Six Ways to Encourage Employees to Set Work-Personal Life Boundaries

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Most everyone knows what the “hustle” is. It’s been a part of work culture since the early 19th century when the word was first used to mean “gumption” or “hard work.” Depending on the context, hustle may be a virtue, the antithesis of laziness, or a necessity, the extra effort one must perform to overcome bad luck, oppression, or structural barriers. 

In this line of thinking, if you can’t get ahead, it’s your own fault, and you just need to work harder. You can be or do anything you want, as long as you’re willing to put in the effort. It’s what we tell our kids so they can achieve the “American Dream”—you’ve got to work hard to get good grades to get into an elite school to get a lucrative job. In the workplace, hustle means showing how dedicated you are to the organization by being the hardest worker. You’re the first one in the office and the last one to leave. You take calls and check email while on vacation. Even when you’re sick, you’re reachable.

Sometimes all that hard work pays off. Some go-getters get promotions and raises. But success stories notwithstanding, burning the midnight oil doesn’t actually increase productivity. In 2019, CNBC shared a Stanford survey showing that “productivity per hour decline(s) sharply when a person works more than 50 hours a week.” 

But hustle can hasten burnout. A 2018 Deloitte survey showed that 77% of employees have experienced burnout in the workplace and nearly 70% of them feel like their employer isn’t doing enough to prevent it. Among the leading causes cited were working long hours or over weekends and having to meet unrealistic expectations.

If you’ve conducted job interviews recently, you probably know that many job seekers today have little love for hustle culture. Instead, they want the freedom at work to set boundaries so getting their jobs done doesn’t encroach on their lives outside of work. This makes good business sense too. According to Harvard Business Review, when employers support work-life balance, they promote productivity, reduce turnover, improve employee health, and boost diversity.

If you want to encourage better work and home boundaries for your employees but are wondering how to go about it, we have some tips to get you started: 

Start at the top. Encourage your managers to come and go at reasonable times and take days off. Discourage making calls or sending emails after regular working hours. Ensure that leaders are taking breaks throughout the day and are encouraging their employees to do so as well.

Focus on outcomes. If possible, set substantive goals with your employees rather than focusing on the number of hours they’re working. Train managers how to evaluate performance based on objective measurements of productivity and efficiency. It’s the good work that matters, not the time spent at a workstation, the number of keystrokes logged, or the appearance of busyness. Added bonus: your managers will be better able to manage their time and set healthy boundaries around their work if they don’t feel compelled to monitor their direct reports’ every working moment.

Ensure proper staffing and workload. Set expectations around the amount of work each employee should be able to complete in a standard workday. Share those expectations with the team and get their input on what a reasonable workload should look like and whether they’re feeling underworked or overworked. If you’re understaffed, you may need to assign extra work to employees, but make sure no one’s plate gets so full they’re at risk of burnout. Reward the extra effort and watch for signs of low morale.

Be flexible. As you are able, give employees the ability to flex their schedule to take care of personal business during the workday without jumping through a lot of hoops. Use a shared calendar so everyone knows who is available and when. If your workplace has a variety of shifts, consider offering employees the ability to work hours across different shifts to find flexibility.

Revisit paid time off (PTO) options. Review what you currently offer and dig into why you have the PTO plans you do. Make sure you’re offering at least as much as your competitors (if at all possible). In addition to paid time off for vacation and illness, consider offering paid time off for specific activities like volunteering.  

Talk with your employees. Ask them how they feel about their workload, whether they currently have healthy boundaries between their life at home and life at work, and what would help them better attend to their personal obligations. Survey them about what’s causing them the most stress at work and what work-related matters may be keeping them up at night. Keep an open discussion going. 

You can learn more about good management practices, preventing burnout, PTO, and other topics discussed here on the platform. 

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What You Need to Know About Lactation Accommodations

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Breastfeeding employees who are returning to work usually know how much extra work pumping is going to be. They’ve thought about the bulky pump and its multiple attachments, how they can bring it into and out of the workplace inconspicuously, whether they’ll have time and a private spot to express milk, and where they’ll be able to store the equipment and their milk.

Employers can ease their minds and make their return to the workplace a less stressful experience by being thoughtful about the lactation accommodations they will provide. Lactation accommodations may feel complicated, but the requirements are actually fairly straightforward. Here are the basics you need to know.

Federal Law

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires all employers to provide reasonable break time and a private place that is not a bathroom for employees to express breast milk during work hours for one year after their child’s birth.

This time doesn’t have to be paid except to the extent that it runs concurrently with other paid break time. For example, if an employee would normally get a 15-minute paid break, but needs 30 minutes to pump, the first 15 minutes would be paid while the second 15 minutes could be unpaid. Note, however, that you shouldn’t be any stricter about timing for an employee taking a lactation break than you would be with an employee taking a regular break. So, if you actually allow people to take 20-minute paid breaks (even if your policy says 15), lactation breaks should be afforded the same leeway.

Employers that have fewer than 50 employees don’t have to provide these accommodations if doing so would be an undue hardship—this means it would cause significant difficulty or expense, which is a high threshold to reach. Federal law also prohibits retaliating against employees for taking lactation breaks.

Recent Updates to Federal Law

Enacted this past December, the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act, or PUMP Act, expands the current federal requirements to now cover exempt employees as well as nonexempt employees. This law applies to employers of all sizes but (still) has an exception for employers with fewer than 50 employees if they can show that providing accommodations would cause an undue hardship.

Along with the PUMP Act, Congress also passed the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. As a result, starting in June of 2023, employers with 15 or more employees will need to accommodate employees’ and applicants’ known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions unless it would create an undue hardship. Employers also cannot take any adverse action against an employee or applicant for requesting or using an accommodation.

Previously under federal law, employers usually only had to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant employees and applicants if they also provided accommodations to other employees who were similar in their ability or inability to work due to a disability.

State and Local Laws

Many state and local laws offer protections to lactating employees that go above and beyond what is required by federal law. For instance, a common requirement is that employers provide lactation breaks for longer than one year. Some states set an age limit at two or three years, while others don’t set a maximum age at all. And at least two states have provisions requiring lactation breaks to be paid.

A growing number of states also have broad pregnant workers’ fairness laws. These laws generally entitle employees to pregnancy-related accommodations, such as seating, lifting restrictions, more frequent breaks, and flexible schedules, unless the accommodation would cause the employer an undue hardship. Employers generally can’t require a doctor’s note to prove that the pregnant employee needs these accommodations.

Lactation Break Logistics

Here are some requirements and best practices that we recommend as the minimum standard for creating a supportive environment for lactating employees:

  • Provide a private, clean, and secure space. A private room, separate from a bathroom, should be designated for employees to express milk (this doesn’t have to be the only thing the space is used for, though lactation should be given priority). This room should have a comfortable chair, a flat surface for the pump, and an electrical outlet. The room should also have a lock and be free from interruptions. The Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health offers solutions for employers that are short on space.
  • Ensure access to refrigeration. An employee’s milk will need to be refrigerated until they go home. Make sure they have access to a refrigerator for this purpose, located close to the pumping room, if possible. If you can’t provide a separate fridge that is convenient for the lactating employee, they must be allowed to use a communal fridge for storage.
  • Offer flexible break time. Employees need time to express milk, and this time needs to be provided on a schedule that works best for them. The frequency and duration of lactation breaks will vary depending on the employee and can change over time. Employers can generally expect an employee to need two or three lactation breaks in an eight-hour workday and for each break to last around 30 minutes. Expressing milk usually takes 15 to 20 minutes—additional time is needed to set up the pump before and clean the pump attachments after.
  • Educate and support. Share your lactation policies and procedures with employees. The employee handbook is a good place to do this. If an employee needs assistance overcoming any obstacles to pumping at work, be prepared to answer questions and propose solutions.
  • Remember that remote workers need time too. Remote workers who are lactating will also need time to pump or breastfeed. Make sure they have the same schedule flexibility as those who are in the workplace.

Policies

If needed, create or revise your current policies on breastfeeding and expressing milk in the workplace. A well-crafted policy will be specific to your workplace, and tell employees about:

  • The flexibility allowed in their work schedules for lactation
  • The designated location or locations they can use to pump
  • Where the employee can store their breast milk
  • Whether they have the option of continuing to work while pumping
  • Whether any part of their lactation breaks will be paid (obviously, if they do continue to work while pumping, that time must be paid)

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What a Good Enough Hiring Process Looks Like

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The last few years have proved challenging for employers trying to fill positions. Low unemployment, among other factors, made the job market much more friendly to jobseekers than to employers keen to hire them. In this highly competitive environment, some organizations upgraded their compensation packages or experimented with other attractive perks, hoping to stand out as the best. Others re-examined their recruitment and hiring processes or sought help from consultants or vendors. Struggling employers may have been tempted to look for a “magic bullet,” that one thing sure to get them more candidates.

Both the desire to offer a great recruiting experience and the eagerness to find a magic bullet are understandable given the state of the labor market. But both have their disadvantages when it comes to recruitment.

Recruitment is not just one thing—it involves a lot of moving parts and relies on multiple people within the organization. A single-minded focus on being the best can lead to unrealistic goals and misaligned expectations. It can also zero in on one part of the process at the expense of others. Using the best technology won’t by itself solve discriminatory hiring practices. First-rate recruiters can’t by themselves elevate subpar hiring managers. Software that lets people apply for jobs via a text message may sound super cool, but it’s not going to be suitable for every kind of industry or brand.

The good news is that an effective recruitment process doesn’t need to be the best or magical or otherwise super flashy. It just needs to be good enough to fill your open positions.

As a standard, good enough can get a bad rap both in the business world and in American culture generally. Many of us want to be the best. Striving to be “the best” is ingrained in our everyday lives, after all. Theme songs from The Karate Kid to Pokémon evoke that feeling. You probably saw more than a few “Best of 2022” lists last month. When we talk about behaviors and procedures we recommend, we call them “best practices.”

But being the best is rarely necessary. Thinking in terms of good enough helps you set realistic goals that are grounded in the real needs of your organization. With a good enough approach to recruiting, you can focus on what you actually need to accomplish.

Let’s examine what good enough looks like in the four basic parts of any recruitment process: the Need, the Search, the Selection, and the Onboarding. What’s good enough for your organization will depend somewhat on the particulars of your situation, but the principles and practices below should help get you started.

The Need

You have an open position—maybe it’s new, maybe it’s a replacement. Regardless, you need to bring someone into your organization. Being good enough at this stage means that those involved in the hiring process (e.g., the recruiters and the hiring manager) can effectively discuss the need prior to beginning the search for candidates. For that, they’ll need a job description, information about what kind of person they’re looking for, and a salary range. Determine who should be bringing what information to the table. After discussing the need, create a job posting. This job posting serves as the source of truth so you can find the right candidates.

The Search

Now begins the actual search. Finding your candidates can feel like one of the hardest parts of recruitment. Good enough at this stage involves sharing the job posting and training interviewers how to compare the incoming candidates to the need, of course, but it also means finding and implementing ways to make the search easier and smoother for everyone. Software can help a lot here, but more important are good practices. Consider what extra work you may be giving to yourself and your prospective applicants. Are applicants required to submit a resume and then manually enter the information on their resume into the system? Are they required to draft and submit cover letters when those letters aren’t necessary or even part of the decision-making process?

The Selection

Chances are you’re not going to be able to pick the best of all possible employees. You might not even have a candidate who checks every box. But you don’t need the perfect candidate; you need someone who can do the job well enough and can grow in the position.

A good selection process starts with training hiring managers on how to review applications, conduct interviews, and evaluate the candidates in a fair, equitable, and compliant manner. It involves providing regular and reasonable updates to your candidates and following up with them when you say you will. It includes extending an offer and providing the selected candidate with a reasonable amount of time to consider it. The process concludes when a candidate accepts your offer.  

The Onboarding

The onboarding experience finalizes a new hire’s first impression of the company. A bad experience can cause the new employee to regret accepting the offer and may prompt them to quit at the first opportunity. A great experience, however, can set the stage for a long-lasting relationship.

Fortunately, onboarding doesn’t need to be perfect to be great. The first few weeks on the job are going to feel overwhelming. The new hire isn’t going to remember everything they learned.

Good enough onboarding keeps the process simple, straightforward, and consistent. Set up time for the new hire to complete the necessary paperwork, meet coworkers, read the employee handbook, and complete any training. Time between onboarding meetings and tasks—allowing them to process the information and experiences—should also be built in.

Conclusion

Good enough isn’t about doing the minimum or having the latest shiny new tech; it’s about doing what’s necessary to get the results you want. It means understanding the various pieces of the recruitment and hiring process, setting realistic expectations for yourself and your applicants, and keeping things in perspective as you move from step to step.

For job applicants, candidates, and employees, a consistently good recruitment and hiring process from start to finish is a much better experience than one that is the “best” in one or two areas, but mediocre or subpar in others.

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Three Ways to Make Holidays More Inclusive

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The office holiday party is a time-honored tradition: readers of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol may remember the Christmas party hosted by Ebenezer Scrooge’s old boss, Nigel Fezziwig. While the look and feel of these end-of-year holiday parties have changed since the 1840s, they remain a popular part of the American office culture.

While it’s less common today for companies to host “Christmas parties,” office festivities continue to bear the trappings of that holiday. Christmas trees, wreaths, gifts, and Santa Claus still make appearances in workplace decorations and celebrations.

Is this an issue? It depends. While some people view these symbols as more secular than religious, not everyone sees them that way. Moreover, not every person who follows a particular religion wants to see images and practices associated with their religion brought into the workplace. On the other hand, many employees welcome holiday celebrations at work that honor their own religion and those of their coworkers. 

Given diverse religious views and declining rates of religiosity in the United States, employers who would like to be inclusive around the holidays may need to do more than name the year-end holiday party something neutral. Here are three steps to get you started. 

1. Ask Your Employees What They Want

First and foremost, survey your employees to find out which holidays they would like to see observed and their thoughts on what observance in the workplace should look like. Observing a holiday doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll close up shop for the day, and you may want to make this clear to employees when asking for their preferences. When considering their suggestions, make sure you’re treating everyone equitably. Ending up with decorations related to some holidays but not others may be fine if that reflects everyone’s wishes, whereas allowing people of one religion but not another to take paid time off to attend a worship service could lead to claims of discrimination.

2. Celebrate Occasions Throughout the Year

Once you’ve found out how your employees want to observe and celebrate holidays, mark the company calendar. You might, for example, encourage employees to share how and why they observe certain holidays with colleagues on a general Slack channel or through a company newsletter. Allowing for time and space to talk about religious practices—both celebratory and somber—helps employees understand why a coworker may be fasting, lighting candles, praying during the workday, wearing special attire, or taking time away from work. Observing multiple holidays throughout the year also makes it less likely that an end-of-year party will feel exclusionary.

3. Keep Year-End Company Celebrations Separate from Holiday Observances

Even with ongoing observances, many of your employees may expect some sort of celebration in December. You can avoid people feeling excluded by focusing your celebration on the accomplishments of your employees and the company during the past year, rather than making it about the holidays.

Inclusion doesn’t take a break at the holidays. On the contrary, the holidays, whatever time of year, present a great opportunity to recognize, celebrate, have fun, and help make employees feel that they belong.

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What Employers Should Know About Trauma in the Workplace

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2008 was a difficult year. The Great Recession was underway. People lived in a constant state of worry. In workplaces across the country, employees informally gathered after official meetings, trying to decipher what their leaders had shared and what information they’d held back. If the larger implications of the recession were abstract and theoretical, the possibility of layoffs felt very real.

If you worked during this time and didn’t lose your job, you probably had friends and acquaintances who did. Your leaders may have done their best to keep you updated as you pondered the fate of your employment, but that didn’t stop the whispered discussions in the hallways and bathrooms. You may have wondered what the real story was, when decisions would be made, and what would happen to your livelihood. It was a time when people were expected to continue to work as they had before—or put in even more effort—all while raises and benefits were on the chopping block.

In the aftermath, some people felt pressured to pretend nothing remarkable had happened. Their leaders wanted them to carry on, push forward, and, most importantly, not talk about the hard business decisions that were made or the pain those decisions caused. The struggle was real, but that stark reality wasn’t acknowledged out in the open. As a result, both those who lost their jobs and those who didn’t felt anxious, confused, insecure, and distrustful.

At the time, you might not have referred to the mere prospect of a layoff as a “traumatic event.” But it was. Trauma is an emotional response to a distressing experience. And that recession was most definitely distressing. It caused deep and widespread psychological harm. It affected people’s mental health at a time when society took mental health much less seriously than it does now.

When a distressing event occurs in or affects the workplace, leaders need to be ready and able to support their employees before, during, and after the event. That goes whether the event has its source in the workplace—like a layoff, acquisition, or serious workplace injury or death—or impacts the workplace from the outside—like a pandemic, natural disaster, or act of violence.

Responding to traumatic events poorly (or not at all) can make a bad situation much worse. In fact, an inadequate response to trauma can itself become a source of additional distress.

Let’s examine how you can prepare your workplace to weather a traumatic event, support your employees throughout its duration, and help them process their emotions in the aftermath.

Preparing for Traumatic Events

First, you must build trust with your employees before things get bad. If you don’t start from a place of trust before something bad happens, it will be difficult to establish it when you are in the middle of a stressful, chaotic, and challenging situation. To create relationships built in trust, act with transparency, clarity, and consistency. Demonstrate that you care personally for your people. Show them the trust that you want them to show you.

Second, plan for trauma. You may already have plans in the event of emergencies, disasters, or major business disruptions. Make sure those plans account for the emotional state of employees during and after the event. Train managers to recognize signs of distress and what’s in (and not in) their power to manage. Emphasize the importance of transparency, clarity, and consistency. You don’t want to make matters worse by acting chaotically.

Third, establish a communication plan for emergency situations. Employees should know where to go for important, up-to-date information. Leaders should know who will be involved in these communications—who initiates, who reviews, and when and how the communication is shared with employees.

Fourth, practice. Review your plans and run through them on a regular basis so leaders understand their role. Share these plans with your employees as appropriate. Not everyone will read them, but putting in the effort will gain you some trust with many employees.

Navigating Traumatic Events

We all know you can plan and plan and plan and plan, but when a moment of crisis comes, you begin to panic. That’s okay. Take a moment to breathe and calm yourself. Bring your response team together and get organized. Outline what needs to happen, including communications that should go out to employees. Make sure everyone is on the same page.

You will want to have multiple ways for messages to be shared as your employees will likely not receive messages at the same time, especially if you have people on multiple shifts. If you’re conducting a layoff, for example, meet with each affected employee individually (as you are able) and be sure you are giving them all the necessary information. Then follow up in writing, as these employees will likely be in shock and not remember much of what you said.

Act with empathy and sensitivity to those who are most affected. Sometimes, well-meaning leaders emphasize their own pain at a time when their employees are hurting. Less well-meaning leaders sometimes act in callous or dismissive ways, treating their employees as if they are disposable. Both of these approaches to distressing situations break down trust. They also have a chance to become viral news online, at great reputation risk to the organization.

Responding to Trauma When Things Calm Down

When the dust settles, you may be ready to return to “normal,” but that’s not going to happen. Your world has changed. You need to help your employees adjust to this “new normal” and recognize that the past isn’t coming back.

Your employees will need time to process the event and their feelings about it. Share information about your employee assistance program (EAP), if you have one. Create spaces for employees to connect and talk about the changes. Prepare managers to listen. The trauma following the death of a coworker, for example, will affect the workplace long after the funeral. Grief is personal and not everyone will react in the way you think they might.

In a case like this, you’d want to give your employees time and space to process the event and their feelings, while also providing them with information they need to prepare themselves for what comes next. For example, it could be jarring for employees to see their deceased coworker’s job posted. They may feel as though you are pushing them to a place they aren’t ready to go to yet. Giving them a heads up may help them prepare themselves emotionally to see the job posting.

You cannot shy away from the events you all collectively went through, nor should you sweep the memory of it under the rug and pretend it didn’t happen. Being upfront and honest about the experience will be a huge benefit to your employees working through their experience and what it means to them. Trauma will always get its say, but it doesn’t have to have the last word.

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HR’s Role in a Recession

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The prospect of a recession has many businesses and their employees worried. During an extended economic decline, sales drop, jobs disappear, and productivity decreases. Companies have less revenue to invest, and their customers have less money to spend. With their lives shaken by financial instability, people are more motivated to play it safe and less inclined to take risks.

We make no prediction about whether a recession is near. But with the possibility of one on the horizon and the inevitability of one eventually, everyone working in HR ought to be prepared when the time comes. A recession hits more than just your bank account. Stress grows. Tensions mount. Morale falls. People become less productive simply because they’re preoccupied with their personal finances. Each of these affect the bottom line.

HR’s role in a recession is to mitigate stress, resolve tensions, maintain morale, and ensure employees continue to be rewarded for their hard work. This is what HR should be doing all of the time, of course, but economic downturns come with their own challenges. Respect and empathy are key. Let’s look at a few of these challenges and what you can do in response.

Heightened Uncertainty About the Future

If a recession nears or begins in earnest, employees will be worried about how it might affect them. Will their pay be cut? Will they lose their job? Will their retirement savings evaporate? It’s difficult to plan or act when you don’t know what’s going to happen. For some people, waiting for the possibility of bad news induces as much anxiety as receiving that bad news.

Whether your business is booming or struggling, be as transparent as you can be. If your business looks poised to do well despite the overall downturn, deliver that message to employees. Give them that confidence. If navigating the recession will demand more efficient work from everyone, clearly communicate those goals, don’t sugarcoat the consequences if those goals aren’t met, and show your appreciation when they’re achieved. Whatever the case, don’t mislead employees. If you do, they’ll find out eventually and remember not to trust you in the future.

Employee Financial Hardships

A recession doesn’t hit everyone in a company the same way. Even if your organization fares well, the finances of your employees may not be so hot. Their 401(k)s may be tanking. An employee you just gave a raise to may still be worried about paying rent because their spouse or partner lost their job or their roommate had to move away.

Be mindful that your employees’ experiences during a recession will vary widely. Some may take bad news harder or feel less celebratory when there’s good news to share. Don’t assume that employee morale is high just because quarterly financials are on the rise. In times like these, empathy is invaluable. Keep a pulse on what your people are feeling. Point them in the direction of helpful resources.

Layoffs

Recessions sometimes lead to layoffs. A layoff occurs when you terminate the employment relationship because there’s no work available for the employee to do, the company can’t afford to pay for the work, or the company will completely close.

There’s no sense denying it: layoffs are stressful for everyone. That said, conducting layoffs poorly adds a lot of unnecessary stress, increases the chance of lost revenue, and may expose companies to liability. When considering and administering layoffs, keep the following in mind:

  • Learn about your compliance obligations regarding layoffs. The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), which applies to employers with 100 or more full-time employees, requires 60 days’ notice before a mass layoff or business closing. Many states have their own versions (mini-WARNs) that kick in at a lower employee count, so be sure to check state law too. Your state unemployment insurance law may have notice requirements as well.
  • Be doubly sure that layoffs are absolutely necessary and that you’re letting the right number of people go. Layoffs mean less work gets done, period. Unless you’re shutting down, you need at least enough people remaining to keep the business running. Quickly rehiring people because you underestimated how much work needed to be done to stay afloat won’t inspire confidence and will likely lead to confusion around to shifting job duties.
  • Determine whether the layoff will be temporary or permanent. If you intend to rehire laid-off employees later, let the employees know and keep them apprised of developments or changes in your plans. You’ll be scrambling if you’re ready to rehire workers at some point and no one can or wants to return. Also, given the waiting times for unemployment insurance, being on-again, off-again with employees can seriously interfere with their income.
  • Be fair and non-discriminatory. Base your layoff decisions on legitimate business reasons and document those reasons.
  • Comply with laws regarding final pay. Many states require that you pay an employee much sooner than their next regular payday if they’re discharged or laid off. If your state law doesn’t address layoffs specifically, we recommend using the deadline that applies to terminations. If your state law doesn’t set a deadline for final paychecks at all, we recommend paying no later than the next regular payday.

Reduced Hours and Pay Cuts

In addition or as an alternative to layoffs, you might consider reducing hours or pay, but there are rules to follow here as well, and morale is sure to take a hit.

Employers generally have the right to reduce the number of hours an employee works. If you plan to send an employee home before the end of their shift, check state law for reporting time pay. Other restrictions may apply as well—review any contracts you have as well as relevant state or local laws. Exempt employees aren’t paid by the hour, so just reducing their hours won’t in itself lower their pay and save your company money.

If you still need a lot of work done, but can’t make the finances work, pay cuts may be your best bet. You can reduce the rate of pay of nonexempt employees as long as you keep it above the federal, state, and local minimum wages, still pay overtime when applicable, and don’t make the change retroactively.

You can also reduce the salary of exempt employees as long as they don’t fall below the federal and state minimum salary thresholds and, as with nonexempt employees, you don’t reduce the pay retroactively. In addition, to avoid violating the salary basis requirement for exempt employees, any change should be ongoing rather than fluctuating frequently. Federal law doesn’t require advance notice of pay reductions, but some states do, so be sure to check your state’s requirements.

If you need to reduce exempt employee pay below the minimum salary threshold, you’ll need to reclassify them as nonexempt, pay them at least the minimum wage and overtime as required by law, and provide them with any legally required breaks. Avoid reclassifying employees on a short-term basis, however, as it can look like you’re trying to avoid the rules.

As with layoffs, make your decisions regarding cuts to hours or pay in a fair and nondiscriminatory manner—and document, document, document.

Temptation to Cut Programs Deemed “Nonessential”

When money is tight, you must make sacrifices, but it’s important to remember your commitments and consider the consequences of casting them aside. For example, if an employer had committed to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion at their company, but then quickly opted to cut that program to help make ends meet, its employees would no doubt question whether that was ever truly a priority. All the work done as part of that effort could be jeopardized. The company’s reputation in the labor market could suffer.

Take care when deciding what programs and practices to stop. People assess an organization’s values based on where it spends (and doesn’t spend) money. What would your choices say about your values? Consider what message your actions will communicate.

If you really have no choice but to cut programs and practices that speak to your values and commitments, be thoughtful about how you communicate these decisions to employees. Transparency is key, as is following through again on these commitments when your company is back on its feet.

Everyone on Edge

Money problems weigh heavily on most people. Patience wears thin, the ability to collaborate with others deteriorates, and peaceful environments become high-pressure ones. In the event of a recession, you can expect people to lose their temper more quickly, long-standing conflicts to escalate, and new drama to erupt. However, don’t tolerate bad behavior.

Instead, address behavioral and performance issues right away, remind everyone that you’re all working for a common purpose, teach your team effective communication skills, and practice conflict resolution strategies. Ignoring drama or otherwise allowing it to fester will only hasten your best employees out the door.

Bottom Line

Recessions are difficult to go through and sometimes require hard choices. Treating people with respect and empathy sets everyone up for success in the long run.

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Five Ways to Promote Mental Health in the Workplace

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In a survey by McKinsey & Company, 75 percent of employers acknowledged that there’s a stigma around mental health in the workplace. People in the workplace, leaders included, are afraid to speak up about their mental health needs or ask for help. As the McKinsey report notes, employers can’t solve every problem contributing to poor mental health, but there is work they can do to reduce the stigma around mental health and promote healthy behaviors. We recommend these five actions: 

  1. When possible, give employees a little extra time to slow down and rest. Employees may need a moment to breathe or a day to regain their peace of mind, and they shouldn’t be afraid to ask for time to take care of themselves. The ability to occasionally function at a medium (or even slow) pace should be built into performance expectations so that employees can avoid burnout or breakdown.
  2. Offer paid time off (PTO), mental health benefits, and flexible schedules if appropriate. In some cases, employees may want to get mental health care but can’t afford it. Losing pay from a missed work shift might be too great a hardship, and effective treatments might be financially out of reach. These financial hindrances can exacerbate conditions like anxiety and depression. In other cases, employees can afford the time off and the treatments, but they can’t make regular appointments work with their schedules. If you can offer PTO, health insurance benefits, or flexible schedules, these can help employees get the care they need.
  3. Offer an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). An EAP gives employees access to expert, confidential assistance for substance abuse issues, relationship troubles, financial problems, and mental health conditions. These services are offered through an outside provider that connects employees with the appropriate resources and professionals. These programs enable you to provide professional assistance to employees in a confidential manner.
  4. Make reasonable accommodations when possible. If an employee informs you that they have anxiety, depression, or another mental health condition that’s affecting their work, begin the interactive process to determine what reasonable accommodation(s) you can provide in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA applies when an employer has 15 or more employees, but many states have similar laws that require employers to make accommodations at an even lower employee count. You can learn more about the ADA on the HR Support Center.
  5. Promote good mental (and physical) health in the workplace. Healthy habits are important for everyone to practice. Consider setting time aside during the week or month for employees to participate in activities like yoga, meditation, and mindfulness that develop and strengthen these habits. If you aren’t familiar with these practices, solicit the help of your employees. One or more of them may know a lot about these activities and be able to assist you in setting up a workplace program or modifying a program for employees currently working from home.

Article content provided by My HR Support Center

Invest Time in Onboarding

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There’s nothing like a bad onboarding experience to make a new hire regret accepting a job offer. It’ll take a lot of work to restore the employee’s trust if you’re lucky enough to keep them.

A good onboarding process provides new employees with everything they need to be successful. They receive whatever tools, equipment, and instruction they’ll need to do their job. They’re given time to read and reflect on company policies. They’re given time to get acclimated to the new environment. They’re introduced to members of their team and given time to connect with people in the company they’ll be working with closely. Remember that the experience should be reciprocal—onboarding is a time for the company to get to know the new hire better, too. In short, they’re given a warm welcome!

As with hiring, always look for ways to improve the onboarding process. Establish a way for newly onboarded employees to provide feedback anonymously.

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Four Ways to Make Terminations Less Stressful

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In the 2009 movie Up in the Air, George Clooney and Anna Kendrick play corporate downsizers—HR consultants that companies across the country hire to terminate employees for them. The practice wasn’t exactly common at the time, and fortunately never took off, but it was believable.

Terminations are nerve-wracking. You’re doing something that’s going to cause another person incredible stress and financial hardship. It’s not easy to do, even when it’s deserved.

Nothing you can do will make terminations entirely stress-free. But terminations are often far more challenging than they need to be. No, we don’t recommend flying in Anna Kendrick and George Clooney to conduct your terminations, as tempting as that may be. But good preparation and the right attitude will make a big difference. Here are four general practices we do recommend:

Know Your Compliance Obligations Ahead of Time

Look up applicable laws regarding termination procedures and paperwork, accrued paid leave, severance pay, COBRA, and final paychecks before conducting a termination meeting. If you’re laying off a number of employees, you may have specific notice obligations under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) or a similar state law. You don’t want to miss any steps or deadlines. If the employee works in a different state, refer to that state’s laws.

You should also understand how antidiscrimination laws work in practice and take steps to reduce the likelihood that the terminated employee will file a discrimination claim. While at-will employment allows either the employer or the employee to terminate the employment relationship at any time, with or without notice and with or without cause, it does not permit you to terminate employment based on the employee belonging to a protected class (e.g., race, sex, religion, national origin).

Along similar lines, screen the termination to make sure it’s not based on a protected activity. Myriad state and federal laws protect employees from being discharged for certain reasons. For example, Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act entitles employees to talk about their wages or complain about working conditions with each other. A handful of states prohibit employers from terminating employees for engaging in lawful activities outside of work. Reporting unsafe working conditions is protected. And don’t forget about the many leave laws that vary from state to state: from sick leave to military leave to school-involvement leave and more, you may be surprised by the types of absences that are protected.

There’s even some risk when the termination is for cause. A terminated employee could claim your reasoning is just for show, and they were actually terminated for an illegal reason. That risk grows exponentially when you don’t provide the employee with a sensible reason for the termination or when you’ve been inconsistent in applying your discipline policies.

Consequently, the safest way to terminate employees is to communicate performance issues to them, give them a chance to improve, and have documentation that justifies the legitimate business reasons behind the termination. This documentation would include policy violations, instances of poor performance, and any disciplinary or corrective action taken. The documentation should indicate that the company communicated the issues to the employee. The more you can do to show you had a legitimate business reason and gave them an opportunity to improve, the harder it will be for an employee to fill in the blank with their own illegal reason for termination. The termination will be less risky, and you’ll feel better about the decision because you treated the employee fairly.

Approach Terminations with a Positive Mindset

Painful as they are, terminations can be a good thing. Yes, even for the terminated employee. Let’s say you have an employee who’s continually struggled to meet your performance expectations. Guidance and training haven’t proven fruitful. No amount of coaching has or would enable them to do the job better. There’s no other job in your organization they could do. So now you have a choice. You can keep them on, tolerating subpar performance and accepting its consequences for your organization, or you can let them go. In this case, letting them go is probably the better option for both parties.

You’re not doing this struggling employee any favors by keeping them in a position where they can’t be successful. You’re also setting them up for failure in future roles. Months or years of experience listed on their resume may help them land a future job, but if it’s a job they actually can’t do, their future employer will have the same choice you’re facing. And the employee will be no better off.

This employee has their own hard choices to face. They may need to develop skills beyond what you can provide, rethink what kind of work they’re suited to do, or make better choices about their future. Whatever the case, if you allow them to coast along, they’ll never thrive. Termination is in the employee’s best interest in these types of situations. We wouldn’t recommend telling the employee this, but it’s something to keep in mind when making this difficult decision.

In the case of layoffs, where the employee is not at fault, figure out a few ways you can help them land on their feet. Provide a severance if that’s an option. Remind them that they can apply for unemployment. Help them update their resume. Inform them of any opportunities you know about and facilitate networking connections if you can. In short, make the layoff meeting a productive discussion about their future. That’s going to be a hard discussion, no doubt, and it’s possible the employee won’t want to hear it. You can honor that too.

Be prepared for strong emotions like sadness and anger to surface during the termination meeting so that you can respond with confidence. While there’s a fine line between allowing space for initial processing and unnecessarily prolonging the meeting, you can acknowledge and validate the employee’s feelings without changing the end result. Although escalations into violence are rare, review your company’s procedures ahead of time for dealing with such situations.

Don’t Let Terminations Be a Surprise

Have you ever gotten an email from a boss saying something cryptic like “We need to talk”? You may immediately begin to worry. Are you in trouble? Are you getting fired? Until you have that talk, you can’t breathe a sigh of relief.

Why would your mind go there? It might be because you’re not clear on what could get you into trouble at work and you don’t feel safe. Vague out-of-the-blue messages are seldom a good idea. They’re a terrible practice when people believe that they could realistically lose their job for reasons unknown to them. That belief puts people on edge, inclining them to assume the worst when their manager reaches out without any context. Surprise terminations encourage everyone to adopt that belief and incentivize a culture of fear.

Terminations should never be a complete surprise. Yes, at-will employment allows you to terminate employment for any reason or no reason at all (as long as it’s not an illegal reason), but please don’t fire someone for any reason or no reason at all.

Clear rules and consistent practices are your friends here. Inform employees what’s expected of them and what could result in their dismissal—the employee handbook is a good place to do this. Enforce your rules consistently, not willy-nilly. If you let employees get away with policy violations, but then suddenly switch to strict enforcement, you’ll only create confusion and fear. You don’t need to follow the same process for every kind of offense—some behaviors may warrant immediate termination, for example. But don’t bend the rules for some employees and not others.

A coaching culture can also be your friend, especially with employees who are struggling to perform to expectations. If managers regularly work with employees on improving their performance and enhancing their skills, they’re in a good position to spot signs early on that a struggling employee may be more successful and happier doing something else. In some cases, good coaching means guiding an employee out of the organization. A loss is a loss, but guiding employees toward more suitable work elsewhere is usually much smoother and less disruptive than an involuntary termination. Plus, they leave with goodwill towards you. In situations where termination is the right call, if managers have had conversations with employees ahead of time about the consequences for failing to improve, they’ll have softened the blow when it eventually comes.

Lastly, don’t hide bad financials from employees. If business is slow and a layoff is possible, employees need to know so they can make informed financial decisions and contingency plans. They’ll be extra angry if they feel they’ve been lied to or misled. In an age where companies go viral on the internet for poorly conducting layoffs, it’s in your interest to be transparent and honest.

Stay Organized

Develop a checklist ahead of time of things that need to be covered. This list might include specific equipment and keys that need to be returned, passwords and access cards that will need to be disabled, coverage of the employee’s workload until a replacement is hired, notification to coworkers, vendors, and customers, COBRA information, a current address for W-2s, and what you’re going to say during the termination meeting.

Checking off boxes may feel impersonal, but the day of a termination is at the very least challenging for all involved, and at the worst chaotic, especially if you’re disorganized. Keeping the process smooth and orderly is both kind and professional.

Article content provided by My HR Support Center

7 Ways to Reengage Your Workforce and Inspire Loyalty

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You’ve probably been hearing about the Great Resignation (or however you want to describe it) for months now. Even if you’re not dealing directly with increased turnover, your employees know they have options. Their friends, family, and people they know peripherally or on social media have made the leap and are gleefully announcing it on LinkedIn.

Some job-hoppers may be emboldened by the movement to quit good jobs in the hope of something better—better pay, more flexibility, or more opportunities for advancement. Some have simply been pushed to the brink by dead-end jobs, lousy company culture, or ineffective managers. Others have given up trying to “have it all” and left the workforce completely.

But what if employers could capitalize on this current “I quit” mood? What if you could keep your employees engaged, inspire loyalty, and make it easier to attract and hire those that are looking for that next best thing?

We’ve got some ideas for both prioritizing current employees and making it easier to attract new ones.

  1. Understand and be responsive to employee needs, motivations, and priorities. A paycheck may be the reason everyone has a job in the first place, but it’s not the only reason people choose to work or decide to work for one employer over another. Your employees stick with you because there’s something in it for them besides the money. The job is useful to them. Knowing why it’s useful enables you to keep employees satisfied and, better yet, make their jobs even more appealing.
  2. Prioritize employee development. A work environment in which people gain knowledge, learn new skills, and advance in their careers speaks more clearly and loudly than any marketing message can. People like working where they can grow and develop. According to a LinkedIn report, companies “that excel at internal mobility are able to retain employees nearly twice as long as companies that struggle with it.” And a better trained workforce is also a more productive and profitable workforce! 
  3. Invite employees to be co-creators of the organization. Empower them to make decisions about how things are done and where the organization is going. People feel more a part of something when they see themselves in it. They’re more engaged when their decisions bring about real change.
  4. Reward success. In fact, reward anything you want to see more of. Whether large or small, the rewards have to be meaningful. Ideally, figure out what type of reward speaks to each employee. For some, acknowledgment in a company meeting will make their heart sing. For others, receiving a token of your appreciation, such as a coffee gift card, will be more meaningful.
  5. Allow for a healthy work-life balance. Flexibility is a big selling point for employees looking for better balance between work and life. Your employees have other commitments they need to attend to. Some are caring for young children or other family members while navigating daycare and school closures or multiple appointments. Give employees the time to see to those commitments and have a life outside of work, and you’ll get more from them when they’re on the job. Options may include remote or hybrid work, paid time off, flex hours, four-day workweeks, alternative schedules, and reducing workload. Remember, however, that policies are only as good as the practices around them. Ensure that employees don’t need to jump through hoops to request time off. Remind managers to be responsive to requests for time off and on the look out for signs that employees are feeling overwhelmed. 
  6. Conduct “stay interviews.” Don’t wait until people are leaving to investigate what could have inclined them to stay. Talk to employees now about what’s going well, what pain points they’re experiencing, and what could be done to take the relationship to the next level. Stay interviews enable you to address problems and unfulfilled wishes before they drive people out the door.
  7. Let people go who want to go. You have only so much time in the day. Don’t spend it trying to entice people to stay if they really want to leave the organization. That time is better spent ensuring smooth transitions and engaging employees who don’t have one foot out the door.

Article content provided by My HR Support Center