by Kate Evert | Feb 15, 2022 | Economy, Labor Markets, Management, Strategy, Total Rewards
Some of us have been predicting this.
Once the hourly wage reached a certain point, companies would have to augment their offer with other forms of:
• Rewards
• Compensation
• Remuneration
Whatever you want to label it, that day is here.
A recent Forbes article suggested that there are four things that employers should be considering to augment whatever they are currently paying their employees:
• Reimbursement for work-from-home expenses
• Increased focus on employee financial health
• Student Loan Benefits
• Sick time and personal leave for remote workers
The article stresses that it is important to understand the value these benefits have for YOUR cohort of employees, if they will have a bang for your buck. The statistics on productivity gains from reducing employees’ stress about financial worries certainly seem to be worth the investment.
A recent article in Bloomberg reported that Apple stores will start offering
“Part-time employees … as many as six paid vacation days for the first time. Another first: They’ll get paid parental leave. That benefit will cover up to six weeks and will include the ability to gradually ramp up work time for the first four weeks back.”
Joseph B. Fuller and Manjari Raman of Harvard Business School have just released a study called: Building from the Bottom Up: What business can do to strengthen the bottom line by investing in front-line workers. The executive summary of their work, which started prior to the pandemic, was that few in the Executive Suite
“…do little to understand or address the reasons why low-wage jobs are hard to fill and low-wage workers hard to retain. Most employers show little engagement in workers’ lives …”
Based on the changes Apple is now making in their stores, and other employers are crafting or contemplating, perhaps upper management may now be starting to understand.
by Kate Evert | Feb 2, 2022 | Covid-19, Future of Work, Human Capital, Inspiration, Pivoting, Productivity, Strategy
Those of us of a certain age, grew up when Groundhog Day only meant one thing: one day in February when kids, especially, waited to see if there was a chance of an early spring.
Since the early 1990s, the phrase has taken on a new meaning, a day that seems to repeat over and over again … without end. In the spirit of that NEW meaning, we are rerunning last year’s February 2 Blog …
If Covid had a mascot, it would be the groundhog, at least in the United States. Various animals in different northern regions have stuck their necks out to foretell if winter is over. Every year on February 2, many cultures look for a sign that winter might end.
Recently, a podcast caught my attention; hadn’t hit start, hadn’t heard of the book, but who wouldn’t keep listening about a book called Wintering when it is January in the snowy North? The author, Katherine May, read a passage:
“Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt.”
Suddenly you recall an Aesop’s fable, of the Ant and the Grasshopper. One creature is busy storing food for the cold weather, one plays in the sun and does not. You probably first heard this tale at about the age of five, and Aesop wrote, or at least recorded it, 5,000 years ago.
In her interview, the author says she feels that Covid has been one L O N G Wintering. Many of us have forgotten how to winter—how to store away preserves in our cellars for the seasons in which the harvests are not plentiful. Companies either don’t retain earnings for a rainy day or are pressured to pay them out to shareholders.
This February 2, the groundhog represents us emerging from our Covid Hibernation, looking for hope, an efficient vaccine distribution system, some semblance of normal. As we all know we will have at least six more weeks of Covid Winter, but perhaps we can resolve to prepare a bit more for our next “wintering”—whatever it may be—so that we might be more prepared, like the ant, and not have to go underground, like the groundhog.
by Kate Evert | Aug 24, 2021 | Agility, Compensation, Data, Economy, Labor Markets, Salary Budgets, Strategy, Wage Increases
Recently, sitting on deck on a gloriously sunny day, gazing across the beautifully calm water, my mind wandered back to grade school math. Probably the grade school math we all dreaded the most: the story problem.
Why?
Because it dawned on me that the captain probably didn’t have to do much of that story problem math that day. You remember the problem: a boat must cross a river Y wide, the current is traveling at X, how does Timmy aim his boat to reach the dock on the other side?
Why did we all hate these sorts of problems so much? Perhaps because in the diagram, or in life, we were always so sure about where that dock was on the other side. Both sides were stationary, we were sure of where they were. But a moving body of water? A current that could change speed, or course, or pull you under without warning? And what if you did all the math, and then somewhere in the middle of the crossing, it all changed?
Upon reflection, those story problems were great preparation for life. They made us weed through the words for the pertinent facts. How often were we reminded to go back and use our solutions to check our work? These problems reinforced that things were not static; they would not remain in place. We needed to reassess, recalculate, and rethink.
Solution?
In today’s current labor markets – and yes there are many, even in one location – the currents are irregular indeed. Many skippers are scared to undertake a journey of understanding, to even test the waters, but test them you must. Maybe your Great Resignation won’t be because of compensation, maybe it will be because of limited career growth opportunities within your organization, or lack of flexible work arrangements. Maybe your compensation is just fine near the shore, but away from the shore, the currents have shifted suddenly, and you haven’t ventured out that way to investigate? Your organization needs to know which way the current is flowing.
It is time to solve for X.
by Kate Evert | Feb 23, 2021 | Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Innovation, Inspiration, Strategy
It’s complicated.
A phrase that we associate with romantic relationships as we close out this month of Valentine’s Day.
But McDonald’s and the African-American community? Oh yeah.
When Marcia Chatelain published her book, Franchise at the end of 2019, she couldn’t have imagined what 2020 would bring. But for those of us struggling to understand all the complexities of systemic racism, she employed a clever device to convey its many mechanisms.
There are few among us who haven’t tasted, or craved, something from McDonald’s. It’s a fairly universal American icon. Yet in tracing the inception, growth, urban retrenchment, and eventual Black franchise-ownership, she is able to walk us through a journey that few of us know enough about.
There are many aha moments. These insights detail examples from why returning Black GIs weren’t allowed to take full advantage of all that the GI Bill had to offer, to why Black franchise-owners continually had higher per store sales, yet saw those margins erode because of the unfavorable terms McDonald’s “offered” them.
This book transforms systemic racism from a vague but overwhelming concept to a process outlined with concrete steps for permanence. It becomes very easy for those of us who understand what the post-WWII boom did for the majority of Americans, to now understand how so much of that economic prosperity was not afforded to a whole group of Americans.
“Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun!”
So that special sauce of success?
Franchise helps you understand a series of decisions that kept the special sauce from all of America.
by Kate Evert | Feb 9, 2021 | Corporate Culture, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Human Capital, Leadership Agility, Productivity, Strategy, Work Place
By Lisa Aggarwal
Commonwealth HR Consulting is a firm composed of women who love math. So perhaps it’s not surprising that the movie Hidden Figures resonates with several of us.
We are told from a young age that we can do hard things. “Things” have certainly been hard lately. Who better to learn from than women who looked hard in the face and told it to try harder.
One of the most amazing things about this movie was that no embellishments were needed to tell the stories of these female African-American “human computers” whose work and dedication was critical to the space race. This, at a time when WHO they were (African-American and female) was an inherent obstacle to their own success…still to this day.
Instead, they were pioneers who charted their own courses. Katherine Goble Johnson became the best known of this group when she received the Presidential Medal of Honor; she calculated the trajectories of the Apollo 11 and Space Shuttle. Mary Jackson was the first female African-American engineer at NASA. Dorothy Vaughan was the first African-American supervisor at NASA … because she taught herself FORTRAN.
“Their path to advancement might look less like a straight line and more like some of the pressure distributions and orbits they plotted, but they were determined to take a seat at the table.” – Margot Lee Shetterly
How was their world altering success accomplished, against all odds? GRIT.
There are many ways to describe grit: being resilient, having a strategic mindset, continuously striving for self-development. It is a competency, or innate behavior. You can sometimes develop it, but it is usually a part of a person’s make up. Without leverage, without a voice, the heroines of Hidden Figures demonstrate so many aspects of grit, then out-prepare and then out-perform their peers. It is a muscle that they have been using their whole lives.
The easy path is rarely the most rewarding. Invest your time in someone you see has potential, or in yourself. Sometimes, in order to get some traction, you need to put some grit down on that slippery slope and see where it might take you.
by Kate Evert | Feb 2, 2021 | Covid-19, Future of Work, Human Capital, Inspiration, Pivoting, Productivity, Strategy
If Covid had a mascot, it would be the groundhog, at least in the United States. Various animals in different northern regions have stuck their necks out to foretell if winter is over. Every year on February 2, many cultures look for a sign that winter might end.
Recently, a podcast caught my attention; hadn’t hit start, hadn’t heard of the book, but who wouldn’t keep listening about a book called Wintering when it is January in the snowy North? The author, Katherine May, read a passage:
“Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt.”
Suddenly you recall an Aesop’s fable, of the Ant and the Grasshopper. One creature is busy storing food for the cold weather, one plays in the sun and does not. You probably first heard this tale at about the age of five, and Aesop wrote, or at least recorded it, 5,000 years ago.
In her interview, the author says she feels that Covid has been one L O N G Wintering. Many of us have forgotten how to winter—how to store away preserves in our cellars for the seasons in which the harvests are not plentiful. Companies either don’t retain earnings for a rainy day or are pressured to pay them out to shareholders.
This February 2, the groundhog represents us emerging from our Covid Hibernation, looking for hope, an efficient vaccine distribution system, some semblance of normal. As we all know we will have at least six more weeks of Covid Winter, but perhaps we can resolve to prepare a bit more for our next “wintering”—whatever it may be—so that we might be more prepared, like the ant, and not have to go underground, like the groundhog.
