Why ask Y?

Does banging your head against a large, metal filing cabinet sound better than having to train the new college grad in the office?

Does it make you want to tear your hair out when the same college grad thinks he or she is always right?

Does making a trip to the DMV, Post Office and dentist for a root canal (all in the same day) sound like fun compared to giving this spoiled brat a tour around the office?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you may be drinking a bottle of top shelf Generation Y Haterade. But don’t worry, take those hater-shades off, there’s a solution.

Companies across the country are finding new and strategic ways to train the latest arrivals to the workforce. Unlike past groups, Generation Y learns in their own special way.

Generation Y – those born generally between 1980 and 1995; also known as Millennials or Internet Generation (iGen); comfortable with instant messaging as their main form of communication; can completely hold a conversation in text shorthand such as LOL, ROTFL, BRB, IDK, TTYL, etc.; and feel a greater sense of entitlement in terms of compensation, benefits and career advancements than older generations.

Many big name companies are molding their training programs to fit the unique needs of the Gen Yers. An article I read on CNNMoney.com explains how the shipping giant UPS has reformed its training program specifically for this new working generation.

After studying and testing their current training methods, UPS found the most effective training method was hands-on learning. GenY doesn’t retain what’s taught in a boring lecture. They need demonstrations, simulations, to be taught by doing.

The company went so far as to create a mini town, full of streets, stop signs, fake stores and homes, UPS dropboxes and loading docks, where trainees put everything they learn into practice. The town was designed to give new employees real world training without putting anyone in danger. Imagine the first time you have to deliver a package in the middle of a jam-packed downtown at 5 o’clock. That training facility sounds like a really great idea, right?

How does your company mold it’s training to deal with Generation Y?

Are you a member of Generation Y? Share training methods that have worked for you.

The customer is always first, right? ... Think again.

Today I came across a great video clip from a training panel discussion at Fortune’s Global Forum that attacks this question with a fantastic new idea – put the employee first.

The moderator began the discussion with a question employers constantly struggle with – “Why invest in training people when you know that a lot of them are going to leave you pretty soon?”

One panelist, Anand Pillai, answered the question that turns “the customer always comes first” belief flat on its head – the employee is number one. Pillai, Vice President & Global Head of Talent Transformation & Intrapreneurship, acknowledged the fear that you may train an employee who will leave, but he believes the more important question is – “What will you do if you don’t train them and they stay back?” The best way to retain a person is to keep on training them, he said.

Training employees keeps them constantly engaged. “An engaged employee is a happy employee. A happy employee will lead to happy customers,” Pillai said. Worry less about trying to attain a customer satisfaction goal and more about an employee satisfaction goal. With happy employees come happy customers.

Pillai shared a very “zen” concept seen from the eyes of a happy employee – “Having happy customers is not an activity that I do, it is just being what I am.” Meeting customer satisfaction will come when you have happy employees who are willing to go beyond the call of duty.

In what ways does your company struggle with the fear that once an employee is well trained, he or she will then find a new job?

And, what does your company do to try and put the employee first?

Jobs- supply, demand & unemployment rates

How long did it take you to land your current job? Are you currently looking to get a job, sending out hundreds of resumes, searching all the job posting sites and asking around and still can’t find anything? Well, don’t blame yourself because you might not be the problem.

State Unemployment Factors

Check the unemployment rate in your state ---that rate is directly related to the length of time it takes an employee to land a job.

A recent article from CNN.com listed the top ten worst states to find a job, ranked by their unemployment rate. If you're are in one of those states you can expect to spend more time on your job hunting efforts in order to land a job.

You may have the right skills and experience but the jobs are just not there. And if they are, there are too many qualified applicants, so your odds getting that job significantly decrease because there are many competitors competing for that position.

As a job hunter, this situation obviously works against you.

What does it mean for HR mangers?

From the recruiter and HR manager side, this situation is better.

For every job opening in these states, you will probably receive piles of resumes from qualified candidates.

The results are twofold:

A better selection of applicants

High unemployment means you can afford to be very picky about whom you choose to fill out a position.

Lower salary expectations

You may be able to offer a lower pay for the position, knowing that someone qualified will be willing to take it. But be careful. Employees who feel they are seriously underpaid tend to have lower performance, despite the dire job situation.

The plus for recruiters in better job markets

If low unemployment in your state is making qualified applicants difficult to find, consider focusing your advertising and recruitment in states on CNN's list. With or without relocation benefits, you might find the perfect candidate for those hard to fill positions.

The other side of the coin

If you are a job seeker, check out this article about the top 15 great cities for job seekers. You may want to relocate!

Your training department did what?????

I recently saw an article on Wired about a Utah motivational company manager who used waterboarding as a technique to inspire flagging sales quotas. Not surprisingly, the employee in question is suing. Ya think????

I think we need to consider this a lesson...there are certain things that just might sound good when faced with senior management's anger at low sales, or negative customer feedback, but maybe, just maybe, we should go for a long, long walk before we adding them to our training schedule.

Here are a few that come to mind, on this Monday morning....feel free to add your own as comments!

• Public flogging. Okay, so it worked well for despotic rulers across time and geography, but as HR managers, we might want to think twice. Not only do modern employees have access to attorneys, but local statutes on public entertainment might require burdensome permits, public hearings before and after, and other restrictions that would just take the spontaneity completely out of the event.
  
  
• Snake handling. Good for proving your loyalty to certain religious groups, bad for proving your loyalty to the company motto. Snake bites would mean hospitalization, and with health insurance rates being what they are....bad idea.
  
  
• Transfers to northern North Dakota or just about anywhere in New Jersey. If you're already in one of those places, you know what I mean. If not, trust me, there are no sales figures low enough to deserve that fate! (People in New jersey and North Dakota, I'm kidding. Really.)
  
  
• Piped in elevator music. The US Army once used rock music to extract a certain dictator from his headquarters. A string and orchestra rendition of Party Like a Rock Star is far worse.
  

So there is my starter list...Now add yours. Send me an e-mail, post a comment, or continue the list on your blog or site and send me the link. Also added it as a discussion question in BlogCatalog

Be creative!

Happy Monday!!

Carnivores Need Not Apply from the Blog of HR Lori, Human Resources in California

A tongue in cheek look at a serious issue:

It would appear that recent court cases in California have defended a company's right to discriminate against potential employees based upon their food preferences!

In a recent case, a vegan temp was denied full time employment because he would not submit to vaccination with a product grown in chicken embryos. The court upheld the employer's right to deny the position based entirely upon this ethical belief, which is primary expressed in his food choices.

Lori then goes on to list a job posting which requires a vegetarian applicant. This too, is apparently legal in California, under current precedent.

Looking at the HR implications, and some new training materials we may need to develop:

Diversity in the Cafeteria -- When burgers meet tofu
Business casual dress without leather
When eating steak at dinner becomes a job qualification

All joking aside, although the case in question did involve a medical procedure, it's worth consideration. More and more companies are enacting rules governing employee behaviour outside of regular work hours. Rising health care costs, and lost work time are resulting in companies banning off-hours alcohol use and smoking. Recreational drug use at home is already taboo, and is checked via urine tests for potential and existing employees. Some companies offer bonuses for employees who enroll in exercise and weight loss programs.

Surely food choices cannot be far behind.

While the goal of reducing health care costs is understandable, perhaps there is more of a role for trainers and less for rule makers.

Consider stepping beyond the substance addiction issues and offering classes on healthy eating, the benefits of meditation, alternative medicine, or ...vegetarianism. While education programs are available at many hospitals and clinics, at-work healthy lifestyle programs may offer greater accessibility, plus peer reinforcement.

America still behind developed countries on maternity leave laws

If you live in America and are planning to have a baby, prepare your wallet.

The recent changes in the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) have caused some stir among critics who claim that further expanding this program of unpaid family leave will endanger the U.S. economy. In reviewing the new additions for military families and other proposed expansions, one has to wonder what all the fuss is about.

Paid maternity leave is still not a standard benefit like it is in most of the world. In many European countries and in Canada, new moms receive paid benefits from the government and/or their employer and are entitled to paid time off in order to stay home with the new baby for the first months.

While some U.S. employers have chosen to go the extra mile and pay some benefits to new moms, they usually only pay a percentage of the salary and then only up to six weeks. Many working moms are forced to return to work after 6-12 weeks (sometimes sooner) with no pay for their very brief recovery time. Only 8% of employers provide over 12 weeks of paid leave for new mom. Almost all need to make arrangements for someone else to care for their new baby.

In June of 2007, Senate Bill 1681, entitled the Family Leave Insurance Act of 2007 was introduced, but has not yet emerged from committee. This bill, if passed, would provide up to 8 weeks of paid leave to new parents. While this would still be far less than current maternity benefits levels provided in many other countries, and less than medical professionals now recommend for full recovery and optimal infant health, it would be a step in the right direction.

California, New York and a few other states have constructed plans to use disability funds to pay maternity leave, but hopefully a unified program could be enacted for all 50 states to simplify administration for HR departments in multi-state entities.

I hope that corporations and governments will recognize that children are the future of this country. Like other industrialized companies, the U.S. business community could create a program that will allow new moms to provide the proper care needed in the first months of the baby’s life without worrying about the financial hardship that the situation can cause. But the reality is that so far no major changes are on the horizon.

But even in the absence of legislation, as HR professionals and trainers, might it not be within our area of responsibility to look at providing realistic benefits for new moms as they recover from childbirth and bond with their newborns?

If a cost benefit analysis is needed, salary expenses incurred during the leave would be more than offset by lower medical expenses for mom and baby, increased employee loyalty, increased retention of experienced staff (with savings on hiring, training and the learning curve time for new employees) and a more attractive company profile for other professionals who want to combine motherhood with career. Paid leave programs could be combined with increased telecommuting options after the initial recovery period, flex-schedules, part-time professional tracks for the young family years, and job sharing.

Proposed changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act

I was reading about proposed changes to the ADA (American's with Disabilities Act) at George's EmploymentBlawg, and couldn't help but wonder what enactment of those proposals would mean to trainers and HR development folks.

According to George, a St. Louis lawyer, minor impediments such as scars, near-sightedness and tennis elbow could be reclassified as disabilities, requiring employers to make allowances for employee's who claim these issues interfere with their work. Specifically, he cites:

The proposed ADA Restoration Act (H.R. 3195) is a bipartisan bill introduced by Representatives Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and James Sensenbrenner (R-WI). The ADA Restoration Act would:

* Redefine the term “disability” to merely mean “a mental or physical impairment” [eliminating the requirement that it substantially limit major life activities].

* Forbid employers from considering the effects of mitigating measures an individual uses to manage his or her impairment.

* Shift the burden of proof in determining job qualification in disability discrimination cases to the employer from the employee. (Under current law, an employee is required to be able to perform the job in question before an employer must provide an appropriate accommodation. The proposed legislation would eliminate this requirement, and thus would force employers to prove that a disability discrimination plaintiff is not qualified.

While in theory, I think that accommodation is a great idea, and realize that current standards have resulted in some truly disabled workers facing long and costly hearings to receive appropriate adaptations, I can easily foresee a training nightmare if this legislation becomes law. Conceivably, human resource development professionals could be facing a need to develop and offer separate training programs for people with minor vision issues or common physical discomfort in ordinary office and/or classroom settings.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this issue. Have you read the legislation? Are you familiar with the issues that might arise? Add your comments, or link to your site if you've addressed these issues there.

Training for workplace diversity

Once upon a time, America was described as a melting pot. All the ingredients blended into one indistinguishable unit. Assimilation was the goal, and those who came from elsewhere attempted to blend into the stew as soon as possible.

Today, the image of a stir fry might be more apt. Each element retains its unique flavour, texture and shape. And yet all contribute to the completed dish.

In the face of proudly retained ethnicity, religious and lifestyle differences, today’s business leaders face the challenge of managing cultural, lifestyle, gender, and religious diversity in the workplace. Although it may appear to complicate effective team building, wise leaders know that workplace diversity can also enrich their organization.

From: Managing Religious Diversity in the Workplace

It is 3:30 on a Thursday afternoon. A 20-something associate completes a project on her laptop, sends it via e-mail to her supervisor, text messages a client on her cell phone, and then leaves for the day. Meanwhile, her 50-something colleague in the next cubicle, who never leaves the office before six o'clock, is grumbling about the poor work ethics of today's younger workers.

More than ever, workers from different generations are finding themselves in the same workplace, where their differing work styles are sometimes causing conflicts when it comes to communicating and completing tasks.

But managers who are able to accommodate, rather than overlook the different styles, will find different generations working side-byside offers many opportunities, too.

From: Minding the Gap: Generational Differences


Whether it's age, gender, religion, or ethnic origin, diversity is the reality in today's workplace. Managing that diversity is the task facing many Human Resource departments.

The realization that one size does not fit all in the workplace has spawned a variety of new training programs. No longer content with simple sensitivity training, today's HR trainers are developing and presenting programs that tap into the strengths of a diverse workforce.

Global market focus is allowing many companies to utilize the diversity in their labour force to reach and understand foreign markets and segmented domestic markets in new and effective ways.

How is your company addressing the challenges and benefits of diversity? Is there a tool or process you've found beneficial for creating synergy on the job?

Keep your germs at home!

Think about...

Your employee is sick. Your company doesn't provide paid sick leave. They can't afford to go without pay. So what is your employee going to do?

Accchhhoooo! Sniffle! Cough, cough...

Yes, that is your employee. in the office or at the restaurant making everyone else sick. They are there. They are working. But they are sick. And then more employees get sick, and customers get sick....and business slows down because sick workers just can't perform as well, and sick customers don't shop (unless your business is a pharmacy or medical office.)

With nearly 50% of the U.S. workforce lacking basic paid sick leave (that's about 59 MILLION workers!), presidential candidates and some members of Congress have talked about a national policy that will make paid sick days a part of federal labor laws. This would bring U.S. policy in line with that of other industrialized countries.

But in the meantime, lawmakers in 12 states and the District of Columbia are introducing legislation to make paid sick days a law in their state. Advocates of mandatory paid sick leave point out that it's not merely a labor issue...sick workers constitute a public health threat as well.

The epidemiological issue is made even more critical by the fact that the majority of employees who lack paid sick leave work in child care, food service and hotel industries -- all industries with high levels of contact with the public.

Employers looking at training issues connected with this problem may wish to supplement any changes in leave policy with educational programs on wellness, illness prevention, on-the-job-hygiene, and health care access.

A combination of effective training and paid sick leave options may be the best choice for reducing job site illness transmission, and improving employee wellness.