By: Julie A. Stephens, SPHR

Well social media is here they say.  Actually, it has been here for a while!  Sometimes I am a bit slower to fully commit to this new way of accessing information and sharing ideas in all its many facets. I am all about Facebook and LinkedIn mind you, but Twitter and Blogging?  I must say, I have not been so quick to dive in.  In my humble opinion, as I venture more into this digital world of sharing ideas and meeting people I realized as an HR professional I would do myself a world of good if I figured out how to be in this “space” effectively.  Frankly, for me and my development I believe it is not an option to ignore all the various forms of social media any longer.
What’s there to be afraid of anyway? Sometimes I feel HR professionals get in their own way worrying about all the ways social media can harm companies and cause employee issues.  While I do realize there are risks and we should be mindful of them, I would like to share with you what I have found on my journey in the digital world.

1. “There is nothing to fear but fear itself “~FDR
This quote is one we have all heard before.  I found that once I walked through my fear it became easier to join the conversation.  Let’s face it, we HR folks all talk to people for a living, what could be so scary?

2. People want to connect with you and share ideas.
I have connected with some wonderful HR leaders who have some great ideas to share.  My network has increased tremendously and when I want to bounce an idea off of someone there are plenty to choose from. I also found I can be of help to others along the way, which is a bonus. Together we are better, synergy!

3. They say knowledge is power!
The amount of useful thought provoking information at your fingertips is amazing! Any HR topic you can think of is covered in a blog. I suggest setting up Google Reader to help manage your blogs and subscribe to the ones you find most thought provoking and informative. Topics and discussions are going all the time on Twitter, join the conversation! Go on, dip your toe in the water it really is very easy once you get the hang of it!  Get a twitter handle and follow some great people for a while to see how it flows.  I reached out to some of those folks and they are continuing to help show me the way.

There are many types of social media and I have only commented on a very small number of them here. However, I am determined to continue to learn and grow in my knowledge of social media.  I found what I am learning very rewarding!  I would encourage you to take a step and dive right in!

Onsite Wellness Screenings
Wellness initiatives are a current trend in HR with the goal of improving overall health of employees and decrease rising health care costs through wellness initiatives. Occasionally we hear about the importance of health screenings in the media, most recently it was Jerome Harrison’s routine screen before a trade in the NFL from Detroit Lions to the Philadelphia Eagles that detected cancer and probably saved his life. Twenty years ago, it was Magic Johnson discovering that he was HIV positive through a routine health screen. Early detection of health problems dramatically increase the chance for a positive outcome and decrease healthcare costs.

I coordinated wellness biometric screenings onsite, during work hours that were free to all full time employees regardless of their health insurance benefits election last month. Biometric screening were coordinated through our health insurance provider, CIGNA, and included a personal health questionnaire, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), cholesterol (LDL and HDL) and glucose testing followed by a short consultation with a health care  professional. The entire process took less than 20 minutes, was very well organized and was relatively painless – although I did have a bruise from that finger prick!

Here are a few thoughts to consider as you plan your onsite wellness screening:

• Work with your insurance resources.  Don’t recreate the wheel here. Use the resources that you have available to you, including your insurance provider and TPA. Both are experts in health and wellness; you are not.
• Address privacy concerns up front and be clear about how the data will be reported back to the employer. As you would expect, the company will receive aggregate reporting of trends within our employee population to create targeted wellness programs to help employees improve their health. Although data will only be shared with the company in aggregate, privacy during the screening and privacy about individual results were the biggest concern of our employees.
• Tell employees exactly what to expect during the screening. What tests will be run and why. Have an example summary report that they will receive after the screen.
• Have a trained professional review results with employees privately. I received negative feedback from employees- including marathon runners, tall employees and shorter employees – about BMI calculations because that these employees were considered overweight based upon BMI. Assuming that height will not change over time for most adults, BMI seems to be a helpful measure to determine changes in weight if nothing else. Having a trained professional tell me this was very helpful.
• Allow all employees to participate onsite and on the clock. The data provided to employers to create targeted health initiatives and to employees to improve their health is worth the 30 minutes away from work. Allowing all employees, not just those who elect your insurance coverage, demonstrates your commitment to employee wellness, not just to benefit rates.

As an employee, I received good information about my own health and wellness. I am overall good health- regularly exercising, making better food choices than I did just a few years ago and living a healthy lifestyle. I know that I don’t need to worry about cholesterol or glucose levels at this time and can still enjoy my daily Coca Cola. Although my screening was uneventful, it’s just as important that employees received this positive information about their health as it is to uncover issues that require follow up with a physician.

With a few exceptions (particularly healthcare), unionization has been on a downward trend in Ohio and across the country. There are many reasons for this trend. The first among those is the emergence of individual employee rights laws over the last 50+ years including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). These laws provide rights for employees that previously would have been negotiated by labor unions. With the advent of these laws, the protections unions provided became less important. Another reason for the downward trend in unionization is the transition from a manufacturing economy to a service economy in the United States. As manufacturing jobs moved oversees, union membership declined.

If this declining membership trend reverses, historians may look back on 2011 as a pivotal year on both state and federal levels. The year began with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) declaring that it planned to require private-sector employers to post union rights notices to increase employee knowledge of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The posting requirement applies to both unionized and union-free companies. The posting is similar to those required by the FLSA, FMLA, and other state and federal discrimination laws. Employers protested to no avail. The posting requirement officially goes into effect on January 31, 2012.

The NLRB also injected itself into the world of social media in 2011. In September, an NLRB administrative law judge issued a decision in the Hispanics United of Buffalo, Inc. (“HUB”) case. HUB had terminated five employees for using a worker’s Facebook page to post angry and defensive responses to a coworker’s criticism of their work. The company asserted that the employees’ Facebook postings bullied and harassed the coworker in violation of the company’s zero tolerance harassment policy. The administrative law judge disagreed. He concluded that there was no evidence showing that the posting violated the harassment policy. Instead, he ruled that the employees engaged in protected concerted activity when they posted work-related comments in response to the coworker’s criticism. This, he concluded, violated the NLRA.

The HUB decision applies equally to both unionized and union-free employers. If this line of thinking continues, it will represent a major setback for employers. In addition to the EEOC and OCRC, Employees terminated or disciplined for social media violations will now consult the NLRB to determine the legality of the decision. This will undoubtedly lead to a rise in Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges (and additional frustration and expense for employers).

Unions also gained ground at state levels in 2011. The most obvious Ohio example involved the battle over Senate Bill 5 (SB5). SB5 was intended to radically reform public sector collective bargaining in Ohio. It attacked virtually all key aspects of bargaining, including wages, benefits and the right for public sector employees to engage in strikes. As everyone now knows, Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected SB5 in the November elections. What many may not realize is that some of the SB5 changes were included in House Bill 153, the budget bill which is now law in Ohio.

While SB5 specifically dealt with public sector unions, the impact of its defeat will likely be felt in the private sector as well. The battle over SB5 reenergized unions across Ohio. Public and private sector union members united for a common mission: to defeat SB5. They characterized SB5 as an attack on “regular people” and united with those people to defeat the law. These “regular people” are exactly the people that unions will now try to recruit as new dues-paying members. The recruiting drive will certainly not be limited to the public sector.

We will not know for several years whether 2011 will be dubbed “The Year of Labor Union Resurgence.” What we do know is that 2011 was a good year for unions. This is an opportunity for them to build on that momentum and add new dues-paying members. Wise employers will be mindful of that as they make employment decisions in 2012.

About the Author: Lee P. Geiger, Esq. is a Partner at Graydon Head & Ritchey, LLP in Cincinnati, OH. His practice focuses largely on labor, employment, healthcare, and education law. Lee has significant experience representing employers in matters before administrative agencies including the EEOC, OCRC and NLRB, as well as handling arbitrations, mediations, labor negotiations, due process hearings, and litigation matters in state and federal courts.

 Written and Contributied by Bing Spitler, SPHR, CEO Spitler Group LLC and GCHRA Workforce Readiness Chair

As business managers who specialize in Human Resources, one of your major responsibilities is to plan for the future. A key topic of discussion in the HR world today is employee engagement. Much of HR consulting is helping businesses improve through their most costly and significant asset, their people. So, how do you approach this issue? How do you get started? How would you find the level of engagement of your employees and why is that so important? You might be surprised that it’s not that expensive and the ROI could be huge. Blessing White Consulting reports on employee engagement: 

• 31% are engaged, and 17% are disengaged.
• There is a strong correlation between engagement levels and age, role/level, and tenure in the organization. 
• More employees are looking for new opportunities outside their organization than in 2008. 
• Engaged employees plan to stay for what they give; the disengaged stay for what they get. 
• Employees worldwide view opportunities to apply their talents, career development and training as top drivers of job satisfaction.
•  Trust in executives appears to have more than twice the impact on engagement levels than trust in immediate managers does.

For those of you who report to the CFO, have them consider this, “Actively disengaged employees erode an organization’s bottom line while breaking the spirits of colleagues in the process. Within the U.S. workforce, Gallup estimates this cost to be more than $300 billion in lost productivity alone.”

In spite of themselves, businesses survive at this low level of employee engagement; and therefore, it is sometimes hard to justify to management the need to develop an employee engagement strategy. Surviving is key and, “just getting by” clouds the fact that things could be so much better if the percentage of engaged employees in the company were to increase.

So, what needs to be done? To achieve higher levels of employee engagement, your company will require a focused strategy. Here are areas to consider: 

1. Conduct an employee engagement survey or review your employee performance evaluations to determine your baseline. One easy way to do this is to count the number of superior, average and below average employees based on employee evaluations at your company. Now you have identified the number of employees or percentage of each in the three different engagement categories. As an important addition, you can dollarize these figures to provide baseline ROI and place value on each employee’s contribution or cost to the company.  Strategy: Every time you hire a new employee you must add to the superior performer count. 
2. Where do you want your organization to be? Again, Gallup’s findings indicate, “In world-class organizations, the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees is 9.57:1.” Small changes can result in big returns so it is not necessary to eat the whole apple in one bite. Data indicates that superior performers outperform the average between 19 to 46%. Set a goal for 50% engaged employees, 35% average and 5% below average (who are on target to be replaced) and take action to begin improving the organization. Strategy: Hire only those people who have the best predictors of being high performers. 
3. Use technology to help determine the characteristics of high performers. Valid employee assessments can identify the common characteristics of your high performers. This information should be included as criteria for new hires. Consider all-in-one “whole person” pre-employment assessments for hiring, promotions and succession planning. Strategy: Find a strong (valid and reliable) behavioral assessment tool that will provide you with more candidate information to make better hiring decisions. 
4. Hire the right person for the job. Employees who like what they do perform at higher levels. Research indicates that satisfied and engaged employees perform better, don’t cause problems, are less likely to leave, and maintain better customer relations. Strategy: Hire the right people with the knowledge, skills, ability and interest in doing your work and treat them well. 
5. Structure your organization and train your managers to manage for high performance. A recent Society for Human Resources Management’s turnover study concluded that employees leave managers not companies. Consider finding out what the criteria is for being one of the Best Places to Work and start working in that direction. You’ll find that the criteria are not expensive and that they can impact employee motivation. Strategy: Develop an environment that promotes employee engagement.

The bottom line is: engaged employees who have the skills and attitude, doing jobs they enjoy, in the right environment, with the right supervision gives your company a competitive advantage – that will surely increase sales, production, customer satisfaction and profit.

bspitler@spitlergroup.com

Let’s face it… getting the managers in your organization to take performance appraisals seriously, let alone do a good job of them can be a real challenge. Many managers and employees still see performance appraisals as a necessary evil, not a strategic management tool. As a result, some managers put little time and effort into writing appraisals and discussing performance with their employees. If we could just get everyone onboard with the process, performance appraisals could be an invaluable tool for driving employee performance and development, as well as organizational success. But I’m preaching to the choir.

Here are 5 common challenges HR encounters with performance appraisals, and some tips you can use to help overcome them.
Challenge # 1: Managers are either inconsistent in their ratings, or give everyone the same rating.
Tips:
• Rather than just provide numerical ratings or simple labels (exceeds, needs improvement, etc) for ratings, provide detailed behavioral descriptions of the various levels of performance to help guide managers’ ratings.
• Conduct management team reviews of ratings, or have someone knowledgeable review managers’ ratings to ensure consistency, fairness and accuracy.
Challenge # 2: Managers are late completing their performance appraisals, or don’t bother to complete them at all.
Tips:
• Give every manager a goal on their performance appraisal to complete appraisals for their employees on time. You’ll want to ensure you stipulate some form of quality measurement as well.
• Run a friendly competition between managers, departments or divisions to see who can complete their appraisals first.
• Offer a small reward for the first 10 (20, 30??) managers who complete and submit performance appraisals for all their employees.
• Send frequent friendly email reminders.
Challenge #3: Appraisals get completed, but the feedback they include isn’t valuable or helpful.
Tips:
• Offer managers training on how to give effective feedback. Make sure the training includes a roll-playing component. This will build managers’ skill and confidence.
• Give manager sample “building block” text they can use as a starting point when writing feedback.
Challenge #4: Employee goals are poorly written.
Tips:
• Make goal writing a collaborative effort between managers and employees. Employees have a greater stake in having well-written, clear goals, and they’ll also likely be more committed to achieving goals they helped write.
• Give managers and employees training on how to write effective goals. It’s not an easy skill to master.
• Include a sample goal on your appraisal form that reflects best practices.
Challenge #5: Ratings and feedback only address recent performance.
Tips:
• Get managers and employees to make notes on performance all year round that they can use to jog their memories.
• Include quarterly reviews in your process so managers give employees feedback on performance while the details are fresh in their minds. They can then use these quarterly reviews to build their annual appraisals.

What about you? Do you have any other ideas or suggestions to add to the list?

Sean Conrad is a Certified Human Capital Strategist and Senior Product Analyst at Halogen Software. He’s passionate about helping managers and HR improve their talent management skills. For more of his insights and ideas, read his posts on the Halogen Software blog.