Is Harassment Prevention Training Effective in the Workplace?

Harassment prevention training has become commonplace at most businesses. In fact, there is a big industry devoted to online training, in-person training, educational videos and other resources to help employers train employees and managers on preventing, recognizing and addressing harassment. Some states, like California, have mandatory training requirements for supervisory employees. So, with all this training, harassment complaints have virtually disappeared from the American workplace, right?

The truth is that harassment claims are still common. Look no further than headlines about Roger Ailes and Fox News for a high profile example. In addition, according to a report issued recently by an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) task force, training is ineffective when it alone is a company’s approach to preventing harassment. But we cannot just toss our training materials out the nearest window and give up on finding a way to rid our workplaces of harassment. It is time to open up a wider conversation about why harassment is still a big problem and what we can do to change our culture to one of respect.

Why Traditional Training is Often Ineffective

During my HR career, I have spent quite a few hours leading harassment training. At the first company I did training, we used curriculum we ordered from a training company. The majority of the training involved participants watching harassment scenarios mixed with commentary by two attorneys. It was a very passive approach to training because there was little real-life discussion other than what was generated in the questions I was asked as a trainer.  Eventually I added to the training, cut down on the video portion and added in discussion, which created a far more engaging session. Some companies use online training, which can also be passive and result in participants who spend the time when the video is playing checking their phones or zoning out. Such an approach to harassment training sends the message that a company is doing the training because they are legally required to and not because they have a vested interest in improving the workplace culture.

The EEOC task force found that, “…training is an essential component of an anti-harassment effort. However, to be effective in stopping harassment, such training cannot stand alone but rather must be part of a holistic effort undertaken by the employer to prevent harassment that includes…elements of leadership and accountability… the training must have specific goals and must contain certain components to achieve those goals.”

So, we do not necessarily need to ditch our training programs, but it is time to take a look at how training can be improved to fulfill its intended goals and how companies can improve at the leadership level in a way that creates a culture of respect. Training alone is simply not enough—especially when that training is no more than an employee clicking through videos and quiz questions every two years.

The EEOC report points to multiple studies that show the limited effects of training and even looked at one study that found that those with more of a tendency to harass were more likely to have a negative reaction to harassment training. In my own experience as a trainer, I found this to be true. Such participants were often the ones who would make jokes about harassment being acceptable if the harasser was a young, attractive woman, or they might bring up how they believed women often lied about harassment complaints to get attention or to get back at a man. Training did nothing to change their beliefs.

Leading by Example and a Culture of Respect

As the EEOC points out, training can be beneficial if done correctly. Training should be for all employees with extra training for those in supervisory roles. They recommend avoiding “canned” training and instead developing a program that draws from examples relevant to the specific workplace. They also emphasize the importance of live, interactive training. This allows participants to actively engage with the material and to ask questions.

In addition to training, upper management needs to support anti-harassment policies and initiatives. If top-level executives do not take harassment complaints seriously or are harassers themselves, training is going to do little to change the culture.

The task force also recommends workplace civility training to go over positive behaviors rather than just focusing on what employees should not do. This once again points to the larger issue: building a culture of respect. A culture of harassment has a huge effect on morale and productivity. It can cause all manner of suffering and mental anguish for victims and even for those who witness such behavior.

Harassment itself points to a larger issue of a culture that seems to think it is acceptable to demean people based on sex or other protected classes. As we have watched the presidential race unfold, we have the candidate of one major party who regularly degrades women he does not like by commenting on their bodies or looks. It’s no wonder that harassment is still a problem in the modern workplace when political leaders engage in such behavior.

Training Needs to Start in School

Harassment prevention training needs to start sooner. We need to start talking about things like consent and respecting others with kids. It is too late to start training when people are adults and in the workplace. Workplace training should not be someone's first exposure to understanding the importance of respect and not harassing others. While training for children need not include examples of sexual harassment, it should include thorough discussions of what it means when someone says no and respecting personal boundaries. Such education helps develop adults who enter the workforce already understanding that harassment is wrong.

It is important that we work to develop effective harassment prevention training and that we regularly evaluate that training to ensure that it continues to be a positive influence on behavior in the workplace. It is equally important for business leaders to lead by example and to call out other leaders who engage in harassing behavior. We need to avoid the practice of ignoring someone’s bad behavior because they produce good work. But simply making changes in the workplace alone is not enough.

Harassment is not just a workplace problem. It extends to how we treat each other in all areas of life. But until we recognize that and act accordingly, harassment training alone will have little effect on our workplace and everyday lives.

Pacific Reentry Career Services is Open for Business

By Stephanie Hammerwold

After months of planning, I am happy to announce the opening of Pacific Reentry Career Services, a nonprofit that helps formerly incarcerated women find gainful employment. My business partner Tim Pershing and I have talked for a long time about starting a nonprofit, and we are excited to see it come to fruition. Pacific Reentry Career Services is a combination of our work experience over the years and a cause we feel strongly about—giving people a second chance when it comes to finding meaningful work.

Why We Focus on the Reentry Community

Prior to my HR career, I worked in a domestic violence shelter and earned my MA in women’s studies. I have always had a passion for being an advocate for those who are often cast aside by society. I believe in second chances and helping those in need. At the same time I was starting my career in HR, I was also volunteering my time as a weekly art/writing workshop leader in the women’s jail in Santa Cruz. When my workshop participants found out where I worked, I started to get questions about how to handle a criminal conviction when applying for work. That was my first time realizing just how big a barrier criminal convictions can be in the journey to get one’s life back on track following incarceration.

Throughout my years in HR, I have hired hundreds of people, and I noticed that many candidates with criminal convictions could make excellent employees. Often people just need a chance to have a stable income to help rebuild their lives and reduce the chance that they will recidivate. In the last few months volunteering in the reentry community, I have heard story after story about how getting a job was the key to success, and often the formerly incarcerated are so happy to get a job offer that they commit themselves to working hard and keeping that job.

Recent studies have shown that those with criminal records may actually be better than those without. Yet the myth persists that employers should be skeptical of those who check yes to the criminal conviction question. To this end, a big part of what we do at Pacific Reentry Career Services will be working with and educating employers on the benefits of hiring the formerly incarcerated.

How this is a Continuation of our HR Work

Hiring is a big part of HR, and advocating for those whose applications often unnecessarily end up in the reject pile is a natural progression of what I had been doing in my corporate HR roles. As an HR professional, I have always had an eye out for candidates who others might dismiss. I also know how important it is to properly vet and screen candidates to ensure the best person for the job is hired. When we get too hung up on perceived red flags, we sometimes miss all the other parts of someone’s story that might make them a good employee. A number of times I would go to the table for an external candidate or a current employee up for a promotion because I was able to see something amazing in them that others were missing due to perceived shortcomings. Often my fighting for a candidate was rewarded with an employee who worked hard to prove that they deserved the job or promotion. With this nonprofit, I hope to bring that same level of advocacy in matching employers with potential employees they might have otherwise overlooked.

Aside from educating employers, we will also work closely with formerly incarcerated women to help them plan and prepare for the job search and continue to mentor them throughout the early days of a job, thus giving them access to support from business professionals who are invested in their success.

Keep an eye on this blog as well as the Pacific Reentry Career Services blog for news and updates about what we are doing. You can also subscribe to our newsletter.

And, if you are still looking for HR support from the HR Hammer, be sure to get in touch. I am still available to help with employee handbooks, training and general HR help.

Calling it Quits with a Horrible Boss

By Stephanie Hammerwold

I was recently talking to a friend who is working for a bad boss. After telling me about a particularly challenging day, he asked, “What do I do to try to make things better with my boss?” My answer was simple: “Leave.” This is advice that comes more from life experience more than it does from my HR background. I think most of us have fallen under the supervision of a bad boss at some point in our career, and we often find ourselves trying to figure out how to make things better. And I have learned that leaving is often the best option. But, it is not always that easy to make that leap.

Horrible Bosses: The HR Hammer Edition

My worst boss was early in my HR career. I ended up working for her for seven years before another HR employee and I were let go when the company decided to downsize a number of departments. While it was difficult to deal with in the moment, once I had moved on to a good job a few months later, I realized that the layoff was actually a blessing. It got me out of a horrible situation that I clearly was not able to quit on my own. Sometimes life needs to force you to quit.

My boss at that job had a reputation for being a bully, and she seemed to enjoy that people saw her that way. We would often go into meetings with her not knowing what version of her was going to show up and whether or not we could expect to laugh a lot or if we would end up wanting to cower under the table in tears. She was the kind of person who would send an email with instructions, I would follow those instructions to the letter, and then she would yell at me for not following instructions. Even when confronted with the original email, her response would be, “I’ve worked in HR for over 30 years, and I would never ask for something like that!” Anyone who worked for her fluctuated between being her favorite one day and being somebody she wanted to fire the next.

It was a toxic environment, and my coworkers and I would share stories of the way the stress of working for this boss was taking a toll on our health. We all had a list of issues that included lack of sleep, upset stomachs, headaches, nausea and all the ways it affected the way we interacted with those closest to us. No matter what countless employees said to the owner and upper management, nothing changed. One person high up in the company even confessed to me that he and the owner were struggling because they did not know what to do to address this boss’s bad behavior. That’s when I realized that they were probably too scared of her to fire her.

Some made the decision to leave after only a short time, but I was among those who stuck it out. After all, there were a lot of people that I liked at that job and who I remain friends with to this day. But ultimately it took a major toll on me, and I did not realize how bad it had been until I was pushed out and began the slow process of healing from working for such an emotionally abusive person for seven years.

Quitting Can be Good

I think quitting gets a bad rap. As Stephen J. Dubner put it on an episode from the first season of the Freakanomics podcast, “Sometimes quitting is strategic, and sometimes it can be your best possible plan.” Quitting is not always a matter of giving up. In the case of quitting a job with a horrible boss, it is really more like moving forward. Sometimes I think this never-quit mentality can keep us in unhealthy situations. I know that I got it stuck in my head that quitting that job was “giving up” or “letting my bully of a boss win.” As a result, I stayed in a place that was dragging me down to the point where most of my free time was spent holed up at home and not having the energy to go out and have fun. I was miserable and should have quit early on. But I did not. And I think in some ways I needed to learn that lesson because it helped me to see that quitting is not always a bad thing.

If you are reading this article and nodding your head as you think about how horrible your current boss is, maybe it is time to consider quitting. When I was laid off from that job, it led me down a path that got me to where I am today in my professional life. It was a major turning point where things ended up much better as a result. It is easy to be fooled into thinking staying is the best option. Maybe your coworkers are fun people to work with or you like the type of work you do. But, the misery of working for my horrible boss made it hard to enjoy those things. If your boss is as big a bully as mine was, and the company is not taking steps to get rid of that person, then your best option is to leave. I missed seeing some of my coworkers from that job on a daily basis, but I ended up with some friendships that have continued for years after I left. And the best part is I can enjoy those people more now that I am not as depressed and anxious as I was in the days I worked for that bad boss.

Develop an Exit Plan

I am not saying that you should march into your boss’s office tomorrow and dramatically declare, “Take this job and shove it!” Quitting a job is a big decision, and I feel it is important to mention that everyone should take a moment to make sure they are ready to take that leap. It can be scary to think of giving up a paycheck and searching for a job, so think through some next steps before you turn in your two weeks’ notice.

If you are worried about going without a paycheck while looking for a new job, consider starting to look for new work while still employed with your bad boss. Bosses who are bullies can make us feel worthless, which can be a hard state of mind to do a job search in. Enlist the help of a friend who can encourage and motivate you to search through job postings in the evening after work. The key is to make a plan to find something else and to stick to it. Good friends can help keep us on track when it comes to sticking to a plan.

Do not forget to take care of yourself. Do things that you enjoy, go for a hike or spend time with good friends. If the consequences of working for a bad boss have left you emotionally scarred, you may want to seek help from a therapist to take care of your mental health. Remember that we cannot change the behavior of others, but we can take care of ourselves. Sometimes that means leaving a job with a horrible boss.

How have you dealt with a bad boss? Share your horrible boss stories in the comments below.

How to Overcome Interviewer Bias

By Stephanie Hammerwold

As much as we try to make the interview process fair by sticking to work-related questions and avoiding discussion of protected classes, our own biases sometimes sneak into our hiring decisions. Maybe you tend to lean toward single parents because it resonates with your own experience being raised by a single mom, or perhaps you had a bad experience hiring someone with a criminal conviction, so now you automatically throw such candidates in the reject pile. Unfortunately, making such assumptions may mean that you miss out on great candidates, and it could also mean that your hiring process is unfair and possibly discriminatory. It is, therefore, important to understand our own biases and to actively work to adjust the hiring process to overcome such biases.

What is Interviewer Bias?

One of the most common forms of bias comes in the form of stereotyping. Take, for example, a job like firefighter, which is physically demanding. If you assume a candidate is not strong enough to be a firefighter because she is a woman, you are relying on stereotypes rather than assessing if the candidate meets the physical requirements for the job. Stereotyping during the interview process can cause big problems, especially when stereotypes about protected classes result in negative hiring decisions. Such practices are discriminatory and could cause legal trouble for an employer.

We may also be tricked by our first impressions into thinking a candidate is exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. This is called the halo/horns effect. This might show up in a bias toward attractive candidates. The candidate’s charm and good looks may get in the way of an interviewer seeing potential problems. Conversely, a candidate who checked yes to the application question about criminal conviction may automatically be viewed as untrustworthy even if the rest of their application and interview are glowing. Such biases get in the way of making good hiring decisions.

We are often drawn to those similar to us, and this can be another bias pitfall. Maybe your estimation of a candidate improves once you find out they are the same religion as you or they share similar political views. Just as with stereotypes, such criteria may be discriminatory and get in the way of really understanding if someone is qualified for the job.

Recognizing Your Own Biases

Overcoming bias starts with recognizing your own prejudices and biases. Once you acknowledge such things, you can be aware of how they may influence your hiring decisions. When I first started interviewing candidates early in my HR career, I noticed that I could easily be swayed by a hard luck story. While some of these candidates were truly ready to move beyond the problems of their pasts and could end up being star employees, sometimes my bias got in the way of recognizing red flags, and I ended up with a few bad hires. Since my early days in HR, I learned to recognize when my desire to root for the underdog was clouding my judgment.

None of us is completely free of bias and prejudice. The important thing is to understand how these things may influence the employment decisions we make. Doing the work before interviewing candidates will ultimately lead to a process that is fairer and free of potentially discriminatory practices.

Structured Criteria & Selection Process

After understanding your own biases, take some time to create a structured hiring process. Start with a job description that clearly lists the qualifications. This is the foundation for establishing criteria against which you can evaluate all candidates. When you determine a reason for rejecting someone, you should be able to point to specific qualifications on the job description that they do not meet.

Have a set of interview questions that are the same for all candidates. This is a good way to ensure interviews stay on track and do not veer into areas that might allude to protected classes. It also helps to limit interview conversations to areas that are relevant to making a good hiring decision and encourages uniformity in the type of information gathered from each candidate.

Make Selection a Group Effort

It is also useful to have several people involved in the hiring process. Pay attention to what others in the hiring process are using to make their decisions, and address any bias you see in how they evaluate candidates. It can also be useful to run selection criteria by others to ensure that criteria are free of bias and are focused on qualifications, skills and experience relevant to the job.

Working with others in the hiring process can be especially beneficial for those new to interviewing who may not yet be aware of their own biases. It is a good opportunity to openly discuss how certain biases may influence decisions and for veteran interviewers to also check in with themselves in an effort to keep the interview process bias-free.

How to Address Blemishes in Your Work History

By Stephanie Hammerwold

Most of us have some kind of blemish in our work history. Maybe you were let go from a job, you have a long gap in employment or you check yes to the question about having a criminal conviction. Those things can be stressful when filling out job applications. If you are called for an interview, it can be an added challenge to figure out how to explain them while still making yourself look like the ideal candidate. In these situations, it is important to remember that things like criminal convictions, gaps and terminations are not the full story of your experience and qualifications. By preparing in advance and thinking through standard responses to these questions, you can turn a blemish into a positive and use it as a way to show you are the best candidate for the job.

Be Honest

It may be tempting to lie about areas of concern in your work history, but be careful. Potential employers may do reference and background checks, and lying could be grounds for automatic rejection. If you are hired based on false information, and an employer later finds out, they could terminate your employment for falsifying the application.

Instead of coming up with an elaborate excuse or outright lying, use the interview as an opportunity to take control of the story of your blemishes and put a positive spin on what happened by showing how you have learned from the experience, grown or changed your life for the better.

Criminal Convictions

As an HR professional who has interviewed countless applicants in the course of my career, I have received this question many times: how do I address my past criminal convictions in a job interview? This is one of the biggest hurdles for anyone with a conviction looking for a job.

Addressing convictions starts with the job application. If this question comes up on the application, keep your answer brief. State the year of the conviction and a few words to describe it with a note that you will discuss it in more detail during an interview. You can also learn about various tax credits and federal bonding available to an employer when they hire an ex-offender. Programs include the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) and the Federal Bonding Program. The National HIRE Network has a list of programs offered at the state level. Sharing information on these programs can help encourage an employer to give you a chance, and it also shows you did your research prior to applying for jobs.

When it comes to the interview, keep your explanation brief. Once again, remember to be honest and take responsibility. Use the interview as an opportunity to show how you have improved and made changes in your life.

For example, if you have a drug conviction, explain that you made some bad choices in the past and have since gone through treatment and have successfully maintained your sobriety. This helps show an interviewer that you are able to move past blemishes in your past. If you participated in any education or vocational training while incarcerated, mention those things during the interview. This will help turn your conviction into an inspiring story about how you overcame a major challenge in your life rather than just being about the conviction.

Gaps in Employment

When the recession hit in 2008, many employees were laid off from jobs and had a hard time finding work. As a result, it is not uncommon to see gaps in employment on resumes and applications. Even if you have gaps in employment for reasons other than being laid off, it does not mean you have a strike against you in the job search. Just as with any other blemish in your work history, use the gap to show something positive.

For example, many parents take a few years off when raising young children. When reentering the workforce after a long gap used to care for children, do not hesitate to mention the other ways you used your time. Volunteering in your child’s school, organizing a fundraiser or managing carpool are all activities that use skills relevant to a job. And let’s not forget that the effort to manage children’s schedule is a job in and of itself. The same is true for any gap involving caring for a family member.

Gaps in employment may also be caused by searching for work in a bad economy, and most interviewers will see this as a viable reason for for an employment gap. Even time off to travel or to focus on an activity can be a plus in an interview and give you an interesting story to tell.

If your gap in employment was for health reasons, remember that you do not need to disclose details about your diagnosis or treatment. Simply stating that you took time off for health reasons is sufficient.

Terminations

Another tricky thing in an interview is addressing a termination. Just as with the other blemishes we spoke of, take the opportunity to show how you have learned and grown from the experience. Explain what you are doing differently now so that you can ensure an employer that whatever the reason is for termination was before will not be an issue in a new job. For example, if you were fired for attendance issues, explain how you have addressed what was causing the problem. You might say, “I had a hard time getting to that job because my car broke down regularly, which interfered with my ability to arrive on time. I have since bought a new car, so I no longer have issues with reliable transportation.”

Avoid using this question as a chance to badmouth a former employer or a horrible boss. Doing so in an interview may leave the interviewer wondering if the issue was really with the employer or if it was with you. While it is true your boss may have been a horrible person, it is not necessary to go into that in an interview.

This is another area where honesty is important. It would be better to take control of how the story of your termination is told rather than lying and having a potential employer find out by checking references.

Focus on Your Accomplishments

Remember that the story you tell about your work experience should focus on your accomplishments. Convictions, gaps and terminations are only a small piece of the story. Be confident in drawing an interviewer's attention to the good things on your application because that will ultimately be the impression you leave them with. Your accomplishments can include a variety of things like work achievements, school, volunteering and anything that demonstrates your readiness for the job.

Finally, remember to make a good impression. This includes dressing for the job you want and not just throwing on jeans and a T-shirt. Even if you are interviewing for a retail or warehouse job, dress up and look professional. Speak professionally and confidentially, and do not be distracted by your cell phone. All of these things help counter any negative impression the blemishes in your work history might make.

Is it Time to Change the Tipping System in U.S. Restaurants?

By Stephanie Hammerwold

In 2013, the Freakanomics podcast had an episode about the practice of tipping. Whether it is deciding how much of a tip to leave at a restaurant or whether to drop some spare change in the tip jar at your favorite coffee place, tipping is very present in our daily lives. The Freakanomics podcast got me to thinking about doing away with tipping in the U.S. The discussion has heated up in the past few months with several prominent restaurant owners doing away with tipping in their own establishments. The practice seems to have met with mixed results, and people have very strong opinions about it.

The further into the topic I delved, the more I realized that this question does not have an easy answer. I started off liking the idea of eliminating tipping, but after speaking with those who work in the restaurant industry, I am not so sure that this would be in the best interest of everyone.

The Connection Between Tipping and Service

In the episode of the Freakanomics podcast that covers tipping, host Stephen J. Dubner talks to Michael Lynn, a professor at the Cornell Hotel School. Lynn has done extensive research on the practice of tipping. His research has found that the level of service only has a tiny effect on the tip the customer gives. This, of course, raises the question of whether or not tipping is an effective means of motivating servers and increasing their wages. Lynn explains, “Even though the actual relationship between tips and service is low, servers think there’s a relationship, and that’s enough to motivate them to deliver good service.”

The people I spoke with in the restaurant industry seem to confirm that tipping is still a good motivator. Chris Rickabaugh, a Los Angeles area server, explains, “It seems to me that the main reason to work as a server is the promise of the tip. It's a culture we've built here in the U.S. In a way, the tip is part of a contract. Good service equals a good tip. Bad service almost guarantees a bad tip if any tip at all. Why would this be better than a wage bump?”

I do not agree with the argument that servers would do a worse job if there were no tips. Plenty of us work in jobs where we do not receive tips, and we still manage to give good customer service or interact with clients in a courteous and efficient manner. I do not think servers are any different; most would still manage to give good service. That being said, there is clearly value in tips being a motivator in that tips give servers some control over their own wages.

Summer Stearns, Managing Partner at Diablo Taco says, “Overall I think tipping and service charge equal accountability. They drive passion in the industry.” This backs up what Rickabaugh says about the promise of a tip being the main reason to work as a server. It is firmly part of the restaurant culture in the U.S., and it adds value to the relationship between customer and server. Stearns adds, “Tipping is a way for restaurant owners to have our customers hold employees accountable for the their performance. The better you are as a server, the more money you make.”

Tipping & Wages

One of the arguments restaurant owners have made in favor of changing the current system is a more equal distribution of wages between servers and kitchen staff. Line cook positions can be hard to fill. The pay is often low, and there are often more openings than there are qualified candidates. A quick search of job openings in many major cities will reveal an abundance of line cook positions, and when I was hiring for such jobs, managers would often complain, “Why can’t you send me any qualified cooks?”

One possible solution to this problem is doing away with tipping and either adding a service charge to the bill or building the cost into menu prices and using that money to increase wages for everyone in the restaurant. Legally, management cannot take any of a server’s tips, so eliminating tipping and instead having customers pay what they normally would as a tip under a service charge or increased menu prices would allow management to have control over that money. In effect, restaurant employees who are not servers could see an increase in wages as management is able to redistribute the money.

This may sound great in theory, but such an approach is not without its problems. For one thing, margins are already so small in the restaurant industry that shifting the money around may mean that servers take home less pay at the end of the day. Also, there may be an effect on the relationship between customer and server.

“Currently the process of tipping is a transaction between guest and server. If tips are to be eliminated and converted into a service fee that is factored into the cost of a meal, we now have a transaction between guest, restaurant owner/management and server. In my mind this is a slippery slope,” explains Los Angeles area server Bryan Graham.

This raises an interesting point about tipping: there is a direct exchange that happens between the server and customer. In a way, it gives servers some control over their wages. If the revenue from tipping shifts over to a service charge or increased food prices, the server is at the mercy of what wage management wants to pay. If they work for a generous restaurant owner, they might notice no changes in their take-home pay; however, an owner with an eye toward shrinking margins may lower pay.

Graham also said, “Money that once went straight into a server’s pocket is now funneled through a business that has its own agenda and bottom line. Servers have lost control of their primary revenue stream. Servers would be allowing someone to collect their money and redistribute it however they saw fit.”

Service Charge as a Replacement for Tipping

Legally, management cannot touch tips, but adding a service charge to the bill takes control of that money out of the hands of servers. The problem is that it is ingrained in us as customers that the tip, as Graham points out, is a transaction between us and the server.

“Adding a service charge to the menu in theory sounds good. Most of these models have added the 18-20% to the final bill, but the server rarely sees all of this, whereas in the current model he/she does, not counting ‘tip out’ at the end of the night,” explains Richard Briggs, a Los Angeles area server and bartender who has worked in a variety of restaurants.

The bigger issue here is that simply doing away with tips and tacking on a service charge does not always work. If the result of the system is a reduction in wages for a big part of the staff, the effect on morale may not make such a switch worth it.

As the minimum wage is increasing throughout the country, restaurant owners may have to rethink how they pay their employees. Businesses in Los Angeles will see a series of hikes over the next few years that will lead to a minimum wage of $15/hour in 2020. In order to cover wages for everyone from kitchen staff to service staff, the answer may be in redistributing wages through replacing the current tipping model with a service charge. The challenge is finding a way to do that without negatively affecting wages.

“Having experience with a restaurant that tried this to help them with the minimum wage raise in the late 90s I've seen it go horribly wrong. They added 18% to the bill with 15% going to servers and 3% was a ‘house charge.’ We servers still had to tip out the bus staff and bar staff with their 15%, so take home tips were closer to 9% some evenings. This restaurant lost a lot of good help ‘experimenting’ with this,” Briggs says.

Minimum wage increases are important. As the economy has picked up and unemployment has dropped, many of the jobs that are coming back are in the service industry—an area where wages can often be low. Tips become important in that they help supplement someone’s income, so they can afford to live in the area where they work. It would be great if margins in restaurants were big enough that pay could be increased for those who do not benefit from tips (e.g. kitchen staff) without affecting the take-home pay of front-of-the-house staff, but that may be a challenge.

Some Final Thoughts on Tipping

In the end, the decision to do away with tipping in the U.S. is not that clear cut. It largely depends on the type of restaurant and determining how it will affect servers and the restaurant as a whole. While I see advantages to a service charge and giving managers the control to redistribute wages to non-tipped staff in order to meet the demands of an increasing minimum wage, such a system could fail if it means lowered wages for some. Taking away wages from some employees to give them to others only works to build tension and animosity between different employees.

When I started doing the work to write this article, I leaned toward the idea of doing away with tipping and simply having the amount usually reserved for tipping go toward a service charge or increased menu prices, but, after hearing from those in the industry, I now see the value of our current system. I like the idea of tipping being a transaction between customer and server. This is especially important as more and more people rely on wages from tips at service jobs to make ends meet. Given how big the restaurant industry is and how many American workers rely on wages from service jobs, it is important that we remember this type of work in conversations about tipping, pay and a living wage.

Special thanks to Richard Briggs for interviewing the servers quoted in this article.

In Praise of Night Owls

By Stephanie Hammerwold

As I was driving to a seminar that started at 7 a.m. this morning and grumbling about the early hour, I got to thinking about how the workplace is set up in a way that favors morning people. If it was not obvious from my opening sentence, I am a night owl. I always have been. I find that I am most productive during the later hours, and I have always had a hard time working a standard 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule. No amount of coffee makes interacting with people at 8:30 a.m. tolerable for me. Yet, for most of my working life and even going back to my school days, my schedule involved early mornings. I think night owls are sometimes misunderstood because we don’t always fit well in the morning person world.

Being a Night Owl Doesn’t Mean You’re Lazy

Years of having to be at work by 8:30 or earlier have ruined my ability to sleep in. I would much rather stay up until 1 or 2 a.m. and then get up around 9 or 10 a.m., but that’s just not the way the world is set up. Attending meetings and seminars, talking to clients and running errands often requires morning availability. Over the years I have received grief from others when I talk about sleeping in—there seems to be this assumption that I enjoy sleeping in because I am lazy. I think I speak for a lot of night owls when I say, we are not lazy. We just happen to be more productive when all the morning people are already retiring for the day.

Despite the fact that not all of us are on friendly terms with the morning hours, workplaces (particularly office jobs) rely on a schedule that best suits morning people. Granted, we have established that business hours are roughly 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., so this makes sense. But working for myself has taught me a lot about when work can be done. I typically have calls and emails that need to be done during daylight hours, but quite a bit of my work involves writing, researching and drafting policies and other similar projects. Being able to plan these projects so that I do not have to complete them during the early morning hours has made me much more productive. I am no longer dragging my feet the way I would in the corporate environment when I was working traditional business hours.

Working without Distractions

One thing I enjoy about getting things done later in the day is that there are fewer distractions. The phone rings less, and people are less likely to email. By 10 p.m., the world is peaceful, and even the traffic noise in my neighborhood has dropped to almost nothing. In the calm of the night, I find that I am at my most creative. When all the hustle and bustle of the daytime has disappeared, it is a world of possibilities.

I recently participated in (and won!) National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). My favorite time to write was at night. I have produced some of my best writing when it is dark out. By contrast, trying to craft coherent sentences in the early morning hours is a fruitless endeavor.

How to Work in a Morning Person’s World

So, how do night owls adapt to a morning person’s world? For me, I have been lucky enough to leave the corporate world and focus on building my own business endeavors. I am less tired than I used to be and happier because I can often set a sleep schedule that is more in line with what my body craves. But not everyone is in a position where they can work for themselves.

For business owners, I think offering flexible work schedules, when possible, is a good start. If you have an office where most people work a schedule that requires an early morning start, ask yourself if it is necessary to have everyone there at an early hour. Staggering start times has its advantages beyond accommodating night owls. You can keep your office open longer hours because not everyone will be gone by 5 p.m. Also, to the seminar planners out there, I would not mind having a few seminars in the afternoon rather than all these early morning times.

Night owls, how do you cope with being in a morning person’s world?

Customer Service in the Age of the Scripted Upsell

By Stephanie Hammerwold

I am taking a bit of a break from HR this week to talk about customer service. This is not really much of a stretch because a big part of HR is providing customer service to employees, managers, company owners and prospective employees. In addition, some of us in HR (especially in the retail sector) have been responsible for giving new hires basic customer service training. With all the shopping I did during the holiday season, I noticed that sales and customer service is getting more pushy, forced and scripted. Is this approach good for business, or does it just drive customers away in frustration?

The Upgrade Culture

I recently went to the movies and decided to brave the concession stand lines to get some popcorn to munch on while enjoying the latest installment in the Star Wars franchise. No sooner had I ordered a small popcorn than the person behind the counter tried to upsell me by saying, “For twenty-five cents more you can upgrade to a medium.” I said no, which was followed by, “Are you sure?” Again, I replied no. We repeated this same routine when I ordered a small iced tea. This is a theatre small, so it is already the size of a bucket—there is no way I needed more than that.

I have experienced this type of thing at other places that sell food. There is this attempt to push more food on us even after saying no multiple times. Usually I opt for the smaller size because I know I will consume all of it if I upgrade to the large. Do I want the giant bucket of popcorn? Yes. Do I need it? No!

Stick to the Script

Back when I worked in HR at a small grocery chain, I had someone in my new employee orientation who had previously worked at a large, well known chain. When we got to the customer service training part of orientation, she asked me, “So, do we have to ask every customer if they want stamps or ice?” I told her the company did not require specific questions at checkout. She told me that at her old job, they were required to ask this with every order, even if a customer was only in there buying one item. She said it pretty much became a joke and most cashiers felt silly asking the question every time.

Some stores, particularly those that are part of a large chain, seem to employ this scripted type of customer service where they give employees specific things they are supposed to say in each transaction. It could be asking every customer if they want to upgrade or requiring that employees try to sell each customer on more services. I have run into this with my cell phone provider. I went in the store several months ago to enquire about how to file an insurance claim for a damaged phone and ended up having to fight off a salesperson trying to awkwardly convince me to get a home security system—it was awkward in that I could tell that the salesperson’s heart was not really in trying to push this extra service on me. I got the sense that he would get in trouble if he did not try to sign me up for a service I repeatedly said no to.

I know that many times the frontline employees are merely trying to follow the requirements set forth by the corporate office, so I cannot really blame them. The problem here is corporate policies that attempt to dictate exactly how a salesperson should interact with a customer. It seems to me that the problem is with a lack of trust in salespeople to do their job. The focus should be on hiring people who have the skills to interact with the public and forge natural methods of communication rather than relying on a script to tell them what to say. Give employees training in how to deal with various customer situations, but allow them to use their critical thinking skills to deal with each situation on a case-by-case basis. Life does not usually follow a script.

Trust Employees to Know How to Make Customers Happy

Those who have customer service personalities have the ability to build a loyal customer base without the need of a specific script or required offering of upgrades. For me, I am more likely to return to a store where I do not feel like I am being sold goods and services I do not need just so the salesperson can fulfill some kind of sales quota. Over time, I will probably end up spending more money at that establishment than I would in a single frustrating transaction where more and more is being pushed on me.

As I mentioned, it is important to hire people we can trust to put on a good face when it comes to customer service. When those people work for us, we need to trust them to give good customer service. This means empowering employees to make decisions when it comes to assisting customers, so they do not need to track down a manager for approval on everything. It is also important to eliminate required questions and statements. Such things start to sound forced and insincere when it comes to repeat customers.

Remember to treat customer service employees well. It is not an easy job, and the pay is often low. Improve compensation, increase benefits and recognize the value a good cashier adds to your organization. Doing so will help build loyalty, which will create an environment where employees want to give good customer service.

What are your thoughts on the current state of customer service? Is it time to move back to a more natural approach, or is the scripted upgrade culture a good thing?

Photo by Tim Pershing

Workplace Resolutions for 2016

By Stephanie Hammerwold

Last week I wrote about my workplace Christmas list, so it seems fitting that I tackled some resolutions for the new year this week. January 1 is always a good time to look forward and figure out how to make things better, and this year’s list includes some things you can implement in your own workplace.

Review & Update the Employee Handbook

I have been helping several clients with handbooks recently, so perhaps that is why this is at the top of my list. Take a moment right now and dust off your employee handbook. What is the date on it? If you answered anything prior to 2015, your handbook is overdue for an update. If you answered, “What handbook?” then make a resolution to create an employee handbook.

The best practice is to review your handbook each year. Many laws go into effect at the beginning of the year, so reviewing your handbook around the new year is a good idea. Make changes and add policies in accordance with legal requirements. When reading policies, also pay particular attention to current practice in your workplace. Do your policies match how you do business?

This is a good reminder that businesses of all sizes should have a handbook. A handbook is an excellent way to communicate expectations and requirements to employees, and it also gives you written proof that policies were communicated to employees. Even for a company with only a few employees, having a handbook builds a good foundation as your business grows and adds people.

Provide Paid Sick Leave to All Employees

In 2015, California’s paid sick leave law went into effect, which brought paid sick leave to many employees who did not previously receive it. The law is a huge boon for those in the food service industry and other jobs that have not historically received such a benefit. Paid sick leave benefits all of us in that it reduces the chance that someone will show up to work sick and spread their illness. Who wants a server to be coughing as they bring meals to a table because they could not afford to take a day off of work unpaid in order to rest?

In his State of the Union address in early 2015, President Barack Obama called on Congress to pass a bill that would require paid sick leave for employees, so this benefit is getting a lot of attention. Even if you are not in a state or area that requires paid sick leave, make a resolution to add paid sick leave to your benefits for all employees. No one enjoys being at work when ill, so make it easy for employees to take the time off to rest and recuperate.

Improve Employee Benefits

Sticking with the theme of benefits, make a resolution to update your benefits package. Talk to employees and find out what benefits they want. Benefits are more than just insurance and can include things like discounts, incentive programs caregiver assistance, education assistance, a wellness program, paying employees to volunteer and more. As unemployment decreases, attracting top candidates becomes more important. Having a good benefits package will make it more likely that a candidate will accept your job offer over another company’s offer.

There is no denying that treating employees well helps with retention, productivity and morale. Benefits are a good way to show employees that you appreciate and value their work. Having generous paid time off policies and other perks help to ensure employees are enjoying life outside of work, which will help reduce burnout and stress.

Remember that there is more to Life than Work

Finally, remember that there is more to life than work. Many people work insane schedules. We get so wrapped up in our work identities that it seems to be all we are, and it can infringe on time with friends and family and time doing the things we love. Take some time in the new year to remember that you are more than your job. Even if you have to block it off on your calendar, make time for the things you enjoy, whether that is spending time with your favorite people or even just curling up with a good book.

Happy New Year!

The HR Hammer’s Christmas List

By Stephanie Hammerwold

I like to think I’ve been pretty good this year and that I ended up on Santa’s nice list. So, in the midst of wrapping presents and snacking on one too many holiday cookies, I wanted to take some time to share my Christmas list for the workplace:

1. Paid leave for parents—The U.S. lags behind many other countries when it comes to paid leave for those who recently had a baby, adopted a child or took in a foster child. Some companies have jumped on board and implemented their own paid leave options, and some states have paid leave programs, but we need to have a nationwide law that reflects the realities of working parents.
2. Easier access to employment for the formerly incarcerated—One of the keys to lowering recidivism is helping the formerly incarcerated find jobs with a decent income. Unfortunately, having a criminal record can be a huge strike against someone in their quest to find employment. Once released, people have paid their debt to society and should be given the opportunity to rebuild their lives. Opening up access to employment is a huge step toward that.
3. No more performance reviews—If you are a regular reader, you know my feelings on this topic. It’s time to ditch the traditional review and to go with a system of ongoing feedback.
4. And speaking of things to get rid of…let’s think about doing away with salary negotiation. I am not a big fan of the game playing that goes on in the negotiation process. I think it immediately sets up a relationship of employer vs. employee. I prefer a straightforward offer and a process that does not solely favor those who happen to be good at negotiation.
5. Benefits that extend to all employees—Too often when we hear about a company offering excellent benefits, they only extend to office staff. Those who work in low-wage jobs, such as in distribution centers, are often excluded from generous paid family leave and other perks. Some of the hardest working people I know work in low-wage jobs, and we should not forget the value they add to a company when designing benefits programs.
6. Productive conversations about finding ways to raise the minimum wage—The minimum wage is not livable for employees, and employers worry that raising wages will be unaffordable. We need to have conversations around this issue and find solutions to the huge wage gap we are currently experiencing in the U.S.
7. A move toward kindness—I recently wrote about this, and I think it is an important reminder as we get further into the presidential election cycle where mud slinging and hate speech are commonplace. There is power in being nice.
8. Workplaces free from discrimination and harassment—No one should go to work and worry about being harassed or discriminated against because of who they are. We live in a time where same-sex marriage is legal, yet sexual orientation is not a protected class in every state. We have also seen local laws in some place that are aimed at restricting bathroom access for transgender people, and we have heard horrible anti-Muslim rhetoric from some high profile figures. These forms of discrimination are not acceptable, and we owe it to our employees to create workplaces that are accepting and welcoming to everyone.
9. A focus on finding ways to improve the workplace for employees—Employees are a big part of what can make a company successful, so it is important that we find ways to support them through good wages, excellent benefits, employee appreciation and more.
10. More books—OK, this one is for me more than the workplace, but I want to encourage everyone to take some time to read in the coming year. It is an excellent escape from all the stresses of work.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Easy Ways to Improve the Hiring Process

By Stephanie Hammerwold

The new year will be upon us in a few weeks, so it is time to start thinking about resolutions. With job openings increasing and unemployment dropping, it is a good time to start thinking about your hiring process and resolving to improve it in 2016. Here are a few easy ways to take the HR Hammer to your hiring process and setting up a system that helps find the best candidates to fill your openings in the upcoming year.

Job Descriptions & Ads

While it is not a legal requirement to have a job description, it is an HR best practice to do so. A good job description clearly communicates expectations to an employee, but even before someone becomes an employee, it is a tool to ensure that a candidate understands the requirements of the position. Creating or updating a job description also ensures that everyone at the company is on the same page about what the position will do.

Prior to posting an ad, review the existing job description for accuracy. Jobs evolve and change with each new person who takes on a position, so make necessary adjustments to the old description. If you are starting from scratch, get input from people already doing the job so that what you have on paper accurately reflects the day-to-day work of the position.

&&&Use your job description to create your job posting ad. Gone are the days of having to string together cryptic abbreviations to minimize the cost of a classified ad in a newspaper. Most job posting sites give you plenty of space to describe the position; however, this does not mean that you have to create the War and Peace of job postings. Remember that job seekers will be scanning many job sites, so keep your posting brief. Focus on the key responsibilities and qualifications for the position, and include something about your company culture and benefits. You can include a link to the job description on your own site for interested job seekers who want more information, but the goal of the ad is to spark someone’s attention enough to learn more about your company and to visit your career site.

Winging It

Sometimes we get so busy that preparation for an interview is little more than a quick scan of a resume while a candidate waits in the lobby several minutes before the interview starts. Unfortunately, such an approach is little more effective than trying to read and memorize a semester’s worth of material in the hours before a final exam. There is a strong possibility that you will miss out on important details and will forget to ask good questions.

To help avoid having to wing it for interviews, take some time to develop interview questions while you are creating or updating the job description. If the candidate is going through multiple interviews, this is a good way to prevent making the candidate answer the same questions over and over. It also gives you a chance to review questions for suitability and to get rid of any questions that might be inappropriate or touch on protected classes. Focus on asking about work experience, relevant training and education and questions that require the candidate to demonstrate their knowledge.

Do not forget to schedule some time to review the candidate’s resume and application prior to the interview. Get to know their experience and history so that you do not have to waste interview time on questions that the candidate already answered on paper.

Too Many Cooks in the Interview Kitchen

Now that you have a polished job description, beautifully written ad and flawless questions, it is time to take a look at who will be a part of the interview process and just how many interviews a candidate has to go through. Keep things simple, and avoid unnecessary interviews.

In all my years of interviewing job candidates, I have come to realize that you can usually get a pretty good idea if someone is a top contender within the first few minutes of the interview. That does not mean you should stop the interview after only a couple minutes, but it does mean that having the candidate come back for multiple interviews or having a large team of people conducting interviews is probably a bit excessive.

With the exception of high-level positions, you probably do not need too many people involved in the interview process. It is often good to have a second opinion, and the hiring manager and someone from HR should be sufficient. If you feel the need to include others, consider conducting panel interviews to cut down on the number of interviews. Trust your managers to make good hiring decisions. Train them on interview skills so that they do not need a bunch of people involved in the interview process for openings on their team. If you find that a number of people would like to be involved, consider quick, informal introductions following an interview, so others have the chance to briefly meet a candidate before a final decision is made.

Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You

Finally, put a process in place to make sure there is adequate follow up with candidates. At the conclusion of the interview, let the candidate know how long you expect the decision process to take. If it takes more time than planned, follow up with the candidate by making a call or sending an email. Once you have made a decision, get in touch with all candidates to let them know whether or not they got the job. Waiting for a call about a job is stressful, and a quick call or email can help ease the frustration many feel during the waiting game of the hiring process.

Does Kindness Have a Place at Work?

By Stephanie Hammerwold

Is bad behavior at work excusable when it results in innovation and high levels of productivity? Is it acceptable for a manager to yell and be tough on employees if it results in good work? For me, the answer is no. Over the summer, Amazon made headlines when their high-stress culture was the focus of a piece in The New York Times. Defenders of Amazon claimed that all that stress was worth it because of the technology and processes Amazon employees were creating. Despite what those who defend such a business model might say, I still think there is room for kindness in the way we work. Innovation does not necessarily have to come at the hands of abusive leaders who drive employees to a state of extreme exhaustion.

Break Them Down to Build Them Up

I have my own experience working in environments where management that could easily be called abusive is passed off as the type of leadership that is pushing someone to do their best. Such an approach is often stressful for team members, and high levels of stress have been shown to have all kinds of negative effects on health. Yet, despite the fact that many of us do not like working for the kind of boss who leads by yelling and pushing employees to the breaking point, our culture still tends to celebrate this type of approach.

Take celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, for example. Ramsay’s outbursts and shouting at those who run afoul of him on one of his reality shows is often seen as acceptable. In fact, viewers are entertained by this approach. When we see an amazing finished product after the cowering and tears, we may be tempted to say that it was worth it. We see the same thing from other leaders in the public eye, and someone like Steve Jobs had a reputation for being harsh. One of the frontrunners for the GOP presidential nomination is well known for “telling it like it is,” which, for him, means belittling others and saying nasty things. This is something his supporters commend him for.

I once had a boss whose behavior was erratic. We never knew what would set her off, so many of us in the department would drive ourselves to the point of exhaustion to ensure everything was perfect—even then it was no guarantee that she would not snap. Sure, she got good work out of us, but at what cost? Those of us who worked for her often lost sleep, had upset stomachs or were driven to tears. Was it worth it? Years later, I say no. I learned quite a bit about HR at that job; however, it took me years to recover from the constant workplace abuse.

The Culture of Negativity

Earlier this year, I addressed the topic of kindness over at my book blog. As I pointed out then, a glance at any Internet comments section shows how unkind we can be. Even the comments sections on the most innocuous articles can turn into commenters attacking others who do not share their political views. Cable talk shows and news programs are full of people making their points by shouting and name calling. When the world is full of this type of speech, it is even more important that we make a concerted effort to be kind at work.

I may be a bit optimistic in saying this, but I do not believe we are what we see in those comments sections and TV shows. But it is hard to avoid feeling weighed down and pessimistic about humanity when we see the worst of it put forth by the culture of negativity that exists in such places. The best way to combat the negativity is by avoiding it. Do not waste time watching the shows that encourage that type of behavior, and avoid the places on the Internet that attract those voices. Instead, focus on moments of kindness and how you can espouse that in your own life and the workplace.

Leading with Kindness

Celebrating those who lead through shouting and belittling assumes that being nice to employees does not lead to innovation. I think the opposite is true. Being nice can lead to excellent results. Employees will work hard when they are valued and trusted. Fear and intimidation are not the only ways to get results.

If you are a business owner or in a supervisory position, make kindness a part of your management approach. Those at the top help set the tone for company culture. I once worked at a company where the owner was extremely paranoid and did not trust his employees. This attitude trickled down to the executive team and managers and created a culture of paranoia. Morale was low. The opposite happened in another company I worked for where the owners had a high level of trust in their employees and maintained a friendly attitude on a regular basis.

Even when an employee makes a mistake or is not quite getting something, it is not necessary to yell and put them down. Take the time to work with someone and set up a plan for improvement rather than taking the harsh punishment approach like Gordon Ramsay would.

Kindness extends to those not in leadership positions as well. In the workplace, there are many moments that come up where we get frustrated with a coworker or have a different idea about how a project should be completed. Being kind does not mean we cannot disagree with others, but it does mean we should make an effort to remain civil when we have a dispute. This is especially important in the work world because we are not always going to be in alignment with our coworkers. Help support a culture of kindness in your approach to handling conflict.

Why HR Should Support Ban the Box

By Stephanie Hammerwold

The key to success for many people leaving prison and jail is getting back to a normal life. A big piece of this is having reliable housing and the income to pay for it as well as other life expenses. The formerly incarcerated have served their time, yet many face challenges in securing employment because of their conviction history. The Ban-the-Box movement has been gaining momentum, and even President Barack Obama and several democratic presidential candidates have drawn attention to the need for employment support for the formerly incarcerated.

The U.S. has the largest prison population in the world, and it continues to grow. On the employment front, this means a large pool of job seekers facing the challenges of finding work with a criminal record. For employers and HR professionals, supporting the formerly incarcerated in securing gainful employment starts with not making criminal history an automatic barrier to employment.

The Problem with Using Criminal Background as a Job Qualification

When someone serves time for a crime, and then is released, we should be able to say they have paid their debt to society and can move on. Unfortunately, many of the formerly incarcerated face barriers to employment, public assistance, housing, support services and other things that can help them build a post-incarceration life. These barriers increase the risk of recidivism. Throwing up unnecessary barriers, in effect, continues to punish someone for a crime for which they already served their time.

On the employment front, the commonplace question on job applications that asks about prior convictions can keep someone from getting a job. I have worked with HR professionals and hiring managers who see a yes answer and automatically put an application in the reject pile. One person I worked with said that people should build up a stable work history post-incarceration and then come back to us for a job in the future when they have proven that they can hold a job. But if all employers take this approach, we are barring the formerly incarcerated from building a stable work history.

Because stability in things like employment and housing are among the keys to keeping people from returning to prison, it is imperative that we set up practices that remove some of the barriers to those things. When reviewing your application process, ask yourself if finding out about criminal history at the beginning of the process is relevant to the job. There are many jobs where it is not, and removing the question from your application can be a huge step in helping the formerly incarcerated secure employment.

Ban the Box & Criminal Background Checks

In 2012, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued its “Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” The guidance from the EEOC is not law, but it is used in investigating claims of discrimination that may arise relating to criminal conviction. Although there are still questions regarding how employers should proceed when considering criminal background checks, the EEOC’s guidance provides some insight into how use of criminal history in selection of candidates for a job may create barriers to employment, especially for groups of people who experience higher rates of incarceration.

One of the key items in the EEOC’s guidance is that employers who exclude candidates based on criminal history must show that, “such an exclusion is ‘job related and consistent with business necessity’ for the position in question.” Again, this comes down to determining if criminal background is necessary for a particular job. As someone who has done quite a bit of hiring in the course of my HR career, I can only point to a small handful of jobs that I could make a case for knowing someone’s criminal history. Even then, a conviction would not necessarily exclude someone. It would come down to the nature of the offense and how long ago it happened.

Removing the question about conviction from job applications is a good way to avoid the biases that may happen when an applicant responds yes. If a criminal background check is required for a job, consider holding off until later in the process and then giving a candidate a chance to explain their conviction before making a decision to hire or exclude them. In any event, avoid a blanket policy that covers all criminal convictions, and instead handle each applicant with a conviction on a case-by-case basis.

Some cities, counties and states already have laws in place regarding criminal background checks, so familiarize yourself with the requirements in your area. The National Employment Law Project has a useful publication that details specific requirements throughout the U.S.

Benefits of Hiring the Formerly Incarcerated

Removing barriers to employment for the formerly incarcerated benefits everyone. As a society, we should be focused on providing the tools, training and support services to keep people from doing things that land them in prison. And, for those who have been previously incarcerated, our focus should be on helping them to not go back. Doing so helps build a healthy society.

For employers and HR professionals, taking small steps to change the employment process can do wonders for helping the formerly incarcerated build a solid foundation where they have the means to support themselves, provide for their families and contribute to society in a meaningful way. Rather than continuing with a system where we are constantly forcing people to rehash bad choices in their past, we should instead focus on building a system where people are given a second chance to improve their lives.

Employers can also benefit from a federal tax credit for hiring those with significant barriers to employment, which includes ex-felons. Some states offer additional tax credits. The National HIRE Network has an excellent list of what different states offer. In addition, the Federal Bonding Program is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Labor and offers bonds that cover the first six months of employment for at-risk and hard-to-place job seekers.

Remember that it is important to carefully consider changes to your hiring practices when it comes to determining how you will use criminal background checks. Consult with an attorney if you have questions about your hiring practices and the use of background checks.

If you are formerly incarcerated and struggling with employment and figuring out how to answer application and interview questions, Kathleen Murray’s Out and Employed blog offers excellent advice, and you can also find some useful tips on the Denver Public Library’s website.

Top Ten Reasons to be Thankful for HR

By Stephanie Hammerwold

Here in the U.S., it’s the time of year where we gather for a large meal and to give thanks for our friends and family. It has been a couple years since I left the HR trenches to venture into consulting, and I want to take a moment to sing the praises of my colleagues who toil away on the frontlines of HR, working hard to create better workplaces. Here (in no particular order) are the top ten reasons we should all be thankful for the HR superheroes in our workplaces:

1. Many HR people fight hard behind the scenes to advocate for what is in the best interest of employees even when upper management argues against workplace improvements.
2. Do you work at a company with good benefits? Thank your HR team. They are usually the ones shopping around for the best insurance options and putting other benefit programs in place.
3. HR sets up paid time off programs. Next time you are sitting on a beach and sipping a cocktail and being paid for your time, thank your HR team for paid vacation.
4. HR oversees compensation, and they are the ones who go to upper management to make a case for better pay.
5. Who do you run to when trouble is brewing with a coworker? HR people are often a fair and patient resource for sorting out workplace squabbles, and their goal is get issues resolved so that everyone involved can be happy and get back to work.
6. Along those lines, HR people are the ones who handle serious issues, such as harassment or discrimination. They tirelessly investigate to ensure problems are resolved quickly, and this may involve making difficult decisions and getting in the middle of serious situations.
7. HR people are a shoulder to cry on. They are the place employees go when they need a leave due to a major life event such as surgery or a seriously ill loved one. They also help connect employees with resources to help them through difficult times. Helping employees in that way is rewarding, but it can also be incredibly emotional.
8. Do you like the people you work with? When HR hires new employees, they try to find people that not only have the skills for the job but are also a good fit in the department and company culture.
9.  When you are getting bored in your job and looking to make a change, HR people are excellent career coaches. They can help you find other areas of the company that may be a good way to move up and can point you toward training programs and education benefits to help you get there.
10. If you get to know your HR team, you will probably find that most of them are pretty friendly people. The job is not just about enforcing policy, and most of us who work in HR do so because we really do have a commitment to improving workplaces.

So, before you settle into your Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, take a moment to thank your HR team for all they do.

Photo by Tim Pershing

Workplace Holiday Party Prep Guide

By Stephanie Hammerwold

When I walked into the grocery store a couple days ago and was bombarded by the smell of cinnamon scented pinecones and lavish displays of candy canes and reindeer, I knew that the Christmas season had already arrived despite the fact that no one has even started thawing turkeys for Thanksgiving yet. While you may not be quite ready to put up a Christmas tree and hang some festive lights, if you are saddled with the task of overseeing your company’s holiday party, it is a good time to start thinking of how to plan a party that does not result in drama for HR to sort out the following day.

Creating an Inclusive Party

We all know not everyone celebrates Christmas, and we also know that even those who celebrate Christmas can do so in different ways that vary from completely secular to religious. The main purpose of holiday parties is to focus on friendship and camaraderie and to celebrate the year’s successes. Make these things the focus of your party and avoid any religious references. As for what to call it, I like the generic “Holiday Party." I also worked at one company who called it “Winter Celebration.” In general, be sensitive to how different employees approach the holiday season and plan your party accordingly.

Avoiding Harassment

In my HR career, I have had the challenging experience of trying to resolve bad behavior at the holiday party in the days immediately following the celebration. Employees at holiday parties are not always on their best behavior (especially if alcohol is involved as I will discuss in the next section). It is useful to remind employees that the harassment policy is in effect during the party.

Cheers! Keeping Alcohol from Turning into a Problem

As I mentioned in the last section, alcohol can cause a number of holiday party headaches for HR. I have attended holiday parties with co-workers who normally conducted themselves professionally in the workplace but were falling down drunk and making fools of themselves at the holiday party. It makes for an awkward Monday morning.

If you plan to serve alcohol, consider hosting the party off site. Avoid having an open bar and limit the amount of alcohol through the use of drink tickets. You may also close the bar an hour or two before the end of the party to help reduce the amount of alcohol consumed.

It can be useful to have a professional bartender serving drinks, so they can keep an eye on people who are intoxicated and ensure that they get a cab or ride home. Contact a local cab or rideshare company to provide transportation, and consider paying the bill for transportation from the party to home for employees. It is a benefit that ensures your employees get home safely and avoids the risk of drunk driving by providing an easy solution for employees. Remember that employers may be held liable for accidents caused by drunk employees leaving holiday parties.

Some Final Reminders

Think about the timing of your holiday party as well. Parties that happen after work hours are best and make it easy for people who do not want to go to opt out. Remind employees that attendance at the party is not mandatory. Required attendance usually means you would need to pay people to attend.

If you plan to do any kind of work gift exchange, make it optional. Remember that some people do not celebrate during the holidays for religious or personal reasons, so make it easy for them to not participate in things like gift exchanges and parties.

Finally, do not let policies run amok with your party. Take a few steps to mitigate the risk from things like harassment and alcohol and be inclusive. Other than that, focus your energy on celebrating the season and your employees’ hard work throughout the year.

Job Seeker Advice: What HR Wants to See in a Resume

By Stephanie Hammerwold

One of the most common HR-related requests I get from friends is to review their resume. Even in the age of LinkedIn and online portfolios, there are still countless articles about how a great resume can be your ticket to success. There are no magic tricks that can guarantee your resume will land you your dream job, but there are things you can do to keep your resume from automatically being tossed in the reject pile. After years of reviewing thousands of resumes, here are my tips for creating a clean, easy-to-read resume that showcases your experience and qualifications.

What (Not) to Include

I am once and for all taking the HR Hammer to the objective section. If you have an objective section lingering at the top of your resume, I’ll give you a moment to go delete it right now. Most resume objectives are the same, and it is some variation on “To find a job that challenges me and where I can be a positive member of a dynamic team.” A company already knows you are trying to find a good job, so there is no reason to waste valuable resume real estate space with an objective. You want to showcase your skills and experience rather than write a generic statement that is similar to what many other job seekers have at the top of their resume.

Now that we have the objective out of the way, let’s tackle the question of length. It used to be that one page was the generally accepted length of the resume. This was in the days before online applications and emailing in a resume. These days, it is not very common to mail in a resume. Length becomes less important when a recruiter or hiring manager is scrolling through resumes on a screen rather than flipping pages. This does not mean you should send pages and pages to a prospective employer, but it is perfectly acceptable to fill two pages. Unless you are applying for an academic job or a highly specialized position, I would not recommend going much longer than that.

It is important that your resume is easy to read because your resume usually only gets a minute or so to make a strong enough impression to warrant a closer read by a recruiter or hiring manager. Have clearly labeled sections (e.g. work experience, education) and create bullet points rather than lengthy paragraphs.

The star of your resume should be your work experience. I prefer to see work experience listed chronologically by job rather than sectioned out by skill. If you want to showcase some skills relevant to the job, include a short section at the top with a few sentences summarizing your experience. For those who are new to the workforce, include any volunteer experience or school activities as part of your work experience if you have not worked before or have only had one job.

Do not forget to include education and any relevant training at the bottom. Avoid listing every single training you have attended, but instead focus on including things relevant to the job.

Show, Don’t Tell

Some job seekers fall into the trap of simply listing skills without showing that they have used those skills on the job. For example, take this statement:

Experienced in using Microsoft Excel

Consider rewriting this statement to show that you know how to use Excel:

Used Microsoft Excel to manage the budget and expenses for the annual company picnic

When I see this on a resume, I know that a job seeker has experience using the software.

Focus on ways that you used a skill in a previous job that is relevant to how the skill will be used in the job you are applying for. This is especially useful if you are jumping careers and want to show how your skills from other jobs will be applicable to a new career.

Good Writing Matters

Write your resume in clear language that is easy to understand. Do not get bogged down in buzzwords and inflated language. Say exactly what you did. A prospective employer does not need to read phrases like this:

Collaborated with team members to build capacity in an impactful manner that increased optics, learnings and upward velocity.

Instead, be clear in what you did and accomplished:

Managed recruitment and training of 100 new employees for a new store location; implemented new hire training programs that reduced turnover by 10% from the previous store opening.

Do not send out your resume without having at least one other person proofread it. I have been in situations where I was deciding between two high-level candidates with similar experience. There have been times where it has come down to spelling and grammar mistakes. If a candidate does not make the effort to make sure they are sending me a clean resume, why should I hire them to be a manager?

Remember that your resume is often the first impression you make with a potential employer. Be honest about your experience. Take the time to put your best effort forward. Write cleanly and clearly, demonstrate your skills and qualifications through your experience, and make sure it is free from errors.

Still not sure your resume is in good shape? Use the contact form on the about page to get in touch with the HR Hammer for a resume review.

Carnival of HR: How HR is Making the Workplace Better for Employees

By Stephanie Hammerwold

HR has not always had the best reputation. Whether it is publications like the Harvard Business Review talking about why it is time to blow up HR or managers that call us terminators or policy police, we are often branded as being out of touch or too consumed with unnecessary rules. Despite this bad reputation, there are many of us in HR who toil away behind the scenes, trying to make workplaces better for employees. We fight for better benefits, work to end harassment and discrimination and advocate for employees who need a second chance, and I have met and worked with many HR colleagues that are doing quite a bit to change workplaces for the better.

As the HR Hammer, I am committed to helping employers make workplaces better for employees. Doing so creates a happy, productive and loyal team. So, I put the question out there to bloggers for this carnival: How is HR making the workplace better for employees?

Over at Blogging4Jobs, Jessica Miller-Merrell shares an episode of her Workology Podcast where she interviews David Sturt, author of Great Work: How to Make a Difference People Love and Executive Vice President at O.C. Tanner. Miller-Merrell and Sturt discuss employee engagement. What I like most about their conversation is how Sturt offers an easy way to drive engagement: recognize employees. In HR and management, we can get really focused on policy and paperwork, and sometimes we forget the value of saying “thank you” or commending someone on a job well done on a big project. As Miller-Merrell and Sturt point out, recognition is an often overlooked engagement tool that costs little to nothing. Next time you are at work, take some time to say thanks to your employees.

At HRmoz, David Richter of Octopus HR Software offers up some advice on how HR and product/market fit can make workplaces better for employees. Richter gives some good examples of how a strong product/market fit can increase productivity and reduce turnover. Company success would also lead to more money for well-being programs and bonuses. He says that one of the most important areas HR can help achieve this is through creating a culture where the employees have voice. This includes seeking employee feedback and letting employees propose and try out new ideas.

Parental leave has been getting quite a bit of attention in the media lately, and we regularly hear how the U.S. lags behind many other countries in providing paid leave options. At Blogging4Jobs, Eric Magnussen writes about how employers can best support employees who are about to add a new child to their families. Magnussen goes beyond the basic requirements of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and provides suggestions that include making a checklist for new parents that includes leave requirements as well as information on the lactation room, contact numbers for counselors and support services for new parents, insurance information and other available resources. Magnussen also says employers can help by being flexible and including fathers in leave and offering work-from-home options. These are all great ways employers can recognize the challenge of balancing work and raising a family, something which ultimately supports creating a workplace that meets the needs of our employees. 

Finally, Stuart Rudner and Brittany Taylor of Rudner MacDonald LLP discuss a topic of increasing relevance: medical marijuana in the workplace. There have been many changes regarding legal use of marijuana, and it is important that employers are ready to address how these changes affect the workplace if they are going to support how their employees live. Rudner and Taylor talk about the Canadian laws regarding medical marijuana and give advice that is relevant to many of the legal changes we are also seeing here in the U.S. They point out that the use of medical marijuana should be treated in the same way as an employee on any other doctor-prescribed medication. Rudner and Taylor remind employers that it is important to have procedures in place for handling requests for reasonable accommodation and to follow those when an employee makes such a request that includes the use of medical marijuana. They also write that this is a good time to review your company’s drug and alcohol policy to ensure that it address changes to the legal use of marijuana.

That’s it for this week’s Carnival of HR. Now get to work improving things for your employees, and be the superhero of your workplace! Follow the HR Hammer for more tips on creating good places to work.

Employee Benefit Spotlight: CorporateCARE Solutions

By Stephanie Hammerwold

Employees lead busy lives that often include balancing work with the constant demands of family. Sometimes those worlds collide and employees have to make the decision between going to work or staying home to care for a child or aging parent. Such absences create stress for the employee and also place a burden on the company as both struggle to make up for the lost time due to absence. Finding ways to address this through creative approaches to benefits can be a win for both companies and employees. Corporate CARE Solutions is a national Back-up Care Provider and an excellent option for providing such a benefit. They draw on a national network of care providers to help support your employees in managing their family responsibilities so they can be at work.

Absenteeism Caused by Breakdowns in Family Care

Many adults deal with supporting an aging parent or raising a child. Some find themselves in the sandwich generation and are doing both at the same time. According to a 2013 Pew Research Center study, 47% of adults in their 40s and 50s have both a child they are raising or financially supporting and a parent that is 65 or older. Additionally, the study found that 15% of middle-aged adults are providing financial support to both a child and an aging parent.

The reality is that many employees have some kind of care responsibility outside of work, and many workplaces do little more than offer a few days of paid time off. When an employee calls in to say they need to miss work because their child is home sick with a cold, the employer may find themselves scrambling to cover the work the employee is missing. In addition, the employee has the added stress of coming back the next day and playing catch up. Employers who fail to address the family care responsibilities of employees run the risk of increased absenteeism which can lead to lower productivity; however, offering a benefit that provides care options can keep your employee from missing work.

How Corporate CARE Solutions Can Help

When I attended the California HR Conference in Anaheim recently, I had the chance to meet Sharon Lurtsema, the founder and CEO of Corporate CARE Solutions. Lurtsema has been providing professional care services since 1992. With Corporate CARE Solutions, she puts all her experience into helping employers provide a caregiving benefit to their employees, which lowers absenteeism and also provides employees the peace of mind that their family member is being well cared for.

What I like the most about Corporate CARE Solutions is that they are a benefit that can work for companies of all sizes, and their services cover the care of children on up to aging adults. They work with a network of vetted Care Providers all over the country who provide in-home care. Lurtsema says, “We recognize most children and elderly dependents are not comfortable being cared for in an unknown environment and most parents prefer to leave their children in familiar surroundings.” Even when the family member in need of care resides in another state, Corporate CARE Solutions is able to provide a caregiver to assist in their loved one’s home. This is especially beneficial for those trying to help aging parents from afar. Corporate CARE Solutions can even handle last minute requests for those days when the babysitter cancels. Even if an employee is traveling with a family member in need of care, Corporate CARE Solutions can send a caregiver to their hotel.

“We recognize most children and elderly dependents are not comfortable being cared for in an unknown environment and most parents prefer to leave their children in familiar surroundings.
—Sharon Lurtsema”

For employers, getting set up with Corporate CARE Solutions is easy. Employers pay a reasonable one-time administrative fee, which covers the duration of the contract (3 or 5 years). The employer controls the cost by determining how many days employees can use the program. Lurtsema says that most companies opt for 10-12 days per year; however, the program can also be offered with an annual limit. Employees are provided with instructions to set up a profile, and then they are ready to submit CARE Requests. Employees are responsible for a co-pay, which is typically $4 per hour but again can be determined by the employer. The employee co-pay remains the same for child and adult care, regardless of the number of children/adults needing care. Employers are billed monthly only for exact employee utilization.  If no utilization occurred in the previous month - nothing is owed. It’s just that simple.

Small Investments in Employee Well-Being are Good for Company Health

Providing benefits that positively affect employees' lives and their family's well-being helps retain and attract top talent. There are many creative ways companies can find to provide benefits beyond insurance. Corporate CARE Solutions is an easy way for employers to recognize that many workers have family responsibilities that can make it a challenge to get to work, and this is a benefit that even small businesses can easily implement. Rather than grumbling about an employee missing yet another day due to a childcare emergency, why not meet the problem by providing a solution? CARE benefits are an excellent way to invest in employee well-being, which is also good for company health.

The HR Hammer is committed to partnering with vendors and services in alignment with this site’s philosophy. As such, I will sometimes run sponsored content to showcase products and services that may be useful to my readers. This post has been sponsored by CorporateCARE Solutions.