Today’s post comes to us from advisory board member Laurie Ruettimann, host of the Punk Rock HR podcast. This is part two of a two-part series on the topic of universal basic income. If you missed it last week, check out part one here.

The world seems to be going through the wringer. Gas prices are going through the roof. Prices for food, travel, and everything else are increasing.

The consequences of jobs that don’t meet the cost of living have never been more apparent. And, according to multiple economists, we are currently on the path to a recession. Implementing a UBI in our current economy could bring more stability to an otherwise uncertain situation.

Safety in the Age of Technology

The robots aren’t taking over the world, but to people who’ve lost their jobs because of advanced automation, it sure does feel that way — and they aren’t alone in those feelings. According to Zippia, automation and other technology can eliminate about 73 million jobs in the United States by 2030.

With this potential looming over workers in today’s economy, many people are worried about the future of their current positions. Some may look to continuing-education initiatives to diversify their skills, but that’s not for everyone and takes time. Having UBI creates a safety net for those who could lose their jobs due to technology.

More Financial Equality

According to a report by World Relief, approximately 97 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty because of the pandemic. In addition, many people lost their jobs, became single-income households, or took severe pay cuts due to businesses scaling back to stay afloat.

Even pre-pandemic, income inequality has long been a topic of discussion. Looking at the gender pay gap, a woman only makes 82 cents for every dollar a man earns. When you look at the pay gap between the rich and poor, the top 10% of the population takes home 52% of their income, while the lower-income population only takes home 8%.

People want to get paid a living wage, and, with UBI, that is possible. UBI could supplement this pay gap and ensure that people receive another income — but it doesn’t solve the issue. UBI encourages financial equality in our society, but employers shouldn’t use it as an excuse not to pay their employees.

More Incentive than Disincentive

Our current government assistance programs are a disincentive to many people using them. While it just meets their needs when they are going through troubling times, those benefits can either go away entirely or decrease as they start to make more money. That effect has the potential to put people into, at times, a more stressful situation as they see their financial situation unchanging.

A UBI is purely an incentive to everyone, as former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and I talked about on my podcast. With welfare and other government programs, benefits are taken away once you start making a certain amount at work. With UBI in place, the amount of money you make doesn’t matter.

Just because you’ve found a higher-paying job doesn’t mean that your debt magically goes away (although that would be nice). UBI would continue no matter your pay, creating a better financial situation for us and generations to come.

Is UBI Socialism?

UBI can do wonders for the working people of this country, from boosting overall health to creating better financial situations. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, I think HR and talent acquisition leaders need to learn more about it and have an opinion.

So, is universal basic income socialism? Maybe we’re asking the wrong question. Instead, we should ask: How can UBI be a driver of fundamental societal change — and part of the future of work?

After all, improving work is what HR leadership is all about.

Today’s post comes to us from advisory board member Alexandra Levit, author of Humanity Works.”

When faced with the notion of artificially intelligent employees and individually customized career paths, it’s easy to get overwhelmed — especially after a pandemic period in which day-to-day survival was paramount. However, this time of transformation is an exciting one in which to lead an organization, and here’s why you should look at these four workforce truths as opportunities rather than developments to be feared.

Truth One: Machines Are Our Partners


Right now, many of your employees use basic chatbots to accomplish basic work tasks such as scheduling meetings or searching for pertinent information online. But, as computing gets more powerful, intelligent machines will become more sophisticated members of your team. Thanks to advances in deep-learning artificial intelligence (AI), our machine partners are increasingly able to recognize images, understand language, and hold conversations.

Thanks to advances in augmented and virtual reality, employee training is becoming richer and more cost-effective, and smart devices will shortly be able to ascertain how and when your people are most productive and the tasks on which they are best suited to focus. These smart devices will also understand your strengths and weaknesses as a manager and will be by your side, for example, to provide guidance on how to deliver criticism to a direct report.

Truth Two: We Structure Agile Workforces


In the new world of work, the organization that can do the best job at customizing a job and schedule for a high-potential employee will have the best shot at retaining that employee.

You will also have the advantage of a large contract workforce at your disposal. Because of our ability to communicate and collaborate seamlessly across the globe, organizations no longer need to control full-time resources and work will become increasingly task based. As a talent assembler, you’ll never be stuck with labor you don’t need. Instead, you will bring on specialized teams to complete projects as needed.

And, you can say goodbye to unnecessary overhead. The proliferation of virtual work and the mobile office means that, as the century progresses, many organizations will not have a company-sponsored physical office but instead will lease chains of interconnected hubs with various space-access arrangements.

Truth Three: We Emphasize Creativity


As a leader, it will be up to you to help your people develop skills that will keep them marketable as more jobs are automated. These abilities are often non-routine and relate to discovery, innovation, team building, and interactions that require the unique human touches of diplomacy and empathy.

Your employees will need to build new competencies that allow them to work side by side with intelligent machines — and fix them when they’re broken. You’ll guide them in exercising their intuition as they derive meaningful insights from large quantities of data and use available technology to create simulation and gamification apps to motivate team members and customers.

Truth Four: We Are Conscious About Technology Usage


According to the U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. labor productivity fell dramatically by 7.5% in the first quarter of 2022. That’s the largest drop in worker output per hour in 75 years.

There’s no doubt about it — technology has saved the business world’s bacon during the pandemic period. A variety of technologies were introduced, from collaboration and simple-task automation software to advanced machine-learning applications, to do more work, more quickly. So, why aren’t workers more productive?

Rather than helping to decrease the overwork epidemic, technology has contributed to it. Thanks to the smartphone and the cloud, we can work anywhere we want, at all hours of the day and night. It’s simple to keep working when it might be more beneficial to give your brain time to recharge. And, during quarantine periods, in fact, it has been essential to operate like this.

Unfortunately, as a result, workers are overloaded with technology options. Your use of cloud-based analytics engines will be key in assessing what’s interesting and necessary to an individual knowledge worker and will help them organize incoming information into relevant categories or topics, such as customers, products, services, or projects. By designing our technology systems to be more palatable with how the human brain works best, we will decrease mental strain while increasing productivity.

If you’ve been in the workforce a while, much of this is new, and some of it will inevitably make you uncomfortable. But, instead of waiting until next month or next year to embrace these trends, be proactive. As a leader, you’re in exactly the right position to create the near future of the work that you’d like to see.

The Workforce Institute Weigh-In for July 2022 explores how to support employees’ financial wellness and dives deeper into the discussion, in response to a recent episode of the People Purpose Podcast. This month, our advisory board members’ responses are a bit longer as they cover this critical topic.

The Workforce Institute Weigh-In for July 2022: What can you do to promote financial wellness among your employees and help them improve their financial wellbeing?

“I’d address three audiences, with respect to financial wellbeing: 1) People who are in trouble: Some employees will have gotten themselves into big financial trouble, and they probably need personalized help via some kind of employee assistance plan (EAP). 2) Young employees early in their careers: For young employees, having some financial guidance as part of onboarding would be helpful. This could involve actually doing things like setting up saving plans, not just in theory. 3) General advice for all employees: One could potentially provide all kinds of sound advice for people on how to manage their money, and certainly encouraging wise financial management is always a good thing. Of these three, it’s group one where the biggest issue lies, and it’s group two that would be the easiest to have an impact on. I don’t think group three is a priority, but it’s a nice thing to offer.” — David Creelman, CEO, Creelman Research

“The most significant thing you can do to promote financial wellbeing among your employees is to pay them an equitable, living wage. With inflation driving up the basic expenses of living, the cost of living is rising and becoming unattainable for many. It is essential to monitor the data on this and make adjustments where necessary and affordable to the organization for the financial wellbeing of your employees. Another option for financial wellbeing is an emergency fund, which allows an employee to borrow from a pool of funds or receive a payroll advance for personal emergencies. Some things you can do to promote financial wellness is encourage participation and thoroughly explain your retirement plan to employees. Many do not understand the benefits of saving for retirement or how to maximize the investment options within their plan. Additionally, you can also provide financial planning support as part of your benefits and perk offerings. This support will help employees learn how to budget, save, reduce expenses, and plan for future events such as buying a car or going on a vacation. Anything you can do as an employer to help your employees be financially stable and to support them through financial hardship or setback will go a long way to not only ensure wellness and wellbeing, but to also ensure physical, mental and emotional health, higher productivity, and greater retention.” — Sarah Morgan, chief excellence officer, BuzzARooney, LLC

“It is difficult for employees who are not making a living wage to even think about financial wellness, because they are trying to meet just their basic needs — paying rent, buying food, transportation, and even childcare. For many, the best help they can get when it comes to financial wellness is to build skills that increase their probability of getting a raise, a promotion, and, for some, a second job or additional gig work. Sometimes, we overlook the simplest want of our employees: having enough money to pay for our most basic needs. We should support our people to help them reach their goals and thrive in their careers.” — Dr. Chris Mullen, executive director, The Workforce Institute

“Financial wellness not only has an impact on employee wellbeing, but also on business results, as high levels of stress can reduce productivity and lead to absenteeism. As a supervisor, it’s critical to learn how to promote the financial wellness of your team. Encourage employees to use the resources available through your organization. These may include financial advice through the EAP, seminars on budgeting or saving, employee discounts and benefits programs, and company benefits, such as savings plans. Many employees may not be aware of these resources, so be sure to educate them and encourage them to use them. Moreover, any financial wellbeing plan must have four parts: diagnosis, design, communication, and follow-up; and must include all those company activities aimed at favoring the lives of your workers. Support your collaborators in executing their personal financial and savings goals in the short, medium, and long term.” — Ivonne Vargas, award-winning journalist and bestselling author, ¡Contrátame! (Hire Me!)

Many employees are dissatisfied with their organization’s training and development program. What are ways you can improve? How can you be proactive and cater to your employees’ learning styles? In this episode of The People Purpose Podcast, Chas and Julie continue the discussion on training and development from our last episode. If you haven’t listened to that one yet, go back and check it out first! 

Resources: 

Our New Website!
Workforce Institute 
Improve your 1:1s
Talent Health Check
Manager Quiz

Today’s post comes to us from Workforce Institute Executive Director, Chris Mullen, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, SPHR.

Summer is a great time to catch up on the things you might have missed or put off during the busier times of the year. While many will recommend binge-worthy shows or their favorite reads — speaking of, have you checked out my colleague Jarik Conrad’s latest book, “In Search of Humanity,” yet? — we here at The Workforce Institute also wanted to provide a list of our favorite podcasts.

Podcasts are a great way to pass the time on a long flight, road trip, bike ride, at the beach, or wherever your summer days might take you. You’re likely familiar with (and already subscribed to) our People Purpose Podcast, but did you know that many of The Workforce Institute advisory board members also host their own podcasts?

Check out our Summer Listening List below and discover your new favorite podcasts today!

The Hostile Work Environment Podcast
Hosted By: Kate Bischoff and Marc Alifanz
In this podcast, employment attorneys Kate and Marc break down the biggest employment law news while providing their own snarky takes for HR professionals. They give practical, non-legal advice on the whacky world of work and discuss what to expect going forward as employment law changes fast.
Listen

The HR Bartender Show
Hosted By: Sharlyn Lauby
The HR Bartender Show is a casual place to talk about work. Listeners get practical advice about how to be a better leader and manager, focusing on the employee experience, and career advice. Past guests have included The Workforce Institute’s own Julie Develin, Chas Fields, Alexandra Levit, Dan Schawbel, and even yours truly. Episodes might also discuss Sharlyn’s personal goal of finding the best cheeseburger on the planet. So, grab your favorite beverage, pull up a stool, and join the conversation. The bar is always open.
Listen

Leading in Color
Hosted By: Sarah Morgan
Leading in Color is a podcast about cultivating intentional, positive workplace experiences and environments — from recruiting and hiring, to training and development, to coaching and discipline, to policy and strategy, to trends and hot topics. The podcast tackles each area through a lens of diversity, equity, fairness, and inclusion, and episodes also highlight the unique challenges and cutting-edge creativity of leading with social consciousness in the corporate world.
Listen

While We Were Working
Hosted By: Joey V. Price and Sommer Ketron
This weekly podcast for HR pros and people leaders focuses on topics such as employee engagement, workplace culture, and HR law for the agile, modern workplace. In every episode, Joey and Sommer bring their own personal perspectives and years of experience to cover trending topics you might’ve missed while you were working. Episodes also stream live each week on LinkedIn.
Listen

Punk Rock HR
Hosted By: Laurie Ruettimann
As Laurie cautions: Work is broken, but all hope isn’t lost. Join the failed HR lady (Laurie) who went on to become one of the world’s top career advisers, as she talks to some of her closest friends and peers about what happens behind the scenes at your job. Speaking from personal experience as a guest, these are some great conversations.
Listen

5 Questions with Dan Schawbel
Hosted By: Dan Schawbel
Dan is a New York Times bestselling author. But, as a podcast host, he distills the most actionable and tangible advice from a variety of world-class humans, including entrepreneurs, authors, Olympians, politicians, billionaires, Nobel Prize winners, TED speakers, celebrities, astronauts, and more. In fewer than 10 minutes, guests respond to five questions with their best career advice.
Listen | Watch

BONUS: Leadership in the Labor Shortage
Hosted By: John Frehse and Dave Gilbertson
Also known as the “No Suits, No Slides!” series, these videos technically aren’t podcasts, but each features a deep dive into the current state of the labor market from two of the best economic analysts out there today. John and Dave always find ways to present informative stats about the economy in a memorable, easily digestible way. Check it out today, if you haven’t already.
Watch

Have a favorite HR, business, or leadership podcast to share with our readers? Let us know!

Today’s post comes to us from Workforce Institute Executive Director, Chris Mullen, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, SPHR.

Although it’s been a long and arduous journey, it feels like we’ve (finally) started to move past talk of the Great Resignation, Great Reset, Great Reshuffle, Great Regret, and any other Great “Re-” verb you’ve heard about over the past two years. Though, what’s coming next might not be much better.

With fears of a recession starting to resurface more and more among record inflation, what does it mean for industries, companies, and workers in the short and long term? That’s a lot to unpack, so let’s focus today on the manufacturing industry. The latest study from The Workforce Institute — released last week and titled “Is Stability in Sight?” — examines the future state of manufacturing in the United States.

In late-April, we surveyed 300 HR managers, directors, and executives representing U.S. manufacturers. Our study explores organizational strategies and challenges related to the current job market and economic climate, while comparing year-over-year data from our prior research.

According to the study, four in five U.S. manufacturers are having difficulty keeping up with production demands due to increased supply constraints and ongoing labor shortages amplified by today’s still-competitive job market. Although a skilled-labor gap has plagued the sector for decades, 87% of the manufacturing HR leaders surveyed said they’re now feeling its impact “more than ever.”

Some of the other noteworthy stats coming out of our latest manufacturing research:

Not to be all doom and gloom, but the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.

We’ve already seen millions of frontline workers leave their jobs, and we’ll most likely see middle managers handing in their resignations en masse next. In fact, results from our recent Resign, Resigned, or Re-Sign? study show that more than half of U.S. managers (53%) are contemplating quitting themselves. After all, these leaders just watched their people leave in droves — and many for raises! — while they’re still in the same place doing more work than ever to cover gaps in the schedule.

So, what can employers do? We know of at least two factors that can make a difference: workforce development and stay interviews.

It’s never too early to cross-train and upskill your workforce. According to our study, 93% of manufacturers found that employees who are trained to handle a broad set of responsibilities are more productive. That’s up from 85% in 2021. To fill remaining gaps, 62% of manufacturers have relied on new technologies to augment their workforce, the research found.

And, as we’ve said before here at The Workforce Institute, stay interviews can help with retention. Having active career discussions with your people to understand what they like most (or least) about the company and what makes their jobs satisfying can help build trust, belonging, open communication, and even loyalty.

Yet, while 74% of manufacturers surveyed said it’s difficult to retain skilled talent, fewer than 40% said managers are conducting stay interviews regularly. If there’s a similar gap to be addressed at your organization, here are some tips for starting the stay interview conversation.

If all else fails, however, and your people do decide to leave, remember the benefits of conducting exit interviews and keeping the door open to boomerangs. Our research shows that, to fill critical labor gaps, manufacturers diversified their candidate pools and 48% hired boomerang employees, among other capable individuals, within the past year.

Whether there’s a recession, a correction, or something in between on the way, some things remain predictable and constant: companies that continue to care for their people will always prevail.

Today’s post comes to us from Workforce Institute Executive Director, Chris Mullen, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, SPHR, and features a video from advisory board member John Frehse.

If you’ve been watching our regular “No Suits, No Slides!” video series — and, if you haven’t, well you’ve really missed out! — you know that advisory board member John Frehse and our friend Dave Gilbertson have done a standout job making sense of the current labor market and what it means for employers, employees, and the greater economy.

John is a senior managing director of labor strategy at Ankura and Dave is a vice president at UKG, and both have spent countless (likely sleepless) hours crunching all the labor data, studying the trends, and predicting the future, breaking it down for us in an easy-to-understand, casual format — leading to the “No Suits, No Slides!” moniker.

It’s been a few weeks since our last video, but John and Dave are back in a major way! Spoiler alert: This video’s a bit different than the others. There are suits, and there are lots of slides! But don’t worry, it’s still full of the same, great, informative analysis and trademark wit you’ve come to expect from this keen duo.

Also, this video clocks in at just under one hour — because there’s a lot to unpack about this labor market. As John prefaces, “This is the culmination of all the work we have done in the last 26 months. The data and position on the labor shortage continues to change and our perspective changes as the data indicates it should.”

Through it all, John and Dave explore what often gets lost in the headlines about the labor market, what drove the initial labor shortage and whether those issues are still prevalent today, and what organizations can do to hire and retain talent in today’s challenging labor market.

Let me be the first to say, this one is definitely worth the watch. Check it out in its entirety below.

Special thanks to our friends at Ankura for producing this video.

Today’s post comes to us from the Executive Director of The Workforce Institute, Chris Mullen, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, SPHR. 
 
Workers continue to quit their jobs in record numbers across the United States. While tens of millions have decided to leave their employers — or the workforce altogether — since 2020, do they regret that decision in hindsight? 
 
Turns out, a lot of them do. 
 
A new UKG survey of pandemic-era job quitters finds that 43% who left now say they were better off at their previous jobs. That means more than 15 million people have had second thoughts! The report — titled “Resign, Resigned, or Re-Sign?” — is a real eye-opener and provides some fascinating insights. 
 
For example, according to the survey, “The vast majority of employees — 90+% — thought about quitting for less than six months, with a whopping 41% going from not thinking about it to quitting in fewer than 30 days! And, in this hypercompetitive talent landscape, nearly one in five employees weren’t actively looking for a job when they quit.” 
 
This highlights the need for ongoing engagement and retention strategies, such as conducting regular 1:1 check-ins, administering employee surveys, and offering innovative benefits. If those practices were important prior to the pandemic, they’re mission-critical now. 
 
What’s also interesting about this study is that it focuses both on the employees who left and the managers they left behind. More specifically, the perceptions and real disconnects between why workers say they left and why managers believe they left, and there are many differences in opinion. 
 
The top reason people left? Pay/compensation — not too surprising. Though, fewer than half of all pandemic-era job changers actually received a pay raise at their new position (about a 15% bump, on average, says the survey). In fact, one in five even took a pay cut to move on to a new role! 
 
Following pay, employees said they left over: not feeling valued and/or a sense of belonging at the organization; poor work-life balance/burnout; lack of career development opportunities; frustration with executive leadership; and poor company culture. 
 
However, when asked why they believed their people quit, managers only correctly named two of these top reasons for quitting: poor work-life balance/burnout and lack of career development opportunities. (To be fair, a full 25% of employees surveyed said they never discussed frustrations with their managers before they gave their notice.) 
 
Perhaps one reason for this disparity is because two in five managers themselves are contemplating whether to jump ship themselves, according to the study — and that number jumps to more than half (53%) of leaders in the U.S. and the U.K. (A note to employees out there: if you’re stressed out about work, just think how much stress your manager’s likely feeling right now!) 
 
So, what can we do? 
 
Start by renewing the focus on your people. Doing right by your workers will always prove a best practice, whether we’re in a Great Resignation or a Great Return. 
 
Remain flexible, patient, and understanding. If your employee doesn’t seem as engaged or motivated as they used to, there’s probably a deeper reason behind the change. 
 
Keep the channels of communication open, and be honest and transparent with your employees. Encourage candid conversations. Share what’s on your mind, and maybe they will too. 
 
You’ll both be better off for it! 
 
Download the full “Resign, Resigned, or Re-Sign?” study today, and be sure to keep it here at The Workforce Institute for plenty more analysis of this report. Next week, we’ll explore a key way to drive employee retention amid the Great Resignation! 

Today's post is courtesy of board member Bob Clements, President at Axsium Group,  a leading workforce management consulting firm.

Most organizations are experiencing a labor shortage. While pundits debate the causes (or if the shortage even exists), the problem is very real at many organizations and needs to be fixed.

Here are three ways to fix your organization's labor shortage:

Fix #1: Increase wages

The first solution is to increase wages. Companies like McDonalds, Under Armor and Bank of America have all announced wage increases to attract workers ”“ moves that have been well received by both employees and the public at large. In principle, it is easy to throw money at the problem, but in practice, it may not be possible. Higher wages cut into profits so you will need to make a strong case that wage increases will pay for themselves, and then some.

Another approach might be to examine the risk of not increasing wages by equating labor shortages to decreased customer service and, in turn, reduced sales. No matter what, you face an uphill battle to get the executive support needed to raise pay.

Fix #2: Increase hours

The second option is to ask your existing employees to work more hours. Giving more hours to your current workforce reduces the need to hire new workers, along with the training and onboarding expenses associated with hiring.

Two big hurdles need to be cleared for this solution to work:

  1. Your employees need to be willing to pick up more hours. Some may be happy to do this others will not or cannot due to childcare, other commitments such as school, or lifestyle. Therefore, offering more hours can soften the labor shortage but may not fully eliminate it. It is helpful to provide your employees with technology that allows them to see what shifts are available and let them choose the shifts they want to work.

  2. Those most likely to take the extra hours will do so to get paid overtime. For many organizations, overtime is a four-letter word and something to be avoided at all costs. The fact is that overtime can be less expensive than hiring new workers. This is due to recruiting costs, benefit costs, and the higher productivity of experienced workers. Fellow Workforce Institute advisory board member John Frehse talks about this in his white paper ”œThe Overtime Lie”. Organizations that are able to overcome their hang-ups with overtime will be well-positioned to keep operations running during a labor shortage.

Fix #3: Increase productivity

The third solution is to increase the productivity of your existing workforce. Increasing the output of workers already on staff reduces the need for more workers and the need for overtime.

There are two paths to improving productivity:

  1. Productivity gains can come from big ideas like eliminating tasks, reducing the frequency with which certain tasks are performed, or redesigning tasks entirely. The bigger the idea, the more time it may take to implement. So, recognize that this path may not have an immediate impact on your labor shortage but should have a large, sustainable impact when implemented.
  2. Big gains can come from small changes. Unlike the big ideas mentioned in the last point, small changes can often be implemented quickly. To find such opportunities, look for tasks that are performed frequently. Eliminating just one step in a frequently performed task or moving a piece of equipment closer to where the task is performed to reduce travel time can have an outsized impact on productivity. Saving a few seconds may not seem like much but when that savings happens thousands of times a day in each store across your entire portfolio, it begins to add up quite quickly.

One size does not fit all when addressing a labor shortage. Each organization and its workforce is different, and what works for one may work differently for another due to culture, demographics, geography, industry and more. The good news is that each of the solutions outlined above can be used alone or in combination with others. They can be implemented in parallel or sequentially. The important thing is to act because one thing is certain: You won't solve your labor shortage by waiting for more workers to appear.

Today's guest post comes to us from Teresa Smith, senior manager of UKG's HCM Strategic Advisory group and was written in collaboration with Chas Fields, senior partner of UKG's HCM Advisory Group.

Many HR leaders and practitioners get inundated with terms like strategic dataartificial intelligencepeople analytics, and many others. It can be frustrating when we're told these areas should be our focus without any sense of how that will happen, or where all these activities will fit in our day-to-day.

Think of a time where you've been instructed to make an organizational or strategic change to your people processes – you pull the data and it looks like a foreign language, leaving you feeling a bit like Keanu Reeves when he gets told for the first time what "the Matrix" is. 

So how do we take our HR data, determine what's achievable, and put the right people strategies into action? Here are 3 focus areas that will help you take action:

1. Expectation vs. Reality

Leaders everywhere need access to people data to help drive organizational and departmental success. The problem is that they don't always have all the data needed when making decisions about the organization. This can be frustrating for executives, especially if data is missing, doesn't add value to their overall strategy, or doesn't provide a complete picture of key business areas. Executives expect to be able to gain insight easily and quickly into the entire organization, so they can address the needs of the business and reach their strategic goals.

When companies find themselves with a disconnect between what's expected out of data and what's available, HR professionals can help bridge the gap. A data strategy can help you identify how your people information is collected, stored, managed, and shared. These tips can help lay the foundation for your HR and payroll data strategy:

As strategic partners in the organization, HR professionals need to drive technology initiatives that will transform the way executives look at data.

2. Looking vs. Seeing

Providing executives with data across multiple reports or in a single report is only part of gathering information. While reporting is a good first line of defense when it comes to measuring, monitoring, and alerting you to what's happening in the business, it is just the tip of the iceberg. HR needs a path to action from that data for it to be effective and deliver deeper meaning to the organization.

Analytics can answer questions that come to light from reporting, interpret information at a deeper level, and provide recommendations on actions. People analytics is crucial for executives to gain a clear view of their wider business data, proactively analyze trends that are happening with their people, and ensure they are capable of achieving their goals. Delivering the right data through real-time analysis of employee activity and automating that data's delivery helps organizations plan and reach their strategic initiatives.

However, people analytics can't exist in a vacuum. HR needs it to be integrated into day-to-day processes and displayed in the same place they manage most of their activities so they can intuitively move between seeing data and doing something about it.

3. Tasks vs. Actions

While people analytics is a great way to monitor and provide insight into day-to-day activities, it shouldn't be its own item on your to-do list. Analytics need to be rolled into your priorities and goals to make effective decisions on behalf of the organization. When you're tackling recruiting, benefits, retention, operations, and other focus areas you should be using data to inform your decisions in those moments. This way it's not a burden, it's just part of your normal process. Your system should proactively serve up the data you need in those contexts.

Conclusion: Small practical steps make people analytics more effective

These steps will take you some time. As you navigate your data, when you question its validity or output, have discussions with your people managers and those making day-to-day decisions to help you fully grasp where progress or improvements need to be made. When taking action, ask yourself ”œwho will this impact and will it drive the organization forward?”  If the answer is yes, celebrate the success.  From there, monitor your decisions on a regular monthly or quarterly basis to ensure you stay on top of the trends to allow you to remain agile.

Find an expanded version of this article on the UKG What Works blog here.

Today's post comes to us from Workforce Institute board member, John Frehsesenior managing director at Ankura Consulting Group, LLC.

One measure of who you are as a company is where your labor is located. United States-based companies operating globally have a challenge: if your labor is primarily in the U. S., why should you have freedom to operate in India, where you earn profits but employ few people? On the other hand, if you are U.S.-based but “ship” jobs overseas, you risk regulation/taxation at home. Politicians from all parties have aggressively resurrected this issue in recent years, forcing global companies to act now or face repercussions later.

“Freedom to operate” is not a new concept for executives managing complex operations. It is what keeps leaders of global companies up at night. Why? Managing regulations on U.S. soil is complex. Apply those complexities across dozens or even one hundred countries all with differing rules, cultural norms, and employment laws, and there's an exponential increase in difficulty to effectively manage them.

Will their brand show up in the press tomorrow over a climate change issue? Will there be labor violations tied back to one of their facilities? Have they broken with social norms in a far-off locale? Are their employees or customers trending on social media about unfair practices? Essentially, are they exploiting or enriching the communities where they operate?

Leaders today are less concerned with pending legislation and more concerned with how their culture and governance strategies will be received among the wide range of nations where they do business. Social media has given people the power to bring employers that don't operate ethically and treat their workforces fairly into the public eye. With that, global companies no longer have the luxury of just “getting by,” as how they are perceived heavily influences how much freedom they have to operate.

The Bottom Line

Of all the variables that can obstruct global operations, labor may be the most complex and volatile. Smart companies understand that they need to factor in today's political and social considerations when building their global labor strategies. It's not just a matter of cost, labor is the factor that can determine success and longevity. 

One of Many Requirements - The Right Governance Tools

To manage multiple, diverse environments effectively, tools must be deployed to avoid compliance issues. Governance is critical to avoid breaking laws of the region, but also to avoid deviating from cultural norms. What passes as a great shift schedule in Texas would likely cause a strike in Germany. Overtime levels at a company in Missouri would be against the law if done in France, where time off is highly protected. In the Philippines, working 48 hours in a week yields only a regular rate of pay compared to the United States, where federal law dictates overtime starts after 40 hours of work. These are very basic examples of different global labor laws and customs which continue to grow in complexity. Workforce management technology can accurately track and manage complex schedules, time off requests, pay requirements, and policy adjustments.

Global Success Requires an Empowered and Informed Workforce

People are every organization's most controllable cost while also being the highest creators of value. This two-sided challenge means that for businesses to be effective on the global stage, they must be good at governing within the social and cultural norms while empowering their workforce to perform at the highest levels. What happens when companies break with local accepted norms and offend the population? They lose the freedom to operate in that locale and potentially damage their brand globally.

Today's post, the first of two, comes to us from the executive director of The Workforce Institute, Dr. Chris Mullen, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, SPHR.

It's often said that trust is the foundation of any good relationship. Whether it's your relationship with a spouse or significant other, a friend or yes, even an employer, without trust, there's not much to build upon.

In fact, the CEO of UKG, Aron Ain devotes a whole chapter to trust in his book, Work Inspired, noting “For a more engaged, higher-performing workforce, start by assuming competence, and then demonstrate to your people over and over again that you trust them.”

Here at The Workforce Institute, we've just released new research with our friends at Workplace Intelligence on the topic of Trust in the Modern Workplace. With the COVID-19 pandemic coloring every decision and interaction in the workplace, the topic of trust has taken on renewed urgency. Every organization is different, but trust is a universal element required for success, especially in times of uncertainty.

A few of the key findings of the report:

I thought this last statistic was an especially positive one given the impact of COVID-19 on working life. If we drill down into the country-by-country data, the picture becomes ever clearer: workplace trust improved due to the pandemic most in India (67%), Mexico (56%), the U.S. (53%), the U.K. (52%), and Australia and New Zealand (50%).

Why is this? I'd bet it has something to do with how all of our working lives have changed because of COVID-19. Many people around the world now find themselves working from home - a situation that frankly just doesn't work without a high degree of trust being put in employees. On the flip side, many employees whose jobs require them to be present in a physical location are having to trust their employers to do their level best to reduce danger and risk when possible. We're all trusting each other to stay home if we have symptoms of COVID-19 and to make good choices in our personal lives to reduce the risk of contracting the disease. Vaccinations are thankfully on the horizon and that's going to be a whole other exercise in trust.

In any normal year, trust between employees and employers is important. But this year, in the world we find ourselves living in, it truly has never been more essential.

Do you trust your employer more now than you did before the pandemic? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments section.

CLICK HERE to read the full Trust in the Modern Workplace Report.

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