Tag Archives: retention

Is bringing your dog to work the best fit?

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Not long ago I read a piece that said Nestle Purina Company allows its employees to bring their dogs to work.  When I think of bringing my pets to work the first thing that comes to mind is “that could be a disaster” in an office setting. Now I don’t know about you but if I took either one of my dogs (especially Buddy, my yellow lab) I wouldn’t be able to do jack! But then in reality and since I work mainly from my home office, I do bring them to work and they are constantly bugging me to eat, play, or go outside to potty!

I see the premise behind this but can’t see it working in the real world! The premise of course being “providing one measure in offering a better work-life balance for its employees.” Dude! What a beautiful thing. But is balance the right word for this? Is there even such thing as work-life-balance? I know my friend Cali Yost would tell you its more about work-life-fit. She is dedicated to empowering individuals to strategically manage the way work “fits” into their lives–because as she says “It’s fit, not balance and helping organizations create strong work+life fit partnerships with their employees is crucial.”

So What Is Nestle Purina Up To?

The maker of dog and cat food – Nestle Purina Petcare Company,  has 9,850 employees globally, most of them in St. Louis, where the company’s based. And yes, they’re hiring; a spokeswoman says the company has openings for marketers, copywriters, accountants, engineers, sales representatives, paralegals, and more. But before you apply, make sure you’ll fit in with a furry-friend-loving culture. “Bringing pets to work is a major plus,” one employee wrote on Glassdoor.com regarding this issue. “Pets on the work floor make everyone happier.” (Is this realistic? I think my dog Marley would totally bite someone if they came by her “desk” while she was taking her nap).

Indeed, work-life balance is about more than reputation or keeping employees happy; it’s mainly about retention. Offering flexible scheduling is the most effective way of improving employee retention rates, says Dick Finnegan, a former human-resources director and CEO of C-Suite Analytics, which helps companies decrease employee turnover saying -

“The more liberal companies can be with letting people pick their own schedule times, letting them work from home, letting them–especially people who travel a lot–have no established schedules, letting people leverage technology to work from anywhere–the more companies aggressively offer those things, the higher their retention.”

If your company doesn’t offer flexible policies, perhaps you should look to your direct boss to help you figure out a way to create a comfortable balance for your employees between their work and personal lives.

So what’s your opinion? Is this just a fad or is this the new way of figuring out how to jump through hoops and the “out of the box” thinking that is required in this new millennium and with the new demographic changes we are facing?

This post was from the archives published HERE in 2011. 

The ever changing benefit surveys

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According to Employee Benefit News and a new survey “Caring trumps compensation”, and employees say they will take a promotion without a pay raise. It appears in this survey that job seekers are looking for a caring company over a high base salary.

The poll, conducted by Monster.com and Unum, finds that the top-rated item on would-be employees’ wish lists was a company “that truly cares about the well-being of its employees.”

Some 87% rated caring as a top quality, much higher than compensation, which was tops for 66%.

These same folks also found that employees prioritized:

- Challenging and fulfilling work (84%).
- Job security (82%).
- An attractive benefits package (74%).

“Employees, job-seekers and HR leaders understand the importance of a caring corporate culture in recruiting and keeping a talented workforce,” says Mike Simonds, SVP for Unum. “Benefits play an important role in supporting that culture.” Much more important, it seems, than money.

Now there’s something to show your CFO.

But on the other side of the spectrum, we continue to hear that companies are cutting benefits in an article that states that30 percent of employers will “definitely” or “probably” stop offering coverage in the years after 2014, when new medical insurance exchanges are supposed to be up and running.

But surprisingly, this same study found that more than 85 percent of employees would remain at their jobs even if their employer stopped offering insurance, although about 60 percent would expect increased compensation.

In the end, maybe it’s just like all the healthcare information we continue to receive throughout the media and internet where “they” (whoever they are) tell us a certain thing causes cancer and then we find out a year or so later, that it’s actually good for us. Who and what are we to believe?

We’ll always have surveys, stats, reports, and others telling us best practices, what’s trending, and how the world is evolving  especially now in our current economic state  -  but only time will tell.

What’s working for you in your retention strategy? I’d love to hear and share!


The Circus Act of Employee Wellness

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I recently came across a groupon in Vegas that was giving away 60% off liposuction at a physician’s office. Now, I could hardly believe it – but it is Vegas; anything goes!

It reminded me of some of the absurd ways we try and get our employees engaged to participate in our wellness benefits. From offering them cash, gift cards, vacations to discounts on their health insurance. We try and co-hearse them to quit smoking, to join a gym, to lose weight, to participate in the annual walk or jog-a-thons all for their benefit.

Why is it that we have to come up with creative ways to help them live better lives in and out of work?

The answer? Maybe that’s how we’ve conditioned them to respond or maybe that’s just human nature. From the time our parents started paying us to do chores around the house until we made it into the workplace we have been expecting compensation for our actions (even beyond that of salaries and vacations).  Now, we seem to have created a society of those that continue to say, “Okay, what’s in it for me.”

We’re all asking the question, “Can’t our employees just be healthy on their own without us having to create a circus tent of benefits?”

The answer is a most assuredly no. And especially during this difficult economic time when we’re all shaken up over employee retention and trying to keep our employees happy we are looking for a more creative approach to reach all diverse groups within our circles.

I’m all about benefits for employees and especially those which add value, not only to employees but also to those that help the employers bottom line. But something has to give when our employees are expecting the “next big thing” and for us to jump through hoops to maintain their loyalty and happiness to keep them from jumping ship.

I recently wrote an article in regard to Google’s college style antics on We Know Next (coming in August) and how we may be perpetuating these types of continued expectations and behaviors, if we’re not careful. Even some of Google’s employees are trying to find the “next best” place to work. I can’t help but wonder what those companies will have to come up with to keep the attention of these  folks.

What are your thoughts on this?

Generational diversity; The patchwork quilt

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Yesterday morning I sat in on a session titled “Addressing the Global Talent Mismatch in the workplace” at SHRM 2011. When the speaker asked the attendees (most of them in Human Resources or some kind of Human Capital Management role) “How many of you in the room know what to do when it comes to addressing the generational diversity in the workplace, especially with the older generation?” I admit, I wasn’t too shocked to see only a few hands go up.

Hmmmmmm……… Our workforce diversity is forever changing and we don’t know how to prepare for that? Well, I’m sure that is why they were sitting in that session at 7:00 in the morning so they could get some answers.

Some of the information discussed was of course the generational differences;

  • Traditionalists – 65 and older (not really open to changes and feel they have made it this far on what they have experienced)
  • Boomers – Like the Traditionalists they feel that getting rewarded in the workplace is all about having done their time” ( a different mindset) – they even think in terms of their loyalty toward their employers as counting for something
  • Both Gen X and Y - are of the mindset that they are “entitled to change and break the rules” and possibly think that it’s up to them to come in and be the change
Traditionalists and Boomers are more adherent to policy and procedures where as the younger generation question policy and are constantly pushing the envelope, (why do I have to do this?) – they feel a sense of entitlement and believe that is it part of their job to continue to question.

Now don’t get me wrong, we did talk about performance in this session and we decided that it goes across all four generations – but in different ways. We also discussed that  sometimes if you have an older (55) super performer they are usually not perceived as “old” in the workplace, by their peers. I know this even when I look at my husband who is about to turn 57. He is definitely the overachiever and is constantly being told that he does not look or act his age. (Sometimes I tell him that he doesn’t act his age but in a different manner :) )

How do we attract and retain experienced workers? The stats given during the presentation are that (14%) of businesses are even trying to do anything about attracting older workers, and only something like (23%) are knowledgeable of how to retain older workers. (Please don’t blast me with emails on where to find these stats because they were up on the power point presentation by the presenter and I really don’t have a clue).

Older workers NEED MORE WORK LIFE BALANCE. This seems to be the theme for the SHRM conference this year – Work, Life – Flexibility. When it comes to older workers we find that they want career choice and they’re needing flexibility practices in place to take care of parents and are also planning for retirement.

Using flex as we have with nursing mothers (working mothers) and using it in the same manner, making a strategic plan of how we can translate this same practice with older workers and elder care, is certainly something to consider and is one companies strategic plan. By using the same guidelines in helping working mothers and changing it up a bit when it comes to aging parents, they noticed they went from a 40%  turnover rate down to 14% – Now that is ROI. By the way, half of their employees were over the age of 45.

Here are a few creative approaches suggested by members of the audience:

  • Some companies are taking older workers and making them contract and some part-time.
  • Some suggested using older workers to train / sponsor the high potential project team. Having the younger generations train the older on new technologies within the workplace to be more productive and valuable within the organization (okay, that was my suggestion that I offered to the group).
  • Interns coming in (especially with attracting new talent for the future and in strategic planning) and utilizing technology such as videos geared toward their long-term strategic planning of how to attract and retain their workforce.
I imagine the generational diversity in the workplace to look something like that of a patchwork quilt - knitted together and all working for the common good. I do believe it can be achieved.