HR Blog | Employee Retention & Turnover Management

Keep Educators Engaged & Encourage Positive School Culture

Attracting and retaining quality educators is the goal of any great school, but without the right support, teachers can quickly become burned out, leading to them looking elsewhere, or settling into a teaching style that lacks creativity and passion, ultimately affecting students’ success. School administrators have a responsibility to help educators feel valued and appreciated and promote positivity within the school.

Help Teachers Help Students

The vast majority of teachers entered the profession with a desire to help children learn and grow. Watching students succeed with new concepts or ideas gives a sense of pride, almost like that of a parent. Unfortunately, it seems as though education has become more about teaching for a test, limiting educators on their creativity, and they are expected to handle larger classes with smaller budgets. The more administration can do to help the teachers, the more it will end up benefiting students, such as:

Allow teachers to have autonomy. The constraints of testing and standardized lesson plans have taken away much of the creativity that used to go into teaching. While it may be impossible to remove this from the system, give teachers back control over their work. When lesson plans are fun and creative, students have fun while learning, ultimately retaining more information. Also, listen to teachers if there are resources they need in the classroom in order to promote learning, such as certain technologies, and try to accommodate if budget is available.
Encourage collaboration with educators. Nothing fuels motivation quite like being encouraged to take part in the discussion. Allow teachers to help create solutions for decisions that will ultimately affect the entire school. Create a mentoring program for new teachers to learn from those more experienced in the building. Provide educators with regular professional development so they can stay ahead of new learning trends and ideas. Teachers, counselors and other staff members work directly with students every day – let them be a part of the processes that will ultimately affect them.
Recognize achievements and promote respect. In any job, it becomes discouraging when employees only receive feedback on what they are doing wrong. With teaching, only hearing the negative makes it seem as though there’s not much going right. Complimenting and recognizing achievements will only help to motivate them to continue, and may encourage more creativity and ingenuity. Of course, if anything should need to be corrected, it should be done in a respectable manner, and any solutions should be realistic and achievable.

Is a Difficult Administrator Causing the Problem?

Although teachers are there for the day-to-day with students, not having the support from the leaders in administration can truly put a damper on the entire school environment. According to a veteran educator, there are four types of difficult administrators that can ruin school culture:

An administrator who is unrealistic and out of touch. Sometimes, those in leadership positions forget what it was like to teach in an actual classroom, and if it’s been a while, may not be familiar with new challenges teachers have to face. The biggest problem that comes from this type of administrator is the tendency to create new initiatives and expectations with little or no regard to how they work with what is already in place.
An administrator who knows all. As it is with any management or leadership role, a person who believes he knows everything and makes decisions without consulting others can quickly lead to friction with employees.
An administrator who acts more like a bully. Ultimately, this person just makes life difficult for staff, targeting anyone who speaks up or questions decisions that have been made. She may play favorites and dislike those who seem too ambitious.
An administrator who justifies decisions as being “for the children.” While working to make education a success for students is important, making decisions solely based on the children’s needs with no regard to educators makes teachers feel as though they are not valued. Sometimes, decisions are made and justified as being for the kids that don’t even have a direct impact on students.

Understanding What’s Happening within Your School

Getting to know what may be impacting morale around the school can be much easier than it seems. Making sure faculty and staff know they have a place to turn to with issues or concerns is the first step, but some may be too afraid to step forward or speak up in person. Utilizing a third-party, anonymous survey system can help get the answers you need to start improving the overall culture, and help educators feel they have a voice. At HSD Metrics, we offer several survey solutions to help you improve retention and encourage a more positive atmosphere. It is important to get feedback from teachers throughout their employment cycle. Using our StartOffRight product, employers can learn if expectations are aligned, and our StayRight tool will allow employers to get feedback on their employment experiences in real-time. ExitRight® will provide much-needed employee data on why teachers would leave a school. You receive open and honest feedback from employees, as well as advanced analytics to help you solve problems in real-time. For more information on our survey solutions, or to schedule a live demo, contact us today.

The Health Effects of Business Travel

Travel is essential for many businesses and employees in order to provide a more personal connection to potential and current clients. Those tasked with traveling undoubtedly know what to expect and may enjoy getting to see new locations, but too much travel can easily lead to health problems and burnout. Regardless of how necessary work trips are for the company, it is important to allow flexibility and work-life balance for employees. According to a study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, individuals who spent at least fourteen nights away from home per month, compared to those spending one to six nights per month away, had a higher body mass index, poor self-rated health, lack of physical activity, symptoms of anxiety, depression, and more. While only 12% of the employees included in the study traveled this frequently, employers should take considerations as to how travel plays into the physical, behavioral, and mental health of employees.

What’s Causing the Negative Health Effects of Business Travel?

Think about the average trip, particularly when it involves flying. Most of the employees are not those at the top level and are more than likely traveling with only a small budget.

The stress of flying

Preparing for a trip and ensuring everything needed is packed and ready, getting to the airport with enough time to make it through security and to the correct gate, boarding, handling possible layovers and flight changes before arriving, renting a car, and then getting to a hotel that may or may not have the amenities they need. The stress of simply getting there is enough to wear anyone out.

Lack of healthy food options

Some traveling employees have also noted the lack of healthy food options surrounding the area, leaving them with no choice but ordering out for pizza or visiting a fast-food chain.

Strain on relationships

Travel also wears on a person’s wellbeing. Many will send only one employee, leading to a feeling of loneliness as they leave behind friends, family, and coworkers. Some may develop family or relationship issues as those at home feel they are away too much and miss important events or milestones, or simply because they aren’t there to help with the day-to-day household management. Unfortunately, when they do eventually get home, there’s not much time for rest and recovery as the person attempts to make up for lost time, often making them feel more fatigued.

Exposure to germs

Of course, food, physical activity, and mental health are only part of it. Frequent travel can expose a person to all sorts of viruses and bacteria, especially for those who travel internationally. Even with precautions in place, stress and fatigue can lower the immune system, making it even easier to get sick. Not only that, but other health problems may arise, as well, such as symptomless deep-vein thrombosis, which can lead to fatal blood clots.

How Frequent Business Travel can Poorly Impact a Business

Some employees feel they are unable to voice their concerns regarding their frequent travel if they believe it will hurt their future opportunities or result in management looking down on them. Should the employee be subjected to too much travel, it may lead to feeling over-stressed or over-worked and a poor work-life balance. Attempting to work through that can easily cause burnout, driving good employees away, and if the practice does not change, high turnover could become common within the role. Even if a frequently-traveling employee does decide to stay, arising health issues can lead to more sick days or the potential for having to go out on sick leave due to a major health concern.

What Companies Can Do to Reduce the Negative Health Effects of Business Travel

Any business that utilizes travel should always be aware of their policies and know when or if they need to change. Perhaps travel needs to become more limited or ensure it is more comfortable and enjoyable by spending the extra amount on business class and allowing for time at the location that doesn’t involve any work. The most important thing a company can do is allow employees to be open and honest. Travel may be unavoidable, but everyone should feel that admitting they feel overwhelmed will not be held against them. If you are concerned that your company is not getting the honest feedback it needs from employees, utilize a comprehensive third-party survey, such as HSD Metrics’ StayRight stay interview. In the event an employee decides to leave, make sure you get insight into turnover benchmarks with in-depth analytics through an outsourced exit interview, like ExitRight®. For more information about our available survey options, or to schedule a live demo, contact us today.

How Partnering With an HR Outsourcing Company Can Benefit Your Business

Even if your company has the best staff around, it can sometimes be difficult to complete its work in all departments at a consistently optimized level. If things get busy, it’s not uncommon for items to slip through the cracks and for efficiency to slow down. For human resource departments, in particular, there can be so much information to keep track of regarding your incoming, current, and outbound employees that it’s not always realistic to be able to manage it all. Fortunately, in these cases, you can join forces with a company that specializes in outsourced HR responsibilities to help you oversee all of your employees’ information as well as their wellbeing in the workplace. Here are some ways your business can reap the benefits of HR outsourcing.

1. It can improve your ability to prioritize workflow.

There are certain tasks within HR that can demand a substantial amount of attention from your staff. Having to juggle all of the other responsibilities an HR department typically has to fulfill in addition to those focus-grabbing projects can be a challenge. Delegating some of those other responsibilities—like creating survey solutions and employee data analysis—to an outsourced HR partner can make it far easier for your company’s HR team to be able to devote more of their time and energy to high priority tasks. What’s more, it can ensure that the tasks your department outsources are still being given an appropriate level of attention to be completed at your company’s standard.

2. It can reduce HR employee stress at your own company.

Given the juggling act that many HR departments have to perform, it can be easy for some employees to become stressed or even experience burnout. A partnership with a company that can take over some of the duties your HR team would otherwise be responsible for can take a lot of pressure off of your employees’ shoulders. With your HR employees less stressed, they can experience greater job satisfaction and perform their jobs at a more productive level, thereby improving the quality of work your company is able to produce.

3. It can provide you with access to expertise from seasoned professionals.

Being an integral part of the HR department at your company can sometimes mean that you’re too close to the problems your team encounters and, consequently, that you can’t see all of the possible solutions you could be implementing. Because you’ve developed a strong awareness of your company’s standard practices for handling employee issues, your problem-solving approach can unintentionally be narrowed. This is where an external viewpoint from a partner company can come in handy. From advice on employee engagement and retention to assistance with workplace conflict avoidance and resolution, an outsourced HR partner can provide new insight into how to get your workplace functioning and producing results at a higher level.

4. It can give you the freedom to optimize efficiency in other areas of the business.

When more of your HR team’s time and manpower is made available through the outsourcing of a portion of their workload, you’ll have the ability to explore other areas in your company where efficiency can be improved. To provide your workforce with the ability to focus on their highest priority tasks even further, it’s wise to consider automating any remaining lower-level duties that haven’t been taken over by your partner company. Digital tools for HR professionals can give your employees the freedom to complete their most important work without having to worry about additional tasks that could easily be completed through the use of a technological solution. Best of all, HR outsourcing companies like HSD Metrics can seamlessly integrate the technology you already use as part of your business into the structure of your partnership. To learn more about how data can help fuel a more advanced HR operation and what your business can accomplish by implementing an analytics-based approach in your organization, please contact us.

Handling Employee Harassment by Customers

Much of the focus of harassment in the workplace tend to center around how employees interact with one another, but for those who have to work directly with customers and clients, it is entirely possible to encounter harassment from outside the company. Even though these individuals are not part of the company or organization, it is important for the employer to take the necessary steps to protect employees from any sort of harassment.

What is Considered Harassment?

Regardless of the old saying, the customer isn’t always right. Harassment can come in many forms, whether it is racist, sexist, discriminatory, or sexual in nature. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it a company’s legal responsibility to provide employees and non-employees with a harassment-free workplace, and any claim must be investigated thoroughly and acted upon as necessary. If someone has made a claim, it should not be taken lightly.

How to Handle Customer Harassment

Of course, the first step to handling any harassment claim is to have knowledge of the situation. Employees will more than likely complain or report a problem to their supervisor, or some interactions may be directly observed by a manager or other party, and the company should be careful to not dismiss the issue regardless of who the customer is. Unfortunately, some businesses choose to protect the customer relationship first, whether it is due to the amount of money they spend or the length of time they’ve been working with the company, but this only creates a toxic environment for employees. Those who work for the company should feel supported in a way that ensures they are comfortable reporting a problem if or when it occurs. In any harassment situation, an investigation is needed to determine appropriate action. Interview any witnesses and talk with the parties involved, including the customer or client. Employers are responsible for taking appropriate action to protect employees, which, depending on the situation, could include a ban or refusal to do business with the person or persons (and following through) or allowing the employee to avoid any interaction with the person through reassignment or relocation within the workplace. Keep in mind that reassignment or relocation must be agreed upon by the employee or it could be seen as a retaliatory action.

Stand With your Employees

Regardless of the type of business environment, it’s important to ensure your employees feel protected. Understand what sort of harassment from customers the employees may be subjected to and train everyone so they can identify an issue and report it before the situation gets out of hand. Remind them that they have a place to turn should a problem occur, and that any claim will be handled seriously. If you feel as though your company could be doing more to get open and honest feedback from employees, use tools such as stay interviews and exit interviews. A third-party system from HSD Metrics will ensure employees feel comfortable sharing honest feedback anonymously, so you know what’s going on without anyone attempting to sugarcoat the issue. We offer several survey solutions, including our StayRight program to help strengthen your employee retention, and ExitRight® to provide insight into turnover benchmarks and more. For more information on our survey products, or to schedule a demo, contact us today.

Keep Employees Up-To-Date on New Technology

“Yes, training lacked with new technology. Those of us who did not grow up with the new technology were not given a reasonable amount of time to learn. I wish the department was able to have us go to certification training workshops so we could do better at our job. Currently, myself and my ex-coworkers would have to learn the technology on our own.” – Actual comments from an employee exiting a company Utilizing new technology propels businesses forward, and it is no small investment, costing anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. While it is always a good idea to improve your processes, all of that money can go to waste if employees are left without proper training on exactly how to use it. Investing in new technology also requires an investment in your workforce.

Preparing Employees for Change

First and foremost, any change needs to start with employee preparation. Daily processes quickly become a habit, and if they are expected to be broken in favor of something new, fair warning for those affected will help them begin to think of new ways of working. Anyone who will be working with new technology should be communicated with clearly regarding:

What the change will be
How they will be impacted or helped by the change
When the change will or is expected to occur
How training will be implemented

Keeping employees informed about any upcoming changes will help lower anxiety and show that they are valued and respected members of the team.

Implementing Change with Training

New technologies are often complicated and may require extensive training. The best course of action is a well-designed training plan that includes both initial training and continued support, all of which might have prevented the above-quoted employee’s departure. Be sure to also include reasonable accommodations for those who learn differently or need additional training. There are a few ways you can help make the process simpler for employees – and ensure the training is done:

Make Training a Job Requirement: In some positions, changes or new technologies are ignored by employees that have been there for an extended period of time in favor of “the old way.” Provide tangible rewards for completing training and using new technology, such as the opportunity for promotion or pay increase.
Break Up the Training: Trying to cover a new process or system can be overwhelming, especially when it’s done in one long training session. Create break-out sessions to highlight specific aspects of the technology and roll it out in waves. Some employees may pick it up quickly, while others may need more time, so just be sure and be patient.
Provide Ongoing Training & Mentoring: It should go without saying that any new hire should receive comprehensive training when they start. For current employees, mentoring should always be available if they are struggling with a task. This will also help encourage collaboration.

Working with employees to bring in any new technology gradually as opposed to throwing them in all at once helps them become more confident in the process and more likely to adapt easier to change, increasing overall employee retention.

Benefits of Proper Training on New Technology

Fortunately, new analytics capabilities allow employers to track feedback from employees in real-time, so employers can avoid turnover costs. If you aren’t quite sure how your current training process is working, it is always helpful to get your employees’ perspective. HSD Metrics can help you get these insights with current employees by using our StayRight Employee Engagement Survey to provide you with valuable feedback to build high-performance, high-retention work cultures. The solution can either track employee feedback on an ongoing basis or track specific technology initiatives, including those triggered by an employee engagement survey. In the event an employee decides to leave, the ExitRight® Employee Exit Interview can also provide you with valuable insights and feedback, allowing you to make positive changes for those still at your business. For more information on our various survey solutions, or to schedule a demo of our products, contact us today.

HSD Metrics® Expands ExitRight® Staff With Hiring of Tina Califano

Covington, KY / July 1, 2019 – HSD Metrics^®, a human resources technology company with over 220 national and international clients, welcomes experienced professional, Tina Califano, to its high-energy team of consultants, analysts and researchers. Califano will provide expertise in all aspects of exit interview services from marketing through set up and delivery of ExitRight turnover data. Her primary focus will be working with consultants and associations. Additionally, she will provide analysis and client support as HSD Metrics continues to build innovative offerings. “Tina will be an outstanding addition because she understands the needs of human resources professionals,” said Dan Cahill, Managing Principal of HSD Metrics. “For most organizations today retention is a priority, and accurate, timely data is the first step to decreasing turnover.” Califano earned her Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL. In addition, she has completed several professional and continuing education courses. Tina’s knowledge will enable HSD Metrics to expand its retention management consulting to clients.

The HSD Metrics Blog

Keep Educators Engaged & Encourage Positive School Culture

Help Teachers Help Students

Is a Difficult Administrator Causing the Problem?

Understanding What’s Happening within Your School

Read More

The Health Effects of Business Travel

What’s Causing the Negative Health Effects of Business Travel?

The stress of flying

Lack of healthy food options

Strain on relationships

Exposure to germs

How Frequent Business Travel can Poorly Impact a Business

What Companies Can Do to Reduce the Negative Health Effects of Business Travel

Read More

How Partnering With an HR Outsourcing Company Can Benefit Your Business

1. It can improve your ability to prioritize workflow.

2. It can reduce HR employee stress at your own company.

3. It can provide you with access to expertise from seasoned professionals.

4. It can give you the freedom to optimize efficiency in other areas of the business.

Read More

Handling Employee Harassment by Customers

What is Considered Harassment?

How to Handle Customer Harassment

Stand With your Employees

Read More

Keep Employees Up-To-Date on New Technology

Preparing Employees for Change

Implementing Change with Training

Benefits of Proper Training on New Technology

Read More

HSD Metrics® Expands ExitRight® Staff With Hiring of Tina Califano

Read More

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