by Evil HR Lady on April 23, 2019
For years, hiring new employees involved a lot of “ghosting.” That is, recruiters and hiring managers would interview candidates — sometimes multiple times — and then never get back to them. No mention of “Thanks so much, but we’ve decided to go another direction” or “We’ve decided not to fill the position.” Just radio silence.
Now, the tables have turned. Job candidates stop returning recruiters’ phone calls or simply don’t show up for their first day, never to be heard from again. And it’s not just limited to prospective employees — even long-term staff have started to snub the traditional two weeks’ notice, instead marking their resignation by simply failing to show up for work.
It’s not hard to find examples of this happening, and businesses are upset about it. The Washington Post chimed in with its own stories, including one from an employee who got laid off without notice and realized that if her company could fire her without notice, then she could quit without notice.
To keep reading, click here: How to Use Employee Benefits to Avoid Getting Stood Up by Your Employees
by Evil HR Lady on April 22, 2019
Unconscious bias sneaks up on you. In medicine, it can be deadly, but in other fields, it can kill careers.
We’ve long known that university students favor male professors and rate them higher than female professors. While you can argue that overall men tend to be better professors than women, there was a strong suggestion that some unconscious bias was at play. (Additionally, I don’t think students are actually the best judge of a professor’s performance, but that’s a topic for a different day.)
A large American university changed their ratings from a 10 point scale to a 6 point scale for reasons unrelated to gender bias. Researchers Lauren Rivera is an Associate Professor of Management & Organizations at Kellogg School of Management and András Tilcsik is an associate professor at the Rotman School of Management thought this was the perfect data set to look at bias.
To keep reading, click here: This Simple Trick Can Help Eliminate Gender Bias in Performance Ratings
by Evil HR Lady on April 19, 2019
I manage a group of employees at a company where English is our official business language. There are a few people that speak only English, while another group speaks English and Spanish. The bilingual group often communicates in Spanish, which makes the English speakers uncomfortable. I asked the Spanish speakers to stick to English at work, but they say I’m violating their rights. It’s ruining morale! What can I do?
To read my answer, click here: Can I Require Employees to Speak English?
Leave your own in the comments!
by Evil HR Lady on April 18, 2019
I’m a partner in a small business (we have three partners and seven employees). A few years ago, we went through rough financial times and cut everyone’s pay, including the partners, by 20 percent. When things improved, we raised the pay back up. Now, we’re in rough financial waters again and need to do another pay cut — and we’ll likely lose our best employees. Yet the alternative is to go out of business, putting everyone out of a job. Besides an angel investor coming in and saving us, is there anything we can do?
To read my answer, click here: Cutting Employee Pay
Leave your own answer in the comments!
by Evil HR Lady on April 17, 2019
Federal law requires that you provide breastfeeding moms a room with a locking door–that is not a bathroom–to pump breast milk up until the baby’s first birthday. This is pretty easy in a big office building with lots of space, but not so easy in a firehouse. The law, however, doesn’t make an exception for difficulty, as the City if Tuscon found out–to the tune of $3.8 million.
Carrie Clark, a Fire Paramedic sued when the fire department wouldn’t allow her to transfer to a place where she could have “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.”
Tuscon said it provided her places–such as the private bedroom of a fire captain. However, Clark pointed out that she would have to wake the sleeping captain if she wished to pump. Hardly a reasonable thing to expect someone to have to wake her boss and kick him out of his bedroom so she could pump breast milk.
To keep reading, click here: No Place for Breastfeeding? That Will be $3.8 Million, Please
by Evil HR Lady on April 15, 2019
I just joined a big IT firm and most of my colleagues used to work there from 6-7 years. They already have chemistry within them. Any newbie joining had to follow them everywhere from lunch to tea breaks. My boss was one of them.
Being an introvert it became too much for me and also being with my boss all the time was little uncomfortable.So after skipping lunches few times my coworkers started taunting me for not joining them.
After that, I decided to follow their rules, but then they stopped calling me for breaks except a few of my colleagues.
Is it wrong to ask for my space?
To read my answer, click here: I’m an Introvert–Please Give Me Space
Leave your own answer in the comments!
by Evil HR Lady on April 12, 2019
Employer benefits used to be straightforward — provide health care, dental care and a retirement plan and you were pretty much done. But today if you want strong employee retention and the ability to recruit great people, you need to keep up with the times.
Of course, solid health insurance and a retirement plan are unlikely to go out of style. But there are several less conventional benefits that are rising stars, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Here are three that your employees (both current and future) want to see in your offerings.
1. Telemedicine
According to SHRM, the share of surveyed employers offering telemedicine benefits jumped from 73 to 81 percent between 2017 and 2018. With numbers like that, if telemedicine isn’t on your radar already, it should be.
To keep reading, click here: 3 Benefits Your Employees Actually Want
by Evil HR Lady on April 11, 2019
Prince Harry lost his mother at a young age after his parents went through a very dirty and public divorce. He suffered from depression and, fortunately, received therapy that helped him. As a result, he and his brother and sister-in-law, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, launched Heads Together in 2017 to help with mental health.
Now, the Duke of Sussex joins with Oprah to launch a television series about mental health for Apple TV. The Duke said,
I am incredibly proud to be working alongside Oprah on this vital series which we have been developing together for several months.
I truly believe that good mental health – mental fitness – is the key to powerful leadership, productive communities and a purpose-driven self.
It is a huge responsibility to get this right as we bring you the facts, the science and the awareness of a subject that is so relevant during these times.
To keep reading, click here: Prince Harry and Oprah Working Together on Mental Health
by Evil HR Lady on April 10, 2019
We often talk about performance goals for employees only in the context of an annual performance review, but goal setting can — and should — take different forms.
Effective employee goal setting can take several forms. We often talk about performance goals for employees only in the context of an annual performance review. We rate and categorize employees, set new goals, and then we forget about it all until next year.
This process is often unhelpful, but it’s important to establish performance goals that help further your business pursuits and advance your employees’ career goals. Remember: employees are more likely to be happy and engaged if they feel like they are progressing in their careers.
To keep reading, click here: Help Set Performance Goals for Employees
by Evil HR Lady on April 9, 2019
Microsoft has over 130,000 employees, so it’s not at all surprising that there are bad employees in that bunch. Most companies have them. But, Quartz says they have an email chain from “dozens of women” detailing incidents where they felt discriminated against or that someone sexually harassed them and HR dropped the ball.
As I’ve said before, bad HR is why we can’t have nice things. While it’s true that HR is never the final decision maker, it’s also true that finance is never the final decision maker either, but we expect that the CFO has enough power to make her decisions stick and that the CEO listens to her. Why does HR get overridden so often? Why does HR not stand up for (at a bare minimum) following the law?
Some of the stories include requests to make dinner reservations, which is (on its face) not discriminatory but could be part of a pattern of discrimination. But, some are horrifying, such as “to being told to sit on a coworker’s lap in front of a human resources leader.” (Emphasis is mine.)
Even an HR intern should be confident enough to speak up at the moment and say, “hey, not appropriate.”
To keep reading, click here: Did Microsoft HR Ignore Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Complaints?
