Hello, and welcome to the gently pulsating, low-key heartbeat of summer. Do you get the feeling that pretty much everyone is OOO today? If you are one of the workers on duty minding the store, we salute you. And if you want to curl up and take a siesta under the conference-room table, honestly, who’s to know?
In today’s edition:
 Reviews reviewed
 Compliance chaos
 Coworking
—Kristen Parisi
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Illustration: Francis Scialabba, Photo: Morsa Images/Getty Images
Performance reviews are like grown-up report cards. Whether you’re on the receiving or giving end, they can be enough to make you want to call out “sick” for the day. Many HR leaders agree that one performance review a year simply isn’t enough, and over the years, companies including Google and Accenture have shifted their frequency.
While HR executives and academics have debated the usefulness of annual or semi-annual reviews, the leaders HR Brew spoke to said they’re only ineffective if done in a silo and with outdated methods.
“Going into a performance conversation once a year is riddled with issues,” said Megan Smith, vice president and head of HR in North America at SAP, adding that once or even twice-yearly reviews don’t allow employees to course-correct and can be clouded by recency bias.
But with some preparation, HR leaders, experts said, can use performance reviews to empower employees. How? Keep reading here.—KP
Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.
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TOGETHER WITH BETTERMENT AT WORK
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We heard the big news: You’re thinking about going public. Let Betterment at Work help you manage this exciting transition and build trust with your team.
When you evaluate benefits providers, consider which solutions can scale with your business and grow with your team. After all, going public will affect many elements of your company, and your 401(k) plan may be one of them. By prioritizing financial wellness, you’ll show employees that you value them as people, not just as a workforce.
You can also use Betterment’s financial wellness offerings to attract *and retain* top talent: A recent Betterment survey found that 83% of employees view financial wellness benefits as a sign that employers value them and their work.
Whether your company is going public or growing in other ways, focus on what—and who—matters most.
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Ericsphotography/Getty Images
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned on June 24, some employers have offered to support employees in the more than two dozen states expected to have partial or near-full bans on abortion. And while a growing number of employers have spoken out about expanding employee access to reproductive care, lawyers say there’s a long road ahead.
While employers including JPMorgan, Sony, and Estée Lauder are already offering an added abortion-related travel-expense reimbursement to their existing health-insurance policies, Bloomberg reported that “the approach could open businesses to criticism or retribution from abortion opponents in states that adopt restrictions.” Katy Johnson, senior counsel of health policy at the American Benefits Council, told HR Brew this could potentially hamper how employers approach the issue.
Fear factor. State and congressional GOP legislators have already fired warning shots. In May, 14 state legislators in Texas sent a letter to Lyft promising to introduce bills that would seek to prevent it and other companies from doing business in Texas should they offer to reimburse travel expenses for employees to receive out-of-state abortions, according to the Texas Tribune. And Texas’s recent abortion law gives private citizens the right to sue anyone who helps a pregnant person obtain an abortion. According to some legal experts, this could include employers. As University of Illinois law professor Robin Fretwell Wilson explained to Reuters, “If you can sue me as a person for carrying your daughter across state lines, you can sue Amazon for paying for it.”
Johnson said she suspects state legislative threats could potentially impact employers’ benefits decisions, adding that the employers she’s spoken to are already considering the legal implications. “It is going to impact the decision-making for some employers due to the amount of uncertainty in the law and the potential criminal consequences for violating the law.”
Legal cover. Despite the potential risks associated with offering to reimburse employees who have to travel for abortion care, Johnson said employers may have some legal protections. Keep reading here.—KP
Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.
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Make every manager a great manager. Help managers improve each week with a friendly nudge from Humu. Each nudge helps them build a more supportive workplace via short, science-backed actions that bring teams together. Find out which 5 nudges helped managers most.
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On Wednesdays, we schedule our weekly 1:1 with HR Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.
Shaneé Turnbull is the diversity recruitment program manager at financial services company Voya, where she’s worked since 2020. Turnbull recently told HR Brew why she thinks it’s important for DE&I recruiters to attend conferences and events in-person whenever possible: to build relationships with future hires.
How would you describe your specific job to someone who doesn’t work in HR? I design, develop, and implement innovative diversity recruiting programs in support of Voya’s strategic initiatives.
What’s the best change you’ve made at a place you’ve worked? I created and implemented a new program and strategy that allows the business to attract a stronger pipeline of diverse talent by increasing brand awareness with diverse professional organizations.
What’s the biggest misconception people might have about your job? The first misconception is that diversity recruiting means excluding white men. Here’s the reality: it’s not diversity, equity, and exclusion, but inclusion. Diversity recruitment implements inclusive sourcing strategies aimed to attract and retain qualified candidates. The goal is to include qualified, underrepresented talent in the selection process. This provides recruiters and hiring leaders the ability to select from a diverse pool of qualified candidates. I emphasize qualified for the next misconception.
The second biggest misconception is that a person is hired only because they bring diversity to the team, not that they were the most qualified. This is not true, and again, the reality is that diversity can be a plus, but it is not a requirement. Furthermore, being qualified and diverse are not mutually exclusive. They can be the best candidate for the role and be diverse.
What trend in HR are you most optimistic about? Why? Flexible work options—they are here to stay. The pandemic forced hiring leaders to broaden their scope geographically, which made it easier for recruiters to find qualified, diverse candidates for hard-to-fill positions.
What trend in HR are you least optimistic about? Why? Keep reading here.
Want to be featured in an upcoming edition of Coworking? Click here to introduce yourself.
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Today’s top HR reads.
Stat: A new analysis of LinkedIn data found that HR professionals around the world had the highest turnover rate over the past 12 months compared to other professions, at nearly 15%. (LinkedIn)
Quote: “I’ve caught myself just sitting at my desk, not working…I’m too stressed out. I don’t know where to start. And then if I’ve sat there wasting half a day, being frozen and unable to work, then it circles back to, well, this other person probably deserved [their job] more than me.”—An employee whose coworkers were laid off, speaking to Protocol about how HR can restore trust with employees after layoffs (Protocol)
Read: From updating meeting policies to reevaluating wellness challenges, here are some great ideas for “weaving self-care into the way we work.” (Charter)
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Executives at Whole Foods, Chipotle, and GrubHub said hiring has recently gotten a little easier.
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Tesla is reportedly sending automated emails to employees who aren’t “badging in” to their offices in accordance with the company’s mandatory in-office work policy.
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Newsletter startup Substack announced last week that it would lay off 14% of its staff, reportedly including some employees responsible for HR functions.
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Manufacturing staffing company ResourceMFG has been sued by the EEOC for allegedly “refusing to refer a naturalized citizen for employment with a government contractor” because of the country of her birth.
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New Mexico became the 16th state to offer some degree of guaranteed paid sick leave for workers.
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We know touting foosball tables and free snacks are a recruiting tactic of the past. HR Brew and Lorraine Stomski, SVP of associate learning and leadership at Walmart, will discuss the new rules of talent attraction and retention during a virtual event on 7/14 starting at noon EST sponsored by 15five. Sign up here.
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Catch up on the top HR Brew stories from the recent past:
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