This month’s success story features our work with Case Paper. Although they are 75 years old, they just recently hired their first HR director [and also an old colleague]. One of his first tasks was to review the employee handbook provisions and processes related to harassment. More on that below… Since 1943, Case Paper Company has provided incomparable service to the printing and packaging industry. The foundation of this service rests on maintaining one of the largest inventories of coated paper and board in both rolls and sheets in the United States; providing swift delivery of custom-converted products from state-of-the-art equipment; and the ability to process custom sizes. In fact, Case Paper has an extensive inventory of over 75,000 tons of paper and board available for immediate delivery, warehoused in over 1.25 million square feet of storage space across the U.S. They also provide state-of-the-art converting, warehousing, shipping, and logistics from several North American locations. Once their HR leader assessed the current state of their harassment avoidance program, he contacted OA for assistance in developing and delivering Diversity and Harassment Awareness Training. Ron Hervi, Director of Human Resources said: I had worked with OA’s Mark Fiala years ago when we were part of the Human Resources department in the company in which we worked. I knew his reputation and that of his company, so once I got acclimated to my new role at Case Paper, we started talking about how we could work together to deliver Diversity, Inclusion, Sensitivity, and Harassment Prevention training to my management team. Mark developed and delivered some of the best training we have ever received…his approach was to facilitate a real conversation with my leaders and help them understand the negative effect of harassment and the benefits of fostering diversity and inclusion. We held workshops in Philadelphia and Chicago for a total of six workshops. Each session was delivered effectively, and real learning took place…the feedback we received was that the training was useful, meaningful…and believe it or not, fun! It’s no secret that harassment is on many employer’s minds…making sure your managers are trained to spot and take action in cases of harassment is critical. Make sure you provide them the tools they...
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Public libraries have unique challenges. Public sector employment rules and collective bargaining makes the job as library Executive Director or HR leader all the more challenging. Our public library and public sector expertise incorporates data from the American Library Association, regional public library and public employer organizations, and more than TEN YEARS of HR consulting experience with public, private, and not-for-profit organizations. Whether you are a small public library or one of the largest in Ohio, Organizational Architecture is your partner for helping you meet your Human Resources challenges. Our public library clients include: Cuyahoga County Public Library Stark County District Library Westerville Public Library Our public sector commitment is reflected in the certifications we have earned to do public sector work: United States Department of Veterans Affairs Veteran Owned Small Business State of Ohio Veteran Business Enterprise Cuyahoga County Small Business Enterprise City of Cleveland Small Business Enterprise Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District Small Business Enterprise If you need assistance with other HR projects and want to learn more about our human resources consulting, contact us and check out our blog for more...
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It’s no secret that harassment in the workplace is on everyone’s mind. Many organizations have been proactive in developing policies and procedures, updating employee handbooks, and making sure information is posted for employees to learn what their rights in the workplace are. However, many organizations fail to address one of the most critical links in the chain to prevent and address harassment…training supervisors on harassment prevention. Supervisors are the people who will most likely hear about possible harassment first…and they need to know what to do to protect employees, your organization, and themselves. Our comprehensive workshop on harassment prevention, Diversity, Inclusion, and Sensitivity Training, provides all the information supervisors need to spot and help address harassment allegations. We cover: Diversity Inclusion Bias Sensitivity and awareness Harassment prevention Our program is tailored to your organization and utilizes the work you have already done…in addition to our content we leverage your handbook, policies, and internal practices to reinforce all these elements in a seamless fashion. The workshops are informative, engaging, and fun. Learn more about our harassment prevention tools here and all of our training workshops on our website. If you need assistance with other HR projects and want to learn more about our human resources consulting, contact us and check out our blog for more...
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Allegations of harassment are all over the news and there are no signs of this national trend letting up anytime soon. For organizations, there is no better time than now to assess your readiness to prevent or appropriately respond to claims of harassment. Claims of harassment…if not responded to effectively…can have extremely damaging effects on the workplace. Legal liability can be astronomical. So can attorney’s fees and rising insurance rates. And the intangible impact on organizational culture can be just as damaging. Harassment allegations in the workplace can drive down employee engagement, which can hamper even the best organization’s ability to attract and retain talent. A critical first step to ensuring that your organization is well situated to prevent, respond to, or at the very least defend any claims of harassment that could arise is to conduct an independent and thorough assessment of the efficacy of your harassment prevention efforts. As we announced last week, we have partnered with Sindy Warren of Warren & Associates who is an authority on workplace harassment. Together we have developed our Harassment Prevention Assessment. This new service will help you make sure that you are taking the right steps to prevent and respond to claims of harassment in a vigorous manner. We will not only assess your current harassment prevention state of affairs, but also provide you with recommended next steps. Isn’t it worth it to ensure your employees can be safe and productive at work…and keep your organization and reputation respected and valued? Ask us about our Harassment Prevention Assessment and your other Human Resources needs and check out our blog for more helpful...
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The beginning of the new year is well behind us and we are in the thick of the first quarter. By now, your finance team has done most of the work determining your financial results for 2017, and many companies are getting ready to launch their annual performance review process. While there has been an ongoing debate about whether to do annual reviews, or replace it with a continuous feedback approach, many organizations still follow the annual review process. There are many reasons for this: the organization already has the tools in place, managers understand the current process, and employees have come to expect it. We’re not saying the traditional process is perfect…but it can nonetheless add value if done correctly. Here are some tips to make the process go smoothly and more importantly, have meaning. Focus the review period: instead of requiring reviews be done on the employee’s anniversary, schedule the reviews to occur at one time of the year. This has many benefits: it makes financial planning for increases easier, ensures better compliance because the organization is focused on doing them, and avoids that feeling managers have that they are ‘always doing reviews’. Make it simple: if you’re a manager with ten reviews to conduct, you don’t need a process that will take hours and hours to complete. Don’t overwhelm them with dozens of factors to rate. And speaking of ratings, limit the number of ratings that can be given so that the distinctions in performance are meaningfully shown. We recommend three- or five-point rating scales. Add some constraints: some managers can barely write two sentences about someone, others can write a novel. Don’t make them use a format that requires them to write essays. And if you are using ratings, you should use a tool like MS Excel so that you can not only control the inputs but make the tabulation of the ratings easier. Collect, review, and use the data: after all the effort of conducting reviews, don’t let them disappear into a personnel file never to be seen again. Take the time to aggregate and review the ratings, both overall and by rated dimension. This can give you insight into your bench strength and...
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With many federal and state laws changing or going into effect on January 1, the notices that alert your employees about important workplace laws and rights should be audited to ensure the most up-to-date posters are being displayed. If you are located in Ohio, you can go here to learn what you are required to post. Note that this has not been updated to include the 2018 Ohio minimum wage; you can find that here. For federal posting requirements, you can start here to find most of the required posters and links to others you may need. Remember, requirements may vary from employer-to-employer depending on the state in which your employees work, the size of your organization, and the type of industry. These postings should be displayed in a conspicuous place in the workplace for all employees to see, such as a break room, copy room, or other common areas for employees. If your organization has multiple facilities, postings must be displayed in each facility. For employees that work remotely from an office location, these policies and regulations should be sent to the employees, provided in hard copy form, or provided electronically for these employees to access as well. Watch for new postings on workforce strategy or contact us for other helpful...
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