathways.

Meanwhile, the other five actions are already quite common, but many companies often are not aware of important nuances needed to optimize them to drive DEI goals.

The overlap between business practices that drive equity and those that drive competitive advantage is getting larger and larger.

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• Offer voluntary DEI

training for all.

• Listen to and learn from

experiences of employees.

• Invest resources in cross training and upskilling.

• Create mentoring and

sponsorship programs.

• Build a diverse supply chain.

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As many employers have articulated or expanded a commitment to DEI over the past year, it is important that they prioritize DEI as a core business strategy in order to realize their goals. To take on DEI in a robust, comprehensive way, consider the following:

are defined to be universally applicable to companies of all sizes and industries, DEI looks different at every company, and each company is at a different place on its DEI journey. We encourage employers to conduct a self-assessment on progress against goals.

• Assess and invest. Explore which of the 10 key actions outlined in our report are ripe for further investment at your company. While these actions

• Connect and learn.

Consider joining a local or national business coalition committed to adopting actions such as the ones articulated in

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our report. Many of them engage in frequent peer learning, knowledge sharing, tool development, and, in some cases, technical assistance on implementation.

• Measure and report. Similar to most business strategies, DEI comes with continuous learning and improvement. There is still much to discover about the nuanced approaches to these actions that are most effective in driving results. We encourage employers to rigorously measure the outcomes of each intervention and, where possible, report on those outcomes to employees, researchers, and other employers 112

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to help inform working knowledge in this field.

The overlap between business practices that drive equity and those that drive competitive advantage is getting larger and larger. Being an equitable business is becoming a competitive advantage, and it will become more important as the world of work evolves. The HR teams that implement these critical practices increasingly will become strategic assets to companies working to achieve DEI goals, drive broader social impact, and remain on the cutting edge. As remote work arrangements become a permanent reality and the longterm effects of the pandemic remain unclear, employers especially must continue to prioritize their workers’ well-being and satisfaction in order to drive productivity and remain adaptable amid external challenges.

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