Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Human Resources

We know HR. Read our Human Resources blog archives for stories and best practices from our work with real clients and personal experiences in the world of HR.

  • Navigating the Vaccine Mandate

    Navigating the Vaccine Mandate

    For many of us right now, our focus is on the OSHA vaccine mandate that was issued on November 5, 2021, and goes into full effect on January 4, 2022. Many employers have been struggling to decipher the mandate requirements, keep up with the latest news, and implement policies that are compliant before the deadline. But as with most things in HR, this is no easy task and it’s ever-changing. Let’s talk about what we know, what we might expect, and how employers can successfully navigate what might come. 

    Deciphering the mandate:

    • The mandate was published on November 5, 2021, and was effective immediately, with employers required to comply within 30 days and implement the testing requirements within 60 days. It will affect approximately 84 million employees nationwide. 
    • It impacts employers with 100+ employees, even if those employees are spread over multiple locations. In the 26 states that have OSHA state plans, it may also impact public sector employees. 
    • It gives employers the option to implement a full vaccine mandate or to allow onsite employees to test at least weekly and wear a face mask in lieu of vaccination. Remote employees are not required to test unless they are returning to work onsite, at which time they must test within 7 days prior to their return to the office. Employers are not required to pay for testing unless otherwise required to do so based on state law, contract requirements, or other written agreements.
    • Employers will be required to obtain and maintain proof of employee vaccination status along with a roster of all active employees’ vaccination status. This includes keeping a copy of each test result for unvaccinated employees. 

    Status of Legal Challenges: 

    • The OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) has resulted in multiple federal lawsuits. On November 6th, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay order requiring that OSHA not implement the ETS until the courts could hear the case and make a final decision. 
    • On November 12th a three-member panel from the Fifth Circuit issued a lengthy order to continue the stay until the petitioners’ case could be heard. In the order, the panel stated that the petitioners’ challenges to the Mandate have a reasonable likelihood to succeed based on the merits of their arguments. 
    • On November 16th, a lottery was held to determine which court would hear the consolidated case of the 34 petitioners. Those 34 cases span across 12 different federal courts. The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals was randomly selected to hear the case. It’s worth noting that the Sixth Circuit is made up of 26 judges, 20 appointed by Republicans and 6 appointed by Democrats. The case will be assigned to a three-member panel that will be randomly selected. The Sixth Circuit has three options- agree with the stay order, modify the current stay order, or vacate the current order and issue their own order. 
    • On November 24th, OSHA filed an emergency motion with the Sixth Circuit to end the stay. At a minimum, OSHA has asked the court to reinstate the masking and testing guidelines outlined in the ETS until the case is resolved. At this time, the Sixth Circuit has not issued a response to the emergency motion. Based on the Sixth Circuit schedule, the stay is likely to last until at least December 10th. 
    • It’s important to note that in the history of OSHA there have only been nine ETS orders issued and six of those were challenged in the courts. Of those six that were challenged, only one survived. 
    • Many states, including Alabama, have passed laws that are aimed at combating the mandate. Alabama passed Senate Bill (SB) 9 Limiting Vaccine Mandates on November 4th, which provides guidance to employers on making accommodations for employees who seek medical or religious accommodations and provides a standard form to be utilized (contained within SB9). The law makes denials of accommodation appealable and the employer cannot terminate employment until the appeal is determined. 

    Preparing for Implementation:

    With the stay order and the mandate’s future up in the air, what should employers do? 

    1. Stay up to date on the legal challenge. The legal experts are keeping a close watch on this and pushing out updates almost daily. If you don’t already, subscribe to resources such as SHRM and connect with local employment attorneys who send out regular updates and newsletters. 
    2. Look at what you’re currently doing that is compliant with the mandate. Are you still requiring masks in your offices, are you collecting and tracking vaccine status for those employees who are vaccinated, and how are you handling accommodations? Do you have a policy in place that outlines these requirements? 
    3. Then look at what you need to be doing to be compliant with the mandate. What mandate requirements are you not currently doing and what will it take for you to start doing them if and when the time comes? If you’re not tracking vaccine status, what steps do you need to take to gather that information, where will you maintain it, and how will you keep a roster? Are you going to require full vaccination or are you going to allow employees the option to test and mask up? Based on the steps you need to take to be compliant, what revisions do you need to make to your policy? 
    4. Review your state laws. Has your state, like Alabama, passed legislation to combat the mandate? How does the state legislation impact the steps you need to take to be compliant with the ETS and the state legislation? And keep an eye on your state legislation. If the ETS is allowed to go forward, that could impact the legality of those state laws. 
    5. Review your contracts. How would the mandate impact any contracts you have? If you are an employer with less than 100 employees but are a sub-contractor to a larger company, will you be required to comply with the mandate in order to be compliant with your contract? What information will you need to provide to the contract client to show that your employees working on the contract are vaccinated or have tested weekly? 
    6. Be prepared for accommodation requests. Again, if you’re in Alabama, the law just changed on accommodations and you have to use the state-provided accommodation form. And any denial of accommodation can be appealed. If you have locations outside of Alabama, do your research and find out of those states have passed legislation to counter-act the mandate and how those laws might impact how you implement the mandate. 
    7. Sit back and wait, but be prepared. Have your policy and procedures ready to go, but don’t implement them until the Sixth Circuit makes a final decision on the ETS. The petitioners have a strong argument based on the feedback provided by the Fifth Circuit panel’s order. And history shows that OSHA’s ETS orders have a long shot at surviving the courts. 

    While it’s impossible to know which way the court will rule, the consensus within the legal community is that OSHA will have a difficult time effectively making its argument. 

  • 7 Ways to Complete the Stress Cycle

    7 Ways to Complete the Stress Cycle

    We’ve been looking at all things workplace wellness throughout the fall, seeking to provide insight to ourselves and our clients about how to create workplaces where people can thrive.  A lot of the impetus is put on individuals to manage their wellness and stress.  This has its place but is also up to organizational leaders to help create systems and structures that give people the ability to survive and thrive at work.  This will impact how they also thrive in all aspects of life given that people do not live and operate in silos. 

    A thought-provoking book that is geared towards the individual management of stress is a book called Burnout: The Secret of Unlocking the Stress Cycle.  Although it focuses on how individuals can “complete the cycle” the book provides insights to organizational leaders on the difference between stress and stressors and how to complete the stress cycle in ways that can be incorporated into workplaces. 

    First, what the book describes as stressors: 

    Stressors are what activate the stress response in your body. They can be anything you see, hear, smell, touch, taste, or imagine could do you harm. There are external stressors: work, money, family, time, cultural norms and expectations, experiences of discrimination, and so on. And there are less tangible, internal stressors: self-criticism, body image, identity, memories, and The Future.  In different ways and to different degrees, all of these things may be interpreted by your body as potential threats. 

    It’s worth noting that as another book, What Happened to You? points out that we may be cognizant of these stressors happening to us, but more often than not, we aren’t.  As this book describes, our lower order brain- the brain stem then the diencephalon then the limbic system- takes in input from the inside world of our body and the outside world through our senses and processes stressors and reacts to stressors often before our high order brain, the cortex, ever receives it and is able to THINK about it.  That’s why you sweat when you’re nervous when you don’t even realize it, or you flee or “attack” someone when they smell in a way that is associated with a bad memory. 

    Likewise, we often don’t even realize what we are doing or why we are doing it in reaction to a stressor. We often do not connect the dots to the linkages between our stressors and our stress. 

    As Burnout describes, stress is: 

    …the neurological and physiological SHIFT that happens in your body when you encounter one of these threats.  It’s an evolutionary adaptive response that helps us cope with things like, say, being chased by a lion or charged by a hippo…. It initiates a response to help you survive…. Your entire body and mind change in response to the perceived threat.

    As the book goes on to state, what we’ve been conditioned to do when we experience the lion is run! The book quotes Robert Sapolsky as saying “ …the core of the stress-response is built around the fact that your muscles are going to work like crazy.” 

    But we aren’t doing very much running these days in modern workplaces. We aren’t involving our muscles to help alleviate and eliminate the stress we feel.  We are, however, experiencing a lot of modern-day “lions.”

    So what do we do? 

    1. So first and foremost, one thing workplaces need to incorporate into practice to help their employees complete the stress response is to initiate movement into the workday.  Especially when a situation is anticipated to be stressful or a stressor has occurred. 

    For example, one day I knew I was going to have to have a conversation that was going to induce a stress response with someone I worked with.  Instead of sitting down across the desk from her, I said, “Let’s take a walk.”  We walked and talked instead of sitting and staring.  I know it helped to reduce my stress about the situation and I think it did hers too. 

    We need to be encouraging people to move and allowing time for movement during the workday. The book suggests that most people need twenty to sixty minutes a day to walk, run, swim, dance, or anything that involves physical activity. 

    2. In addition, in the modern-day workplace we live in, we may think that dealing with the stressor deals with the stress.  We need to realize dealing with the stressor doesn’t necessarily allow us to complete the stress cycle.  Take for example a “jerk” you’re dealing with at work.  Maybe he or she is not a lion, but they’ve been elevating your stress level at work, so much so that your natural response is either to literally fight the lion, I mean jerk, or to flee from him/her.  But, you can’t come across the table at the person literally like your body might be telling you to do, so you play nice. (As the book states, social appropriateness- or being taught to be “nice” at all costs- really impedes the natural stress cycle- it makes us get stuck). Or maybe you even act and go talk to your supervisor and/or theirs about it, or you go home and vent to your spouse about it.  But, dealing with the stressor, aka the jerk/lion, doesn’t mean you’ve completed your body’s natural response to the person and situation(s) he or she creates. 

    So we need to help people, again, move to help complete the stress cycle. But we can also create workplaces where other things happen regularly- all that involve engagement with our bodies and minds-  to help deal with the stress, not just the stressor.  These are: 

    3. Breathing.  “Deep, slow breaths help regulate the stress response.”  Encouraging people to breathe is a very simple thing that can help change the tone of a conversation, meeting, or a person’s outlook on a situation.  Asking people to inhale deeply for a count of three to five and exhale at the same or longer cadence is simple, and sometimes seems silly, but it may be the small thing needed to get people to a point where they can access their higher-order brain to be able to think clearly and respond appropriately. 

    4. Positive social interaction.  Things to include in positive social interaction are opportunities for laughter, affection (hugging and kissing- encourage this at home, not at the office-!), and also can include interaction with animals, like petting a dog or a cat. 

    5. Allow time for creative expression. Incorporating sports, arts, music, theater, and storytelling in all forms can help with this. Some of the work your organization does may naturally incorporate creative outlets.  We incorporate coloring sheets, fidgets, and role play at times into training to help initiate this.  Asking people to start a meeting by sharing something- in other words, something that is going to allow for storytelling can be a good way to start things off on the right foot.  Like, “Tell us about a time when you…” where the question and response is tied to the meeting’s purpose. 

    6. Allow crying.  Crying is one critical way for the body to release stress, yet we label people who cry, especially at work. At the very least, keep a stigma around crying that is neutral and do not punish people at work when crying happens. 

    7. Help people pay attention to their body’s response to things.  This is necessary to know when stress is taking place and also to know when the stress cycle has been completed due to one or more of the interventions above.  It’s like knowing you’re full after you’ve eaten. Some people are more in tune with it than others and we need to equip people with the mindfulness to pay attention when we are “hungry” or “full” when it comes to stress as well.  Some questions or actions you may help people engage with this is to encourage people to check their heart rate, monitor their body for tension, sweating and other responses that show us we have not completed the stress cycle and need to “eat” to initiate an action to help our bodies do so.  

    How do you deal with stress at work and how does your organization incorporate systems and actions to help people complete the stress cycle? 

    If you are interested in learning more about how to create organizations where people thrive, please visit our Illuminate website at: https://horizonpointconsulting.com/illuminate/

  • World Mental Health Day- October 10th, 2021

    World Mental Health Day- October 10th, 2021

    As World Mental Health Day approaches, let’s help end the stigma around mental health in the workplace. 

    Did you know? 

    • Pre-Covid, 19% of adults in the US experienced a mental illness, and that number has increased 1.5 million since the start of the pandemic. (MHA)
    • 24% of adults with a mental illness report an unmet need for treatment. This number has not declined since 2011. (MHA)
    • 10.8% of Americans with a mental illness are uninsured. (MHA)
    • 1 in 5 Americans experiences mental illness. (NAMI)
    • Only 45% of American adults with mental illness seek treatment. (NAMI)

    Mental Health America ranks states based on the prevalence of mental illness and access to care. Alabama ranks #40, meaning there is a higher rate of mental illness and fewer resources available to those in need. Where does your state rank? And what can employers do to help not only your employees but also their families? 

    1. Educate yourself. Understand what mental illness is and what it is not. The World Health Organization (WHO) is helping to bring mental health to the forefront on World Mental Health Day by providing a series of workshops that includes topics like Mental Healthcare for All and Mental Health in the Workplace. There are other great resources out there to help educate on mental illness as well, including those available from NAMI.org and MHA.
    2. Provide resources. Make sure your organization provides resources to employees such as mental health benefits within your healthcare plan, an EAP, mental health days (or as Adam Grant refers to them, “sad days”), or wellness programs. But also make sure your employees know these benefits are available to them. Highlight a mental health benefit in your quarterly newsletter, provide comprehensive open enrollment informational sessions that highlight what each plan offers, work with your EAP or wellness program providers to come onsite to do trainings, and make sure you have information posted in the break area on these benefits. 
    3. Know the warning signs. Just because someone says they’re “fine” doesn’t mean they are. Know what to look for such as sudden changes in mood or behavior (keep in mind that these changes can be manic or depressive in nature), difficulty concentrating or meeting deadlines, sudden significant changes in weight or appearance, or complete withdraw. 
    4. Be vulnerable. First, be willing to listen, really listen. If an employee comes to you, be an active listener, let them know you have the time for them. Set everything else aside. Sometimes just having someone listen can make all the difference. And be willing to share, to let down your guard a little, and be honest. As Mary Ila mentioned in her post Taking a Walkabout, we all came to a point where our stress overwork, family, and other things got the best of us and during our recent quarterly planning meeting we all just stopped, took a deep breath, and allowed ourselves to be vulnerable. We all had a snippet of information about things that were going on in each other’s lives, but up until that moment, we didn’t know the true extent of those stressors and the impact they were having on us as individuals, and as a team. 
    5. Take action. This is one I hope you never have to use, but know that if you have reason to believe that there is an immediate threat that an employee may harm themselves or others as a result of their mental health, there are resources available for you to contact to get them the help they need quickly. The local police department will always do a wellness check if requested. 

    How can your organization help end the stigma around mental health in the workplace? 

     

  • 3 Reasons to Give and Take Extended Leave

    3 Reasons to Give and Take Extended Leave

    Today I’ve been back at work for one week. Back at work after four weeks of extended personal leave. I could write a full-length novel about the why, how, who, and what of my semi-sabbatical experience. The short version is: every employer should give extended paid leave, and every employee should take it. I’ll give you three reasons.

    1. We are People First. 

    People First is the single most important Horizon Point mantra. We live it and breathe it every day. That’s how we got here – this place in time where each of our team members is taking 4+ weeks of extended leave for rest and renewal. Our Founder, Mary Ila, took one long look at us during a quarterly planning meeting and saw a team of women who had forgotten that we, ourselves, are People First. The buck stopped there. 

    Our boss got vulnerable with us about her physical, mental, and emotional health (all deteriorating), and we got vulnerable right back. All of us called to the foreground our very real symptoms of Too Much Syndrome. Too much COVID-19 uncertainty, too much schedule changing, too much brain fog, too much or not enough of everything else. In that quarterly planning meeting, we came back to ourselves, saw our very real burnout staring us in the face, and landed squarely on the realization that we are just people. 

    Workplaces are made of People who have basic needs and who will predictably burn out without periods of rest. 

    2. Extended leave clears the fog. 

    On my second day back at work, I attended a Mental Wellness workshop with a local entrepreneurial center that specializes in woman-owned small business creation and growth. This particular workshop focused on the brain science associated with stress and anxiety. Join me on the journey for a moment. How many of these physiological symptoms have you experienced in the last week? 

    • Taut muscles
    • Fatigue
    • Hasty decisions
    • Foggy thinking
    • Negativity 
    • Worrying
    • Irritability
    • Indifference
    • Apprehension
    • Depression
    • Insomnia
    • Restlessness

    As I sat in that room, I thought back to that quarterly planning meeting. I thought back to snapshots of my personal and professional life and saw every. single. one. of these symptoms. That good ole 20/20 hindsight sure did hit differently this time. 

    When I look at this list today, only 2 or 3 resonate. My four weeks of paid leave literally gave me new life. The sun came out, and the fog lifted. I’m a better version of myself, which benefits me personally of course, but also benefits my work team. Giving employees an extended moment to clear the fog breathes life into the organization. 

    3. It’s time for a paradigm shift. 

    Some of you are ready to give and/or take extended leave. You’re willing and able and ready. Here are 6 Steps for Planning and Implementing Effective Extended Leave. 

    Some of you are not. I know that paid extended leave is a luxury. I’ve heard time and time again how lucky I am, how lucky my team is, to work for a company and a leader with such a philosophy. 

    The thing is, we shouldn’t be so lucky. Our company shouldn’t be so different, so unique. This model of People First and the option of paid extended leave should be commonplace. As workplace and community leaders, we can and should shift the paradigm. It has to start somewhere, so why shouldn’t it start with me and you? 

    A month ago, when asked, “How are you?”, I would’ve (not so jokingly) said, “I’m surviving, but not thriving! Haha.” Ask me today, and I’ll tell you how much I’m thriving. How much my mind has healed. How much better I’m sleeping. How much of my personality came back. How much healthier I feel, physically, mentally, and emotionally. 

    Extended leave was a blessing for which I’m immeasurably grateful, and now I’m on fire about spreading the wealth to others. It takes a village. Will you join me? 

     

    If you are an employer, and you want to explore options for incorporating extended wellness leave into your workplace, let’s work together to shift the paradigm. 

     

  • Is it Time to Kill the 40-Hour Workweek?

    Is it Time to Kill the 40-Hour Workweek?

    Americans work an average of 41.5 hours per week, with 11.1% working over 50 hours per week. World Population Review

    Americans work 137 more hours per year than Japanese workers, 260 more hours per year than British workers, and 499 more hours per year than French workers. International Labour Organization

     

    Based on data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, productivity per American worker has increased 400% since 1950. Meaning Americans should be able to accomplish in 10 hours per week what it took 40 hours to accomplish in 1950. Yet, we are still working 40 hours per week. 

    So where did the 40-hour workweek start? With Henry Ford. He implemented it in his Detroit factory it was an innovation in favor of employees. Most workers were putting in six days per week and Ford created the concept of work-life balance. He reduced the workweek to five days in order to allow his employees ample time to rest and be with their families. 

    Over a century later we still talk about a work-life balance, but we’ve lost the purpose that drove Ford to implement that 40-hour week. We’ve gradually climbed that hill back up towards longer hours and less work-life balance. We shun those who work only 40-hours per week and praise those who work 60-80 hours per week. We have become a society that brags about how many hours we put in at work each week. 

    I’ll never forget my first job out of college, I received my offer letter and it said that I was required to work a minimum of 45 hours per week. And rarely in the three years, I worked there did I put in less than at least 50, sometimes as much as 80. 

    We want to claim that certain industries just require at least 40-hours per week, such as healthcare, retail, or manufacturing, but do they really or are we just stuck in that “we’ve always done it this way” rut? Autonomy, an independent research group in Iceland, conducted a four-year study from 2015 to 2019 in which they reduced the workweek of over 2,500 employees from 40 hours down to 35-36 hours. The results were overwhelming. 

    • Employees were happier and healthier
    • It improved work-life balance
    • Productivity remained the same or increased

    The results were so positive that by the time the study was published earlier this year, 86% of Iceland’s population had either moved to a reduced workweek or added into their collective bargaining agreements to do so in the future. 

    The study by Autonomy is not the only study that has been conducted in recent years and as with the Autonomy study, results show that decreasing the workweek has a positive impact on employee health and wellbeing, work-life balance, and productivity. 

    So why do we continue to hold so tight to the 40-hour workweek?