What’s the Best Day of the Week to Take Off?

Right now you’re probably in the middle of your ‘summer’ work schedule. You know where the office gets out early on Friday or doesn’t even come in on Friday so everyone can have the long weekend and enjoy the great summer weather. In the North and Midwest, where we have short summers, this is fairly common.

I have a confession to make. I’m an awful judge on what I really want for myself.

When I was in college I scheduled myself from 8 am to noon, Monday through Thursday believing how great it would be to get school done early and have the entire rest of the day off to do whatever it is I wanted, and have a long weekend. It was a disaster! Not only did I have my afternoons and long weekend, I also had most mornings off, because I didn’t drag my butt out of bed to go!

I have this same ‘traditional’ mindset when it comes to flexibility scheduling at work. In my mind, I believe I would want to either take off Friday (ideally, choice #1) or Monday so that I could always have a long weekend. Without really putting thought into it, I think most people would say the same thing.

As with everything nowadays, some research is helping to shape my mind differently:

The key is giving yourself a beat, a day to make your own pace, and to break the tyranny of the over-scheduled work week. Our human experience of time is ordered by “pacers,” both internal (like being a “morning person” or a “night owl”) and external, like the work week or a deadline, says Dawna Ballard, a communications professor at University of Texas at Austin and a scholar of chronemics, the study of time and communication. “Everyone has a different chronotype. Some people are slower moving, some people are faster moving,” she told me over the phone. “Our work, though, just goes and throws that out the window and says actually, this is how fast you have to work, this is when you have to work…

…One of the hallmarks of modern life is that our internal and external pacers are often at odds with one another—one reason Monday mornings are difficult. “You’re coming off from a weekend, where you do have your own pace,” Ballard says, explaining the Monday blues from a social science perspective. “It’s having to go from your pacer, back to this other pacer, there’s that friction.”

So, what’s the best day to take off in your week?

Wednesday!

Having that break in the middle of your week does a couple of really positive, psychological things. One, you go into your week knowing you only have two days of work, until your next break to do ‘you’ stuff. Then, another couple of days before a two-day break. The second thing is having that mid-week break allows us to do life stuff when it’s less busy with everyone else doing ‘life’ stuff.

You can go work out at the gym and it’s not busy. You can go to a doctor’s appoint or get your hair done in the middle of the day, that’s not a Saturday. You can go to the DMV when it’s quieter than normal. You can take a breath at home, while it’s quiet and recharge your batteries.

When you look at adding a little bit of flexibility to your organizations, it doesn’t always have to be some sort of “we’re letting everyone out early on Friday”. Maybe some of the best ‘flexibility’ would be having a half-day on a Wednesday! Can you imagine instead of a half day on Friday, you got a half day on Wednesday each week? How would your life change?

The next time you use a PTO day to extend a weekend, rethink what you’re doing and try taking a PTO day on a Wednesday. It just might be the break you need to keep you fresh all week!

Taking a Vacation from My Vacation!

I’ve got three sons, for years we would plan and save to take a big annual vacation with our kids. Places like Disney, and national monuments, and beaches. All the work to get ready for it, all the excitement, all the letdown! I should have saved all of that money for when they were older and then just left them at home to fend for themselves while my wife and I spend three weeks in Hawaii!

Let’s face it, taking a vacation with three kids is not a vacation. There should be a different name for taking a vacation with three kids.  It doesn’t matter where you go with three kids, it’s not relaxing, in fact, it is the opposite of relaxing.  If you go on vacation with kids coming back to work is the real vacation.  We all know it, but no one wants to admit it because you just burned valuable days off and a giant pile of cash.

This concept of vacation is very personal to your employees.  It has a huge impact to help your employees keep a good balance in their lives.  That’s why I was excited to read about some research being done to determine the what is the perfect amount of time on a vacation to get to an ideal state of relaxation.  From the WSJ:

“In a study of 54 people vacationing for an average of 23 days, Dr. de Bloom and co-researchers found that measures of health and wellness improved during vacation compared with baseline, peaking at the eighth day before gradually declining.

“It could be that eight days is the ideal to fully gain the benefits of a holiday,” said Dr. de Bloom. The study was published in 2013 in the Journal of Happiness Studies.

Laura Beatrix Newmark, of New York, has tried getaways of different durations. Her ideal vacation: nine days. “You really feel like you can get into a different zone and then when you come back you feel like you’re in a different mindset,” said the 38-year-old entrepreneur and mother of two young children.”

Eight days. Seems about right. You take off on a Friday after work, maybe sneak out a little early. You then have Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Eight days.  The problem is that first day never seems like a vacation as you get settled in and try to unwind and that last Saturday you need to start packing and getting stuff together because you leave on Sunday. That final Sunday might as well be a work day because you definitely aren’t on vacation any longer!

One other thing the study found that could really help your employees if getting people to think and visualize their vacation in the days leading up to their time off. We’ve all heard that: “Oh, Tim, he’s already on vacation!” But, I’m sure it helps people start to unplug from the job and get ready for the full-time role of just enjoying some downtime.

Those who are working like mad right up until the time they leave, have a really hard time shutting it off!  A great engagement idea would be getting employees little care packages of things that will help them on their vacation: some extra sunscreen, bug repellent, a Starbucks card, etc. Help them start to get their mind on having a relaxing time.

If they’re parents, select a safe word they can text you to call them and tell them they are urgently needed back at work!

Career Confessions from Gen Z: The 4 Essentials Every Office Should Have!

Ever since I was little, I’ve been pretty particular about the spaces that I live in. For my 12th birthday, my parents took me to Ikea and Target and let me “re-do my room” with a New York theme. I can also vividly remember the time when my Mom and I went to tour a college in Upstate New York and we almost left the hotel because we were worried about bed bugs. This particularness caused a lot of stress before going off to college about having to share a room with another teenage boy (a personal nightmare for me).

As I am entering the workforce, I know that this will carry over into the office that I work in. On average, a person will spend about ⅓ of their life at work. That’s longer than most of us will spend at any house we will ever live in! Since I’ve started interning, I’ve noticed some things that have made a big impact on my happiness and productivity at work:

1. Drink Machines: I am drinking water CONSTANTLY and I know that almost everyone sitting around me has a water bottle or cup at their desk. Having a water machine, like a Brita filter attachment or a Bevi machine, is more important to me than having elaborate coffee makers or nice vending machines. (editor’s note – the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree – I’m a life-long advocate for a Diet Mt. Dew soda fountain in the office!) 

2. No Cubicles: I didn’t anticipate this making such a difference, but I now do not want to work in a cubicle. At Quicken Loans (where I’m interning!), we have little half walls that make rows and columns, but they are short enough to see and talk to the people around you. This creates a much more open environment so I can ask questions without getting up or I can eavesdrop on other people’s conversations!

3. Bathrooms: Read my last post for more of my feelings about bathrooms at work but basically, just make them nice.

4. Updated Decor: I get that office decor is difficult. You’re never going to please everyone’s tastes, it’s expensive etc. BUT you could at least put in a little bit of effort to put some decor on your walls that is from this century. A good rule of thumb: if your decor is older than some of your employees, you probably should get rid of it! There’s nothing sadder to me than being surrounded by gray all the time. Liven it up a little!

Now, I could go on for a while about what else I look for in an office, but these are just the basics. Just put a little effort to meet your employee’s requests, and you’ll probably be on the right track!

Another Editor’s Note (because apparently, I don’t have my own platform to say anything I want): I’ve been telling HR leaders this for a couple of years now. With Gen Z – Design matters! It matters in your employment brand, it matters in your personal workspaces, it matters for younger generations. Perception of working in a great place is influenced by design. Don’t discount it! 


 

This post was written by Cameron Sackett (not Tim) – you can probably tell because it lacks grammatical errors!

HR and TA Pros – have a question you would like to ask directly to a Gen Z? Ask us in the comments and I’ll respond in an upcoming blog post right here on the project. Have some feedback for me? Again, please share in the comments and/or connect with me on LinkedIn.

Your Weekly Dose of HR Tech: Kashable – Low Cost Loans for Employees (@GetKashable)

Today on The Weekly Dose I take a look at the HR Tech, voluntary employee benefit and financing solution for your employees called Kashable. Kashable is basically a simple way for your employees to borrow money, where you as a company are not involved, but can still ensure they get the assistance they need!

Here’s the scenario – Timmy walks into your office. He’s got a problem. His car broke down over the weekend. He needs new brakes. He has no savings and no way to get the money. Without his car, Timmy stops coming to work.

You’ve had this conversation before, haven’t you? In fact, you probably will have it this week!

Here’s the problem. Your company and you in HR don’t want to become a bank. Loaning out money to employees, through your company, always becomes a nightmare. This is why I was so intrigued with a technology like Kashable.

Kashable gives your employees access to low-cost loans based on a percentage of their take-home pay. You as the employer, only facilitate the repayment through payroll deduction, but ultimately you are not responsible for repayment.

Having this option for employees is important! 

Here’s what way too many of our employees do in a cash crisis situation. They choose bad money options! 401K loans, high-interest credit cards, cash advance shops, or they go without something that is critical, like health insurance or a medication, etc. All of which puts them in a worse situation long term than where they started. The problem is, most of our employers have a bad or low credit and don’t have access to cheaper capital alternatives.

What I like about Kashable: 

– Gets the employer out of the loan business and puts it back where it belongs, in the hands of a financial institution that I have validated will do right by employees.

– Kashable reports directly to the credit bureaus, allowing your employees to build positive credit on these smaller amount loans that are paid back through payroll deduction.

– Kashable doesn’t allow employees to take a loan that can’t afford, so they are also teaching them responsible financing. The average amount of a weekly repayment is 5-10% of their takehome, so they don’t put themselves in a worse situation. They also only allow an employee to have one loan at a time.

– Many of your employees have a bad credit and could never get a low-cost loan, but with Kashable because they are employed by you, they will have access to this financing mechanism.

– Gives a credit option to your employees have no credit as well (high school grads, college grads, H1B workers, etc.).

Kashable has data to show that 35-40% of employees who use the service use it to pay down higher interest debt they have. So, already you’re helping to teach them to get away from the nightmare too many of our employee get caught in with high-interest credit.

I’m in love with any kind of technology that helps my employees and helps me and my organization. I’ve been in the bad situation of having to loan my employees money and how that usually ends up bad. I’ve begged my banking partners to give me an option like this, but they never would because they had to follow traditional banking rules. Kashable takes on the loan risk, and they do it because they know your employees are an actual fairly low risk.

Go check them out and do a demo – www.kashable.com


The Weekly Dose – is a weekly series here at The Project to educate and inform everyone who stops by on a daily/weekly basis on some great recruiting and sourcing technologies that are on the market.  None of the companies who I highlight are paying me for this promotion.  There are so many really cool things going on in the tech space and I wanted to educate myself and share what I find.  If you want to be on The Weekly Dose – just send me a note – timsackett@comcast.net

Want help with your HR & TA Tech company – send me a message about my HR Tech Advisory Board experience.

DisruptHR Detroit Speaker Applications Now Being Accepted!!! But, you probably can’t handle it! #8Mile

Look, I just like being honest. This isn’t DisruptHR Brentwood or DisruptHR Nantucket! This is Detroit! We do real HR in the D!

Come on, just be real with yourself for a moment, you can’t handle Detroit. It’s okay, you’ll do fine at DisruptHR Sun City. Just slow down and do some tour stops before you come to Detroit!

You see, we actually make stuff that sells for money in Detroit. We have employees who get their hands dirty. We have to live in snow and cold for six months out of the year, which tends to leave us a little less likely to be willing to consume your weak B.S. When you come to DisruptHR Detroit, you better bring it!

Alright, I hear you feeling yourself. You just might be ready to hit 8 Mile and the rap battle that is HR in Detroit. DisruptHR Detroit will take place on September 20th onsite at Quicken Loans awesome event space in the heart of downtown Detroit.

Want to speak at DisruptHR Detroit? (what you need to know) 

– It’s 5 Minutes, 20 slides, the slides automatically move every 15 seconds (this is not something you can change!)

– If you’re a vendor you try selling your product in the 5 minutes, we’ll Gong Show your ass right off the stage!

– DisruptHR is about emotion – make us laugh, make us cry, make us angry, make us motivated. Just make us feel something!

– There will be over 250 HR and Talent Pros in the audience cheering you on. (FYI – many in the audience will be drinking!)

– You will get a video recorded, professionally produced copy of your presentation!

Apply to Speak at DisruptHR Detroit! 

HR Mind Games!

HR Mind Games is a quick hitting, 20-30 minute hangout hosted by my great friend, Kris Dunn, founder of FOT and the HR Capitalist and sponsored by Caliper, the leading provider of Assessments for Selection, Talent Management, and Leadership Development.

In each episode of HR Mind Games, we’ll cover how general behavioral assessment geekiness/expertise helps HR and Recruiting Pros make better hires as well as maximize performance once that talent is in the door!

Episode #1 is going to be a doozy – How to Hire Sales Pros Who Are “Hunters”, not “Farmers”.  We have a LOT of opinions on this people, and the scars (and behavioral science) to prove it

If you love to geek out on the assessment side – CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THIS EPISODE OF HR MIND GAMES!!!

In our first episode, we’re going long on how to use assessments to figure out who the true “hunters” are across sales candidates.  Join us and we’ll share what we’ve learned and what to focus on from a behavioral perspective to ensure sales hires are “optimized” to bring home the bacon!!  We’ll even give you a great template to compare sales candidates to as you hit the recruiting trail!

Even if you’re unsure if you can make it or not, sign up to make sure you get the templates for future sales searches!

Future episodes: How to spot and deal with Narcissistic Managers, How to Use Assessments for Good, Not Evil…. good times in this series…

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THIS EPISODE OF HR MIND GAMES!!!!

Compliance vs. Contribution – What Kind of HR Pro Are You? #SHRM18

I spoke at SHRM National yesterday. I have to say I love the SHRMies! I never feel out of place at a SHRM conference. The pros that come are like most of us. We are trying to get better. We aren’t perfect. We really want to do great work. We have challenges.

There is one thing, though, I can point to that seems to separate those SHRM HR pros who are moving quickly into modern HR, and those who are not.

It really can be boiled down to Compliance vs. Contribution.

Everyone in HR is concerned about compliance. It’s part of the gig. Those who ignore compliance do not have a long career in HR.

Compliance-focused HR is also a trap.

I’ve said this my entire career, that it’s not HR’s job to eliminate risk. It is HR’s job to mitigate and advise of risk.

Bad HR tries to eliminate risk, so much so, that it many times turns into threats. The treats sound like this:

“Jim, you can’t do that because we’ll get sued!” 

“Mary, you can’t ask your team to do that because it’s against policy!” 

“Pat, if you decide to take this direction we’ll have to get legal involved!” 

This is HR trying to eliminate risk. This is bad HR.

Here’s how HR contributes to the success of an organization while mitigating and advising of risk:

“Jim, I understand what it is you want to do. There’s some risk, let’s be clear about this. If ‘we’ go this direction, we have to be prepared for “X”. Knowing this, how do you want to move forward?”

“Mary, I definitely hear what you need from your team. There are some complications because we have some policies in place. It doesn’t mean we can break or change those policies but puts us at some risk in the future. How about instead we try this…”

“Pat, I’m a little uncomfortable going the route you want to take. I think it would be best for ‘us’ to get some insight from legal and see if they might have a less risky way for us to proceed.”

Compliance vs. Contribution is really just a change in language and communication. One will get most of your team to want to work with you and keep you in the loop. The other will shut off your team from wanting to interact with you, and actually increasing the likelihood they get themselves and the organization in trouble.

I love my SHRMies who are looking to contribute. I desperately want to turn on a light for my SHRM brothers and sisters who are so compliance focused they are missing a great opportunity to contribute the greater good of the organization!

Never stop trying to raise the profession.


The Talent Fix – My new SHRM Produced book is now available to purchase! If your organization is having trouble hiring, this is a must buy! 

Talent Fix Review: My mom says it’s her favorite book that I’ve written!!! (I’ve only written one book!)

Purchase The Talent Fix now! 

What do Americans Really Think About Labor Unions?

So, if you’re in HR, like me, you’re probably sitting back waiting with anticipation for the Supreme Court of the United States to deliver a very important ruling around labor unions in the case Janus vs. AFSCME. It’s a case challenging the practice of public sector unions charging “agency fees” to employees who decline to join the union but who still benefit from the deals it bargains. The fees are typically similar to, but a bit lower than, union dues.

I’ve long said, on this blog, I think labor unions, in America, are virtually useless and ineffective for modern workers. I say this because in modern American hiring practices if you’re a bad employer with bad employment practices, you won’t get talent (hourly or salary) and you’ll go into death a spiral as a company.

Workers today, don’t need protection like they once did in America. But, that’s just my stupid opinion, and as soon as I say that someone always sends me an article or tells me of some bad company or industry where workers still do need protections. I get it! It’s not all or nothing, but you can’t tell me that unions today or doing the same work of the unions of our grandparents and great-grandparents!

Because of this Janus case, APM Research did a recent study to find out what Americans really think about this issue of should an employee be forced to pay union dues, or at least their fair share, or like the 28 states already have laws on the books, should employees be Right-for-Work which allows them to decide if they pay dues or not to work in those jobs?

Here’s what APM Research find? 

-Americans are evenly split in their preference for “fair share” (mandating some dues of all union workers) as opposed to “right-to-work” (where each worker covered by union contract may opt out of paying dues) policy regarding unionization.

– Democrats are in support of “fair share” more often, and Republicans are in support of “right to work” more often. No surprise!

– Surprisingly, lower educated workers (those you would think would be in support of unions) actually are more in support of right-to-work. Why? Probably because lower educated workers tend to make less money and if you make $15 per hour, a union taking “$X” out of that small $15 per hour doesn’t feel good at all! Basically, low-income workers, who are under a union contract, don’t see enough value in those dues to see it worth their while in paying.

– “Fair Share” is favored by about 60 percent of those who have direct union experience themselves or through a household member, and those living in North Eastern states. So, those with actual union experience more often see value in paying those dues.

– Stronger unions are preferred by at least two-thirds of women. Which clearly speaks to the historic employment injustices that most women still feel today.

– A majority of Americans (62%) indicate that “stronger” unions would be better for the country; only one-quarter indicate a preference for “weaker” unions.

Like with any study, you have to look at the sample. APM asked 1,000 American adults, so not huge, but it should be enough to representable, but we don’t know the demographic data behind the sample.

The crazy part about all of this is only 12% of full-time workers in America are covered by unions! So, if you ask 1,000 workers about unions, only 120 of them are even in union jobs. So, we, as Americans, have very strong views about unions, positive and negative, without much experience in actually working in or with unions in our careers.

Keep an eye out for the Janus decision! I’m sure the HR world will light up with opinions on what it means for the future work environment for millions of workers nationwide.

Career Confession of Gen Z: Flexible Work Hours Are Key to Recruiting Gen Z

You may notice that I mention my Mom in a lot of my posts because I have the best Mom in the world. It’s just a fact. She has an agreement with my Dad that he’s not allowed to talk about her in his posts without permission, but I don’t have that agreement so, sorry Mom!

One thing that my Mom has always been super big on is sleep. Ever since my brothers and I were little, she made sure we got more than the recommended amount and now I can’t survive without 7-8 hours of sleep a night!

One thing that I have noticed during my time abroad here in Spain and during my time in Japan (I was in an exchange program in middle school) is that sleep is not as important here.  My 6-year-old host sister gets about 8 hours of sleep every night where I would get 11-12 when I was her age. My host parents maybe get 4 or 5. There is just a different culture around sleep in other countries.

Another thing that has stuck out to me is the late start times in Spain. The streets are usually dead before 9 a.m. and most shops don’t open until 10 or 11. People go out to bars and clubs at 1 or 2 and stay out until 4 or 5 and then, get up for work the next day!

Something that I enjoy about college is that you get to make your schedule around what times fit best for your own personal preferences. For me, I learn best in the mid-morning to mid-afternoon, but many of my friends learn best at night.

This is another thing where I don’t know which system is better. I don’t know if America’s “early bird gets the worm” is necessarily better than Spain’s later start times, but I do know that every person is different. Something that is really important to me is sleep and I know that in my 20s, I don’t want to have to go to bed at 9 or 10 pm in order to get the amount of sleep I need because my job starts super early in the morning.

This brings up something that I know I will look for in a job when I get out along with many of my fellow Gen-Z’ers: flexible start and end times.

I think it’s important to allow your employees to work at the times that are best for them. I have seen flex time discussed as a benefit for people with families but it also benefits those people that don’t work best in a traditional “9-5” setting. Maybe 11-7 works best for those night owls. I know that there is no part of me that will ever want to work a 7-3 like some people do. (Editor Dad note: Don’t you love how Cam believes ‘working’ 8 hours is 9-5, and now 8-5 with an hour lunch!)

Right before I wrote this post, I called my Mom to talk about how many hours of sleep we got as kids. When I told her what I was writing about, the first thing she said is “well Dad has his meetings first thing in the morning, so he can’t always let people do that”. I get it. I get that it doesn’t work for every company and every situation, but I think that flexibility is important to implement in as many ways as possible.

Let your employees get enough sleep and do their best work by allowing them some flexibility to sleep and work at the times that are best for them. So, if you want your Gen-Z employees to be competent the day after the Super Bowl or the Game of Thrones finale, it’s a good idea to let them sleep in a little bit. 


 

This post was written by Cameron Sackett (not Tim) – you can probably tell because it lacks grammatical errors!

HR and TA Pros – have a question you would like to ask directly to a Gen Z? Ask us in the comments and I’ll respond in an upcoming blog post right here on the project. Have some feedback for me? Again, please share in the comments and/or connect with me on LinkedIn.

Do You Work in a HR Center of Excellence?

Is your HR department the best in the biz? If you answered “yes” you’re probably stretching it – but we know a few HR experts who can actually help you get there! The FOT team is made up of industry pros from multiple top-notch HR shops (with the awards to prove it), and now they want to tell YOU how to be awesome at HR too during our upcoming webinar.

Join us on June 7th at 1 PM ET for our webinar, The FOT Guide to Building an HR Center of Excellence sponsored by Paycor where we will reveal our trade secrets to making your HR shop #Goals by sharing:

– How to build a solid HR team from the ground up that will put you on track to become a Center of Excellence

– The 6 pillars necessary to any HR team’s success, and how you can use each one to propel your organization towards greatness

– 3 key insights that will allow you to move past the foundational HR and put you on a clear path to HR excellence

– A FREE tool that will allow you to pinpoint where your team is at on the journey to becoming an HR Center of Excellence

Kris Dunn and I will lead you through how the FOT team would build out your HR COE from scratch, or from where you are right now no matter how bad you think you might be broken!

FOT believes that every HR shop can be a COE. It’s not easy, but it’s also not like we are trying to launch the Space Shuttle! What you need is the knowledge and the plan, which we will give you!

It all goes down on June 7th at 1 PM ET (Noon CT, and 10 AM PT).

Register today for this Free Webinar