HR MAGAZINE

NOVEMBER 2014

NOVEMBER 2014

SHRM.ORG

$8.95

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER ACROSS GENERATIONS

Wisdom
of the Ages
Harnessing the skills and
knowledge of four generations

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Work/life balance
for men
The future of
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NOVEMBER 2014 VOLUME 59, NUMBER 11

Contents
61

COVER STORY
22 Wisdom of the Ages
How to facilitate
knowledge transfer
across generations.
By Susan Milligan

FEATURES
30 BENEFITS

30

Not Your Fathers Workplace

Work/life balance isnt just a
womens issue.

61 HR TECHNOLOGY

Get Analytical

By Mike Ramsey

New Retirement Realities

New workforce analytics tools

reduce the strain of heavy data
lifting.

Compiled by Desda Moss

By Dave Zielinski

36 INFOGRAPHIC

66 LEGAL TRENDS

SPECIAL TECHNOLOGY
SECTION

Recorded Risk

Every smartphone is also a

recording device, making employers
increasingly vulnerable.

By special arrangement, HR
Magazine is offering selected articles
from the International Association
for Human Resource Information
Management (IHRIM).

40 10 Secrets of Successful

Software Implementations
An HRIS professional shares 10
hard-earned lessons that ease
enterprise technology installations.
By Mike Harmer, Intermountain
Healthcare Inc.

44 Bringing HR and Finance

Together with Analytics
To gain funding for investments
in human capital, help the finance
department help you.
By Jeff Higgins, Human Capital
Management Institute

COVER IMAGES BY SHUTTERSTOCK

48 The Future of Live Video

Interviews for Recruitment
How recruiters can take full
advantage of live video interviews.
By Thomas Cottereau, SightCall

By Nina Massen

NEWS YOU CAN USE

AGENDA
54 REWARDS & EMPLOYEE
RECOGNITION

Held in High Regard

Peer-to-peer recognition can be an

effective complement to praise from
the boss.
By Toni Vranjes

ADVICE AND ANALYSIS

17 SOLUTIONS
Drug tests and future employment;
travel-time compensation.
By Margaret Fiester, SPHR-CA, and
Lesa Albright, SPHR-CA, GPHR

10 HR NEWS
New EEOC chair targets pregnancy
bias; aligning performance and pay;
more.
16 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING
Whats blocking workforce change?
By Dori Meinert

64 COURT REPORT
ERISA fiduciaries liable absent
objective prudence; worker denied
flexible schedule as accommodation
may pursue claim; more.
80 WHATS NEW
Compensation and benefits;
compliance; health and safety; HR
management systems; more.

HR Magazine (ISSN 1047-3149) is published monthly by the Society for Human Resource Management, 1800 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314, (703) 548-3440, to further the professional aims of the
Society and the human resource management profession. Members of the Society receive HR Magazine as part of their annual dues, $55 of which is allocated for the subscription to HR Magazine,
which is nonrefundable therefrom. Nonmember subscriptions are available from the Circulation Department at the following rates: Domestic (U.S. and its territories)$70 per year. Canada$90
per year. International (via airmail)$125 per year. Published articles do not necessarily represent the views of the magazine or the Society. Society for Human Resource Management 2014.
Periodicals postage paid at Alexandria, VA 22314 and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to HR Magazine, Circulation Department, 1800 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314.
Publications Mail Agreement No: 40041558. Please send returns to BleuChip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is published with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in
rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

November 2014

1114 Contents.indd 3

HR Magazine

10/15/14 1:22 PM

Set your own pace.

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Beyond the Page

Online this month at
www.shrm.org/hrmagazine

PERSPECTIVES
6

FROM THE CEO

Addressing the Aging Workforce

By Henry G. Jackson

FROM READERS
The minimum-wage debate; social
media and hiring; more.

18

Q&A

Lets Talk

Dr. Catherine Baase explains how

Dow Chemical is helping its workers
talk about end-of-life care.
Interview by Joan Mooney

20 POINT/COUNTERPOINT

Multimedia
Video: David Maxwell and James Wright share
tips on managing intergenerational conflict.
Video: Bill Proudman (right) discusses the stigma
around men asking for more flexibility at work.

Articles
Management Tools: Three Steps to
Reinvigorating Staff Meetings

Should Employers Use

Social Media to Screen
Job Applicants?

An employment law attorney and an

HR professor debate the issue.
By Jonathan A. Segal and Joyce
LeMay, SPHR

57

TREND WATCH
Now Hiring
Hiring outlook brightens, especially
in the West and among small
companies.
By Jen Schramm

84

Blogs
Book summaries in the HR Magazine Book Blog:
2014 Guide to Bold New Ideas for Making
Work Work
Managers as Mentors
The Talent Equation
Execution Is the Strategy

Digital
The digital edition of HR Magazine is now
available to all SHRM members

Smartphone
84

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Tiffany Cardwell, PHR, vice
president of HR, Signature
Healthcares rehab segment,
Louisville, Ky.

SHRM.org and HR Magazine online have been

responsively designed to provide an optimal
viewing experience on any devicephone, tablet,
laptop or desktop.

SHRM RESOURCES
77

83

INSIDE SHRM
SHRM announces Body of
Competency and Knowledge for new
certifications; SHRMs China and
India conferences inform and inspire;
more.
HR JOBS

SPECIAL SECTION
81

YELLOW PAGES

Social Media
Follow @HRMagazineSHRM for daily HR-related updates
and insights.
Like the Society for Human Resource Management on
Facebook for the latest from HR Magazine and SHRM.
Follow the Society for Human Resource Managements
company page and the SHRM official group.

November 2014

1114 Contents.indd 5

HR Magazine

10/15/14 1:22 PM

From the CEO

Addressing the Aging Workforce

emographers call it the silver tsunami: a

rising tide of older workers that threatens to
overwhelm institutions and systems from retirement
to health care to employment. Others simply call it
the aging workforce, which sounds less alarming.
But by any name, the challenge facing U.S. businesses, government and society as the workforce
ages and the Baby Boomer generation retires is real.
And after many years of anticipation, it has arrived.
The proof is in the numbers. Since 2011, roughly
10,000 U.S. Baby Boomers have turned 65 each day.
This year, the youngest Boomers turn 50. While the
Great Recession did slow the number of retirements
in recent years, the percentage of retired Baby Boomers has nearly doubled since 2010. It is clear we need
to focus with even greater urgency on this challenge
to the nations ability to effectively compete in the
global marketplace, and to develop and implement
solutions to address it. Fortunately, many organizations have begun this important work.
The Society for Human Resource Management

HR Magazine

1114 CEO Page.indd 6

(SHRM) and the SHRM Foundation are proud to

take a leading role, collaborating with some of the
worlds most venerable organizations on agingworkforce issues. In partnership since 2010, SHRM
and AARP have developed programs, research and
practical resources to help HR professionals and
employers retain, engage and develop experienced
talent. These materials are available at www.shrm.
org/aarp and www.aarp.org/employers.
In addition, earlier this year SHRM and the
SHRM Foundation launched a national, three-year
Aging Workforce Initiative, funded by the Alfred
P. Sloan Foundation, to highlight the value of older
workers and best practices for employing them. This
initiative will include first-of-its-kind research and
educational resources aimed at helping you and your
employers understand and respond to the issues of an
aging workforce. For more information, visit
www.shrm.org/aging-workforce.
Finally, HR Magazine continues to be one of
the key tools SHRM uses to inform you about critical issues such as the aging workforce and how to
address them. In this issue, for example, the feature
Wisdom of the Ages describes how employers can
develop knowledge transfer programs to harness the
skills and knowledge of all generations in todays
diverse workforce. Youll also find a special SHRMAARP supplement, which includes my view on the
role of HR in addressing the challenges of an aging
workforce as well as new AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins perspective on the value of older workers and
how employers can leverage the talents of a multigenerational workforce.
As the clock continues to tick, HR leaders across
the country will increasingly be called upon to
address the varied challenges of a fast-aging workforce. I know that, as SHRM members, you are up to
this task. As always, SHRM is committed to providing you the support you need to be successful.
For many years, weve heard the warning call for
the silver tsunami. Now, its time to act.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CADE MARTIN FOR HR MAGAZINE

By Henry G. Jackson

November 2014

10/14/14 3:37 PM

making it work

Youre the boss of your life. The Chief Life Officer. Life already comes
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From Readers

Encore Alternatives

ulys article Encore Careers Marry Money and Meaning pointed out the workplace pitfalls that experienced workers faceespecially age bias and downsizing.
Author Robert J. Grossman rightly points out that older workers are seeking
second acts that combine continued income with the promise of meaningful work.
For many older people, learning something new can be frightening and challenging, especially when you consider that they are competing against younger workers
who may have more experience in a given area. Encore careers are not for the many
but for the few who have high-level skills that can transfer to any industry. Not all
older workers burn with desire to do something new because they already love what
they do.
Their holy grail, by contrast, is flexibility. They want to stay in their career and
industry, but gradually transition from traditional work to pre-retirement and then
possibly to full retirement. Technology is making this type of flexible work more possible than ever. Progressive employers are using technology to enable remote access
tools that make logging in to a work server from across the country as secure as doing
so from across the hall.
Insurance industry employers lead the nation in this type of flexible work. For example, 47 percent of Aetnas 35,000 employees have the ability to work at home. Ive seen
dozens of insurance workers transition, happily, from the traditional 9-to-5 onsite job
(with a full-blown commute) to remote work for insurance firms across the country. For
the most part, it doesnt matter where they live. Theyre productive, their employers are
getting the job done, and the industry is keeping its institutional knowledge.
Sharon Emek, Ph.D.
Founder & CEO, Work At Home Vintage Employees
New York

Point/Counterpoint:
Minimum Wage

Social Media
and Hiring

ames Sherk, who contributed to

your Point/Counterpoint column
on the minimum wage (September),
is no economic expert. He espouses
the ultraconservative view that is the
essence of the Heritage Foundation.
His assumptions are predicated on facts
that bear little resemblance to reality.
For a small-government enthusiast, he
bypasses the fact that a living wage will
help workers move away from public
assistance and inject money into the
economy.
Laura Nass-Rosen
West Windsor, N.J.

hanks for your

Legal Trends
article The Law
and Social Media
in Hiring (September). Jonathan
Segal continues to educate HR on the
use of social media in hiring. As the
world evolves, I highly recommend that
people follow him online and read his
thoughts on the matter. From his testimony to his tweets to his informed blog
posts, hes got the Internets covered.
Patrick Clark, via an online comment
Dunmore, Pa.

HR Magazine welcomes feedback from readers. To send a letter to the editor, please
visit www.shrm.org/Publications/hrmagazine/Contactus/ContactEditors or e-mail
HRmag@shrm.org.
8

HR Magazine

1114 From Readers.indd 8

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PUBLISHING &

E-MEDIA, SHRM / PUBLISHER, HR MAGAZINE
Jessica Perry
(Staff e-mail addresses follow this format:
jessica.perry@shrm.org)
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Leon Rubis
EDITOR
Christina Folz
MANAGING EDITOR
Desda Moss, technology, books
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
John Scorza, compensation, benefits
SENIOR WRITERS
Bill Leonard / Dori Meinert
LEGAL EDITORS
Allen Smith, J.D., workplace law content manager /
Joanne Deschenaux, J.D., senior legal editor
ONLINE NEWS CONTENT MANAGER
Beth Mirza
HR NEWS EDITORS
Kathy Gurchiek / Roy Maurer, global, safety and
security / Stephen Miller, CEBS, compensation,
benefits / Theresa Minton-Eversole, staffing
management, organizational and employee
development / Dana Wilkie, employee relations,
diversity / Aliah Wright, technology,
business leadership
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Adrienne Fox / Robert J. Grossman, LL.M. / Bill
Roberts, technology / Jonathan A. Segal, J.D.,
employment law / Susan Wells, health care
COPY DESK MANAGER
Gretchen Kraft
COPY EDITOR
Erin Binney
DIRECTOR, DESIGN,
PRODUCTION & SALES SUPPORT
Caroline Foster
ART DIRECTOR
John R. Anderson Jr.
SENIOR DESIGN SPECIALISTS
Mara-Eugenia Adams / Shirley E. Raybuck
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Kathy Jackson
ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER
Kiristin Reid

November 2014

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HR News

New EEOC Chair Targets Pregnancy Bias

Employers retaliating against workers
who pursue discrimination claims and
women suffering workplace repercussions while pregnant or raising children
are two areas Jenny R. Yang plans to
focus on as the newly named
chairwoman of the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC).
Yang is the first AsianAmerican to lead the national
agency that enforces anti-discrimination laws and champions equal employment oppor- Yang
tunities. President Barack
Obama elevated her from vice chairwoman to chairwoman in September.
Many people would be surprised
that [pregnancy discrimination] continues to be prevalent in the workplace,
Yang said. Examples include women
being fired, job offers being rescinded
and women not receiving Americans
with Disabilities Act accommodations
related to pregnancy. There is this overarching view that once women have children, they will not be as reliable as they

were before, Yang noted.

The EEOC recently updated its
Pregnancy Discrimination Guidance
because we continue to receive a high
number of blatant pregnancy discrimination charges, despite the fact
that its been 36 years since
the passage of the Pregnancy
Discrimination Act, EEOC
spokeswoman Christine
Nazer said.
Yang, a civil rights and
employment lawyer who
replaces outgoing chair Jacqueline Berrien, said she is also
concerned by the high numbers of EEOC
claims alleging employer retaliation
against workers who pursue discrimination charges.
These increased incidences of retaliation charges over the last several years
have prompted Yang to ask How do we
ensure that all workers understand their
rights and are willing to come forward?
One possibility, according to Yang,
is for the EEOC to work more closely
with the business community so we can

understand how [to] foster broad and

sustained compliance and also raise
awareness in the employee community
that they do have protections.
Her husbands parentsKorean
immigrants who owned a grocery store
in New York Citydid not have the
ability to hire an HR department or outside counsel to make sure they understood how all the laws worked, she
said, adding that the EEOC can play an
important role in helping small businesses to understand how to comply
with anti-discrimination and equal
employment laws.
Yang felt a sense of isolation growing up as the daughter of Chinese immigrants. Raised in New Jersey, she had no
Asian-American teachers in her grade
school. The first time I saw an AsianAmerican teacher was on TV, she
said. I recall a light going off and thinking, I didnt know Asian-Americans
could be teachers. If you havent seen
people in different roles, you may not
imagine its possible.
Dana Wilkie

Stars Not Aligned Between Performance and Pay

Salary increases and bonuses for top
achievers are expected to outpace
those of everyone else in 2015, but the
extent of differentiation is narrowing.
Recent Towers Watson findings reveal
that:
Exempt workers who received the
highest performance ratings were
granted an average salary increase of
4.5 percent in 2014, about 73 percent
greater than the 2.6 percent increase
given to workers receiving an average rating. However, three years ago,
the best-performing workers received
raises that were 80 percent greater than
those of average workers.
For 2015, the top 10 percent of

10

HR Magazine

1114 HR news.indd 10

employees are expected to receive

bonuses that are 25 percent larger than
those of employees who simply met
expectations. In 2010, those same top
performers received bonuses that were
30 percent larger.
Almost a third of employers plan to
give bonuses to workers who failed to
meet expectations, up from nearly a
fourth that gave bonuses to poor performers last year.
Many companies are still not
providing enough differentiation in
their incentive programs for them to be
effective, said Laura Sejen, managing
director of rewards at Towers Watson.
Stephen Miller, CEBS

November 2014

10/15/14 1:15 PM

60%

OF
CEOS

LISTED INNOVATION AS THEIR COMPANYS PRIMARY FOCUS.

YET, 93% USE THE SAME SOCIAL NETWORK FOR HIRING.

LACK OF
TECHNICAL SKILLS

IS
THE
#1
REASON
EMPLOYERS HAVE TROUBLE FILLING JOBS.
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INTRODUCING

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57%

OF

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WHICH, BY HUMAN

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5:04 AM
PM
10/8/14

HR News

The Rise of the Accidental Expat

BRIEFS
BENEFITS
MODEST PREMIUM GROWTH,
STEEP DEDUCTIBLE HIKES
Despite a slowdown in the growth
for group health plan premiums,
higher deductibles have shifted
more costs to employees. In the
U.S., average annual premiums for
employer-sponsored family coverage reached $16,834 in 2014, up 3
percent from 2013, according to the
Kaiser Family Foundation/Health
Research & Educational Trust 2014
Employer Health Benefits Survey
report.

A HAPPY RETIREMENT
IS A HEALTHY ONE
Health was the most important
ingredient to a happy retirement
for 81 percent of U.S. retirees in a
recent study of 3,300 people. It was
followed by financial security, loving
family and friends, and having
a sense of purpose. The report,
Health and Retirement: Planning for
the Great Unknown, summarized
research conducted by Merrill Lynch
in partnership with Age Wave,
which studies the aging population.

... WHICH IS WHY

HEALTH CARE COSTS
ARE RETIREES TOP WORRY
The same survey showed that health
expenses are peoples most pressing financial concern in retirement,
exceeding even the fear of outliving
ones money. People age 50 and older
were nearly twice as worried about
the cost of retirement health care as
they were about quality of care. Yet
7 out of 10 couples age 50 and older
have not discussed how much they
need to save for this purpose.
READ full versions of these articles
and others: www.shrm.org/rewards

12

HR Magazine

1114 HR news.indd 12

Emerging trends in international assignments are creating compliance risks for HR

professionals at multinational companies. The typical three-to-five-year expat stints
are transforming into shorter, project-based assignments that last weeks or months.
Accidental expats might include extended business travelers, cross-border commuters who return home on
weekends and global nomads
who move from assignment to
assignment.
Companies are expecting their workforce to be more
mobile than ever, but not mobile
in the traditional sense because
the assignments dont always
involve relocation, said Kerry
Weinger, a global employment
partner based in Baker & McKenzies Chicago office.
Accidental expats often fall
outside a companys formal global mobility program. Because they book their own
travel, HR managers may not know where they are until theres a problem. As shortterm assignments morph into longer-term ones, employers are faced with foreign
income tax and social security withholding requirements, as well as risks in the areas
of immigration, data privacy and employment law.
Companies that are prosecuted for these types of violations face civil and even
criminal action, said Weinger. She recommends the following practices:
Communicate your business-travel policies. Its so important to establish a
company travel policy and incorporate it into your employee handbook. Educate travelers and their managers about which trips your company will authorize and relevant laws.
Require a compliance checklist. Have employees fill out an online questionnaire before obtaining travel authorization, Weinger said. Before booking their tickets, employees must answer questions like: What is the purpose of your trip? Do you
have the proper visa? Have you ever been stopped at customs?
Establish travel review policies. The more time an employee spends overseas,
the more reason there is to believe he or she is doing more than attending a conference. Travel to one country for an extended period or frequent trips should be evaluated to determine whether work authorization is required, Weinger said.
Get weekly local regulatory updates. Since the global economic crisis, governments have become stricter about enforcing their immigration laws. Get updates
from outside counsel, global mobility publications and business newsletters.
Use immigration experts. Immigration laws vary widely from country to country. Consult with experts who know how to analyze the activities employees will be
engaged in to determine the appropriate type of visa and reduce legal risk.
Roy Maurer

$75,000

The annual compensation tipping point, above

which employees are generally satisfied with their
pay and below which they are not. Source: CareerBuilder.

November 2014

10/16/14 2:43 PM

Federal
Contractor
Minimum-Wage
Hike Detailed

Finding the C-Suite Spot

According to recent data from HR consultancy Mercer, 84 percent of C-suite
executives said they had little to no
understanding of human capital return.
HR professionals can change that.
Brad Karsh, president of JB Training
Solutions in Las Vegas, gave HR professionals tips for becoming better business
partners at SHRMs inaugural Emerging
LEAD(HR) Conference on Sept. 30 in Las
Vegas:
Know the business. Know what
makes your company money, connect to
how they make money, and think like a
chief financial officer, Karsh said.
Have face-to-face
conversations with
people in different
divisions; read what
executives read,
including annual
reports and business
publications.
Embrace
Karsh
change. Change
is difficult, but we
have to make sure we deal with it effectively because we live with it each and
every day, he said. One way to practice is

to say yes to projects and ideas rather than

reflexively saying no. Do three things
a week that scare youthats how you
embrace change, Karsh advised.
Communicate effectively. Be direct
and succinct. If youre writing an e-mail,
the person reading it should not have
to scroll, he said. If the e-mail requires
scrolling, thats your cue to get up from
your desk and go talk to the person.
Focus on solutions. While its important to tell others about considerations and
limitations when it comes to tough decisions, always focus on solutions.
Never start an e-mail with the word
unfortunately. Say what you can and will
do, Karsh said. For example, say Id
love to meet with you; I can do it Monday
or Tuesday. This sends the message that
youre getting things done and making
things happen.
Be a project manager. Do what you
say you will do. Under-promise and overdeliver, Karsh advised. For example, If
you [tell them] you can have it by Wednesday, give it to them by Tuesday. Have a
bias toward action.
In other words, just do it.
Aliah D. Wright

On Oct. 1, the U.S. Department of Labor

issued a final rule implementing an
executive order to raise the minimum
wage for workers on federal service
and construction contracts from $7.25
to $10.10 per hour.
The department estimates that
200,000 workers on contracts awarded
in 2015 will be affected. The new minimum wage applies to new contracts
awarded on or after Jan. 1, 2015.
Executive Order 13658 established
that the new minimum wage applies to:
Prime contracts covered by the
Davis-Bacon Act that exceed $2,000.
Prime contracts covered by the Service Contract Act that exceed $2,500.
Procurement contracts where
workers wages are governed by the
Fair Labor Standards Act that exceed
$3,000.
In addition, the minimum wage for
tipped federal contractor employees
goes up from $2.13 to $4.90 per hour as
of Jan. 1, 2015.
Employees who are exempt from
minimum-wage protections of the Fair
Labor Standards Act are not entitled to
the new minimum wage.
Allen Smith, J.D.

November 2014

1114 HR news.indd 13

HR Magazine

13

10/15/14 1:16 PM

HR News

STATE BRIEFS

MA

Massachusetts: New Leave Law

For Domestic Violence Victims

A new law requires employers with 50

or more workers to provide employees with up to 15 days of unpaid leave
in any 12-month period if they or a family member is
the victim of abusive behavior. The employee can use
the leave to seek medical attention, counseling, victim
services or legal assistance.
Gov. Jerry Brown signs a bill mandating paid sick leave.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families

Act of 2014, making California the second state after Connecticut
to implement paid sick leave statewide. The law takes effect July 1,
2015.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter

signed a bill requiring employers to
provide reasonable accommodation
to employees who want to breastfeed. The bill amends the citys business codes to
make it an unlawful business practice for an employer
with one or more employees to prohibit women from
expressing or pumping breast milk.

PA

Employers Covered by New Law

One of the more controversial aspects of this new law is likely to be
its scope. It applies to almost all employers regardless of size, many
public employers, the state and municipalities. By contrast, Connecticuts paid-sick-leave law applies only to employers with more than 50
employees, and San Franciscos ordinance exempts smaller employers
from certain obligations.

Accrual and Usage Rules

Employees who work in California for 30 or more days within a year
from the start of employment will accrue paid sick leave at a rate of
no less than one hour for every 30 hours worked. Exempt employees will be deemed to work 40 hours per week for accrual purposes,
unless their normal workweek schedule is less than 40 hours, in
which case they will accrue paid sick leave based on that normal
workweek.
Employees will be entitled to use accrued paid sick days beginning
on the 90th day of employment, after which time they may use paid
sick days as they are accrued.
While accrued paid sick days will carry over to the following year
of employment, employers may limit an employees use of paid sick
leave to 24 hours, or three days, in each year of employment.
Michael S. Kalt, Wilson Turner Kosmo LLP

Illinois: Use of Payroll Cards

Permitted Next Year
After Jan. 1, 2015, Illinois employers may pay employees wages with
payroll cards in addition to paying by
cash, check or direct deposit. A payroll
card is similar to a debit card but not
linked to a bank account; it is often used to transfer
funds to people without checking accounts.

IL

Correction
On p. 17 of the September 2014 issue of HR
Magazine, the map for the HR News article
States Graded on Family-Friendly Policies,
Benefits showed incorrect grades for three
states. New Jersey should have received a B,
New Hampshire a D and Alaska a C for
their parent-friendly policies. We apologize for
the errors.

READ about state workplace law developments: www.shrm.org/LegalIssues/StateandLocalResources

14

HR Magazine

1114 HR news.indd 14

PHOTOGRAPH BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

California Second State

To Require Paid Sick Leave

Philadelphia: Employers
Must Allow Breast-Feeding

November 2014

10/15/14 1:16 PM

Will eHarmony and Recruiting

Be a Love Match?
As eHarmony founder and CEO Neil Clark Warren knows, the dating game is lucrative: 44 million people use his site. Now hes ready to take
on a different kind of matchmaking: pairing
job seekers and open positions. In December,
eHarmony will launch Elevated Careers.
The new service uses algorithms
and assessment tools to weed through
thousands of resumes and give HR
professionals a daily list of target
candidates. Both employers and
applicants must fill out a survey,
and they are paired based on four
areas: job competency, cultural
fit, the personality traits of
the supervisor and the personality traits of applicants potential closest
co-workers.

The Wheel of the Desk Goes Round and Round

If youre up for a unique wellness
challenge, you too can have your
own Hamster Wheel Standing Desk.
Visit www.instructables.com/id/
Hamster-Wheel-Standing-Desk.
The design was developed by Robb
Godshaw, artist-in-residence at
Autodesks Pier 9, a San Franciscobased fabrication facility, and Will
Doenlen, a developer at Instructables, an arm of Autodesk devoted
to do-it-yourself projects.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

WATCH the hamster wheel desk in

action in the digital edition:
www.hrmagazine-digital.com

Most
Annoying
Business
Buzzwords
Staffing service Accountemps recently released
the results of a survey
that took a deep dive to
identify synergies among
the jargon U.S. and Canadian HR managers find
annoying. Among the
most grating terms:
Leverage.
Dynamic.
Deep dive.
Bandwidth.
Synergy.
Paradigm shift.
Core competency.
Employee
engagement.
HR can leverage its
influence to help employees use more-specific
language. One idea
for building employee
engagement is asking
people to drop a quarter
in a buzzword jar every
time theyre caught using
jargon. What better way
to initiate a paradigm
shift? (And we owe you
$1.25!)

App Watch
Foko is an Instagram for enterprises,
providing a secure photo-sharing platform
for employees. Its free to download from
the Apple and Android stores.

Culture hackers: People who break down the divisions

between work, life, colleagues and friends, like the tech
whizzes on the HBO show Silicon Valley who live
together and create companies together.

November 2014

1114 HR news.indd 15

HR Magazine

15

10/16/14 2:44 PM

Executive Briefing
By Dori Meinert

Whats Blocking Workforce Change?

Globalization, labor market shifts and
technological advances are causing many
organizations to rethink their operational models and workforce strategies.
To survive, they need motivated, skilled
employees who are quick to adapt.
Yet two-thirds of businesses acknowledge that they havent made significant
progress toward building a workforce
that will meet their long-term business
goals, according to Workforce 2020: The
Looming Talent Crisis, a global study
conducted by Oxford Economics on
behalf of software developer SAP.
The major obstacles cited include a
lack of employee longevity or loyalty,
inadequate leadership, and insufficient
technology. The study also found a disconnect between what employees say is
important and what executives say their
companies offer.
HR has a lot of work to do with the
rest of business leadership to prepare for
the workforce of the not-very-distant
future, says Edward Cone, managing
editor of thought leadership at Oxford
Economics, which conducts research
and economic analyses.
Researchers surveyed 2,718 executives and 2,872 employees and

interviewed 29 executives in 27 countries earlier this year. They identified the

following major workforce issues:
Compensation. Two-thirds of
employees say competitive compensation
is the most important attribute of a job,
but only 39 percent of executives report
offering it.
The skills gap. While executives
complain about a skills gap, only 23 percent offer development and training as
a benefit. Less than half of employees
report that their company provides the
technology training they need, and less
than a third say their employer makes the
latest technology available. In the U.S.,
only 49 percent of employees say HR has
a good understanding of their skills.
Inadequate leadership. Almost
half of executives say their plans for
growth are hindered by a lack of access
to the right leaders.
Misunderstood Millennials. While
51 percent of executives say the large
number of Millennials entering the
workforce greatly affects their strategy,
fewer than a third pay special attention
to these workers wants and needs
primarily because they dont understand them. Millennials may be more

What Matters Most in the U.S.

Whats in the Way

Competitive compensation

84%

62%

Executives from all over the world were asked to

choose the top two obstacles to building a workforce
that meets their future business needs. Among the
obstacles identified were lack of:

Flexible work location

49%

36%

Employee longevity or loyalty

Flexible schedule

54%

47%

Supplemental training programs

59%

51%

Access to social media

55%

40%

Benefit

What employees What executives say

say is important their companies offer

Source: Oxford Economics Workforce 2020: The Looming Talent Crisis, 2014.

34%

Source: CareerBuilder.

35%

Adequate leadership

34%

Adequate technology

34%

Skilled talent

28%

Internal resources
(including competitive pay)

7%

Only
of U.S. workers
aspire to leadership positions, with
aiming for senior or C-level management.

16

tech-savvy than older workers, but they

also have things in common with previous generations: Both Millennials and
non-Millennials cite compensation as
the most important benefit and value
meaningful work, corporate values and
work/life balance.
The changing workforce. Eightythree percent of executives expect their
companies to increase the use of contingent, intermittent or consultant employeeswhich puts a lot of pressure on HR
to figure out how to build loyalty among
these workers.
Shifting strategies. While a
majority of executives say workforce
development is critical for their companies future success, just 39 percent
report using quantifiable metrics and
benchmarking for workforce development. C-suite executives are more
likely than HR executives to do so
(42 percent vs. 36 percent), but only
42 percent of all executives say they
know how to extract meaningful
insights from the data available to
them. Meanwhile, almost half report
that workforce changes will require
adjustments in compensation plans,
training and HR technology.

23%
21%

Available employees
Engaged employees

13%

Source: Oxford Economics Workforce 2020: The Looming Talent Crisis, 2014.

HR Magazine November 2014

1114 Executive Briefing.indd 16

10/14/14 4:54 PM

E
A
A
S
In
A
E

Advice from HR Knowledge Advisors

ILLUSTRATION BY RICHARD BORGE FOR HR MAGAZINE

Can companies bar job applicants who fail drug

tests from future employment?

No. A company that implements such

a policy would be violating the federal
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),
which prohibits employers from denying
someone future employment based on
that persons past failure of a drug test.
Recovering addicts who are no longer abusing drugs are protected from
discrimination based on their past drug
addiction, according to the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC).
That safeguard is granted to people
who are receiving treatment for drug
addiction or those who have been rehabilitated successfully.
So, an employer subject to the ADA
shouldnt have a policy stating that
employees who fail a drug test will not
be eligible for rehire, nor should it apply
such a restriction without a formal
policy.
However, the ADA does allow
employers to test employees and job
applicants for illegal drugs to ensure a
drug-free workplace. Companies have
the right to discharge or deny employment to those who currently engage in
illegal drug use.
That means if an individual tests
positive on a drug test, he or she is

considered a current drug user under the

ADA, justifying an employers reasonable belief that involvement with drugs is
an ongoing problem.
An applicant or employee who tests
positive for an illegal drug cannot immediately enter a drug rehabilitation program and seek to avoid the possibility of
discipline or termination according
to the EEOC guidance.
A person who tests positive for illegal use of drugs is not entitled to the protection that may be available to former
users who have been or are in rehabilitation, the EEOC guidance states.
To ensure that drug use is not recurring, HR professionals may want to
request evidence that an individual is
participating in a drug rehabilitation
program or request the results of another
drug test.
As with other disabilities, an individual who claims that he or she was
discriminated against because of past or
perceived illegal-drug addiction may be
asked to prove that he or she has a record
of, or is regarded as having, an addiction
to drugs.
The ADA protections also apply to
recovering alcoholics.
Margaret Fiester, SPHR-CA

Do nonexempt
employees need to be
paid for travel time as a
passenger or a driver?
Usually. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act travel-time regulations include
a provision that has confused many
employers, leading them to mistakenly
believe that nonexempt employees dont
have to be paid for their time spent riding as passengers.
In reality, there are only a few
instances when this is the case.
The oft-confused provision states:

ASK your question or read more Q&As: www.shrm.org/hrqa

1114 Solutions.indd 17

Solutions

As an enforcement policy the Divisions

will not consider as worktime that time
spent in travel away from home outside
of regular working hours as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus, or
automobile.
Although it clearly states that travel
time outside of regular working hours
doesnt have to be paid, in fact the only
travel time as a passenger that is not
compensable for nonexempt employees
is:
Meal breaks of 20 minutes or longer
during the travel time.
Travel to overnight stays when it
occurs outside of the employees normal
work schedule, regardless of the day of
the week, and when no work is being
performed while traveling.
For example, an employee who usually works 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. doesnt have
to be compensated for travel from 5 p.m.
to 7 p.m.unless he or she responded to
work e-mails or performed other work
during that time.
As for drivers, they must be paid
for any driving done at the direction
of the employer. Therefore, all driving
in a days workwhether traveling to
another city for a one-day assignment,
taking oneself or ones colleagues to an
overnight stay, or just driving around the
areamust all be paid time.
However, when an employee is traveling to an overnight stay and has the
option of using public transportation,
the employer has a choice.
The company can either pay for all
time spent in travel or only the travel
time that occurs during normal work
hours, regardless of the day of the week
when the travel occurs.
If an employee voluntarily chooses
to drive others, his or her time for travel
outside the normal work hours doesnt
have to be paid.
Some states have travel-time regulations that are more generous than the
federal requirements. Employers must
comply with both.
Lesa Albright, SPHR-CA, GPHR
November 2014

HR Magazine

17

10/16/14 2:45 PM

Q&A

Lets Talk
Dow Chemical helps its employees talk to their families about end-of-life care.
Interview by Joan Mooney
hen Catherine Baase, M.D.,
global director of health services for Dow Chemical Co., heard
about The Conversation Project from
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Ellen Goodman, she was
intrigued. Goodman started
the program in 2010 to
encourage people to talk
to family members about
their wishes for end-oflife care. During her
own mothers chronic
illness, Baase and her
sister, a nurse, organized regular conference calls with their
brothers and talked to
their mother directly
about her preferences. So
Baase was well aware of
the need for such difficult conversations. Two
years after she first
talked to Goodman,
Baase has helped make
the program part of the
culture at Dow.
Whats the objective
of The Conversation
Project?

The goal is to encourage people to have

the important conversationongoing
conversations, actuallywith their loved
ones about their wishes
concerning the end of life.
In our society, we dont seem
to be very good at that, so we
want to facilitate the process. So
many people seem to be in crisis
mode during this period, or the
18

HR Magazine

1114 Q&A.indd 18

end-of-life experience isnt as comfortable as it could be, either for those receiving care or their family members.
Why is this program important to you?

As a physician, I have seen people

struggle; they dont seem to know
how to prepare for this important
stage of life, and they simply put
off dealing with it. A lot of organizations have identified this as
a very real gap, but its not an
easy thing to encourage people to do.

one with their own work demands.

Thats a situation that can create great
stress and distraction, and even threaten
ones own health. Approximately half of
Dows workforce is of the age where caring for aging parents and loved ones is a
real possibility. By providing resources
like the Conversation Starter Kit and
How to Talk to Your Doctor [brief
guides from The Conversation Project],
companies can help employees, retirees
and their family members have those
important conversations ahead of time.
Whats the next step at Dow?

What should people talk

about?

This is not about prescribing any right

answers. Its about
people sharing what their
wishes are, what is important to them. Its not just
about selecting a specific
location where they wish
to spend their final days,
like a hospital or at home,
although that is one factor.
It might be important to
them to be with family or
have some autonomy. People cant always know what
will happen, but they can
share their general preferences, personal values and
priorities.
How has The Conversation
Project helped Dow?

At Dow, we recognize that many

employees and retirees balance
caring for a parent or loved

Dr. Catherine Baase

We are really just getting started. We

created a video about The Conversation Project that has been shared on our
intranet, and we have brochures we give
out in our health clinics. Were in the
process of training our health service
counselors and nursing staff to be more
deeply informed about this issue, and we
have shared the information with some
local health care providers. We plan to
develop conversation groups, where people will be invited to come together and
talk about their own experiences and
practice discussing end-of-life issues.
We anticipate having retirees work with
employees in role-play exercises.
What has been the reaction of Dow
employees?

Weve had a lot of positive reactions.

People have said, If only I had known
earlier, this would have been so helpful.
Others said, This is the perfect tool. Im
going to share this with my children.
Ive used it myself; I went through the
conversation starter toolkit with my husband.
Joan Mooney is a freelance journalist based
in Washington, D.C.

PHOTOGRAPH BY COLLIER STUDIOS FOR HR MAGAZINE

November 2014

10/14/14 4:44 PM

Helping employees
is your passion.
Helping you is ours.
You have a responsibility to manage your companys resources. Its
part of the job. At the same time, you have a passion for taking care of
your employees. Its part of who you are. Backed by 70 years of helping
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libertymutualgroup.com/employeebenefits.
@LibertyB2B

2013 Liberty Mutual Insurance Group products offered by Liberty Life Assurance Company of Boston, a Liberty Mutual company.

Full Pg.indd 1

1/2/14 2:09 PM

Point/Counterpoint

Should Employers Use Social Media

to Screen Job Applicants?
YES
Proceed cautiously with social media checks, but proceed.

About 77 percent of companies are

using social networking sites to recruit
candidates for specific jobs, according to a 2013 survey by the Society
for Human Resource Management
(SHRM).
In contrast, that same survey found
that only 20 percent of 651 respondents
use social networking websites, such as
Facebook, to research job candidates.
When asked why, three-quarters
said they were concerned with legal
risks or discovering information
about protected characteristics (e.g.,
age, race, gender, religious affiliation) when perusing candidates social
media profiles. This is a legitimate
concern.
However, ignoring social media
entirely in the screening process is
often an overreaction. The legal risk
can be minimized, and the business
benefits maximized. Some content
posted on these platforms legitimately
can be considered to the benefit or detriment of a candidate.
For example, you might learn from
her blog posts that the candidate is a
good writer, or her tweets might reveal
that she is active in charitable causes.
On the other hand, you may discover
that the candidate has posted racist
rants on Facebook.
While these are extreme cases, it is

20

HR Magazine

1114 Point Counterpoint.indd 20

usually only at the extremes that social

media is relevant.
How do we balance the legal risks?
In many ways, the ban-the-box
laws and ordinances at the state and
local level are a good model. They
dont ban employers from asking about
criminal convictions. They require
that employers wait to do so, at least
until after the first interview. Some
require that employers wait until after
a conditional offer has been extended.
Employers can minimize the legal
risks and maximize the business benefits of social media if the screening is
part of the reference or background
check that is made before extending
an offer or after extending a conditional offer. After an applicant has
been interviewed, his or her membership in many protected groups is
already known. So, checking his or
her LinkedIn profile or Twitter handle is not likely to reveal much more
than HR already knows. According to
the 2013 SHRM survey, the organizations that use social media for screening do so after conducting a job interview but before extending a job offer.
The risk can be further minimized
if HR, rather than a hiring manager,
conducts the background check. HR
knows what it can and cannot consider.
And, the risk levels vary depending

on which social media platforms are

reviewed. Facebook posts tend to be
more private (i.e., access to content is
restricted to selected friends) than
posts on LinkedIn or Twitter. So an
employer can elect to look only at the
last two.
For other steps that employers can
take to minimize risk, see The Law
and Social Media in Hiring in the September 2014 issue of HR Magazine.
The bottom line is that avoiding
legal risk is not possible, and avoiding
social media in the hiring process may
cost you in the long run. We need to
manage risk, not avoid it.
Jonathan A. Segal, partner,
Duane Morris LLP,
Philadelphia

November 2014

10/14/14 4:58 PM

NO
Screening social media is unethical and possibly illegal.

Would you follow a job applicant

home and peek into her front window?
Would you eavesdrop on a candidate
who is socializing with friends at a bar?
Of course not.
Using social media to screen applicants is equivalent to these scenarios.
Many employers dont train managers in how to use social networking websites to screen applicants in an
ethical and legal manner. So, recruiters
and hiring managers poke and pry into
posts that were meant for the candidates friends.
More than half of hiring managers found information on social media
that caused them not to hire a candidate, according to a 2014 CareerBuilder survey. However, many of the
reasons cited for not hiring the individual were not job-related.
In a national survey I conducted
last year, 31 percent of the 212 respondents (about half were in HR) said
they believed that using social media
for screening applicants is unethical.
Thats because recruiters may learn
about job applicants age, sex, religion,
national origin and disabilities, which
may open employers up to discrimination lawsuits.
Many also were concerned about
the accuracy of the information they
find. Someone could have hacked into

the applicants Facebook account and

posted false statements.
And pictures can easily be taken
out of context. For instance, if there
is a photo of an applicant smiling and
holding up a glass of wine, a recruiter
could assume he or she has a drinking
problem.
However, the glass might have contained grape juice, or the occasion may
have been a rare celebratory moment.
The picture doesnt tell the entire story.
These concerns are probably why
only 20 percent of employers use social
media to screen applicants, according
to a 2013 SHRM survey.
In handling information, the
SHRM Code of Ethics calls on HR
professionals to consider and protect
the rights of individuals, especially
in the acquisition and dissemination
of information while ensuring truthful communications and facilitating
informed decision-making.
The challenge with social media
lies with the acquisition and truthfulness of the information. Did we
dig to find it? How do we know that
what we saw or read was true?
Based on the answers to these
two questions, how do we use
the information to make a
hiring decision that is fair
and just?

These are real challenges to consider. As HR professionals, we are

called on to use ethical and legal best
practices and to not take the easy way
out by simply searching social networking sites.
So, if you wouldnt peek into the
applicants window at home, why
look into his or her postings on social
media?
Its tempting, but not the best ethical choice, and clearly it can increase
the legal risks.
Joyce LeMay, SPHR,
associate professor of HR,
Bethel University, St. Paul, Minn.

November 2014

1114 Point Counterpoint.indd 21

HR Magazine

21

10/14/14 4:58 PM

IMAGES FROM SHUTTERSTOCK

22

HR Magazine

1114 Miligan.indd 22

November 2014

10/14/14 2:49 PM

COVER STORY

Wisdom
of the Ages
How can employers capture the skills and knowledge
of four generations?
By Susan Milligan

O
IMAGES FROM SHUTTERSTOCK

h, those pesky Millennials, thinking they can set their own work schedules and demanding
meaning in even the most mundane office tasks. Then there are the Baby Boomers, just biding
their time until retirement, phoning it in, all the while complaining about how younger employees arent paying their dues. And whats up with those folks from Generation X? Dont they
know how to work collaboratively?
These are stereotypes, of course, but they are based on many peoples perceptions as well as
real inclinations that researchers have associated with the broad generational groups. And while
employers have always had to deal with tension among different age groups (experienced old-timers
grousing about cocky young upstarts, and vice versa), this marks the first time in history that four
distinct generations are coexisting in the labor force. They are the Traditionalists (born 1922-45),

November 2014

1114 Miligan.indd 23

HR Magazine

23

10/14/14 2:49 PM

COVER STORY

Baby Boomers (born 1946-64), Generation X (born 1965-80)

and Millennials (born 1981-2000), according to Jay Meschke,
president of the Cleveland-based business consulting firm CBIZ
Human Capital Services.
Part of the reason for this four-generation mix at work is the
recession, which prompted many Baby Boomers to delay retirement while their 401(k)s recover. Moreover,
many Traditionalistswho would have
been considered past retirement age in an
earlier erahave decided to keep working,
either for money or for personal satisfaction.
Each of the generations has a different
way of learning, advancing and collaborating. And while that is its own challenge,
HR professionals and senior managers are
dealing with another issue as well: how
to ensure that vital knowledge and skills
are being transferred among the different
groups, especially since the older workers
who delayed retirement during the recession are now beginning
to think about leaving.
From an HR standpoint, its really critical, says Giselle
Kovary, managing partner and co-founder of n-gen People Performance Inc. and an expert on generational differences in the
workplace. The big piece about the generational perspective is,
how does it start to impact your human capital, and what is the
capital risk?

Why Knowledge Transfer Matters

Technology has had an enormous impact on the need for knowledge transfer and education, with the high speed of development
requiring workers from every generation to learn new technologies more quickly.
Consider the telephone, says Brad Karsh, president of Chicago-based professional training company JB Training Solutions. When Karsh was born, his family had a rotary phonea
device created in 1918 that didnt change much for a half century. By comparison, there have been five versions of the iPhone
in seven years.
Fast-changing technology means workers have less time to get
up to speed on important new skills. It also means older employees must be willing to learn from younger onesthe so-called
digital natives who grew up immersed in computer and mobile
technologies.
In addition, employers can no longer count on employees following routine career paths. Traditionalists, for example, likely
entered the workforce with the idea that they would have one
career and possibly just a single employer. Baby Boomers and

members of Generation X were prepared to work for a number

of employers, but most likely in the same field.
Millennials, however, are interested in both job- and careerhopping. They might have eight different careers in their lifetimesnot because theyre unhappy at work, but because they
feel like a change or want to do serial, mini-retirements so they

A lot of companies arent ready

yet for the looming retirements
of older workers. They were
preparing, then stopped.
Deb LaMere, Ceridian

can go hiking for two months. Theyll be a freelance writer,

a chef and then an engineer, Kovary says. Thats completely
reasonable to them.
While that might produce an exciting path for the worker, it
makes workforce planning a challenge for HR managers. They
dont want to lose the knowledge and ideas of the younger generation, even as they are trying to ensure knowledge transfer
from older employees who may start to retire as the economic
recovery proceeds.
A lot of companies arent ready for the looming retirements
of older workers, says Deb LaMere, vice president of employee
engagement at Ceridian, a Minneapolis-based HR services firm.
They were preparing, then stopped, she notes. Now we have
to hurry up again. And with the economy turning around,
even employees who arent of retirement age are ready to make
a change, even a risky one, such as starting a business or moving to another firm, she says, which adds to the uncertainty for
HR managers.

The Four Generations

To handle the knowledge exchangewhether or not it involves
people on their way out the doormanagers must understand
what drives the different generations and how that affects the
way they teach and learn. Its about more than age. Much of
what defines the generations is world events and parenting styles.
Traditionalists. This generation may have lived through the
Great Depression and World War II. Its members have strong
ideas about loyalty and hard work, believing that both will be
rewarded with financial and professional benefits. Job-hopping

WATCH a video about managing four generations at work: www.shrm.org/1114-intergenerational-knowledge-transfer

24

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1114 Miligan.indd 24

November 2014

10/16/14 2:50 PM

is viewed as disloyal, and many have made a lifetime commitment to one job or company. By the
same token, Traditionalists are also more comfortable working on longer-term projects, Kovary
notes in her book, Loyalty Unplugged: How to
Get, Keep & Grow All Four Generations (Xlibris, 2007).
Baby Boomers. Known as the me generation, Boomers were shaped by the Vietnam War,
a time of great social change and uncertainty.
The birth control pill gave women more freedom to delay motherhood and pursue careers,
and the unrest of the 1960s imbued many with
a sense of social responsibility as they fought
the Establishment. Loyalty among this group
is to the team, not the organization or manager.
Such employees tend to operate comfortably in
siloed organizations, seeking to rise to the top
of their particular sector. Many Boomers are
workaholics, with identities closely aligned with
their professions.
Generation X. Parenting styles changed draParticipants in GlaxoSmithKlines Future Leaders Program, which rotates workers through
matically starting in the late 1960s, Karsh notes.
different departments to facilitate learning.
Instead of having mothers and fathers who looked
like they came from the cast of Leave It to Beaver,
For many Millennials, their first job out of college is their first
many members of Generation X grew up in homes where both parents worked and divorce was increasingly common. As a result, job ever, Karsh says. The percentage of teenagers with summer
they often fended for themselveswalking to school, making jobs has declined steadily for the past 18 years. And increased
their lunches and waiting a couple of hours at home until a parent homework loads mean fewer kids are working after school. Kids
returned from work. That has made for a group of employees who often have three or more hours of homework a night, says Laura
are perfectly happy to toil away individually, Karsh says. They Sherbin, executive vice president and director of research at the
dont like authority figures. They dont like being told what to do. Center for Talent Innovation in New York City. In addition, parents have steered their children toward summer activities such as soccer camp
Parenting styles underwent big changes
instead of a job at McDonagain in the 1980s. The mentality went from
alds, according to Karsh.
New employees who have
My children are the most important thing in
never had to deal with a
my life to My children are the only thing in
boss face a big adjustment.
W h i le M i l le n n i a l s
my life.
tend not to think that they
Brad Karsh, JB Training Solutions
need to pay their dues
to advance at workas
older generations didits
Millennials. Parenting styles underwent big changes again in not fair to conclude that they have no work ethic, says Tammy
the 1980s. The mentality went from My children are the most Browning, senior vice president of U.S. Field Operations at Philimportant thing in my life to My children are the only thing in adelphia-based staffing firm Yoh. They have this Justin Bieber
my life, Karsh says. Kids were protected and lavishly praised, thought process, thinking theyll get discovered on YouTube,
making for grown-up workers who are eager for feedback and she says. Yet theyll still work 60 hours a week. They just want
to do it on their own schedule.
perhaps a bit fragile when its not all positive.
November 2014

1114 Miligan.indd 25

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25

10/14/14 2:49 PM

COVER STORY

Generational Learning Preferences

Traditionalists

Baby Boomers

Generation X

Millennials

Structured.
Traditional classroom
environment.
Dislike being singled out.
Link learning with overall
goals.

Interactive/group learning
through facilitation.
Need time to practice
applying new skills.
Link learning to new ways to
add value.

Fluid, just-in-time learning

using technology.
Learn by doingget
involved!
Make the learning fun, skillbased; link to marketability.

Teamwork and technology.

Edu-tainment.
Link learning to making
money.

Source: n-gen People Performance Inc., reprinted with permission.

Millennials have also had to deal with constant global instability and economic ups and downs. This has made them very
focused on bettering the community and finding meaning at
work, not just a paycheck.
For this generation coming up, their needs are so different.
Theres got to be mobility [for them]. Theyre going to come in
and work 12 to 15 months and move on, says Michael Molina,
chief human resources officer at Vistage, a San Diego-based executive coaching service with 161 employees. It has very little to
do with great pay, a great environment or great leadership. Its
the purpose-driven life most of them want.

Different Ways of Learning

Although there are commonalities among the generations, there
are differences as well. Conflicts often arise from differing learning styles, especially as they relate to how information is acquired and used, experts say. Millennials,
for example, tend to process information quickly
and prefer to get it through computers or social
media, Browning says. Millennials learn faster
than any other generation, and they learn in short
bursts, she explains, so forcing the youngest generation to sit through lengthy training sessions
taught from a podium isnt the best option.
Jan Becker, senior vice president of human
resources at the 3-D design firm Autodesk, which is
based in San Rafael, Calif., and has 7,390 employees worldwide, has experienced the generational
divide. She hosts coffee mornings so staff can
brainstorm together. When Becker asked for feedback on the information made available to them by
the company, a 50-year-old lawyer and a 35-yearold engineer reacted very differently. The older
gentleman said, Well, you need to tell me. My manager hasnt told me, and his manager hasnt told
him. He was very much saying, You need to feed
it to me. Im not going to find it, Becker says. But
the younger engineer had seen all the information
he needed onlinethrough the companys website
26

HR Magazine

1114 Miligan.indd 26

and intranetand didnt want or need to be told anything by a

manager.

Facilitating the Transfer

Fortunately, there are things HR can do to make sure knowledge
is transferred effectively among different generations, experts
say, including through:
Mentoring and reverse mentoring. In such arrangements,
two employees are paired to share experience and basic technical knowledge. A younger worker proficient in social media or
basic HTML can teach those skills to an older worker, and the
older individual can provide institutional knowledge or advice
on skills that require experience or a learned kind of finesse, such
as customer service or people management.
At Vistage, a pal program matches people at similar levels

November 2014

10/14/14 2:49 PM

ladder structure, with lower-level positions

on bottom rungs building up to more-advanced
roles that require more responsibility and skill.
But Generation X and Millennials may gravitate
more toward paths that are spiral or web-like,
with employees moving back and forth between
vastly different roles and responsibility levels. By
understanding these models, HR and managers
can get a better picture of employees expectations
and work with them to capture what they know at
different points on their career trajectories.
Job shadowing and job rotation. Employees in such programs either follow another worker
around in his or her job, preparing for the passing of the baton orin the case of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a global health care company based
in Brentford, Englandare rotated around to different jobs upon entering the company.
Over the past few years, GSK has passed
John Sweney, HR manager at GlaxoSmithKline (at computer), works with employees as part
of the companys job rotation initiatives.
hundreds of new college grads through various
departments as part of its Future Leaders Prowithin the organization so that the two can use each other as gram, says John Sweney, one of the firms HR managers and
sounding boards as well as tutors. Ceridian has a buddy pro- director of the program. New and current employees can apply
gram to help young workers navigate the terrain. And Autodesk for the program, which rotates the workers through different
uses a reverse-mentoring program so that veteran staffers can departments over the course of two or three years. GSK also
learn from younger ones. Becker herself says that she has some- offers a separate internship program, and participants can apply
one at the company who helps her with social media for talent for the Future Leaders Program when they are done. They get
acquisition groups. Hes two or three levels down from me, exposure to different parts of the business, having a new manager
she says, and, at a more traditional organization, I probably and new mentors throughout, Sweney says.
Cross-generational team-building events. Bringing genwouldnt interact with him much.
Phased retirement. At the Zeeland, Mich., furniture manufac- erations together for nonwork tasks helps build communication,
turer Herman Miller Inc., with a staff of 6,000, employees are eli- Becker says. At Autodesk, employees work together on a Habitat
gible to begin the retirement process two years ahead of their actual for Humanity project. In general, the more comfortable people
departure date, working fewer hours as full retirement approaches. feel with each other, the more likely they are to ask one another
That allows them to ease out of the job while slowly passing on their to share what they know or how to do something.
Integrating project teams. At TriNet, a San Leandro,
knowledge and skills to other employees in the process, says Tony
Calif.-based HR services provider, workers are assigned to what
Cortese, senior vice president of people services.
The workers continue to get full benefits even as they reduce are called cross-functional project teams, breaking down
their hours to part time, while preparing financially and emotion- the silos created from the basic workplace structure, says Morally for the transition to retirement. Its a win-win solution, Cortese gan Massie, manager of talent development. Employees work
says. The employer benefits from the knowledge transfer, and the together on various initiatives or committees, and it gets them
talking to each other. Different generations then work shoulder
employee can do the appropriate planning.
Career pathing. At Ceridian, HR has mapped career paths to shoulder, regardless of tenure, age or experience, and its an
for positions in each division and shares the information with environment where anyone can feel free to speak up, she says.
Once HR departments begin to accommodate a variety of
all employees. This gives employees a clear plan if they want to
move to a particular position in the future. Each worker is then learning styles that facilitate knowledge transfer among the gengiven a mentor to help guide him or her. Its integrating all the erations, they can focus more on the humanity that unites everygenerations together. Its taking that knowledge and experience oneand how to capture its wisdom for generations to come.
and using it in a different capacity, LaMere says.
According to Kovary, Traditionalists and Boomers tend to
be accustomed to career path models that follow a conventional Susan Milligan is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.
November 2014

1114 Miligan.indd 27

HR Magazine

27

10/14/14 2:49 PM

Relocation Provider Profiles Special Advertising Section

Innovative Services Improve Corporate Relocations

Whether you are welcoming a new
recruit or moving a long-time employee,
a corporate relocation is a reflection of
your company. At United Van Lines, we
understand this concept and that is why we
offer a variety of innovative services and
packages to help meet the diverse needs
of your greatest assets your employees.
For decades, United Van Lines has led the
industry in new technology and customerfriendly services. We are proud to provide
innovative relocation solutions to our
corporate clients and their relocating
employees.
Customized reporting portals for you
and moving resources for your employees.
United realizes you need immediate access
to critical data like mileage, contract
rates, billing summaries and even moving
estimates for shipments and storage. That
is why we develop customized reporting

Full Pg.indd 1

portals for customers. You can access this

information when you need it. We will
also work with you to develop customized
websites for your employees. These
password-protected sites feature companyspecific moving policies and moving tips.
Do-it-yourself to full-service moving
options. From entry-level employees to
executives, United has moving options to
help meet any employee relocation need.
For entry-level employees, consider Uniteds
portable moving and storage containers.
Employees have the convenience of packing
and loading at their own pace without the
risks associated with driving an unfamiliar
vehicle or walking on dangerous ramps. If
your employees need help moving some
of the bigger items, we can help with our
unique Do-it-Yourself with Help service,
which provides professional movers to help
pack, load or unload.

For an executive, consider a

traditional, full-service move to help them
pack, load and unpack their belongings.
We also have settling in services such as
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feel at ease in their new home even faster.
Innovative packages to stretch your
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Large network, personalized service.
While the United Van Lines network is
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the nation and offices around the world,
we understand the value of having the
flexibility to adjust services based on your
needs. If we see a need to add more staff
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it would be effective to have a United
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Uniteds service offerings combined
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2/28/13 2:06 PM

Entry-Level.

C-Level.

Different needs. Different solutions.

From full-service to do-it-yourself moving and storage, United offers an unsurpassed
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flexible relocation solutions, count on United. To learn more, call United at 800-283-5743
or go to unitedvanlines.com/HRMagazine. Theres moving. And theres moving United.

Global Services Affiliate

Full Pg.indd 1

10/10/14 2:51 PM

Benefits

30

HR Magazine

1114 Ramsey.indd 30

November 2014

10/14/14 2:42 PM

Benefits

d
e
e
n
n
Me
fe
i
l
/
k
wor e, too.
c
balan

By Mike Ramsey

November 2014

1114 Ramsey.indd 31

HR Magazine

31

10/14/14 2:42 PM

LEAVE

POLICIES

Whos Eligible

Amount of Leave

Amount of Pay

Reddit

Full-time employees

17 weeks of paid leave, which can be

taken within first year of childs birth
or adoption

Full pay

Bank of America

Full-time and part-time employees

after one year

12 weeks of paid leave, with option of

14 additional weeks of unpaid leave

Regular rate of pay

Patagonia

Full-time employees after one year

Up to 8 weeks of paid leave

Full-time workers get equivalent of 40-hour paycheck;

part-timers get their respective equivalent

Six weeks of paid leave

Full pay

Part-time employees after two years

Ernst & Young

Primary care parent (male or

female) after one year
New fathers after one year

Wal-Mart

32

HR Magazine

1114 Ramsey.indd 32

Salaried associates (typically store

managers and corporate staffers)

Two weeks of paid leave after birth or

adoption of child
Two weeks of paid leave after birth or
adoption of child; time can be taken
all at once or split into separate weeks
during childs first year

Full pay

November 2014

10/14/14 2:42 PM

PHOTOGRAPH BY ASHLEY PIERCE PHOTOGRAPHY

PATERNITY

close, so we would have made it. But it was just great to be able
to be home and help out and be part of the bonding.
Things were different for Philadelphia-based copywriter Nick
Browne. His employer doesnt offer paid paternity leave, so he
used two weeks of vacation time last year when his second daughter was born. His bosses let him work from home an additional
two weeks, under a flexible-work arrangement.
I wanted to make a compromise that worked for everybody, says Browne, 32, who blogs about fatherhood at www
.papabrownie.com.
Just as more women are assuming the role of breadwinner in
their relationships than they have in the past, a growing number
of men are playing integral roles in child care and housework,
sometimes even serving as primary caregivers. But while men
today may have different roles than their dads did, employers are

PHOTOGRAPH ON PREVIOUS PAGE BY SHUTTERSTOCK

ichael Blums experience as a new working

dad isnt typical. Two years ago, when he
welcomed his third child, it was a given
that he would take time off to be with his
wife and newborn. It was also understood
that he wouldnt lose income or vacation
days in the process.
His employer, Zeeland, Mich.-based office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller Inc., offers fathers two weeks of paid
paternity leave after the birth or adoption of a child. During his
absence from work, Blum helped care for his two older children
while his spouse got her strength back.
It was one of those benefits that you almost cant quantify
because you dont know how youd do without it, the 36-yearold e-commerce manager says. We have some family thats

Benefits

lagging when it comes to supporting them with policies that promote better work/life balance. Indeed,
statistics suggest that most male employees are like
Browne and must find workarounds when babies
arrive, pitting the reality of the American workplace
against the desires of men who wish to be involved
parents.
Only an estimated 14 percent of U.S. companies
currently offer some kind of paid paternity leave, a
margin that has stayed about the same since 2005,
according to Kenneth Matos, senior director of
research for the Families and Work Institute. By comparison, the institute reports, 58 percent of employers
offer women some kind of leave, such as disability,
following the birth of a child, although its usually
not paid.

I wanted to make a
compromise that worked
for everybody.
Nick Browne

PHOTOGRAPH BY ASHLEY PIERCE PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTOGRAPH ON PREVIOUS PAGE BY SHUTTERSTOCK

Taking or Leaving Leave

U.S. companies with 50 or more employees are
required by federal law to allow new parents to take
up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. But among working
dads, lack of pay is a major factor affecting the use
of leave. Eighty-six percent of more than 1,000 dads
surveyed by the Boston College Center for Work &
Family said they would be reluctant to take paternity
leave unless they could be paid at least 70 percent of
their salaries. Seventy-four percent said employers
ideally would offer between two and four weeks of
paid paternity leave.
In the United States, paid parental leave is just not there on a
national policy level, says the centers executive director, Brad
Harrington.
During a White House summit on working families earlier
this year, President Barack Obama pushed for paid parental leave
and lamented the United States outlier status as one of the only
developed nations that doesnt guarantee at least mothers paid
time off to give birth.
For many fathers seeking work/life balance, putting family
first can carry a stigma. That played out in the press when New
York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy took two games off
in April for the birth of his first child, and sports commentators ridiculed him for bucking the presumed code of machismo
among professional athletes. Several months later, the blogosphere crackled when then-CEO Max Schireson of MongoDB
Inc. wrote about his plan to step away from the top job at the
high-tech company to spend more time with his family.
Will that cost me tens of millions of dollars someday?
Maybe, Schireson wrote. Life is about choices. Right now,
I choose to spend more time with my family and am confident
that I can continue to have a meaningful and rewarding work
life while doing so.

Stew Friedman, a professor at the Wharton School of the

University of Pennsylvania and author of the newly published
Leading the Life You Want: Skills for Integrating Work and
Life (Harvard Business Review Press, 2014), says the conversation around work/life balance has definitely evolved; it is no
longer thought of solely as a womens issue. We are in a different stage of progress in our society, he says. So theres
certainly more rhetoric that supports the idea that fathers, as
well as mothers, ought to be playing full partner roles on the
domestic front.

Supporting Modern Families

Despite the costs of paid family leave, a variety of employers
offer the benefit. Their reasons range from the philosophical (its
a modern, progressive thing to do) to the pragmatic (it fosters
loyalty among employees and attracts the best job candidates).
Ellen Williams, an assistant director for Ernst & Youngs
Diversity and Inclusiveness Center of Excellence, says about
1,000 of the consulting firms U.S.-based employeesan even
mix of men and womentake paid family leave in a given year.
At Herman Miller, about 100 employees, both men and
women, took paid family leave between Jan. 1, 2013, and May
29, 2014.

WATCH a video on the male flexibility stigma: www.shrm.org/1114-paternity-leave

1114 Ramsey.indd 33

November 2014

HR Magazine

33

10/16/14 2:51 PM

As we interview candidates, one of the reasons theyre interested in talking with us is because of policies such as parental
leave, says Kathy Spinelli, the companys vice president of talent management and total rewards. Sometimes, its even more
appreciated by those considering Herman Miller than by those
within Herman Miller, who very quickly come to see that as a
given and sort of a logical thing that everybody should do.
Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange offers female
employees eight weeks of paid maternity leave and new dads one
week of paid leave. Its definitely part of our culture, says Colin
Haupt, vice president of human resources for the insurance company, which is based in White Plains, N.Y., and has 260 employees.
I dont think as a stand-alone policy it makes a huge impact, but
coupled with all of our other perks and benefits, it probably does.
Advocates for greater work/life balance say paid paternity
leave is wonderful for the relatively few men who have access to
it. But some argue its more important for employers to offer all
parents flexible-work arrangementssuch as telecommuting,
compressed workweeks, and the ability to adjust starting and
quitting timesgiven families ongoing needs.
Some companies may give you several weeks of [paid] paternity leave, but then you come back and you have so little work/
life balance that you go home stressed every day, says Rebecca
Bottorff, chief people officer for Bandwidth.com Inc., which
employs 425 people. We make a promise that people can have
both meaningful work and a full life.
The Raleigh, N.C.-based telecommunications company,
which grants new fathers a week of paid leave, offers employees the usual flexible-work arrangements in addition to offbeat
perks such as the option of taking a 90-minute lunch and exercise break each day.

The tone was set early on by co-founder and CEO David

Morken, a father of six, Bottorff says. We chase people out of
here by 6 or 6:30 so they can go home and be with their families
and come back refreshed and renewed the next day.
For champions of workplace flexibility, there was both good
and bad news in the latest National Study of Employers, compiled by the Families and Work Institute in partnership with the
Society for Human Resource Management.
Flexible-work arrangements are more prevalent today than
they were six years ago during the recession. Sixty-seven percent
of more than 1,000 HR professionals surveyed, for example, said
their companies allow employees to work remotely, an increase
of 17 percentage points over a similar 2008 study. Instances of
employers offering extended leaves of absence declined over the
same period, however.
Men may have traditionally felt pressure, as primary breadwinners, to remain on the job regardless of parental duties. That
appears to be changing.
They say, Im going to be out, and they just go out and they
happen to be at a [childs] ball game and check their e-mail,
Matos says. It sort of flies under the radar as opposed to it being
a big issue.
Eric Porter, a 39-year-old controller at cybersecurity firm
DigiCert Inc., says he has not felt any fallout for his sometimes
unusual work schedule. Porters 7-year-old son has autism, and
he regularly takes the child to appointments with specialists. On
some days, he doesnt get into the office until midmorning.
I had a very honest conversation with our executive management team, he says. From the very beginning, they were
very understanding, and I think they appreciated the fact that I
was forthright and brought it up to them early on. For his part,

I had a very honest

conversation
with our executive
management team.
Eric Porter

34

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November 2014

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Benefits

Porter says, I try to give them more bang

for the buck.
DigiCerts flexible-work arrangements are
informal and tend to be customized to meet the
needs of individual employees, says Human
Resources Manager Jon Taggart, SPHR. The
Lehi, Utah-based company, with 120 employees, offers new dads one week of paid leave.
New moms get the same amount of paid leave,
as well as the option of short-term disability.
Because of it, weve got very low turnover, high engagement, happy employees,
says Taggart, who credits company founder
Ken Bretschneider with nurturing a family-friendly culture.
W.S. Badger, a Gilsum, N.H.-based manufacturer of organic
beauty and skin care products, offered time off to new parents
years before it grew large enough to fall under the requirements of
the Family and Medical Leave Act, says Jay Smeltz, PHR, human
resources coordinator.
The family-owned company, which has 65 employees, dates
to 1995. In 2008, it began offering a Babies at Work program for
new mothers and their infants and started granting male employees a week of paid time off for births or adoptions.
At least four dads have tapped into the benefit since then,
Smeltz says. Among them is 33-year-old inventory analyst Derek
Galligan, who combined his week of paid paternity leave with
additional paid time off to spend two weeks with his family after
the birth of his son in 2012.
Our working culture in America really takes no account of
a childs or familys well-being, Galligan says. I dont get that
feeling here. Theyre more attuned to the fact that were actually people.

Advancing Gender-Neutral Flexibility

Advocates for greater work/life balance favor a uniform national
code on paid leave for parents, but they acknowledge that political reasons make a federal mandate unlikely. A proposal for a

Weve got very low

turnover, high
engagement,
happy employees.
Jon Taggart

national paid family leave program financed through a payroll

deduction is also a long shot.
Three states (California, Rhode Island and New Jersey) have
implemented their own systems. The California version recently
marked its 10th year and reported that about 1.8 million residents collected replacement pay over the past decade, mostly
to spend time with new children. The number of men drawing
paid-leave benefits grew from 12,812 in the first year to 65,513
last year, according to the California Employment Development
Department.
The only thing that makes me optimistic in terms of this
particular issue is, no matter whether youre on the right or the
left, families matteror they should matter, says Harrington
of the Boston College Center. It would be nice to see at least
some minimum amount of mandated paid leave for parents of
each gender. That would put us in sync with about 99.5 percent
of the rest of the world.
Theres also the possibility that young male professionals will
change things from within, says the Wharton Schools Friedman.
The values of todays students and the future business leaders of
the world are very different from their parents, he notes. And
the private sector, motivated by profit, will be creating work environments that are more attractive to the best and brightest.
Dads who currently enjoy paid paternity leave or flexiblework arrangements say they cant
imagine not receiving the same kinds
of benefits if they switch employers.
I talk to my dad about ithes a
retired HR professional, says Blum,
the Herman Miller e-commerce manager who enjoyed two weeks of paid
paternity leave a few years ago. He
tells me I need to appreciate what
I have because not many places do
that. As usual, father knows best.

It was just great

to be able
to be home
and help out.
Michael Blum

Mike Ramsey is an editor and freelance

writer based in Chicago.

November 2014

1114 Ramsey.indd 35

HR Magazine

35

10/14/14 2:43 PM

Infographic

OLDER WORKERS

Among pre-retirees who plan to work in their retirement years,

51%say they would like to pursue a different line of work,

while 49% plan on continuing in the same line of work.

Top Reasons to Work in Retirement

The labor force participation rate

in 2012 for men age 65 and older was

To stay mentally active

Pre-retirees
Retirees

51%
62%

The money
Pre-retirees
Retirees

To stay physically active

Pre-retirees
Retirees

for women age 65 and older (8.4 percent in 1990).

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2012.

43.1M

51%
31%

43%
48%

, up from

17.6 percent in 1990 and significantly higher than the rate of

13.4%

e
h
nll
-

21.3%

The number of
people in the
United States
who were

age 65 or older

This group
accounts for

13.7%
percent of the
total population.

on July 1, 2012.

Health insurance benefits

Pre-retirees
Retirees

34%
11%

Social connection
Pre-retirees
Retirees

32%
42%

Source: U.S. Census

Bureau, Population Estimates.

Sense of identity/self-worth
Pre-retirees
Retirees

28%
36%

To have a new challenge

Pre-retirees
Retirees

28%
30%

Source: Work in Retirement: Myths and Motivations, Merrill Lynch, 2014.

36

HR Magazine

1114 Infograph page.indd 36

24%

How much the proportion of the labor force

composed of people age 55 or older is projected to rise by
2050, up from 19 percent in 2010.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

November 2014

10/14/14 5:01 PM

HEALTHIER
MOUTHS
HEALTHIER
EMPLOYEES
HEALTHIER
BOTTOM LINE
THE MOUTH IS THE MISSING PIECE.
Discover how United Concordia is bringing wellness full circle at UCMissingPiece.com

United Concordia policies provide dental insurance only. Dental

plans are administered by United Concordia Companies, Inc. and
underwritten by United Concordia Insurance Company, United
Concordia Life and Health Insurance Company, United Concordia
Dental Corporation of Alabama and United Concordia Insurance
Company of New York. Not all products available in all jurisdictions.
Visit the Disclaimers link at www.unitedconcordia.com for
information about which companies and products are licensed
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Full Pg.indd 1

9/4/14 3:02 PM

Wellness Provider Profile Special Advertising Section

Shedding Light on the Impact

of Exercise and Wellness Programs
By Debbi Brooks, VP of Product Development, Onlife Health
The news is full of stories about how the
wearables revolution is here and how
it will transform the health and wellness
industry.
As a trusted partner to health plans and
corporations for 20 years, Onlife Health
saw the value that fitness tracking devices
and apps could have a long time ago. We
serve over 10 million members with a comprehensive suite
of wellness products including health coaching, individual
and group challenges, incentive management, and more. So
we wanted to see how wearables could more accurately help
us determine the impact exercise and wellness programs
have on healthcare costs.

Wearables Prove the Power of Exercise

in Health Management
In 2011, we embarked on a journey with a client to
collect activity data using wearable fitness devices and to
understand the impact that exercise and wellness programs
could have on healthcare and claims costs. After three years
we compared the outcomes based on levels of participation
across multiple BMI categories, giving us a depth of
information that illustrates the value of Onlife Healths
solutions.
Our program used wearable fitness technology, an
ongoing incentive program, and voluntary health coaching
to positively affect workplace health and increase employee
engagement. Heres just a glimpse of what we found:
Emergency-room visits and inpatient stays for
moderate exercisers were almost 50 percent lower
than those who did not exercise at all.
Annual healthcare costs were almost 20 percent
lower for moderate exercisers compared to those
who did not exercise at all.

Exercise Levels
None

Minimal

Moderate/High

Percent of Group

6%

53%

41%

Healthcare Costs

$2,035

$1,749

$1,661

191.0

146.9

121.1

51.6

28.8

19.4

0 steps/day

ER Visits per 1,000

Inpatient Stays per 1,000

less than 5,000 steps/day

more than 5,000 steps/day

Charting the Future of Health and

Wellness Management
There are some key trends guiding the future of wellness
engagement at Onlife Health:

Adding More Fitness Tracking Devices and Apps

Consumers love choice. In fact, engagement increases
when members can use their favorite fitness tracking device
or app. Thats why our program lets participants sync with
over 70 fitness trackers from major brands and were adding
more all the time.
Members can also use Onlifes mobile app to stay plugged
in anytime, anywhere. A central dashboard connects them
to our NCQA certified health assessment, their health coach,
goal tracking, incentives, and more.

Coaching Your Way

By combining technology and human interaction you can
truly make a difference in members lives.
Connecting with a health coach should be easy and convenient
for members through email, phone, or secure messaging.
Onlife makes getting in touch with a coach even easier with
text-like secure messaging inside our mobile app and with a
simple click-to-call button, so advice, encouragement, and
motivation are truly just a click away.

Better Incentives
By collecting verifiable data, were able to add ongoing,
outcomes-based incentives that reward the wellness activities
that create the quickest impact on a members health. We
monitor and adjust incentives to encourage high engagement
levels and combine these plans with communication
strategies to keep members continually engaged.
The Onlife program is lifestyle focused its about
measurable results and appropriate rewards, with
encouragement at key steps along the way.
Our programs work. And our most recent three-year study
illustrates those impacts in a new way. Onlifes programs
motivate employees to become active participants in their
health, and that means lower healthcare costs, reduced
absenteeism, and a more engaged, productive workforce.
Good health is good business. Lets work together to
improve lives and reduce healthcare costs.

To learn more about our wellness solutions, and the results weve generated, go to
www.OnlifeHealth.com or email us at engage@OnlifeHealth.com.

Full Pg.indd 1

10/14/14 2:09 PM

Discover how we make

wellness programs count
www.OnlifeHealth.com
H E A LT H

WE MAKE

WELLNESS COUNT
Driving engagement and
real results with Onlife Sync
Physical activity is important. Its actually the
most important thing you can do to improve
your health. Create powerful results for you and
your organization by getting connected. You can
even reward trackable fitness activity to start
improving the health of employees today.

Full Pg.indd 1

Onlife gives your employees the ability to choose

from 70+ fitness devices and apps from companies
including Fitbit , Garmin, Jawbone, Runkeeper TM,
and more. Freedom to choose increases sustained
engagement while empowering your organization
to incentivize the right activities, at the right time.

10/10/14 1:47 PM

IHRIM TECHNOLOGY SECTION

Introducing New
Technology Content
The Society for Human Resource Management
(SHRM) is pleased to announce a special licensing
arrangement with the International Association for
Human Resource Information Management (IHRIM)
allowing us to provide selected IHRIM content
to SHRM members. Beginning this month, HR
Magazine will include at least one IHRIM article
per issue. This and other IHRIM content will also
be posted on SHRM Online. We hope you enjoy
the insights and advice on HR technology tools,
analytics and strategies. The Editors

By Mike Harmer, Intermountain Healthcare Inc.

m embarrassed to say Ive been selecting and implementing enterprise software for almost 20 years. Its not that its
a bad job; its just not the sort of thing I aspired to do back
in elementary school.
But the 8-year-old me had no way of knowing that the rate
of change in the technology world would never disappoint,
that it would constantly challenge me, and that it would draw
me deep into the evolving world of efficiency, automation and
analytics. Ive learned many tricks to make implementations
successfulsome the easy way, some the other wayand I
want to share 10 that I hope will be helpful to others engaged
in enterprise software implementations.

1. Be Clear About the Outcome

When starting an implementation, clarify the projects goals
and share them with the project team and stakeholders.
Clearly stated outcomes will focus the team and become a
critical measure of success after the system goes live. There
are two components of a successfully stated outcome: return
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2. Secure a Committed Executive Sponsor

Find a committed executive sponsor for the project, and work
hard to make him or her a successful owner of the implementation. A handful of concepts will help make the project and
your sponsor succeed.
First, apply the ARCIE decision-rights model: Determine who will (A)pprove decisions, make (R)ecommendations, be (C)onsulted, (I)mplement decisions, and (E)xecute
tasks. Share this with all involved parties when the project
starts. Refer to it when differences of opinion arise during the

ILLUSTRATION BY KENTOH/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

10 Secrets of
Successful Software
Implementations

on investment (ROI) and audience.

First, document your targeted ROI. Meet with the finance
department to determine how ROI will be measured before
you begin. This shared approach will be valuable in guiding
your work and in avoiding disagreements on ROI calculations
later. Revisit the ROI criteria regularly throughout the implementation to be certain the objectives are reached.
Following implementation, and at the end of the period for
the projected ROI, report back to the company on the results.
When decision-makers see accountability for investments,
they will be much more likely to invest again.
Second, engage your nonfinance audiences with a clear
understanding of the returns theyll see by creating a compelling vision of what life will be like after the system is in
place. For example, if you are implementing an integrated
talent management suite, communicate what employees
will be able to do that they cannot do now and how managers jobs will be easier. A compelling vision will give affected
audiences their own personal reasons to push through
roadblocks.

2014. International Association for Human Resource Information Management. Used with permission.

10/14/14 12:29 PM

project to get the teams moving forward again.

Second, hold regular meetings with the executive sponsor to keep her informed on progress and, more important, risks. Executive sponsors dont like to be surprised. If
a potential issue is brewing, arm her with the information
shell need to respond if confronted in a meeting.
Third, document key business decisions. One of the
greatest project derailers is when a business decision
changes late in a project. If work must be undone, the business loses a significant investment, costs exceed budgets,
and project deadlines are jeopardized or delayed. Create
a single document to identify and record all key business
decisions. This document should be made visible to the
project team and business owners so that it can serve as a
handy reminder of past decisions as well as a timetable for
decision-makers in planning their work.

ILLUSTRATION BY KENTOH/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

3. Dont Go It Alone
HR alone does not contain all the resources needed to successfully execute a project. Pockets of deep expertise are
available in many other departments. Ask for their assistance. These requests not only will help you secure the
resources needed for success but also will help overcome
any internal reservations people may have as implementation progresses. Consider the following resource pools:
Communications teams can help design and execute a
project communications plan. It will identify key audiences
and can manage communication with them throughout
the project, allowing HR to focus on implementation. An
effective communications plan lets everyone know what to
expect, when to expect it and why its being done.
Information technology (IT) teams are responsible for
many components of technology, including strategy, standards and making everything work. Approach IT early for
assistance in reviewing potential vendors and to identify the
timeline for tasks that will require its resources.
A financial analyst and a partner in the finance department can assist with budgeting and resource management
during the project. If you encounter any obstacles, having
the finance department involved and aware of the project
will help you quickly secure the support needed.
Project management resources can help set up a project governance structure, track tasks, help coordinate with
other departments and otherwise free up human resource
information systems (HRIS) resources to focus on the
implementation.
A supply chain department can help find vendors,
manage requests for proposal, and coordinate vendor
demonstrations or site visits with a prospective vendors
customers. As a neutral party, the supply chain department can help HRIS teams and business owners get past

HR alone does not contain

all the resources needed
to successfully execute a
project. Pockets of deep
expertise are available in
many other departments.
any biases in the selection process. And the supply chain
departments familiarity with many company contracts will
strengthen your companys presence during negotiations.

4. Consider the Aftermath

Selecting and implementing a major software solution is so
time-consuming that we sometimes do not take time to consider what will happen after the new system is live. Thinking
through this question will help ensure your post-implementation success. If you plan to manage the system with in-house
resources, youll want to budget extra time for implementation so that staff members can learn the skills theyll need to
configure and maintain the system.
This small amount of additional time could pay big dividends in reduced professional service fees. If you plan to
budget for more professional services to be provided by the
vendor, ask the vendors other customers how much they
typically incur in service fees. Although many software providers are evolving their systems to enable business users
to configure them, there are still some holdouts. Know your
plan as you begin implementation.

5. Build a Strong Partnership with the Vendor

The honeymoon period of a vendor relationship is a blissful
time when you have access to many resources in seemingly
every department of the vendors company. Product managers seek your opinion, executives join you on calls, and perhaps even the CEO or owner will pay you a visit. However,
when you sign the contract, the honeymoon is over.
So start thinking of your value to the vendor beyond the
licensing fee you pay. Look for opportunities to become visible in your industry. Speak at conferences, write articles, volunteer in professional associations. As you do, peers can tap
you for advice, and your vendor will see the value you bring
as a potential reference.
Look for opportunities to assist the vendor in designing
November 2014

1114 IHRIM.indd 41

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IHRIM TECHNOLOGY SECTION

6. Challenge Conversions
One of the most difficult questions that comes up early in
an implementation is whether you should convert old data
from the existing system into the new software. This can
get expensive, so before you let the past dictate the future,
articulate the primary business reasons for accessing old
data, then decide whether to take on the cost of converting
it. There are usually three reasons to retain old data.
The first reason is so you can access historical data for
trending analytics. If this is the case, consider placing it
into a warehouse or other database where it can be easily
accessed for reporting. Because this database will not have
to meet all the demands of the new system, you can design it
any way you like, with only one set of reporting or analytical
requirements in mind.
Second, you may need to access old data for audit purposes. If this is the case, consider how and how often auditors
will access it. If the need is infrequent, export the data into a
simple stand-alone database where analysts can access it if
requested. If the need is more frequent, build some self-service reports over this simple database and allow auditors to
run the reports themselves.
Third, you may need to make historical data visible to end
users. Again, you can place the data in a simple database and
build reports over it. Consider that the data will be accessed
less and less over time. Is the inconvenience of pulling up a
report in a separate system less than that of trying to drag a
mountain of historical data into a different system and then
maintaining it for years as the new system evolves?
You may need to access some historical data within the
new system. Carefully examine the cases where customers
will be accessing that information. Could the need be solved
by bringing only a small amount of it into the new system
(and sending the bulk to another database)? The small historical dataset may only be a years worth of data, or it may be
just a few select fields.

7. Challenge Business Processes

Your current business practices are like bad habitstheyre
really hard to give up. Invariably, you will find that the new
system does not do things the same way your old one did.
Your customers will often want to build a customization in
the new system to make it like the old one. (This madness
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1114 IHRIM.indd 42

One of the most difficult

questions that comes up
early in an implementation
is whether you should
convert old data from the
existing system into the
new software.
really does happen.)
Customizations are an attractive short-term solution
because they minimize the organizations change management challenge. However, in the long term, customizations
become increasingly expensive and will often prevent you
from upgrading.
What to do? Challenge business practices. Ask the projects executive sponsor to invite the teams to challenge the
old ways of thinking. This will help break down barriers to
change.
Then, try some of the following methods:
Instead of starting with the old workflow, try describing
the outcome needed and listing only the requirements that
are critical to making that happen. Then design the simplest
workflow possible to reach that outcome.
Call some of the vendors other customers and ask how
they perform the same function. This often results in the discovery of a simple solution.
Contact the product manager, ask why the product was
designed the way it was, and explain your business challenge.
The product manager may be able to tell you about some
lesser-known features that will solve the problem.

8. Decide on a Big Bang vs. Phased Release

As software matures, it becomes more integrated with
other systems, and, as users grow more computer-literate,
more software implementations are rolled out in big bang
releases. In other words, the entire company begins using
the software all at once. The opposite approach is a phased
release, where new software is made available to the company one group at a time over an extended period.
Phased releases are typically favored when there is significant risk of failure in some portion of the technology, or when
the implementation team expects to pilot or test the software

November 2014

10/14/14 12:30 PM

ILLUSTRATION BY IQONCEPT/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

new product features. Vendors that use best practices will

have established product design opportunities for their customers. Participate and bring your best ideas. Let the vendor know what is going on, not just in your company but
also in your industry. Consider the vendors point of view: It
is trying to build software in a very competitive market and
wants to see solid business cases behind your requests.

and make corrections before releasing it to wider audiences.

The disadvantages are a delay in realizing the projects ROI,
the additional expense of maintaining the legacy system
during implementation of the new one, and potential change
management resistance as initial users of the new system
share any frustrations with future users.
Big bang releases allow companies to reach ROI more
quickly. They also benefit from economies of scale as communication and change management efforts are leveraged
enterprisewide.

ILLUSTRATION BY IQONCEPT/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

9. Reduce the Cost of Ownership

In choosing an implementation strategy, we have more
choicesand more chances to reduce coststhan we did
just a few years ago. Consider the following:
Integrated vs. point solutions. There has been considerable consolidation in the enterprise software industry over
the past few years. As a result, HR is having to spend less
time and money managing point solutions (a separate, best
solution for each disparate HR business function). Although
point solutions can match business requirements closely,
your staff will spend significant resources managing each
vendors product releases and troubleshooting data feeds
between systems, and employees will have to learn to navigate several different systems.
Integrated solutions are maturing and relieve HR teams of
all the intersystem management overhead. The downside is
that you may miss a few bells and whistles offered by vendors. However, the rate of evolution in product features has
slowed noticeably. HR software has matured and become
more commoditized. The strategic differentiators moving forward are less about unique features and more about deeper
integration and embedding prescriptive analytics.
Cloud services and software-as-a-service. These are also
compelling options for reducing long-term costs. The full
benefits of cloud hosting go beyond a simple cost comparison.
When something goes wrong in the cloud, you call the vendor and leverage its 24/7 resources. You also benefit from a
large customer base that is testing the same releases as you.
This leads to less buggy software and less time-consuming
upgrades.

date and the type of request (bug or enhancement). Recording the request will let the customer know that it has been
received and will not be lost. Let him or her know that it will
be brought to a decision-making group for prioritization.
The decision-making group usually consists of business
leaders and key customers. Before you present the enhancement list to them for prioritization, go through each item
and estimate the amount of time each will take to complete.
Then, explain to the group that you have X number of hours
available to address items on the list, and ask them to choose
the ones they want done first, adding up the time required for
each so that it does not exceed available resources. This is a
great way to involve your stakeholders.
There they are10 tips for successful software implementations. I hope they will help you avoid doing things the hard
way. And if you happen to run into 8-year-old me, give him a
copy of this list and tell him it will save him a lot of trouble in
the future.

10. Create the Phase 2 Enhancement List

About the Author

This last tip is a great way to balance your internal customers feedback, expectations and frustrations with the limited
resources at your disposal.
There is no shortage of good ideas, and nothing brings
them out of the woodwork more than a new software system.
When customers call with a complaint, suggestion or
problem, log it in an enhancement list. This is a simple
spreadsheet that records the request, the requestor, the

Mike Harmer is the director of HR analytics

and technology for Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City. Harmer is a frequent
speaker at industry conferences and has
been with Intermountain Healthcare for
more than 14 years. He consults with
ThinkTroop, a research consulting firm. He
can be reached at mike.harmer@imail.org.
November 2014

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IHRIM TECHNOLOGY SECTION

benefits and a valid return on investment (ROI). Their sentiments are like the famous line from the movie Jerry Maguire: Help me help you!
How can it be that HR and finance professionals agree on
people as a source of competitive advantage, yet the finance
department continues to so routinely decline HRs spending
requests?
The simple answer has to do with communications and
language. Finance believes HR must be able to speak the language of business, which is numbers and, more specifically,
business and financial results. This is the language that every
publicly traded company, nonprofit and public-sector organization speaks. It is the language that finance professionals think, speak, live and breathe; it is the language that top
management lives and speaks; and it is the one spoken by
every other functional group in the organization.
What HR needs are some standard metrics that are
included in workforce or human capital talent reports and
scorecards that clearly show the value of the human capital
thus translating the language of talent into the language of
business so that even the most die-hard finance professional
can better understand talent, its impact and its worth.

By Jeff Higgins, Human Capital Management Institute

s a frequent speaker on workforce analytics at HR conferences, I often start with a confession to the audience: I was formerly a vice president of finance and

CFO.
In that role, I explain, I worked closely with HR in much
the same way that finance professionals likely collaborate
with HR professionals in most organizations. I would listen
politely to HRs requests for resources to invest in staff, systems or training. And then I would say no.
This usually gets a laugh from the crowd. In fact, I often
see knowing nods and hear comments about working with
just such a finance professional at their own organizations.
I tell the same story when speaking at finance/CFO conferences, and the audience laughs even harder.
The sad fact is that, in most organizations, HR is denied
spending requests perhaps more often than any other
function.
And yet, finance professionals often feel guilty about so
consistently denying HR. Those same CFOs and controllers who laugh at the joke often confide their wish for HR to
make stronger business cases with numbers, including costs,
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November 2014

Why must HR learn to speak this language of

business numbers (i.e. money/cost/ROI)?
HR professionals often ask why CEOs and CFOs arent
expected to learn to speak the language of talent, a language
that HR knows well. Of course, it would be great if CEOs and
CFOs really understood what managing talent from HRs
perspective is all about. (Note that many CEOs do put talent
management at the top of their priority list.) Realistically,
however, and speaking as a former CFO, it does not seem
likely to happen.
After all, where in traditional public company annual
reports is talent reported on, quantified and clearly shown to
drive business results?
Sadly, most public company annual reports contain very
little information on human capital.
If the overwhelming majority of management teams
across the business world, including those at nonprofits and
in the public sector, all speak the financial language of business, then is it the 95 percent in most organizations that
should stop and learn the language of HR? Or is it the 5 percent in HR who need to learn the language of finance?

If HR and finance professionals speak different

languages, how do we bring them together?
Perhaps the best argument for HR to adopt and use human
capital metrics is that it puts numbers to people so that CFOs
and the rest of the organization can finally begin to understand. HR can change the game to drive superior decisions

ILLUSTRATION BY DT10/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Bringing HR and Finance

Together with Analytics

2014. International Association for Human Resource Information Management. Used with permission.

10/14/14 12:30 PM

about people and talent by using facts and numbers woven

into the story that HR is uniquely qualified to tell.
A case-in-point story shows how HR, in mastering its
own data and facts, can change an organizations narrative
and strategic decision-making.
The CEO of a midsize financial services firm based in the
Southwest was uncomfortable with the speed and frequency
of promotions in the organization, which were driven by the
companys rapid growth and need to fill managerial and critical operational roles to support and sustain it.
Over time, the CEO had grown increasingly frustrated
with the inability of HR to clearly answer questions about
the companys frequent promotions and accompanying salary increases. Among the CEOs concerns: Why on Friday
is an employee worth one amount and on Monday after a
promotion is suddenly worth 20 percent more? What if the
person cannot perform in the new role? How do we know if
we are promoting too fast?
The CEO felt that workforce costs were rising at an unsustainable rate, and formed a committee of HR leaders and
C-suite executives to meet monthly to review promotions.
At this meeting, senior executives were to present every promotion recommendation from their group for CEO approval.
In addition, newly promoted employees were not to be paid
their promotional increase until after receiving a 90-day performance review rating of good. Then the promotion would
be final and the employee would receive the new salary,

A case-in-point story shows

how HR, in mastering its
own data and facts, can
change an organizations
narrative and strategic
decision-making.
backdated to the promotion date.
The new committee had the desired effect, and the number of promotions dramatically declined. Not only was top
management afraid to go before the CEO to risk rejection
of any promotions, they also were reluctant to impose the
90-day probationary period.
But reducing the number and cost of promotions had an
unintended consequencea skyrocketing voluntary turnover rate of high-performing employees, many of whom were
doing bigger jobs than their titles suggested but were suffering due to leaderships fear of submitting them for promotion.
To address complaints about the promotion process and

ILLUSTRATION BY DT10/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

5 Steps to Speak the Language of Business

1. Compelling
Questions
Ask the right
questions.

2. Objective
Measures
and Facts
Historical data,
key metric
indicators,
segmented
data.

3. Powerful
Visuals and
Charts
Charts with
insights that
tell a story and
drive action.

4. Qualitative
Storytelling
Two of our
top three
salespeople
came
from other
industries.

5. Link to
Business
Impact (ROI/
Cost/Profit)
The cost
savings is in a
range of
$1 million to
$3 million.

November 2014

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IHRIM TECHNOLOGY SECTION

the rising turnover rates among high-performing key workers, HR conducted a detailed analysis of promotions over the
previous two years. Historically, two-thirds of open positions
had been filled by external hires, and now nearly 90 percent
of positions were being filled from the outsidewhat HR
called replacement hires.
What HR found, and now had the data to prove, was that
the cost of all promotions before the new policy was 1 percent of total workforce costs, while the cost of replacement
hires was, on average, 30 percent to 35 percent more than the
departed employees they replaced. The replacement hires
were increasing workforce costs far more than the promotions that the CEO had successfully stifled.
Upon presenting this analysis to the CEO, there was an
immediate change of heart. The CEO announced to his top
management team I have been guarding the wrong gate and
agreed that where it makes sense, we should promote more
often.
The committee was disbanded. Promotion review and
approval were delegated back to HR. HR used the data to set
up revised promotion policies that encouraged regular promotions on a defined career path rather than the previous ad
hoc promotion practices of line managers.
What is interesting about this true story is the amazing
power of facts and data to educate and influence decisionmaking and strategy for the organization.

Where do we go from here? How can HR better

learn to speak with metrics and numbers that
show directly the impact of workforce decisions on
business results?
The first step in learning to speak the language of business is
simply to ask the right questions about talent and the workforce. Many of these questions are already being asked in
organizations, but often not by HR.
For example, questions that many CEOs ask include the
following:
How do we know we have the right size and cost of
workforce?
What is our workforce productivity, and is it improving?
Are we hiring, promoting and retaining the best talent?
The second stepand the method with which to answer
such complex questionsstarts with the uniquely powerful
metrics that HR has at its disposal. HR today is increasingly
swimming in a sea of data. Harnessing this data from HR systems and then analyzing and reporting on it via metrics will
allow HR to begin to speak this new language.
The third step is to put data analysis into charts that
enable management to gain actionable insights into talent
management issues. Ideally, such charts will answer the key
business questions identified in step one.
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What is interesting about

this true story is the amazing
power of facts and data
to educate and influence
decision-making and
strategy for the organization.
In step four, HR harnesses all of steps one, two and three
to do what it is already very good attelling a story. After HR
has combined a compelling question, good data, metrics and
powerful visuals, a finance or line management audience is
finally ready to hear and understand the story. It is often the
same narrative HR has told many times before; the difference
is that HR is now using the tools and language of business to
support and tell its story.
The fifth and last step is to create a final cost-benefit ROI
or value creation metric that speaks squarely to finance and
line management executives.
Imagine for a moment that you could clearly show that
investing an additional $1 million in training would reduce
voluntary turnover by 10 percent, save $1.5 million and
increase productivity by 5 percent. This means the organization could increase revenue, production or customers served
by 5 percent, with only minimal increases in workforce
cost. For a company with $1 billion in annual revenue, this
would be worth up to $50 million in ROI to the organization
as increased revenue, improved profit margins and reduced
costs. Those numbers are a language that even the most skeptical finance professional could understand.

About the Author

Jeff Higgins is CEO of the Human Capital
Management Institute in Marina Del Rey,
Calif., which helps companies transform
data into intelligence via workforce planning and predictive analytics. He is a
founding member of the Workforce Intelligence Consortium and a member of the
International Organization for Standardization Technical
Committee 260 on Human Resource Management. He can
be reached at jeff.higgins@hcminst.com.

November 2014

10/14/14 12:31 PM

The Talent Acquisition

Suite Spot

START-UP INNOVATION

JUST RI G H T

ERP STABILITY

Talent Acquisition Deserves its Own Suite

The candidate landscape is ever-evolving iCIMS strikes the right
balance of innovative mobile, social and video features with scalable,
congurable technology to Connect, Recruit & Onboard todays top
talent. Talent Acquisition is complex enough to deserve its own suite
choose the right software to go hire.

Hire Expectations

Best of Both. Best of Breed. See Why at iCIMS.com

2014 iCIMS, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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IHRIM TECHNOLOGY SECTION

in Aberdeen Groups talent acquisition research said

they were investing in video interviewinga 52 percent
increase compared to 2012. According to this survey, live
video interviewing was seen by 68 percent of the respondents as a key HR capability, far ahead of recording live
interviews, which ranked second with 19 percent.
Although these numbers tell us that HR professionals
value interviewing candidates with live video, it should not
mask the roadblocks that both parties may encounter when
using this approach.
Poor video quality or a lack of integration can transform
a simple interview into an unbearable experience. To help
avoid common pitfalls when choosing a live video solution,
here are five requirements to look for.

The Future of
Live Video Interviews
For Recruitment
By Thomas Cottereau, SightCall

everal years ago, recruiters who wanted to conduct live

video interviews had to ship a webcam to an applicant.
Although this seemed costly and inconvenient, it was
still less expensive than having the candidate fly in to meet
in person. Video interview vendors charged $100 to $200 per
interview, which restricted the technologys use to high-level
positions.
Nowadays, the cost of conducting live video interviews
has dropped significantly due to the rising adoption of the
cloud, the commoditization of built-in cameras and other
competitive pressures. For candidates applying for distant
jobs, live video can be used throughout the recruiting process. For local candidates, however, it is mainly used at
three stages:
Prescreening interviews.
In-person interviews in which a recruiter may invite a
remotely located colleague or colleagues to participate.
Follow-up calls to negotiate the terms of employment.
In 2013, 32 percent of organizations participating
48

HR Magazine

1114 IHRIM.indd 48

November 2014

During an in-person interview, the recruiter and the candidate engage in a conversation wherein both verbal and nonverbal communication nurtures each persons impressions.
Facial expressions are important to correctly interpret the
meaning of what is said, and experiencing this interaction
is a key factor in making well-informed hiring decisions.
In a remote interview, only a live video can capture
these nuances to emulate the richness of an in-person
interaction. However, many live video solutions fall short of
delivering on this promise. Dropped calls and poor audio or
video quality are common complaints.
Many factors can damage the quality of the communication, including:
A poor Internet connection.
A distance of thousands of miles between participants.
A large number of participants on the call.
Camera hardware that produces poor video quality.
Poor camera hardware is less common nowadays due
to continuing improvements in devices. In fact, live video
solutions that rely on a robust and scalable cloud video
platform can efficiently optimize quality in even the toughest conditions (3G network connectivity, long-distance
calls, dozens of participants).
Best-in-class live video solutions sit on carrier-grade
networks with dedicated private Internet links and guaranteed bandwidth. Real-time video platforms are globally
distributed, and group video is enabled by multipoint control units (as opposed to mesh networks that cant control
quality).
These technology components create a solid foundation
for satisfying live video experiences for both recruiters and
candidates. Although recruiters cannot address the video
components that their candidates have, they will want to
select providers with solutions built on a solid platform.

ILLUSTRATION BY ALTERFALTER/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

1. Live Video Should Accurately Emulate

an In-Person Interview

2014. International Association for Human Resource Information Management. Used with permission.

10/14/14 12:31 PM

Before buying, make sure that the live video solution:

Guarantees a minimum of 25 to 30 frames per
second.
Offers HD video up to 720 pixels.
Consumes between 100 and 250 Kbps of bandwidth for a one-to-one video call and no more than
500 Kbps of bandwidth for a group video call with
six participants.
Has an auto-adaptive mechanism to adjust the
resolution to the environment; in other words, it
should reduce the number of frames per second
when bandwidth is low.

right candidate often involves several individuals; some of

them may be remotely located.
Such team-interviewing requirements may result in an
exhausting series of interviews from a candidates perspective. Meanwhile, hiring managers want to give everyone
involved in the recruiting process the opportunity to provide an informed opinion. Hence, a panel interview format has become a popular way to make the process leaner
and more efficient. Live video solutions that support group
video calls make this format easy to organize.

2. Live Video Calls Should Be Established

in a Few Seconds

ILLUSTRATION BY ALTERFALTER/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

The main reason a phone call is still the go-to choice

for most recruiters during prescreening is because it
takes only a few seconds to get the interview started. At
this stage, recruiters cant afford to lose time waiting
for candidates to download an app, create an account or
log in to a service. They will not change their habits if
they cant be connected as quickly as they could with a
phone call.
Thankfully, an emerging technology called WebRTC
enables recruiters to establish a video chat directly from
Web browsersChrome, Firefox and Opera as of August
2014without requiring any download. (For more information, go to www.webrtc.org.) WebRTC makes live video
calls as frictionless as phone calls. First, the recruiter
clicks the start an interview button in the app, and
an e-mail invitation containing a link is sent automatically to the candidate. The candidate clicks on the link
and then, without a need for a download, is connected
via live video within a webpage. The interview can start
immediately.
Before buying, make sure that the live video solution:
Allows participants to join a live video call
without any download (based on WebRTC).
Allows candidates to join the live video call
without having to create a user account or log in to
a service.

3. Live Video Should Empower

Real-Time Collaboration
Beyond the benefits associated with face-to-face communication, live video can enable a more collaborative process
that aligns with best recruiting practices. Choosing the

Taking this a step further, I strongly recommend that

recruiters look at solutions that offer real-time capabilities
such as screen sharing. It is a great feature for emphasizing an achievement listed in the resume. For example, a UX
designer candidate can showcase his or her previous design
projects by sharing a screen.
The bottom line is that such real-time collaboration is
saving time.
Before buying, make sure that the live video solution:
Allows recruiters to organize group video
interviews.
Allows recruiters and candidates to share their
screens.

4. Live Video Should Be Enterprise-Grade

Lets discuss why recruiters should use enterprise-grade
live video solutions rather than a consumer-grade video
chat app. Many live video solutions being sold to recruiters as a nonconsumer-grade solution are not enterprisegrade either, since they may lack the following key
elements:
Secure communications.
User management.
Network compatibility.
High-definition and fluid video.
Security applied to live video means that the privacy of
the communication session must be protected with encryption standards such as 256-bit AES. Proprietary encryption
November 2014

1114 IHRIM.indd 49

HR Magazine

49

10/14/14 12:31 PM

IHRIM TECHNOLOGY SECTION

methods, such as the one used by Skype, do not guarantee

that the communication will be kept private.
User management is all about knowing and managing
those authorized to use and access the service (entirely or
partially). Recruiters or other administrators of the service
should be able to monitorw usage analytics.
The connection type, whether enterprise or residential,
is important and can be LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi, xDSL or VPN without any specific configuration. Which network will the candidate connect from? Will my live video solution be compatible with this network? Enterprise-grade solutions are
compatible with all of these networks.
Before buying, make sure that the live video solution:
Ensures secure communications with encryption standards.
Offers user management capabilities.
Works on any network.

5. L ive Video Should Be Integrated

into a Recruiters Workflow
Sourcing, screening, interviewing, assessing and managing
candidates makes recruitment complex. Thankfully, software that consolidates these capabilities can make recruiters jobs much easier. Today, most adopted applications for
recruiting are either stand-alone applicant tracking systems (ATSs) or talent management (TM) suites.
As reported by Aberdeen Group in April 2013, hiring
managers wish to avoid creating new silos that result from
using stand-alone live video solutions: Organizations are
seeking a single provider to support all of their video needs.
Organizations are even including video interviewing as a
key requirement in ATS. This leaves ATS and TM software
providers with two options to satisfy recruiters needs
either integrate their application with existing standalone video solutions or provide a live video feature that is
natively embedded in their application.
Cornerstone went for the first option when it announced
at its 2013 annual conference a partnership with HireVue,
a stand-alone video recruiting solution, to provide video
interview capabilities into Cornerstone Recruiting Cloud.
Software providers that prefer to keep the live video feature under their own brand may give priority to the second approach. The challenge with this is that live video is
not an easy feature to build from the ground up. A highly
skilled staff is required to deploy and manage an infrastructure specifically designed to support it. Furthermore,
the infrastructure needs to be globally distributed since
recruiters may want to interview candidates located on the
other side of the planet.
50

HR Magazine

1114 IHRIM.indd 50

Fortunately, cloud video platform providers such as

SightCall take on the hard job of managing this infrastructure. By leveraging those platforms, software providers can
embed live video into their application in less than a day,
while having total control over the user experience. For
recruiters, this means live video interviewing is only a click
away from the application they use every day. They can
schedule and launch a live video interview without having
to log in to a separate application.
Before buying, make sure that the live video solution:
Is embedded into ATS or TM applications that
recruiters use to manage recruitment activities.
Allows recruiters to schedule a video interview and send invitations directly from this
application.
Allows recruiters to start a video interview with a single click directly from this
application.

The Future Is Almost Here

Live video is poised to become a standard practice for prescreening interviews. Its adoption will be driven by how it
is delivered. Human resource teams never really embraced
legacy hardware videoconferencing systems as a convenient option, and, while consumer-grade video chat has
had its moments, recruiters have come to realize that it is
not suitable for professional use.
At SightCall, we think that the future of live video is
to be ubiquitous and accessible from the applications
recruiters use every day. Many analysts foresee a similar
transformation, as predicted by Jim Lundy, lead analyst
at Aragon Research, in an article published in June 2013:
By year-end 2015, most recruiting solutions will include
video.

About the Author

Thomas Cottereau co-founded SightCall
in 2008 with a desire to make video communication more natural and transformative. He has held leadership positions
in engineering, marketing and business
development. He has directly managed
large turnkey telecom projects at
UUNET, MCI Worldcom and Bouygues Telecom. Before
2008, he spent five years growing Niji, a technology consulting firm in France specializing in digital convergence.
He holds a Master of Science in engineering from TELECOM Lille1 Ecole DIngenieurs. He can be reached at
thomas@sightcall.com.

November 2014

10/14/14 12:31 PM

> Our vision of the future

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So as you look to your future, look to a name you can trust.

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Grove, IL) and certain of its affiliates. Dearborn National Life Insurance Company is a separate company that does not provide Blue Cross and Blue Shield products or services. Dearborn National Life Insurance Company is solely responsible for
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14-0680

Agenda

REWARDS & EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION

Held in High Regard

Peer recognition can mean even more to employees than praise from the boss.

t many companies, traditional

top-down recognition by managers isnt enough anymore. Employees
also want acknowledgment from the
peers they work with every day. This
newer, more collaborative approach can
have many benefits: It instills a sense of
team spirit, motivates employees to do
great work, and promotes openness and
transparency. And recognition from
peers may come as a surprise, which
can have a very powerful impact.
The recognition program at Colorados Douglas County library system
includes a peer component. Employees
nominate colleagues for their accomplishments, and every year a special
committee chooses individuals or teams
to be recognized. Those honored this
year include two librarians who created a storytime experience for specialneeds children; four who developed an
improved inventory process; and one
who helped create a website describing
volunteer opportunities in the county.
The library system honors the
selected employees during a recognition
dinner and gives each one a paid day
off, says Art Glover, SPHR, associate
director of human resources at Douglas
County Libraries and a member of the
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) HR Disciplines Special
Expertise Panel. In addition, each winners favorite library book is adorned
with a label recognizing him or her.
Its an example of an effective lowtech approach to peer recognition. Other
companies are experimenting with
social-media-inspired approaches using
specialized software from vendors.

Peer-to-Peers Appeal
In the last three Trends in Employee
Recognition survey reports by
54

HR Magazine

1114 Agenda.indd 54

WorldatWork, peer-to-peer programs

have ranked as the third most common
type of recognition program among
employers. Peer-to-peer recognition
ranked behind recognition for length of
service and for above-and-beyond performance. Of the employers surveyed,
42 percent used peer-to-peer recognition
programs in 2013.
Over the past five years, Roy Saun-

behind the company firewall. The feed

can be set to allow everyone within the
organization to view the posts or just the
immediate team.
Many companies have downsized in
recent years and have fewer managers,
says Saunderson, so it makes sense for
peers to recognize one another.
Moreover, in some cases managers
may be thousands of miles away from

derson has seen a slow but steady

increase in requests for peer recognition
programs. Saunderson is chief learning
officer of the Recognition Management
Institute, the consulting and education
division of Rideau Inc.
Rideau helps clients develop their
programs. Its technology lets employees
praise peers via e-cards and highlight
their accomplishments on a Facebookstyle recognition newsfeed that exists

the employees they supervise. Peer-topeer feedback can be helpful and informative in those situations, says Derek
Irvine, vice president of client strategy and consulting at Globoforce, an
employee recognition vendor. Peers
working at the same location generally
are familiar with one anothers work, he
says, so theyre well-positioned to give
feedback and recognition. One of Globoforces tools lets employees view peer

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS GASH FOR HR MAGAZINE

By Toni Vranjes

November 2014

10/14/14 3:01 PM

REWARDS & EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION

5 Tips for Creating Peer Recognition Programs

Agenda

Here are suggestions for getting the most out of your peer-to-peer recognition program:
Carefully define program
goals. They might include
boosting sales, developing
leadership skills or improving attendance. The program should be structured around meeting those goals as
well as exemplifying the companys
values and culture, says Tai Aguirre,
business development director at
Taico Incentive Services. To boost
sales, for instance, a company might
create a system that allows salespeople to recognize one another for their
work toward getting a new account.

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS GASH FOR HR MAGAZINE

Occasionally change the

programs focus to keep it
fresh. For example, next year
the Douglas County library system will
focus on specific criteria that align with
customer service.

recognition on an internal feed. Other

employees can add congratulations and
comments.
Irvine doesnt recommend eliminating traditional top-down recognition
programs, though, because they give
employees valuable feedback directly
from their managers. Rather, he says,
peer programs should be used in conjunction with recognition by managers.
The two youngest generations in
the workforce may be contributing to
the popularity of peer-to-peer recognition, according to Achievers Corp., an
employee recognition software and services vendor. In a report on engaging
Generation X and Millennial employees,
Achievers describes peer recognition as
a grassroots technique that involves the
entire workforce. With peer-to-peer recognition, everyone has a chance to offer
feedbackwhich taps into the need for
Gen X and Millennial employees to have
their voices heard, the report states.
Technology-based peer recognition
systems are often accessible on mobile

Involve employees. At
the Douglas County library
system, workers are chosen
for recognition by a rotating team
of 12 employees with diverse job
titles from various locations, says Art
Glover, SPHR, associate director of
human resources. At FCC Services,
HR Director Linda Murphy, PHR,
consults with one or two employees
from each business unit about ideas
for peer recognition. Glover also
advises employers to seek employee
feedback via surveys.

Evaluate the programs

effectiveness. Use data.
Glover examines how many
nominations library employees make
each year to gauge how well the program is received.
Many vendors also offer data
analysis. Dashboards can shed light
on several areas, including employee
activities, their understanding of company values and their relationships
with colleagues, says Jason Harney,
marketing and product director at
vendor Workstars.

Evaluate the role of rewards. If your program will include

monetary incentives or other tangible rewards, set clear
criteria for receiving them, advises Roy Saunderson, chief
learning officer at Rideau Inc.s Recognition Management Institute.
Without such conditions, people might game the system just to
get rewards.

devices and appeal to younger workers

and others who are savvy about social
media and mobile technology.

Mixed Research Results

Businesses with peer recognition programs have reported positive outcomes.
The 2012 Employee Recognition Survey
report, conducted by SHRM and commissioned by Globoforce, found that
57 percent of HR professionals in companies that introduced peer-to-peer recognition programs reported higher levels
of employee engagement, compared with
46 percent of those without such programs. Also, 28 percent of companies
that began using peer systems experienced improved retention, compared
with 21 percent of those that did not
implement such systems.
However, a 2014 survey cast some
doubt on the value of these programs.
In a survey on employee recognition
conducted on behalf of the American Psychological Association (APA),
only 16percent of employees said

peer-to-peer recognition was important

to them.
Notably, the youngest group (respondents ages 18 to 34) was most likely to
embrace peer programs, according to the
APA survey: 21 percent of respondents in
that age group cared about peer-to-peer
recognition. Meanwhile, only 15 percent
of those in the 35- to 44-year-old demographic cared about it. So this form of recognition may become increasingly important as younger generations move into the
workforce over the coming years.

Employer Goals
Vendors claim that companies are
increasingly using peer-to-peer recognition to meet a variety of goals, including improving retention, reinforcing
company values and boosting employee
engagement.
Goals are dictated by the individual
company and the type of culture they
choose to have, says Tai Aguirre, director of business development at Taico
Incentive Services, which provides
November 2014

1114 Agenda.indd 55

HR Magazine

55

10/14/14 3:01 PM

Agenda

REWARDS & EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION

consulting services and software to help

employers develop their own unique
incentive programs.
Over the past five years, turnover at
the Douglas County library system generally has been below the average for Colorado businesses, and Glover thinks the
peer recognition program has contributed
to that trend. For instance, in 2013 the
library systems turnover rate was 13 percent, compared with 17 percent for businesses in the state as a whole.
Jason Harney, marketing and product director at recognition and rewards
vendor Workstars, says peer recognition can help bring company values to
life. He likens his companys system to
a Twitter feed [highlighting] everything positive thats taken place in your
business. The technology empowers

workers to observe and appreciate all

the positives, Harney says.
Peer-to-peer programs provide full
visibility and transparency into whats
occurring among co-workers, says Patrick Quirk, president and CEO of Achievers. As part of the Achievers system, recognition appears on a social newsfeed
that the entire company can see.
At business services and consulting
company FCC Services, employees can
write notes to peers expressing appreciation for their work, says Human
Resources Director Linda Murphy,
PHR. A key aim is boosting employee
engagement. In addition to being posted
on a bulletin board, the notes are entered
into a quarterly drawing; the author and
recipient of the note each receive a $25
gift card if their note is pulled.

SET UP
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2015
Onsite training is the best way to develop a cohesive,
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 Refines processes
 Provides an excellent team-building opportunity

At online shoe and clothing retailer

Zappos, meanwhile, one peer program
allows employees to give Zollars to
co-workers. Recipients can use the currency in several ways, including buying
items at the Zollar Store or donating
to a charitable cause.
Peer recognition can mean a lot to
people because it often comes from the
heart. While managers are expected
to provide feedback, peers are under
no such obligation, notes Kelly Wolske, senior trainer at Zapposand in
some instances they may even view one
another as competitors. Its an easy way
to make rewards more accessible and
meaningful to everyone.
Toni Vranjes is a freelance business writer in
San Pedro, Calif.

SHRM Organizational Training &

Developments most popular programs:
 HR Business Partner I & II
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shrm.org/orgtraining/november

14-0667

e-mail OrgTraining@shrm.org | call +1.703.535.6496

56

HR Magazine

1114 Agenda.indd 56

November 2014

10/14/14 3:02 PM

Trend Watch

www.shrm.org/trends

Now Hiring
HR professionals optimism about the U.S. job market hits a five-year high.
By Jen Schramm

espite mixed economic signals, HR

professionals are feeling more optimistic about the U.S. labor market than
they have in a long time. According to
the results of the newest Jobs Outlook
Survey (JOS) released in October by the
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), HR professionals have
their highest level of faith in the U.S.
labor market in more than five years,
and more than two in five said their
organizations would add jobs in the
second half of 2014.

Bullish on Hiring
HR professionals reported a high level of faith about job growth for the second half of 2014.
Very optimistic about job growth

14%

Somewhat optimistic about job growth

50%

Neither optimistic nor pessimistic about job growth

24%

Somewhat pessimistic about job growth, anticipating job losses

Very pessimistic about job growth, anticipating job losses

10%
2%

Some Jobs Hard to Fill

Skilled workers were among those HR professionals identified as the most difficult to hire in
the first half of 2014.
34%

Salaried individual contributor

20%

Labor, skilled

ILLUSTRATION BY SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

The pace of hiring

may be picking up,
but its becoming
more difficult to fill
some positions.
A total of 64 percent of the 424 HR
professionals surveyed in August said
they had some level of confidence in
the U.S. job market in the second half
of 2014 and expected job growth. Fifty
percent were somewhat optimistic, and
another 14 percent were very optimistic.
Forty-two percent expected their
organizations to hire in the second half
of 2014. Small companies with one to 99
employees were most likely to add jobs,
with 46 percent expecting to hire new
employees in the second half of the year.
On the flip side, 12 percent of HR
professionals were concerned about the
job market and anticipated job cuts in
the U.S. labor force. But respondents
level of pessimism about the job market
is down from 19 percent in the fourth
quarter of 2013 and 25 percent in the

14%

Management
Labor, low-skilled

7%

Source: SHRM Jobs Outlook Survey (July-December 2014).

second quarter of 2013.

As usual, the degree of optimism
among HR professionals varied across
U.S. regions. Respondents from the
West once again were the most confident
about job growth, as they frequently
have been in the past few years. A total
of 67 percent of HR professionals in the
West were somewhat or very optimistic.
Respondents in the Northeast reported
the lowest level of faith in the job market, although 55 percent were optimistic.
Part of HR professionals optimism
may stem from the relatively strong hiring activity many organizations experienced in the first half of 2014. Fifty
percent said their companies created
jobs in the first two quarters of the
year, which was up from 44 percent in
the second quarter of 2013. They also
reported that their employees were
working more hours, with 25 percent
saying nonexempt employees worked
more in the first half of 2014 than in the
second half of 2013.

Yet SHRMs Leading Indicators of

National Employment (LINE) report
has shown a trend of increased recruiting
difficulty throughout 2014 for the most
strategically important manufacturing and services jobs. These jobs tend to
require more skills and education. Similarly, the job category HR professionals in the JOS reported to be the most
difficult to fill was salaried individual
contributors/professionals.
As we move into the winter of 201415, global political instability or financial market volatility could dampen HRs
spirits. But the greatest factors shaping
the views of HR professionals will continue to be their own organizations hiring plans and the recruiting market they
face when trying to fill jobs.
Jen Schramm is manager of
the Workforce Trends
program at SHRM.

November 2014

1114 Trendwatch.indd 57

HR Magazine

57

10/14/14 3:42 PM

HR Technology Provider Profile Special Advertising Section

Proprietary and Innovative Technology Solutions

Streamline the Relocation Process at AIReS
The AIReS technology suite is a single-platform offering,
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and the company applies this technology to supplement
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For transferees, the new ReloNet Web Services provides several new features as well as a more streamlined and intuitive look and feel. The online expense
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The new Assignment Calendar tool allows relocating
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the employee based on the days they were at destination,
payments can be automatically made after the submission
of the calendar. The tool can also be used to track the

1114 Provider Profile AIReS.indd 52

number of days an assignee spends in a host country for

visa and immigration tracking.
Another new feature is the Live Chat. This Live Chat
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An innovative feature is the Document and Message
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AIReS has also released updates to the Client ReloNet
Web Services site for corporate users. The Client
ReloNet Web Services features a revamped user experience plus exciting new functionality that creates a more
intuitive and streamlined interface. One new highlight
for clients is the ability to see recently completed actions
in the Activity Stream on the home page. This allows clients to quickly access a recently submitted Authorization
Form or Budget Estimate.

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#1 in Human Capital and Talent Management

HR Technology

Get Analytical
Next-generation tools make it easier for HR to find the data that matter.
By Dave Zielinski

hether they realize it or not,

HR leaders are sitting on a gold
mine. In the era of big data, they
have access to more workforce information than ever. Tucked away within
disparate systems are valuable insights
about where companies top recruits
come from, why key employees leave
the organization and in which cases
salaries are no longer keeping pace with
the market.
But that data does little good if it
cant be easily accessed and translated
into compelling stories that move business leaders to action. Fortunately, the
latest generation of analytics software
brings HR a few steps closer to making that happen. And, thanks to inviting
new dashboards, the tools are easy to
navigate as well.

and internal movement (transfers, promotions and turnover) that once was fragmented is now located in one place.
Berrys team uses the software to generate enterprise scorecards that track
key performance indicators (KPIs). The
tool shows how each business-unit function and location is performing relative
to these KPIs, which for us are primarily

over five years, the group can now assess

how pay practices affect diversity and
retention. All we could do in the past
was determine whether our [diversity]
representation had improved year over
year, he says.
Now the software enables Berrys
team to understand specific diversity
patterns by business, job, gender, ethnic-

around talent retention, personnel costs

and head count, Berry says.
ConAgra also worked with the vendor to develop a model dubbed total
cost of workforce, which enables HR
to more accurately assess the full costs of
the workforce by factoring in expenses
related to recruiting, relocation, temporary labor and pay for time not worked,
among other costs. It allows us to see the
true costs by component of any employment decision we make, Berry says.
Because it can aggregate detailed data

ity, age, tenure and other factors. We

can see where were making progress to
understand whats working, and where
we arent progressing so we can focus
resources where we have the biggest
needs.

ILLUSTRATION BY DANIEL BAXTER FOR HR MAGAZINE

Data-Based Decisions
The HR group at ConAgra Foods is
using cloud-based analytics software
from vendor Visier as part of its strategy
to base more of its human capital decision-making on facts.
According to Mark Berry, vice president of people insights at the Omaha,
Neb.-based packaged foods company,
the team is focusing on the companys
employee value proposition (EVP)the
factors that attract, retain and engage
workers, including work environment,
development opportunities, compensation, benefits and more.
We know that companies with
higher EVP usually have lower compensation, benefits and recruiting costs,
Berry says.
The software enables his team to
aggregate and analyze data that was
previously hard to access. Thats largely
because disparate workforce information
on demographics, performance, training

Visual Aids
Todays workforce analytics software
has evolved most in its visual component, as represented by eye-catching
and user-friendly dashboards that
display the HR metrics that are most
November 2014

1114 HR tech.indd 61

HR Magazine

61

10/14/14 3:16 PM

HR Technology

important to users.
Leading-edge business intelligence
software providers have taught HR vendors what can be done from a visualization perspective, says Kevin Oakes,
CEO of the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) in Seattle. Enabling users
to pull the right workforce data from disparate sources is another area that analytics tools continue to improve upon.
But having good software doesnt
mean companies are measuring the right
things. In general, HR groups in highperforming organizations focus on different workforce metrics than their counterparts in lower-performing organizations,
according to i4cp research. For example,

HR executives are
turning to analytics
to model employee
retirement and
turnover scenarios.
high-performing organizations are more
likely to track quality of attrition (where
talent is being lost in critical job roles) and
quality of movement (what happens as a
result of transfers, promotions and other
internal shifting).
Despite the progress thats been
made in data visualization and integration, more work is needed on the back
end functions of many tools. According
to Mollie Lombardi, vice president and
principal analyst of workforce management at the Brandon Hall Group,
an HR consulting company in Delray
Beach, Fla., many tools still cant drill
down from dashboards into data sets to
explore the root causes of issues such as
high turnover in pivotal jobs.
Better software also doesnt obviate the need for HR to have data science skills. You still need someone who
62

HR Magazine

1114 HR tech.indd 62

understands what data points should be

correlated or juxtaposed, and who can
think critically about the right questions
to ask, Lombardi says.
Being able to tell compelling stories
based on the data is also paramount.
What senior executives dont want is
more data, Oakes says. They want
to understand the story the data is telling them, so HRs interpretation of it
becomes critical.

Recruiting Analytics
Another big improvement in the newest
workforce analytics is talent forecasting, which gives recruiters a gauge of
how long it takes to fill job openings and
the caliber of applicants theyre likely to
receive. Such supply-and-demand data
can lead to talent acquisition strategies
that are more cost-effective.
Market-intelligence metrics might
tell recruiters that it will take about three
months to fill a senior engineering job in
Boston, for example, or that there are 15
qualified candidates in the region. The
ability to have that kind of conversation
on the front end of the recruiting cycle
can be a differentiator for recruiters,
says Elaine Orler, CEO of The Talent
Function, a recruiting technology consulting company in San Diego.
At Cameco, a Canadian uranium
producer, workforce analytics have
enabled business-unit managers and HR
to speak the same language, says Sean
Junor, manager of workforce planning
and talent acquisition at the company.
The software creates a single source of
the truth on key measures like employee
head count, turnover or absenteeism by
consolidating data on one platform and
giving line managers easier access to
workforce metrics.
It also enables business units to be
more proactive in using workforce data.
People can reach in and get the information they want each month, when
they need it, without waiting for us,
Junor says.
At the same time, HR needs to avoid

creating an environment of information

overload. When data moves from HR
directly into the business, it removes the
data filter and requires more guidance for
users, Junor says. HR can help business
units focus on vital information rather
than nice to know metrics by restricting what they can see in the system.

Measuring Demand
Some HR executives are turning to analytics to model employee retirement
and turnover scenarios. At the Black
Hills Corp., a diversified energy company in Rapid City, S.D., Chief Human
Resources Officer Bob Myers used a
workforce analytics tool from SuccessFactors to gauge the impact of a looming retirement surge on the companys
business.
The software helped us create a
demand model, he says. In other
words, how much demand for talent
by job classification is going to occur in
specific business units over the next five
years, based on retirements, normal turnover and business growth initiatives?
Calculating that aggregate demand
raised eyebrows in the business units,
Myers says, and triggered new thinking
about recruiting and knowledge-capture
strategies. The model showed that were
going to lose 24 percent of our current
workforce to retirement over the next five
years, and those retiring employees represent about 34 percent of our total years of
employee experience, he explains.
That finding led Myers to examine
where the loss of institutional knowledge from retiring employees would have
the biggest impact and to begin developing strategies to capture that knowledge before it was gone. He is hoping the
effort gives his organization a competitive advantage over other energy companies facing similar workforce changes
an edge it would not have had without
analytics.
Dave Zielinski is a freelance business
journalist based in Minneapolis.

November 2014

10/14/14 3:16 PM

2015 is a mandatory Workplace

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Court Report

New cases are posted online each week. Visit www.shrm.org/law.

ERISA Fiduciaries Liable Absent Objective Prudence

Tatum v. RJR Pension Inv. Comm., 4th Cir., No. 13-1360.
Under the Employee Retirement Income
Security Act (ERISA), fiduciaries may
be liable for the losses caused by their
imprudent investment decisions unless
they prove that a prudent fiduciary
would have made the same decision after
a proper investigation, according to the
4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In 1999, the RJR Nabisco Co.
decided to spin off its tobacco business,
R.J. Reynolds, from its food business,
Nabisco (collectively, RJR). Prior to
the spinoff, RJR had sponsored a 401(k)
plan for its employees, which was governed by ERISA. This plan allowed participants to invest in any combination of
eight investment funds, including two
funds that held exclusively RJR stock,
the Nabisco funds. A new plan was
created on June 14, 1999, the date of the
spinoff, by amendment to the existing
plan.
It expressly required that the Nabisco
funds be maintained to permit participants to continue their existing investments in RJR stock.
In violation of this plan requirement,
a working group of RJR employees
decided to eliminate the Nabisco funds
from the plan. The working group made
this decision after less than an hour of
discussion and without hiring any financial consultants, outside counsel or independent fiduciaries. The working group
had no authority under the plan, and
the decision was never properly ratified
by the investment committee, which,
according to the plan documentation,
was responsible for the plan investments.
In October 1999, a letter was sent
to the plan participants informing
64

HR Magazine

1114 Court Report.indd 64

them that the plan would eliminate the

not applied a high enough standard of
Nabisco funds as of January 2000. The
care to the plan fiduciaries. The appelletter erroneously stated that the plan did late court held that the standard of care
not permit the funds to be maintained.
for ERISA fiduciaries was not merely
Between June 15, 1999, the day after
whether the fiduciaries had made an
the spinoff, and Jan. 31, 2000, when
investment decision that a reasonable
the RJR stock in the Nabisco funds was
and prudent fiduciary could have made,
sold, the value of the funds dropped by
but was instead whether the fiduciaries
over half. The sale therefore resulted in
had made a decision that a reasonable
significant losses. By December 2000,
and prudent fiduciary would have made.
however, the RJR stock had more than
Accordingly, to avoid liability, the
fully recovered.
fiduciaries would have to prove that
In May 2002, a plan participant
despite their imprudent decision-making
filed a class-action
process, their ultilawsuit against RJR
mate investment deciProfessional Pointer
and the plan benefit
sion was objectively
and investment comprudent. Under this
The ERISA fiduciaries could
mittees. The lawsuit
objectively prudent
have shielded themselves
alleged that they had
standard, a plaintiff
from liability by following
breached their duties
who has proved the
the procedures provided
in the plan for investment
as fiduciaries under
defendant-fiduciarys
decisions. If they had done so,
ERISA by eliminating
procedural impruthe liability analysis may not
RJR stock from the
dence and resulting
have reached the question of
plan on an arbitrary
losses will prevail
whether objectively prudent
timeline; by not conunless the defendantfiduciaries would have made
the same decision after a proper
ducting a thorough
fiduciary shows that
investigation.
investigation; and by
a prudent fiduciary
forcing the sale of the
would have made the
stock at an all-time
same decision after a
low, despite the strong likelihood that the
proper investigation.
stock prices would soon rebound. The
A decision is objectively prudent if
lawsuit alleged that this caused substana hypothetical prudent fiduciary would
tial losses.
have made the same decision anyway,
At trial, the district court found that
the court said. A plan fiduciary carries
the ERISA plan fiduciaries were not liaits burden by demonstrating it would
ble for the losses because a reasonable
have reached the same decision had it
and prudent fiduciary could have made
undertaken a proper investigation.
the same investment decision after performing a proper investigation.
By Ilana Pearlman, an attorney with Foster
On appeal, the 4th Circuit disEmployment Law, the Worklaw Network
agreed, holding that the trial court had
member firm in Oakland, Calif.

November 2014

10/14/14 3:39 PM

Worker Denied Flexible Schedule May Pursue Claim

Solomon v. Vilsack, D.C. Cir., No. 12-5123.
which would allow her to work a schedAn employee who was denied the ability
ule that could vary from day to day in
to work a flexible schedule as a reasonterms of the number of hours worked
able accommodation for her disability
and when those hours were worked.
may proceed with her claim to trial, the
Solomon submitted a doctors note
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Cirthat supported her request for a flexible
cuit ruled.
work schedule due to
Linda Solomon,
her ongoing depression,
a budget analyst for
Professional Pointer
although it did not state
the U.S. Department
in precise detail the
of Agriculture, had
Employers cannot assume,
proposed schedule she
chronic depression.
without a careful factual
analysis, that a request
should be able to work.
Solomon encountered
for accommodation is
Agency personproblems when she
unreasonable. Additionally,
nel denied Solomons
asked to work a flexcompany policies, truly
request. They took the
ible schedule as an
essential job duties and
position that Solomon
accommodation for
the consistent treatment of
similarly situated employees
needed to provide more
her ongoing depresmust be considered when
medical documentation
sion. More specifically,
evaluating requests for
to justify her requested
Solomon asked to use
reasonable accommodation.
accommodation.
a maxiflex schedule,

Solomon eventually filed a lawsuit,

alleging in relevant part that the agency
violated the Rehabilitation Act by failing
to provide her with a reasonable accommodation when it denied her the ability to work a flexible schedule. The trial
court granted summary judgment in
favor of the employer, but the D.C. Circuit reversed.
The D.C. Circuit explained that
determining whether a particular type
of accommodation is reasonable is commonly a contextual and fact-specific
inquiry, and that it is rare that any
particular type of accommodation will
be categorically unreasonable.
By John B. Flood, a shareholder in the
Washington, D.C., office of Ogletree
Deakins.

Penalty Proper for Failure to Provide COBRA Notice

Evans v. Books-A-Million, 11th Cir., No. 13-10054.
A trial court properly relied on a provision of the Employee Retirement Income
Security Act (ERISA) in assessing a
$75-per-day penalty against an employer
found to have intentionally failed to provide a COBRA notice, according to the
11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Books-A-Million, a national book
retailer, had employed Tondalaya Evans
for nine years when, in January 2006,
Evans advised the company she was pregnant. At the time, Evansthen the companys payroll and insurance manager
was involved in the implementation of a
new payroll system set to go live just
prior to her due date.
According to Evans allegations,
her supervisor advised her that rather
than going on leave, she would need to
work from home. Again according to
Evans, she was sent work assignments

throughout the time she had requested

COBRA coverage period, along with
leave and then upon her return to work
attorney fees totaling over $42,000.
was treated coldly by her supervisor and
The 11th Circuit upheld the trial
almost immediately reassigned to work
courts finding that Books-A-Million
in a different position
intentionally violated
not involving payCOBRA in failing
Professional Pointer
roll. Evans refused to
to provide Evans a
accept the new posiCOBRA notice folEmployers must be scrupulous
tion, and her employlowing her terminain ensuring that employees
receive the notices required
ment was accordingly
tion. The appellate
under COBRA after termination
terminated. Followcourt further upheld
or other qualifying events.
ing her termination,
the trial courts deciEvans did not receive
sion to award Evans,
a COBRA notice relating to continuation
in light of the violation, a $75-per-day
of her dental insurance.
statutory penalty under an ERISA statute
Evans thereafter sued Books-A-Milthat authorizes penalties of up to $100
lion. After a bench trial, the trial court
per day for COBRA violations.
concluded that the bookseller had intenBy Karen Rhodes, an attorney with
tionally violated COBRA and assessed
Swerdlow Florence Sanchez Swerdlow &
a statutory penalty against Books-AWimmer, the Worklaw Network member
Million of $75 per day throughout the
firm in Beverly Hills, Calif.
November 2014

1114 Court Report.indd 65

HR Magazine

65

10/14/14 3:40 PM

Legal Trends

Recorded Risk
Smartphones make capturing conversations at work a cinchand a legal headache.
By Nina Massen

ecording conversations used to be

thought of as the work of James
Bond or some shady character in a
trench coat with an oddly conspicuous
carnation in his lapel.
But mobile technology has made
businesses increasingly vulnerable to
having work discussions recorded every
day. Anyone with a smartphone can
potentially capture exchanges with colleagues, supervisors, HR professionals
or executives without their knowledge.
Not surprisingly, such recordings
are being presented more frequently in
discrimination litigation. Employees
who catch unsuspecting co-workers and
managers making inculpatory statements are looking to use the recordings
to assert and prove legal claims. This
can be very powerful evidence. Admissions from the horses mouth tend to
leave a strong impression on a judge or
jurors, and they can be hard to explain
away by legal sophistry or denials.

employees. The Pennsylvania statute

makes it unlawful to record an oral
communication that is uttered by a
person possessing an expectation that

is lawful, there is nothing that precludes

an employer from adopting a policy stating that the surreptitious recording of
conversations with co-workers is not

such communication is not subject to

interception under circumstances justifying such expectation.
The courts decision acknowledged
that the statute appeared to be applicable to the circumstances of the case.
But then it interpreted the phrase an
expectation that such communication is
not subject to interception to mean that
the company did not have a reasonable
expectation of privacy in a conversation
about the employees termination.
Clearly, rather than relying on statutory interpretation, the better practice is
to implement a written no-recording
policy.
Even in jurisdictions where recording

allowed and that an employee who violates the policy is subject to discipline,
including termination.
In the context of Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, termination of an
employee for violating a no-recording
policy can satisfy the second prong of
the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting test, in which the employer must
produce evidence of a nondiscriminatory reason for the adverse employment
action against the plaintiff. Several
courts have upheld the termination of
employees for making or attempting to
make recordings to preserve evidence.
For example, in Mohamad v. Dallas County Cmty. College Dist., 2012

In most jurisdictions, it is not unlawful

to record a conversation as long as one
party knows about the recording.
A minority of states require both
parties to the conversation to consent to
it being recorded, but even this higher
standard is not fail-safe. For example,
in Barr v. Arco Chemical Corp., 529 F.
Supp. 1277 (S.D. Tex. 1982), the federal court dismissed the employers
counterclaim alleging a violation of the
Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act by the
plaintiff-employee.
The employee had surreptitiously
recorded a closed-door meeting at
which his supervisors discussed his termination and then played the recording
for third parties, including other Arco
66

HR Magazine

1114 Legal Trends.indd 66

ILLUSTRATION BY STEVE DININNO FOR HR MAGAZINE

Supportive Case Law

November 2014

10/14/14 3:30 PM

U.S. Dist. LEXIS 141578 (N.D. Tex.

2012), the court dismissed on summary
judgment the plaintiffs Title VII discrimination and retaliation claims on
the grounds that the plaintiffs surreptitious recording of conversations with his

a finding that the matter in question is

what its proponent claims.
Courts weighing admissibility of
recorded conversations to decide a
motion for summary judgment require
that the proponent provide a founda-

Why Have a No-Recording Policy?

There are several benefits to adopting a policy that bans surreptitious recording:
It dissuades employees from recording conversations.
It encourages trust and candid conversation.
If knowledge of the recording occurs only after litigation
has commenced, the employer may be able to use the afteracquired evidence doctrine to stem its exposure from the
point when the breach of company policy was uncovered.

supervisorwhich violated company

policyconstituted a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the termination of the plaintiffs employment. The
critical element in this line of cases is
that the no-recording policy was written
and explicit in alerting employees that
its violation would result in discipline,
including termination.

ILLUSTRATION BY STEVE DININNO FOR HR MAGAZINE

Absent a Policy
What happens if no written policy
existed at the time the secret recording
was made? Are employers doomed to
pay dearly for the loose-lipped utterances of their employees and managers?
Not necessarily. There may be protection based on the inadmissibility of
the recording under the Federal Rules of
Civil Procedure and the Federal Rules of
Evidence.
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c)(2), a party may object that
the material cited to support or dispute
a fact cannot be presented in a form that
would be admissible in evidence. Federal Rule of Evidence 901(a) requires
that all documents and materials to be
submitted into evidence be authenticated, by evidence sufficient to support

tion or properly authenticate the recording. That is, to prove authenticity of a

recording, the party offering it in court
must present evidence sufficient to support a finding that the recording is an
accurate reproduction of the matter
recorded. For example, in Spencer v.
Berger, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58029
(D. Idaho 2009), the court refused
to consider audio-recorded and transcribed conversations with third-party
witnesses in resolving the motion for
summary judgment due to the lack of
foundation.
Following this case and similar precedent, an employer may be able to challenge the admissibility of a recording on
the basis that it contains statements that
are not authenticated, that are unsworn
and/or that constitute inadmissible
hearsay.

infamous Watergate tapes. If there is

any suspicion that the plaintiff (or plaintiffs agent) tampered with the recording
by erasing or splicing sections, it may
be worth subjecting the recording to a
forensic exam, which could uncover circumstances that would preclude admission of the recording or otherwise be
helpful in challenging the plaintiffs
credibility.
For example, if the plaintiff has
erased sections of the recording, such
an act could constitute tampering with
evidence or a violation of a litigationhold notice. Even if the recording is not
held to be inadmissible in its entirety,
the employer may be able to obtain an
instruction of adverse inference concerning the subject matter of the deleted
section of the recording. If luck is smiling, the forensic exam may even uncover
conversations that were recorded over,

Tampering with Evidence

If there is suspicion
that the plaintiff
tampered with
the recording by
erasing or splicing
sections, it may be
worth subjecting it
to a forensic exam.
That may uncover
circumstances that
could challenge
the plaintiffs
credibility.

Keep in mind that even authentic evidence can be called into question if there
has been what is known as a Rose
Mary Woods incident. Woods was
President Richard Nixons secretary;
she went down in history for erasing
an 18.5-minute segment of one of the

which could be of value in exculpating the employer or impeaching the

plaintiff-employee.
There is no doubt that the cry
for clearer guidance will grow
November 2014

1114 Legal Trends.indd 67

HR Magazine

67

10/14/14 3:31 PM

Legal Trends

Sample Policies
The following three sample policies show how employers can try to nip the
problem of recorded conversations at work in the bud:
Unauthorized electronic surveillance of employees is disruptive to employee
morale and inconsistent with the respectful treatment required of our employees. For this reason, no employee may record the conversation of another
employee without his or her full knowledge and consent.
No employee may record, by any means, a conversation with another
employee unless all of the following criteria are met:
1. A legitimate purpose for the recording.
2. A recording device in plain view.
3. Written authorization from the supervisor of the employee who wishes to
record the conversation.

Secret recordings are strictly prohibited unless authorized in writing by legal

counsel. A violation of this provision may result in disciplinary action, including
termination.

louder as the use of recordings in litigation becomes more prevalent.

Until then, there is little downside,
and much potential benefit, to including
a no-recording policy in your employee
handbook.
Nina Massen is assistant general counsel
HR, Compliance & Ethics at Novitex
Enterprise Solutions Inc. in Stamford, Conn.
She can be reached at nina.massen@novitex
.com. Opinions in this article do not reflect
the view of Novitex Enterprise Solutions Inc.

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SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

Henry G. (Hank) Jackson

SHRM

Jo Ann Jenkins
AARP

HR AGING
WORKFORCE
AND THE

TWO CEO POINTS OF VIEW

NOVEMBER 2014 | VOLUME:59 | NUMBER:11

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The Role of HR in Addressing the Challenges of an Aging Workforce

By Henry G. (Hank) Jackson, President and CEO, SHRM

This clarion call to action is not new, and the clock

continues to tick. We have been hearing for many years
that the U.S. faces a serious challenge as its workforce
increasingly ages and the Baby Boomer generation
retires from the workforce. Now that the oldest Baby
Boomers (born in 1946) have begun reaching the traditional
retirement age of 65 and the youngest Baby Boomers
(born in 1964) are turning 50, we need to focus with even
greater urgency on this challenge to Americas ability
to effectively compete in the global marketplace.
Henry G. (Hank) Jackson
President and CEO, SHRM

Founded in 1948, the Society for

Human Resource Management (SHRM)
is the worlds largest HR membership
organization devoted to human resource
management. Representing more
than 275,000 members in over 160
countries, the Society is the leading
provider of resources to serve the needs
of HR professionals and advance the
professional practice of human resource
management. SHRM has more than 575
affiliated chapters within the United
States and subsidiary offices in China,
India and United Arab Emirates.

According to the Pew Research Center, 10,000 U.S. Baby Boomers on

average have been reaching age 65 every day since 2011. And large
numbers of the 77 million Boomers born between 1946 and 1964 have
already retired, taking with them their experience, special skills and
deep knowledge of the business.
We are proud that the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
and AARP have taken a leading position in addressing this challenge.
In addition to our other efforts, we decided in 2010 to collaborate and
develop joint projects to raise awareness of the value of older workers,
and to provide strategies and resources to help HR professionals and
their employers retain, engage and develop their experienced talent.
This special insert is one of several such joint projects.

Why Should We Be Concerned?

The U.S. workforce, like those of most developed countries, is aging rapidly. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2016 one-third of the
U.S. labor force will be 50 or older, up from 27 percent in 2007, and this
percentage growth is projected to continue for the foreseeable future.
The recent Great Recession and other factors, however, have caused
many Baby Boomers who would have otherwise retired at age 65
to remain in the workforce. While economic forces have slowed the
number of retirements and provided organizations a brief respite as they
search for talent, there is no question that a crunch is coming. According
to the U.S. Census Bureau, 10 percent of Baby Boomers were retired in
2010. In the four short years since, that percentage has nearly doubled.
The continued retirement of large numbers of Baby Boomers could
significantly increase the existing skills gaps in areas such as engineering, medicine and technology. And I believe that the skills gap is among
the most critical/important challenges facing our nation, communities,
organizations and economy today.
U.S. employers appear to have a growing concern about the impact of
upcoming Baby Boomer retirements. According to the SHRM 2014 Older

1 HR and the Aging Workforce: Two CEO Points of View

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Worker Survey, seven percent of the respondents

consider the loss of their older workers over the next
6-10 years as a crisis for their organizations, and
more than two-thirds of them consider it a problem
or potential problem.

What Needs to Be Done?

To address this challenge, there are four areas on
which I think every organization should focus:
1. Value your older workers. Every organization
should view its older workers as a highly valuable
asset but must also prepare for their exit from the
workforce. HR professionals are the linchpins who
can move their organizations to take the fundamental steps. They know, for example, how to
guide the strategic workforce planning process,
which is a critical component in helping organizations determine the impact of their Baby Boomer
retirements and their human capital needs in the
short- and long-term.
2. Conduct a strategic workforce analysis. SHRMs
2014 Older Worker Survey revealed that fewer
than a third of the organizations surveyed had
conducted a strategic workforce analysis to gauge
the impact of losing their experienced talent in the
coming three to five years. This figure indicates
that even more attention needs to be focused on
this priority, given the stakes involved. To conduct
strategic planning at a minimal cost, take advantage of AARPs free online Workforce Assessment
Tool, which SHRM co-sponsors, available at
www.aarpworkforceassessment.org.
3. Position your organization as an employer of
choice. HR professionals are also attuned to the
fact that most older employees want flexible, interesting work that accommodates their lifestyle and
schedule. Consequently, flexible work arrangements are becoming one of the most powerful
tools employers are using to keep older workers
on board and engaged. In fact, these arrangementsincluding telecommuting, flextime, job
sharing and phased retirementare highly valued
by employees of all ages because they allow for a
better work/life fit and a better balance of professional and family responsibilities.
4. Incorporate coaching and mentoring programs. HR professionals are actively involved in

the crucial effort to avoid losing the institutional

knowledge that older workers possess. They are
setting up systematic knowledge transfer programs, such as coaching, job sharing and mentoring, to tap this knowledge before it leaves with
retiring Baby Boomers.

The SHRM and SHRM Foundation

Aging Workforce Initiative
Earlier this year, SHRM and the SHRM Foundation
were excited to launch a national, three-year
Aging Workforce Initiative to highlight the value of
older workers and best practices for employing
them. This initiative, funded by an Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation grant, includes first-of-its-kind research
and educational resources aimed at helping
employers understand and respond to the issues of
an aging workforce.
The multifaceted initiative began with a compilation
of existing research on best practices associated
with employing an aging workforce. It was followed
by the Older Worker Survey on HR perspectives
regarding current practices for recruiting and retaining older workers. The key findings of this survey are
highlighted in the box on the next page.
The third research project in the Aging Workforce
Initiative will draw information from the first two studies to identify the gaps between older worker best
practices and those currently in use at the organizations that were surveyed. The initiative has also produced a best-practices DVD featuring the National
Institutes of Health and sponsored by AARP that will
be widely distributed, in addition to a series of executive roundtable discussions and briefings beginning
this year through 2016. Information on these and
several other Aging Workforce Initiative projects
and resources can be found at www.shrm.org/
hrdisciplines/diversity.

SHRM-AARP Collaboration
For more than four years, SHRM and AARP have
been working together to provide HR and business leaders with strategies and practical resources
related to the aging workforce. We conducted two
joint research surveys in 2010 and 2012 on strategic
workforce planning for Baby Boomer retirements,
co-sponsored several educational webcasts, collaborated on joint speaking engagements and panel
programs at SHRM chapters and other events, and
HR and the Aging Workforce: Two CEO Points of View 2

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worked together on numerous articles and communications in traditional and social media.
In addition, SHRM co-sponsored AARPs 2013 Best
Employers for Workers Over 50 Award, as well as
the award ceremony during SHRMs 2013 Annual
Conference & Exposition, to highlight best-in-class
employers for older workers. More details on these
activities and the resources available through our
collaboration can be found at the SHRM-AARP website at www.shrm.org/aarp and on the AARP website
at www.aarp.org/employers.

The Role of HR Going Forward

It is clear that HR leaders will play an increasingly
critical role in addressing the challengesand
seizing the opportunitiesof an aging workforce.
They will be at the heart of the efforts by companies
to engage their older workers and leverage the
unique talents of each generation in todays diverse,
multigenerational workforce. I know HR is up to this
daunting task. SHRM and its members, along with
AARP, are ready to lead.

Some Key Findings from the SHRM 2014 Older Worker Survey
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
2014 Older Worker Survey is one of the projects under the
SHRM and SHRM Foundation Aging Workforce Initiative. It
was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Data collection for the survey took place between May 1 and July 3,
2014. The findings reflect the responses of 1,913 randomly
selected SHRM members. The full survey can be accessed at
www.shrm.org/research.

40% have hired retired employees as consultants

or temporary workers

Over two-thirds (68%) of respondents consider the

potential loss of older worker talent over the coming 6-10
years, through retirement or other reasons, a problem
or potential problem for their organization.

Top 5 advantages of older workers compared

to other workers:

7% consider it a crisis

71% say more mature/professional

28% consider it a problem

70% say stronger work ethic

40% consider it a potential problem

63% say ability to serve as mentors to younger workers

24% do not consider it a problem

59% say more reliable

Just over one-third (35%) of respondents have conducted

a strategic workforce planning analysis to analyze the
impact on their organizations of the exodus of their
workers age 55-plus in the coming 1-2 years.

Top 5 steps taken to prepare for potential skills gaps

resulting from the loss of older workers:

31% have analyzed the impact over the coming 3-5 years

33% have developed succession plans

17% have analyzed the impact over the coming

6-10 years

17% have developed processes to capture institutional

memory/organizational knowledge

Top 5 steps taken to retain and/or recruit older workers:

15% have increased recruitment efforts to replace retiring

workers

48% have offered reduced hours or part-time positions

to older workers

15% have created new roles within the organization,

specifically designed to bridge a skills or knowledge gap

37% have started flexible scheduling (e.g., telework,

alternative work schedules, etc.)
30% have created or redesigned positions that allow
bridge employment
30% have offered phased/gradual retirement

77% say more work experience (i.e., more knowledge

and/or skills)

42% have increased training and/or cross-training efforts

3 HR and the Aging Workforce: Two CEO Points of View

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Disruptive Aging: Our Age Adds Value and Experience

By Jo Ann Jenkins, Chief Executive Officer, AARP

Since becoming AARPs CEO in September, Ive begun a

mission to Disrupt Aging! I want to change the conversation
in this country around what it means to get olderto help
people understand that its not really about aging, its about
living. Nowhere is this more important than in the workforce.
Those of us 50-plus face distinct challenges and have different goals
compared to people in their 30s and 40s. Were at a different place in
our lives. Were motivated by different things.

Jo Ann Jenkins
Chief Executive Officer, AARP

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan

organization, with a membership of
nearly 38 million, that helps people
turn their goals and dreams into real
possibilities, strengthens communities
and fights for the issues that matter
most to families such as healthcare,
employment and income security,
retirement planning, affordable utilities
and protection from financial abuse.

Because of our life experiences, we see the world through a different

lensa lens shaped by experiencing the ups and downs of life, by the
wisdom gained from those experiences, and by the comfort that comes
from having a better understanding of who we are as individuals and
what we want from life. I am a more purposeful person because of my
age. And, to my mind, that also makes me a better employee.
Life after 50 today isnt what it used to be. I know because the 50 of my
parents generation certainly isnt an experience I can relate to. If I had
lived in my parents generation, I would have retired after spending 25
years in government service. After all, I was eligible for my pension, my
husband had just retired, my kids were grownconventional wisdom
dictated that I should just retire.
There was only one thing wrongI wasnt ready to retire. I was just
ready to do something different. So I joined AARP as president of the
AARP Foundation. I then became AARPs chief operating officer. And on
September 1, I began my tenure as CEO.
I almost missed this opportunity because stuck in the back of my head
was a little voice that said the social norm at this stage of my life was to
play it safe and retire. Fortunately, I didnt listen. And today, millions of
people like me arent listening, either.
My story is not unique in todays world. A report a couple of years ago
by Bloomberg News found that U.S. employees old enough to retire
now outnumber teenagers in the workforce for the first time since 1948.
According to AARP research, almost half of all employees ages 45 to 70
envision working well into their 70s and beyond. The simple fact is this:
The workforce is aging. In 1992, workers 55-plus made up less than 12
percent of the workforce. By 2012, they were about 21 percent. And by
2022, they are projected to be over 25 percent of the total workforce.
For some this is a choicefor others a necessity.
These demographic changes are having a disruptive influence in the
workplace. Many businesses and organizations are simply in denial.
Others are struggling to find ways to manage their multigenerational
workforces effectively. Theyre continually seeking ways of getting the
most out of a workforce that may consist of up to four generations of

HR and the Aging Workforce: Two CEO Points of View 4

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workersbut most certainly has a larger proportion

than ever of workers over the age of 50.
The time has come to embrace our 50-plus workforce. Society and employers need to recognize that
hiring and retaining experienced workers is good for
their business. And, we need to help experienced
workers navigate todays work reality and remain
competitive in the current and future job market.
At AARP, weve initiated a four-part strategy to
achieve these goals:
1. Raise awareness of todays work reality and
its implications for business and the economy by
helping society and the 50-plus become more
attuned to the changes taking place in todays
workforce. Were also positioning AARP as a
resource to address the needs of 50-plus workers.
2. Influence employer perceptions and approaches
to 50-plus workers. We are developing strong
relationships with key employers at the executive
level who are industry leaders to educate them
on the value of experienced workers. And we are
working with them to create model programs and
identify best practices for employers to benefit
from the value of experienced workers in the context of their multigenerational workforces.
3. Continue to be a leading voice nationwide
against age discrimination in the workplace.
This includes addressing issues of unfair treatment
of older workers in the courts, as well as pushing
for policies and legislation in the areas of age and
disability discrimination.
4. Develop best-in-class skill-building resources
oriented specifically to the needs of the 50-plus.
We are creating a user-friendly experience that
makes it easy to find all of AARPs work and skillrelated resources (e.g., Life Reimagined, Work
and Entrepreneurship Resource Center, AARPs
LinkedIn page, etc.). We are also building a new
skill-development curriculum that complements
and connects with Life Reimagined; piloting a new
program, AARP Technology Education Knowledge
(TEK), that provides work-related technology
education; refining and expanding the AARP
Foundations Back to Work 50+, a partnership with
community colleges and other workplace services,
providing public benefits application assistance
and encouraging employer engagement; and
continuing AARP Foundations Senior Community
Service Employment Program (SCSEP) that helps
individuals with a family income of no more than
125 percent of the poverty line get the skills and
services they need to get back into the workforce.

Embracing our 50-plus workforce means building on the positives that these employees bring in
order to create a more productive workforce overall.
For example:
Use 50-plus workers as mentors for younger
employees. They often make excellent coaches
and it adds to their sense of purpose and fulfillment
on the job.
Establish a process for knowledge transfer
between generations. Workers who are 50-plus
have a lot of tacit knowledge based on their
years of experience that younger workers have
yet to acquire.
Elicit 50-plus workers to solidify the organizational
culture. Experienced workers know the norms and
values of the organization and are able to pass
them on to new hires. Some organizations set up
formal partnerships between older and younger
employees specifically for this purpose.
Consider using retired employees as a just in time
temporary workforce. This can give an organization the flexibility to scale up or scale down quickly
when circumstances changeas we experienced
with the recent recession.
Recognize that experienced workers respond to
different incentives. They may not be as interested
in money and promotions as they are in flexibility,
opportunities to contribute to the organization in
different ways and other benefits tailored to meet
their needs.
Embracing a 50-plus workforce also means accepting a new reality. For example, demographic trends
suggest an increasing number of employeesas
many as one in threewill assume the role of family
caregiver as the percentage of the older population
increases. Employers need to be prepared to support their workers who are providing care to others.
They need to be open to the conversation, provide
flexible work schedules, embrace caregiving as the
new normal and keep caring for the caregivers. More
specifically:
Supervisors can talk to their employee caregivers about their dual responsibilities at work and at
home. Learn about existing resources to help them
maintain a healthy work/life balance.
Find ways to accommodate schedules and show
employee caregivers that you understand they are
juggling two full-time jobs: caregiving for a loved
one and working at your organization.
Embrace caregiving as the new normal. The
majority (74 percent) of adults with elder care

5 HR and the Aging Workforce: Two CEO Points of View

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responsibilities work outside the home. One in four

(22 percent) adults between ages 45 and 64 are
employed caregivers.
Check in regularly with your caregivers. Follow
these tips and resources to better equip them with
resources that can help. Keep being flexible and
responsive to their needs.
At AARP, we are committed to helping organizations
realize that age adds value, and produces far more
productive workers for longer periods of time. We
believe that anyone 50-plus who wants or needs to

work should be able to work. Its not only essential

to achieving financial security, it also benefits our
economy and society.
AARP is proud to be working with the Society for
Human Resource Management to bring fresh insights
to help people 50-plus make sense of and prosper
in this new and constantly changing world we live
in today. We cant change the demographic trends,
but we can change how we respond to them. By
embracing our aging workforce, we can turn these
disruptive demographics into productive possibilities
for employers and employees alike.

AARP Programs and Initiatives to Help Employers and 50-Plus Workers

Employee Programs and Initiatives

Employer Programs and Initiatives

Resources for Finding a Job or Starting a Business:

Articles, quizzes and advice from the experts on
everything work-related, from landing a job to starting a business. www.aarp.org/WorkResources

Employer Resource Center: Information, tips

and tools to help employers build an organization that values workers age 50-plus.
www.aarp.org/Employers

Life Reimagined for Work: Connects job seekers

and employers to the contacts and information they
need to succeed in todays ever-changing workplace.
http://epp.lifereimagined.org

Life Reimagined for Work Pledge Program:

Join more than 270 employers in pledging
to recruit across diverse age groups and to
value experienced workers.
http://epp.lifereimagined.org

Job Tips for 50-Plus Workers: Free resources to help

job seekers with resumes and cover letters, interviews, job search strategies, career planning, starting
a business and other topics. www.aarp.org/JobTips
Your Guide to Self-Employment: Information
about starting a business from AARP and
the U.S. Small Business Administration.
www.aarp.org/StartaBusiness

Staying Ahead of the Curve 2013 Study: Helps

employers make the most of the expertise and
capabilities of older workers. www.aarp.org/
StayingAheadoftheCurve2013
Workforce Profiles: Provides employers with data
about older workers at the state and national levels.
www.aarp.org/WorkforceProfiles

Work and Entrepreneurship Webinars: Features

AARPs upcoming and archived webinars.
www.aarp.org/MoneyWebinars
Find a Job: Search jobs from thousands of job sites,
newspapers, associations and company career sites.
www.aarp.org/jobs
14-0545

For questions and comments, please contact:

Fredric Emmert
Senior Speechwriter & Speakers Bureau Manager

Laura Bos
Manager, Financial Security/Education & Outreach

Society for Human Resource Management

1800 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone: 703-535-6480
E-mail: fred.emmert@shrm.org

AARP
601 E Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20049
Phone: (202) 434-2585
E-mail: lbos@aarp.org

HR and the Aging Workforce: Two CEO Points of View 6

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Dont Go It Alone. Get Answers Fast with Express Requests!

The Express Request resource is a self-service, online member benet that provides tools and
information on HR hot topics, a salary survey directory, state law developments, and seasonal HR issues.

Visit shrm.org/expressrequests to learn more!

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Inside SHRM

Body of Competency and Knowledge Details

Behavioral, Technical Skills for Certification
In September, SHRM released the
SHRM Body of Competency and
Knowledge, which contains the knowledge and behaviors on which the new
SHRM certifications are based.
The document provides the framework for the profession to continue the
evolution of HR professionals to strategic business leaders, said Henry G.
Hank Jackson, SHRMs president and
CEO. This is what the business community demands.
SHRM announced in May that it was
developing a new certification based on
the SHRM Competency Model.
The SHRM Body of Competency
and Knowledge details the nine behavioral and technical competencies on
which the SHRM Certified Professional

(SHRM-CP) and SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) certifications are based. It also serves as the basis
for the certification exams, the SHRM
Learning System, and the three-year
recertification process for the SHRMCP and SHRM-SCP.
SHRMs certifications cover people,
organization, workplace and strategy
operations, and incorporate the knowledge required to perform specific HR
activities. The SHRM Body of Competency and Knowledge was developed through a thorough process that
included an extensive literature review as
well as academic and employer research.
SHRM also recently announced its
Preferred Provider Program, which gives
organizations that offer HR-related

SHRM: EEOC Conciliations

Subject to Judicial Review
SHRM joined the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC) in
filing a friend-of-the-court brief
to the U.S. Supreme Court in
September in Mach Mining LLC
v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The question before the high
court is whether courts may
review the EEOCs pre-lawsuit
efforts to settle bias charges
under Title VII of the 1964 Civil
Rights Act. SHRM and the EEAC
are supporting the employers
position that the 7th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals erred in holding that the EEOCs efforts
to conciliate discrimination
charges on which the agency
has found probable cause are
not subject to judicial review.
Mach Mining LLC, an Illinois

employer, asked the Supreme

Court to step in because the
appellate courts decision
created a federal circuit split on
whether courts may review the
EEOCs conciliation efforts. The
7th Circuit is the only federal
appeals court to rule that Title
VII permits no judicial review.
Every other circuit to address
the issue has concluded that
the EEOCs efforts are subject
to judicial scrutiny, and most
have required the EEOC to prove
good-faith efforts to settle. The
EEOC cannot sue an employer
unless it is unable to reach a
conciliation agreement.
The case will be heard in
the 2014-15 term that began in
October.
Joanne Deschenaux, J.D.

education and training the opportunity

to award professional development credits without preapproval from SHRM
during a two-year period.
The SHRM Certification Recertification Requirements Handbook, which
explains the requirements and qualifying
activities for recertification, is now available. HR professionals with existing HR
generalist certifications in good standing
will be eligible for the new SHRM certifications on Jan. 5, 2015, by taking an
online tutorial. HR professionals seeking
certification for the first time can apply
for the certification exam beginning Jan.
5. The first exam period is scheduled for
May 1 through July 15, 2015.
For more information, see www
.shrmcertification.org.

Upcoming Events

December

1-2 SHRM Essentials of HR

Management, Alexandria, Va.

1-3 PHR/SPHR Certification

Preparation, Alexandria, Va.

4-5 Creating a Talent Acquisition

Strategy, Alexandria, Va.

4-5 Immigration Essentials for HR, Alexandria, Va.

8-9 Employee Engagement &
Relations, Alexandria, Va.

8-10 PHR/SPHR Certification

Preparation, Alexandria, Va.

11-12 Compensation Essentials, Alexandria, Va.

11-12 Employee Development, Alexandria, Va.

November 2014

1114 Inside shrm.indd 77

HR Magazine

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10/14/14 2:56 PM

Inside SHRM

China and India Events

Inform and Inspire
SHRM affiliates in India and China hosted separate events in September that
drew more than 1,100 HR practitioners and business leaders.
Nearly 400 people primarily from China, Hong Kong, Korea, Mongolia and Taiwan attended the SHRM China 2014 HR Summit in Beijing on
Sept. 23.
We focused on innovation, transformation, and the future of HR in the
Asia-Pacific region and especially in China, said Patrick Ran, Ph.D., GPHR,
chief operating officer for SHRM China. Ran said innovation is critical to
HR management in China due to continuing economic development and new
talent demands.
Keynoter Ian Ziskin, a former chief human resources officer and current
board member of SHRM affiliate HR People & Strategy, stressed HR leader
development and emphasized HRs role as orchestra conductor. Presenters
from SHRM, Fragomen International, LOTTE Group, China International
Intellectech Corp., Cisco Systems, IBM, Lenovo, Amazon, and Tsinghua and
Renmin universities shared trends, research findings, and practical experience on global talent mobility, organizational development and labor regulation changes in China.
The 2014 SHRM India Annual Conference & Expositionthe countrys largest HR eventwas held September 25-26 in Gurgaon. More than
700 delegates from India
and neighboring countries
attended.
The last two days have
seen a series of engaging and
fruitful discussions that have
captured the critical role of
HR in the rapidly evolving
and technology-led corporate landscape, said Achal
Khanna, CEO of SHRM
India. I am sure each one of
us has a lot of takeaways from
this conference.
Sessions addressing critical issues such as the future
of work, talent management
and leader development were
led by best-selling author Ron
Kaufman; influential professor Wayne F. Cascio; and
Ashok Alexander, former
director of the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundations India
operations.
Ashok Alexander
Roy Maurer
78

HR Magazine

1114 Inside shrm.indd 78

SHRM Board
of Directors
Chair
Bette J. Francis, SPHR
Wilmington Trust, Wealth Advisory Services
Chair Designate
Brian D. Silva, SPHR, GPHR
Fresenius Medical Care NA
President and CEO
Henry G. (Hank) Jackson, CPA
Society for Human Resource Management
Directors at Large
Lori O. Carlson
Rotary International & The Rotary
Foundation
Jeffrey M. (Jeff) Cava
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.
Jorge Consuegra
The Fearless Group
My-Chau Nguyen, CPA
SiriusXM Radio
Jennifer Pollino, CPA
Executive Coach and Consultant
Coretha M. Rushing, GPHR
Equifax Inc.
Jose Tomas, SPHR
WellPoint, Inc.
Scott Washburn, SPHR
Tree Top, Inc.
David Windley
IQTalent Partners

November 2014

10/14/14 2:56 PM

The SHRM Essentials

of HR Management

HR happens
every day
Updated with the latest HR developments, the
SHRM Essentials program not only helps you
spot potential HR issues; it gives you the tools
to manage them.

EVALUATE your current knowledge and gaps.

LEARN the materials by using a personalized
study plan, interactive software and case studies.

DEMONSTRATE your improved HR knowledge

by passing the post-test.

Available as an instructor-led or self-study

program. Learning options include:
Self-Study Program
SHRM Essentials of HR Management Seminars

2-day in person or 4-week virtual

SHRM Education Partner Programs
Organizational Training & Development Programs

HR Certified
Professionals
can earn up to 12.5
recertification credits!

14-0676

Learn more today at shrm.org/essentials/nov

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Whats New

HR Management Systems
Visier has released workforce analytics and workforce planning tools developed to help HR professionals connect their organizations people strategies to
the bottom line. Together, the Visier analytics tool and planning module deliver
accurate and up-to-date insights into an organizations workforce data.
(888) 277-9331 | www.visier.com | info@visier.com

Compensation and Benefits

Sun Life Financial Inc. has launched
Benefit Profile, a new decision-support
tool that helps brokers and employers design and deliver competitive
employee benefits plans. Benefit Profile
uses employer-specific demographics
and benchmark data to enable brokers
to design and recommend optimal benefits plans and enrollment strategies to
employers.
(800) 786-5433
www.sunlife.com
info@sunlife.com
CareConnect USA has released a free
mobile application designed to help
employees and family members find
good financial assistance sources. Called
Trusted Helplines, the app connects
users with pre-screened organizations
such as government agencies, legal centers and nonprofit outreach groups based
on geographic region.
(800) 291-1068
http://careconnectusa.org/trusted-helplines
info@careconnectusa.org

Compliance
Convercent has launched a new riskmanagement tool to help businesses prioritize their organizational compliance
and risk management efforts. The new
software package offers a single solution
for compliance tools and data collection.
It is designed to address organizations
most pressing risks and to allow compliance professionals to create effective
risk-management programs.
(866) 403-2713
www.convercent.com
info@convercent.com
80

Greatland has launched Yearli, a comprehensive W-2 and 1099 reporting software and online filing platform. With
Yearli, employers can choose the product
that most closely meets their W-2 and
1099 filing needs. The software, which
handles federal, state and recipient W-2
and 1099 reporting, is designed to help
businesses generate, file, print and mail
all related forms.
(800) 968-1099 | www.greatland.com
greatland@greatland.com

Health and Safety

HealthPlans.com has launched a redesigned website with new tools and information designed to help consumers make
informed decisions about purchasing
health insurance plans. The website features up-to-date health care news and
comprehensive information about the
federal health care reform law. The site is
continually updated to provide accurate
information about changes to regulations.
www.healthplans.com
partners@healthplans.com
Picwell has launched a health care recommendation engine that uses predictive
analytics to identify and rate consumer
health plans according to individual
needs. Picwell combines big data,
predictive analytics and behavioral economics to create a user-friendly interface
that integrates directly into health care
exchanges and benefits platforms.
www.picwell.com
jay.silverstein@picwell.com
FluFree.com, a website sponsored by
Passport Health, is now available. The
site aims to increase awareness of the

dangers of influenza and to assist families, individuals and employers in avoiding the perils of the flu. FluFree.com
contains information on flu vaccinations
and tips for businesses on how to run
successful flu clinics.
(844) 358-3733
www.flufree.com
info@flufree.com

Staffing
Monster Inc. has launched a new cloudbased candidate relationship management (CRM) tool to identify and reach
qualified job candidates with targeted
messages and custom recruitment campaigns. With Monster Cloud CRM,
recruiters can look across talent databases and run sophisticated e-mail
recruiting campaigns that present customized messages to job seekers.
(212) 351-7000
www.monster.com | info@monster.com

Training and Development

Harvard Business Publishing has
released Harvard ManageMentor, an
on-demand tool for leadership and management development. Through an innovative work-based approach, Harvard
ManageMentor guides users to apply
what they learn directly to their work.
Designed to equip managers and individuals with the skills required to address
common business challenges, Harvard
ManageMentor integrates an actionplanning process that prompts users to
work toward specific goals.
(212) 872-9280
www.harvardbusiness.org
corporate@harvardbusiness.org
Product manufacturers and developers
provide information for Whats New.
Inclusion in this sample of products does not
necessarily imply endorsement by SHRM or
HR Magazine. For an online directory of new
products and services by category, please see
the menu in the upper left corner at www.
shrm.org/whatsnew. For SHRMs complete
and searchable vendor directory of HR
products and services, visit www.shrm.org
/hrvendordirectory.

HR Magazine November 2014

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Yellow Pages

BENEFITS

Best Buy

Todays hottest technology comes

in all sizes. Tablets to TVs, DVDs to
MP3s, Best Buy has something
for everyone. Our gift cards and
personalized e-gift cards are
convenient rewards for you and fun
for your recipients. Give them what
they want.
No fees. No expiration dates. Just
happiness.
Visit corporategiftcards.bestbuy.com
or call 877-370-1234.

BENEFITS

Veterinary Pet Insurance

www.petinsurance.com/hrmag
877-280-8873
Veterinary Pet Insurance can
strengthen your companys benefits
package as one of the fastestgrowing, frequently requested
voluntary benefits. In fact, 65% of
pet owners want their employers
to offer pet insurance. There is no
cost to your company, no minimum
participation and no administrative
hassles. Plus, your employees
receive a discount.

PRE-EMPLOY TEST/SCREENING

HireRight

5151 California Avenue

Irvine, CA 92617
800-400-2761
949-428-5800
www.hireright.com
Trusted by more than one-third of
the Fortune 500, HireRight offers
comprehensive, on-demand solutions
for employment background screening,
drug screening, and employment
eligibility. With HireRights award-winning
screening solutions, HR professionals
can realize greater efficiencies,
faster and more reliable results, and
improved effectiveness in managing an
organization-wide screening program.
HireRight provides unique turnkey
integrations with top talent management
solutions and global reach to more than
200 countries and territories.

RELOCATION

AIReS

6 Penn Center West, Suite 200

Pittsburgh, PA 15276
1-888-828-8515, Local: 1-412-788-0461
Fax: 1-412-788-0245
www.aires.com
AIReS delivers best-in-class
relocation solutions and mobility
program management. Having
been recognized for organic
growth methodology, excellent
client/vendor partnerships, and
leading-edge proprietary technology,
and achieving global quality
certifications and registrations,
clients are assured a focus on
customer service excellence when
partnering with AIReS. For more
information, please visit www.aires.
com.

HR TECHNOLOGY

Oracle Human Capital

Management

800-633-0738
www.oracle.com/hcm
Oracles global, web-based,
application platform is designed for
organizations of every size, industry,
and region. Oracle Human Capital
Management has been the HCM
solution of choice for over 20 years
and has 18,000 customers in over
140 countries; 6,000 of whom are in
the cloud.

RELOCATION

Mayflower

One Mayflower Drive

Fenton, MO 63026
800-374-9781
OnPoint@unigroup.com
www.mayflower.com
Employers have trusted Mayflower
to relocate their employees for more
than 80 years. Mayflower gives
transferees the ability to book other
services like cleaning and home
network installation along with their
move. With Mayflowers OnPoint
Preferred packages, your employees
can also choose Mayflowers
Flagship Protection and identity theft
protection.

HR TECHNOLOGY

SuccessFactors

SAPs SuccessFactors solutions

help HR transform strategies into
business outcomes by maximizing
employee engagement. SAP is
the only vendor to combine global
and industry expertise with key
HR enablers: a modern user
experience, talent and core HR
apps, and analytics all designed to
make employees more committed,
involved, and productive.

RELOCATION

United Van Lines

One United Drive

Fenton, MO 63026
800-283-5743
StraightTalk@unigroup.com
www.unitedvanlines.com
United knows that your transferees
have a lot to think about when
they move. Help them get settled
faster with Uniteds exclusive
Straight Talk Advantage packages.
These packages allow your
employees to schedule maid service
and electronic assembly and
disassembly along with Uniteds
industry-leading moving services
and gold standard protection.

Company listings do not imply recommendation or referral by SHRM.

November 2014

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10/14/14 5:00 PM

Yellow Pages
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

HR
VENDOR
DIRECTORY
BizLibrary

285 Chesterfield Business Parkway

Chesterfield, MO 63005
888-432-3077
www.bizlibrary.com
BizLibrary is a leading provider
of learning & talent management
solutions designed for small &
mid-sized organizations. Our
award-winning online libraries
include streaming videos, interactive
e-learning courses, reference
materials and e-books. Our
cloud-hosted LMS, Performance
Management & Social Learning
applications help smaller
organizations streamline & simplify
important talent management
processes.

82

HR Magazine

1114 YellowPages.indd 82

Development Dimensions
International (DDI)

1225 Washington Pike

Bridgeville, PA 15017
800-933-4463
info@ddiworld.com
www.ddiworld.com
Virtual Mid-Level Leader
Assessment
DDIs latest assessment
breakthrough, Leader3 Ready,
drives better leadership decisions
and catalyzes the development of
the right leaders faster. This realistic,
virtual assessment gives you the
talent intelligence to identify, select,
and develop the right mid-level
leaders to emerging executives for
the role theyre in now and in the
future.

The Leadership Challenge, A

Wiley Brand

www.Leadershipchallenge.com
1-866-888-5159
leadership@wiley.com
The Leadership Challenge is based
on 30 years of research by Jim
Kouzes and Barry Posner, whose
books have sold more than two
million copies worldwide. Under
the guidance of their vision, weve
created pathways for everyone
from students to CEOs to get
started on their leadership journey.
Our leadership development
programs, evidence-based and valid
assessments (LPI) are all designed
with a single goal in mindto liberate
the leader within everyone.

SHRM HR Vendor Directory

1800 Duke Street

Alexandria, VA 22314
703-535-6289
Fax: 703-535-6468
hrvendordirectory@shrm.org
http://www.shrm.org/
hrvendordirectory
Find the right HR product or service
right away. The premier vendor
directory for HR professionals,
SHRMs HR Vendor Directory
highlights more than 3,000 of the
foremost companies offering
products and services to the human
resource profession. Post your
online listing on our site today.

November 2014

10/15/14 11:12 AM

HR Jobs

www.shrm.org/jobs

To place an ad contact the SHRM HRJobs team at 1.800.283.7476 x 5499, fax 703.535.6468, www.shrm.org/jobs
Positions Available

California

Cupertino
HR Info Systems Analyst

Apple Inc. has the following job

opportunity in Cupertino, CA:
HR Info Systems Analyst [Req
#9LF2FV]. Responsible for analysis and
config for Apples implementation of
Kronos worldwide and cross-function
communication. Travel required 25%.
Refer to Req # and mail resume to:
Apple Inc., ATTN: L.M.
1 Infinite Loop 104-1GM
Cupertino, CA 95014
Apple is an EOE/AA m/f/disability/vets.

Florida

St. Augustine
HRIS Coordinator

Ring Power Corporation

The HRIS Coordinator is responsible
for ensuring that the human resources
information systems are meeting the
needs of the company, making changes,

recommending new software and

handling vast amounts of data.
Job Requirements:
10 or more years of experience involving
HRIS system evaluation, implementation
and maintenance of HR-based
applications in a global environment.
Experienced HRIS functional subject
matter expert and/or HR/IT liaison.
Excellent MS Office skills and good
working knowledge of all programs in
the suite.
Professional in Human Resources (PHR)
certification is a plus.
Must apply online through www.
ringpower.com.

Illinois

Arlington Heights
Compensation Analyst

Make your mark in a rapidly growing

company! Paylocity is looking for a
Senior Compensation Analyst to lead
several key projects and provide strategic
compensation and benefits support. Find
out more: http://careers.paylocity.com/

Stay engaged,
informed, competitive.

index.cfm?fuseaction=83057.viewjobdetail
&CID=83057&JID=166000

New Mexico
Albuquerque
HR Director

Bohannan Huston Inc., a leader in

engineering, spatial data and advanced
technology, is currently seeking a
full-time Human Resources Director for
our Albuquerque, NM, office. Primary
duties include developing and executing
human resources strategy in support of
the overall business plan and strategic
direction of the organization. Candidates
must have a bachelors degree and a
minimum of 10 years of strategic HR
experience. Please visit our website at
www.bhinc.com for more information and
to apply online. EOE M/F/Veteran/Disabled

Virginia
Arlington
HR Director

The individual selected for this position

will manage the overall provision of
human resources services, policies and
programs for Capital Impact Partners
with a major emphasis on designing and
implementing strategies that are aimed
at improving organizational effectiveness
and individual performance.
Because many of the companys human
resource-related services and benefits
are currently delivered by a single thirdparty service provider, this individual will
also manage the provision of services
by the service provider, as well as a
transition of a substantial portion of those
services to internal resources and/or
third-party service providers. Services
currently provided by the service provider
include recruitment and termination
services, training (e.g., Myers-Briggs
and Maximizing Performance), payroll
processing, benefits administration, and
support for workers compensationrelated audit issues. Developing and
implementing a transition plan for all
or a portion of these services over a
reasonable period of time will be critical
to the role.

Pennsylvania
Warminster
HR Director

The Centennial School District in

Warminster, PA, with enrollment of
5,700 students and a budget of $105
million, is seeking a dynamic, innovative
individual to serve as Director of Human
Resources. This position coordinates
and effectively manages comprehensive
benefits administration, personnel
management and labor relations. The
Director of Human Resources leads
general services that foster a culture that
emphasizes commitment, empowerment,
productivity and quality through the
recruitment, development, management
and retention of a superior workforce.
The Director of Human Resources is also
responsible for coordinating, developing
and implementing district employment
procedures as well as school district
policies.
The Director of Human Resources works
closely with the Chief Financial Officer
in the collective bargaining process for
the teachers union as well as various
other employment groups in the district.
The Director of Human Resources also
collaborates with the Director of Teaching
and Learning to effectively implement
supervision and support for various
employee groups in the district.
Additionally, this position is responsible
for recruitment, interviewing and
compliance issues with the ADA, the
FMLA, workers compensation, workplace
safety, labor relations and other human
resource regulations.
Furthermore, the successful candidate
will possess comprehensive knowledge
of applicable federal and state laws,
with knowledge of Pennsylvania school
code and law, as well as exceptional
interpersonal, verbal and written
communication skills.
Minimum Qualifications:
Masters degree in human resources or
other related field deemed suitable.
Three to five (3-5) years of experience
as an administrator within a human
resources department.
Experience in K-12 public school
education preferred.
Apply online: https://centennialpa.tedk12.
com/hire/ViewJob.aspx?JobID=380

AS LITTLE AS
$3.89 PER
ISSUE

Visit shrm.org/subscribe
November 2014

1114 HR Jobs.indd 83

HR Magazine

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Member Spotlight

Tiffany Cardwell, PHR

VP, Human Resources,

Signature Healthcares rehab segment

iffany Cardwell didnt speak English when she

arrived in the U.S. At 8 years old, the native of the
Philippines struggled to understand her teachers
instructions in class.
But she met the challenge head-on. By the end of the year,
she was on the honor roll. Ultimately, she received a bachelors degree in English and a masters in human resources
and industrial relations with a concentration in global HR
management.
Cardwells early struggle with language taught her drive
and determinationskills that she has applied throughout
her two-decade career in domestic and international HR. The
experience helped her to be more understanding of what
others are going through as well.
Cardwell is president of the Louisville, Ky., chapter of the
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). She has
taught the SHRM Essentials of HR Management class and is a
member of SHRMs Advocacy Team, which helps HR professionals make their voices heard on public-policy issues affecting the workplace.

What motivates you?

I am motivated by a challenging role and the opportunity
to make a difference in someones life. When I see a poor
performer turn around and become a leader in the organization, it is truly a priceless moment. Its rewarding to know that
I had some impact on that persons success.

Whats the best advice youve ever

been given?

What special interests outside HR do

you have?
I participate in various boards and philanthropies. I am never
satisfied with one activity a week. I love being on the go and
living every day to its fullest.

What advice would you give those

entering HR today?
I would definitely advise anyone entering HR to join SHRM,
as well as other HR organizations both locally and nationally.
Networking is the key to making sure you have the resources
to turn to for advice or just validation that the practices your
company is using are appropriate.

84

PHOTOGRAPH BY RANDY MCCAFFERY FOR HR MAGAZINE

Treat people with respect, and they will do the same. This
came from one of my mentors who gave me the opportunity to grow in my career and provided support and
encouragement.

HR Magazine November
Month 00002014

1114 Member spotlight.indd 84

10/14/14 4:48 PM

MAKE AN IMPACT:
DONATE TO THE SHRM FOUNDATION

Your donation to the SHRM Foundation delivers a scholarship

to a future leader, advances HR research, publishes educational
reports and briefings, produces case study DVDs, and moves
thought leadership forward.
With the support of donors like you:

Dr. Sandy Wayne was able to study how to achieve

fairness when employees are treated differently.

Ivette Mendez Dupuis received a Meisinger Fellowship

for graduate study.

Dr. David Chenoweth wrote and published two

Foundation reports on worksite wellness.

MAKE AN IMPACT AT
shrmfoundation.org/impact

shrmfoundation@shrm.org 703.535.6020
The SHRM Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit affiliate of the Society for
Human Resource Management (SHRM) and is supported by thousands
of tax-deductible gifts from those who care about the future of HR.

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10/9/14

But tomorrow, it may snow.

The winds of change have never been this strong. In the economy. Personal savings. Workforce
demographics. Politics. And the focus on benets has never been this great. Unum is eminently
qualied to provide the guidance, the foresight, the insight and the benets to help keep you
and your employees prepared and protected. No matter which way the winds blow. To learn
more about what Unum can do for you, visit Unum.com/weathervane.
DISABILITY LIFE ACCIDENT CRITICAL ILLNESS HOSPITAL INDEMNITY DENTAL
2014 Unum Group. All rights reserved. Unum is a registered trademark and marketing brand of Unum Group and its
insuring subsidiaries. Insurance products are underwritten by the subsidiaries of Unum Group. NS14-005

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