5 Ways Companies Can Support Pregnant Employees

HR Tip of The week: 5 Ways companies can support expecting employees!

1. Make the benefits process easy. 
   • Companies who want to support pregnant employees should start by looking at their benefits documentation, and strive to make it as simple and accessible as possible.
2. Create Support Networks
   • Create communities where parents and parents-to-be can share openly about their experiences and seek support (they need it!).
3. Educate employees on the “Are you Pregnant?” Question.
   • Start a conversation on the right and wrong ways to talk about pregnancy at work. A good rule of thumb is to treat pregnancy like you would any other health condition — and when in doubt, ask what the person is comfortable with.
4. Make the “Unspoken” explicit. 
   • Instead of making dangerous assumptions about how a pregnant employee wants to be treated or what she would like to take on (or not), managers should have a conversation to get on the same page — and continue talking throughout the pregnancy in case circumstances or preferences change.
5. Offer Encouragement!
   • If you see a pregnant colleague do something awesome, let them know! I can guarantee even the smallest of positive feedback will be extremely appreciated.

HR Tip of The Week

HR Tip of the week: 7 steps to developing a more effective talent acquisition effort!

•Maximize employee referrals.
•Expand the use of remote employees, but have a plan to manage them.
•Build strong talent networks.
•Pay at least as much as your competitors for talent, and be transparent about what you offer.
•Simplify job applications.
•Forge relationships with relevant colleges and high schools.
•Hire more recruiters.

HR Tip of The Week

HR Tip of The Week: 5 Ways to help employees with anxiety and stress!

•Have a good employee assistance program (EAP), and ensure employees know about it and how to utilize it as well as an employee wellness program to encourage healthy habits.
•Have an open-door policy, and mean it. Employees should feel free to discuss their concerns and seek assistance. Consider allowing things like remote work, personal leave (paid or unpaid), and other similar benefits that employees can take advantage of when they need to.
•Train everyone that employee concerns are to be kept confidential. If an employee comes to someone to discuss his or her concerns or anything he or she is dealing with, that conversation should only be divulged on an as-needed basis. It should be treated as confidential medical information.
•Offer reasonable accommodations when an employee comes to you. Reasonable accommodations might include things like temporary adjustments in workload, additional days off, more frequent breaks, shorter work days, more private work space, or assistance prioritizing tasks.
•Train managers to recognize potential signs that employees are dealing with mental health concerns and to know what they should and should NOT do in this scenario. Managers should never make assumptions or attempt to “diagnose” an employee they suspect is having mental health concerns.

HR Tip of The Week

HR Tip of The Week: 4 Tips for preventing employee vacation scheduling nightmares!

1. Discuss your employee vacation policy during the hiring and orientation process and provide employees with written vacation policies and procedures.
2. Set a deadline for submitting vacation requests that gives you enough time to project how employee absences might affect production schedules and delivery dates to resolve any conflicts.
3. Prepare for the absences. If colleagues will cover vacationers’ jobs, make sure those taking time off provide a summary of work in progress, major responsibilities, key contact information, how to access related files, and other pertinent data to meet crucial deadlines.
4. Allow workers in identical positions to trade off vacation dates among themselves, so long as it won’t jeopardize production schedules or quality of work.

HR Tip of The Week

HR Tip of The Week: 5 Tips for Maintaining Employee Engagement During Summer!

•Give People Time to Go Outside
Once an organization acknowledges people’s desire to be outside, it seems like a logical next step to actually offer to let employees leave early and blow off some steam once in a while.

•Encourage Vacations and Long Weekends
There is a tendency among U.S. workers to feel like they have to work, and organizations are doing little to encourage people to take a break. If management proactively and authentically pushes people to use their vacation time and has firm practices in place for offloading their work, employees will not only be more likely to take their vacation, but also will feel more loyalty to the organization and come back refreshed and ready to be productive.

•Walk It Out
One way to combat the afternoon slump, but still get some work done, is to have walking meetings. Instead of having a meeting in a conference room, turn them into afternoon walking meetings.

•Rewards With a Summer Theme
Tailor rewards around summer themes like outdoor concert tickets, extra paid time off, and even frequent-flier miles. These types of rewards do double duty by both recognizing performance and giving extra incentives to take time off.

•Flexible Summer Schedules
Employees will benefit with reduced commute times and the ability to spend a little more time with family or on personal activities, while at the same time feeling an improved connection with the organization in exchange for the work flexibility.

HR Tip of The Week

HR Tip of the Week

HR Tip of The Week: 5 Reasons you shouldn’t friend your coworkers on social media

• You’ll have access to sensitive information

As a social media connection, seeing what employees post about their health problems, medical history, political views, and religious or lifestyle preferences can be used as fodder for a discrimination or harassment lawsuit, according to some employment lawyers. Whether or not it results in a legal battle, it’s difficult not to be influenced by sensitive information your employees post.

• It’s going to make your team uncomfortable

When you send a friend request, it often places employees in a tricky position: unless they genuinely want to friend you, they may friend you because they feel pressured to, come up with a reason to decline, or they will simply ignore the request and hope you forget about it.

• You cannot fully tailor your feed

Whether or not you are well versed in the privacy settings of your preferred social media platforms, they are constantly changing and evolving, and you may not have the level of control over your content that you think you do. One questionable post or awkward party photo can live forever on social media, and giving employees a front row seat could hinder your image as a leader.

• Most social media is too personal for work

Posting on social media can feel as comfortable as talking to a good friend, so it’s easy to forget that your relationship with many of your followers is more complex than simply being pals. Social media blurs the boundaries between personal and professional.

• It adds to your professional responsibility