Today’s Strategic HR – Supporting the achievement of financial goals

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Suzi

Sound Human Resource management is as essential as financial management in today’s business environment. If employees are distracting each other, unmotivated, ill-trained or worse, ignorant of how their efforts either facilitate or detract from company goals, what’s the point of reporting financials and talking about fiscal responsibility?

Every company job must contribute to the bottom line. For HR this means certain competencies are essential:

Extensive knowledge of the company’s main lines of business;
Knowledge of finance, sales and marketing, efficiency strategies and operations;
Knowledge of organizational strategic planning and setting strategic goals;
Keen understanding of how division/department action plans support strategic goal achievement;
Understanding the variety of talent activities that could support the achievement of company goals; and
Development of HR strategic plans

HR’s mission has evolved

Over the last 50 years HR’s mission has changed. Gone are the days of “recruiting qualified candidates” or “training and staff development.”

1960s to 80s – Recruitment, training and record keeping
1980s to 2000 – Uninterrupted supply of qualified, well-trained employees
Today – Align comprehensive talent management with the company’s strategic plan to facilitate the achievement of company goals

For more HR mission statements www.missionstatements.com.

All company strategic goals including purely technical goals such as finance or IT have numerous and related human resource implications. If a strategic goal is to increase company profitability, consider these human resource-related questions:

Do you have the right competencies in the Finance office?
Does the CFO have performance problems?
What drives revenue? Can people make a difference? Which jobs have key influence in financial success?
Are senior leaders held accountable (perf. eval.) for their share of revenue activities?
Does the senior leadership team work collaboratively together toward financial ends?
Do financial reports provide data that accurately reflect progress toward goals so that management can make sound decisions?
Does every employee understand the importance of key financial indicators?
Do senior leaders, supervisors, and front line job descriptions include financial end results?
Does the compensation program reward good performance in finance?
What employee-oriented barriers might interfere with revenue increases?

Are the barriers attitude-based (uncooperative, disgruntled or toxic employees)?
Are they competency-based? Performance-based?
Employee relations-based? Poor engagement, poor management?
Employee poor health or stress-related? Absenteeism, presenteeism?
Tools and materials-based?

And finally,

11. Does the corporate culture and values reinforce financial stewardship?

Think strategically and good luck!!

Employee Life Cycle: opportunities to transmit culture

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Suzi

Pre-service (attachment)

Vacancy: New job is added; employee resigns or employee is dismissed
Job Analysis: job design/review, establishing qualifications, selecting source
Recruitment: Sourcing and advertising
Selection: Application, screening, interview, offer, acceptance
On-boarding: Policies, HR paperwork, receive corporate culture materials
Employee orientation: culture orientation, job shadowing, practice

Early service (engagement)

Benefits: Employee signs up for benefits and begins receiving EBT, perquisites
Contribution: Employee begins contributing in the real job
Coworker relations: Ongoing interactions with co-workers at all levels
Employee guidance: supervision, evaluation, engagement,

2-year mark is the greatest threat of turnover (retention)

Medium service (seasoning)

Experience building: training and development, re-licensing, credentialing, re-qualifying
Giving back: helping to train less seasoned coworkers

Long service (adaptation and flexibility)

Employee re-contributing: retraining, lateral transfers, promotions
Cutting back and giving back: part time and flexible assignments as employees “semi” retire but continue contributing and mentoring less seasoned coworkers

(c) Copyright BCSPublishing 2012

Surviving a Toxic Workplace Without Losing Your Mind

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Suzi

Today’s workplace culture

Modern American employees are under extreme stress today due to a combination of several related factors:

Cost cutting measures;
Operating for months or years with over-lean staff;
Lack of supervisory training/poor quality supervision
Overall pressure to maintain production and quality with fewer and sometimes less-qualified staff

These factors combine to increase pressure and stress in the workplace. Owners and partners are under their own stress trying to secure financing and to retain profit margins despite increases in the cost of materials and operating expenses. These accumulated pressures will eventually affect relationships among employees and between employees and management.

The workplace includes toxic employees and bullies

One of the most successful articles I’ve written discussed toxic employees and the complicated issues associated with terminating them and shifting workplace dynamics. This online article was viewed roughly 3 times more often than any other article I’ve posted. Articles on toxic employees, toxic bosses and workplace bullies are increasingly popular today as business owners understand the connection between positive work culture and company success. Toxic employees control others through bullying. In a 2010 Strategic, Toxic Employees and Negative Social Dynamics I listed tactics used by toxic employees and how companies need a planned approach to neutralize this behavior. I got to thinking about the employee victims of this kind of manipulation and abuse. I have also been approached by colleagues about how to keep their job when the atmosphere is quite negative. Today I am writing to these employees who, because of health insurance, financial commitments and job market challenges, cannot easily leave such a workplace.

A 1999 study on workplace stress, Stress at Work reported that 40% of workers surveyed felt their job was “very or extremely stressful” (DHHS, 1999). Though I could not find a more recent survey of employee reports it’s likely that things have become even more stressful for today’s employee. With high stress and a poor job market more employees must learn to work around these challenges and maintain acceptable job performance. Avoiding the social and informal power minefields is a skill you can learn. Those who have the strength and natural instinct for it can be successful without support. But even with skills if the workplace bully makes you the target, you can find yourself overwhelmed and powerless.

Just use the grievance policy to register your complaint?

Many workplaces are decent and healthy; and some have grievance policies or other dispute resolution strategies that can get workplace disagreements back on track. When this is possible, use these processes. The following material addresses the less healthy and often abusive workplace. Formal grievance procedures may or may not work. It might not be safe to speak up in some workplaces due to potential retaliation by a toxic employee or manager. When coaching clients in this situations I urge caution because of the potential backlash. Please consider any such action very carefully and seek advice from experts before taking steps that might draw negative attention at your office. HR staff can often be trusted to provide support. Trust your instincts as you are the best judge of what course will get the best result. Finally, you are free to consult a legal representative in confidence, when needed.

Abuse is sometimes in the eye of the beholder

A final word of caution on your interpretation of this material. I’ve worked with employees who felt these behaviors were happening to them when in fact they were treated professionally. Some employees have a keen sensitivity to issues that don’t go their way. Sometimes, employee mental illness can interfere with the ability to interpret reality around them.

Employer responsibilities

A company owner’s first priority is to make the business successful. From this evolves the need for additional staff—which benefits employees, economic stimulation—which benefits the community and personal success—which benefits the owner’s family/dependents. Some drastic differences between companies derive from how the owners define “success.” If you define success in only monetary terms, one kind of workplace atmosphere results. If you define success as a balance of monetary measures, client satisfaction and an employee-friendly, professional work environment, a different kind of workplace atmosphere is created.

Regardless of the owner’s philosophical viewpoint, as long as he/she does not break the law, they are within their rights to run the business as they see fit. Employees are sometimes of the mind that employers have to be nice, have to take care of them, have to give them time off, etc. But owners can place as much focus on the bottom line as they wish. That is our free-market economic system. If this means they are difficult and unfriendly and experience employee turnover as a result, that’s the consequence. Sometimes the nature of the workplace is a result of active philosophical choices and sometimes owners are ignorant of the connection between the way they treat employees and level of turnover or social suffering that results. The amount of discord and employee bickering an employer tolerates through ignorance or neglect is related employee turnover. Those employees complain to everyone about what takes place at work. These matters are somewhat different in union environments. The article applies primarily to the non-union workplace but the dynamics described here affect union employees and their supervisors. I know because I have presented to both union employees and their supervisors.

Too bad to stay—Too hard to leave

All of the above combines to set the stage for workplace atmospheres which fall within wide extremes on a continuum. I imagine folks generally know when they are in a very bad or very good job. The problem is more difficult when the negative parts come on gradually, over time. These things are hard to see coming and most people wake up at some point to realize that things are not as they wish them to be. It can also be difficult when you know you have to leave and are looking but the job search is going poorly. Finally when some things are positive and some are not, what is the right decision?

You like the boss but the co-workers are gossipy
You like the co-workers but the boss is abusive
The money is great but the atmosphere is troubling
You like the workers but clients are abusive

Individuals have to decide what will work for them. Much will depend upon the nature of the employee’s temperament, the specific negative aspects, external employment environment and the marketability of the employee’s skill.

Skills and perspectives needed to navigate today’s workplace

When faced with a negative workplace we have to ask: Do you want to be true to yourself, tell the truth and damn the consequences? Or, do you want to preserve your sanity, fly beneath the radar and leave with some degree of professionalism? Some employees do fight back; some sue successfully for various negative affects of abuse in the workplace. The vast majority, however, lose their job and the possibility of any reference for future job seeking. What’s worse is that some may develop a reputation in the community as a trouble maker. This doesn’t make him or her a trouble maker but the perceptions are powerful particularly in a small community.

I generally advise two potential courses

You’ll need to figure out how to navigate the least stressful for you while still allowing yourself some performance success, or, find a position elsewhere. Not on my menu is: stay and complain. The complaining strategy rarely works out for you, your co-workers or your boss. The way to remain sane in a crazy or chaotic atmosphere is to maintain a clear perspective; remain observant; and use skilled boundary setting to prevent being drawn into battles that you cannot win or situations that will make you a social target. “flying beneath the radar” is a good way to picture it.

If you can, focus on this approach

In my coaching practice, the following strategies are possible when working with a private, competent support person who can reinforce this kind of detachment:

Set realistic expectations of others – supervisors and coworkers
Accurately read the landscape
Focus on what you can control (what you do and think and say)
Perform your job duties to the best of your ability within what you can control
Do the best you can within the parameters you are given
Avoid whining, complaining or gossip
Don’t tell others what they should do (supervisory responsibilities not-withstanding)
Mind disclosures to employees who are not trustworthy
Get objective, confidential emotional support outside the organization

When should you look for another position?

Workplace dynamics can run from mildly unhealthy to intolerable. Every individual has his/her personal tolerance level. Sensitive employees often see the issues coming early and may need to exit sooner than others who are more oblivious to the negative dynamics around them. In addition, employees who are targeted by negative employees specifically, may have to exit earlier. It is really an individual decision. I find that when I’m having stress symptoms (tight chest or stomach aches) and have tried to resolve issues without success I generally begin searching for another assignment.

Given the above, there are a few things that no employee should have to endure:

When your supervisor or coworker yells, throw things and verbally abuses staff;
When your supervisor gets visibly angry if you talk about things that need to improve;
If a supervisor uses confidential information against you or discloses this information to others who do not have a need-to-know;
If supervisors or coworkers gossip and criticize staff in any public manner or to clients;
Companies in which laws are being broken;
When employees are singled out and punished after privately or professionally disclosing the behaviors described in 1-5.

Looking for another position

Finding a job while working full-time is a considerable challenge. Employees are cautioned not to do this on company time nor with company computers, email or Internet connections. Working on resumes, checking advertisements and other job pursuit activities should be done on home computers. Begin contacting trusted friends in the community and network in a low-key manner.

Giving notice

I’ve heard from many victimized employees who are dying to give the employer a piece of their mind. Perhaps the company has an exit interview process for terminating employees. Most of the time, exit interviews are conducted in a professional and good-faith manner. However, in companies compromised by fear and intimidation this may not be an effective strategy. I can feel my HR colleague’s irritation when I say because terminating employees are a potential source of valuable candid information. You are not obligated to provide your observations. It’s your choice. In addition, burning any bridge can come back on you at employment reference time.. If you feel you must give some feedback, do it in a non-personal and professional way.

Exaggerated feedback examples to make the point

Personal: “My supervisor is a jerk. I have never seen a more abusive, horrible person!”
Non-personal: “I am surprised at the manner in which my supervisor conveys his dissatisfaction with our performance. I don’t think yelling and intimidation are effective tactics and I should think this method won’t help the company meet its operational goals in the long run.”

Good luck. Email me with your own survival stories- sbenoit at benoitconsulting dot com

_________________________

Sources

1. Benoit, Suzanne V. (2010) Toxic Employees: great companies resolve this problem; you can too! to see an excerpt or to purchase go to: purchase book

2. DHHS and NIOSH Publication 99-101 (1999) Stress at Work, accessed March 2011 at: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/99-101/

Summary of DADT, Workplace Culture and the Impact of Repeal

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Suzi

On September 20th, 60 days after the repeal order was signed for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), it goes into effect. Popular media have covered Military preparations for the changes. Though many see this as a necessary step in the right direction (some think it was way overdue), no one thinks this will put an end to problems. The military has had little success with consistent enforcement of DADT. Nor has the military dealt all that well with blackmail and intimidation that the secrecy of DADT fomented. DADT may end discharges using sexual orientation as the stated reason but it will likely be the beginning of a number of other issues: Can hate-crimes be prosecuted within the service branches? Will spousal benefits become a part of the employee benefits package? and many other related cultural issues.

Sometimes we forget the serving in the military is a job-the employer is the federal government-and it is an American workplace or more accurately a collection of related but different (branches) workplaces. The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal represents a significant philosophical departure from past practice and such will have workplace culture-changing repercussions. Creating a sound Military work culture requires attention to a number of different goals. If you are anti-war or anti-military you will take issue with this entire article. If you accept that a functioning military is necessary, I can imagine three different fundamental principles or philosophies, necessary for a sustainable military. First they must try to prepare humans who are otherwise peaceful creatures to kill others and destroy property. As American children grow up in a civilian world where these acts are against the law, it is a challenge to say the least whether or not you think it is wrong altogether. Second, this workplace must also try to respond humanely when service members are wounded physically and emotionally. Finally, I would like to see a workplace free of abuse and intimidation among coworkers (pie in the sky, I know). I’m not sure how average service personnel think of the last goal but American employees have a right to work free of abuse, harassment and intimidation based upon American civilian law. If we are keeping score, the military is doing well with waging war but not so well with humane treatment of their wounded and really not well at all with the free-of-abuse-and-intimidation goals. While we don’t have current federal legislation making discrimination a crime based upon sexual orientation, many states have taken this step, including my home state of Maine.

Recent suicide statistics have given military management pause especially in the months in which suicides have outnumbered warfare deaths. Incidentally, it is difficult to find exact numbers for suicides and hostility-related deaths by month. Time magazine has covered this story extensively. Increased suicides are both a comment on how horrible warfare is and the unfortunate way in which the military has handled personnel mental health needs. It’s not like the clinical expertise and strategies required to treat and prevent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) aren’t available. Ironically, most of the research that supported the formalization PTSD as a psychiatric diagnosis comes from research by the military on combat fatigue.

But the issue isn’t all black and white. Military officers are not all narrow-minded conservatives. There are military officers who are both strategic and progressive in their thinking and work approach. I was struck by this when reading one of many quotes in a fascinating Gentlemen’s Quarterly article: “Tell: An Intimate History of Gay Men in the Military.” (Read more at: GQ, Sept 2011). The article notes stories from dozens of gay service men who served during war times from WW II to today. These stories are mixed. Yes, there are terrible stories of physical abuse, blackmail and intimidation (some are nauseating for sure) but there are hopeful stories in which those in charge refused to make being gay an issue even when disclosed. Some of this depended on the branch. It seems that the most progressive branch, according to first-hand accounts is the Navy. Generally, the Marine Corps was the worst from a hazing and harassment working-conditions standpoint. But one gay Marine says that the Marine Corps was the best place to hide as long as you were tough and “straight-looking.” Some gay service men were very clever in how they maintained a neutral sexuality stance. Some pretended to be straight.

Here is one of the stories I found optimistic:

A gay male Marine confided in a female friend/peer that he was gay. When the two had a falling-out, the female attempted to get him in trouble by going to their superior officer with the disclosure. The chief officer replied, “He’s a good Marine. I’m not really interested in any of this nonsense ….Mind your own business.” That was the end of it. The gay Marine attributes his good fortune to his good job performance. I think it also had to do with the ethical thinking on the part of the officer.

There is so much more to read-I highly recommend reading the entire article. It is long and full of various different strategies for remaining “sane” while maintaining secrets. It also describes the various different ways in which gay service members and their coworkers handled the excruciating contradiction of apparent neutrality (just don’t talk about it) with the psychological effects & risks of dangerous secret-keeping.

Researching this issue, I found a number of other resources for those who haven’t followed this issue up to now but who might be interested once the repeal takes effect on September 20th. I’m sure the issue will generate considerable media coverage next week.

Resources from a variety of angles, appear below:

Historical summary

Good old Wikipedia can always be counted on for a historical summary that includes important dates:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don’t_ask,_don’t_tell

The legislative process

The Human Rights Campaign website includes information about who worked on repeal wording and how it came about legislatively:

http://www.hrc.org/sites/repealdadt/index.asp?gclid=CL2qnr2spKsCFWsEQAodXEu80Q

Military communicating its position on the repeal

The Military’s official website includes a July 2011 video in which the Marine Commandant articulates how diversity and professionalism are consistent with lawfulness and the United States constitution. Pretty clear statement though I realize that some service men and women to not behave consistently with the stated value or rules. Here is the video link:

http://www.military.com/video/forces/marine-corps/marine-commandant-on-dadt/1040941450001/

More specific legal matters affecting service members

The Service Member Legal Defense Network (SLDN) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide legal guidance and support to gay service members. To this point, support has centered around ensuring that legal rights are protected and providing a place for gay service members to turn when their orientation threatened their service. This link is to a page that provides an excellent legal history of DADT and the site

http://www.sldn.org/pages/about-dadt

Transgendered service members

Often, discussion of GLBT issues are heavy on coverage of gays and lesbians and light on coverage of transgendered individuals. According to the Service Member Legal Defense Network, transgendered individuals are barred from serving for reasons unrelated to DADT. According the their website, the reasons are physical and mental while other sites describe the lack of care (drugs and counseling) within military service as the reason. I am puzzled by a transgendered person who would want to serve in a military branch and subject themselves to this environment but they are protected from discrimination in several states who include gender identity in their anti-discrimination statutes. Here is an excellent legal discussion of the issue by the SLDN:

http://www.sldn.org/news/archives/ncte-and-sldn-advise-transgender-service-members-coming-out-may-lead-to-dis/

List of equality issues remaining after repeal of DADT

Here is a list of military equality issues that still remain for the GLBT community according to this private nonprofit website: equalitygiving.org.

http://www.equalitygiving.org/DADT?page-version=0&date=20110917132057

I hope you find this material informative.

Top Ten Things Employees Want from a Job

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Suzi

A few years ago I researched what employees really want. It was preparation for a workplace branding article. If you don’t have the time or resources to survey your own employees you can use general list to guide company employee relations activities. If you are considering a culture improvement project you will want to survey employees for their specific values and thoughts.

Top Ten Things Employees Want

While not every employee working today wants the following things, the list describes what fairly engaged employees are looking for at work. What poor-performing employees want would be a different list. Owners should pay attention to what top performers want as this is the group for which you want your workplace to be the most hospitable.

Employees are looking for the following, general characteristics in a workplace:

1. Interesting work content

Employees should know their own job responsibilities but you can also add annual goals that will change a bit each year. Consider adding an “annual goals” accountability to all job descriptions.

2. Advancement opportunities

Advancement doesn’t have to be jumping up to the next level of management. It can be a “lead” position responsible for helping to orient new staff or might have one or two new trainees reporting to them. It could also mean learning a new area through cross-training. Finally, It’s important to pay attention to guiding current employees who have the skills and capacity for the next level of management so that they are ready when opportunities arise.

3. Fair compensation

This means fair, not lavish and not a pittance. Employees in large companies are likely to understand how the company sets their employee compensation standard (market average, above average, etc.). But for small and medium-size companies employees just want to know that they are paid a fair wage. If employees are working without a salary increase for two years but senior management gets raises or are wasting company money, employees will quickly take notice.

4. Opportunities for enriched assignments

This can seem difficult in lean staffing times but cross-training and company-wide improvement projects can offer employees opportunities to learn new things, meet new co-workers and overall feel like they are growing. Good employees want the company to succeed and will pitch in when needed. Just make sure you are watching the duration of additional assignments and that individual workloads don’t stay too high for too long.

5. Strong leadership

If you are a leader who worries whether unpopular decisions make the company less appealing to strong performing employees, the answer is no. Employees understand that if you try to please individual employees the quality of poor decisions is limited only by the stupid things their co-workers ask for. Smart employees understand that their wants and wishes must be limited in favor of long-term company survival. Employees actually like it better when your articulate a set of quality and decision-making principles and then stick to them. The best thing to counter an unpopular decision is to explain the process and factors that went into the decision and how it supports sustained company success.

6. Opportunities to be heard by management

Employees want occasional access to upper management and attention to their concerns. This doesn’t mean the owner has to go to lunch with employees every day. It means that when an employee offers a great suggestion the owner should stop by, make eye contact and say how much their contribution was both important and appreciated. There are 1000 different ideas of how to do this. If you want ideas - Google “employee recognition and reward.”

7. High, consistent work standards

The better the employee (attitude and performance) the more they appreciate high performance standards. Every employee should have a copy of his/her current job description that lists the jobs accountability and end results expected for that position. In addition, supervisors should discuss progress throughout the year not just at annual performance reviews.

8. An employer with integrity/character

When a negative story is made public or if a company’s practices are generally thought of poorly in the community, employees take notice. In general, employees want to work for an employer who places emphasis on honesty and integrity. But it’s not enough to have written values or standards, the company has to use these values in all activities; encouraging employees who personify the values and counseling those who do not.

9. An employer known for quality service/products

Here we are talking about quality again. This time, the issue is product and service quality and customer/client satisfaction. Good employees take great pride in working for a company that pays attention to the quality of what they offer or produce. Engaged customers fit nicely with engaged employees. Have front-line employees participate in setting quality standards and make sure they understand exactly how quality is defined. Quality doesn’t have to be perfect but you should be measuring it and working to get the trend going in the right direction — up!

10. Freedom to make decisions affecting their work unit

Employees like to have a small piece of the company’s activities as their own, where they can make decisions and affect positive results. This doesn’t mean you have to push company decision-making to the lowest point possible but it does mean to be mindful of this in job design. If you articulate company goals and provide information about how company values should guide decision-making then let employees make decisions and take sensible risks. When they foul up, don’t shame and blame but explain where their process went wrong and send them out to try again, encouraged by your great supervisory intervention!

HR Response to Mental Health in the Workplace

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Suzi

I wanted to make a Human Resource oriented addendum to this wonderful article

Responding To Mental Illness in Your Workforce: Leading a Culture Change

tweeted by @psychcentral 8/3/2011. The author, Carol A. Kivler, MS, CSP takes an enlightened and sensitive approach to individuals suffering with mental illness in the workplace. The article is aimed as helping leaders understand the issue of mental illness in the workplace. I appreciate this because I have found my HR friends can benefit from increased comfort with this topic. There are times when my HR training and clinical experience collide. This is one of them.

A unique perspective

I came to the practice of HR from a business background and then Clinical Social Work. My views on mental illness and HR arise from a very different place than my HR peers mostly because of my exposure to severe and chronic mental illness. The sigma Ms. Kivler discusses is very powerful indeed. Because of my experience, I am not afraid of individuals with mental illness. I know that these are fellow human beings with a variety of personal values and styles. I know that only a very small percentage of people with mental illness are violent. It’s just that when a person with mental illness commits a violent crime, the media, especially fringe media, bombard the general public with disturbing images and sensationalized information. I also know that most mental health issues in the workplace are mood disorders such as depression and bipolar disorders which respond well to medical intervention.

Finally, I know that the mentally ill were not all raised in chaotic or abusive homes. I was raised in a lovely family by good parents (not perfect, but good enough) and had a brother who suffered from bipolar mood swings and psychoses from the age of 20 until his death at 48. The voices he heard told him that he, and not others around him, were bad. I know first hand that the essence of who he was as a person, was not the paranoid, odd behavior and religiosity my brother expressed, but it was the sweet, creative and sensitive individual who worked part-time while well on medication. He would never have harmed anyone.

The American workplace is in need of good information like the tips covered in Ms. Kivler’s article, particularly making information on mental health a part of wellness programs. If only employers could take this information and adopt it freely. I think it is possible but HIPAA presents a psychological and legal barrier to some of the actions suggested in the article. The discipline of HR tends to be generally risk averse. It doesnt’ make them mean or uncaring, just cautious. Let me explain this.

HR is naturally cautious

Employers are responsible for removing the appearance or fact of ADA discrimination. In addition, employers are required to protect the privacy of employee personal health information. To do this perfectly, employers would never want to know if someone has a mental illness. Once you know, you are open to accusations of misusing it in order to keep people from promotions or other employment opportunities. For this reason, medical benefits information or other employee-employer correspondence regarding the diagnosis of mental illness are kept in separate “medical files” and not in the personnel file to which supervisor’s have regular access. Employers must also try to prevent this information from being casually released and discussed amongst co-workers. As such, they may ask employees to refrain from discussing their conditions with their peers.

What is the right balance?

I believe that the answer is to emphasize compassion and inclusion a bit and loosen the mentality of “eliminating” risk to more a risk management posture. Ms. Kivler’s article is timely because presenteeism is an emerging HR issue. It’s like absenteeism in that productivity is negatively impacted. However in presenteeism, the employee is at work but distracted by stress and other matters. Mental illness appears to be one of the growing reasons for this distraction. I would conduct training as Ms. Kivler suggests – fold this into the wellness program. I would make sure that the HR department is a safe and informed place for any employee to go if he/she needed support for time off or accessing counseling benefits. This requires that HR staff be held to a high standard of listening, seeing this in the same nonjudmental way that they see say, diabetes, and well versed in the ways in which mental illness can affect employee performance.

I would make sure my performance evaluation system focuses strictly on what and how the employee performs the essential functions of the job and NOT extraneous and irrelevant information like: age, race or disability. I would encourage the company to sensitively approach employees whose performance seems to be impaired by a personal issue in the same way whether it is divorce, an ill relative or their own mental illness. I would ensure that these individuals receive referrals for EAP or mental health counseling. And finally, I would ensure that my HR staff are comfortable responding lawfully and respectfully to requests for accommodations for a bona fide disability whether it represents a physical or mental impairment.

Staff training and stereotypes

Part of the role of sexual harassment statutes is to prevent harassment in the workplace. The practical effect however, is staff training and development. Employers are comfortable conducting training about how employees should behave when they encounter harassment in the workplace. This means no sexual innuendo jokes, slang, etc. Ms. Kivler suggests that use of the word “mental” should be more comfortable (I agree 100%). I would add that we could also support employees to be more sensitive about comments that could be harmful: crazy, loony or even worse “lazy” as applied to those suffering from depression when they can’t get out of bed.

I am grateful to Carol A. Kivler for writing about this topic. It is timely and very important. I also look forward to @psychcentral’s thoughtful tweets each day on topics of individual mental health.