By Kimberly Kafafian

If you’re like many companies, chances are you’re struggling to fill positions. You have your HR teams strategizing together on how to attract the right talent. You’re boosting your employer branding efforts and devising new benefits packages. But nothing’s working. You need skilled talent now and you’re out of ideas. 

This might sound crazy, but have you thought about reaching out to the employees who left during the pandemic to see if they would be interested in returning? A recent Harris Poll survey found that one in five of people who resigned during the pandemic say they regretted it. If you’ve significantly improved culture, enhanced benefits, and created a better work-life balance for your employees since their departure you might be able to entice them back and solve some of your talent issues.

You’re probably thinking, “Would they really come back?” You never know. According to LinkedIn, “boomerang” employees accounted for 4.5% of all new hires among companies on the platform in 2021. This statistic, combined with the 20% who regret quitting, should be enough to get you considering the benefits of reaching out to potential rehires.

The Positives of Rehiring Former Employees

Here are some pros to consider:

You already know about their work ethic and skill sets. 

Since you have a history, you wouldn’t be hiring the unknown. You are aware of their work ethic and whether they have the ability to get the job done.

It’s cost effective. 

When you hire a former employee, there is less training – or perhaps no training – required. And because they are already familiar with the position and the company, the onboarding time is significantly cut. This reduces overall costs.

Rehiring can boost morale. 

When former employees return to the company, they are showing that the grass isn’t always greener somewhere else. 

As an HR professional, I always stress to my clients that it’s important to leave the door open because you never know where the relationship may lead. To that end, I recommend:

• Creating a positive exit experience so that employees leave feeling supported.
• Explicitly telling the exiting employee that if things don’t work out in the new job that the door is open to returning.
• Stay in touch with former employees by sharing company and workforce news.
• Keep track of prior employees through a CRM system.

Have you rehired any employees who left during the pandemic? If so, I would love to hear about your experience.

By Kimberly Kafafian

I read a quote from Rainbow Railroad that I want to share with you: “All humans are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” With it being Pride Month, we want to shine a spotlight on LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion. What is your company doing to make sure your LGBTQ+ employees feel safe and comfortable? Do you have diversity initiatives in place? Are you actively taking steps to build a culture of belonging? I’m hoping this article will help guide employers on the path to creating welcoming and supportive workplaces for the LGBTQ+ community during the month of June and every day of the year.

What Does LGBTQ+ Mean?

LGBTQ+ is an inclusive acronym that represents a diverse range of sexualities and gender-identities. The LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning people. The plus sign represents other gender and sexual identities, such as nonbinary, pansexual, asexual and intersex. 

The Benefits of a Diverse Workforce Are Proven

Diversity is, of course, crucial for social justice. But it also makes sense from a purely business standpoint. A McKinsey study found that diversity can positively impact a company’s bottom line. How? By:

• Boosting creativity and innovation. Diverse thinking leads to more creative results. When you bring together multiple perspectives, you foster new ways of thinking, which drives innovation.
• Creating a more inclusive culture. When you have a company culture that authentically encourages diversity across the enterprise you are creating an environment where people feel accepted and valued. This in turn enhances employee engagement, which boosts productivity. Plus an inclusive culture improves a company’s reputation and brand, helping to retain and attract talent.
• Making better decisions. Research by Cloverpop shows that diverse teams are better at making decisions – 87% of the time! As Laura Sherbin, CFO and Director of Research at the Center for Talent Innovation notes, “Diversity and inclusion must go hand-in-hand to drive results. Cloverpop’s research bolsters the case that employers who build diverse and inclusive teams see the best outcomes.”

Tips for Enhancing Diversity and Inclusion at Your Organization

Now that you know that diversity and inclusion makes sense from a bottom line standpoint in addition to being the ethical thing to do, let’s explore some strategies for building a more LGBTQ+ friendly workplace.

• Establish Formal LGBTQ+ policies. Whether it’s making sure that LGBTQ+ inclusion is part of your overall diversity policy or creating a separate policy around it, your formal policies need to demonstrate your commitment in this area. Be sure to address topics like parental leave, adoption, dress code expectations, and restroom use. 

• Provide comprehensive LGBTQ+ training. This applies to both new hire onboarding and ongoing training sessions. It is a powerful way to educate your entire workforce about LGBTQ+ issues as well as your policies, expectations, and repercussions for violations.

• Set employee expectations. While you cannot force employees to condone or agree with each other’s lifestyle, you can require your workforce to treat each other with respect. Define behaviors that help foster inclusion, such as using preferred names and pronouns. 

• Use personal pronouns. In an inclusive workplace, it’s important not to assume anyone’s gender. Encouraging the use of pronouns you identify with in email signatures, social media and other written forms of communication can help trans and nonbinary people feel more comfortable around their peers. 

• Adopt gender neutral language. Transition language in company documentation from he/she to they for more inclusive communications.

• Create an LGBTQ+ network. A great way to show your support is to create an LGBTQ+ network in your organization. Creating such a group also provides opportunities to identify ways to improve your inclusive initiatives. In addition to this group, you can also seek out inclusion allies who can also offer support. 

• Recruit purposefully. Start promoting a welcoming workplace from the start during the recruitment process. Include stories of diversity and inclusion on your website. Make sure your job postings use gender neutral language. Include references to same-sex partner benefits. Post on LGBTQ+-friendly job sites. 

With it being Pride Month, now is the time to take action and review and reassess your LGBTQ+ policies and initiatives. 

By Kimberly Kafafian

The stats don’t lie. American workers are experiencing heightened rates of burnout. 

According to the American Psychological Association’s 2021 Work and Well-Being Survey, 79% of employees had experienced work-related stress in the month before the survey, with three in five reporting negative impacts of that stress.

And Gallup found that about three in four American workers experience burnout on the job at least sometimes, with 29% reporting they feel burned out at work very often or always.

I don’t need to see the results of these surveys to know that burnout is real. My team has been helping business owners, C-suite professionals, and management address the stressors their workforce is experiencing since well before the start of the pandemic, although things have certainly progressed at warp speed since its eruption! 

Why have organizations reached out for our assistance? They know the toll burnout is taking on their employees, and in turn, the organization overall. Successful companies are built on happy and productive workers. Burnout impacts employee performance, which affects a company’s bottom line. To put that into dollars and cents, the American Institute of Stress notes that job stress costs the US industry more than $300 billion in losses due to absenteeism, diminished productivity, and accidents. 

Common Signs of Employee Burnout

Chances are you’ve experienced symptoms of burnout yourself – almost everyone I know has, including myself. Below are some of the most common indicators that your team is struggling.

Exhaustion – Emotional, Mental and/or Physical

If your employees seem tired all the time, they may be experiencing burnout. Increased work stress can carry over into home life, impacting the ability to unwind, relax or sleep. Not being able to restore or re-energize with down time impacts someone physically, mentally and emotionally. You can become irritable, unable to focus, and experience other physical ailments, such as chest pains, panic attacks, and headaches.

Mistakes and/or Decreased Productivity

A key signal of burnout is an increase in mistakes and/or a slide in productivity. Missed meetings and deadlines are also telltale signs.

Disengagement

Losing interest and disconnecting are common with burned out employees, along with a lack of enthusiasm, no longer socializing with coworkers, not actively pursuing new projects or tasks, and failing to return calls or emails.

Increased Absenteeism

Overworked employees tend to take sick days, whether as a way to renew energy or to avoid the stressors causing the burnout.

Heightened Sensitivity to Feedback

Stress can cause us to not see things clearly, as a result, workers may overreact to criticism by getting defensive, angry, or upset.

So What Steps Can Employers Take to Prevent Burnout? 

It benefits employers to invest in workplace wellness initiatives. Some preventative strategies include:

• Mandatory management training. It’s important to give managers the skills and tools they need to be effective supervisors. Poorly trained managers can create employee stress.
• Prioritizing workplace wellness. Creating a less stressful environment with quiet places to unplug and relax for even a few minutes a day can make a world of difference. Encourage mental health days and offer robust physical and mental health benefits, such as counseling and gym memberships.
• Monitoring workloads. Employees should not be expected to maintain unreasonable workloads, schedules or timelines.
• Encouraging employees to use their vacation time. So many workers fail to take their allotted days off because they have too much to do at work or they fear someone could replace them. Create a culture where vacation time is actively supported.
• Promoting work-life balance. This should be lived from the top down in order for such a practice to work. Offering flexible work arrangements, such as where and when you work, can help to foster employee wellness, as can providing time off for family events and self care.
• Supporting professional development. Oftentimes stressors arise around frustration over lack of opportunity for advancement. Showing interest in employee aspirations, helping to define career paths, promoting educational training, fostering a mentoring environment, and reminding employees of the importance of their roles all go a long way in supporting career development.

By Kimberly Kafafian

You are seen. You are heard. You are not invisible. You are valued. You are wanted. You are welcomed. You are not alone. In a crisis, call the NAMI Helpline at 800-950-NAMI or text “NAMI” to 741741

The last two years have increased anxiety – about jobs, family, finances, and our daily life in general – having a detrimental impact on our overall mental health. And as we don’t live in a bubble, our feelings are overflowing into the workplace, making mental health an employer problem.

I, as well as family and friends, have felt the effects of the stressors brought on by the pandemic as we juggle our work and personal lives. And we’re far from alone. A recent Lyra Health study found that 31% of workers said their mental health has declined over the past year, up from 24% at the end of 2020. And 42% reported that over the last 12 months mental health had some impact on their job, while 12% said it had a significant impact.

While many employers started prioritizing employee mental health prior to the pandemic, COVID pulled back the curtain and shined a spotlight on what has been a taboo topic. As a result, employers are recognizing the stressors impacting their workforce and are taking steps to create better work-life balance, reduce pressure in the workplace, and provide more robust mental health benefits. 

We’ve been working hand-in-hand with our clients helping them do just that by assisting them with setting up physical and virtual outlets for employees to discuss mental health issues, providing training sessions for employees on the mental health resources available to them and how to use them, organizing wellness reimbursements, and offering flexibility during work hours. Our goal is to make it acceptable to discuss mental health so that employees will feel comfortable seeking out the help they need, which benefits both the employees and the company overall. After all, a successful organization requires a happy, productive workforce.

We believe we’re making strides in this area. And according to the Lyra Health study, it seems that our colleagues are as well. 74% of those surveyed said they were very comfortable discussing mental health with their HR leader and another 22% were neutral on the question.

Tips on How to Start the Mental Health Conversation with Your HR Team

While all of the focus on mental health support is positive, it’s still a difficult subject to broach with direct managers. It’s scary because you don’t know how they will react. You may be afraid of losing your job, being judged or misunderstood, or even bullied. It may be easier to first talk to your company’s HR team. They can provide you an overview on the benefits available to you, as well as insight on possible accommodations to help you during this time. Below are some suggestions to help prepare you mentally for the conversation and tips to help guide it in the right direction.

Think of talking about your mental health in the same way as if you were reporting a physical health problem.

There isn’t a difference, it just feels different because of past stigma. Don’t be paralyzed by how you may be perceived. The pandemic has changed the playing field. So many workers have been suffering, so much so, that record numbers quit their jobs resulting in the Great Resignation. You are not alone!

Focus on your productivity. 

Let the HR team know how your mental health is impacting your work performance, rather than how you’re feeling. Give suggestions on how they can support you. This will help them figure out how to best help you. You may be able to work a more flexible schedule, take time off during the day to attend a therapy session, or get assistance streamlining responsibilities. 

Confirm what type of mental health benefits and programs your company offers. 

There may be more assistance available to you than you realized.

Remember that it is up to you how much you would like to disclose. 

HR professionals cannot ask you about your mental health, what you want them to know is strictly up to you. You might just want to let them know that you have been dealing with some major changes in your life and the stressors of them are impacting your work and you would like some assistance in addressing them so that you and the company are in a better position. 

Your employer has invested significant time and resources into training you and they have a vested interest in your performance. By talking with HR about your mental health, you can help yourself and the company overall.

By Kimberly Kafafian

I’m 5 minutes late to every meeting. I don’t do it on purpose and my only explanation is that my neurodiverse brain has set my internal clock 5 minutes slow. I try and try and try, and yet I’m still 5 minutes late. I’ve asked my team, humbly, to accept it and they have. Why? Because simply, an inclusive workplace is good for business. Inclusivity is not just a hot topic or a trend. It’s a practice that drives real results – and one that companies should be embracing and supporting if they want to thrive and grow.

As an HR professional, I’m fortunate to have a close up look at how organizations benefit from a diverse workforce. In my experience, when leadership creates a workplace environment where everyone feels welcome, valued, seen and respected, great things happen, including:

• Happier, more productive employees
• Improved morale
• Greater collaboration, which boosts problem solving
• Increased creativity, driving innovation
• Diverse perspectives that generate new ideas
• Higher job satisfaction and lower turnover
• Better recruitment of top talent

I often come across clients who are all in on the concept of building a culture of inclusivity, but simply are stuck when it comes to devising a strategy. To help put this concept into perspective, I like to break down for them the characteristics of an inclusive workplace culture. Doing this takes the abstract concept of inclusivity and makes it more concrete and attainable. 

9 Components of an Inclusive Workplace Culture

To create an inclusive culture, you need to understand the characteristics that make up its foundation. Let’s break it down.

1. Belonging

Inclusive environments make employees feel like they are welcome and accepted for who they are. It’s important to build a culture where workers believe they are important parts of something bigger.

2. Having a Voice

One of the biggest benefits of an inclusive workplace is the free flow of ideas. That can only be achieved if employees are encouraged to share their thoughts and if their viewpoints are wanted.

3. Feeling Valued

No one is going to do their best work if they don’t believe they are appreciated. Leadership needs to ensure that every team member feels they are recognized and respected.

4. A Collaborative Environment

When you break down silos and bring together varied talents, different skill sets, and differing levels of knowledge, you create the opportunity for new ideas to flow, enhancing innovation and boosting problem solving. 

5. Career Development Opportunities

Companies that provide learning and development opportunities demonstrate to their workforce that they have a genuine concern for their growth and career aspirations, regardless of position level and background.

6. Inclusive Leadership

If you want to create an inclusive culture, all actions need to start from the top down. Leadership must set the tone and commit to diversity across the entire enterprise.

7. Authentic DEIB Initiatives

Organizations can’t just talk the talk, they also must walk the walk with authentic DEIB initiatives by demonstrating their commitment through actions, such as placing diverse employees in high-profile positions.

8. Recognition of Differences

A color blind approach does more harm than good. Diversity should be recognized and celebrated so that employees truly feel like they can be themselves. And this is particularly important in relation to neurodiversity.  Leadership needs to understand the differences so they can build a culture that addresses each worker’s specific needs.

9. Access to Resources

Today’s workforce wants to know that you genuinely care about them. So, it’s important to provide the resources they need. This can take various forms, from support from management to health and wellness programs.

What are you doing to improve inclusivity in your organization?