Category Archives: Workplace

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Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. Offers Great Reset Survival Tips at RISKWORLD 2023

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ATLANTA—RISKWORLD 2023 kicked off on Monday with a high-energy keynote delivered by Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Taylor looked back on the last three years as a time characterized by major shifts in the way work and operations are performed, suggesting that it was an opportunity for the risk profession to lean in to change.

Taylor transported the audience back to March 13, 2020, when after nearly a month of rising public health fears, Proclamation 9994 was announced by the White House, declaring a national emergency concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.

RISKWORLD 2023 kicked off on Monday with a high-energy keynote delivered by Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Taylor looked back on the last three years as a time characterized by major shifts in the way work and operations are performed, suggesting that it was an opportunity for the risk profession to lean in to change.

“The way we work changed on that day,” Taylor said. He also noted the correlation of the change in the thesis for his book—from The Great Pause to The Great Reset—to reflect the reality of the time more accurately. He said the data compiled changed, and became more qualitative. “The data we collected told the story about employees saw the world.

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”

Based on data and interviews, along with anecdotes from his own experience leading SHRM, Taylor offered “survival tips” for the audience to use in an effort to navigate patterns in employment and productivity.

One tip was to flip the script on recent employment trends, such as how the “Great Resignation” of 2020 and 2021 has evolved into what he referred to as “The Great Regret” of 2023.

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He referenced the 9.9 million currently open jobs as a negative, but one that risk professionals can help correct through methods that may have seemed counterintuitive just five years ago, such as likening career and hiring patterns to a boomerang for the employee and employer. Taylor leans into this notion by contacting recently departed employees at 30-, 60- and 90-day intervals, to gauge if their new endeavors are gaining traction and whether their return would be suitable.

“The best companies are doing this more and more,” he said. “We know regret is real and employees who felt the grass is greener realize it might not always be the case.

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If someone was a great performer and left on the right terms, you should consider [reaching back to them].”

He also encouraged attendees to look within improve their hiring and employment practices. “You must not only hire for someone’s technical competencies and ability to do the job, but they must be culturally aligned,” he said. “News alert: They can’t be culturally aligned if you don’t have clarity around what your culture is. Do that, and you’ll solve for 90% of the problems in the Great Reset.”

New NAAIA Report Focuses on Next Steps for DEI in the Insurance Industry

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As Black History Month kicks off, February presents a great opportunity to not only celebrate the history and accomplishments of African Americans, but also to meaningfully assess and advance diversity, equity and inclusion measures with the goal of ensuring lasting change rather than lip service. To that end, the National African American Insurance Association (NAAIA) recently updated its research on its members’ experiences and challenges in the insurance industry, releasing the new study The Next Steps on the Journey: Has Anything Changed? The new research updates NAAIA’s 2018 report The Journey of African American Insurance Professionals, evaluating what progress has or has not been made over the past five years, particularly given the increasing focus on DEI programs and, specifically, many companies’ discussions of DEI efforts after the murder of George Floyd brought the Black Lives Matter movement to the fore.

“On one hand, there is a prevailing sense from Blacks/African Americans in the sector that companies are seeking to find credible and practical ways to solve longstanding inequities,” said Omari Jahi Aarons, executive director and chief operating officer at NAAIA. “However, the report highlights that many of these actions are falling short because they are not addressing inequities at the foundational level.”

For example, most survey respondents agreed that their organizations were committed to diversity (60%) and inclusion (61%), and nearly half felt that their organizations were committed to advancing equity (43%) and equality (48%). Nevertheless, 84% of respondents said they continue to encounter obstacles in their career progress compared to other under-represented groups because of either conscious or unconscious racial bias.

Respondents shared several key changes that risk and insurance organizations can make to “more fully achieve and prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion,” such as enhancing recruitment and talent identification initiatives and placing greater focus on recruiting from HBCUs and institutions with substantially diverse student populations, promoting African Americans to officer-level roles, increasing board diversity across racial and gender identities, addressing compensation and pay inequities, increasing pay transparency, offering more mentorship opportunities and extending support through executive coaches.

To support the advancement, networking and development of African American risk practitioners, the report offers a number of recommendations “to catalyze conversation and action” for risk and insurance professionals, including:

Recommendations for Black/African-American risk and insurance professionals:

  • Demonstrate success: Attracting talent to the risk and insurance industry will depend upon the full engagement of Black/African-American insurance professionals who can illuminate under-informed or unaware communities and constituencies about the opportunities in the industry.
  • Seek and offer mentoring: Throughout the research, mentoring was mentioned as a critical factor for career success and satisfaction. Individual professionals can articulate their respective needs for mentoring and can provide mentoring to, and with, each other.
  • Get and provide exposure: Getting exposure and gathering knowledge about the industry can be a powerful, effective remedy to longstanding barriers for underrepresented groups. Individuals can consider their own social networks to foster partnerships to strengthen industry exposure, increase validity of career opportunities and encourage young people to view risk and insurance as a viable and rewarding career path.
  • Advocate for self and for others: Individual professionals must find ways to take charge of their careers, connect and exchange ideas with other professionals. The research revealed that most participants did not belong to any industry-related associations, which could hinder career progress and success. Expanding networks and deepening ties to the industry should be a top priority for every individual, and membership costs should be viewed as an investment in personal professional development. Facilitated introductions for employers and NAAIA to Black/African-American organizations can also foster engagement and collaboration.

While many organizations have introduced DEI programs and proclaimed support for African American employees since the Black Lives Matter movement took root, the survey found many of these moves lacking in actual impact thus far. “Respondents identified the tragic murder of George Floyd and many other Blacks/African Americans and People of Color as the catalyst for centering conversations on race and the risk and insurance industry has responded with a host of new initiatives to address disparities,” NAAIA noted. “Respondents reported increased exposure from initiatives specifically DEI-related training (57%), support for employee resource groups (35%) and mentorship programs (21%). However, these initiatives have not translated to career advancement.”

To help employers improve their DEI efforts, the report also offered the following recommendations:

Recommendations for employers:

  • Avoid performative actions: DEI-driven activities and training notably emerged in response to the events of the last few years. However, many organizations are “checking the box” by undertaking noticeable, but not meaningful, initiatives. A thoughtful and careful review of DEI initiatives is an important first step to ensuring that they are not merely performative, requiring courageous conversations by several stakeholders about the purpose and intent of each activity or program.
  • Turn barriers into gateways: With intention, employers should ensure that there are measurable DEI goals and outcomes visible at all levels of the organization. Measurements can include internal or third-party pay equity and workload balance analyses or tying compensation to the successful implementation of DEI initiatives, especially at middle managerial levels.
  • Use leverage: More employers could leverage the vast networks of employees and employee resource group participants for recruitment and to influence internal mobility, as well as to increase levels of employee engagement. Often, employers underestimate the power of personal connections and references within minority communities, foregoing opportunities to build awareness and enhance their brands both internally within their organizations and externally.
  • Provide meaningful, substantial support: Supporting NAAIA local chapters through sponsorship, mentoring and partnerships and cultivating multiyear partnerships with Black/African-American community professional, civic and youth organizations can lift a company’s profile. More importantly, these types of partnerships also allow for employers to create greater access to internal subject matter experts to communities that are underserved on relevant macro business and professional development topics (e.g., financial literacy, wealth creation or cybersecurity).
  • Connect human resources, senior executives and ERG leaders: Several respondents noted that beyond nominally sponsoring an ERG, many executives were not directly involved in planning or activities. Most of the ERGs are organized and driven by employee volunteers, which often renders them less effective because of time and work constraints. If human resources, senior executives and ERG leaders can convene to discuss mission, alignment with company goals and resource allocations, there is a greater likelihood of continuous progress.

For more of the report’s findings and recommendations, click here to read NAAIA’s The Next Steps of the Journey: Has Anything Changed?

7 Tips to Mitigate the Risks of Summer Staff Parties

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With millions of employees continuing to work remotely part- or full-time, 2022 summer office outings may represent one of the first “all hands” get-togethers for many employers since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Indeed, 37% of respondents to spot surveys conducted by Seyfarth at Work reported that there had not been a need, opportunity and/or COVID-safe venue for everyone to be in the same space at the same time since 2019.

Two years is a long wait, and based on anecdotal reporting in the wake of June and early July events, some employees are perhaps a bit overexcited at the prospect of finally hanging out together.

Some summer outing horror stories that resulted in complaints and charges include:

• An East Coast video game development company’s festivities included ice-breaker activities of beer pong and “spin the vodka bottle,” with managers nudging uncomfortable staff to join in.
Result: two employees contacted a local enforcement agency looking to file a harassment charge.

• A West Coast tech startup’s party featured an impromptu game of “pin the tail on the interns,” involving strips of paper “tails” and tape.
Result: two interns left the organizations and several employees threatened suit.

• A Midwest pack-and-ship firm had insult rap battles that devolved into comments about aging and weight gain.
Result: a spate of internal complaints from employees, and even from a caterer who was setting up food on-site and overheard the derisive and potentially discriminatory lyrics.

Actionable Risk Management Take-Aways for Bosses:

A number of pre-event precautions can help reduce the risk of your summer outing going sideways:

• Scare your managers—just a little. Schedule pre-event “Respect Huddles” where you can remind those in supervisory roles that they all have potential professional and/or legal responsibility if things go wrong. Deputize them, so to speak, to watch out for risky conduct as the festivities unfold. Share simple scripts and responses your managers can use to “nudge” attendees back to a zone of respect.

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• Set limits for everyone on things like alcohol, how long/late the event runs, and an agenda of (appropriately) fun activities. Historically, drinking can be a gateway activity to all sorts of sordid interactions. To manage the risk, some organizations have found it very helpful to “ticket the tequilas,” meaning they provide the event food, but limit the alcohol, such as by using a drink ticket system.
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A strict event agenda helps prevent attendees from straying into murky territory with creative comments and conduct. Any planned games should focus on friendly collaboration, not physical contact.

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Assign a trusted internal party planner to carefully manage your party or outing agenda.

• Strongly encourage staff to bring significant others and kids, if interested. Having lots of little tykes in attendance tends to reduce all sorts of adult excesses and judgement errors. However, also be open to employee opt-outs. Stress the fact that no one is expected to attend—it is just as important as making sure everyone feels welcome.

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• Send a pre-event conduct memo to every employee at least once, and maybe even twice. Revisit your office respect rules, as they extend to and apply in the great outdoors as well, at least when your organization is sponsoring.

Tips for Everyone

For employees at any level, we recommend not thinking of the outing as party time, but rather as a professional event that just happens to be moving outside. These tips can help any attendee enjoy the gathering while avoiding risky situations:

• Set lower expectations for yourself on how “off-the-hook” the whole outing will be, which can help ensure that you’re not disappointed and are better able to maintain decorum.

• Stay away from casual banter that is ribald, risqué or involves sharing too much information.

• Social distance, for both COVID and conduct reasons.

How to Strengthen Your Safety Program and Cut Workers Compensation Costs

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Controlling business costs is top-of-mind for organizations of all sizes and can take many forms, from moving the business to a less expensive building in a more economical part of town to cutting advertising costs. Many companies overlook one key way to control costs that can be easily implemented and managed while also improving work culture overall: implementing a safety program to better manage workers compensation costs. When the average workers compensation claim is around $40,000, taking steps to mitigate workers compensation risks and better manage claims can be a great opportunity for any business to both ensure the safety of its workers and protect the bottom line.

Risk professionals can help reduce costs by taking steps to implement any of the following:

  • Improved safety programs
  • More active involvement in claims management
  • Build out a return to work program

Encourage your internal teams to establish a well-planned and detailed new hire onboarding program that reinforces a strong safety culture. Here are some steps that you can integrate into your existing onboarding program that will also help control unnecessary or redundant workers’ compensation claim costs.

Practice Makes Perfect

Onboarding new employees means taking the time to acclimate them to how your business operates in terms of safety procedures, jobsite dos/don’ts, and any potential hazards. Repetition is key for any new employee learning the ropes, but especially for those workers who are jumping into a new role. Ensure all new hires have the appropriate time and space to practice any safety protocols and consider implementing a safety quiz at the end of a designated orientation period to test retention.

Use the Buddy System

Provide each new employee with a veteran employee buddy. This partnership aims to help the new employee get acclimated more quickly to the new environment. During their time together, the veteran employee can discuss safety concerns and identify potential hazards. As worksites can become overwhelming with the amount of hustle and bustle, it will be critical for the new employee to have a partner who is able to help keep an eye out for them and monitor their safety until they are ready to venture out on their own.

Cultivate a Culture of Safety

Encourage managers and team leaders to commit to safety goals and practice what they preach. Setting an example for employees early means that management must be “all in” on safety. This ensures that employees on all levels understand that safety is a company-wide priority. Building a foundation of safety-focused programs with the goal of keeping claim costs low will be key to solidifying each employee’s connection to the organization.

There are myriad ways to reduce workers’ compensation costs. What will be most important to your organization is taking into consideration the time and resources it will take to efficiently improve this area of your business. Whether your team decides to do this independently or with the help of a vendor like a PEO, it is essential for companies to prioritize this part of their business to reduce risk.