Communicating with employees is key when a PR crisis strikes
Jon Hyman, Ohio Employer’s Blog
Lots has been said about how United Airlines mishandled violently dragging a passenger from an overbooked flight. And none of it is good. Yet, make no mistake, how United CEO Oscar Munoz communicated with his company’s employees immediately following the incident did not do anything to make it any better.
Fox News Turmoil Highlights Workplace Culture’s Role In Sexual Harassment
Yuki Noguchi, NPR
Fox isn’t alone; allegations of pervasive sexual harassment also recently surfaced at Uber and at Sterling Jewelers, which owns the Kay, Jared and Zales chains. Uber hired former Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate claims that its culture permitted sexual harassment. Sterling’s parent company says the allegations against it are without merit.
Experts say rooting out a culture of sexual harassment is a big challenge but can be done if handled correctly.
The Utter Uselessness of Job Interviews
Jason Dana, New York Times
A friend of mine once had a curious experience with a job interview. Excited about the possible position, she arrived five minutes early and was immediately ushered into the interview by the receptionist. Following an amicable discussion with a panel of interviewers, she was offered the job.
Afterward, one of the interviewers remarked how impressed she was that my friend could be so composed after showing up 25 minutes late to the interview. As it turned out, my friend had been told the wrong start time by half an hour; she had remained composed because she did not know she was late.
The Smart Way to Respond to Negative Emotions at Work
Christine M. Pearson, M.I.T.Sloan Management Review
Many executives try to ignore negative emotions in their workplaces — a tactic that can be counterproductive and costly. If employees’ negative feelings are responded to wisely, they may provide important feedback.
Want to Retain Women Leaders? Look Beyond Maternity Leave
Sharlyn Lauby, HR Bartender
Organizations need to focus their engagement and retention strategies toward women. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a woman. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, women represent 51.5 percent of all professional and managerial jobs. And a large percentage of these women are also working mothers. So, if businesses are saying to themselves, “Where can we have the most impact?”, it only seems logical and good business sense to consider the largest group.
Stress really is killing us
Daniel Keating, CNN
White, working-class Americans are dying in middle age at a rapidly increasing pace, reversing a long-standing trend toward greater life expectancy across all races and social classes, according to a new report from economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton.
Much of this alarming trend comes from “deaths of despair,” especially opioid addictions and overdoses, suicide, and alcohol-related diseases. To stem this epidemic, they argue that we need to understand the underlying reasons why this is happening. Case and Deaton make a plausible case that “slow moving and cumulative” social forces — lack of labor market opportunities and fraying of the accustomed social fabric — are key explanations. They reject arguments that attribute this trend to income alone or to a decline in virtue.
How to Spark Creativity When You’re in a Rut
Priscilla Claman, Harvard Business Review
Remember your first day at work? You were excited. There were new people to meet, new skills to be learned, new processes or products to understand.
If you are like most people, something else was different then — you. When you weren’t sure or didn’t understand, you asked questions, persistently. You compared what you were supposed to do on this job with what you had done in the past, and you made suggestions. You observed what your new colleagues were doing and evaluated what you saw. As a new person, you felt entitled to look at things differently and ask questions — that was a sign of your creativity.
Workplace bullying: Acknowledging grief
David Yamada, Minding the Workplace
Catching my attention this week was an essay by religion professor Jacqueline Bussie (Concordia College, Minnesota) on the experience of grief. Titled “On Becoming Grief Outlaws” and published in The Cresset (the journal of Valparaiso University in Indiana, my undergraduate school), the piece questions how our popular culture urges us to internalize our grief rather than to express it openly.
More noteworthy HR news
- Employers, spike those “high heels” dress code requirements!
- Trump Takes on H1-B Visas
- New Executive Order Addresses H-IB Visas
- Can an Employee take FMLA Leave to Care For a Sibling? Before You Say “No,” Read This
- Ensuring Seamless Communications Before and After Mergers and Acquisitions
- Eliminate miscommunication in text and chat
- Rude Doctors, Rude Nurses, Rude Patients
- Struggling to lead? Turns out, people like being treated like people (here’s how)
- Gary Kushner at #SHRM17 and Five Global Trends Impacting HR Strategy
- FMLA is not a tool an employee can use to delay or avoid a termination
- Strange but True Hiring Trends
- Giving Workers a Reason to Stay
- America Has to Close the Workforce Skills Gap
The lighter side
For your next office celebration, wouldn’t you love to have one of these spectacular terrarium cakes? But unfortunately, you would have to go to Jakarta to get one!
Take the 146-Question Knowledge Test Thomas Edison Gave to Prospective Employees (1921). We don’t recommend using it in your interview process!
Spring is in the air and if you doubt it, just check out Koeiendans 2017, an annual dancing cows spring ritual at a Netherlands dairy when cows are let out in the field after having been cooped up inside – they are positively light on their feet.