How Does Marijuana Use Affect Employee Productivity?
A couple of decades back, being in possession of cannabis would land you in big trouble. That’s because the substance was classified as a schedule 1 drug alongside other drugs like heroin and LSD. The general perception was that using marijuana has negative side effects and was a gateway drug to other stronger substances.
However, there has been more research looking at the effects of cannabis in different regards. Countless studies highlighted the positive effects of marijuana use. These include ameliorating pain, nausea, PTSD, cancer, glaucoma, and much more. Consequently, this led to significant changes in how the drug is perceived.
Over the last few years, marijuana has been legalized for medical and recreational use and is quickly becoming one of the most used drugs in the United States and many other countries. This change of perception and widespread use means someone (maybe many people) you know is likely using marijuana, either for medical or recreational purposes.
Marijuana legalization and the workforce
According to a study published in the Society Human Resource Management Journal, over two-thirds of the workforce is in favor of marijuana legalization and use. This clashes with the current employers’ drug test that screens for various substances, including cannabis.
With the cannabis legalization trend on the rise, new policies are needed to monitor what substances should be included in a drug test. Currently, employees with authorized medical marijuana use are exempt from the ramifications of testing positive for the drug test.
What effect does marijuana have on your staff?
Marijuana is classified as a drug as it has physiological effects when ingested. Consequently, any employee regularly using cannabis or cannabinoid products will experience these effects. Some of the notable physiological effects of marijuana use are:
- Reduces pains and aches
- Alleviates nausea and vomiting
- Causes short-term memory problems
- Slows reaction time
- Relaxes the body and mind
- Reduces stress and anxiety
While research on how marijuana affects you have greatly progressed, there are still challenges to conducting these studies and research. As such, many employers have internal policies on marijuana use. Some professions are arguably more tolerant of marijuana use compared to others.
In many cases, modern jobs like those in the tech industry are more tolerant of cannabis use compared to traditional jobs. The generational shift of the workforce to include a younger workforce will likely influence the future of marijuana use in the future.
Does cannabis use affect employee output?
An employer’s bottom line is driven by having a productive workforce. Employers who view marijuana use as a deterrent either discourage the use or create policies to prohibit use. At the federal level, marijuana is still an illegal drug. Many employers set in-house policies to manage the use and perception of marijuana.
General studies reveal marijuana can have a negative effect on aspects like short-term memory and attention span. Admittedly, additional studies are needed to shed more light on the effects of marijuana use. As such, most employers will stick to setting internal guidelines.
Should a company continue to not hire, or terminate an employee who is a cannabis user?
In the past, failing a drug test for cannabis meant termination for many employees. This may no longer be appropriate for many companies. In this author’s opinion, most companies shouldn’t be terminating people because they use cannabis outside of work. But, if they come to work high, you should consider sending them home with a warning. If they do it more than once, you might have more severe consequences, including termination. Of course, there might be certain industries and job functions that need to enforce strict restrictions on the use of cannabis. We’re not suggesting they change. But for most jobs, employers may want to rethink their policies.
As seen above, marijuana use and legalization are rising trends and the perception of cannabis use is gradually shifting. This implies current and future generations are much more likely to be using cannabinoid products. With more states legalizing marijuana use, employers need to address how to tackle the issue.
This article is brought to you by COMPackage, the leader in DIY total compensation reports. Help your recruiting and retention efforts by clearly showing your employees and recruits the total package you offer.
Sources:
- https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-06/Marijuana-Cannabis-2020_0.pdf
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK425767/
- https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/marijuana-use-historic-high-among-college-aged-adults-2020#:~:text=Marijuana%20use%3A%20Annual%20marijuana%20use,2015%2C%20representing%20a%20significant%20increase.
- https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/state-and-local-updates/pages/can-employers-still-test-for-marijuana.aspx
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4410963/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK425757/
Should Your Company Set Up Childcare at Your Office?
Finding reliable employees today is hard enough. There are many people, men and women alike, who are being forced to pass on their jobs because good daycare is too expensive, or it’s too difficult to find reliable childcare help. Many employed parents do not really have an option that ensures the safety of their children. A number of progressive companies that offered remote work for employees with children are willing to accept the challenge again and offer onsite daycare. They are doing what they need to do to get good employees back into the office.
Employees with children face the dilemma of earning a paycheck only to turn most of it over to their daycare provider. The amount of money many parents clear after this single transaction often won’t pay a utility bill, let alone provide substantial support for their family. They have two basic options. They can find a job that allows them to work remotely, or they can quit their job and go on financial assistance.
One of the biggest worries for many parents is that they are unavailable to their children while they are at work. Onsite daycare eliminates that worry, giving parents opportunities to connect briefly with their children and to be there for them in case of an emergency. Parents can check on their children at any time during the day giving them both peace of mind and security.
Offering daycare/childcare for parents who have small children can be a financial and emotional lifesaver that will allow your employee to give you their very best all day, every day. And consider how much this helps build loyalty!
You need not put the entire burden on the company. It is reasonable to require some co-payment from the employees using your daycare. But it will still be much more convenient, and cost far less than a household would have to pay themselves.
Be sure to learn your state’s regulations concerning childcare. Before you open the door to onsite childcare/daycare, learn as much as you can about your state’s regulations for the childcare industry. There are rules, but nothing too onerous that companies can’t manage.
Instead of turning away some of the best workers, give them what they need to be successful. Providing quality childcare to parents who need it the most gives you an opportunity to explore what talent is actually available. They get to earn (and keep) the majority of their paycheck, and you have access to a workforce who is grateful to be able to provide for their family.
Whatever benefits you choose to provide, total compensation reports, like those from COMPackage, allow you to show your employees their true total package. This can be a great support in both recruiting and retention, just as company-supported childcare can be.
Should You Hire a Head of Remote Employees?
As organizations across different industries embrace remote and hybrid work schedules, many find it challenging to coordinate distributed teams. Workplace flexibility is often regarded as a competitive advantage in today’s labor market.
If you recently introduced flexible working in your company, you may have considered hiring a Head of Remote employees. This is what many organizations are currently doing, and there are many benefits to it. We have covered a few things you should know before hiring a Head of Remote.
The Shift to Remote: Benefits and Challenges
Whether operating in a hybrid or fully remote setting, there are many benefits that flexible working offers to both employees and employers. Employees save time and money on long commutes and can choose when, how, and where they want to work. Moreover, employers benefit from a diverse workforce capable of driving innovation, productivity, and business growth. And hiring remote workers opens up a a much larger, nearly unlimited, geographic recruiting area to draw from.
However, with remote working comes the risk of poor work-life balance, disengagement, and increased burnout. Similarly, some employees working remotely report having less spontaneous communication with colleagues, loneliness, and lack of learning and mentorship opportunities as critical concerns in the remote work world.
But despite these reports, several studies point to a maturing remote and hybrid work culture, with many employees threatening to quit if their employers require them to work full-time in the office. Some surveys found that 50% of employees would take a pay cut to have the option to continue working remotely. Also, check out our prior article about alternatives for paying remote workers.
Why Hire a Head of Remote
In light of the current developments, most organizations know that returning to the pre-pandemic work world isn’t an option. So, they are now finding ways to strengthen remote and hybrid work strategies to ensure the main challenges identified by employees are resolved or eliminated. One way of doing so is by hiring a Head of Remote who will have a seat at the table.
Ideally, a Head of Remote is responsible for designing and optimizing the company’s remote strategy. They are the ones to address workplace culture issues, burnout, poor collaboration, technology challenges, and employee disengagement. An ideal candidate for the job is someone good in project management, communication, strategy execution, and problem-solving.
The Head of Remote employees should also be the link between the management and hybrid workers, ensuring a smooth flow of information between fully remote and hybrid or in-office staff.
Make it Work for You
Offering remote and hybrid work schedules is one way of winning the talent war and ensuring you hold on to the best people for the long haul. Organizations looking to maximize the benefits of flexible work schedules while minimizing the disadvantages must invest in effective remote strategies. Hiring a Head of Remote is a great way to delegate remote functions to someone who can influence company decisions and has the capacity to allocate the necessary resources.
This article is brought to you by COMPackage, the leader in DIY total compensation reports. Help your recruiting and retention efforts by clearly showing your employees and recruits the total package you offer.
Do Employee Benefit Reports Reduce Turnover?
Over the last two years, talent shortages and retention challenges have risen to the top of the corporate agenda. Today, organizations are finding ways to attract and hold on to their best people. The pandemic made workers rethink their priorities, and many chose time with family and loved ones over long working hours and stressful commutes.
This is what eventually led to The Great Resignation, where millions of employees across industries exited the workforce to find more flexible jobs, start their own businesses, or retire early to have more time with loved ones. In light of what’s happening in today’s workplaces, we’ll explore if and how employee benefits reports, also called total compensation statements, can help stem turnover.
Hiring and Retaining Talents in the New Normal
As HR leaders and their strategic advisors work on ways to hire and retain talents, they face the challenge of offering employees what they want while keeping the business running effectively and at a profit.
One of the first steps to achieve this goal is to consider restructuring employee benefits. But this isn’t the silver bullet. You still need to nurture a positive workplace culture, offer flexible working schedules and competitive salaries, and show your people that you value, respect, and care for them.
Before restructuring employee benefits, consider conducting a comprehensive audit of the current benefits and follow up with a survey to better understand what your employees want. Afterward, you can compile a comprehensive report that will inform your decision-making.
Cost of Employee Turnover
When employees leave your organization, especially your top performers, it’s often an indication that your retention strategies are broken or not competitive. Some factors that drive employees out of the workplace are poor company culture, lack of flexible work schedules, and non-competitive pay and benefits. Others are poor internal mobility and lack of career development opportunities.
Employee turnover costs the organization in many ways. First, employee departure negatively affects the morale of the remaining staff, who may also be compelled to leave. Other costs come from advertising for open positions, recruiting, training, and onboarding new hires.
Depending on the quality of acquired talents, you may also spend a lot of time and money accelerating new hires to ensure faster time to traction. And if the new hires fail to work out, you’ll have to start over again.
Making Employee Benefits Work
The employee benefits package aims to ensure workers feel comfortable, satisfied, and motivated working for your company. Without a well-implemented employee benefits plan, you will surely lose your top talent to your competition. That said, not all employee benefits work. Some are nice-to-have packages that offer little to no value to most employees.
When done right, you may find that it’s more beneficial to replace paid family leave with flexible work schedules or to allow employees to choose between options, such as free gym memberships and caregiver benefits, instead of making it a “take-it or leave-it” plan.
A secret to implementing effective employee benefits is to get to the bottom of employee needs and what matters to them. Instead of speculating what your people want, you should listen more to understand employee grievances before restructuring the benefits.
At the end of the day, you’ll have the benefits you have. But what so many employers neglect to do is to spell out for employees their entire compensation package using total compensation statement software such as COMPackage.com. After all, if you are being generous and your people understand what they’re getting, they are simply more likely to stay with you.
Quiet Quitting – What Are You Doing About It?
Since the start of the pandemic, much has been written and said about The Great Resignation. Amidst this conversation, a new term has emerged and is dominating on social media: Quiet Quitting. This term refers to employees exclusively performing the tasks they are paid for without taking on any additional responsibilities or engaging in extracurricular activities at work.
But what is it really? Is it a problem for the workforce, and should business managers be concerned about it? In this article, we will explore the concept even further to have a better understanding of this new concept. Let’s dive in.
What Is Quiet Quitting?
Contrary to its name, quiet quitting has no connection with resigning from your employment. It entails accomplishing nothing more than what is required of you by your employer. You still report to work, but you scrupulously adhere to the constraints imposed by your job description. This includes things like refusing to go to unnecessary meetings, turning down projects, refusing to answer the phone outside work hours, and much more.
While it differs in definition, it is motivated by many of the same underlying motives as genuine resignations. Millions of Americans had to endure a deadly pandemic, a poor economy, the eroding of our civil liberties, and the gradual dissolution of democracy. As a result, we have working-class people who are exhausted, overworked, and burned out, and are attempting to reclaim their agency and reject employment and working situations that are unfit for them.
Quiet quitting, which has grown in popularity as a reaction to pandemic-induced exhaustion, is undoubtedly becoming a trend. This is especially true among the younger workforce, who, in many ways, have experienced the worst of these unusual times.
Is Quiet Quitting a Problem for the American Workforce?
Quiet quitting might not seem like a problem initially, as your employees aren’t abandoning their primary duties. They’re just not willing to go above and beyond them. However, since most employers cannot adequately and fully describe most professions in a written job description or contract, they must rely on their staff to rise to the occasion and take on additional responsibilities. Therefore, it is no surprise that many leaders have reacted somewhat harshly to the trend.
Should You Be Worried as a Manager?
If you notice that an increasing number of your employees are quietly quitting, you should question whether it has something to do with yourself, your leadership qualities, or your direct reports. In either case, give your strategy for working with your team a critical evaluation. Start with this: Do you try to ensure that your employees feel valued and appreciated? Do you make efforts to support your staff in having a supportive work-life balance? Do you take for granted the work they do that is above and beyond? Is it time to sit down with each of your employees and have a frank conversation about their commitment to the job, and the company’s commitment to them.
The Reality of Quiet Quitting
Workers are being asked to put in more effort while receiving insufficient support from their employers. If this doesn’t change, this silent option of work dissociation is expected to gain popularity as the economy worsens and outright quitting becomes less realistic for many people.
One potential way to help ameliorate your employee’s relationship with your company is by showing how generous you are with benefits. Most employees don’t really understand the financial investment you make to their benefits – and, moreover, the dollar value these benefits have to the employees. Tools like total compensation reports from COMPackage make it very easy and cost effective to show employees what you are giving them above and beyond their base pay.
6 Effects of Covid-19 that Will Affect Companies for Years to Come
Covid-19 caused a total shift in the corporate world and created trends bound to last into the future. Below are six effects of Covid-19 that you can expect to have a lingering impact on companies. As a business, understanding the implications of major events like the recent pandemic allows you to plan and adjust to the prevailing circumstance to ensure survival, growth, and relevance. Sticking to old ways may not work.
1. Hybrid Workplace
As part of the containment measures, most companies required employees to work from home to minimize the spread of the virus. The move made most companies (and employees) realize the benefits of remote work and acknowledge that employees can still be productive away from the office. It also came with cost savings for companies and flexibility in working hours and workplaces.
Since not all employees can work from home, companies created a hybrid workforce by adding flexibility to their working hours and allowing employees to work remotely in shifts. After implementing such measures during the pandemic, getting back to working entirely from the office will be a challenge.
2. Increased Digitization
With remote working, companies had to digitize their operations. They shifted from in-person to virtual meetings, which required companies to invest in digital conferencing tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Also, the uptake of packages like Microsoft 365 increased as it comes with benefits like sync and the ability to access files remotely for home workers.
As more businesses move online the focus on cybersecurity also grows, with more companies investing in cloud services and tools like VPNs. Digital investment during the pandemic also means companies will continue adopting new digital solutions after realizing their effectiveness and security. This may also impact employment rates as companies can work effectively even with labor constraints.
3. Changing Consumer Behavior
Covid-19 caused changes in consumer behavior, resulting in a shift in demand for specific products and services. Consumers shopped more intentionally and consciously, with brand loyalty dropping. They also went online for goods and focused on buying locally.
Conscious shopping means less waste and choosing more sustainable options. With this in mind, brands that make sustainability a crucial offering are bound to enjoy the benefits in the future. Also, companies will have to invest in connecting with local consumers and tailor their offerings to meet local needs to stay relevant and prosper.
4. Increased E-Commerce
As people stayed home and social-distanced, consumers opted to shop online to avoid going to the store. E-commerce provided access to different products for consumers in the comfort of their homes. It has also ensured that companies continue operations despite Covid restrictions.
The convenience that e-commerce affords buyers means consumers will continue shopping online. Also, the sales incentives and lower business costs make it a possible alternative for brands seeking to benefit from an online presence. Companies that would otherwise shut down their physical stores in such a crisis can consider e-commerce to stay in operation in the future.
5. Resilience
Given the threats the pandemic posed to businesses, companies that survived the tumultuous era are likely to become more resilient. After adapting and overcoming the crisis through measures like better products and services and improved processes, many companies can handle future disruptors without crumbling. Also, the pandemic forced most businesses to put their best foot forward and change how they conduct their operations through digitalization and automation, improving productivity and efficiency.
6. Recruiting
The advent of an increased workforce means that companies are no longer limited to the pool of employees living near their offices. This opens up staff sourcing opportunities really wide for employers. This includes specialized workers that might be hard to find in your city. It also opens up the possibility of paying less for workers who reside in cities where the cost of living is much lower than your city (e.g., someone from a remote town in North Dakota being hired for a job in Manhattan can probably be paid a lot less than those living in or around Manhattan.
The Covid-19 pandemic had significant implications on business operations, and the above effects are likely to be around for much longer.
This article is brought to you by COMPackage, the leader in DIY total compensation reports. Help your recruiting and retention efforts by clearly showing your employees and recruits the total package you offer.
Why Are Employees Quitting Jobs in Masses?
In November of 2021, the rate at which people quit their jobs reached a 20-year high in what’s being called The Great Resignation. What’s causing people to leave their jobs en masse all of a sudden? There are a number of reasons.
The Given Reasons
According to the Pew Research Center, the most popular reason given by workers leaving their jobs last year was that the pay was too low. This has been a major part of public discourse for a while now. Prices are going up. Rent is going up. Meanwhile, wages are stagnating. For many employees, their paychecks are no longer enough to live on.
The second most popular reason was that there was no opportunity at the job for advancement. A particular job may seem a dream to an employee when it’s first offered to them. However, it can lose its appeal after a few years of doing the same thing day after day. They’ve gained knowledge and experience at this job, and they want to put it to good use: be given more responsibility, a better job title, more pay, etc. But for whatever reason, the company won’t let them move forward.
Some bosses even take this a step further. When someone leaves the company, rather than hiring someone new, they’ll simply give that person’s responsibilities to another employee: more work and more responsibility, but without the corresponding promotion or salary increase.
This ties in directly with the third most popular reason for quitting a job: a lack of respect at work. Some employers abuse their authority. They try to force employees to work overtime or come in on their day off – and they threaten discipline, or even termination, if they don’t. They make impossible demands and act like it’s the employee’s duty to bow to their every whim. Job environments like this can become intolerable quickly, paving the way for resignation.
The Underlying Reasons
While low pay and poor working conditions are certainly valid reasons to leave a job, these problems have also been around for years. Why now, all of a sudden, have employees finally had enough? There are a number of possible reasons, but one of the biggest factors likely involves the pandemic.
For one thing, many older baby boomers with investment accounts that were at peak levels chose to retire. Moreover, nearly 1.8 million women left the labor force amid the pandemic. Presumably after having a taste of not working, they simply chose not to return.
These two classes of workers created vacancies for many millennials to move into – many with a significant pay increase as employers struggled to find replacements. Besides driving the Great Resignation, these circumstances may be high among the leading causes for inflation. When COVID hit the U.S., many companies switched to work-from-home models. People who had spent years coming into the office day after day were suddenly given the tools to do their jobs from anywhere.
Employees with children found themselves better equipped to balance work and family life. Employees with long commutes now didn’t have to waste all that time on the road anymore.
A plethora of benefits to the new work-from-home model became apparent. What’s more, productivity levels didn’t suffer as employers feared they would. In most cases, they remained the same or even improved!
Then, when COVID restrictions were relaxed, many of these companies started requiring their employees once again to come into the office every day. Having seen that things can be better than having to go back to the way things were before, has been eye-opening for many workers.
Smart companies are coming up with solutions, and future articles will cover some of these solutions. One tool than can help with retention is total compensation reports, like those from COMPackage.com. These help to educate workers as to the total value of their compensation when costly benefits are understood.
Six Great Ideas for Onboarding a Remote Workforce
Bringing new remote employees aboard should be a smooth and inviting endeavor. The way you welcome new members to your team plays a major role in whether the team will be cohesive or disjointed. Here are ideas for onboarding a remote workforce.
1. Offer extensive training to new members
Training new employees is crucial to maintaining a consistent staff, yet so many companies give this short shrift. For example, they’ll give people one or two weeks of training, when four to six would be much more grounding and effective. Often, the reason people quit after being hired is they don’t understand the work because it wasn’t presented to them clearly enough. Successful training includes instructors asking for feedback to make sure each individual understands their role and responsibilities. Moreover, this is a great excuse to have new hires meet various people in your company – the more the merrier. Because establishing enduring connections is often the number one reason employees tend to stay at a company.
2. Set up online meetings with small groups
Online video meetings are helpful to visually bringing a remote team together. Encourage some online meetings that are purely relationship-oriented. For example, pose questions that have people share their personal side (e.g., What’s something most people wouldn’t know about you? What’s the most interesting place you ever traveled to? What’s your worst traveling horror story? Etc.).
3. Encourage dinner/drink get-togethers
If you have multiple people who work remotely but live near each other (or live near to the company office), encourage them to get together outside of working ours for the pure purpose of socializing. For example, you might offer to cover dinner or drinks (to a reasonable maximum) whenever three or more people gather outside of work.
4. Create a visual, fun, online onboarding handbook
Most employee handbooks are so dry and boring, it’s a wonder anyone ever reads them. Why not turn this around by having a creative team (internal or external) find a way to make it graphical and entertaining. You can include fun videos of various team members introducing themselves and discussing the handbook items that are in their purview – but in short bursts. Include links for new hires to provide feedback or ask questions. And structure the whole thing to avoid information overload.
5. Engage new hires in an online games
Some employers use games such as scavenger hunts on their premises as a fun and refreshing onboarding technique. The same thing can be done virtually with the company’s website. Make a contest out of having new members search the site for answers to trivia questions about the company. Give prizes to those who can answer the most questions correctly. It will help accelerate the learning curve about the organization.
6. Offer Total Compensation Reports
Distributing total compensation reports allows employers to share what they are providing for employees beyond their base pay. Employers tend to take for granted that employees will understand the high value of their non-salary compensation, but many employees don’t realize the extent of it. This can help with retention – especially as many employees these days are turning to freelancing. But it’s not until they leave a job and are confronted by things like the high cost of health insurance, the extra cost of FICA, and the fact that they no longer are getting paid on holidays and during vacations, that some begin to appreciate just how good they had it working at your company.
4 Considerations to Get Staff to Return to the Office
The last couple of years have seen a paradigm shift in most workplaces. As a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, most employees had to work remotely. Fortunately, the restrictions caused by COVID-19 have been gradually easing.
Now, employees are slowly coming back to the office. But, just how easy is it for your employees to transition from remote working to be in the office? More importantly, what can employers do to ensure a smooth transition? Read on to learn how to smoothly get your employees back to the office.
How easy is the transition from remote to office working?
Some employers and top managers do not see a problem with the transition from working from home to moving back to the office. However, if you look at it from the employee’s point of view, you’ll realize why you need a transition plan. Essentially, your staff has been working from the comfort of their homes for a while now.
Working from home presents a new experience, and it will take time before the staff can get used to working from the office. There’s no definitive timeline or guideline on how long it will take. Since every workplace is unique, it may take your staff anywhere from a few days to weeks or even months.
What can employers do to ensure a smooth transition?
Admittedly, employers have a key role to play in creating a conducive work environment. Here are a few practical tips on what you can do.
1. Get feedback from your staff
As an employer, you may feel the entire burden of creating a smooth transition falls on you. However, it is important to remember you are dealing with the lives of other people. Taking some time to engage with your employees will make the transition process easier.
Basically, you want to ask your staff what works best for them and how you can improve the working space to match the experience they had. Take up these ideas and work on implementing them. For example, most people got used to dressing down. You can, for example, come up with a more lenient and accommodating dress code.
2. Consider changing the working hours
One of the most significant changes when working remotely is the freedom of working hours. Some employees got used to working at different hours of the day. Now that the staff is transitioning back to the office, perhaps you should reconsider changing when the staff can work.
Since most economies operate throughout the day and night, implementing better working hours could also open up new opportunities for your services and products. In addition, changing the working hours could positively affect productivity. Since everyone works when they are most productive, you may experience increased output.
3. Rearrange the working environment
Traditionally, offices were built without significant consideration for the staff. However, since your employees have gotten used to working in a conducive environment, getting back to the generic office setting may increase the transition period.
You can get ideas from your staff on what they would like to see in the new workspace environment. Some of the options to consider include a practical and functional break room with some nice amenities.
4. Give your staff ample time to adjust
As mentioned above, there’s no one definite time limit that your employees need to officially get back to the comfort of the office. This applies to both general workplaces and individual employees. Employers and managers should be understanding and let employees take their time and transition at their speeds.
Ultimately, it is important to recognize that getting back to the office comes with its own set of challenges. Taking time to understand what your employees need and what you can do to help will go a long way in creating a smooth transition. These steps will help you get the best from your employees and a creative work environment.
Improving the office experience is one way to help workers be comfortable in the office. Those considering changing to become freelancers would be well served by understanding their current situation better with total compensation reports. They might be surprised to learn that if they go off on their own, they will be giving up a lot of money in benefits they’ll need to provide themselves.
Does Increasing Female Leadership Help Reduce Gender Bias in the Workplace?
Gender bias and inequality in the workplace is something we’d like to think of as a thing of the past. In reality, that isn’t the case. This remains a significant issue today.
Every company should certainly make an effort to eliminate gender bias and inequality. Not only is this the right thing to do, but making a deliberate effort towards the same can help you attract and retain top talent.
Towards this end, there are several approaches a company can take. One such approach is by increasing female leadership in the following one or more of the ways.
1. Implementing a Gender-Neutral Recruitment Process
Review your entire recruitment process to eliminate any loopholes that would otherwise encourage gender bias. This starts with the language used in the job description when putting out job ads.
Indeed, some words commonly used in job descriptions have masculine connotations, which may put off women from applying for the advertised positions. “Competitive” is one such word; another is “rock-star” On the other hand, words such as “co-operation” and “collaboration” tend to attract women more.
The bottom line remains that you should be sure to inquisitively review your job postings and remove any gender-charged phrases, both masculine and feminine.
The next step is to ensure you standardize interviews and implement blind evaluation processes. Blind evaluation processes, such as neuroscientific tests, help to remove any bias from the recruitment process.
2. Support Women into Senior Roles
Big names across different industries have set gender targets. These companies break down targets by function and business lines. This means that the company sets out a certain number of seats on the senior management board for women and finds the most qualified women to fill these roles.
Of course, like men, all these women in senior positions should have clearly defined roles, and their performance gauged against set targets and required milestones. They should be held accountable for meeting these targets just like anyone else.
3. Actively Encourage Women to Progress
Ensure your female employees are applying for advertised promotions and asking for pay raises. Some companies have made a point of ensuring that line managers check if the high-potential women in their team have applied for these positions. If not, the line managers have a responsibility to find out why that is the case.
Actively encouraging it will get more women to apply for positions of progress. Line managers should make a point of doing follow-ups to ensure that more women apply, provided they are a good fit for the advertised positions.
4. Establishing Mentorship Programs
It isn’t enough to just encourage women at your workplace to apply for higher-paying and more senior roles. It’s best to provide the much-needed guidance and mentorship. And the higher up in the organization you are, the more widespread will be your effect.
Indeed, a solid mentorship program will help to diversify the work hierarchy. These programs give women in your organization the organizational knowledge, skills, and networks to be able to climb the corporate ladder.
Through these programs, you will be pairing the women in your organization with other women, or even men, who can impart to them the knowledge required to get to that promotion or power the transition to the next step.
Beyond Leadership
As highlighted, you can bridge gender inequality at the workplace by encouraging and increasing female leadership. In addition to encouraging more women to fill senior positions or positions of leadership in the organization, you will do well to review salaries and standardize pay. This will help bridge any gender pay gaps. With total compensation reports, you can show potential employees and recruits the total package you offer, which will, in turn, help your talent recruiting and retention offers.
