Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #79

Covers vaccine mandates, benefit offerings in a hybrid workplace, workers' perception of hybrid work, how Google is cutting the pay of remote workers, and DEI measurement.

August 15, 2021

Welcome to this week’s issue of Talent Edge Weekly—the weekly newsletter for human resources practitioners, bringing together insights about work, the workplace, and the workforce from various sources.

If you find value in this issue or any of its resources, please share them with your network by using the social media icons at the top of the newsletter.

Have a great week, and I look forward to sharing more ideas in next week’s Edge!

Brian 

Brian Heger is a human resources practitioner with a Fortune 150 organization and has responsibilities for Strategic Talent and Workforce Planning. To connect with Brian on Linkedin, click here.

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

  • Updated: How 20 Companies (Now 48) Are Adjusting Their Return to Office Dates and Vaccine- Mask Mandates Due to Delta Variant | BrianHeger .com | I provide a few summary themes from my detailed list of how 48 firms (and growing) are adjusting their return to office dates and vaccine-mandates. A new poll has been added where you can indicate your firm's return-to-office date.

  • How Employee Benefits May Change in a Hybrid Workplace | The Wall Street Journal | Highlights six ways companies and HR experts expect benefits offerings to change to better align with shifts in what workers value.

  • Research: On-site, Remote or Hybrid: Employee Sentiment On The Workplace | ADP Research Institute | A 35-page report that compares worker perceptions of the benefits and challenges of three work arrangements: onsite, remote, and hybrid.

  • Google to Cut the Pay of Employees Who Continue to Work Remotely | WSWS. org | Provides a brief overview of the extent to which Google workers have asked for permission to work remotely on a full-time basis or relocate to a different office; discusses the pay implications of those decisions.

  • How to Measure Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion | Gartner for HR | A 13-page report on measuring the three aspects of DEI and how to avoid common measurement pitfalls. Provides a view of which talent management processes are most susceptible to bias.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE

Last week, I published a list of how 20 organizations are adjusting their return to office dates and vaccine-mask mandates. I continue to update this list, which now includes 48 organizations. While you can review the specifics for each company, a few takeaways are: 1) Most organizations are pushing back their return to office plans by 1-2 months (from September to October or November). 2) A few firms are returning to the office in 2022, including Amazon and Target (office workers), Expedia, Indeed, Lyft, and Facebook.  3) For organizations delaying their return but have not announced a specific date, they (e.g., Apple, The Hartford) will give employees at least a month’s notice. 4) Most firms are mandating vaccinations. 5) Workers with valid medical or religious reasons not to be vaccinated will be addressed individually for accommodation, according to Amtrak, Eli Lilly, Facebook, and Google. 6) Some firms, such as Centene and Pfizer, will require employees to submit to weekly Covid testing if they choose not to get vaccinated. 7) A segment of firms, including AT&T and The Hartford, require workers to wear masks regardless of their vaccination status. 8) A few firms are providing financial incentives for workers to get vaccinated, such as Tyson Foods ($200 for frontline workers) and Vanguard ($1000 for U.S. employees)

Many companies continue to re-evaluate their benefits propositions to determine if they still align with what workers value. Consequently, firms will reduce or eliminate certain benefits while expanding others. This article highlights six ways how companies and HR experts expect benefits to change. They include:1) Flexible time off with no formal limits. 2) Fewer sick days but more ‘home leave’ days. For example, if an employee may feel slightly ill but can still contribute a portion of their workload, employers might give workers extra days of home leave a year, beyond the work-from-home days allowed. Said differently, sick leave is when you don’t work, but with home leave, you’re working, which enables the worker to still contribute a portion of their workload. Other benefits changes include 3) Work-from-anywhere periods. 4) Provide stipends for home offices. 5) Expanded discounted services for employees with third-party vendors (e.g., pet services). 6) Translate in-office perks for hybrid work environments (e.g., instead of onsite gym, provide access to health and wellness apps). According to Willis Towers Watson, 80% of employers surveyed plan to increase virtual perks this year.  

This 35-page report compares worker perceptions of the benefits and challenges of three work arrangements (onsite, remote, and hybrid) they continue to experience during the pandemic. The report is based on survey results from over 9,000 full-time U.S. workers who work on a team and have not switched employers throughout the crisis. This report has many insights, including 1) Onsite workers say they have a shorter workday (on average, one hour less) with a cleaner break between work and home. 2) Two in 5 parents working remotely say their workday has extended beyond “normal hours” as compared to roughly 1 in 4 onsite parents. 3) Concerning hiring and awarding promotions, 57% of employees (non-managers) surveyed think their managers prefer onsite employees over remote workers; managers themselves share this perception (59%). This statistic points to a challenge I mentioned in another post on proximity bias (PB)—an incorrect assumption that workers in close physical proximity to their team and company leaders will be perceived as better workers than their remote counterparts. Given the rise of remote and hybrid work, firms should build manager capability in mitigating PB when making talent decisions.  

Last month, I posted how Google developed a new “Work Location Tool” to assist employees in calculating how their compensation might decrease if they relocate or work remotely. This more recent article notes that since June, roughly 10,000 of the company’s over 135,000 workers have asked for permission to work remotely on a full-time basis or relocate to a different office once the pandemic subside. Google has so far approved 85% of the requests, which can result in as high as a 25% pay cut for employees who move from high to less expensive areas. For example, an employee that was hired in San Francisco but decides to relocate and work from home in Lake Tahoe will experience a pay reduction of 25%. That said, the article title isn't completely accurate since not all people who work remotely are receiving pay cuts (read the article for more on this).“Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft also cut pay for remote employees who move to less expensive areas, while smaller companies, including Reddit and Zillow have shifted to location-agnostic pay models.” It will be interesting to see how other firms approach this topic and how these decisions impact hiring, retention, engagement, and diversity. Firms are likely to experiment with different approaches given that various surveys, such as one by Breeze, show that a segment of workers is willing to take pay cuts (from five to 25 percent cut) to continue working remotely. 

This 13-page report provides recommendations for measuring the three components of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The report starts by providing definitions for each component, shares measures for each, and highlights how to avoid common pitfalls associated with measuring each component. There are various insights in this report, including 1) There are seven main drivers of Inclusion (page 5) ranging from decision-making (members of my team fairly consider ideas and suggestions offered by other team members), psychological safety (I feel welcome to express my true feelings at work), trust (communication we receive from the organization is honest and open) to belonging (people in my organization care about me).  2) Regarding Equity, which is both fair treatment and equality of access to opportunity, Figure 1. on page 7 shows the extent to which talent management ( TM ) processes are susceptible to bias, including the top three: 1) promotions/succession, 2) recruiting, and 3) performance management. Table 1 on page 9 provides recommendations to increase equity in TM processes. Other ideas are discussed.

MOST SHARED RESOURCE FROM LAST WEEK

Since the most shared article was my article How 20+ Organizations Are Adjusting Their Return to Office Dates and Vaccine Mandates, this week I am sharing the second most shared article, which is:

TWEET OF THE WEEK

OUR RESOURCE LINEUP

​​brianheger.com provides free access to +1,000 curated articles, research reports, podcasts, etc. that help practitioners drive better business results through strategic human resources and talent management.

CHROS on the Go is a subscription that provides the easiest and most convenient way to stay informed about Chief Human Resources Officer hires, promotions, and resignations in organizations of all sizes and industries.

​Talent Edge Weekly is a free weekly newsletter that brings together the best talent and strategic human resources insights from various sources. It is published every Sunday at 6PM EST.