The Jerk Store Called

Working in an office can be tough with a lot of conflicting personalities, people clashing with their superiors, etc. But the worst are the jerks in the office. The guys who make you say, in the words of George Costanza: "Well, the Jerk Store called, and they're running out of you!"

And the truth is that there are different types of jerks in the office. Beyond.com has a great rundown of the different types that you might encounter (and I've definitely worked with all 15 of those guys), but I like their conclusion to the article:

Office jerks are often unavoidable. Understanding the types and their behaviors is the first step toward making a better workplace for yourself. Don't get pulled into their drama or lower yourself to their level. Focus on your work, co-workers with positive attitudes and keeping your superiors happy. In the end, rude co-workers tend to get exactly what they deserve.

I couldn't agree more. I once worked with a jerk who thought it would be a great idea, when his boss was gone for the day (or, heaven forbid, on vacation), to put his feet up and read a newspaper. People would stop by and see him like this and he thought he was above everyone else. That was until HR stopped by, tapped him on the shoulder and gave him a pink slip. Jerks get the same karma all of us get--just give it time.

Managing the Incoming Millennials

The month of May involves a flurry of graduation ceremonies. These graduates are more than likely already applying to work for your organization. Are you ready to handle them? Astron has explored the concern of working with Millennials in Astronology.  It should not be a surprise that in five years, the majority of our workforce will be the current 80 million millennials. In this issue of Astronology, we review some of the millennial generation’s values, and how organizations can successfully work with those values.

Empowerment through Feedback

A key value for millennials is empowerment. As a leader, how can you empower your millennials? Guest writer for the Ladders.com, Dylan Kaufman writes, “A reported 80% want regular feedback from their managers, and are eager to improve their professional arsenal of skills.” The Ivey Business Journal suggests that millennials have a different “social mindset” due to social media’s presence. Due to constant exposure to instant gratification and instant feedback, millennials require and value feedback more than previous generations. A Business2Community.com article suggests that “some millennials may take the lack of reviews and feedback to mean that they are not appreciated.” Obviously, depending on the field of work and personal preference, the amount of feedback needed will vary.  Conduct formal feedback regularly and pepper with informal feedback throughout the year.

Enthusiastic Work Environment

Millennials value enthusiasm in the workplace.  For loyalty and productivity to grow, employers will have to focus on making the work environment friendly. This means being open in communication and recognizing the value in creating work teams. An IBM survey notes that, similar to Generation X workers, millennial workers prefer to work in groups. The business2community article suggests, “You need to value the importance of the group and instead of ‘laying down the law’ and dictating decisions that affect the whole group, you must involve your team or at least show them why the decision was made. Your team will work better if they feel that the entire group is valued and is in it together.” Also consider the power of transparency in communication. When workers, regardless of their generation group, can communicate clearly and effectively with each other, shared goals are acknowledged and motivation is created. Never forget the connectivity clear communication can create.

Find Flexibility

Millennials value flexibility. As a result, freelancing and self-employment are becoming a trend. To combat this, some employers have offered flexible scheduling as a retention strategy.  However, there is a concern regarding flexibility stigma. This is when employees are viewed as less valuable, due to their flexible scheduling or their less traditional presence in the office space. Despite this concern, 38% of US Millennials are willing to move for better benefits in areas such as parental leave. The Harvard Business Review online suggests, “Give employees some control over when and where they work, combined with managerial support for their work and family lives.” There is a classic fear that people will take advantage of flexible schedule offerings, but Karyn Twaronite, an EY Global Diversity & Inclusiveness Officer mentions, “research shows people aren’t actually asking for all that much. They want flexible start and ending times and telecommuting for 1-2 days per week…these options improve engagement and productivity.”

                                    
Has your organization prepared for the new graduating millennials? Has your organization already hired and started working successfully with millennials? What adjustments has your organization made in order to support this burgeoning group of workers? Tell Astronology about it and we may share your insights with the rest of our readers!

Non Competes: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

By guest author: pmphrblog for Portnoy, Messinger, Pearl & Associates, Inc. Tri-State area human resources and labor relations consulting firm.

In today’s information economy, the protection of proprietary information is becoming even more essential. Employers, in increasing numbers, are requiring employees to sign so called “covenants not to compete,” or non-compete agreements. A covenant not to compete is an agreement that the employee will not work for a competitor for a specified period of time. In addition to confidentiality agreements, this is a powerful tool to prevent employees from misappropriating proprietary information such as trade secrets, or client information and supplying it to competitors. Such agreements also prevent employees from poaching clients and starting their own firms.

Who should sign non-compete agreements?

Employees who pose the greatest risk to theft of proprietary information should be required to sign these agreements. Thus, courts are far more likely to enforce a non-compete against an engineer or an accountant, than a janitor.

There are numerous pros and cons of requiring employees to sign non-compete agreements. In some cases where the risk to proprietary information is high, they are a necessity. In other situations these factors should be weighed to determine if one is necessary.

Some advantages of non-competes are that they:

• Protect trade secrets and other confidential information,

• Can help prevent high performing employees from leaving and working for competitors,

• Prevent the loss of clients or key customers when an employee leaves, and

• Have the effect of improving retention.

On the other hand requiring employees to sign a non-compete can create tension between employees and employers, and may induce some employees to quit immediately. It may also be more difficult to attract talent, as incoming employees may be reluctant to sign a non-compete. Moreover, such agreements may be found unenforceable in court. Even if the agreement is enforceable, the costs of enforcement can be prohibitive. Enforcing such agreements often requires the retention of an attorney and the initiation of a lawsuit which can cost an organization thousands of dollars in legal fees.

Covenants not to compete must be reasonable in terms of the following three areas:

1. Duration: Courts will generally not enforce a non-compete that has a duration longer than two years. The shorter the duration, the more likely courts will find the agreement reasonable.

2. Geographic Scope: It becomes more complicated when deciding the geographic scope. The scope must be limited to the area where the business primarily operates. For example, an organization that does most of its business in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut must limit its non-compete to those states. Most nationwide non-compete agreements are unenforceable except for high level employees at large corporations.

3. Industry: Non-competes must be limited to the particular industry of the employer. For example, a company that produces semi-conductors cannot prevent an employee from working in a restaurant or other unrelated industry.

Overall these agreements must be drafted in a way that satisfies their purpose of protecting proprietary information, while not being excessively burdensome on the employee. These agreements are not always looked favorably upon by the courts.  The courts have placed limits on the scope and reach of non-compete agreements. Thus, employers must weigh these advantages and disadvantages when deciding whether to require employees to sign a non-compete. All agreements should be reviewed by counsel before asking an employee to sign it.

This article is intended for general information only and should not be construed as legal advice.

For more information on labor relations please visit us at:

http://www.pmphr.com/

About Portnoy, Messinger, Pearl and Associates:

Portnoy, Messinger, Pearl and Associates, Inc. (PMP),  the oldest labor relations consulting firm representing management on Long Island, was founded in 1964 by former union organizer and worker’s rights advocate, Murray W. Portnoy.  Initially, Murray offered human resource consulting and union contract negotiating services to a handful of clients. Today PMP has a full staff of experienced and talented human resources and labor relations consultants, labor and employment attorneys, and administrative personnel. Murray Portnoy's values and vision remain at the core of PMP's mission and principles.

Be Frugal and Generous

There are a few people who I love reading everything they write and every interview they give. One of those people is Google's head of HR (officially, "head of people operations"), Laszlo Bock. That definitely rang true as he gave a recent interview to The Guardian with ten tips to get ahead at work. There are a ton of great parts in there (pay unfairly, spoil your best workers, choose a job that makes you happier, etc) but my favorite one was this: Be Frugal and Generous.

Most things Google does for its people costs nothing. Have vendors bring services in-house or negotiate lunch delivery. Guest speakers require only a room and a microphone. Save your big cheques for the times when your people are most in need. Your generosity will have the most impact when someone needs emergency medical attention or when families are welcoming new members. 

This is true even for the smallest company. My father founded an engineering firm that he led for over three decades. He cared deeply for each of his people. When any of his team reached five years in tenure, he took them aside and told them that the company had a pension plan, and at five years they were fully vested in it. 

In addition to whatever they’d been saving, he had also been putting money aside for each of them. Some cheered, some cried, some simply thanked him. He didn’t tell people earlier than that because he didn’t want them to stay for the money. He wanted them to stay because they loved building things and loved the team.

I've been at companies that spent wildly on their employees...and then had to cut them later to save money. I've been at companies that held tight to every dollar...and then had employees leave because they were way too frugal. This seems like great advice on how to fit in between.

You don't have to give everyone a pension plan that you personally pay into or bring in lunch every day--sometimes, you just need to find a way to show you care and do the things for your employees that show you appreciate they stuck around. Bock has some great ways to do that in this piece.

Advice for Working Remotely--or from Anyplace

After spending almost a year working remotely, I've written about quite a few do's and don'ts for doing so yourself. There was an article recently in Medium with some advice for working remotely. While I actually don't think this article is a great one for working remotely, I do think there are a few key takeaways for any employees.

The best of them references one of my favorite apps, Pocket, and described a real-life work situation:

Here’s an example: It’s Tuesday, 11am — I’m working away on a project, when Twitter prompts something of interest… Oh, man, I’m interested! Let me just click and see what it’s all about… …No, wait a minute, I’ve been in this situation hundreds of time: I’m about to click away and lose my focus… Yes, I want to read this article! And if I read it now, I’ll lose my focus for sure! Instead, I add content to Pocket, it bookmarks things on all devices — I then review it in my own time.

You will never be able to keep your employees away from other websites during work hours (I don't think you even want to, in all honestly). But the key is to keep them from sitting and reading and not paying attention to their work.

Bring in Pocket which will not only save that article to read later, but also download the article to your smartphone. So if you, like me, take a subway to work or travel for work (and so have some time without cell coverage), you can read this article on your phone. Fully downloaded.

And if you find a good article like this that you want to make sure you put in a blog post, well, you can save it and then send it to yourself and it ends up here. Whether you work from home or from your office, using productivity apps like Pocket can help you be a better employee. 

Dealing with Organizational Changes

According to a 2013 Towers Watson survey, 25% of employers sustain advantages from organizational changes over the long term. The notion of change can be quite alarming for many.  However, change is inevitable for organizations, given the environment we’ve experienced over the last decade. In this issue of Astronology, we discuss organizational change…and ways to do it successfully.

Change is inevitable, considering in the last 10 years we’ve had to deal with

• The economic downturn and slow recovery
• An increasing demand for employees with technical skills
• Overall process changes with advancing technology and globalization

Some organizations, in order to stay afloat, have had to deal with mergers, technical skills upgrades for employees dedicated to outdated methodologies & technologies, and changes in lead staff due to early retirements & layoffs.  With only 25% of employees seeing an advantage in these sometimes necessary and generally large adjustments, it’s important to understand what the major factors are in making organization-wide changes and having participant buy in for successful results.  To facilitate success, managing change can be broken into two factors: planning and following up with execution.

Planning

Although it sounds easy, planning is anything but. Planning involves more than just identifying areas that need change. It also involves recognizing the areas of concern, and addressing & managing worker enthusiasm, or “buy in” to change.

In order to have workers buy in to change, they must be motivated to want to change. This is mainly done by alleviating the natural anxiety that comes with facing an unknown future. This is where education and training become important. When workers are aware of what to expect and how to handle it, anxiety is lessened. When workers feel involved in making changes, whether by input in the design of change or having a dignified role in its execution, control is given which can lessen anxiety. Anxiety can also be lowered by making clear to workers what the organization’s mission is in conjunction with the new changes. Including team building moments leading up to the change can give a sense of security and comradery. Giving evidence that workers will have the opportunity to build their own careers from these changes is also a great incentive. Clear communication on these points is of high value.

Execution

During the execution of change activities, availability of support is crucial. Employees must know that they have the resources available to carry on their responsibilities during and after the change. It is also imperative that leaders are available to give support, clear communication, and even commendation during the adjustment. Human Resources expert Susan Healthfield expresses, in an article for the human resources page on about.com, “Spend extra time and energy working with your front line supervisory staff and line managers to ensure that they understand, can communicate about, and support the changes. Their action and communication are critical in molding the opinion of your workforce.” She makes mention of a previous client that had to deal with changes in work teams. The client had expressed that they wished they had handled differently mid-level managers who resisted change. The client had given these particular managers 18 months to buy in to the change.  It was observed that this kindness undermined the change for some time.

                  
Inc.com’s online article, “Managing Organizational Change” lists these key steps when making organizational changes:

• Understand the current state of the organization.

• Identify problems the organization faces.

• Assign a level of importance to each one.

• Assess the kinds of changes needed to solve the problems.

• Competently envision and lay out the desired future state of the organization.

• Carve the ideal situation for the organization after the change is implemented.

• Convey this vision clearly to everyone involved in the change effort.

• Design a means of transition to the new state. An important part of the transition should be maintaining some sort of stability.  Some things—such as the organization’s overall mission or key staff—should remain constant in the midst of turmoil to help reduce people's anxiety.

• Implement the change in an orderly manner.

• Manage the transition effectively. It might be helpful to draw up a plan, allocate resources, and appoint a key person to take charge of the change process.

• The organization’s leaders should try to generate enthusiasm for the change, by sharing their goals & vision, and acting as role models. In some cases, it may be useful to try for small victories first in order to pave the way for later successes

The Difference Between a Great Manager and an “Okay” Manager

According to a report from gallup.com, “managers account for at least 70% of variance in employee engagement…”.  With a March 2015 survey discovering that only 32.9% of employees are engaged at work, clearly management has a dramatic impact on employee engagement and work productivity. In this issue of Astronology, we look into the characteristics needed to define great management versus mediocre management.

As discussed in our first Astronology article of 2015, there are various areas that managers can target to improve employee engagement. Those highlighted areas were the following:

·       Goal Setting

·       Communication

·       Promotion of Work / Life Balance

       Targeting these areas can be the start of attacking a bigger issue for managers…manager engagement. An April 2015 Gallup report stated that although 54% of managers with high talent are engaged at work, just 35% of all U.S. managers are engaged in their work and workplaces. 51% of U.S. managers are not engaged…and 14% are actively disengaged.

Ultimately, the difference between a great manager and an “okay” manager is leadership quality. The April Gallup report discovers that the talent of being a great manager is found in one out of 10 people, while another two in 10 possess a basic talent for management. With training and coaching, these abilities can be heightened. The talents Gallup observed in great managers are the following:

·       Ability to motivate every employee to take action via engagement

·       Assertiveness in driving outcomes and overcoming adversity & resistance

·       Create a culture of accountability

·       Build working relationships that create trust, open communication, and full transparency

·       Make decisions based on productivity…not office politics

Many other articles support these observations. John Kotter, Konosuke Matsushita professor of Leadership at Harvard University expressed, “Management is a set of processes that keep an organization functioning. They make it work today – they make it hit this quarter’s numbers. The processes are about planning, budgeting, staffing, clarifying jobs, measuring performance, and problem-solving when results did not go to plan.” All of these are processes are necessary in order to get an organization functioning.  However, the qualities to lead, to be a great manager, involve “aligning people to the vision, that means buy-in and communication, motivation and inspiration.” An inc.com article listed the following similar nine qualities that define great leadership:

·       Awareness

·       Decisiveness

·       Empathy

·       Accountability

·       Confidence

·       Optimism

·       Honesty

·       Focus

·       Inspiration

Similar qualities were mentioned in a Houston Chronicle online article. If one in 10 people possess these qualities, there is a strong possibility right now in work groups and in various sections in organizations that great managers, great leaders, are literally waiting to be cultivated. Have you recently identified these qualities in your managers? Do you see potential in certain workers? How does your organization cultivate leaders? Write to Astronology with your thoughts!