Workplaces with high levels of engagement enjoy 23 percent higher profits than those with low levels of engagement, and it’s an HR manager’s job to facilitate every aspect of the employee experience to maximize engagement from talent acquisition and onboarding to professional development to offboarding, and everything in between.

Modern human resource management is focused on the elements of employee management most likely to affect your bottom line: talent acquisition, retention, and engagement.

HR Management: Getting Started

A small company may have a single HR professional overseeing all HR functions. At larger organizations, HR is likely to be a multitiered department with individual managers focusing on various aspects of human resource management, including talent acquisition, compensation and benefits management, labor relations and union negotiations, engagement and training, and employee safety and government compliance.

But what if you’re a startup or local retailer with a small staff? Is it possible to function efficiently and legally without a dedicated HR manager? Yes, as long as someone on staff takes ownership of this important function and utilizes tools and platforms designed to help facilitate employee management. Many HR platforms can be accessed via tiered subscription rates based on the size of your company, with lower fees for small firms. Another option is to engage an HR consulting service.

The following information covers all the basics you need to know if you need to hire for, manage, or undertake your company’s HR strategy.

How To Make Human Resource Management a Revenue Driver

Your HR department’s main focus should be helping your organization achieve its core mission by maximizing the potential of its workforce. That is why

Effective HR professionals know how to maximize organizational earning potential by taking the lead on employee development and upskilling, team building, engagement, and succession and contingency planning.

How HR Resource Management Has Changed

Until recently, many companies saw HR as a necessary cost rather than a vital revenue-generating department. For decades human resource managers were referred as “personnel” professionals. They tended to focus on the well-being of employees, and serve as benefits administrators and payroll and paperwork processors.

So, what changed? For one, modern workplace analytics can now accurately track the costs associated with employee churn and the revenue benefits of healthy employee retention and engagement strategies. Tech tools have allowed HR to become more integral to the revenue-generating functions of the companies they work for: staying apprised of labor laws, mitigating liability, maximizing employee engagement and productivity, and strategically planning workforce expansion and transition.

The change in terminology from “personnel” to “human resources management” and even “human capital management” reflects this view of HR as more aligned with revenue generation than the benefits and policy administration departments of old.

Human Resource Management Functions

HR professionals are your inhouse experts on how to hire employees, train them, pay them, engage them, and retain them. The following functions are among the most common areas your HR department can optimize through their expertise and leadership.

Talent Acquisition

Talent acquisition includes all aspects of recruiting, candidate vetting and interviewing, and hiring. They write and update job descriptions, determine hiring policies and procedures, develop talent pipelines, assess and finetune budgets, and forecast expected revenue increases and talent gaps to determine whether an organization will need and can afford new hires.

Onboarding and Training

HR departments are responsible for determining and implementing new employees’ onboarding experience in ways that help convey and maintain your company culture and core values. They should also be involved in assessing

Engagement, Productivity, and Employee Development

Your human resource team should work to make sure employee policies and operations run as smoothly as possible and that employees are developing in ways that optimize their efficiency and creates maximum benefit for the company.

Performance Reviews

Human resource management includes regularly scheduled and well-regulated performance reviews with clearly stated and easily measurable goals, including administering disciplinary action when necessary. Your HR team can help guide and implement an equitable and transparent professional development and promotion process.

Compensation

HR should oversee salary negotiations, the distribution of wages and bonuses, and benefits management.

Compliance

From ensuring worker safety as determined by the federal department of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to adhering to negotiated labor contracts, your HR team helps to mitigate liability by establishing ethical management policies. In this capacity, HR personnel often work closely with safety engineers, policies and labor representatives and attorneys, and keep up to date with all federal, state, and local labor laws to avert lawsuits and fines.

They also make sure your company is adhering to laws governing how candidates are recruited and hired, how many hours they work, and under what conditions. They also work to create an equitable and inclusive workplace.

HR Tools You May Need

Investing in the following tech tools can help a small or even one-person HR department function more efficiently:

• Human Resources Management System (HRMS), also referred to as Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS), are all-in-one systems designed to take care of HR needs from onboarding to offboarding.
• Strategic Workplace Planning tools track current workforce skills and anticipate future talent needs.
• Performance Trackers can range from self-evaluations to management tracking or digital tracking of time spent on workplace networks.
• Recruiting Tools, including applicant tracking systems (ATS), are designed to streamline the recruitment process for both hiring managers and applicants, implement and assess skills testing, schedule interviews, and track the hiring process from start to finish.
• Onboarding and Digital Training Software can facilitate new employee training, self-guided tutorials, skills building and even credentialing.
• Compensation Planning Tools can help make sure you’re crafting competitive compensation packages and distributing them equitably. Benefits management software and payroll software are subsets of this category.

What to Look for in an HR Manager

If you’re looking to establish or expand your HR department, you’ll want to look for the following traits in your next human resources manager or specialist hire:

• Business strategy and resource management
• Excellent written and spoken communication
• Forecasting and budgeting
• Interpersonal and conflict resolution
• Presentation and public speaking skills
• Teambuilding, leadership, and mentoring
• Training and/or educational experience
• Professional in Human Resources (PHR) or Senior Professional Human Resources (SPHR) certification from the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) or Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI)

Beyond HR Management Basics: Learn More Ways to Get the Most from Your Workforce

Now that you understand the shifting priorities of modern human resource management, learn more ways to maximize productivity with the latest hiring tips from recruitment and management experts.

The post What is Human Resource Management? appeared first on Monster.com.

Now that you know the benefits of collecting and acting on employee feedback, you’re probably wondering how to get honest responses from your team. Here’s how to create an effective survey.

How to Create Your Employee Survey

It’ helpful to have a mix of written, verbal, anonymous, and non-anonymous surveys. You may want to create several types of employee feedback survey, including:

• Employee Engagement Surveys. These surveys will help you assess how engaged your team members are and how you can improve their work experience.
• Employee Pulse Surveys. These surveys usually cover one topic at a time, such as satisfaction with compensation and benefits; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives; or career advancement opportunities. These surveys are typically short and easy to fill out, meaning you can send them more frequently and see the impact of any changes you made based on previous feedback.
• Exit Interviews. People are prone to give constructive criticism when they’ve handed in their two weeks’ notice. Ask employees for feedback about their roles and work experience before they head out the door.
• Stay Interviews. Unlike exit interviews, stay interviews give you the opportunity to make changes that can keep your employees from quitting. Ask employees about their favorite and least favorite things about their job and working at the company.
• One-on-One Meetings. Have managers conduct regular one-on-one meetings with their direct reports to share feedback, ask for feedback on their role and responsibilities and the company culture, and discuss projects and goals.

How to Make the Most of Your Surveys

Use your employee feedback survey to ask questions about a variety of topics. You may want to cover the company culture, compensation and benefits, professional development initiatives, career advancement opportunities, diversity and inclusion programs, and job responsibilities so you know what your employees want and can make meaningful improvements. In addition to open-ended questions, ask quick-response questions like yes-or-no and scale questions.

Make it clear that constructive criticism is welcome and that employees won’t be penalized for sharing negative feedback. Employees may be less forthcoming in-person, so have some of the written surveys be anonymous.

Sample Employee Feedback Survey Questions

Ready to get started? Here are some sample questions you can use to get actionable feedback.

1. How would you describe the company culture? What could be improved?
2. How would you rate our professional development initiatives? Are there more resources that would help you achieve your goals?
3. Do you think there is a clear and equitable promotion process? If not, what could be better?
4. What are your main short- and long-term professional goals? What support and resources would help you reach them faster?
5. Do you know the skills and achievements you need to get promoted?
6. Do you think people are more collaborative or competitive? What could be done to increase teamwork?
7. How would you rate your relationship with your manager? What could be improved?
8. What do you like about your role and responsibilities? Are there any responsibilities you’d like to add or remove?
9. How would you rate your satisfaction with your compensation and benefits?
10. Are there any additional benefits you’d like to have? If so, what would be beneficial?
11. What perks and HR policies — such as hybrid work, flextime, and a compressed work week — would improve your work experience?
12. How likely are you to look for a new job?
13. If you’re currently job searching or considering job searching, what is your main motivation for switching companies?
14. How would you rate the leadership team? How could the team improve?
15. Do you have a clear understanding of the company’s quarterly goals and current performance?
16. How would you rate our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts? What could be improved?
17. Would you recommend our company to a friend? Why or why not?

Continue to Improve Your Company Culture

If you make changes based on what you learn from each employee feedback survey, you’re likely to see improved productivity, work quality, and employee retention. Keep on strengthening your company with hiring and management advice from Monster.

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Some people who love what they do would prefer to focus on the work they enjoy, rather than spending time managing a team. If you have senior-level non-management roles, you’re likely to see increased employee engagement and morale. Research shows that companies with high employee engagement are often more profitable because of factors including increased productivity, work quality, and employee retention. Now that you know the benefits, here’s your guide to creating these roles and managing these senior-level employees.

Create New Roles

If you don’t have senior-level non-management roles, your first order of business is to add these roles to your organizational chart. Create a non-management option for every role if you can. Here are some examples:

• A reporter who wants to keep writing could become a senior reporter with a specialty instead of an editor.
• A software engineer who wants to keep coding can take on harder coding projects instead of managing a team.
• An associate at a law firm could become a partner and manage cases, not associates.

How to Manage an Individual Contributor

After adding these positions to your organizational chart, you may be wondering about the best ways to manage these employees and help them be successful. These employees often love what they do and have a strong skillset and time to become specialists, making them valuable team members. These management tips can help you boost retention.

Increase Collaboration

Although these team members don’t manage employees, they often need to work closely with colleagues. Make sure they are included in relevant meetings and teambuilding opportunities like employee resource groups (ERGs), mentorship programs, and activities like book clubs and softball leagues.

Offer Professional Development

An individual contributor typically enjoys their role and responsibilities, which is why they don’t want to spend time on hiring, training, one-on-one meetings, performance reviews, and other management responsibilities. Help them strengthen their skills and learn new ones by offering hard and soft skill trainings and professional development stipends that they can use toward certification programs, classes, and conferences.

Give Them High-Level Responsibilities

There are countless senior responsibilities that don’t involve managing employees. For example, an individual contributor can lead a project, manage a budget, set deadlines and deliverables, or spearhead client relationship management. Individual contributors aren’t managing a team and likely have more time to devote to other advanced responsibilities.

Provide a Clear Career Path

These employees want the opportunity to continue to advance at your company without stepping into a management role. Make sure there is a clear career path for each individual contributor that may involve managing projects or departments but doesn’t involve managing direct reports.

One way to increase retention and employee morale for all your team members is to make sure you have a clear and equitable promotion process, so employees know what they need to achieve to get promoted. It’s helpful to have all your managers work with their direct reports to create career development plans that outline the employee’s short- and long-term goals and ways to accomplish them.

Ask managers to work with employees to create a list of the skills and achievements their direct reports need to accomplish to get promoted. Managers should provide the support and resources their direct reports need to achieve their goals. For example, they could sign them up for relevant trainings and assign them to projects that help them gain new skills and experiences.

Learn More Ways to Build a Strong Team

Now you know how offering senior-level individual contributor roles can increase employee morale, retention, and profitability and how to help these employees succeed. Continue to strengthen your business with expert hiring and management advice from Monster.

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Sponsoring ERGs at your organization can move the needle on some of your company’s most pressing and persistent challenges, from attracting and retaining top talent to diversifying your customer base. The toolkit below can help you get started.

What Is an ERG?

The first employee resource group was started by Black employees at Xerox in 1970 to address discrimination within corporate environments. Today’s ERGs often consist of employees from underrepresented groups, including veterans, women, racial minorities, and members of the LGBTQ community, while others consist of individuals who have a passion for sustainability, social justice, or community engagement. Still others might include employees who face work-life challenges ranging from special needs parenting to health challenges.

ERGs can be organized by management around a perceived need but are more often created by employees who then get buy-in in the form of resources and guidance from company leadership. Unlike committees, where management tends to set the goals and appoint members, employee resource groups tend to be voluntary and drive the agenda internally.

As a result, leadership and participation in an employee resource group is often uncompensated. This is a mistake, as the work undertaken by these groups can be highly beneficial to your organization’s bottom line and deserves to be rewarded accordingly.

Hiring and Retention Benefits of ERGs

Even employers with relatively high levels of workforce diversity become decidedly less inclusive at the highest levels of their org charts. This means diverse leadership candidates are at a premium. Worse yet, diverse talent is more apt to jump ship than the overall workforce, making it hard to groom talent and promote from within.

That’s where employee resource groups come in. The most important value ERGs provide to the employers who support them is their ability to improve diversity by improving retention.

They also encourage engagement with other ERG members and the issues they are focusing on, as well as with your organization’s values and mission. Engaged employees are more likely to become invested in the success of your organization. The sections below explain how ERGs can improve your hiring and retention strategy.

1. ERGs Promote DEI

A lack of diversity at all levels is costing employers hundreds of billions of dollars in lost potential revenue and employee turnover each year. ERGs are a particularly effective way to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at all levels, which can in turn lead to increased profits and innovation.

Resource groups provide safe spaces where employees who may otherwise feel isolated can share their experiences. They can even help members recognize issues and alert HR or management, allowing for productive policy initiatives to be created to address systemic issues before they lead to attrition or even rise to the level of litigation.

2. ERGs Can Benefit Your Employer Brand

Many job seekers are aware of the value these affinity groups can have for employees of all backgrounds and how they contribute to the creation of more engaged and equitable workplaces. As a result, a growing number of applicants is looking for the presence of ERGs as evidence of employers’ commitment to DEI.

For many younger and mid-career job seekers, working for a company with a strong commitment to DEI even outranks compensation as a driver in deciding which job offer to accept, with a majority of millennials and Gen Z job seekers saying they would take a lower salary offer from a company that has a genuine commitment to diversity. Employee resource groups represent one way to show applicants that you’re serious about DEI.

3. ERGs Increase Retention Rates

Minority workers, especially those working in environments with poor DEI commitment, have higher attrition rates than other workers. African American workers, even at the highest levels, tend to have shorter tenures than their white peers.

Diverse professionals and managers don’t necessarily switch employers because brighter opportunities are awaiting them elsewhere. Rather, they are much more likely to leave due to incidents of bias and feelings of exclusion and isolation.

Working for an employer that provides underrepresented employees an opportunity to join an ERG and be compensated for the important work they do with that group can help combat the feelings of isolation that many workers of color report facing in the workplace. Employee resource groups enhance onboarding, making new employees feel connected to their new workplace faster and helping them forge work friendships and collegial cross-team connections, which are important for retention.

4. ERGs Benefit Company Culture

One of the most challenging effects digital technology has had on the workplace is the increased siloing of work functions and work teams. The growing popularity of remote and hybrid work schedules has only intensified this obstacle to cross-team collaboration. Employee resource groups promote cross-team relationship building, which leads to synergy and cooperation, promotes innovation and problem solving, and increases productivity and efficiency.

The Business Case for ERGs

Employee resource groups drive organizational change by helping to align values and policies. They can serve as lifelines to your frontline personnel, alerting your organization to potential issues before they become crises.

Sponsoring employee resource groups is an especially effective way to identify talented performers with leadership potential and diversify your management and leadership ranks.

Resource groups have even served as incubators for expanded product lines and diversifying marketing strategies, helping organizations grow their customer base, expand market share, and increase profits.

ERG Management Best Practices

As with any business function, none of the benefits of ERGs should be expected without buy in from organizational leadership. You will need to provide these groups with resources, meeting space, paid time, and a senior management sponsor. You should also consider paying for members to attend conferences and attain certifications in areas related to each group’s mission and goals.

In addition, the following list of best practices can help you invest wisely in your company’s ERGs and see optimum results:

• Encourage each ERG to craft a mission statement that includes at least one business-focused goal, for example, retention, market expansion, productivity, or community engagement.
• Measure results systematically with an employee engagement platform that allows members to set goals, track results, complete surveys, and collect data.
• Recognize ERG accomplishments throughout the company.
• If you have multiple ERGs, encourage them to occasionally partner on events or projects.

Make sure you act on ERG policy recommendations in a public way, giving credit to resource group members and leadership. This will assure members that their goals are a priority for management and that the time they invest in the group can lead to organizational change. It will also keep the group from devolving into a regularly scheduled venting session, which can actually leave members feeling less empowered and more isolated from management.

Finally, acknowledge and value leadership shown within employee resource groups as you assess internal candidates for professional development and promotion, just as you would for initiative in any other area of endeavor throughout your company. This can serve as an important step toward diversifying your leadership team in a lasting way.

Build on Your Employee Resource Groups to Enhance Employee Recruitment and Retention

Now that you understand the value of affinity groups and how to manage them, learn about more management and hiring best practices that can help you improve talent acquisition and grow your business.

The post How to Make Employee Resource Groups Successful appeared first on Monster.com.

Some business owners have created formal programs to ensure that all their employees have access to a mentor. If you don’t have a mentorship program, or want to expand it, consider letting people sign up for peer-to-peer, reverse, and traditional mentorship relationships.

While you may be familiar with traditional mentorships, you may not know as much about reverse mentoring relationships. We’ve pulled together the benefits of these relationships and a step-by-step guide to creating an effective program.

What is Reverse Mentoring?

In these professional relationships, junior- and mid-level employees mentor senior-level employees. The best mentoring relationships will be mutually beneficial; so, ideally, both people will strengthen their skillset, deepen their understanding, and gain support.

What are the Benefits?

It isn’t just beneficial for the mentor and mentee. An effective reverse mentorship program will strengthen your company culture, helping you recruit and retain top talent. The top benefits include:

1. Increased Employee Morale and Engagement

Employees who have strong working relationships are likely to be more productive, collaborative, motivated, and engaged. If your program has high participation rates, you’re likely to see increased employee morale and engagement, which can boost your bottom line.

Senior-level employees probably have a strong professional network inside and outside your organization, but junior- and mid-level employees may not. More junior employees typically have fewer interactions with senior-level employees. These problems can help them feel valued and heard, which is likely to decrease turnover.

2. Improved Diversity in Leadership Over Time

While there is greater gender and racial diversity for lower-level roles, research shows that there is a significant decrease for more senior roles. If you retain and promote lower-level employees, you’re likely to see increased diversity in leadership roles. (As an added benefit, research shows that companies with diverse leadership teams are more profitable than those with less diverse executive teams.)

Many candidates want to work for a company with a strong diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program and a diverse team in general, so your efforts can help attract top candidates. You may want to mention your reverse mentoring program on your job postings and your site’s “career” page and in interviews to show younger candidates that their ideas, skills, and feedback are valued.

3. Stronger Skillsets

This type of mentorship is often associated with senior leaders learning digital technology skills. While that may be true in many cases, there are so many other skills and insights they can learn from younger employees, such as how to attract and retain Millennial and Gen Z workers, customers, or clients.

Meanwhile, younger workers may gain leadership, relationship-building, and communication skills. They’ll also likely gain institutional knowledge about the company and learn how to navigate office politics.

How to Set Up a Reverse Mentoring Program

Now that you know the benefits, you are probably excited about implementing a program at your company. Take these steps to set up an effective program:

1. Design Your Program

The first step is to determine the logistics of your program. You may want to consider the following as you get started:

• What is the goal of your program?
• How will you measure whether your program is successful?
• Will you pair people from the same or different departments?
• Is there a minimum number of times you’d like people to meet per year?
• Will all employees be matched, or will participation be optional?

2. Advertise Your Program

Whether participation is optional or mandatory, your next step is to get people excited about the program. You could share the goal and guidelines at your next town hall meeting or in a dedicated company-wide email.

If participation is optional, encourage senior employees to join and help champion the program so younger employees will be eager to participate. (You may want to avoid the terms mentor and mentee because ideally, both people will learn new skills.)

3. Match Participants

Next, you need to pair participants. You could send a survey to find out people’s long- and short-term goals, interests, and the skills and insights they hope to learn and teach. Use the responses to match people.

4. Provide Conversation Topics

Help participants get the conversation started by providing a “reverse mentoring toolkit” with conversation prompts and topic ideas like digital media, the future of work, attracting and retaining Millennial and Gen Z workers and customers, navigating office politics, relationship-building, company history, leadership development, career advancement, and remote work.

5. Ask for Participant Feedback

Ask participants for feedback that you can use to strengthen the program. You could also ask about the skills they’ve learned and taught so you can add new conversation prompts and topics to the toolkit.

Learn More HR Initiatives and Best Practices

Your reverse mentoring program is likely to help participants learn new skills and develop strong working relationships. The program should strengthen your company culture, boost employee morale, increase diversity in leadership roles, and help you attract and retain younger workers, clients, and customers. Continue to strengthen your team and company performance by implementing additional expert HR advice from Monster.

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Since many workplaces lack institutional knowledge about working with unions it’s important for business owners, HR professionals, and recruiters understand the laws that govern unions and how to work with unionized employees.

The answers to the following questions can help employers develop processes to work effectively in a unionized environment.

What Is a Labor Union?

Labor unions (or organizations) come in a variety of categories, but are generally defined as a group of workers who come together to negotiate on behalf of their fellow workers. The profile of unionized workers has changed over the years. Today’s union workers often have associate’s degrees and nearly half have a bachelor’s degree. The majority work in:

• Healthcare
• Education
• Manufacturing
• Transportation and utilities

What Legal Rights Do Workers Have to Organize?

Forming a union is a federally protected activity, so you are prohibited from sanctioning your employees in any way for their efforts to organize. In accordance with the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), most private sector employees are guaranteed the right to:

• Organize to establish a union
• Engage in collective bargaining with their employer
• Work together to improve the terms and conditions of their employment
• Engage in collective action, including work stoppages or strikes
• Vote to decide whether they want to establish a union or reject unionization

The NLRA prohibits employers from firing, disciplining, or demoting employees who attempt to establish unions. The law is enforced by the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which has jurisdiction over most private employers that engage in interstate commerce.

State regulations guiding unionization and permitted employment practices can vary from federal law, so it’s essential to educate yourself on what is and isn’t permitted in your state.

How Do Workers Unionize and Can You Try to Stop Them?

In most cases, employees who want to establish a bargaining unit will reach out to a union in their sector for guidance. Occasionally, a union will reach out to workers. From there, union organizers work to collect signatures until 30 percent of workers have signed a petition in favor of unionization that is then sent to the NLRB.

At that point the NLRB takes over voting to ensure that the process is fair. An employer can avert NLRB involvement entirely by voluntarily recognizing the union at any stage prior to petition.

Once the NLRB is called in, employer interactions with employees who are working with unions to organize legally are constrained in several ways. Employers may not:

• Threaten layoffs or other punitive measures such as salary or benefits reductions
• Threaten to penalize or fire employees who are leading the move to organize
• Offer individual employees raises or promotions in exchange for a vote against unionizing
• Threaten to close their business if employees vote to unionize
• Ask employees any questions about the unionization process, including how they plan to vote

Are There Any Effective Ways to Block Unionization?

Though you are legally prohibited from retaliating against employees who are working to establish a union in your workplace, there are valid arguments to be made against union membership that you can discuss with your employees:

• Union contracts tend to accrue the majority of salary, benefits, and job security provisions to employees with the longest tenure at the company, so your newer employees have less to gain.
• Because a union rep typically needs to be involved in all communications that can affect an employee’s working conditions, workers often have less of a chance to develop close mentoring relationships with supervisors.
• Employees may find it difficult to have necessary one-on-one conversations with managers or HR, even when it involves extremely private matters.

It’s best to avoid aggressive anti-organizing tactics. Not only do they often fail to tamp down support for unionization, but they can also hurt your brand and prompt backlash from consumers. The best way to prevent your workers from unionizing is to adopt employer best practices, such as:

• Provide fair compensation, including benefits that encourage work-life balance.
• Draft fair HR practices and procedures, make them accessible to your workforce, and implement them in a fair and transparent manner.
• Commit to policies that reflect your employees’ values, especially in areas like worker safety, environmental impact, workplace safety, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Regardless of unionization status, a growing number of job seekers want to work for employers that take corporate accountability and social and environmental responsibility seriously.

What Is a Closed Shop, Open Shop, and Right-to-Work State?

A workplace where all non-management employees must become dues-paying union members is referred to as a “closed shop.” In an “open shop,” employees have the option to join the union or not.

If your company is located in a “right to work” state, then you will automatically have an open shop. In many right-to-work states, unions have to expend their resources to protect and promote the interests of non-union workers even if they do not pay dues.

What Is the Role of HR When Working With Unions?

Once a union is in place, it is essential that HR maintain a healthy working relationship with union personnel and employee representatives. It is also the responsibility of HR to train managers on best practices for working with unions and leading teams effectively in a union environment:

• Make sure all HR employees and managers read the current contract in its entirety.
• Provide workshops to go over any elements of the contract that may be hard to understand.
• Discuss ways managers can implement company priorities while adhering to the contract.

Your department heads will need guidance when transitioning from non-union to union management practices. For example, it’s essential that all supervisors know when they need to have a union rep present for an interaction with an employee to avoid costly grievances.

How Should I Handle Grievances?

When a provision of the contract has been violated, union members have the right to file a grievance. At that point a union representative will become involved in any communication between management and the employee who believes their rights have been violated.

Grievances are time-consuming, undermine management, and can even lead to strikes or demands to renegotiate the current contract. To avoid grievances:

• Make sure all managers are familiar with the provisions of the current contract.
• Create a committee made up of key managers, HR, and union reps that meets on a regular basis to go over concerns before formal grievances arise.

What Is the Best Way to Negotiate a Contract?

You are legally required to negotiate with the bargaining unit, but you are not required to make concessions. If you believe negotiations have broken down, you can declare an impasse and ask that the NLRB come in to moderate negotiations.

However, it’s best to wait until union representatives agree to declare an impasse. Otherwise, the union can charge you with failing to negotiate in good faith, and if the NLRB finds in their favor, it can force you back to the bargaining table, under federal court order if necessary.

Rather than adopting an adversarial approach to working with unions on contract talks, consider employing interest-based negotiating, which entails trying to understand what the other side wants and why they want it. They then try to find solutions that can accomplish both sides’ goals.

Working With Unions Can Be Complicated. Get All Your Management and Hiring Questions Answered

There’s a lot to consider when transitioning from a non-union to union workplace. For expert answers to all your management and recruitment questions, Monster has you covered with articles on the latest HR best practices and hiring strategies.

Legal Disclaimer:  This article is not intended as a substitute for professional legal advice. Always seek the advice of an attorney regarding any legal questions you may have.

The post Working With Unions: Legal and HR Considerations appeared first on Monster.com.

Job seekers and employees feel the same way, consistently ranking teamwork as one of the attributes they look for when seeking out new opportunities.

Meanwhile, it’s expected that at least 30 percent of the workforce will be working remotely at least part of the time in the coming years. As a result, a growing number of businesses face the challenge of effectively managing workflows between on-site and off-site workers, often across multiple time zones.

The Cross-Team Collaboration Challenge

As remote and hybrid work schedules have increased, so has data on the effectiveness of this new workplace paradigm. The good news? When employers commit to managing remote workers effectively, remote employees are often more productive than their onsite peers. Remote work can even strengthen collaboration within teams. Now for the bad news: Remote teams can more easily become siloed and disconnected from other teams and departments.

The strategies outlined below can help strengthen virtual collaboration and foster stronger bonds between employees with a variety of skills and functions across your workforce:

1. Make the most of tech tools.
2. Find natural synergies between teams.
3. Track cross-team collaboration and success.
4. Check in on team members frequently.
5. Create a shared sense of purpose.

1. Make the Most of Tech Tools

Building hybrid and remote teams can allow employers to hire the best possible talent from across the country or the globe. But juggling communication between work teams in separate time zones is tricky. Providing asynchronous collaborative communication and workflow tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Trello can help. These applications not only help keep employees connected, but they also can make them feel like they’re still part of a team and an integral part of your company’s mission.

2. Find Natural Synergies Between Teams

Sometimes even the best team can use an outside perspective to look at a problem in a new way. Unfortunately, with remote workers it’s less likely that your employees are going to have the kind of casual interactions with employees from other teams and departments that can lead to accidental moments of inspiration.

The distancing that can arise between teams and departments in a remote environment isn’t just physical. It can make it harder for teams to understand what other departments do and how they contribute to the overall success of the organization. To counteract this, consider creating cross-team projects, especially where natural synergies already exist.

For example, you might pair your sales and marketing teams on one shared project and your accounting and operations management teams on another. You can also select individual members from separate teams to work on companywide initiatives, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

The following tips can help you launch successful cross-team projects:

• Plan to host regular interdepartmental team meetings.
• At the beginning of the collaborative process, host “lunch and learns” where individual teams deliver presentations on what they do and how they do it.
• Break larger goal into smaller individual steps, and then assign each step to smaller groups of paired cross-team experts. These paired experts can then present their progress to the larger cross-team collaborative group, along with what they’ve learned about their coworker’s job that they didn’t know before.
• Try to inject a bit of fun into remote meetings between teams—spotlight outstanding work by individual team members, employ fun icebreakers, welcome “guest appearances” by pets and family, or assign team members to share “fun facts” about their area of expertise that their colleagues might not be aware of. Then get back to business.

3. Track Cross-Team Collaboration and Success

In addition to tracking and announcing incremental goals on workflow applications, make sure to give your employees time in the spotlight to share their accomplishments with colleagues from other departments, especially when those accomplishments will positively affect interdepartmental goals. Employees are more productive, and more satisfied, when they feel connected, valued, and seen.

Not only will this improve morale, but it can also place a face to a name and help members of your cross-team work groups know who to go to when they need input or feedback and encourage more frequent cross-team collaboration.

To cement employee commitment to goals outside those of their immediate team, be forthright about your company’s overall successes and challenges. This level of transparency creates a culture of trust and can motivate employees to work closely across teams to ensure the overall success of the company.

4. Check In With Team Members Frequently

Make sure you aren’t relying solely on virtual meetings and workflow technology to connect with employees. One-on-one check-ins are still vital to make sure your employees have all the tools, training, and development opportunities they need.

Working remotely can easily lead to isolation, loneliness, and feelings of disconnection from coworkers and management. Not only do these feelings negatively affect performance, research suggests they can affect your employees’ health as well. Training managers to look for and address signs of employee burnout among remote workers can curtail the costs associated with this kind of disengagement.

5. Create a Shared Sense of Purpose

In addition to keeping team members informed about your company’s financial goals, make sure you are effectively communicating your values as well. Today’s employees and job seekers want to work for mission-driven employers, and they want to understand how their work contributes to that mission.

In fields like healthcare or education, core goals—such as patient care, finding cures for illnesses, or developing solutions to societal problems—are often central tools in employee recruitment and motivation. But any workplace can incorporate value-driven principals, such as community outreach, sustainability, or DEI, into its core mission. From there, strategizing how to motivate employees in ways that foster cross-team collaboration becomes a matter of providing opportunities to engage in those aspects of your mission in meaningful ways.

For example, you might:

• Provide paid time off for employees to engage in charitable fundraising or community service.
• Set up mentoring programs for students interested in learning about your work sector or area of expertise.
• Encourage employees to become involved in professional associations that further the larger goals of your industry.
• Set up an employee resource group. Typically aimed at promoting DEI, you might also encourage the formation of employee-led affinity groups to provide recommendations on issues such as social responsibility, community engagement, or sustainability.

Not only can these forms of engagement help you improve company policies, but they can also be a great way to identify and develop future leaders, increase retention, and attract top talent.

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This violence, and the physical and emotional trauma it causes, can have a negative effect on employee turnover, absenteeism, lost productivity, property damage, and healthcare, compensation, and workplace security costs. Businesses may even be held liable for failing to do all they can to maintain a safe work environment, which includes reducing the likelihood and negative effects of violence.

It is essential that employers establish policies designed to prevent and respond to violence within the workplace. The following information can help you get started.

What Is Workplace Violence?

Workplace violence can range from verbal harassment to physical threats and even homicide. According to the National Institute for Health and Safety, in addition to physical violence, it also includes verbal abuse and threats, as well as bullying and the use of violent language and imagery. According to experts, the presence of verbal harassment and bullying is often an early sign of problem behavior that when left unchecked leads to physical violence.

What Are the Most Dangerous Jobs and Work Environments?

The risk of violence is greatest for workers in healthcare, sales, transportation, and protective services. People who work alone or in small groups and those who work at night are especially vulnerable to violence. Taxi drivers, for example, are 20 times more likely to be killed on the job than the typical worker. Working where money is exchanged or alcohol is served increases worker risk. Home care workers and domestic employees are frequent victims of work-related violence, much of which goes unreported.

Types of Workplace Violence

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health separates violence in the workplace into four categories:

1. Criminal intent: These types of incidents involve perpetrators who are not legitimately connected to the workplace where the violence occurs. Quite often these occurrences begin with burglary or theft.
2. Co-worker violence: The perpetrator in these incidents tends to be a current or former employee. These incidents can be extremely dangerous, especially if weapons are involved.
3. Customer assaults: These incidents typically involve a dissatisfied client or customer.
4. Relationship violence: This category may involve a relationship between two coworkers involved in a relationship or a person who is not employed by the workplace, but who is involved with an employee.

Warning Signs That May Lead to Violence at Work

Hostile terminations and disgruntled current and former workers are among the most dangerous scenarios in a workplace. Workers and customers with mental health issues or who partake in excessive drug or alcohol use are also often the perpetrators of violence within the workplace.

To mitigate the dangers of these scenarios, make sure employees know about dismissal policies and consider providing employees with access to counseling and robust mental health and substance abuse health coverage.

Warning signs of employees at high risk of causing violence include frequent unexplained absenteeism, resistance to policy changes, complaints about unfair treatment, and disproportionate emotional responses to criticism.

How to Prevent and Address Workplace Violence

Following the best practices listed below can help prevent the likelihood of violence in your workplace:

1. Create a safe work environment by investing in common sense precautions, such as well-lit parking areas and secured entrances and exits.
2. Devise an emergency plan and train all employees on what they should do in the case of aggression and violence, including a shooting incident.
3. Engage in training scenarios under the guidance of local law enforcement so that all employees know what to do in case of a violent event.
4. Make clear to all employees that you have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to violence, meaning that their first violent incident at work will be their last. Train employees how to deal with angry customers, and make clear to customers that violence and verbal aggression will result in a permanent ban from your place of business.

Domestic Violence Is a Threat for Remote and On-site Workers

As the global workplace has seen an increase in the number of workers engaging in remote work, the World Health Organization has reported an increase in the number of employers raising concerns about the safety of their workers in their homes due to violence from intimate partners or other family members.

Employers may be held liable if they fail to take appropriate action to protect employees when signs of possible intimate partner violence appear. Start by training managers, particularly HR staff, about signs of abuse and how to make clear to employees when they are concerned in ways that make them feel safe disclosing threats and assaults. If you have workers who work from home, establish a policy for how you are going to deal with domestic violence for remote workers.

Employers can help workers they suspect may be facing domestic abuse by connecting them to local resources or offering to walk them through the process of obtaining a restraining order. For onsite workers, you can change their responsibilities to make sure they work in a more secured part of a building.

What to Do in Worst-case Scenarios

Most workplace violence never rises above the threat level. Unfortunately, however, all categories of aggressive behavior can lead to the deadliest form of work setting violence: an active shooter scenario. For this reason, the Department of Homeland Security has established a set of suggestions that it recommends all workplaces provide to their employees to mitigate the danger of active shooter incidents:

1. Run: Make sure all employees know that in the event of an active shooter situation or similar catastrophe they need to leave all equipment and belongings behind and evacuate as quickly as possible.
2. Hide: If evacuation is not possible, they need to look for a place to hide where the shooter cannot trap them. They should also silence their phones. If possible, they should barricade the door and other points of entry.
3. Fight: If left with no other option, your employees will need to fight back any way they can: by throwing objects, grabbing items that can be used as a weapon, and yelling at the shooter to stop. They should also yell for others to help.

The sad truth is most business leaders still underestimate the risk of violence in their workplaces. Worse yet, they believe that training employees about violence in the workplace will only hurt employee morale and make them feel less safe. But the opposite is true. Your workers and customers will actually feel safer if you have clearly stated anti-violence policies.

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When customers get angry you have a lot to lose: their business, your reputation, even the safety of your workers and your other customers may be at risk. That’s why it’s so important to have a policy in place to help protect your employees from angry customers.

The nine strategies outlined below can help you protect employees from agitated customers by creating a calmer, safer work environment where your employees feel equipped to de-escalate tense situations.

1. Recruit Job Candidates With Interpersonal Skills

Make sure your job listings and recruitment process focus on interpersonal skills, including diplomacy, customer focus, and effective communication.

In today’s economy, where word of mouth has more power than ever, a negative review outlining a fraught customer interaction can prevent potential customers from taking a chance on your business. This makes a recruitment strategy that values soft skills essential. The right team with the right attitude can be the difference between success and failure. Once you’ve recruited the right team it’s your responsibility to protect employees from angry customers and provide a safe workplace.

2. Encourage Effective Customer Interaction

Make effective customer interaction part of your employee training, including management training. Teach your employees the following customer service best practices to diffuse tense situations:

• Allow frustrated customers to vent. Sometimes if you give patrons the opportunity to explain how they feel, the situation will often resolve on its own.
• Listen to frustrated, even angry, customers with an attitude of empathy. Remember that they have a problem or desire, or they would not have come to you. Anger is often simply a result of the frustration that comes with not having that need met as quickly or easily as they’d hoped.
• Try to accommodate reasonable concerns, even if that means offering a discount or refund.
• If you can’t solve your customers’ problems, try to help them find solutions elsewhere, even if it’s by referring them to your competition.

3. Institute a Conflict Resolution Process

Work out a standardized process for your employees to follow when customer relations become tense. Consider including some of the following techniques in your process to help keep frustrated customers from becoming angry:

• Have employees introduce themselves by name, ask the customer for their name, and then use their name in conversation as they work on ways to solve the issue.
• Have workers employ reflective listening by repeating what has been said to them in their own words in a calm manner.
• Get as much information as possible about what situation the customer is trying to solve, what they were hoping for, and how their experience with your business is falling short of that.
• Ask “how can I help?” and then help if you can. If you can’t resolve the issue on the spot set up a time to get back to them.
• If you can’t help, be honest.

4. Provide Channels for Customer Complaints

Your customers should have an easy time alerting you to issues. Nothing makes a customer become frustrated quicker than having to hunt to find someone to help them solve their problems. Make sure customers have multiple channels they can use to register complaints and resolve their problems.

Avoid overly complicated automated phone systems, and make sure users can easily find contact information on your web site. Once a complaint is registered, get back in touch as quickly as possible.

5. De-escalate Tension Before It Turns to Anger

It’s natural to become provoked when we come face to face with angry people—or hear an angry tone of voice over the phone. Even an aggressively worded email can set us off. That’s because we are hard-wired to respond to aggression with a fight or flight response.

To counteract this impulse, train your employees to set pause on tense interactions. Placing angry customers on hold allows workers to take a step back, consider customers’ goals, and come up with possible solutions. As your employees work to solve tense situations, they should:

• Avoid negative language.
• Thank customers for bringing issues to their attention.
• Apologize for whatever has gone wrong, even if it’s simply the fact that they are having a frustrating experience.
• Break the problem into manageable parts and explain steps they’ll take to solve the problem.

6. Document the Situation for Future Reference

Protect employees—and yourself—by documenting interactions with angry customers. These scenarios can help your employees learn how to deal with similar situations in the future. It can also serve as background information in case the customer comes back with future concerns, or if the situation escalates to the point of litigation.

7. Offer Your Employees Self-defense Training

Sometimes, no matter what you do, you are not going to be able to satisfy the customer. Some people are simply unreasonable. You need to make sure that your employees know that you are on their side and have their back when they interact with angry customers.

Make sure they know that if a customer begins yelling or threatens them, they can and should ask them to leave the premises as soon as possible. Other options include contacting onsite security or the police.

To make your employees feel equipped to face any situation, you may want to follow the lead of industries like airlines and hospitality, by providing customer-facing employees self-defense training, either on site after work hours or by paying for lessons at a local organization.

8. Increase Employee Satisfaction

A workplace filled with happy, highly engaged workers doesn’t tend to be one where you are likely to find angry customers. Incentivizing performance and providing adequate skills development can help create a sense of satisfaction and a pleasant atmosphere where your customers will want to spend time, even when they don’t find what they’re looking for.

9. Make Safety Part of Your Employer Brand

A safe workplace is a top priority for today’s job seekers. Once you’ve instituted a training program focused on conflict resolution and a process for diffusing tense interactions—keeping frustrated customers from becoming angry ones—make it a point to incorporate these accomplishments into your employer brand and use your safety policy as a recruitment tool.

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As businesses look for ways to ease the stress on their employees, many are utilizing mental health days as a key benefit to support both employee health and retention.

Why Creating Awareness Is Important

It’s estimated that 1 in 3 people view their job as having a negative impact on their mental health and general wellbeing. This in turn can lead to problems such as:

• A decline in productivity.
• Conflict between employees.
• Mental detachment from work projects.

According to research conducted by the World Health Organization, stress and anxiety disorders, like depression, cost more than a trillion dollars in lost productivity globally. This shows that paying attention to the mental health of your employees isn’t just good for their wellbeing, it also has a direct impact on your business.

Giving employees a mental health day off is a one way to help them deal with work-induced stress. These are days that are specifically geared towards stress relief and burnout prevention. While one or two days off will not solve severe underlying issues, they can still offer workers with that much needed break to pause, recharge, and come back with a fresh new perspective.

Here are some best practices for implementing mental health days at work for your employees.

Remove the Stigma by Encouraging Mental Health Days

While the movement to destigmatize mental health at work is growing, many employees still don’t support mental health as a legitimate reason to miss a day of work.

Encourage employees to take a sick day whenever they feel like they need it. However, keep in mind that employees may be more reluctant to take a mental break if they would have to give up a sick day to do so.

Another way to promote mental health is to require employees to use their full allocated vacation time each year. This not only creates more opportunities for self-care, but it also eliminates the pressure some employees experience when they use all of their vacation time. And make sure your managers properly plan for employee vacation time, ensuring coverage and minimizing the mountain of work that an employee will face upon their return.

Regardless of the route you’re planning to take, any changes in your company’s policies must be clearly communicated to your team, so people know what they can expect and that they won’t be penalized for focusing on their mental health.

Put Your Managers Out Front but Give Them the Right Guidance

If your company is supported by a healthy corporate culture and has a management team working closely with their employees, it’s important to give your managers the authority to grant time off for mental health. Managers are in a better position to monitor the well-being of their team and to know when they may need a mental break.

Make sure that your managers know how to communicate about mental health to avoid stigmatizing language. Although they’re in the best position to know when employees may need a mental health day, keep in mind that leaving this decision up to your managers can produce uneven application of your policy. That’s why it’s important to provide your managers with tools they can utilize as well as basic policy guidance, such as:

• Requiring that time off requests be in writing.
• Defining the number of days your company allows employees to take off for mental health.
• Only applying the benefit to employees, not contractors.
• Offering employees access to an EAP program, if available.

Offer Company-Wide Days Off

Company-wide mental health days are usually the safest option, especially if some workers might be hesitant to admit to needing a break. Allocate two or three days a year for employees to take off, with no questions asked. Encourage them to spend their free time focusing on family and friends, or relaxation, but leave the decision, and details, up to them.

Monitor the Progress

Checking in with your employees to make sure they’re benefitting from their mental health day off is key to developing an effective policy. Using employee feedback surveys will not only show if your approach is working but it’s also a great way to get new ideas for improving mental health in the workplace.

Remember that employees may be hesitant to complain about workload and stress to their boss, so consider providing HR support. An HR team focused on the mental well-being and overall performance of your employees can be a great asset. Create a safe space between HR support and the employee so they can openly discuss the need for mental health support or request additional resources. Think about articles, podcasts, or seminars that can help employees with stress management and resilience. While your HR team can take the lead, keep in mind that everyone has a role to play when it comes to creating and maintaining a safe and supporting work-environment.

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