As human beings we are challenged every day. Sometimes really bad things happen. Perhaps you’ve been fired or abused or treated unfairly or injured severely. You can place blame or whine, seek revenge or play the victim – or you can be resilient, problem solve, see the upside of change and bounce back stronger than before. Is this merely a Pollyanna-style philosophy? Maybe, if you are pretending that there is no injustice or pain. But while some jump into a victim role and want others to suffer right along with them, those who think win-win and make the best of their situations end up better off.

Resiliency – it’s a concept that has permeated our culture during the last several years as change has buffeted our workers, families and organizations. No one has had a stronger role in communicating the dynamics and value of resiliency than the late Dr. Al Siebert, author of, The Survivor Personality and The Resiliency Advantage.

Al’s definition of Resiliency is the ability to:

• Cope well with high levels of ongoing, disruptive change
• Sustain good health and energy under constant pressure
• Bounce back easily from setbacks
• Overcome adversities
• Work in new ways
• Without doing dysfunctional things.

Since my old friend, Al, passed away in 2010, I have served on the Board of the Resiliency Center, which he founded, have trained a range of small and very large groups in Washington, Oregon, Canada and Botswana, and have certified resiliency trainers as far away as Germany and Japan. But the Center’s most exciting endeavor will be a conference held Monday-Wednesday, July 22-24 at Reed College as part of the internationally renowned Summer Institute on Intercultural Communication.

The conference is entitled: “The Power of Resilience: Navigating Diverse Cultures in Times of Change,” and is open to the first 40 who register. At a very low fee, the conference will feature both Oregon and international resiliency consultants who are expert at involving participants.

The first day will explore the five levels of Resiliency, leading people through the stages of transition with personal and organizational examples of best practices and the triumph of the human spirit. We will explore organizational rewsiliency and how to promote these vital concepts at all levels of your organization.

The second day will examine cultural differences such as how people deal with overwhelming circumstances such as the European financial crisis, the struggles of Native Americans and veterans returning from war, and the recent earthquakes, tsunami and nuclear plan disaster in Japan.

The third day will address challenges of job loss and career transitions, stress in organizations and self-care in a society where obesity, drug and alcohol abuse and high pressure life styles are undermining health and confidence in the future.

For more information, click here.

Hope to see you there,

Glen

(Apparently, the picture above really was from a job interview. Wow.)

How did you find your job? Job searching can be crazy, but it’s really interesting to hear how people found the job that they have. I’m here at Cascade because of a Facebook “status” post, and I’ve been here over four years. Talk about the power of social media!

So, today’s question is…how did you find your job? Tell the story, please!

Michelle

We are hard wired to focus on threats, things that might put us in danger and things that are wrong.  Unfortunately, that wiring does us a disservice is some situations because it pulls away our focus from what’s right.  Research shows that when we focus and build on what’s right we experience more success and happiness.

When it comes to employee engagement, our instincts tell us to  figure out why are some of our employees are  so disengaged.  Rather, a better question to ask is what is going right with our engaged employees and how can that be replicated in other areas of the organization?  Why?  Here are a few of the characteristics of engaged employees:

• Consistently high performing
• Have high organizational citizenship (acting for the benefit of the organization)
• Can handle higher workloads with less likelihood of burnout
• More efficient and productive
• More innovative and creative
• Have a high connection with the mission
• Work with more passion

Important characteristics for employees to have?  I’d say so. Accordingly, organizations need to figure out how to keep engaged employees engaged in order to retain them as well as increase the engagement of other employees.  If we were to follow our instincts and focus on what’s wrong (our disengaged employees) it likely would be at the expense of our engaged employees – the ones we need to pay attention to the most.

Unfortunately, a common mistake that organizations make in addressing employee engagement is ignoring engaged employees because they’re already such high performers.  We assume their needs are being met so we don’t need to invest as much time in them as we invest in our “problems.”  In fact, the opposite is true.  Ignore your engaged employees and they will leave eventually.  Focus on your engaged employees and they will stay and help build an environment where it is easier for others to become engaged as well.  Why does that matter?  The more engaged employees, the better overall profitability of your organization, higher customer satisfaction, greater efficiency and productivity, and lower employee turnover to name a few good reasons.

To learn more about how to build employee engagement in your organization, contact us and let our experts help you.

Jenna Reed

What do you see from your desk? Trees? A parking lot? The grey walls of a cubicle and some pictures of your favorite people placed around you?

You probably see more than you think about on a daily basis. You know what is going on in the halls around you, all about the nuances of your job, who is interesting and who is irritating at meetings. But, have you ever thought about what everyone else around you sees at their desk?

Yesterday afternoon at Cascade we observed Administrative Professional’s Day, and gave three crucial people in our office the afternoon off to go and have some fun. That meant the rest of us were left attempting all the things that we never generally try on a daily basis, and we answered the phone in shifts at the front desk. I volunteered, nervously, but crossed my fingers that no one would call because that phone has a lot more buttons than mine. Luckily the phone didn’t ring that much, but I was struck by the fact at how much different it was to sit at someone else’s desk. It’s a desk that is just twenty feet away from mine and yet has a completely unfamiliar view. The views of the outside, of the work that needs to be done, and also of the other people in the office are all completely different than mine. I came away with a whole new appreciation for the job that is done at the desk that I borrowed for an hour. And for the person who does it. (Shoutout to Amber!)

Are you willing to see from another person’s perspective in your office? When was the last time you thought about switching desks with someone else to see their “view?” Tina Roth Eisenberg, who writes the fabulous blog SwissMiss, decided that 2013 would be the year of switching desks and working at other companies just to get a valuable new perspective. You can read her first story here.

The workplace is a tough place to get to know what people are really going through. We don’t show all of ourselves and it is an ongoing debate about if that is healthy in the office workplace or not. For now, in most places you don’t really get to know that the person who turns down every chance to donate to the office fundraiser campaign has staggering medical bills they are paying little by little. Or that the childless woman who puts on a brave face and gives a gift at every baby shower is truly happy that other people are so blessed but cries on the way home. Or that the guy who leaves early has a Dad in a nursing home that he faithfully visits every day, but his Dad never remembers his name.

Slow down and take an hour. Sit at another desk, or if you don’t have time you could take five minutes and stop by a desk and ask some questions about someone else’s job perspective. A great question to start with is, “Hi, how are you doing?” and then just listen. A possible question to ask next is, “I’ve been meaning to ask you, when I send this (report/weekly email/information) to you, is there anything I could do differently that would make your job easier?”

Are there other questions that I missed, or ones that might be better? I’d love to hear your perspective, I really would.

Because I’m trying to change my view.

Michelle

On March 13th, the Portland City Council voted to implement the mandatory sick leave ordinance that was proposed in January.

The ordinance requires employers in the City of Portland, or who have employees who perform at least 240 hours of work in the City of Portland to provide sick leave. The ordinance requires employers with six or more employees to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick time (one hour for every 30 hours worked) each calendar year for employees who perform more than 240 hours of work per year in the City of Portland, even if the business is not actually located in the City of Portland (as long as the employer is within the State of Oregon). Employers with five or fewer employees must also provide sick leave under the ordinance, but it will not be required to be paid.

Under the new ordinance, sick leave is generally available for absences resulting from certain illness, injury, health conditions, diagnosis, and preventative care of the employee or their family member. Specific absences due to domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking are also covered. Additional covered absences include the closure of the employee’s place of business or closure of their child’s school generally due to health concerns.

Covered employers already offering sick leave or other time off policies such as paid time off (PTO) are not required to provide additional time off as long the current sick or PTO offered is available to employees for the same purposes and under the same conditions as under the ordinance.

The ordinance states that employees may use sick leave in increments of one hour and may not use accrued sick leave during the first 90 days of employment. Other specific elements of the ordinance, including tracking and posting requirements, are being finalized by the city. The new ordinance will take effect on January 1, 2014.

Cascade will keep you posted on any updates as they happen. Questions about your sick leave policy? Call us.

When struggling big box retailer Best Buy followed in the footsteps of Yahoo! Inc. by altering its telecommuting policies for employees, some undoubtedly concluded that there would soon be a flood of companies doing the same. However, a new survey indicates that Best Buy may be in the minority, with the overwhelming percentage of companies planning to maintain their telecommuting policies. According to the survey, 80 percent of the 120 human resources executives polled said their companies currently offer some form of telecommuting option to employees with 97 percent of them saying there are no plans to eliminate that benefit.

The survey was conducted by global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. in the days following Yahoo’s widely reported and controversial plan to bring work-at-home employees back to the office.

“When major companies like Yahoo and Best Buy make notable policy changes, there is no doubt that other employers will take notice and some may even re-evaluate their policies. However, it would be misguided to assume that other companies will follow blindly without considering their own unique circumstances,” said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “If a company is having success with its telecommuting program, it is unlikely to will pull the plug on it simply because Yahoo did. It is just as unlikely that a company will not implement telecommuting because Yahoo did not have success with it. No two companies are the same, so each must evaluate policies such as telecommuting based on how it will affect its customers, employees and bottom line.”

The latest available statistics from the Telework Research Network indicate that 3.1 million people, not including the self-employed or unpaid volunteers, considered home to be their primary place of work in 2011. While that is up 73 percent since 2005, it still represents just 2.5 percent of U.S. nonfarm payrolls. It is estimated that as many as 64 million U.S. employees (just under 50 percent of the workforce) hold a job that is compatible with telework.

“However, just because a job is compatible with telework, does not mean the person holding that job is. Not every worker has the discipline and selfmotivation to work from home on a regular basis, which makes it nearly impossible to have a blanket policy. Every manager must determine whether telecommuting will be permitted on a case-by-case basis. And, if allowed, it must be continually monitored to ensure that the quantity and quality of the employee’s output does not drop off,” said Challenger.

Most companies surveyed by Challenger did not have a blanket telecommuting policy. Less than 10 percent of employers offered telecommuting to all workers. About 40 percent offer telecommuting opportunities to some employees. Another 30 percent do not have a formal telecommuting program but permit some employees to work from home some days.

The need to examine telecommuting on a case-by-case basis was, in fact, the primary change in Best Buy’s policy shift. According to reports, Best Buy’s telecommuting policy, which had been in place since 2005, allowed any of its 4,000 non-store employees to work from home whenever they wanted without approval from a supervisor. The new policy now requires workers to get their supervisor’s okay.

“Best Buy obviously still recognizes that there is value in allowing telecommuting or it would have simply terminated the program entirely. However, the company also recognizes the need to maintain tighter control over the telecommuting workforce. Just because some workers are more productive when they work from home does not mean that every employee is,” said Challenger.

Increased productivity is one of the leading reasons for allowing employees to work from home, according to the Challenger survey. Respondents also cited the desire to help employees achieve better work-life balance. Other top reasons for telecommute included increased morale and lowering office costs.

Among the respondents who indicated that they may or already have eliminated telecommuting, the driving factors were decreased collaboration and increased animosity among those who were not permitted to telecommute.

Source: CCH/Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

According to a recent report from Aon Hewitt, the current top three drivers of employee engagement in the United States are:

1.  Career Opportunities.  A key to keeping employees engaged is making sure the work employees are doing is more than just a job.  It’s their career.  This starts with having a clear mission that drives why each employee does what they do.    Successful employers also focus on clearly defined career paths, investing in developing new skills for their employees and providing internal growth opportunities, even if it doesn’t involve a promotion.
2. Performance Management.  Performance management doesn’t happen  just once a year during an appraisal.  Successful performance management is a daily occurrence to make sure employees are engaged in the right behaviors.  It involves both formal and informal feedback and coaching.  It means recognizing and rewarding outstanding performance and holding people accountable for poor performance.  It means setting specific, measureable, ambitious, reasonable and timely goals both on an individual and team basis.  In fact one of the top three job misery factors is lack of accountability for  poor performance and failure to recognize outstanding performance.
3. Organization Reputation.  Employees want to be a part of an organization they are proud of; proud of the mission, the vision, the values, the products or services and the people.  Highly engaged employees routinely and enthusiastically recommend their organization’s products and services and without hesitation describe it to others as a great place to work where it would take a lot to get them to leave for another opportunity (even for better pay).

How would your employees rate your organization in these areas?  The only way to know for sure is to ask.  But WAIT!  Don’t just casually ask your employees out of curiosity otherwise you may be setting yourself up for disaster.  Let us help you set it up the right way so you get the answers you want in a meaningful way.  If you’re interested in learning more about Employee Engagement Surveys, please contact us.  We’d love to talk with you!

Jenna

*Sources:  2012 Global Trends in Employee Engagement by Aon Hewitt

This Sunday is Daylight Savings Time.  For those of you who run graveyard shifts, do you know how to pay your employees while our clocks are springing forward?

The FLSA requires that employees be paid for all hours worked.  Typically, during the time change in the spring, employees working through the time change will work one less hour than they normally do, and be paid accordingly.  Typically, during the time change in the fall, employees working through the time change will work one additional hour than they normally do, and be paid accordingly.

The Department of Labor has some practical examples here.  If you have questions about how to pay your employees, call Cascade.

Happy Spring!

This blog post originally ran in August of 2011. It’s still relevant and hasn’t gone out of style, which to us equals a true Rerun Classic designation.

Oregon law grants employees the right to inspect and obtain copies of personnel record information.  (ORS 652.750)

Many employers do not realize that, technically, the personnel “record” may go beyond what is routinely kept in a personnel “file.”  Similarly, not everything kept in a personnel file qualifies as a personnel record.

The law defines “personnel records” as those documents that have been or are used to make an employment-related decision, or to determine an employee’s qualifications for employment, promotion, additional compensation or termination, or other disciplinary action.

The following are examples of items that, in general, would be included as part of the record:

• Application forms
• Performance reviews
• Disciplinary notices
• Training certificates

Supervisory notes, if relied upon to make personnel decisions can be included as part of the record. To avoid this outcome, be sure supervisors are regularly summarizing their notes into more formal documents which the employee has an opportunity to review. For example, supervisor notes are often the content source for performance evaluations and/or disciplinary notices. Nothing provided to an employee in response to a personnel record request should be a surprise.

The following are examples of items that, in general, would not be included as part of the record:

• I-9 forms
• Unemployment claim documentation
• Payroll records
• Vacation request slips
• Records specifically excluded by law relating to conviction, arrest or investigation of conduct constituting a violation of state or federal criminal laws, confidential reports from previous employers, or records maintained in compliance with ORS 351.065 (related to higher education).

At an employee’s request, an employer must provide a reasonable opportunity for the employee to inspect his or her personnel file.  An employer must also provide the employee with a certified copy of his or her personnel file, upon request.  An employer has 45 days to provide the record, and may charge a copying fee that is reasonably calculated to cover actual costs.

A terminated employee has the right to receive a certified copy of his or her personnel record for 60 days post-termination, or at any time if the employer still has the records at the time of the request.

As you can see, the definition of “record” is broad – it can reach to documents maintained by supervisors, including documents that never make it into the physical file maintained by HR.  Don’t forget that virtually everything is subject to discovery in a legal proceeding.  Just another reason to train supervisors how to properly, and professionally, maintain employment documentation.

Adopting a written policy will allow supervisors and the human resources department to be consistent with replies when employees request access to their files. Consider including the following items in your policy:

• Ensure that your policy complies with applicable laws.
• Define personnel file, both as the term is used within your organization, and according to applicable law.
• State where, when, how often, and under what circumstances workers can review or copy their files. To maintain the integrity of records, access should be permitted under some type of supervision.
• Provide an opportunity for employees to rebut or challenge information.
• Specify who is authorized to inspect personnel files.
• Internal Record Review Process: Periodically, you should audit employment records and remove or correct irrelevant, outdated, misleading, or inaccurate information.

Patrice

(Non-HR related note from Michelle – Do you know how you can get something stuck in your head after hearing a word or a phrase? Well, it may not be your cup of tea, but we can’t stop laughing about this video that mixes Taylor Swift singing, “Trouble” and a yelling goat. All because we used the word trouble in the title of this blog post. You’re welcome.)