Survive HR

We’ve been hearing a lot about the LGBTQQIA community the past several years as more and more arguments are made that those who fall into this group are protected by Title VII’s prohibitions against sex discrimination. Several lower courts have split on whether Title VII’s provisions include protection for LGBTQQIA members. The Supreme Court heard arguments regarding this issue on October 8, 2019 and it was unclear as to how the justices were leaning.

Today we live in a Post Christian society even though 65% of Americans profess to be of the Christian faith.  Back during the Industrial Revolution and even into the 1960’s it was commonplace for chaplains/ministers to provide advice and counsel to employees at the worksite.  It was, in effect, the earliest form of an Employee Assistance Program.  However, since then almost every organization has abandoned corporate chaplaincy programs, in favor of EAP programs, which have a broader offering of services and should not be offensive to people who have other or no religious beliefs at all.

I vividly recall the day an employee walked into my office, a man 25 years more senior than myself, with tears in his eyes, begging me to take his name off the layoff list.  That was 11 years ago, and something that still haunts me.  The beginning of my career as an HR Manger started with the Great Recession where I gained amazing amounts of experience in terminating seemingly excellent performers and praying that they would be able to feed their children in a time when no one was hiring.

Have you ever wanted to be the President of your organization?  Have you ever believed it was possible for you to go from an HR position to the Presidency?  How would someone actually ever do that?  Actually, there are more and more Presidents of corporations coming out of HR, primarily due to their soft skills and understanding of how to negotiate and reason through the myriad of business issues, many of which have their roots in personnel related matters.

According to a 2016 report by Everbridge, “69% of workplaces view an active shooter incident as a top threat, but 79% of organizations responded that they were not prepared for this level of threat.” On this week’s podcast, we are joined by our friends, Proactive Response Group to learn more about how to take a survivor’s attitude during the unfortunate act of a workplace violence incident.

Its Halloween, and many of you are enjoying the festivities at work. This episode will talk about ways your company can have fun during Halloween, but do it in the right way from an HR perspective. 

For the past 50 years, the debate has raged regarding whether marijuana should be legalized.  I remember writing a paper on this topic, while in college, many years ago.  Today, while the issue continues to garner discussion, 46 states have passed laws either legalizing the use of medical marijuana, recreational marijuana, or both.  66% of Americas favor legalizing marijuana, according to a recent poll, and both federal and state governments stand to benefit significantly through the taxation of marijuana products.  There is little doubt in my mind that one day we will see every state legalize the use of medical marijuana and perhaps the federal government legalize its use in one or more forms. However, as of today, marijuana is still a prohibited drug as far as federal law is concerned.

Military Service to our country is not something to be taken lightly. These brave men and woman sacrifice incredible amounts of themselves in the name of protecting our nation, however when their service is up, and they rejoin the civilian workforce, they can struggle to find meaningful work. It is a staggering fact when you realized that 95% of veterans are filtered out when applying for jobs online. The resumes of these men and women have leadership, teamwork, triumph over adversity, performance under pressure, and accelerated learning, written all over them. If a veteran does make it through the applicant tracking systems, less than one percent of hiring managers have any military knowledge to be able to understand how a veteran’s skills fit into their organization.

Do you get a sick feeling in your stomach every time you have to prepare for benefits selection or plan design/renewal?  Over the past 10 years, healthcare costs have risen on average 4.15% per year, according to Mercer.  This average increase would be more had employers not made a number of plan changes, the most common of which have been raising deductibles and offering less generous plans. Smaller employers have seen a much higher percentage increase than large employers.

I think everyone has seen the trailer to a scary film, where the dark music plays and you just know that at any second, something very frightening is going to jump out and startle you!   Do you have those moments in HR?  I do!  My heart sinks every time I see mail on my desk from the EEOC, because chances are, they aren’t sending me a letter to wish me a good day!  Checkout our podcast below with Matthew Floyd.