Workforce - May/June 2017

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May/June 2017

2017

MEET THE FIRST-TIMERS

A fresh crop of companies make this year’s Workforce 100.

Clockwise from top left: Pamela Harless, Grant Thornton; Susan Stelter, West Monroe Partners; Maureen Hoersten, LaSalle Network; Stacey Browning, Paycor.

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On the Scene with

It’s easy to slap simplistic labels on HR: strategic vs. tactical, administrative vs. innovative, reactive vs. tactical.

As our 2017 Workforce 100 list attests, the best HR functions are a mix of all of the above (see page 26).

Companies that excel embrace the mundane work of daily HR.They constantly hunt for efficiency and make the most of the organization’s investments.

But they also make exciting leaps forward that plant them at the center of business growth and innovation.The best HR departments question stale management thinking and champion new ways of working.They run experiments and aren’t afraid to fail.

Above all, they treat HR with the seriousness and sophistication it demands because no matter the task at hand putting people front and center is what makes all the difference.

— Mike Prokopeak, Editor in Chief 4

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

Ariel Investments held an intern homecoming to celebrate three decades of the company’s interns.

Top photo, a discussion featured Ariel President Mellody Hobson (Class of 1989) and former U.S. Secretary of Education and current CEO of Chicago Public Schools Arne Duncan (Class of 1987). Left, from left, former Ariel interns Justin Algee (Class of 2015), Annchellie Akuamoah (Class of 2013) and Jordan Gipson (Class of 2011).

READER FEEDBACK SHRM President and CEO Henry Jackson responded to Rick Bell’s Last Word column in the March/April issue titled, “Mending Fences Could Be Jackson’s Legacy”: Thank you for reporting on SHRM’s many achievements, among which is the SHRM competency-based certification. I wanted to clarify for your readers why SHRM created the first certification for the HR profession that assesses both behavioral and technical competencies — the SHRMSCP and SHRM-CP, lest readers misinterpret SHRM’s credential and intent.

SHRM introduced competency-based certification because this is where credentialing has evolved for all professions and it supports the current requirements of the HR profession.

Given SHRM’s responsibility and mission as the HR professional membership society and thought leader to set and evolve standards, there was no alternative to incorporating behavioral competencies into the exams.

Change of this magnitude was necessary and difficult, as it challenged the status quo and legacy certification environment. However, we invested the time and effort into SHRM certification because it was imperative that the representative HR society respond to today’s needs of businesses.

To ensure that we meet the highest standards of testing, SHRM earned accreditation for its certification program and exams from the highly respected Burros Testing Center, which accredits many of the most notable professional exams. I would also encourage you to speak with HR professionals who sat for the exam.

The SHRM credentials are based on nine behavioral and technical competencies, which is the distinction with our exam. In fewer than three years, more than 100,000 HR professionals carry the SHRM designations.

And thousands of employers seek our certificants to fill roles critical to their success.

Early evidence is showing important outcomes for HR professionals holding the SHRM-SCP and SHRM-CP: 1. Nearly 60 percent of SHRM credential holders attribute a promotion or role enhancement to the attainment of the SHRM-SCP or SHRM-CP. 2. SHRM certificants report significantly higher career satisfaction levels than their counterparts.

3. Roughly 68 percent of supervisors who have SHRM certificants on staff view them as the highest-potential employees in their departments.

This is only the first phase of evidence indicating behavioral competency-based credentialing and education make a difference for HR and employers. Equally important in certification is the recertification component that allows the certification holder to design a personalized education program to acquire needed competency proficiency.

The competency-based certification was a marked change for SHRM with serious implications for the profession, yet we invested heavily in this world-class credential because we believed it was right for HR professionals, SHRM and the HR profession as a whole. And in only two years, the wisdom of the Board’s decision and its impact is becoming clear.

Hank Jackson President & CEO Society for Human Resource Management We welcome your comments on these stories and others on our website.

Be sure to follow us and give us a shout on Twitter at @Workforcenews, too. m ay / j u n e

2017

Photos courtsey of Powell Photography, inc. 2017

From Our Editors

SHRM-CP/SHRM-SCP

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WorkHuman® is a registered trademark of Globoforce Limited. All Rights Reserved.

A PUBLICATION OF May/June 2017 | Volume 96, Issue 3 PRESIDENT John R. Taggart jrtag@workforce.com

EDITORIAL INTERNS Mia Mancini mmancini@workforce.com

VICE PRESIDENT, CFO, COO Camaron Santos Kevin A. Simpson csantos@workforce.com ksimpson@workforce.com VICE PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT, RESEARCH AND GROUP PUBLISHER ADVISORY SERVICES Clifford Capone Sarah Kimmel ccapone@workforce.com skimmel@workforce.com VICE PRESIDENT, RESEARCH MANAGER EDITOR IN CHIEF Tim Harnett Mike Prokopeak tharnett@workforce.com mikep@workforce.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Rick Bell rbell@workforce.com

DATA SCIENTIST Grey Litaker clitaker@workforce.com

GROUP EDITOR/ ASSOCIATE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Kellye Whitney kwhitney@workforce.com

RESEARCH CONTENT SPECIALIST Kristen Britt kbirtt@workforce.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Frank Kalman fkalman@workforce.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Andie Burjek aburjek@workforce.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Lauren Dixon ldixon@workforce.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Bravetta Hassell bhassell@workforce.com

RESEARCH GRAPHIC DESIGNER Theresa Stoodley tstoodley@workforce.com MEDIA & PRODUCTION MANAGER Ashley Flora aflora@workforce.com PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Nina Howard nhoward@workforce.com

EVENTS MARKETING MANAGER Anthony Zepeda azepeda@workforce.com WEBCAST MANAGER Alec O’Dell aodell@workforce.com EVENTS GRAPHIC DESIGNER Tonya Harris lharris@workforce.com BUSINESS MANAGER Vince Czarnowski vince@workforce.com REGIONAL SALES MANAGERS Derek Graham dgraham@workforce.com Daniella Weinberg dweinberg@workforce.com Nick Safir nsafir@workforce.com

DIGITAL COORDINATOR Mannat Mahtani mmahtani@workforce.com LIST MANAGER Mike Rovello hcmlistrentals@infogroup.com BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER Melanie Lee mlee@workforce.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jennifer Benz Clif Boutelle Lori Brown Marty Denis Kris Dunn Sarah Fister Gale Jon Hyman Mark T. Kobata Patty Kujawa Max Mihelich Rita Pyrillis

DIRECTOR, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Kevin Fields kfields@workforce.com MANAGER, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Brian Lorenz blorenz@workforce.com

AUDIENCE VICE PRESIDENT, EVENTS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR COPY EDITOR Trey Smith Cindy Cardinal Christopher Magnus tsmith@workforce.com ccardinal@workforce.com cmagnus@workforce.com EVENT CONTENT DIGITAL MANAGER EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR MANAGER Lauren Lynch Anna Jo Beck Ashley Collins abeck@workforce.com acollins@workforce.com llynch@workforce.com

WORKFORCE EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Arie Ball, Vice President, Sourcing and Talent Acquisition, Sodexo Angela Bailey, Associate Director and Chief Human Capital Officer, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Kris Dunn, Chief Human Resources Officer, Kinetix, and Founder, Fistful of Talent and HR Capitalist Curtis Gray, Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Administration, BAE Systems Jil Greene, Vice President, Human Resources and Community Relations, Harrah’s New Orleans Ted Hoff, Human Resources Vice President, Global Sales and Sales Incentives, IBM Tracy Kofski, Vice President, Compensation and Benefits, General Mills Jon Hyman, Partner, Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis Jim McDermid, Vice President, Human Resources, Cardiac and Vascular Group, Medtronic Randall Moon, Vice President, International HR, Benefits and HRIS, Lowe’s Cos. Dan Satterthwaite, Head of Human Resources, DreamWorks Dave Ulrich, Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan Workforce (ISSN 2331-2793) is published bi-monthly by MediaTec Publishing Inc., 111 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 1200, Chicago IL 60601. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Workforce, P.O. Box 8712 Lowell, MA 01853. Subscriptions are free to qualified professionals within the US and Canada.

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FREE LIVE

ONLINE EVENTS

CONTENTS

ON THE COVER WORKFORCE 100: THE BEST HR HAS TO OFFER

It’s the fourth year of our list that honors the best in HR. Among them are 25 first-timers.

COVER PHOTO BY JEFF MILLIES

26

32 SECTOR REPORT 52 EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM PROVIDERS

Employers are telling their workers: Use your EAP or lose it.

54 REWARDS & RECOGNITION PROVIDERS Employers are picking up the tab on many voluntary benefit options.

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2017

FEATURES 26 THE WORKFORCE 100

Find out which company topped the list in the fourth annual Workforce 100.

44 BLAZING A TRAIL

As the production and sale of marijuana moves from an underground operation to a legitimate billion-dollar industry, HR finds itself moving into uncharted territory.

48 SINGULAR CHALLENGE

Unmarried workers are a growing segment of the workforce, and companies need to become more single-friendly to keep them. m ay / j u n e

2017

ON THE WEB SPEAK UP!

48

The Workforce online community provides you with virtual meeting places to chat about issues and trends affecting you and your workplace.

LIKE US: facebook.com/workforce.magazine

FOLLOW US: twitter.com/workforcenews

44

JOIN THE GROUP: workforce.com/LinkedIn

WATCH US: workforce.com/youtube

TRENDING 10 DON’T BE AN UBER

When the boss makes a choice that sends consumers into a tizzy, what’s HR’s role?

11 FROM THE WEB, PEOPLE MOVES AND BY THE NUMBERS

COLUMNS 4

YOUR FORCE

Workforce 100 companies manage minutae, big picture.

14 WORK IN PROGRESS

Candidates Hate Your Lame Careers Site.

20 BENEFITS BEAT

Doing Benefits Right Leaves a Lasting Impression.

24 THE PRACTICAL EMPLOYER

On Firing a Fire Chief for Fiery Facebook Posts.

58 THE LAST WORD

HR’s Stand in the Face of Fox.

m ay / j u n e

2017

FOR YOUR BENEFIT 16 FIRED UP

‘Financially Independent, Retiring Early’ is a hot goal these days.

17 CUSTOM PLANS

EAPs are shifting their appeal to court generational differences.

17 DISPARITY DEAL

HR begins addressing the pay-wage gap.

18 ADDRESSING DEPRESSION

Mental health takes on new meaning for millennials at work.

Mining Talent; Nicole Manzo leads HR at KONE; Pets at Work.

12 Q&A

Brigette McInnis-Day, EVP of HR, SAP Software Solutions.

12 PAPER WORK

SHRM awards its 100,000th HR certification.

LEGAL 22 INVITING CHAOS

There’s a reason that process matters in HR decision-making.

23 LEGAL BRIEFINGS

Age discrimination; inability to work.

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

9

TRENDING

United Airlines not Alone in Branding Uber-Fails What to do when companies and executives make choices that anger consumers on social media and how to prevent it from happening.

By Sarah Fister Gale hen United Airlines forcibly dragged messaging” campaigns within the health a passenger off a jet in mid-April to care space. “It’s a very charged political make room for its own personnel, a con- climate and people are quick to respond certed howl arose from consumers, pun- emotionally,” she said. dits, politicians — pretty much anyone Almost 70 percent of U.S. adults now who saw the video either through social say they support boycotting a brand due media or on their evening news. to conflicting political views, and 59 perThe Chicago-based airline became the cent would boycott a brand’s products or poster child du jour for how to obliterate services if they strongly disagreed with a reputable corporate brand practically the brand’s stance on a particular social overnight. Still, United isn’t alone in this issue. Immigration, women’s rights, and 2017 corporate branding gaffe-fest. diversity and inclusion rank as the top PepsiCo was the butt of social media’s three issues they are likely to support. wrath after Kendall Jenner diffused all The millennial consumers that many manner of civil unrest with a can of cola. companies now covet are more liberal Then there was skin-care company than any other generation, according to Nivea’s short-lived “White is purity” the Pew Research Center, and they are campaign stoking similar online outrage. savvier at rallying their peers in support They almost make a distant memory of brands they love and against those that of Uber’s January uber-fail to drop surge provoke their ire. prices encouraging riders to choose the Organizations that have spent years ride-hailing service instead of striking building a brand image around diversity New York taxi drivers protesting Presi- and inclusion don’t want that reputation dent Donald Trump’s immigration ban. damaged by an insensitive, off-the-cuff The not-so-subtle move to profit from comment from a senior executive, said the strike and Trump’s ban of course trig- Deena Fidas, head of workplace equality gered a viral #DeleteUber campaign that for the Human Rights Campaign, a nonled some half-milprofit civil rights lion customers to organization workdrop the app. ing to achieve They are powerLGBTQ equality. ful examples of so“As a company, cial media’s influleadership needs to ence in an era invest in tangible where consumers policies and pracalign with brands tices that support that reflect their these programs and values and are willencourage educaing to wreak havoc tion and accounton those that don’t. ability to be sure In the current social climate, making everyone understands why it is importpublic statements vilifying a demograph- ant.” ic or supporting a political stance unpopSome HRC partners also require exular with customers can be particularly ecutives to actively participate in risky, said Whitney Bowman-Zatzkin, di- LGBTQ goals by giving speeches or sitrector of Flip the Clinic, a nonprofit ting on advisory councils as part of their health care organization in Washington, performance expectations. This ensures D.C. She has worked on several “crisis in that diversity is embedded in the corpo-

W

ALMOST 70 PERCENT OF U.S. ADULTS SUPPORT BOYCOTTING A BRAND DUE TO CONFLICTING POLITICAL VIEWS.

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rate culture, and their participation helps them engage with these efforts, making them less likely to say things that don’t align with the brand image.

Barilla’s Turnaround Even with the best training and a commitment to D&I, there is the risk that someone will say something that snowballs into a public relations disaster.

Few people know this better than Kristen Anderson, chief diversity officer for Barilla Group, the Italian food company based in Parma, Italy. Barilla had developed a strong diversity and inclusion culture, but in 2013 chairman Guido Barilla told a radio program host that he wouldn’t feature same-sex couples in his company’s commercials because he prefers the “traditional” family, and that “if the gays don’t like it they can go and eat another brand.”

Consumers were livid and boycotts were launched. He immediately apologized, recanting his comments and promising to do better, but the damage was done.

“It was a difficult time,” Anderson said, but rather than issue a press release and hope the problem would fade away, Barilla used it as an opportunity to improve.

The company engaged HRC and other external advisers to help them evaluate their D&I programs and accelerate their goals.

BOYCOTTS continued on page 57 m ay / j u n e

2017

TRENDING

FROM THE WEB UNLUCKY NUMBER? Workforce editor Andie Burjek reports on the new wellness bill HR 1313, which is drawing fire for invading genetic privacy. Employees who refuse to participate and make their genetic information available to their employer may have to pay thousands of dollars more a year on health insurance than participants.

Workforce.com/HR1313 MINING TALENT Wo r k f o r c e G a m e Changer winner Jonathan Flickinger offers his thoughts on President Donald Trump’s declaration to restore jobs to the ailing coal industry. As an HR veteran in Pennsylvania’s coal region, Flickinger, a 2016 award winner, offers a unique peek into the complex world of hiring in coal country.

Workforce.com/ CoalCountry GAGGING ON CARROTS, STICKS Kurt Schanaman has turned his back on employer-provided health care.Andie Burjek’s Working Well blog finds him saying, “If a person feels coerced into signing away rights to his or her body and possessions under threat of financial (or other) penalties, it is an abrogation of that person’s rights entirely and ceases to be truly voluntary.”

Workforce.com/ Schanaman m ay / j u n e

2017

PEOPLE

moves

VIVIANA SANTISTEBAN Certified public accounting firm MBAF named Viviana Santisteban as director of human resources. With more than 25 years’ experience in HR, Santisteban will be responsible for developing and maintaining the HR functions at MBAF, including professional development, compensation and benefits, and employee relations.

STEPHANE CHARBONNIER L’Oréal USA named Stephane Charbonnier chief human resources officer. Charbonnier will be responsible for driving leadership and learning initiatives, developing talent and continuing to grow the HR team with an employee-first approach.

Charbonnier has more than 25 years’ experience championing the development and growth of employees.

NICOLE MANZO Elevator/escalator maker KONE named Nicole Manzo as senior vice president of human resources. As head of KONE Americas’ HR organization, Manzo will lead efforts to empower employees with modern, self-service tools and advance the role that HR plays for the entirety of KONE Americas’ 7,000 employees.

To be considered for People Moves, email a brief announcement and a high-resolution color photo to editors@Workforce.com. Include People Moves in the subject line.

By the Numbers compiled by Rick Bell

Where the Pets Go Forget the pet store.

Unleash your beast at work.

Few Are Fido-Friendly

7

8% in 2015

employers % ofpermit pets in

4% in 2014

the workplace.

Society for Human Resource Management, 2016

7 in 10

Paw on the Pulse

Pets make a positive impact on office dynamics/morale.

Banfield Pet Hospital’s Pawrometer (Pets At Work barometer) makes the business case:

% Non-pet 79% Discuss pet-friendly 53 friendly options when workplace policy recruiting.

Hard to

% implement 56 a pet-friendly policy.

change entices engagement.

Source: Banfield Pet Hospital, 2016

Critters in the Cubicle The 5 Most Pet-Friendly Companies

Source: Fortune.com, 2016

Pooch or Pong?

Nationwide Is on Bringing a dog to work is preferred 3-1 Pets’ Side over table tennis or foosball tables

Source: Skout, 2016

1 in 3 Fortune 500 companies offer pet insurance Source: Nationwide, 2016

What About Dogs With Jobs Izzy Iguana? Working dogs include: Siberian Husky (Pull sleds )

78%

22% Source: Skout, 2016

prefer Take Your Dog to Work Day prefer Take Your Cat to Work Day

Great Dane (Hunt bears and boars) Doberman Pinscher (Guard property)

Border Collie (Herding) Sources: Various

workforce.com | w Workƒorce orkforce.com 10| Workƒorce

11

TRENDING

SHRM Notches 100K Certificant TAKING A PAGE FROM THE GIG ECONOMY TO EASE RECRUITING

Brigette McInnis-Day, EVP of

By Mia Mancini human resources, SAP Brigette McInnis-Day challenges you to fight Software Solutions the status quo. McInnis-Day oversees SAP’s largest organizational unit, global customer operations. Her passion for building progressive cultures drives her focus on talent acquisition, people development and leadership. Workforce intern Mia Mancini caught up with McInnis-Day via email to discuss her unique insights on hiring in 2017.

Workforce: What are your thoughts on hiring trends this year?

Brigette McInnis-Day: The competition for top talent is increasing, forcing hiring managers to alter their traditional approach to hiring. I’m seeing the hiring process become more social. Senior level executives are joining in on the hiring front, turning to using word-of-mouth at every opportunity. Companies are offering incentives to employees that bring in strong talent. Another trend I am seeing is hiring managers considering former employees as potential candidates.

WF: Why will the interview process become more obsolete?

McInnis-Day: It’s more about it becoming about the candidate experience. Hiring and interviewing has traditionally been a daunting process. It is important to focus on the total candidate and management experience. By streamlining the process, we can keep the interview cycles shorter and more efficient.

WF: How are companies like Uber changing HR hiring approaches?

McInnis-Day: They are moving the entire hiring process online. As more employees continue to put an emphasis on convenience and flexibility, we should make the hiring process reflect this. The online interview process may not work for all types of candidates. Hiring for a position where the candidate will need to interact regularly with people in your organization as a leader, you’ll likely want to meet them in-person to gauge their people skills.

WF: How do you execute SAP’s approach around diversity?

McInnis-Day: We want the best talent, people who demonstrate long-term potential, will drive better business outcomes and challenge the way we think. We have a strong corporate backing when it comes to facilitating change and ensuring workplace equality. We set a goal to have women in 25 percent of all managerial positions by 2017. Not only have we succeeded in this goal, we’ve surpassed it.

WF: What are the most important skills hiring managers will look for?

McInnis-Day: It’s not only about who has the right set of skills and competencies, but also on who has the right attitude, values and aspirations. The best talent is people who not only meet the job requirements on paper, but that go beyond and embody a company’s core set of values. HR executives are putting an increasing amount of weight on whether a candidate is a cultural fit for the company. This increases company morale and ensures that the employee is content.

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By Mia Mancini

T

he Society for Human Resource Management recently awarded its 100,000th certification.

Since its launch in January 2015, the SHRM Certified Professional (SHRM-CP) and SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) have exceeded 101,550 certificants in 105 countries as of early 2017.

“The SHRM certification exams unite the practical application of technical knowledge in conjunction with realistic HR experiences in a very strategic and focused manner,” said Shannon Mashburn, director of human resources at outsourcing firm Alcott HR. Mashburn holds a SHRMSCP as well as an SPHR certificate from the HR Certification Institute.

Mashburn said SHRM certifications use technical skills in combination with “soft-skill” competencies.

“The goal is a well-rounded HR practitioner who has the knowledge, skills and abilities to master the dayto-day tactical operations while focusing on aligning an HR department’s goals and initiatives with their organization’s overall business plan,” said Mashburn.

Reaching 100,000 certificants two years after launching is a significant achievement to the HR profession, said Alex Alonso, senior vice president of knowledge development and certification at SHRM. “It provides evidence that professionals and employers are turning to competency-based education and certification,” Alonso said.

Added Mashburn, “Certification has become indicative of a future employee who is both self-motivated and invested in continuous learning.”

HR consultant Atif Rahim Khan also has credentials from SHRM and HRCI. “The value of the SHRM certification is gaining local and international recognition in a xenocentric society,” he said. m ay / j u n e

2017

TRENDING

Wo r k i n P r o g r e s s

CANDIDATES HATE YOUR LAME CAREERS SITE

By Kris Dunn

R

emember when all you needed to recruit effectively was a basic careers site that had a link to your applicant tracking system and a PDF of the overly aspirational company values designed by your founder that everyone you worked with loved to snicker at?

Bonus points if you had stock photos on that career site of a group of seven people (it’s a stock photo), all with perfect teeth and representing just the right amount of diversity as a group.

Remember those days? Me too.

The proliferation of transparency brought on by social media and workplace-centric solutions like Glassdoor means that candidates can smell a phony company story a mile away.

That means if you’ve still got the stock photos and old company values up, as well as offering visitors to your careers site nothing but a listing of jobs, you’re in trouble.

That’s why an emerging talent trend in 2017 is recruitment marketing, loosely defined as a collection of services and products designed to help you put your company’s best foot forward to candidates who might want to work for you.

Revamp your image using some of the tools in the emerging recruitment marketing suite and candidates will consider your company’s story as more real/authentic/desirable, which translates to increased candidate engagement as well as better conversion in the classic apply/interview/ hire recruiting funnel.

If you’re new to the recruitment marketing game, here are the things you need to think about to upgrade your careers brand and keep up with the times.

Employer value proposition: You’ve probably got company values, right? Not enough these days. Candidates increasingly want to know “what’s in it for me” (the WIIFM) to work at your company. If you do EVP right, you’ll end up with three to five themes that answer the WIIFM question for your company, which provides structure and direction for where you go with your careers site.You get extra credit if at least one of the themes is borderline negative, because candidates love it when you can be self-reflective.

Career site upgrade: Your careers site probably sucks.

To remodel, think about wrapping your open jobs with stories and real images from inside your company with laser focus. That focus should be on the aforementioned EVP themes as well as content focused on delivering candidates to your most difficult-to-fill jobs. HR and talent acquisition pros routinely struggle with this advice, but it’s

critical that you become selfish related to the space on your careers site — it’s not HR, it’s marketing. The space and focus is reserved for your recruiting goals, which starts with the hard, not easy-to-fill positions.

Content is king: The best careers-site strategies deploy a frequently recurring content strategy, meaning you must post a new piece of content at least once a week.That means you should have someone on your team that can interview and write quick-hitting features or find a partner who can. This seems like overkill to some, but stay with me because the careers site is simply where the focused content is stored.

Careers social strategy: Once you’ve got a refreshed careers site, it’s time to start thinking social. Many employers make the mistake of simply posting open jobs to social accounts, but that’s not enough. A real careers social strategy emphasizes audience building (gaining followers) and uses the growing social presence to share the fresh content with the world. An important consideration is whether to use the existing corporate social accounts or build standalone, careers-focused accounts.

Talent tools, email campaigns and marketing chops: Any deep recruitment marketing project undertaken by HR or recruiting is going to morph into things that look like pure marketing. Talent pools, regardless of how they’re captured, are nothing but focused “opt-ins” to give you the ability to communicate with potential future hires moving forward. Remember that focused content I talked about earlier? We’re doing that content not only to beef up the careers site and have something to share via social, but also to run email marketing campaigns with relevant content. A good email marketing campaign to a talent pool can have an open rate above 50 percent — something your marketing director would trip her grandmother for.

The simple plan of building a better careers site with content that cuts through the clutter, then sharing that content in a systematic way via social and traditional marketing techniques is at the core of any successful recruitment marketing strategy.

Do these things well and the candidates will reward you.

Ignore the advice and they’ll laugh at your online recruiting brand as they close the window in their browser, never to return.

YOUR CAREERS SITE PROBABLY SUCKS. WRAP YOUR OPEN JOBS WITH STORIES AND REAL IMAGES.

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Kris Dunn, the chief human resources officer at Kinetix, is a Workforce contributing editor. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

m ay / j u n e

2017

Learn. Apply. Perform.

TRANSFORM POTENTIAL INTO HIGH PERFORMANCE The Center for Applied Learning (CAL) at American Public University System provides customized training programs and workforce development solutions to address your organization’s diverse and changing workforce needs. CAL solutions deliver focused, relevant, and interactive learning experiences that improve organizational performance, including: • Customized Training • Academic Partnerships • Badging

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2017

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*Data graphs are simulated.

Learn more at www.apus.edu/WF

FOR YOUR BENEFIT

Millennials FIREd Up Over Retirement Plans The goal is getting hot: Financially Independent, Retiring Early is a generational objective.

By Patty Kujawa nline financial blogger Ms. Our Next Life is hoping that she and her husband stay on track to get fired from their jobs by the end of the year.

She isn’t the only one, said this blogger, who is better known as Ms. ONL. Lots of millennials like her want to get fired, too.

Not terminated in the traditional sense, though. More accurately, “fired” comes in the form of an acronym. They want to be FIREd: Financially Independent, Retiring Early.

It’s a trend that is taking hold, mostly through blogs, and is waking up a lot of millennials to the idea that they could be done with work by the time they hit their late 30s or 40s.

Many of the folks trying to become FIRE members save a minimum of 50 percent of their income each year, max out on retirement accounts, live in modest homes or apartments and overall have made minimal spending for maximum benefit an art form.

FIRE wannabes don’t seem to skimp on technology, though.

They have taken to their tablets, laptops and smartphones to read the myriad blog posts that teach how to do it. Most bloggers shield their names but give out a lot of personal financial information, mostly on spending budgets and savings tips; it’s an easier and safer way to help people understand how to adapt to some unconventional strategies without having them show up on their doorstep or having their bosses discover what they’re planning.

With the multitude of bloggers posting their paths to the FIRE community, individuals can search for the one who matches their profile best, said Ms. Montana, a blogger, mother of five and 15-year FIRE veteran.

FIRE MEMBERS SAVE A MINIMUM OF 50 PERCENT OF THEIR INCOME EACH YEAR, MAX OUT ON RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS, LIVE IN MODEST HOMES OR APARTMENTS AND OVERALL HAVE MADE MINIMAL SPENDING FOR MAXIMUM BENEFIT AN ART FORM. “Millennials are looking for much more than punching a clock,” said Ms. Montana, who also shows people how to save enough to at least take one year off of work every decade. “If I can do this, I want to give hope to other people.”

Ms. ONL’s blog posts overlay a big smiley emoji over her face to hide her identity. Even her work colleagues don’t know her plan.

“Yeah, people around us don’t know,” she said. “I see [early 16

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IMAGE CREDIT: OURNEXTLIFE.COM

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retirement] as a way to free up my job for someone who might be more excited than I am to do it.”

But retire early? Richard Reyes, a personal financial adviser who is known as the Financial Quarterback, said these folks aren’t really retired.They’re merely moving on to something a little less formal than a 9-to-5 job.

“They’re working. It’s just that they’re doing it on their own terms,” Reyes said. “It’s a little easier to do that today with the way technology has advanced.”

Ms. ONL agreed, saying that her definition of retirement means that work is voluntary.

“If I want to write a book and it doesn’t sell, well that would be OK,” she said. “I don’t know of anyone [wanting to join the FIRE community] planning to sit in a recliner to watch game shows. It just means that work is optional.”

While it’s hard to tell how many are involved in the movement, experts agreed that it is growing. Ms. Montana added that corporations must adapt to millennials’ need to take time off or be content with losing talent to things they find more significant.

“I think there are ways HR can tap into that desire to have a meaningful life,” Ms. Montana said. “If [companies] can give workers a chunk of time, they might create something brilliant. If [companies] don’t, then they don’t have the best of [their employees] anyway.”

Still, Reyes said working and living off the grid might not be something that can be maintained forever.

“This can be done, it’s just a matter of knowing what kind of lifestyle you are used to and what kind of lifestyle you want going forward,” Reyes said. “At some point, it’s not going to be fun to live on $25,000 a year.” m ay / j u n e

2017

FOR YOUR BENEFIT

EAPs Shift Appeal to Court Generational Differences The changing makeup of the multigenerational workforce means that EAPs have to reconsider what kind of assistance they offer and how.

By Andie Burjek mployee assistance programs offer valuable resources to employees going through hard times, like substance abuse or mental health issues.

But almost half of the workforce will be made up of millennials by 2020, according to behavioral health care company Magellan Health’s “Workforce 2020” report. And many EAPs are still stuck in the one-size-fits-all approach, which doesn’t account for how the workforce of today differs from the workforce of 30 years ago.

“You have to shift and stay current and relevant as time progresses,” said Tina Thompson, senior vice president of health and performance solutions for behavioral health company Beacon Health Options.

“If you stand still and provide an outdated process or service, you run the risk of becoming a dinosaur.”

Younger workers in general are comfortable doing their research before they contact an EAP, said Thompson, who has been in the industry for 30 Tina Thompson years. In the past, EAPs may not have expected that people would do their homework.They would have relied on the EAP itself to educate them.

“They put things out there on social media, where it is open to many sources.

They might be pushing things out to people they’ve never met or don’t know, because it’s just how communication has evolved from years past,” she said.

Although being proactive toward one’s behavioral health is a positive development, there are a few caveats. People may be overwhelmed by hundreds if not thousands of options for resources on the internet, and not all of this information has necessarily been vetted, said Thompson. They may end up with unreliable information about the state of their health.

As a connected group of people, younger workers may also have a sense of urgency and impatience when it comes to getting information and accessing services. Older generations waited for things.

It’s important not to generalize though, Thompson noted. Some of the stereotypes that hold true — older people being bad with technology or younger people being uncomfortable communicating via telephone — are becoming less true.

“You do need to understand the generation you’re speaking to and what their expectations are,” she said. “And then on top of that, you need to get an idea for where that individual is in the process.”

That’s where offering options and steering clear of a one-size-fits-all approach comes in. An EAP needs stay relevant to everyone who uses the service, she said. That means offering a variety of access points, allowing communication electronically, as well as speaking to a person.

For more on Talking about certain topics around behavioral EAPs, see the health can be stressful for employees using an EAP, Sector Report and the goal of the service is to make sure people get on p. 52 their needs met in the right way and in the right time, she added.

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HR Addresses Pay Wage Gap

By Rita Pyrillis losing the wage gap for women and minorities is a goal that many employers support, but accomplishing it in their workplace is a daunting task that requires sifting through complex HR data.

Starting this year, they will be required to dive in and address discrepancies.

Private employers with more than 100 employees will be required to provide pay data and hours worked by March 2018 under new Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reporting requirements issued in September. Employers currently provide demographic data, including gender, race and ethnicity through an EEO-1 report but will now be required to submit pay information that will be analyzed to determine pay inequities.

For HR this offers an opportunity to play a strategic role in tackling a problem that is both administrative and a critical business need that affects diversity, recruitment and retention.

In 2015, African Americans earned just 75 percent as much as whites in median hourly pay and women earned 83 percent as much as men, according to a July 2016 report by the Pew Research Center. In fact, women and workers of all races and ethnicities combined — with the exception of Asian males — lag behind white males in hourly earnings, the report found.

“In the past, the thinking was that the marketplace establishes the value of a job, but today there is a concern that the marketplace may not accurately reflect that, that it may be based on historical biases,” said employment attorney William Martucci, an instructor at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies. He said that a growing number of university HR management programs like Georgetown’s are teaching students how to identify and address pay disparities.

“It’s HR’s function to determine whether their pay practices are consistent with providing the company with a competitive advantage,” he said.

“The role of HR was once administrative, but today it’s all strategic.”

To better understand pay practices, vendors like ADP are developing tools to sort through the data.

In March, ADP launched Pay Equity Explorer to examine potential wage gaps according to race, gender, locations and job description.

Don Weinstein, ADP’s chief strategy officer, said that while the tool’s development was prompted by compliance changes, clients are also focused on serving employees and their company’s bottom line.

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FOR YOUR BENEFIT

Mental Health Takes on New Meaning for Millennials at Work

By Rita Pyrillis

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hen Charles Lattarulo joined Amer- say their stress increased last ican Express to lead its behavioral year, compared to 36 perhealth program five years ago, employees cent of Gen Xers, 33 perseeking mental wellness services were typ- cent of baby boomers and ically referred to a phone-in employee as- 29 percent of “matures” — sistance program that few people utilized. workers over 67.

With more and more young employees To educate employees joining the workforce, he realized that a about mental illness, particudifferent approach was needed to meet larly younger workers, and their unique needs. encourage them to seek help, “Millennials are under different stressors American Express launched than older workers,” he said.“They are the the Healthy Minds program first generation to make less money than in 2012. The initiative, headtheir parents, the first generation with a ed by Lattarulo, uses upbeat lot of debt coming in to work, and the messages and novel apfirst generation to grow up with social proaches to mental health media. They don’t mind posting about awareness, such as bringing their lives, but they may not seek help.” in a standup comic to talk Those born between 1978 and 1999 about depression. are also struggling with depression in Unlike many of their greater numbers — more so than other older colleagues who are uncomfortable generations in the workforce, accord- talking about mental illness, millennials ing to a 2013 survey by the American aren’t shy about sharing the details of Psychological Association. Given that their daily lives on social media or at millennials make up the largest seg- work, forcing employers to rethink how ment of the U.S. workforce, employers they communicate about mental health, have reason to be concerned, accord- according to Clare Miller, director of ing to Mike Thompson, mental health the Partnership for Workplace Mental advocate and president and CEO of Health, a program affiliated with the National Alliance American Psychiatof Healthcare PurAssociation.

MILLENNIALS AREN’T SHY ric“Millennials chaser Coalitions. don’t “ C o n s i d e r i n g ABOUT SHARING THE DETAILS have feel the stigma how important that other generaOF THEIR LIVES, FORCING tions do when it millennials are to the current and futo talking EMPLOYERS TO RETHINK comes ture makeup of about mental health their workforce it’s HOW THEY COMMUNICATE issues,” she said. critical that em“They’ve grown up ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH. in an era when social ployers address their expectations and media is part of their needs,” he said. “The fact that depression lives and there are no demarcations berates among young adults could be in- tween personal and work life. This is creasing should be highly alarming.” something new for employers. It’s bringIn fact, between 2005 and 2014 the ing things to a head as to how you mannumber of depressed teens jumped by age these discussions in the workplace.” more than half a million, according to a She points to American Express’ decirecent study in the Journal of Pediatrics. sion to invite a comedian to talk about Many seem to be bringing these strug- mental illness as one example of innovagles to work. tive approaches to reaching younger According to the American Psycholo- workers. “A comedian talking about it is gy Association, 39 percent of millennials a tricky thing, but it speaks to this new 18

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world that we are in.”

At consulting firm Ernst & Young, where the average age of its 240,000 employees is 27, company leaders have no choice but to tailor their mental wellness efforts to a younger population, according to Sandra Turner, director of EY Assist, the company’s EAP. “We don’t have special programming to target a segment of our population because that is our population,” she said.

Last year the firm launched its R U OK initiative, which encourages employees to reach out to colleagues who may be struggling with depression. It’s a based on a suicide prevention program developed in Australia in 2009. Since it was launched in October, EY’s employee assistance program has seen a 30 percent increase in utilization,Turner said.

While she can’t say if the spike could also be a reflection of an adversarial election season last fall, the launch of the initiative seems well timed.

“I’m sure that issues around police violence in the community and the election cycle has caused a lot of tension and stress in the workplace,” she said. “I wish I could say we timed it to address some of that, but we had this planned in January 2016. Still, I’m so glad that we had this program available.” m ay / j u n e

2017

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2017

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FOR YOUR BENEFIT

Benefits Beat

BENEFITS LEAVE LASTING IMPRESSIONS

By Jennifer Benz

T

o truly excel in HR and benefits is to have an immeasurable impact on your organization and your people in the very best ways — one that extends far beyond annual enrollment numbers and upticks in wellness screenings. As HR professionals, we don’t step back often enough to look at the bigger influence of the hard work that reaches beyond your organization’s walls and far into the future.

When HR is done right, you create a legacy. I was reminded of that recently when I had the honor of attending the retirement party for Catherine Dodd, who spent the past 7 1/2 years as director of the San Francisco Health Service System, serving the city and county of San Francisco, City College of San Francisco, the San Francisco Unified School District and the San Francisco Superior Court.

“Dedicated to preserving and improving sustainable, quality health benefits and to enhancing the well-being of employees, retirees and their families,” is how the HSS mission statement describes the organization and how you could describe her tenure there.

Dodd’s party was full of fanfare and luminaries, with messages from notable politicians including San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. More inspiring were the stories about how lives were changed under Dodd’s leadership: those from her team and the 117,000-plus members of HSS’ health and benefits plans who have better care and better resources.

Dodd might be an unlikely hero of HR, as she reminded me that her time at HSS was her only time “in HR.” But her prior work helped her for that role, especially her significant expertise in the health care system as an RN, health administrator and health policy expert. I asked Dodd to share some of her lessons for creating a truly remarkable career.

Her first piece of advice: Focus on people. “What matters is the employees and retirees. I decided I would focus on that each day. Simply, I’m going to do the best for my members.That will guide what else you do and where you focus your time,” she said. This is the win/win that makes benefits, in particular, an exciting area. From the employer perspective, healthy and happy employees are the ones who are most valuable to the organization.There’s a strong business case for focusing on their needs.

After her first couple of years at HSS ensuring compliance and efficient operations, she shifted her attention to patient-centered care. “I had that ‘ah-ha’ when a retiree called

crying and couldn’t get up the 100 steps to her apartment after being discharged after having heart surgery. I had no idea how disjointed the system was — doctors not talking to hospitals, no coordination at discharge. That’s when we set out to create accountable care organizations. Since then, the medical group case managers are in touch daily. They know where patients are, and the care has improved greatly, not just for HSS members but for patients throughout the Bay Area. Little did we know how innovative it would be.”

In fact, San Francisco was a leader in creating ACOs. That was just the first issue she dug into. Among others: creating a wellness program and nurturing a culture of health, including opening a top-notch well-being center; developing new ways to provide benefits and identify needs for mental well-being; supporting the transgender community; introducing adoption and surrogacy benefits; offering regular movement classes and introducing diabetes management programs.These innovations were driven by a defined need and a desire to create the best possible outcome for members.

“Being a benefits administrator is not just about compliance. It is about finding the opportunities to make things better,” Dodd said.

The San Francisco HSS calls itself an “activist payer committed to higher value.” That’s a bold yet accurate statement, as they partner with external groups like the Pacific Business Group on Health to advocate legislative causes. They also work with insurance providers, other vendors and community organizers to better coordinate care.

With the need to change and improve our health care system, this is a role that all benefits leaders can embrace. As Dodd said, “I absolutely think if we’ll be successful in maintaining employer-based insurance, all employers should be involved in the legislative and regulatory space, and in holding all vendors accountable to produce the best results.You have to have a voice in solutions for the whole system, not just employer-sponsored programs.”

And, being part of building a better health care system for all is certainly leaving a legacy.

FROM THE EMPLOYER PERSPECTIVE, HEALTHY AND HAPPY EMPLOYEES ARE THE ONES WHO ARE MOST VALUABLE TO THE ORGANIZATION.

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Jennifer Benz is CEO and founder of Benz Communications, a San Francisco-based employee benefits communications agency.

She was honored as one of Workforce’s Game Changers in 2013.

To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

m ay / j u n e

2017

HIGH POTENTIAL core competencies for emerging leadership Leadership matters. Organizations spend millions of dollars identifying and developing employees with leadership potential.

Despite all this effort, most high potential programs fail because employees with leadership potential often go unnoticed. And the people that do get noticed don’t always have what it takes to succeed.

Hogan’s High Potential Report is the only tool that identifies the strengths and shortcomings that make or break a leader, and sets the stage for developing emerging leaders.

Supercharge your high potential program with the science of personality.

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Legal Why Process Matters in HR Decision-Making It’s a sad reality that when HR lacks process in decisionmaking, subjectivity creeps in and havoc ensues.

By Lori Brown

I

t’s safe to say that HR departments strive not just for the right result but ultimately, the most defensible outcomes that best mitigate risk.

In an evolving era of HR and people management, “defensible” decisions are even more critical, as unpopular or controversial decisions can go viral in minutes and damage the culture, reputation and profitability of an organization. As a longtime employment law litigator and former chief legal officer, I’ve witnessed many a corporate witness fall victim not so much to lack of merit in an employment-related decision, but rather an inability to articulate the process by which the decision was made. More times than not, it was the absence of process or lack of adherence that became grist for the grind and turned an otherwise defensible matter into a more complicated one.

The assemblage of discrimination laws in the U.S. require, for the most part, that employers proffer a “legitimate non-discrimUnder the current state of the law, liquidated damages are inatory reason” for why decisions were made. Thus, the ability presumptively awarded except where the employer can show: to show adherence to process in decision-making provides a “To the satisfaction of the court that the act or omission giving powerful defensive weapon. As many HR professionals know rise to such action was in good faith and that he had reasonable all too well, where process in decision-making is lacking, sub- grounds for believing his act or omission was not a violation.” jectivity creeps in and can create havoc.

In other words, the burden to avoid liquidated damages is on In terms of how critical and valuable the transparency of the employer. process in decision-making can be, one needs to look no furIn an audit performed by the Department of Labor, an ther than the Fair Labor Standards Act, which allows a claim- employer will certainly be asked not only to provide all ant double damages where the company is unable to demon- information relied upon in arriving at the classification strate “good faith” in its adherence to the law. Specifically, being audited (such as an overtime exempt classification), under the FLSA, employees are entitled to seek up to three but usually is expected to submit to some form of interdifferent categories of damages: unpaid wages, attorney’s fees view or exchange with an agency investigator. This exand “liquidated” or double damages, meaning two times the change — whether written or verbal — will almost always amount of unpaid wages. involve a discussion around those steps and considerations 22

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the employer followed in reaching the decision under review.

With exposure to double damages on the line, it is insufficient to proffer that a classification merely followed pre-selected or default job code classifications in its payroll system. Nor is it sufficient to rely on “advice of counsel” unless a company is prepared to waive its privilege and allow the DOL a window (for better or worse) into the company’s communications with its lawyer.

For an employer to show that a decision-maker believed his or her decision did not violate the FLSA, demonstrated efforts to first read and understand the law are advisable. From there, understanding the required legal tests is in order as well.

It is insufficient to conduct an analysis with respect to one employee and from there, extrapolate those conclusions to a larger class of employees. Instead, courts weighing in on the “good faith” defense have used such phrases as “actively endeavored to ensure such compliance,” or “affirmative steps” to ensure compliance rejecting the notion that informal conversations are enough.

When evaluating how to structure a process robust enough to withstand regulatory scrutiny, technology can help HR professionals answer critical compliance questions, assess risk and document their decision-making process.

Whether utilizing technology or some other internal process, the ability to recreate the decision-making process, the legal support and factual underpinnings of that decision will provide a solid opportunity to beat back wage claims in addition to helping create internal efficiency and consistency in the compensation process.

When this article was first drafted, the DOL’s new overtime laws were due to take effect Dec. 1, 2016.

Before that could take place, a Texas federal judge enjoined the DOL’s changes Nov. 22, sending employers scrambling to figure out their next steps.

While employers might have received a temporary reprieve from the minimum salary level required for an exemption classification, nothing about these developments lessens the importance of the process in HR decision-making. Pay practices will remain on the radars of lawmakers and employees alike in 2017 and continue to grab headlines as events unfold.

Lori Brown is president and chief operating officer of ComplianceHR, a web-based platform that helps companies make critical employment decisions. She has more than two decades of experience as an employment litigator and in counseling organizations on employment law compliance strategies. To comment, email editors@ workforce.com.

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2017

Legal Legal Briefings CONSIDER ADEA WHEN PLANNING STAFF CUTBACKS “Disparate impact” claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act arise when an employer’s seemingly neutral employment policy has a disproportionate impact on workers over 40. Karlo v. Pittsburgh Glass Works involved a reduction in force. The employer did not run a statistical analysis to ensure that cutbacks did not disproportionately affect workers over 40. When plaintiffs sued, claiming a disparate impact from the reduction in force, the plaintiffs’ own statistics demonstrated that the reduction in force did not adversely affect workers over 40. Plaintiffs nevertheless maintained their disparate impact claim. Plaintiffs claimed that their statistics showed that while the reduction in force did not have a disparate impact on workers over 40, workers over 50 were disproportionately targeted. The trial court ruled for the defendant, finding that the ADEA did not apply to a policy that was neutral as to workers over 40, even if the policy might have a statistically significant disparate impact on workers over 50. The 3rd Circuit Court reversed, holding that the ADEA by its plain meaning would forbid a facially neutral policy that did not disfavor employees over 40, but that did disfavor employees over 50.

Karlo, et al. v. Pittsburgh Glass Works LLC, 15-3435 (3rd Cir. 2017).

IMPACT: Employers considering implementing policies that impact a large number of employees like a reduction in force must evaluate the impact of those policies not just as to workers over 40, but as to any recognizable subgroup of workers over 40.

EMPLOYEE NOT ‘OTHERWISE QUALIFIED’ Joyce Whitaker worked for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. In 2009, Whitaker advised the department of a disability involving chronic back pain. In August 2010, Whitaker requested a two-week FMLA leave for recurrent back pain, but before returning she requested additional leave until Dec. 27, 2010, for herself and to care for a family member. The department granted Whitaker’s request until Oct. 18, 2010, when her FMLA was exhausted.

Whitaker then requested additional unpaid leave pursuant to her union contract, stating only that the leave was to take care of her father. The department granted the request until Nov. 8, 2010, and advised Whitaker that they would not grant further extensions. Whitaker submitted two doctor’s notes requesting a medical leave until Nov. 17, 2010 and a medical leave until Dec. 17, 2010. Whitaker was terminated when she did not return to work. Whitaker sued, claiming a violation of the Rehabilitation Act. The U.S. District Court for Wisconsin granted summary judgment for the department. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed it, holding that Whitaker failed to establish that she was an “otherwise qualified” employee, as required by the statute, because she did not provide any evidence that attendance was not an essential function of the job. Whitaker v. Wisconsin Dept. of Health Services, Case No. 161807 (7th Circuit Feb. 27, 2017).

IMPACT: Unless an employee can show that attendance is not an essential function of the job, an employer may not be required to accommodate an employee by providing infinite leaves of absences.

Mark T. Kobata and Marty Denis are partners at the law firm Barlow, Kobata and Denis, which has offices in Beverly Hills, California, and Chicago. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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Legal

A Legal Firing for Fiery Posts Jon Hyman |

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The Practical Employer

hen I’m not lawyering, I’m speaking in public. And one of the topics on which I’ve been focusing of late is the balance between an employee’s privacy and an employer’s right to know.

One of the themes of this talk is that social media has irreparably blurred the line between one’s personal persona and one’s professional persona, and that employees best be careful with what they say online, because employers are watching and holding them accountable.

Case in point? Buker v. Howard County, which concerns a fire department battalion chief, Kevin Buker, fired because of a series of posts (his spelling and punctuation, not mine) to his personal Facebook page.

“My aide had an outstanding idea … lets all kill someone with a liberal … then maybe we can get them outlawed too! Think of the satisfaction of beating a liberal to death with another liberal … its almost poetic …”

And …

“To prevent future butthurt and comply with a directive from my supervisor, a recent post (meant entirley in jest) has been deleted.

So has the complaining party. If I offend you, feel free to delete me. Or converse with me. I’m not scared or ashamed of my opinions or political leaning, or religion. I’m happy to discuss any 8 of them with you. If you’re not man enough to do so, let me know, so I can delete you. That is all. Semper Fi! Carry On.” And …

“Unfortunately, not in the current political climate. Howard County, Maryland, and the Federal Government are all Liberal Democrat held at this point in time. Free speech only applies to the liberals, and then only if it is in line with the liberal socialist agenda. County Governement recently published a Social media policy, which the Department then published it’s own. It is suitably vague enough that any post is likely to result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, to include this one. All it took was one liberal to complain . . . sad day.To lose the First Ammendment rights I fought to ensure, unlike the WIDE majority of the Government I serve.”

Additionally, Buker “liked” a photo, posted by a co-worker, of an elderly woman with her middle finger raised, captioned: “THIS PAGE, YEAH THE ONE YOU’RE LOOKING AT IT’S MINE[.] I’LL POST WHATEVER THE F**K I WANT[.]”

Finally, he “liked” a racist comment by a co-worker to

his “beating a liberal to death” post, which suggested that Buker “pick a black one.”

Based on the totality of these posts, the department fired Buker.

The court had little problem affirming the lower court’s decision dismissing Buker’s claims.

“For several reasons, we conclude that the Department’s interest in efficiency and preventing disruption outweighed Plaintiff’s interest in speaking in the manner he did regarding gun control and the Department’s social media policy. First, Plaintiff’s Facebook activity interfered with and impaired Department operations and discipline as well as working relationships within the Department. … Second, Plaintiff ’s Facebook activity significantly conflicted with Plaintiff ’s responsibilities as a battalion chief. … Third, Plaintiff ’s speech frustrated the Department’s public safety mission and threatened ‘community trust’ in the Department, which is ‘vitally important’ to its function. … Fourth, Plaintiff ’s speech — particularly his ‘like’ of the image depicting a woman raising her middle finger — ‘expressly disrespect[ed] [his] superiors.’ Lastly, we observe that the record is rife with observations of how Plaintiff’s Facebook activity … disregarded and upset the chain of command upon which the Department relies. In sum, we conclude the Department’s interest in workplace efficiency and preventing disruption outweighed the public interest commentary contained in Plaintiff’s Facebook activity.”

Let me put it another, more practical, way. Many employees have not yet realized that anything they say online can impact their professional persona, and that every negative or offensive statement could lead to discipline or termination.

Until people fully understand that social media has erased the line between the personal and the professional, these issues will continue to arise. It is our job as employers to educate our employees about living in this new online world, because it is clear that not all employees have yet learned this lesson.

And, until they do, employees will keep getting fired for what they post on social media (even on their personal profiles during non-working time).

And I will keep speaking and writing about it.

Social media has irreparably blurred the line between one’s personal persona and one’s professional persona, and employees best be careful what they say online.

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Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.

m ay / j u n e

2017

YOUR PEOPLE matter most to the success of your business.

Make sure you put them first.

PLEASE JOIN US AT ONE OF THESE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP EVENTS NEAR YOU. Visit our HR Workshop website to learn more about the educational and fun events Ultimate Software is hosting and participating in this year. Go to www.ultimatesoftware.com/events2017 for details.

HR WORKSHOPS

FREE, one-day thought leadership events: • Indianapolis, IN - May • Kansas City, MO - May • Vancouver, BC - May • Denver, CO - June • Minneapolis, MN - June • Montreal, QC - September • Oklahoma City, OK - September • Grand Rapids, MI - September • Cleveland, OH - October • Waltham, MA - October • Pittsburgh, PA - October • Dallas, TX - November • Charlotte, NC - November • Richmond, VA - November • Houston, TX - November • Tampa, FL - December • San Diego, CA - December • New Orleans, LA - December

H R WORKSHOP Investing in your career For more information about any of our Events and to register, go to www.ultimatesoftware.com/events2017

TRADESHOWS

Please visit our booth at these national tradeshows: • APA Congress & Expo: May 17-19, Orlando • Society for Human Resource Management Conference & Expo: June 18-20, New Orleans • ASHHRA Conference & Expo: September 18-19, Seattle • HR Technology Conference & Expo: October 10-12, Las Vegas Dates and locations are subject to change.

ULTIMATESOFTWARE.COM/EVENTS2017 HR | PAYROLL | TALENT MANAGEMENT

1 2017 Google, 2016’s No. 2 for excellence in HR, takes the top spot on this year’s list.

Compiled by Workforce editors

Google

Industry: Technology Mountain View, California Employees: 72,053 Performance Index: 9.682

2

Facebook Inc.

E

xcelling in each area of human resources is no small feat.

Workforce pinpointed seven core areas: workplace culture; employee benefits; diversity and inclusion; employee development/talent management; HR innovation; leadership development; and talent acquisition. To realize the importance of these categories and take action to improve them pushes a company from good to great.

Now in its fourth year, the Workforce 100 recognizes companies that excel in HR over the course of a year. To determine which companies make the list, Workforce editors work with researchers from the Human Capital Media Advisory Group, the publication’s research arm.

The research team created a statistical formula to sift through publicly available data on HR performance to separate the best from the rest. To give employees more of a “say,” we asked recruiting and job review website Glassdoor Inc. to provide data on what workers are saying about the companies that made our short list. From there, we combined that information with the public data available to create our 2017 Workforce 100 list.

Besides being No. 1 in 2017, Google also is one of the 28 companies to make the Workforce 100 all four years.

This year’s list heralded 25 previously unranked companies.

That’s why we touched base with several first-timers that made an impression with some aspect of their HR strategy.Associate Editor Andie Burjek interviewed executives at companies including UlMETHODOLOGY timate Software (No. 19), West Monroe Partners To create the Work(No. 31), LaSalle Netforce 100 ranking, the Huwork (No. 38), CDW man Capital Media Advi(No. 56) and Grant sory Group collected Thornton (No. 92) to public data from established get the scoop on their programs and partnered best workplace practices. with Glassdoor to include Welcome to the Workemployee satisfaction data. force 100 list, first-timers; To read more about the that’s some high-class methodology, see page 56.

HR company you’re keeping these days.

26

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

Eileen Naughton, Head of People Operations Bloomberg Best 401(k) Plans; HRE Most Admired for HR; The World’s 30 Most Innovative Corporate Human Resources Department; Fortune Most Admired for Ability to Attract, Develop, and Retain Talent; Fortune Most Admired for Quality of Leadership; Forbes America’s Best Employers; Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For; World’s Best Multinational Workplaces

Industry: Social media Menlo Park, California Employees: 17,000 Performance Index: 9.581

3

Lori Goler, Global Head of People Operations Bloomberg Best 401(k) Plans; CandE Awards; HRE Most Admired for HR; Fortune Most Admired for Ability to Attract, Develop, and Retain Talent; Fortune Most Admired for Quality of Leadership; Forbes America’s Best Employers

Coca-Cola Co. Ceree Eberly, SVP and Chief People Officer Bloomberg Best 401(k) Plans; 50 Best Companies for Diversity; Best Companies for Leaders Industry: Consumer products Atlanta Employees: 100,300 Performance Index: 8.898

4

5

Deloitte Margot Thom, Chief Talent Officer, Deloitte Global Glassdoor Best Places to Interview: CandE Awards; DiversityInc Top 50 List; Best for Vets; Best Companies for Leaders; Chief Learning Officer LearningElite; Fortune 100 Best Industry: Professional services Companies to Work For New York Employees: 244,400 Performance Index: 8.881

AT&T Inc. William A. Blase Jr., Senior EVP, Human Resources Bloomberg Best 401(k) Plans; Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles; CandE Awards; DiversityInc Top 50 List; 50 Best Companies for Diversity; Fortune 50 Industry: Telecommunications Best Workplaces for Diversity; Disability Dallas Equality Index; Best for Vets; HRE Most Employees: 268,000 Admired for HR; Training Top 125; Chief Performance Index: 8.876 Learning Officer LearningElite

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6

Walt Disney Co., The

7

Marriott International Inc.

8

Comcast Corp.

9

Goldman Sachs

Industry: Mass media/entertainment Top Ranking HR Person: Jayne Parker Industry: Lodging/hospitality Top Ranking HR Person: David Rodriguez Industry: Telecommunications Top Ranking HR Person: William Strahan Industry: Financial services Top Ranking HR Person: Edith Cooper

10

Apple Inc.

11

Intel Corp.

12

Nike Inc.

13

KPMG

14

Accenture

15

Wells Fargo & Co.

16

American Express Inc.

17

Southwest Airlines Co.

18

Cisco Systems Inc.

19

Ultimate Software

20

Delta Air Lines Inc.

21

Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.

22

Lockheed Martin Corp.

Industry: Technology Top Ranking HR Person: Denise Young Smith Industry: Technology Top Ranking HR Person: Richard Taylor Industry: Consumer products Top Ranking HR Person: David Ayre Industry: Professional services Top Ranking HR Person: Darren H. Burton Industry: Consulting services Top Ranking HR Person: Ellyn Shook Industry: Financial services Top Ranking HR Person: Hope Hardison Industry: Financial services Top Ranking HR Person: L. Kevin Cox Industry: Airline Top Ranking HR Person: Jeff Lamb Industry: Technology Top Ranking HR Person: Jill Larsen Industry: SaaS HCM software Top Ranking HR Person: Vivian Maza Industry: Airline Top Ranking HR Person: Joanne Smith Industry: Consulting services Top Ranking HR Person: Betty Thompson Industry: Aerospace/defense Top Ranking HR Person: Patricia Lewis

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Employees: 195,000 Burbank, California Performance Index: 8.833

23

Boston Consulting Group

Employees: 226,500 Bethesda, Maryland Performance Index: 8.617

24

Johnson & Johnson

Employees: 159,000 Philadelphia Performance Index: 8.572

25

Capital One Financial Corp.

Employees: 34,400 New York Performance Index: 8.513

26

Boeing

Employees: 116,000 Cupertino, California Performance Index: 8.364

27

Starbucks Corp.

Employees: 106,000 Santa Clara, California Performance Index: 8.363

28

FedEx Corp.

Employees: 70,700 Beaverton, Oregon Performance Index: 8.362

29

Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Employees: 188,982 Amstelveen, Netherlands Performance Index: 8.344

30

USAA

Employees: 394,000 Chicago Performance Index: 8.320

31

West Monroe Partners

Employees: 269,100 San Francisco Performance Index: 8.275

32

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.

Employees: 56,400 New York Performance Index: 8.230

33

Prudential Financial Inc.

Employees: 53,500 Dallas Performance Index: 8.216

34

Genentech Inc.

Employees: 71,958 San Jose, California Performance Index: 8.209

35

Salesforce.com Inc.

Employees: 3,747 Weston, Florida Performance Index: 8.184

36

Nielsen

Employees: 83,756 Atlanta Performance Index: 8.112

37

3M Co., The

Employees: 23,000 McLean, Virginia Performance Index: 8.101

38

LaSalle Network

Employees: 97,000 Bethesda, Maryland Performance Index: 8.083

39

Wegmans Food Markets Inc.

Employees: 6,200 Boston Performance Index: 8.073

Industry: Consulting services Top Ranking HR Person: Matt Krentz

Employees: 126,400 New Brunswick, New Jersey Performance Index: 8.066

Industry: Pharma, consumer products Top Ranking HR Person: Peter Fasolo Industry: Financial services Top Ranking HR Person: Jory Berson

Employees: 47,300 McLean, Virginia Performance Index: 8.043 Employees: 150,500 Chicago Performance Index: 8.027

Industry: Aviation Top Ranking HR Person: Heidi Capozzi

Employees: 254,000 Seattle Performance Index: 7.992

Industry: Consumer products/retail Top Ranking HR Person: Scott Pitasky

Employees: 335,435 Memphis, Tennessee Performance Index: 7.942

Industry: Courier Top Ranking HR Person: Judy Edge

Employees: 45,000 Chicago Performance Index: 7.926

Industry: Lodging/hospitality Top Ranking HR Person: Ann-Marie Law

Employees: 28,738 San Antonio Performance Index: 7.924

Industry: Insurance Top Ranking HR Person: Mark Reid

Employees: 850 Industry: Management and technology consulting Chicago Top Ranking HR Person: Susan Stelter Performance Index: 7.895 Employees: 34,000 Columbus, Ohio Performance Index: 7.885

Industry: Insurance Top Ranking HR Person: Gale King

Employees: 49,739 Newark, New Jersey Performance Index: 7.884

Industry: Financial services Top Ranking HR Person: Sharon Taylor

Industry: Biotechnology Top Ranking HR Person: Nancy Vitale

Employees: 14,815 South San Francisco, California Performance Index: 7.867

Industry: Software Top Ranking HR Person: Cindy Robbins Industry: Research Top Ranking HR Person: Nancy Phillips Industry: Consumer products Top Ranking HR Person: Marlene McGrath

Employees: 25,000 San Francisco Performance Index: 7.826 Employees: 44,000 New York Performance Index: 7.820 Employees: 91,584 Saint Paul, Minnesota Performance Index: 7.799

Employees: 198 Industry: Staffing and recruiting Chicago Top Ranking HR Person: Sirmara Campbell Twohill Performance Index: 7.780 Industry: Retail Top Ranking HR Person: Kevin Stickles

Employees: 46,800 Rochester, New York Performance Index: 7.776

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | WorkĆ’orce

27

M

E C H A N GE

GA

RS

G C 2017

Who e h t e r A d n a t s Be t s e t h Brig

Under 40?

in the ers Awards g n a h C e m y this 017 Ga t inspired b ers of the 2 e n G in . e w in e z th a ated t g Check ou gists dedic rkforce ma te o a W tr f s o d e n u a s t is titioners July/Augus peopleng HR prac u o y f o innovative p h u it ro w g rd e a rs dive ion forw the profess g in h s u p to . nt practices manageme

Winners are selected based on nominations; to read more visit Workforce.com.

40

Cerner Corp.

41

EY

42

Verizon Communications

43

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

44

Quicken Loans Inc.

45

Aon

46

Mayo Clinic

47

Procter & Gamble Co.

48

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.

49

SAS Institute Inc.

50

Cigna

51

Hitachi Data Systems

52

JM Family Enterprises Inc.

53

Enterprise Holdings Inc.

54

Toyota North America

55

Texas Health Resources

56

CDW

Industry: Health care technology Top Ranking HR Person: Jeff Townsend Industry: Consulting services Top Ranking HR Person: Carolyn Slaski Industry: Telecommunications Top Ranking HR Person: Marc Reed Industry: Financial services Top Ranking HR Person: John Donnelly Industry: Financial services Top Ranking HR Person: Erin Reynolds Industry: Professional services Top Ranking HR Person: Tony Goland Industry: Health care Top Ranking HR Person: Cathy Fraser Industry: Consumer products Top Ranking HR Person: Mark Biegger Industry: Lodging/hospitality Top Ranking HR Person: Matthew Schuyler Industry: Software Top Ranking HR Person: Jenn Mann Industry: Managed health care Top Ranking HR Person: John Murabito Industry: Computer data storage Top Ranking HR Person: Scott Kelly Industry: Automotive Top Ranking HR Person: Carmen Johnson Industry: Consumer services Top Ranking HR Person: Edward Adams Industry: Automotive Top Ranking HR Person: Kim Cerda Industry: Health care Top Ranking HR Person: Michelle Kirby Industry: Products and services Top Ranking HR Person: Dennis Berger

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2017

Employees: 24,400 Kansas City, Missouri Performance Index: 7.762

57

Mars Inc.

Employees: 231,000 New York Performance Index: 7.760

58

Hyland Software Inc.

Employees: 160,900 New York Performance Index: 7.751

59

Intuitive Research and Technology

Employees: 243,355 New York Performance Index: 7.737

60

Kaiser Permanente

Employees: 13,000 Detroit Performance Index: 7.729

61

IBM Corp.

Employees: 69,000 London Performance Index: 7.716

62

Monsanto Co.

Employees: 63,480 Rochester, Minnesota Performance Index: 7.706

63

Aetna Inc.

Employees: 105,000 Cincinnati Performance Index: 7.698

64

Navy Federal Credit Union

Employees: 169,000 McLean, Virginia Performance Index: 7.683

65

Publix Super Markets Inc.

Employees: 14,158 Cary, North Carolina Performance Index: 7.680

66

American Fidelity Assurance Co.

Employees: 41,000 Bloomfield, Connecticut Performance Index: 7.679

67

T-Mobile

Employees: 6,300 Santa Clara, California Performance Index: 7.670

68

Baptist Health South Florida

Employees: 4,200 Deerfield Beach, Florida Performance Index: 7.664

69

CBRE Group Inc.

Employees: 6,800 St. Louis Performance Index: 7.644

70

Bank of America

Employees: 3,300 Plano, Texas Performance Index: 7.631

71

Nordstrom Inc.

Employees: 18,815 Arlington, Texas Performance Index: 7.618

72

Lego Group

Employees: 8,624 Vernon Hills, Illinois Performance Index: 7.613

73

BASF

Industry: Products and services Top Ranking HR Person: Eric Minvielle Industry: Software Top Ranking HR Person: Debbie Connelly

Employees: 75,000 McLean, Virginia Performance Index: 7.610 Employees: 2,227 Westlake, Ohio Performance Index: 7.589

Employees: 171 Industry: Technical solutions program management Huntsville, Alabama Top Ranking HR Person: Juanita Phillips Performance Index: 7.588 Industry: Insurance/health care Top Ranking HR Person: Chuck Columbus Industry: Technology/consulting services Top Ranking HR Person: Diane Gherson Industry: Agricultural biotech Top Ranking HR Person: Steven Mizell Industry: Health care Top Ranking HR Person: Thomas Weidenkopf Industry: Financial services Top Ranking HR Person: Tisa Head Industry: Retail Top Ranking HR Person: John Hrabusa Industry: Health insurance Top Ranking HR Person: Bev Wood Industry: Telecommunications Top Ranking HR Person: Elizabeth Sullivan Industry: Health care Top Ranking HR Person: Frank Voytek Industry: Real estate Top Ranking HR Person: Jennifer Ashley Industry: Financial services Top Ranking HR Person: Sheri Bronstein Industry: Retail Top Ranking HR Person: Christine Deputy

Employees: 186,497 Oakland, California Performance Index: 7.585 Employees: 380,300 Armonk, New York Performance Index: 7.583 Employees: 20,800 St. Louis Performance Index: 7.579 Employees: 49,500 Hartford, Connecticut Performance Index: 7.569 Employees: 14,153 Vienna, Virginia Performance Index: 7.564 Employees: 191,000 Lakeland, Florida Performance Index: 7.560 Employees: 1,757 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Performance Index: 7.540 Employees: 50,000 Bellevue, Washington Performance Index: 7.529 Employees: 15,073 South Miami, Florida Performance Index: 7.527 Employees: 75,000 Los Angeles Performance Index: 7.492 Employees: 208,000 Charlotte, North Carolina Performance Index: 7.490 Employees: 72,500 Seattle Performance Index: 7.488

Employees: 16,836 Industry: Toys Billund, Denmark Top Ranking HR Person: Padma Thiruvengadam Performance Index: 7.468 Industry: Chemicals Top Ranking HR Person: Thomas Belgeri

Employees: 113,830 Ludwigshafen, Germany Performance Index: 7.462

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | WorkĆ’orce

29

Nominations Opening

AWARDS

Have an HR initiative or program that’s achieving results? The annual Optimas Awards from Workforce magazine will help you recognize it.

Awards presented in 10 categories: u Benefits

u Managing Change

u Business Impact

u Partnership u Recruiting

u Corporate Citizenship u Global Outlook u Innovation

u Training u Vision

Nominations open April 14.

Visit workforce.com/optimas to apply. #OptimasAwards

All Four Years Here are the 28 companies that have made all the Workforce 100 lists to date.

Accenture American Express Inc. Apple Inc. AT&T Inc. BASF Capital One Financial Corp.

Cerner Corp.

Cisco Systems Inc.

Deloitte Genentech Inc. Google Hyatt Hotels Corp.

IBM Corp.

Intel Corp.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Johnson & Johnson Kaiser Permanente KPMG Lockheed Martin Corp.

84

Scripps Health

85

Fluor Corp.

Industry: Engineering and construction Top Ranking HR Person: Mark Landry

Employees: 61,551 Irving, Texas Performance Index: 7.322

86

Northrop Grumman Corp.

Industry: Security Top Ranking HR Person: Denise Peppard

Employees: 67,000 Falls Church, Virginia Performance Index: 7.316

87

Synchrony Financial

88

Paychex Inc. Industry: Business process outsourcing Top Ranking HR Person: Laurie Zaucha

Employees: 13,100 Rochester, New York Performance Index: 7.288

89

Hormel Foods Corp.

Industry: Food processing Top Ranking HR Person: Lawrence Lyons

Employees: 19,300 Austin, Minnesota Performance Index: 7.284

90

EMC Corp.

Employees: 94,052 Basel, Switzerland Performance Index: 7.443

91

TELUS Communications Co.

Marriott International Inc. Mayo Clinic Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. Procter & Gamble Co. Quicken Loans Inc. Salesforce.com Inc. USAA (United Services Automobile Association) Walt Disney Co. Wells Fargo & Co.

Industry: Health care Top Ranking HR Person: Victor Buzachero

Industry: Financial services Top Ranking HR Person: Marc Chini

Industry: Computer storage Top Ranking HR Person: Steve Price

Employees: 14,746 San Diego Performance Index: 7.344

Employees: 15,000 Stamford, Connecticut Performance Index: 7.314

Employees: 72,000 Hopkinton, Massachusetts Performance Index: 7.278

74

Roche Diagnostics

75

Merck & Co.

Employees: 68,800 Industry: Pharmaceuticals Kenilworth, New Jersey Top Ranking HR Person: Mirian Graddick-Weir Performance Index: 7.431

92

Grant Thornton

76

Atlantic Health System

Employees: 14,155 Morristown, New Jersey Performance Index: 7.398

93

Southern Co.

77

Paycor Inc.

Employees: 1,460 Cincinnati Performance Index: 7.393

94

Dow Chemical Co.

78

Orrick

Employees: 2,300 San Francisco Performance Index: 7.388

95

Dell Inc.

79

JetBlue Airways

Employees: 13,566 Long Island City, New York Performance Index: 7.385

96

TIAA

80

Edward Jones

Employees: 43,090 St. Louis Performance Index: 7.376

97

ADP

81

Humana Inc.

Employees: 51,600 Louisville, Kentucky Performance Index: 7.365

98

Amazon.com Inc. Employees: 341,400 Industry: E-commerce Seattle Top Ranking HR Person: Beth Galetti Performance Index: 7.172

82

VF Corp.

Employees: 69,000 Greensboro, North Carolina Performance Index: 7.352

99

General Motors

83

MasterCard Inc.

Employees: 11,900 Purchase, New York Performance Index: 7.351

100

Blue Cross Blue Shield of N. Carolina

Industry: Medical technologies Top Ranking HR Person: Cristina Wilbur

Industry: Health care Top Ranking HR Person: Nikki Sumpter Industry: Information technology Top Ranking HR Person: Karen Crone Industry: Law firm Top Ranking HR Person: Siobhan Handley Industry: Airline Top Ranking HR Person: Michael Elliot Industry: Financial services Top Ranking HR Person: Kevin Bastien Industry: Health care Top Ranking HR Person: Timothy S. Huval Industry: Clothing Top Ranking HR Person: Anita Graham Industry: Financial services Top Ranking HR Person: Michael Fraccaro

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Industry: Telecommunications Top Ranking HR Person: Sandy McIntosh Industry: Business advisory services Top Ranking HR Person: Pamela Harless Industry: Energy Top Ranking HR Person: Nancy Sykes Industry: Chemicals Top Ranking HR Person: Johanna Soderstrom Industry: Technology Top Ranking HR Person: Steve Price Industry: Financial services Top Ranking HR Person: Skip Spriggs Industry: HR management software Top Ranking HR Person: Dermot O’Brien

Industry: Automotive Top Ranking HR Person: John Quattrone Industry: Health care Top Ranking HR Person: Fara Palumbo

Employees: 51,250 Vancouver, Canada Performance Index: 7.270 Employees: 7,281 Chicago Performance Index: 7.242 Employees: 32,015 Atlanta Performance Index: 7.241 Employees: 56,000 Midland, Michigan Performance Index: 7.237 Employees: 108,800 Round Rock, Texas Performance Index: 7.224 Employees: 12,950 New York Performance Index: 7.220 Employees: 57,000 Roseland, New Jersey Performance Index: 7.178

Employees: 225,000 Detroit Performance Index: 7.165 Employees: 4,900 Durham, North Carolina Performance Index: 7.135

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | WorkĆ’orce

31

WELCOME TO THE

100 Clockwise from top left: Pamela Harless, chief people and culture officer, Grant Thornton; Susan Stelter, chief people officer, West Monroe Partners; Maureen Hoersten, chief revenue officer, LaSalle Network; Stacey Browning, president, Paycor.

32

WorkĆ’orce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

In the four years Workforce has been ranking the best companies for HR, these organizations never made the list — until this year. m ay / j u n e

2017

PHOTO BY JEFF MILLIES

BY ANDIE BURJEK

W

orkforce has been ranking the top 100 companies for excellence in human resources practices for the past four years. During that time companies including AT&T Inc. and Marriott International Inc. consistently ranked in the top 20. Companies like ADP and McDonald’s Corp. have sunk from the top five in 2014 to the bottom of the list or off the list entirely, while companies like The Walt Disney Co., Apple and Comcast Corp. have climbed from the bottom 10 in 2014 to the top 10 in 2017.

Each company has its own unique story of how its HR practices, policies and innovations have made an impact on company culture. This year Workforce tapped into 25 companies that have never been ranked on the Workforce 100 List. We’ve explored what they’ve done in HR to move the company from ordinary to noteworthy.

Ultimate Software (No. 19) was the highest-ranked of our first timers.The Weston, Florida-based computer software company focuses on one mission: always put people first, said Vivian Maza, chief people officer at Ultimate, in an email statement.

“Our people make us who we are.We know we wouldn’t be here without them, so we’re 100 percent focused on putting them first and caring for them like family,” she wrote. “We know if we take care of our employees, they’ll take care of our customers — by creating the most innovative products and delivering the industry’s best service.”

The company has “communities of interest” for women, veterans and LGBTQIA employees, covers 100 percent of health care premiums for full-time employees and their families, and offers a 40 percent dollar-for-dollar match on 401(k) contributions with no cap.

A similar employee-first theme ran through other first-timers, including LaSalle Network (No. 38), West

0

Monroe Partners (No. 31) and Grant Thornton (No. 92).

Good for People, Good for Business

At Chicago-based staffing and recruiting firm LaSalle Network, they view human resources as a partner for both the business and the employees.The idea is that happy people have happy clients. A subsection of the HR department, the Human Concierge Department, exists to aid new hires.

It provides employees assistance for various life challenges like finding quality day care and parental care, searching for an apartment and even getting a divorce. “[We’re]making sure they know we go above and beyond, that they know, ‘We take care of this, you take care of learning the job and learning LaSalle,’ ” said Sirmara Campbell Twohill, the company’s chief human resources officer.

It’s all about looking at someone as a whole, said Maureen Hoersten, the company’s chief revenue officer. “We don’t believe in work-life balance. We believe everything should be integrated.” If the company doesn’t know anything about an employee outside of work, she said, it’s missing a big piece of the puzzle when trying to help them develop professionally.

Treating people well creates a positive culture, she added.

“The people and the rituals make the culture, not the fun things we do or the keg in the office. A lot of companies have that misconception. But your people are your culture.

How you treat your people is your culture.”

Chicago-based management and technology consulting company West Monroe Partners also has a people-first culture. Treating people well is especially critical because West Monroe Partners is an employee-owned business, with 850 employee-owners.

“We embrace the idea of career equity, that for people to ultimately feel fulfilled, they have to be engaged in work, cultivate meaningful relationships here, and believe that we are an organization that will challenge them to learn and grow,” said Susan Stelter, the company’s chief people officer.

As part of this they utilize the Three Year Letter. An employee writes about what they hope to accomplish professionally and personally in the next three years. Executives have an open conversation with an employee about their goals and help with their development, even if they don’t include staying with West Monroe Partners long-term.

Team members at Cinncinati-based Paycor (No. 77) putting work into the community.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PAYCOR

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND EMPLOYEEFIRST MINDSETS WON THE DAY.

m ay / j u n e

2017

w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce

33

Co-workers celebrating PRIDE at Ultimate Software.

34

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

m ay / j u n e

2017

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ULTIMATE SOFTWARE

Public accounting firm Grant Thornton began a journey toward culture change just over three years ago. The goal was to inspire employees to bring their whole selves to work, said Pamela Harless, chief people and culture officer at the Chicago-based company. This culture journey was the umbrella under which they introduced different programs and initiatives in recent years.

One aspect of HR they decided to change was performance man- The meditation room at Florida-based Ultimate Software (No. 19). agement, particularly fixing an outdated approach to feedback and evaluations. They opted One employee went to Ghana to teach computer for a more informal, continuous approach to feedback. and technology skills. When he found that they didn’t “We’re seeing a lot of results around the ultimate goal: to have a computer lab and that the designated building have our people receive more real-time, meaningful, ac- was dilapidated and unusable, he raised $20,000 with tionable feedback in the moment for the benefit of their the help of his co-workers back home. He was able to own development as well as their clients,” said Harless. work with West Monroe Partners’ performance services team to fix the equipment he had available and Good for the Community worked with their energy and utilities practice to creCorporate social responsibility was another common ate sustainable energy. theme running through each company.

“Although it was one person there, it became a team West Monroe Partners embraces its staff giving back to effort of how we could make a change far from where we the community. One perk they offer is the 1+1+1 pro- all live,” said Stelter. “We believe that’s one of those examgram. A long-time program for West Monroe, the compa- ples of career equity coming into play where people are ny gives back 1 percent of their time in volunteer hours, 1 doing work they’re passionate about. We’re doing work in percent of its talent to do pro bono work for nonprofits, our local and global community, and we’re helping people and 1 percent of its profits. achieve their ultimate aspiration.”

Employees can also apply to the Fischer Fellowship, named Similarly, LaSalle Network has the Community after one of the company’s co-founders, which offers an em- Champions, a committee dedicated to companywide ployee a three- to six-month paid opportunity to volunteer philanthropy initiatives. It coordinates volunteer opanywhere in the world. Eleven staff members have received portunities every month. the fellowship in the past three years, said Stelter.

Meanwhile, Grant Thornton this past year implemented the GTUnited program, which allows employees to choose their own cause or organization and invest community service hours throughout the year.

Rather than participating in something predetermined by the employer, this is a more individualized approach to community service which the company can facilitate for employees.

The GTUnited program is based on the United Nations’ new Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 global goals to achieve by 2030, and Grant Thornton is one of the first companies to utilize them in its national volunteer strategy.

“It’s been incredibly important to our millennial population because they value so much the opportunity to contribute their passions to a broader purpose,” said Harless.

“We recognize that as part of our commitment to supporting the whole person.”

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industryinsights The Proven Links Between Retention and Employee Experience

By Sarah Payne

Retention and employee experience are two sides of the same coin. Here’s a quick story: In one of my previous roles at a different company, a new senior leader came on and laid off half of our department.

Those of us remaining were in shell shock. We know this happens at companies all the time. But little was done to alleviate the fears of those who remained (and had a lot more work on their plates) and the culture seriously suffered. I started looking for a new job almost immediately and accepted an offer a few months later. The day before I was going to give my notice, my manager started a discussion about compensation. For me, it was too little, too late. And for most people, money can’t make up for a negative work experience.

My story is not unique, which is why retention remains a serious issue for HR and business leaders. This article covers a set of findings from the new SHRM/ Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey (sent to nearly 800 HR professionals). The first finding is: The top three workforce management challenges faced by organizations today are retention/ turnover, engagement, and recruitment.

This is the second consecutive year that retention tops the list of HR challenges – cited by nearly half of the organizations surveyed (46%). Keeping talent from leaving companies has nearly doubled as a concern over the years, with only 25% of organizations listing it as a top challenge when we started the survey in 2012.

The job market today is unrecognizable compared to only a few years ago. We know this because the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes data on the ratio of unemployed persons per job opening. The ratio peaked at 6.6 in 2009 and has been steadily declining ever since. In September 2016, the ratio was 1.4. A

Findings from the 2016 SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey

few years ago, workers may have tolerated a less than satisfactory experience at work for the sake of job security. Today they don’t have to.

What’s more, retention has very real financial implications. A recent Bersin by Deloitte report estimates that companies lose more than $100,000 for every employee who leaves; this doesn’t even include indirect costs such as lost client relationships, institutional knowledge, and previous training for the employee leaving.

Here’s an interesting question: When do people typically leave organizations? Brian Kropp from CEB says, “We’ve learned that what really affects people is their sense of how they’re doing compared with

other people in their peer group, or with where they thought they would be at a certain point in life. We’ve learned to focus on moments that allow people to make these comparisons.”

For example, CEB has found that job-hunting activity increases by 6% during work anniversaries. Why not consider a more human approach to celebrating service anniversaries – one that reminds people how much impact they’ve made in the organization?

Celebrating anniversaries is just one way of creating a positive work experience. How do you keep that going all year? The new Employee Experience Index from Globoforce and IBM captures the core facets of a positive employee experience, including: • Belonging – feeling part of a team, group, or organization • Purpose – understanding why one’s work matters • Achievement – a sense of accomplishment in the work that is done • Happiness – the pleasant feeling arising in and around work • Vigor – the presence of energy, enthusiasm, and excitement at work

Based on the survey of more than 23,000 employees in 45 countries, people who score highly on the above facets are 53% less likely to intend to leave their organizations.

“So we know experience is directly linked to retention, but how do you create that positive experience?”

So we know experience is directly linked to retention, but how do you create that positive experience?

According to the Index, one of the top drivers is feedback, recognition, and growth. When employees agree that they receive recognition when doing good work, 83% report a more positive employee experience, vs. only 38% when they do not receive recognition.

Now that we are a couple of months into 2017, what are your top areas of focus for the year? Is one of them retention? How do you plan to tackle these challenges going forward?

As Managing Editor, Sarah manages Globoforce’s blog and writes content about making work more human for people and organizations worldwide. She has a BA in English and Writing from University of Rhode Island.

industryinsights The Skills Revolution How to prepare your workers for the coming wave of job digitization

By Tim Harnett

Automation has been increasing its presence in the workplace for some time and will continue to define the tasks we do in the future. For some, the impact is immediate: one study estimated that up to 45 percent of daily tasks could be automated with current technology.¹ But rather than eliminate jobs, many employers are upskilling their existing employees. To prepare for digitalization, 83 percent of employers plan to either maintain or increase their headcounts over the next two years.² Organizations will also face a greater demand for highly skilled workers as job requirements change.³ While digitalization won’t be easy, automation doesn’t have to be a battle of human versus robot. With tasks becoming automated, employees must adapt to remain current. Increased demand for highly skilled workers also comes as organizations experience recruiting challenges. Globally, 40 percent of employers report greater difficulty hiring people with the right skills — the highest talent shortage since 2007 (41 percent).⁴ We’re seeing the emergence of a Skills Revolution, where the greatest challenge will be upskilling current employees to prepare them for the ever-changing world of work. “Companies have become consumers of work, not builders of talent. That needs to change,” says Mara Swan, executive vice president, global strategy and talent for ManpowerGroup and global brand lead for Right Management. When workforce skills needs change so rapidly, organizations will need employees with high learnability. “While we cannot slow the rate of technological advance, we can invest in employees’ skills to increase the relevance and resilience of our people and organizations. In a Skills Revolution, people’s employability — their ability to gain and maintain a desired job — no longer depends on what they already know, but on what they are likely to learn.”

How to prepare for jobs that don’t exist yet It’s estimated that 65 percent of jobs that Generation Z will perform over their lifetime don’t yet exist.⁵ To prepare, employees will need learnability: the desire and ability to learn new skills for long-term employability.

Employees should be open to learning new skills and tackling new roles. Curiosity will be a critical attribute, as will the motivation to proactively seek new learning opportunities to remain relevant.

Employers can use assessments to explore the learnability of their workforce and give individuals insight into their own learnability. Assessment has several uses. It helps discover fit for purpose, which is useful for determining how an individual’s skills match those needed for the role. Employers should ask themselves, Am I giving the talent I have the opportunities where they would be most successful? Is the role playing to an individual’s strengths and interests? Alignment ensures employees will be engaged with their roles and continue to develop critical skills.

When we think about an individual’s Learnability Quotient™ we think about learning types: how intellectual are you? How adventurous or unconventional?

Understanding how employees are wired to absorb, process and act on information helps determine the optimal way to develop and engage with them. For the individual, a Learnability Quotient™ assessment can lead to a better understanding of their learning type so they can better approach their career progression. Knowing where employees are will help employers plan for where their employees need to be.

“Skills and talent matter more than ever,” says Swan. “We need to fast-track the training and reskilling of existing employees to ensure we have a future-ready workforce.

We need to be ready for new jobs and skills. Learnability should be the number one consideration when hiring.”

Leaders also need new skills To lead effectively in a rapidly changing work environment, leaders will also need different skills. Right Management’s P3 Leader model identifies four key skills leaders will need for the Skills Revolution: brightness, agility, endurance and drive. Endurance will be critical to the new leader skill set in the future. Because we’re more

Right Management is the global career and talent development expert within ManpowerGroup. We help organizations become more agile, attractive and innovative by creating a culture of career management and learning that nurtures future talent, motivates and engages people, and provides individuals with opportunities to increase their value throughout their careers. We design to deliver solutions in talent assessment, leader development, organizational effectiveness, employee engagement and workforce transition and outplacement that align talent with business strategy.

global and consume information faster than ever, leaders need the endurance to react to 24/7 challenges. Leaders will also need to be learners, with their own agility and adaptability. “As leaders, we need to model learnability.

Ask yourself, when was the last time you read something from an unusual perspective? If we want our employees to embrace learning as a habit, we need to set an example and find the time to dig beneath the surface,” says Swan.

Workplace success requires constant communication.

Ongoing career conversations will prepare employees for tomorrow’s jobs. That’s why Right Management has created a series of six questions for leaders to explore

with employees to help answer the questions they care about most in driving their careers. Ongoing career conversations ensure the employer and employee are aligned on future skills needs and how to be wellequipped to meet those challenges. With much of the workforce in flux, keeping employees informed about opportunities and how their work impacts the business will keep them motivated and engaged. By assessing your workforce and giving employees real-time feedback, you’ll ensure your workforce is ready to tackle new responsibilities.

Visit www.right.com/SkillsRevolution for more information on the Skills Revolution.

Human Age 2.0: Future Forces at Work. ManpowerGroup 2017.

The Skills Revolution: Digitization and why skills and talent matter. ManpowerGroup 2017.

3 “Artificial intelligence: The impact on jobs: Automation and anxiety.” The Economist 2017.

4 Human Age 2.0: Future Forces at Work. ManpowerGroup 2017.

5 ibid.

1 2

industryinsights Why Most High Potential Programs Fail: Four Common Flaws By Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic Psychologists have spent more than a century researching and examining human potential.

However, it is only in recent times that the identification of high potential employees (HiPos) has become one of the hottest topics in talent management.

There are many definitions of potential, but they all concern an employee’s probability to make a substantial contribution to the organization. A simple formula to understand the value of HiPos is the famous Pareto rule, which states that in any organization, around 20% of individuals will be responsible for 80% of collective output. Hence any HiPo intervention is ultimately an attempt to identify, develop, and retain the “vital few” that drive an organization’s success.

While HiPo programs are rather popular today, the majority of organizations are not executing them very well. In a recent report issued by the Corporate Research Forum, 73% of top global businesses stated that their main method for identifying HiPos is a single rating or nomination by the candidate’s direct report. Leaving aside the natural unreliability of supervisory ratings as a marker of employee potential or performance, this finding suggests that the vast majority of HiPos are selected for their ability to manage upwards: get your boss to like you, be politically astute, and advertise your achievements, and you may be designated as a HiPo. Unsurprisingly, the same report noted that 53% of organizations are dissatisfied with their HiPo programs. Since this report surveyed some of the world’s most successful organizations, one would expect the average HiPo intervention to be even less effective.

Furthermore, even when organizations manage to rely on more effective talent identification methods

(e.g., 360s, psychometric tests, objective analytics, etc.) there are four common mistakes that prevent HiPo interventions from being successful:

1

Performance is not potential. Too often,

organizations focus mostly, and sometimes solely, on performance. There are two problems with this approach. First, organizations are not very good at measuring performance.

Second, even if an organization does measure performance well, many top performers will fail to perform at the next level. Consider the case of a smart software developer who is great at solving complex, abstract problems but has limited EQ and people-skills: would you make them a leader?

It is therefore important to distinguish between performance and potential. Performance is what you do. Potential is what you could do.

2

Emergence is not effectiveness. It is one thing to emerge as a leader. It is something entirely different to be effective as a leader.

The politically savvy self-promoter will often emerge as a leader. This is why so many leaders are confident, charismatic, and narcissistic, but not effective. Instead, effective leaders need good judgment, self-awareness, and empathy, which are qualities rarely found in those obsessed with getting ahead and themselves – as opposed to the success of their teams and organizations.

3

Development is universal. Unfortunately, too many organizations fail in their selection efforts, so they end up spending a great deal of time and money on the development of unsuitable candidates. However, no matter how talented HiPos are, they will only succeed in the long run if they are coachable and able to develop.

Thus even when you identify the right people, development should still be a priority. To have

potential simply gives individuals an advantage in that they will be able to develop more talent, more quickly, more easily.

4

Every HiPo has a dark side. Pareto’s 80-

20 principle applies not only to positive organizational outcomes (revenues, profits, etc.), but also to negative outcomes: indeed, 20% of employees will cause 80% of the problems, and they are often the same “vital few” who may rightly be considered HiPos. This dark side of potential can make them difficult to manage, but it is worth putting up with them because of their talents.

In short, there is plenty of talk about potential, but a lot of room for improvement. If organizations understand how to define and measure real potential, relying less on past performance to focus more on the future, they will no doubt improve. Moreover, it is time for organizations to understand that potential is rather more nuanced than most people think: even the biggest organizational stars will need help to develop and deploy their full potential, and in most of these individuals their talents will co-exist with a wide range of less desirable qualities.

Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is the CEO of Hogan Assessments and a Professor of Business Psychology at University College London and Columbia University. His latest book is “The Talent Delusion: Why Data, Not Intuition, is Key To Unlocking Human Potential”. @drtcp

industryinsights Accuracy and Timeliness How proper wage audit compliance helps your business avoid risk

By Tim Harnett

Addressing state wage audit requests is serious business.

Unemployment overpayments reach $3 billion annually, which states attempt to recover through regulatory oversight and by requesting wage audits on a subset of all unemployment claims. Compliance is both required by law and in everyone’s best interests. Catching errors can help prevent overpayments, keep state unemployment funds solvent and potentially lower the employer tax burden over time.

But compliance isn’t easy. With more than 100 different forms nationally, wage audit responses can be difficult and time consuming to complete. Improper wage audit compliance can lead to false overpayments and penalties, potentially creating a financial burden on employers. Former employees may also get unfairly penalized if current employer responses are not accurate.

says. “It’s the employer’s responsibility to provide the information as each state requests it. When organizations get a wage audit request, they must realign their payment cycle to the proper format and isolate the specific wages paid in the timeframe requested, which can be difficult for organizations with small HR departments.

To address this, Equifax developed a tool that provides information in response to wage audits, in a compliant format, saving organizations time and money. “With the enhanced data file or an enhancement to The Work Number file feed, which we receive from a number of employers, we developed a fully automated wage audit response solution,” commented Jackson. “It allows multistate employers the choice of a digital response that maps the right information into the correct form in all 54 jurisdictions.

Timeliness: Wage audit requests come with a deadline to respond to avoid penalties or administrative fines.

With wage audits on the rise and multiple response forms, keeping track of what needs to go where is critical, but also time consuming for employers juggling multiple requests in multiple locations. Data from Equifax Workforce Solutions shows that, on average, employers can expect wage audit requests to reflect 12-15 percent of their total unemployment claim volume. As more states increase their regulatory authority to recover some of that $3 billion in annual overpayments, it’s reasonable for organizations to expect more wage audit requests, and they’ll need the tools and the knowledge to respond to them accurately and in a timely manner.

“The biggest challenge we heard from employers was related to their ability to give requested information in the format and frequency required by the state,” Jackson

Visit http://www.equifax.com/business/wageaudit to learn how Equifax can help your organization with wage audit compliance.

“The two keys are accuracy and timeliness,” says Sheldon Jackson, director of product management, workforce solutions for Equifax. “You have to both meet the deadline and provide the details in the specific format requested by the state in order to avoid the compliance penalties.”

Accuracy: States need information broken down weekly and uniformly, often in a Sunday to Saturday format.

Equifax powers the financial future of individuals and organizations around the world. Using the combined strength of unique trusted data, technology and innovative analytics, Equifax has grown from a consumer credit company into a leading provider of insights and knowledge. The company organizes, assimilates and analyzes data on more than 820 million consumers and more than 91 million businesses worldwide. Equifax Workforce Solutions, an Equifax business unit, is a leading provider of human resource compliance, analytics and verification technology and services. www.equifax.com/workforce

WAGE AUDIT RESPONSES

don’t need to be so complicated.

Automatically complete requests with Wage Audit Solutions from Equifax.

From freeing up resources to helping manage improper benefit payments and protecting your unemployment tax rate position, our secure, nearly no-touch solution is a market leader in automated technology. Your wage audit requests can now be completed quickly and easily. Our automatic solution can provide for a complete response back to the state. You can even access reports that offer insights into the program performance. Simplify wage audit requests with Wage Audit Solutions from Equifax.

CONTACT US TODAY

workforce@equifax.com | 800-888-8277 | equifax.com/business/wageaudit

Equifax is a registered trademark of Equifax, Inc. Š 2017 Equifax Workforce Solutions, a/k/a TALX Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Equifax Inc., Atlanta, Georgia. All rights reserved.

Growth Industry

As recreational marijuana buds into a legitimate billion-dollar business from its seedy past, human resources professionals are encountering business challenges that are both familiar and new.

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BY MAX MIHELICH

I

n states with legalized recreational marijuana, business is blooming.

Since Colorado’s landmark vote to be the first state to legalize recreational pot in November 2012, seven more plus Washington, D.C., have followed suit. Regulated marijuana sales in North America totaled $6.9 billion in 2016, a 30 percent increase from 2015. Sales are projected to increase to $21.6 billion by 2021 representing a 26 percent compound annual growth rate.

With that much green, the recreational marijuana industry is attracting entrepreneurs and deep-pocketed investors. Since 2014, public and private companies put $1 billion in capital to work in the cannabis industry, according to a recent report published by Arcview Market Research, a research firm dedicated to the marijuana industry.

But behind the large sums of investment money pouring in and media excitement about this budding industry, marijuana dispensaries must tackle the same problem any new business faces: getting started.

“A lot people have trouble setting up their company correctly from a corporate structure,” said Allan Golod, chief operating officer at Diego Pellicer, a high-end recreational marijuana dispensary based in Denver.

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“The initial fringe appeal that brought people to the marijuana business has given way to trying to figure out how to be a full-on, legitimate industry.”

As the production and sale of marijuana moves from an illegal, underground endeavor to a legitimate multibillion-dollar industry, employers are encountering challenges similar to any other business when it comes to recruitment and workforce management.

Additionally, since marijuana remains an illegal Schedule 1 drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act, and state laws allow employers to maintain drug-free workplaces, recreational marijuana dispensaries struggle with the ambiguity that governs the industry.

From this perspective, recreational marijuana dispensaries face common, difficult challenges to operating a successful business.

HR Adapts to an Unknown Industry

Likewise, dispensary hiring managers are receiving “interesting résumés that have people admitting they’ve committed felonies or weren’t caught committing felonies,” said Evan Nison, marijuana legalization advocate and founder and owner of NisonCo., a public relations firm dedicated to the marijuana industry.This situation can put dispensary owners in an awkward position of not being able to hire people with past experience growing and selling marijuana.

Other times, hiring obstacles arise when applicants are unaware of state-mandated prerequisites needed to obtain a job at a dispensary, leading to many résumés being disqualified immediately. And like any other industry, many résumés simply lack the minimum experience required for the job opening.

Entrepreneurs in the industry have responded to hiring challenges by developing marijuana job-hosting sites similar to Indeed or Monster. A quick look at CannaStaff, a popular marijuana job site, corroborates expert claims that dispensaries are hiring for positions ranging from security to culinary assistants.

Others still are taking a different approach to hiring the right people. Diego Pellicer’s Golod, for example, is tackling this challenge by looking at people outside of the industry who have the right skill set who can adapt to working at a dispensary.

“Hiring growers is the most unique challenge. It’s not a person growing weed in their house or yard anymore.

There’s an agricultural aspect to it.We’re trying to do this as legitimately as we can,” said Golod. “Any grower will tell

As cannabis continues to expand into the consciousness of corporate America, human resources professionals also are learning how to navigate in a relatively unknown industry with strict regulations that vary by state.

In a sense, HR professionals moving to the legal weed business are trailblazers of a final business frontier, as the policies and procedures developed over the next few years as the industry grows could set the precedent for how HR departments of dispensaries are run for years to come.

“You can’t take a blueprint from the retail industry and graft it onto the cannabis industry,” said Keegan Peterson, founder and CEO of Wurk, a Denver-based workforce management softMarijuana Legalization Status ware provider that specializes in recreational marijuana.Wurk’s platform aims to Information is current as of March 23, 2017 help dispensaries succeed by baking state marijuana regulations into the software platform, therefore easing the compliance burden for dispensary HR pros.

■ Medical Peterson, who began his career as a marijuana consultant at workforce management broadly legalized software company Kronos Inc., said compliance is critical to success in the legal ■ Marijuana legalized for weed industry. recreational use “How do you hire people correctly?

■ No broad laws How to make sure you’re paying them legalizing marijuana correctly? Compliance is at the forefront Source: governing.com of this industry,” said Peterson. “The companies that put it at the front of their business are growing.”

However, growing dispensaries are finding it difficult to you there’s a thousand different ways to grow product, and find the right people to hire. As a result, many HR pros at none of them are the best. Can this grower adapt to our dispensaries are wearing many hats, according to Peterson. way of doing it? Is it a match? Is the skill set a match? Do Sometimes the rigorous background checks required by past results dictate future success?” states like Colorado turn up information that bars an indiFrom Golod’s point of view, every position has its own vidual from being able to work in marijuana — informa- unique challenges. As such, somebody with no experience tion that would likely have no impact on working in a in cannabis but a long career in commercial agriculture more traditional line of business. may be the best fit for a production chief at a growhouse.

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“Part of the reason I look outside the industry is because they haven’t developed any habits within the weed industry. They have their own abilities that translate to a new industry,” said Golod. “Hiring good managers who aren’t overly passionate about the product, say, but about doing the work. I’ll get a lot of résumés from people who are passionate about the industry but don’t have a lot to offer.

There’s a gap in professionalism.”

Compliance: Devil’s Lettuce in the Details In addition to hiring challenges, many dispensaries struggle with payroll issues, due largely to the fact that marijuana is still classified as a Schedule 1 substance — equal to drugs like heroin and LSD. In other words, while eight states and Washington, D.C., have legalized marijuana, it is still illegal in the eyes of the federal government.

This initially prevented banks from working with dispensaries.

The industry’s banking situation appears to be improving. Just two years ago, the U.S. Department of the Treasury permitted banks to work with cannabis businesses, provided they follow a series of guidelines. In 2014, only 51 banks and credit unions worked with cannabis companies; that number rose to 301 in 2016. While this is an improvement, it represents less than 3 percent of the nation’s 11,954 banks and credit unions, according to the Arcview Market Research report.

It’s still common for employees to get paid in cash, which can potentially create dangerous situations for dispensaries and its workers. But entrepreneurs like Peterson are developing products that aim to bring stability to the industry and make it safer by partnering with banks and credit unions to provide electronic payroll options that allow dispensaries to pay employees through options like direct deposit.

According to Peterson, the key to dispensary payroll is staying on top of industry compliance trends and being able to “communicate changing regulations clearly and automatically” to clients.

In addition to banking and payroll, the disparities between state and federal laws regarding marijuana also create legal ambiguity when it comes to unionization within the industry. According to Gina Roccanova, principal and chair of the Labor and Employment Practice Group at law firm Meyers Nave in Oakland, California, trying to find clarity within this issue from a federal standpoint is a growing industry trend.

When recreational marijuana becomes legal in California on Jan. 1, 2018, dispensaries will be required to remain neutral toward union campaigns, explained Roccanova.

“But there’s a question mark about laws at the federal

level. It gets trickier when you’re looking at union campaigns because it’s federal enforcement and this administration is hostile toward it,” she said. “Nobody knows what will happen if there’s a dispute.You can be welcoming to employees, but from time to time there will be differences in opinion.”

Administration Concerns The November 2016 election results lead to the legalization of marijuana in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada — big wins for legalization advocates.

However, the presidential election results has lead to uncertainty within the industry, as Attorney General Jeff Sessions made comments about recreational marijuana that can be interpreted as hostile, leading many to fear an administration crackdown on the industry, which could chill investor activity.

“A lot of the industry is supported by investors right now.

There may be setbacks if raids start to happen,” said Nison.

However, experts point to the fact that while dispensaries are nervous about the path the Trump administration may take, the success of recreational marijuana in Colorado, legalization wins in five states, plus the billions of tax dollars generated, it will be difficult to shut down the industry.

The Trump administration is “a lot more against what we do and trying to limit or get rid of what we do,” said Golod. “I think that will be more difficult, though, given new recreational gains. If the biggest markets in the country, like New York, Texas or Illinois go that way, it will be impossible to shut down the industry, if not improbable.”

It is important to note that, despite past comments about marijuana, the attorney general recently acknowledged the validity of the Cole Memorandum, which provides a series of guiding principles that businesses must address to avoid federal intervention. If businesses follow the laws of the state, do not divert product out of state, keep product out of the hands of children, do not support cartels, and do not launder funds, then the federal government will take a hands-off approach to cannabis law enforcement.

From this perspective, one can see the critical value HR can bring to the recreational marijuana industry through compliance.

“There’s a real opportunity for the HR world to take part in this industry,” said Peterson. “People and workforce management are at the forefront of this industry and it wouldn’t happen without that.”

HR PROFESSIONALS ARE LEARNING HOW TO NAVIGATE IN A RELATIVELY UNKNOWN INDUSTRY WITH STRICT REGULATIONS THAT VARY BY STATE.

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Max Mihelich is a writer in Chicago. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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Singled

Out

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Unmarried workers are a growing segment of the workforce, and companies will need to become more single-friendly to keep them.

BY CLIF BOUTELLE

T

o attract and retain top employees, many organizations strive to create a family-friendly atmosphere.

Child care considerations, job-sharing plans and flexible work options are among the perks employers have implemented to build family oriented workplaces. Studies show that such practices often result in higher levels of employee retention, greater productivity and healthier attitudes about work.

Cynthia Horkey agrees that a family-friendly workplace can boost an organization. But Horkey, a community college grants administrator who has worked in both business and education, adds that such policies can ignore a growing yet overlooked segment of the employee population — single workers.

“I have seen mothers and fathers leave work to pick up their children from school, take them to a doctor’s appointment, or attend a school function or sports event,” she said. “Supervisors or directors generally have no problem with that, and those leaving work think nothing of taking the time off to handle these needs.”

But let a single person ask for time off to attend to a personal matter and the request is often considered unfavorably, Horkey added.

“If organizations tout family-friendliness, why not be single-friendly as well?” she asked.

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Despite the best of intentions, family-friendly workplaces can neglect employees who are single — whether they are unmarried, divorced or widowed — in favor of colleagues with families. Experts say that could be a problem for organizations looking to retain them.

Single employees comprise a significant and growing segment of the American workforce. According to a 2014 Census Bureau report, there are 105 million Americans 18 and older who are divorced, widowed or never married.

They comprise 44 percent of all U.S. residents with 53 percent women and 47 percent men, the report stated.

Together, single employees represent 43.8 percent of the civilian labor force — hardly a demographic to be ignored.

Millennials and Marriage A large chunk of these single workers are millennials, those ages 18 to 34 who now comprise one in three of American workers, according to the Pew Research Center.

A significant number of them are single because young people are putting off marriage and are on track to remain single far longer than previous generations.

Wendy Casper, a professor of organizational behavior, human resource management and research methods at the University of Texas at Arlington, has studied single workers extensively. She has found that many feel their managers and organizations overlook their needs for support in the workplace in favor of their married colleagues.

“It is these kinds of perceptions, real or otherwise, that can lead to bad feelings within the workplace,” Casper said.

Casper’s research specifically focuses on single workers without dependents. One of her conclusions is that many organizations do not recognize that single workers have non-work obligations just like their married colleagues.

This is often interpreted by singles as a sign that their personal responsibilities are not taken seriously.

Casper added that the emergence of family-friendly practices to help employees with child care demands and dual career issues is a positive trend that has made U.S. employers better places to work.

“The singles in my research also commend employers that offer these programs,” she said. “They just hope employers will think more broadly to support their non-work responsibilities as well.”

While singles’ non-work lives are different, they nevertheless are important, Casper said.Yet the perception persists that single workers have few non-work responsibilities, at least not the kind that married employees have.

The holidays can be an especially difficult time to accommodate all workers and their scheduling requests.

“Where I am employed, if you worked one holiday then you got the next off,” said Haley Perry, 20, a customer service associate at an outdoor gear and apparel store.

However, as a single person, she is among the first to be asked by mar r ied co-workers to change shifts so they can be with their families.

“At first, I tried to be agreeable, but often I have plans with my family and friends and finally had to say no,” she said. “There was the assumption because I was not married that I could easily change my schedule.”

Kristen Noreen, a natural resource consultant in Wendy Casper Washington state, has seen both sides of the workplace dynamic.When she was married, Noreen was oblivious to how single co-workers were treated. However, when she divorced she began to notice that being single had given her a different status in the office.

“I saw married people receive the vacation times they requested, but single people’s requests were given lower priority,” she said. “When I wanted to spend time with my mother, it was more difficult to schedule time off.

Then when my supervisor was divorced she began to work really late hours and expected me to work late because I was not married and she assumed I had the time to stay in the office longer.”

Noreen began to distance herself from her boss and finally asked for a transfer, which she thought she could easily obtain because a married co-worker was able to transfer so his children could go to the schools in their new location.

The manager denied her request because she was single, saying unlike the married co-worker, she had no reason to be transferred.

“He told me that when my status changed and I could afford a house then my request would be reconsidered,” Noreen said.

Casper said the brazen assumption that people who are single have no life or responsibilities outside of the workplace is false and that, in today’s workplace, it is not wise to ignore the needs of unmarried workers because given changing demographics they will soon comprise the majority of the workforce.

Single people have obligations outside of work, Casper said. They are often asked to take care of aging parents or

DESPITE THE BEST OF INTENTIONS, FAMILY-FRIENDLY WORKPLACES CAN NEGLECT EMPLOYEES WHO ARE SINGLE IN FAVOR OF COLLEAGUES WITH FAMILIES.

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How to Create a Single-Friendly Workplace Culture Having a singles-friendly organizational culture can increase the attachment and engagement of single employees and greatly benefit the company. Here are some tips from Wendy Casper for creating one: • Create an environment that supports and includes all workers, regardless of marital, relationship or parental status. A key to doing this is the sense of support coming from supervisors. Training can be implemented to help supervisors understand how to manage their team so that all members feel connected and supported. Supervisors may not always be aware of the degree to which their employees feel or do not feel connected at work.

• Provide work opportunities and assignments without regard to family/marital status or personal situations. Instead, use only job-relevant criteria such as past performance and strengths to determine work opportunities. When single workers feel that such assignments are given fairly, they are less likely to make plans to leave the firm.

• Offer a wide variety of cafeteria-style employee benefits so that employees can choose those that best meet their personal work-life needs. Companies can still offer on-site day care, resource and referral programs, and health coverage for spouses and children, but they should also offer programs that will benefit single employees with no children, such as subsidies for fitness centers or education and training opportunities and even pet care that employees can use when traveling for business.

• Treat all employee requests for time off, schedule flexibility or other alternative work arrangements the same, regardless of the reason.

• Let job type or level drive work expectations rather than personal or family situations. This is an important concern for single workers who often are expected to work overtime or holidays more frequently than co-workers with spouses and children. Singles are often willing to volunteer for extra work and travel to benefit married co-workers with family obligations as long as it does not interfere with the important non-work roles in a single person’s life.

—Clif Boutelle

other relatives, many are involved in community service projects, some are working toward a college degree, and there are those who are raising children as single parents.

Moreover, they often handle these responsibilities on their own, without the support of a partner to help them.

“I understand there are times when employees with children need to take care of some of these things, but if for some reason they cannot leave work, they have someone to share those situations with, whereas single people do not,” Horkey said. “If a single person has to go home to meet a plumber or electrician to fix a problem and is not given permission to leave work, he or she may have to make other arrangements, like scheduling someone after work, in the evening or on the weekend, which is a distinct disadvantage for single people.”

Casper’s research has found that many single workers feel married workers receive more flexibility in terms of duties and hours worked as well as benefits, such as paid family leave. In one of her studies of singles without children she found that 62 percent said they were treated differently from co-workers with a spouse and children, and 30 percent described different work expectations for single and married workers, “reinforcing the message that married workers’ lives are more important than the lives of singles,” she said.

Singles may also feel shortchanged when it comes to supervisors’ evaluations, given evidence that they sometimes subconsciously favor those with families.

For instance, married Jennifer Deal men are often paid a “wage premium,” presumably because they are seen as providing for families. It’s a consideration not given to singles who managers assume do not have families to support.

“The bottom line is that the combination of the shift to later marriages resulting in more single workers is going to have substantial implications for employers,” said Jennifer Deal, senior research scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership in San Diego and co-author of “What Millennials Want from Work.”

And if trends continue, many millennials will be single parents and will have similar obligations as married people, which can affect everything from health care plans to work assignments. Organizations need to get in front of this societal shift, Deal explained.

“Millennials are looking for what everyone wants in a job — one that pays well, offers interesting work with peoSINGLES continued on page 56

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51

SECTOR REPORT

Employee Assistance Program Providers

EAPs: Use It or Lose It Employers are telling their workers: Use your EAP or lose it

By Sarah Fister Gale

E

mployee assistance programs have been proven to deliver real business benefits. When companies provide resources for employees to help them deal with stress, substance abuse, family conflict and other personal issues, it improves their workplace performance and productivity. One 2008 study showed EAPs delivered a $6.47 return on investment for every $1 spent.

Despite this clear value proposition, companies rarely take full advantage of these offerings, and in many cases, employees don’t even know they exist. According to Chestnut Global Partners’ 2016 EAP trends report, utilization rates in North America were less than 7 percent.

“EAP offerings have historically been underutilized for a lot of reasons,” said LuAnn Heinen, lead expert on EAPs for the National Business Group on Health, a Washington, D.C.based nonprofit organization focused on national health poli-

UTILIZATION OF EAP SERVICES IN NORTH AMERICA IS

6.9

%

cy issues. Managers rarely refer employees to the appropriate programs, and even if employees are aware of the offerings, there is often a stigma attached to using them.“There are a lot of missed opportunities with EAPs,” she said.

Low utilization rates continue despite the fact that EAP offerings have matured over the years, from simple support for substance abuse, to robust portfolios of mental health offerings designed to help employees deal with depression, reduce stress and address anxiety at work and at home.

STRESS IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS Among those who are using EAP services, the CGP report showed an increase in the number of crisis counseling sessions, which they attribute to ongoing organizational changes, economic stress and a general trend by employers to move toward high deductible medical plans, which can have an unintended cost of driving more employees with highrisk conditions to the EAP.

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“The rise in stress and anxiety among employees is something companies need to pay attention to,” said Todd Donaldson, director of training and consultation services for CGP. “Offering employees access to these kinds of services is important to maintaining a healthy and productive workforce.”

NBGH has seen companies seeking mental health and emotional well-being services as part of their EAP offering in recent years. Heinen noted that some of the largest companies are bringing in their own in-house clinicians, and providing 24/7 online access to psychological health professionals to support the mental health of their employees. “There is a lot of interest in these types of programs.”

EAPs are also more directly linked to traditional health care plans now than in the past, said Lucy Henry, vice president of stakeholder relations for First Sun EAP in Columbia, South Carolina. “Many larger EAPs are now embedded with health insurance, along with long term disability, life insurance and other ancillary plans,” she said.

In some cases, health insurance companies may include free EAP programs, including a limited number of counseling sessions and crisis management tools as a value added program.

At the same time, employees are finding support on their own, particularly via mental health apps like Spire, Happify and Whil. Roughly a third of all consumers have at least one mobile health application on their mobile device, and this number is expected to keep growing, according to the CGP report. However, there are no studies showing whether these apps have an impact on behavior or performance. “Apps are a nice add-on, but they don’t begin to address what EAPs can do,” Heinen said.

BENCHMARKING AND ROI Demonstrating positive outcomes of EAP offerings is something providers are paying closer attention to in order to reinforce the value proposition of these services, Donaldson said. To tackle this challenge, benefits leaders and EAP providers need to do a better job communicating the availability and value of EAP services to employees, and overcoming stigmas related to employees’ seeking help for mental health disorders. They also need to provide training and m ay / j u n e

2017

career coaching for managers about when and how to refer employees to these services.

EAP providers can further overcome this challenge by doing more benchmarking and showing the impact of their services. “Frequency of use isn’t a measure of quality,” Donaldson said. If vendors can link the impact of their services to productivity and reduced absence it can help them demonstrate the financial benefits of investing in these services. That includes tracking the outcomes of phone counseling services and employer sponsored mHealth apps.

“You have to determine whether the tools actually lead to behavior change or improved health,” he said.

He also encourages companies to align EAP services with organizational goals, and for company leaders to openly support use of these programs. “It’s not enough to offer the benefit. Employees need to see buy-in from local stakeholders for it to become part of the cultural norm.”

Sarah Fister Gale is a freelance writer based in the Chicago area. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

HOT LIST EAP Providers Listed alphabetically; compiled by Mia Mancini; editors@workforce.com Company name & web address

Revenue derived from EAP services

Number of EAP employer clients

Total number of employees covered

ACI SPECIALTY BENEFITS ACIspecialtybenefits.com

$14,161,760

11,976*

11,078,437

BEACON HEALTH OPTIONS beaconhealthoptions.com

$119.5 million

360**

13.6 million

CHESTNUT GLOBAL PARTNERS chestnutglobalpartners.org

Would not disclose

550

Would not disclose

CIGNA EAP cigna.com

Would not disclose

950

14 million

$450 million

33,000

89 million

Would not disclose

423

157,000

$17 million

2,500

5 million

INTEGRATED BEHAVIORAL HEALTH INC. ibhcorp.com

$15.5 million

26,000

7.5 million

MAGELLAN HEALTH INC. magellanhealth.com

$295.4 million

Would not disclose

14.6 million

Would not disclose

200

250,000

$5 million

530

250,000

COMPSYCH CORP. compsych.com FIRST SUN EAP firstsuneap.com HEALTH ADVOCATE EAP+WORK/LIFE healthadvocate.com

MINES AND ASSOCIATES INC. minesandassociates.com PERSPECTIVES LTD. perspectivesltd.com

Notes: *ACI Specialty Benefits recently partnered with Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co. Source: Companies m ay / j u n e

2017

** Total includes reseller agreements.

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53

SECTOR REPORT

Rewards & Recognition Providers

We’ve Got You Covered Employers are picking up the tab on many voluntary benefit options.

By Sarah Fister Gale

More than

C

ompanies that want to add value to their benefits offering without spending a lot of money are using voluntary benefits to fill the gaps.The idea behind voluntary benefits is that employees pick and choose from a variety of additional benefits packages, and cover the cost themselves.

It’s a growing area of the benefits sector for a number of reasons, said Amy Hollis, national leader of voluntary benefits for Willis Towers Watson. One key driver is the desire to attract millennial workers.

“Companies need to add value beyond salary and traditional benefits,” she said.

That’s lead to a variety of new voluntary benefits options, including identity theft protection, health club memberships and student loan repayment programs, to compliment the more traditional vision and dental insurance, critical care cov-

71

%

of larger employers offer at least one voluntary product.

OF EMPLOYERS BELIEVE VOLUNTARY BENEFITS IMPROVE WORKER MORALE AND SATISFACTION.

erage and life insurance that appeal to older generations.

Companies are also using these plans to help all employees balance the risk of rising health care costs, said Nelson Griswold, vice president of the Voluntary Benefits Association and president of Bottom Line Solutions in Nashville,Tennessee.

“Employees are facing high out-of-pocket costs that can cause them to make poor health care decisions,” he said.They may delay early interventions to avoid paying deductibles only to end up in the emergency room, requiring more extensive care and additional time off work.Voluntary benefits give em-

54

80

%

ployees a safety net to cover these costs and prevent small health care concerns from turning into crises Traditionally, employees have covered the cost of these benefits themselves.

Though recently, some companies are paying for some of these offerings as a way to balance their health insurance program costs. For example, a company may choose an insurance plan that has a higher deductible but lower premium, then add critical illness or other medical plans to fill the financial gap, Griswold said. “They are creating an umbrella of coverage options to balance the odds for their employees.”

Hollis has also seen many tech companies pick up the tab for identify theft benefits, as they view this as a risk to themselves as well as their people. “It’s as much about protecting the brand and the employee,” she said.

Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m

Ask What They Need Voluntary benefits options can be appealing for companies that want to cater to the needs of their employees, however they shouldn’t go overboard, said Rob Shestack, chairman and CEO of the Voluntary Benefits Association in Philadelphia.

“You have to look at the demographics of your employee m ay / j u n e

2017

population, including age, gender and salary,” he said. “If the average employee is earning less than $25,000, their benefits choices will be very different from those earning six-figures.”

Many companies want to offer multiple package options to accommodate these different demographics, though he urges them to limit choices to a few targeted plans. Otherwise they risk making decisions overwhelming for users.

“Assemble a top list of benefits, than narrow it down and get employee feedback,” he advised. Companies can also look to carriers for help in manging enrollment and participation.

Most carriers in this $7 billion industry are expanding their online capabilities and streamlining enrollment to accommodate product offerings from multiple carriers.

Once a program is selected, benefits managers need to ac-

tively promote it and provide employees with the training and support tools to make the best choices. Shestack said an Aflac study showed Americans lose up to $750 a year by making poor benefits choices, because they don’t spend enough time analyzing their options.

“It is not enough to offer passive support programs,” he said. He argued that every employee should have to go through a short training program on how to make the right benefits decisions. “It may not cause everyone to make different choices, but for the people who do, it can be a real financial benefit.”

Sarah Fister Gale is a freelance writer based in the Chicago area. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

HOT LIST Rewards & Recognition Providers Listed alphabetically; compiled by Mia Mancini; editors@workforce.com Company Name & Web Address

Annual revenue

Number of clients

Not available

244

Meijer Inc.; American Express Global Business Travel; Rogers Communications

CULTURENEXT maritzmotivation.com/culturenext

Would not disclose

125

Caesar’s Entertainment; General Motors Corp.; Roche

ENGAGE2EXCEL INC. engage2excel.com

Would not disclose

2,700

GLOBOFORCE globoforce.com

Would not disclose

Would not disclose

Cardinal Health; Cisco Systems; Eaton Corp.

$50 million

Would not disclose

Rochester Institute of Technology; Federal Aviation Administration; city of Nashville

MICHAEL C. FINA mcfrecognition.com

Not available

800

Comcast; McDonald’s Corp.; Marriott Corp.

O.C. TANNER octanner.com

$480 million

4,000

American Express; Dow Chemical; Thomson Reuters

RIDEAU RECOGNITION INC. rideau.com

$150 million

960

ACHIEVERS achievers.com

IDENTITYFORCE identityforce.com

Key clients

Avis Budget Group; Emory Healthcare; UPS

RBC Financial Group; Intel; Boeing

Source: Companies m ay / j u n e

2017

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55

WF100 continued from page 24

Methodology The Workforce 100 is the rank order and scores of the 100 companies that performed best in seven core areas: workplace culture, employee benefits, diversity and inclusion, employee development and talent management, human resources innovation, leadership development, and talent acquisition. The working assumption behind the list is that high performance in these core categories provides a reasonable proxy for overall HR excellence.

To create the ranking, researchers at the Human Capital Media Advisory Group, the research arm of Workforce magazine, collected available public data from a representative list of established benchmarking and ranking programs in the identified categories and partnered with Glassdoor to include data on employee satisfaction in key areas. This allowed researchers to generate a score based equally on depth and breadth of outside recognition and internal recognition.

The reason for this change in methodology was to create a ranked list that made comprehensive HR participation and employee feedback on their respective employers the primary focus rather than excellence in one core area. Using this method, organizations that are recognized on multiple lists but do not perform perfectly will be ranked higher than organizations that are ranked in one area but perform better in a single discipline. In addition, organizations that are not as heavily represented in external recognition programs are still acknowledged for their HR efforts through the posted opinions of their employees.

To generate the score, researchers first looked at how many lists with HR relevance a particular company appeared on, which makes up half of the total score (maximum of 5 points). The other half of the score (also with a maximum of 5 points) was derived from an average of the company’s Glassdoor performance in areas pertaining to HR. These scores are then added together to create the final score.

Component Lists: Top Companies Lists, Overall: World’s Best International Workplaces, 2016 (Great Place to Work Institute) Best Small Workplaces, 2016 (Great Place to Work Institute) Best Medium Workplaces, 2016 (Great Place to Work Institute) 100 Best Companies to Work For, 2016 (Fortune) America’s Best Employers, 2016 (Forbes)

Top Companies Lists, Benefits Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles (National Business Group on Health) The Best 401(k) Plans, 2016 (Bloomberg) 30 Best Workplaces to Retire From, 2016 (Fortune)

Top Companies Lists, Diversity Best Employers for Vets, 2016 (Military Times) Disability Equality Index, 2016 (AAPD) 100 Best Companies, 2016 (Working Mother) 50 Best Workplaces for Diversity, 2016 (Fortune) 50 Best Companies for Diversity, 2016 (Black Enterprise) Top 50 Companies for Diversity, 2016 (DiversityInc)

Top Companies Lists, Innovation: The Most Admired for HR, 2015 (HR Executive) The World’s 30 Most Innovative Corporate Human Resources Departments, 2015 (Human Resources MBA) Most Admired Company, category Ability to Attract, Develop and Retain Talent (Fortune)

Top Companies Lists, Leadership: Best Companies for Leaders, 2016 (Chief Executive) Most Admired Company, category Quality of Leadership, 2016 (Fortune)

Top Companies Lists, Recruiting: Best Places to Interview, 2016 (Glassdoor) Candidate Experience Awards, 2016 (Talent Board)

Top Companies Lists, Talent Management Learning Elite, 2017 (Chief Learning Officer) Learning in Practice Awards, 2016 (Chief Learning Officer) Excellence in Practice Awards, 2016 (Association for Talent Development) BEST Awards, 2016 (Association for Talent Development) Training Top 125, 2016 (Training)

Glassdoor Data Used: Career Opportunities Rating Compensation & Benefits Rating Culture & Values Rating Work/Life Balance Rating Recommend to a Friend Rating Note: Some of the component lists are compiled by active participation from the companies listed and therefore do not recognize companies that decline to participate.

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SINGLES continued from page 51 ple they like and trust, doesn’t cause them to have a career with no life, allows for promotion, and has enough development so they don’t feel they are stagnating,” she added.

Millennials are deeply concerned about job and financial stability, according to Deal. If they feel either are threatened, they will be quick to leave. However, her research shows that most prefer to stay with their employer for the long haul.

Compounding the stereotypes regarding single workers, several studies have shown they are viewed more negatively than married people and judged to be lonely, insecure, more self-centered, inflexible and unhappy. At the same time, millennials, many of whom are single, suffer from similar unflattering impressions as being self-centered and entitled and willing to jump ship for something better.

Such stereotypes and impressions can negatively affect a work environment.

“Despite that, singles don’t really resent the perks given to married workers because they understand the importance of being family friendly. They simply would like to have employers pay greater attention to their needs as well,” Casper said.

Company leaders can help their young and single employees by paying them well from the beginning of their employment. They can also implement assistance programs to help pay their college loan debt or provide tuition reimbursement plans that help with their continuing education.

“A challenge for managers is to think of their employees in terms of their life stage rather than in terms of a generation,” Deal added. “What people want, can do, and need differs more as a function of life stage than it does as a function of generation.”

Clearly what is needed is a workplace culture where the specifics of a person’s home life, including marriage, should not matter in evaluating an employee’s work, and a culture that supports everyone having a life outside of work regardless of whether that life includes having a spouse and raising children, she said.

Organizations need to understand the responsibilities their employees have outside the workplace and that requires more flexibility from the company, Deal said. Being knowledgeable about all employees — single, millennials (often the same) and married — and ensuring the organization is prepared to meet their needs is a key to a company’s success.

Developing a culture that supports all employees’ work-life balance is likely to enhance employee perceptions of both supportiveness and fairness, Casper said. She references an abundance of research that shows when employees perceive their organizations are more supportive, they tend to be more committed and satisfied and less likely to leave. Those employees also are more likely to go “above and beyond” and pitch in to help co-workers and the organization.

“When they do, everyone wins; organizations benefit when turnover of talented employees is reduced and when institutional knowledge is retained and developed over many years and companies become better places for people to work,” she said.

Clif Boutelle is a consultant for the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

m ay / j u n e

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BOYCOTTS continued from page 10 That included implementing a D&I survey and creating a board of employees to identify how the company could do better with its diversity and inclusion efforts. They also developed a commercial featuring a gay man coming out to his parents — a first for Italy.

Within a year, Barilla went from the scourge of the LGBTQ community to scoring a top rating on the HRC’s list of employers who are LGBT-friendly, and it has remained at the top of the list ever since.

“This all started with a PR problem,” said HRC’s Fidas. “But Barilla has become a stronger company for it.”

Despite the efforts, the anti-LGBTQ comments will never disappear. They still resurface on social media, often without any context as to when they happened or how the company responded, making readers think they just occurred and spurring new demands for boycotts.

“We continue to make an effort to talk about what we’ve done, and to respond to every tweet,” said Luca DiLeo, Barilla’s

head of media relations. “But it’s harder to get attention for the good things you’ve done than the bad things.”

One way Barilla keeps its message in the social stratosphere without badgering people with its accomplishments is through its “While the Water Boils” YouTube series, where bestselling author and LGBT activist Hannah Hart interviews inspirational public figures including Bill Nye and Wanda Sykes, about how they feed their passion.

“It’s another way for us to move Barilla forward on this journey,” Anderson said.

Barilla is a positive example of how to react to a social media crisis, though companies should proactively talk with leaders and staff about the importance of communicating the company’s values in all conversations about the brand.

“This experience catalyzed us to take action, but we should have done it sooner,” Anderson said. “Everyone benefits when you take the time to understand differing points of view.”

ADVERTISING SALES Clifford Capone Vice President, Group Publisher

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312-967-3591 dgraham@workforce.com

AL, AR, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, OH, OK, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, District of Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan

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ADVERTISERS’ INDEX Advertisers/URLs Page

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ADP 3rd Cover adp.com/talent APU 15 www.apus.edu/WF Equifax 42, 43 www.equifax.com/business/wageaudit Globoforce 6, 36, 37 www.workhuman.com, www.globoforce.com HCM Game Changers 28 Workforce.com HCM Optimas Awards 30 workforce.com/optimas Hogan 21, 40, 41 hoganhipo.com HRCI 19 hrci.org

International Coach Federation Back Cover CredentialedCoachFinder.com Identity Guard 2nd cover IdentityGuardBusiness.com Manpower Group 38, 39 www.right.com/SkillsRevolution Pryor Learning Solutions 35 pryor.com SHRM 3, 5 Shrm.org, shrmcertification.org/prep/workforce Ultimate Software 25 www.ultimatesoftware.com/events2017 Varidesk 13 VARIDESK.com

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2017

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57

LAST WORD

Rick Bell

HR’S STAND IN THE FACE OF FOX

I

don’t say this often. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever said it, at least not in such clear-cut terms: Bravo, Society for Human Resource Management, for doing the right thing. Pulling your ads off of Fox News in the wake of the Bill O’Reilly sex harassment payoff scandal was the right choice.

It’s clear that you enjoy playing in the always-treacherous snake pit that is today’s partisan politics-infused TV news game. With the knee-jerk nature of our political spinmeisters it’s a gambit that can backfire on a moment’s notice.Yet you planted your feet and took a firm stance for ethical workplace practices and against a morally bankrupt TV talker who cost his news operation employer some $13 million because he lacked the basic capacity to act like a decent, normal person around women.

nies pull lucrative advertising dollars. Few things draw executives’ attention faster than someone or some thing affecting the bottom line.

And with O’Reilly’s firing April 19, Fox executives indeed were paying attention.

But I’m not going to ding you too hard, SHRM. Better late than never.Your stand for inclusive workplace cultures comes at a critical time.

I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that moreso than ever, organizations need HR. Your position on Fox symbolizes that HR should not compromise standards for workplace fairness, decency and transparency no matter who is committing the transgression.

We are in an era of unprecedented entrepreneurialism not only in the United States but globally. Practically overnight, companies are springing from a handful of overworked dreamers to hugely successful business people flush with cash who nevertheless lack people management basics.The surge criss-crosses all industries — benefits, wellness, HR technology, L&D, recruiting, staffing, retail … we haven’t seen anything like this since the dawn of the internet in the late 1990s.

We’ve also witnessed an unprecedented spike in employee-employer relationship gaffes. These unicorns just can’t seem to avoid goring themselves with their own horn.

While your ad pull seems like a no-brainer, and considZenefits and Uber to name just a couple have spiraled ering O’Reilly’s one-time value as a big-time TV person- into self-induced PR nightmares that could have likely ality and author who is a huge nightly draw, the reality is been avoided with two simple words: human resources. the high road also entailed the loss of some 4 million sets of I get it … sort of.What are the immediate C-suite needs eyeballs on your ads. There must have been some level of when a company suddenly blows up? Finance, check. IT, hand-wringing at SHRM HQ. yep. Sales, right away. And let’s outsource our recruiting and Yet your brief, direct statement released in the wake of staffing and don’t forget to order the keggerator. the New York Times story on Fox’s massive payoffs to Ummm, hello, HR here; don’t look now but the staff is five women spoke volumes: “SHRM has determined to fornicating in the stairwells and the boss is telling racist cease its current advertising on the Fox News Network,” jokes — again. you declared.

HR isn’t needed until it’s needed. And by that time it’s So let me reiterate: Bravo, SHRM, bravo. too late. Organizations quickly find themselves wading That all said, there’s something that still sticks with me. I through a morass of costly HR-related people issues that mean, sure, you get a standing O for this one.You took a were easily avoidable had executives — admittedly good at controversial and potentially costly position, an uncom- building a business but lousy managers — thought about mon characteristic in the hyper-cautious, don’t-make- quality internal governance. waves world of HR. Think Uber; think Zenefits; think Thinx.

With my respects in mind I still have to ask: What took And finally, think Fox News. so long?

That’s where SHRM’s actions speak louder than words. It I mean, Fox News has not exactly been the gleaming took longer than I would have liked, but your blow to Fox’s beacon of outstanding management practices, particularly financial solar plexus was a shot heard ’round the HR world. in the wake of last summer’s ouster of network boss Roger Along with other well-earned plaudits you’ve received, I’d Ailes for his serial sex harassment shenanigans. Coinci- like to add a final hearty bravo, SHRM, for practicing what dence that Fox News in late December named Kevin Lord you preach. as its first EVP of HR? I think not.

Lord is earning his keep amid the financial fallout of the Rick Bell is Workforce’s editorial director. To comment, email O’Reilly scandal that saw you and dozens of other compa- editors@workforce.com.

HR ISN’T NEEDED UNTIL IT’S NEEDED. AND BY THAT TIME IT’S TOO LATE.

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m ay / j u n e

2017

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