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Monthly Archives: October 2015

A Few Thoughts on Vacation (and White Space) After 7 Days in Dubai

30 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by Rory C. Trotter Jr in Benefits, Personal Development

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Tags

hr, human resources

A group photo in Dubai

A group photo in Dubai

…So I recently returned from a 7-day vacation in Dubai (not including the 24+ hours spent in flight roundtrip). It was the longest vacation I’ve taken in at least a decade, I spent it with my closest friends… and because of the 9-hour time differential and spotty network access, for much of that time I was truly ‘unplugged’ and effectively removed from day-to-day work.

…Much has been written about the benefits of time off, and some of the executives I respect most in the world swear by the powerful rejuvenating effects of white space. Ergo, as an HR pro and Benefits Manager I found myself reflecting on these promulgations upon my return to the U.S. A few thoughts on the pros/cons of extended time away:

1. It helped me recognize the importance of sleep.

I’d been getting by on just 5-6 hours a night for so long that I’d forgotten how much more highly I function on 8-9 hours of uninterrupted rest. When I get a full night’s sleep I exercise better judgment, am more articulate, more agreeable, and – perhaps most importantly – more disciplined and less prone to unforced errors. With no early morning obligations (and a set of highly effective hotel blackout curtains), for a week straight I slept with no alarm clock and let my body wake me up. And since coming back to work (and the states) I’ve continued those habits because I’ve felt so much better when doing so.

2. The time off helped me break bad habits.

Over time we all fall into routines, and I am as guilty as anyone. Some of my habits around diet, work hours, work style, and even morning and night time rituals were sub-optimal, and stepping away from those habits allowed me to identify opportunities for growth and change accordingly.

3. The time away helped me to think more strategically about the HR function.

As we become comfortable in our roles, sometimes we become overly focused on tactical, short term goals as opposed to taking a longer term view. A greater focus starts to be placed on satisfying the expectations of our key stakeholders and constituencies in the present as opposed to thinking about how we can really make a lasting impact. Getting some distance from work helped me think about what I can do differently to affect real changes

But on the downside…

4. I have never had such a massive backlog of emails in my career.

Fortunately, I work with a great team that made sure anything of real urgency was addressed in my absence. But it still took quite a while to catch up…

5. When I got back, I really needed a few days to recover from my vacation, but returned immediately to work.

Next time I will structure that a bit differently…

^To the above point, it’s approaching end of day Friday, so I am going to now get some much needed rest. 🙂

Best,

Rory

 

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The Week in HR (10.9.2015)

09 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by Rory C. Trotter Jr in The Week in HR

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

hr, human resources, Laurie Ruettimann, Margaret O'Hanlon, Tim Sackett

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It’s Friday, so as always here are a few articles you should be reading:

  1. Laurie Ruettimann has a solid 4-part series up on her site about the core components of a great company culture here. The whole series – which cites continuity, curation, collaboration, and creativity as must have fixture in a great culture – is worth reading in its entirety… but I want to specifically highlight the post outlining the case for collaboration. It’s a great read because it touches on the importance of trusting and including people across demographic and experiential lines in discussions and decision making processes. This because the best teams trust and (on a larger level organizations) communicate effectively as a group, leveraging one another’s strengths while respecting differences. Ergo, whether focusing on building a stronger culture, or just looking to raise the water level around performance, collaboration has to be a table stakes requirement.

 

  1. Margaret O’Hanlon has a great piece on Compensation Café laying out the value proposition for pay transparency. I’ve gone back and forth on this one over the years (I think it really depends), and I think there are some good arguments on both sides of the debate… but I’m sharing this piece because I think the point made in it – that transparency limits compression issues and in the long run controls salary cost – is a powerful one. When an organization has to defend pay inequity, it is less likely to make offers that create compression issues on the basis that it will ultimately have to correct for them. Interesting idea… check out the full post here and please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

 

  1. Tim Sackett reminds readers of one of the great wisdoms in recruiting – never give a hiring manager just one candidate – even if he or she is a nearly perfect fit. As human beings, when there is only one option we often tend to assume there’s something wrong with it. As HR pros one way we should look to overcome this issue is by presenting our hiring managers/teams with a slate of prospective talent (even if the best choice is obvious). Old but good tip…

Happy Friday,

Rory

Infographic Thursday: Paid Maternity Leave

08 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by Rory C. Trotter Jr in Benefits, Infographic Thursday

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

fmla, hr, human resources, maternity leave, parental leave

Check out today’s infographic from Women && Tech highlighting differences in maternity leave around the globe. The U.S is one of only a handful of countries not to offer mandatory paid leave (mothers are limited to unpaid leave via the FMLA and whatever employers choose to offer)… and the more I think about the reasons behind why this is, the more I am inclined to believe a change is necessary. Without going too far down any political rabbit holes… I think it’s nevertheless kosher to say that being at the bottom of this list isn’t okay, right?

…Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below, and as always if you like this infographic then follow Women && Tech on Twitter here (and the creator of the infographic – Designer and Illustrator Ivonne Karamoy – on Twitter here).

WomenAndTech_MaternityLeaveInfographic

Happy Thursday,

Rory

The Importance of Carefully Managing Total Rewards Communication

05 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by Rory C. Trotter Jr in Benefits, Compensation

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

benefits, communication, compensation, total rewards

Okay… so Harvard Business Review has a great article about compensation up here. In it, Dave Smith (Chief Product Officer at Payscale) points out that most people believe they are underpaid… and that even employees paid above market believe they’re underpaid more than a third of the time. Check out the below chart (from the article):

W150921_SMITH_WHATWE^So what we see here is that only people that are paid below market have an accurate handle on their compensation. But why is this important, you ask? From the piece:

…perceptions about pay play a significant role in an employee’s desire to leave your company. This may sound obvious, but our survey showed that “intent to leave” decreased in relation to how favorable an employee felt about their pay. For example, 60% of employees who perceived they were underpaid said they intended to leave, compared to only 39% of those who perceived they were overpaid. The bottom line is this: if you don’t communicate to your employees that they are being paid fairly compared to their talent market, they may leave.

and:

We also found that this type of communication becomes even more vital in any position that pays more than $85,000 per year — so the intent to leave tends to be more pronounced for professionals who are paid over this amount.

and finally:

…if an employer pays lower than the market average for a position, but communicates clearly about the reasons for the smaller paycheck, 82% of employees we surveyed still felt satisfied with their work.

^Okay, so we know three things:

  1. If your employees don’t believe that they are paid fairly they will leave (and this is especially true of HCEs/your top performers).
  2. Absent any communication to the contrary, most of your employees will believe they are underpaid even if they aren’t.
  3. If you are transparent about the rationale behind your pay policies, most employees are okay with their comp even if they are under market.

Given the above, what’s the argument for shying away from pay transparency again? I have heard several, but think that ultimately communication around the value of a total comp package to employees has to be table stakes. Actually, I would take it a step further on focus on delivering total rewards statements. Companies should be communicating to their employees the total value of their comp packages – total cash, yes… but also retirement income, active healthcare, active welfare, and PTO. And I’m not saying that this means publishing all colleague salaries, supplementary executive benefits etc. But I do think having an honest conversation about how rich a package is relative to the market – and the rationale behind being under market if that’s the case – is likely to improve engagement outcomes as opposed to demoralizing talent as the conventional wisdom (favoring black box comp management) suggests.

…The flip side of this is that companies need to be mindful of how policies that disparately impact populations will be received when socialized, though. Do you have a separate PTO/leave/bonus/employer match policy for your key contributors/HCEs/highest performing BU? There may be good reasons for it… but – even assuming no legal/compliance issues – rolling out any enhancements to total rewards that only benefit a fraction of one’s population in a less than thoughtful way can do more to harm engagement than making no changes to a policy at all. If it doesn’t benefit everyone, it’s important to think through talking points prior to rollout.

Monday evening thought stream…

Best,

Rory

The Week in HR (10.2.2015)

02 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by Rory C. Trotter Jr in The Week in HR

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Ben Olds, Fast Company, Fistful of Talent, hbr, hr, human resources, Lisa Evans, Nicole Torres

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I can hardly believe it’s Friday again! Without further delay, here are some of the week’s best articles:

  1. Nicole Torres has a great article up on HBR wherein she looks at research examining the causal factors behind generosity (and its prevalence). The study showed that doing something that benefits yourself over others (which people are five times as likely to do when dealing with a total stranger) activates the reward center of the brain, while doing something more selfless activates the empathy section of the brain. What I found especially interesting, however, was that in some cases both areas of the brain lit up at once. This suggested that there was some sort of loop/calculation going on in the brain wherein subjects were weighing the value of taking the selfish action against the value of taking the more generous one. The researchers ultimately determined that generosity being a product of nature versus nurture was a complex topic, but hypothesized that one can make themselves more prone to be giving by stopping to consider others feelings before acting (lighting up the empathy center of the brain). Not necessarily rocket science, I know, but a powerful look into the science behind selflessness. Check out the full article here, and remember to treat people well this weekend (and, well, always).

 

  1. Lisa Evans has an interesting piece up on Fast Company that examines the parallels between good parenting and good management. I don’t have children, but nevertheless found the article entertaining and intuitive. The points about knowing when to negotiate, set boundaries, offer incentives, and focus on positive feedback are all straight out of management 101 and – apparently – parenting 101 as well. Check out Lisa’s piece here, and if you like it then consider reading the book that inspired the article (By Ian Durston, interviewed in the article) here.

 

  1. Pharmaceuticals HR Pro Ben Olds has a solid post up on Fistful of Talent about strategy. He lays out the case for what being a strategic thinker is and isn’t, then gives some really grounded examples outlining how you can become better at it. If you’ve ever struggled with what it means to “think strategically” then this is the article for you. I loved it because it caused me to step back and think about some areas in my own life (personally and professionally) that I’m a little too tactical. Check the piece out here and let me know if you derived the same value in the comments section below.

Happy Friday,

Rory

Infographic Thursday: Compensation and Salary Trends

01 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by Rory C. Trotter Jr in Infographic Thursday

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

compensation, hr, human resources

Check out this great infographic from Adecco highlighting some of the biggest salary trends from 2015. Looking at popular jobs in STEM, marketing, and industrial fields, I found it extremely informative. Whether you’re struggling with hiring top talent or just curious, check out today’s infographic below. And as always, if you like it then follow its author on Twitter here.

salary-trends-industrial-stem-creative-marketing

Happy Thursday,

Rory

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