Guest Article: Hostile Work Environment? A Common Misconception by Ben

Anger in itself doesn’t constitute a hostile work environment

Friend: My boss is kind of a jerk, and he’s breaking the law.

Me: Really? How?

Friend: He makes this place a hostile work environment.

Me: So he’s discriminating against others illegally?

Friend: Well, no, but he makes it uncomfortable to work there. He’s unpleasant, angry, and unpredictable.

I had this exchange with a good friend of mine recently, and the person was so convincing in the discussion that I had to go and look up “hostile work environment” one more time to be sure I was correct. Thankfully I was, but I thought it would be a good reminder to share the key pieces of the law that apply to that specific type of discrimination here.

What is a Hostile Work Environment?

In laymen’s terms, it’s an environment where a reasonable person cannot carry out the functions of their job due to some form of illegal discrimination that is occurring. Remember, all discrimination is not bad. That word has taken on some baggage in recent years, but you should discriminate on a daily basis.

The discriminatory behavior needs to be illegal, and we’re all pretty familiar with the categories that are protected under the law. And just in case you need a refresh on that, I have included the actual verbiage from the EEOC below to remind you.

What the EEOC says about a Hostile Work Environment

Harassment is a form of employment discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, (ADEA), and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, (ADA).

Harassment is unwelcome conduct that is based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. Harassment becomes unlawful where 1) enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment, or 2) the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive. Anti-discrimination laws also prohibit harassment against individuals in retaliation for filing a discrimination charge, testifying, or participating in any way in an investigation, proceeding, or lawsuit under these laws; or opposing employment practices that they reasonably believe discriminate against individuals, in violation of these laws.

Petty slights, annoyances, and isolated incidents (unless extremely serious) will not rise to the level of illegality. To be unlawful, the conduct must create a work environment that would be intimidating, hostile, or offensive to reasonable people. Source: eeoc

One last reminder

I ask one thing from you. If this was a good reminder for you, if you didn’t already know this, or if you just think this will be helpful to someone else, please forward this to them! The more people we can educate, whether it’s fellow HR professionals or our management staff, the better off we’ll be. :-)

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Photo source: soukup

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Guest Article: Research Power: Anonymous vs. Confidential Surveys by Ben

I like data. I like reviewing it, pulling out trends, and sharing insights. I also like when I get the opportunity to ask others what they like and get some anonymous feedback, because I believe that anonymity helps to improve the quality and quantity of responses.

Recently I was listening to a podcast, and the speaker mentioned offering a confidential survey, which he felt was more valuable than an anonymous one. I had to stop and consider the differences, and I realized there certainly may be times when offering confidential surveys can beat offering anonymous ones.

Types of surveys

• Anonymous-Anonymous surveys collect information and aggregate it without leaving a “trail” to find the specific participant


• Confidential-Confidential surveys collect information but tie the response back to a unique identifier for each participant. This allows a third party to follow up if need be on specific answers.

How they work and why they matter

I’ve seen the impact that suspicion/doubt has on response rates for anonymous surveys. If the people being surveyed do not think their responses are going to be protected, they will either lie, tone down the truth, or not respond at all. In the end those altered responses hurt everyone who the survey was intended to help.

In the past I’ve put together anonymous surveys for our staff to take, but inevitably there’s a manager here or there that wants me to find out who put in some responses. It’s always funny when I give them a look and reply, “You know this is anonymous, right? I put things in place so even I can’t tell who responded unless they put in unique information that applies only to them.” In the past it was puzzling to get that response; now I think it would sometimes be valuable if those had been confidential, not just anonymous.

For instance, if Bob puts on his survey that he’s feeling frustrated with management and doesn’t plan to stay longer than a year at the job, but his manager doesn’t know that Bob feels that way, then the information is virtually useless if it was gathered anonymously.

In the same scenario above, if we gathered that data in a confidential survey, I (or some other third party) could reach out and try to help diffuse the situation without the manager directly knowing who the respondent was. The employee is still protected, but the problem also now has the chance of being solved. Win-win!

Your turn

Sorry for the survey/data nerd breakout session today. :-) I’ve been thinking about how to get better responses from internal surveys, and this has been on my mind a lot lately. Do you do internal surveys? What sorts of tools do you use? Are they anonymous? Confidential? Any lessons learned that you’d like to share?

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Guest Article: Competence drives confidence by Ross Clennett

When have you been most confident at work, in any job? I strongly suspect it was when you had a high level of competence in that job. I recently had reason to recall the start of my recruitment career, in London twenty five years ago. I was twenty two years old. I was working in an office for the first time. I was living out of home for the first time. I was resident in a country that was

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Managing workplace ambiguity

At times, having to work through ambiguity in the workplace is inevitable. From handling tasks with incomplete or poor directions to structural changes at the workplace, at one point or another you will face ambiguity and uncertainty at work with no option to pass things onto someone else. Although experiencing ambiguity can be anxiety-provoking, effectively dealing with ambiguity is an important skill to have. Here are some useful strategies to manage workplace ambiguity:  

 

1. Learn to let go of your desire to control

Most of us like to think that we can make a powerful change in the challenges presented to us. However anxiety and stress can often result when you are dealing with ambiguous situations that you feel the need to be in control of, or that you feel should be done an exact way. In order to deal with ambiguity effectively, you need to be comfortable with uncertainty and suppress your need to control the situation. To do this, it is important to identify what you can and cannot control or influence, and accept and be comfortable with what is beyond your control. Ask yourself "can I change the way this process is right now?" If not, then stress has no value for you.

2. Learn to make decisions without having all the facts

 Unfortunately, in ambiguous situations, you will often receive insufficient information required to make assured decisions. Don’t wait around until you receive every bit of information to take action; it may never arrive. This is where people who are 'risk averse' often struggle to try things out or take a chance when time is an issue, try to limit yourself to definite pieces of information you absolutely need.

3. Be flexible

 Ambiguous situations can go hand in hand with constant and unforeseen changes, so a willingness to adapt to these changes and incorporating them into your decisions can ease the anxiety and stress. If you are in the planning phase of a project or update, make sure that there is a contingency to follow and each step only contains general objectives, not direct pathways that may be altered easily.

4. Be confident in your abilities 

A great way to reduce ambiguity and handle uncertainty is by having confidence in your abilities and how you respond to things you cannot control. Those who are confident ask for assistance, are not afraid to be wrong and hold themselves accountable for their mistakes. Having these characteristics will assist you in adapting and responding to ambiguity and uncertainty.

5. Communicate and clarify 

When facing ambiguity, communicating with those involved in the situation can be very useful in clarifying the situation. Ask for clarification or feedback. Make sure that updates are frequent and everyone is on the same page.

6. Develop and expand your network

 Having a large network of professional contacts can prove useful for support and information sharing, which can be helpful in facing ambiguous work situations. To make the most of networking opportunities, attend conferences and seminars to connect with people from different businesses, or join professional organisations outside of the workplace.

7. Effectively manage stress

 Stress may be experienced when faced with ambiguous tasks. It is worthwhile to find coping techniques to manage this stress, especially since there is greater chance for you to deal with problems and challenges efficiently when stress is under control.

Hopefully these techniques will help you overcome unnecessary stress or anxiety and even get through certain tasks or changes more effectively! 

Guest Article: You Are Never too Old to Learn Something New: A Kirkpatrick Tribute by Jennifer Miller

This morning I received a message from Donald Kirkpatrick’s LinkedIn account informing me that he passed away a few weeks ago. For those of you unfamiliar with Dr. Kirkpatrick, he created the Kirkpatrick model of training evaluation. For those of us in the training and development industry, his work set the stage for evaluating the effectiveness of the work we did. He was truly a legend and it’s comforting to know that his work lives on with his son and daughter in-law via Kirkpatrick Partners .

Even though I first used the Kirkpatrick model over 25 years ago as a corporate trainer, I never personally met Don. But we did have some interesting interactions not too many years ago. You see, LinkedIn sent me a “you might know this person” message, referencing Dr. Kirkpatrick. My reaction was, well, yes, I “know” his work, but I don’t personally know him . For grins, I sent him an invitation and he accepted!

We exchanged LinkedIn private messages in which I thanked him for his service to the training field and he was graciously humble in his reply. Now, here’s the thing: this man was in his mid-eighties when we had this exchange. Not only was he still active in his profession, but he was still learning to use new technologies.

I will never forget those exchanges, because they are fabulous reminders that we are never too old to live our passion and we are certainly never too old to learn something new.

Rest in peace, Donald L. Kirkpatrick.

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5 reasons to consider hiring mature age workers

There are several negative connotations surrounding hiring mature age workers, and these stereotypes are ones that are not completely dismissed by organisations. But fear not, below are five key reasons that mature age workers are neither down nor out in the hiring game.

1. They save organisations money

Mature age workers are 2.4 times more likely to stay with an organisation than younger workers, thus saving their potential employer a lot of time, effort and money so they don’t have to go through the hiring process again.

They are also more likely to save their employer money through decreased rates of absenteeism and greater investment returns on training.

2. Getting older doesn’t mean getting less intelligent

A study of the Organisation of Economic and Corporate Development nations concluded that verbal skills, intelligence and communication remain unchanged as a person ages.

3. Mature age workers are ready to learn

The saying that "an old dog can't learn new tricks" is just that, a saying. ABS data reveals that Australians aged 55 – 64 are the fastest growing users of information technology. Hence, there’s no reason why they won’t be at the forefront of current technologies, ready to take on new learning challenges as they arise.

4. Mature age workers come with a wealth of knowledge behind them

Throughout their tenure in the workforce, there is no doubt that they have contacts, experience and interests; all of which are invaluable assets to bring to any organisation. The ability to lead and motivate others is another skill set that can be acquired more with age.

5. Mature age workers reflect our community

Organisations always need to be conscious of responding to the needs of the community they are in; in Australia, there is a changing age profile and thus, it would best benefit organisations if they responded to this change by being seen as a part of the community. This involves mirroring this change with who it employs.

Mature age workers have a lot to offer the next organisation they work for, which should be kept in mind for your next recruitment campaign!

Are you thinking about how you can measure the relevant skills in your next hiring campaign? Our recruitment partners at Capable People can help you find the right person for the role by utilising non-discriminant assessments that find a person-job fit that matches your performance needs.

Sources:
OECD study
ABS data

Guest Article: Leadership Courage – When Not to Fire Someone by Jennifer Miller

Should you fire the person responsible for your company’s very public failure?

That’s the question I explore in my latest article for Smartblog on Leadership. Earlier this week, I wrote about a very public PR failure: the NYPD foray into Twitter. Says Smartblog on Leadership of my article: “When organizations make mistakes in the public eye, there’s a temptation to handle the crisis by firing the person responsible, writes Jennifer Miller. Leaders should have the courage to use failures, even public and painful ones, as learning opportunities and as a way of communicating the company’s tolerance for risk.”

You can read the whole article, “Leading from a Place of Courage”, here.

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