What Career Growth Supports Are Employees Looking For Most?

Posted in Forbes Human Resources Council

As HR leaders, we know that a key aspect of employees’ career development is receiving support from their managers. However, we don’t always know what kind of support employees actually want. Out of curiosity, I decided to look for some answers. I conducted a two-week poll on LinkedIn, asking, “How do you prefer managers to support your growth?”

Workers Over 40 Are Overlooked And Need Support

Posted in Forbes Human Resources Council

Employee resource groups have long offered an important vehicle for employees to connect with one another. ERGs have typically focused on professionals who are early in their careers. What’s becoming clear now is that a large group of organizations’ mature workers need similar support. An active push to add mature worker-focused ERGs can reduce career isolation, support the changing landscape of career progression and provide the space for deeper personal connections.

3 Ways To Help Employees Grow Their Careers Doing Economic Downturns

Posted in Forbes Human Resources Council

One of the most important roles a manager has is helping their reports grow in their careers. While traditional methods of development, like sending employees to conferences and industry trainings, have their place, they’re not always the best strategy in times of economic downturn. Instead, managers should look at opportunities nestled in the work the employee is already doing.

3 Ways To Focus HR Efforts On The Next Demographic Of Workers

Posted in Forbes Human Resources Council

There is a shift happening in the education landscape. College administrators are talking about it, and so are secondary school administrators. But human resources teams aren’t talking about it enough. What’s this shift? An impending shortage of high school graduates.

Managers, Hybrid Is Here: Shift Your Approach To Make It Work

Posted in Forbes Human Resources Council

Covid-19, our shift to virtual work and our full awareness of how long commutes detract from our lives—those are all in the books. We are now trying to perfect the hybrid mode of working. We want to hold on to the positives of our old work ways and capture the value of our new ways with online technology.

The Unrealized, Powerful Partnership Of CSR And DEI

Posted in Forbes Human Resources Council

It’s 2023, and I know many diversity, equity and inclusion officers are thinking about the seven short years between now and 2030, when they have set clear targets for progress. And rightfully so. The great thing about a new year is the inclination to bring in new ideas.

Reviewing 2022 For Insight Into 2023

Posted in Forbes Human Resources Council

So many of us use the blur feature on our video meeting applications to hide what is behind us. It is so effective at hiding the background and highlighting the foreground. Reviewing the year feels a bit like that—a blur of what we have been through with the essence of what we should carry forward.

Quiet Quitting: A New Name For An Old Behavior

Posted in Forbes Human Resources Council

Quiet quitting is on our radar in a big way. The idea that people would stop working when they believe they have met the minimum requirements is being treated as though it is a new concept. I remember learning about engagement years ago and the example offered was the employee who let the phone ring and go to voicemail five minutes before quitting time. Today, this would be described as quiet quitting: deciding not to take that last call, which would extend the workday beyond the defined hours.

Analytics Are Leading The Way But Let’s Not Lose Sight Of What The People Say

Posted in Forbes Human Resources Council

HR professionals have been on a long journey to fight for a seat at the table. We focused on becoming business experts, trying to prove to our colleagues and counterparts that we knew the business as well as any line leader and thus deserved a seat at the table. While we were learning the business, we focused less on fully honing our chops in leading talent strategy. Being a talent expert is complex as it requires that you understand different talent strategies and when they are best deployed. We face a new challenge: data.

Podcast Episode: Inclusive Development with Dr. Lisa Toppin

Posted in Inclusion Works Podcast

In this episode of Inclusion Works, host Zoe Allerding discusses inclusive development with Dr. Lisa Toppin. Lisa shares her approach to creating development programs that benefit the employee and the business, allowing folks to succeed in the corporate world, without losing authenticity. From ERGs, to Sponsorship, to leadership development, Lisa tells us how to design programs that are less illusive and more impactful.

Networking Has Changed But Its Necessity Remains The Same

Posted in Forbes Human Resources Council

Before the pandemic, sessions on networking were taking place constantly. Every conference offered an expert to help you network, and many of them hit the same points — follow up, offer something to your new acquaintance, etc. Rarely did the conversation go to the depths it needed for one to become really effective at networking. The pandemic has changed some of that. In obvious ways, networking has become more difficult as we do not gather the way we used to. In some ways, we have a new opportunity to network for real.

Breaking The Bias Through Sponsorship

Posted in Forbes Human Resources Council

It is 2022 and we have just celebrated International Women’s Day. This is an important moment and reminder for women of how much we have done, how far we have come and how much more there is to do. Our call to action is to break the bias, but how?

Reflections: The Pandemic of 2020

Keynote Speaker at the California Human Resources Conference for Life Science

Watch Dr. Lisa’s keynote speech at the California Human Resources Conference for Life Science, a conference dedicated to Human Resources professionals working within the life science industry across the state of California.

How Does Social Oppression Show Up in the Workplace?

Posted at Gallup.com

In this interview, Dr. Lisa joins Cultural Competence, a diversity and inclusion podcast, to discuss constructs in our workplaces that reinforce forms of social oppression and how to tear these barriers down, in addition to some of the pitfalls employers can avoid in trying to address this.

Please, No Platitudes – Dr. Leeno Karumanchery Interviews Dr. Lisa Toppin

Posted at MeshDiversity.com

In this interview, Dr. Lisa shares her views on:

• How using metrics can’t just be about counting heads
• The importance and pitfalls of engagement surveys
• What it takes to create a healthy workplace culture
• Investing in Employee Development
• Why D&I needs to be engaged straight through the talent cycle

Employee Resource Groups Are Still Valuable To Organizations And Participants

Posted in Forbes Community Voice

There continues to be a debate about the value of employee resource groups — known also as business resource groups or affinity groups — with a few firms exploring the idea of disbanding them in favor of multicultural groups. Some people think that ERGs have run their course and are no longer effective within organizations. In fact, there is even some concern that these groups inhibit the organization’s effort to bring different groups together, along with proposals to disband ERGS or replace ERGs with with multicultural groups that expand to specifically and definitively define a role for white men. White men have been invited to participate as long as ERGs have existed, but this change defines the seat, which is different and an important consideration.

Strategic Solves For Large-Scale Change In Diversity And Inclusion

Posted in Forbes Community Voice

Someone recently asked me what the systemic solve was for diversity and inclusion (D&I) in companies. Embedded in her question was significant frustration over the pace at which things are changing. It is just not fast enough for many of us, and yet I find it encouraging that this conversation is top of the agenda for many firms.

Even if we cannot make discrimination issues disappear with the wave of a wand, we can consider the strategic solves, which include embracing technology as integral to new approaches, revamping process so that it is inclusive and unbiased throughout and continuing to bolster the individual programs that make real differences in employees’ lives every day.

The Untapped Secret Weapon To Building A Diverse Leadership Pipeline

Posted in Forbes Community Voice

Imagine being able to fly, but then choosing to drive in rush-hour traffic every day. Or having super strength, but only using it to open salsa jars for your spouse. Such wasted potential! Yet every day, companies leave much untapped potential on the table by not fully leveraging women and minority leaders across the firm who can help accelerate growth by bringing new ideas and diverse perspectives to the table.

Why does this happen? Often it is because unconscious bias overtakes our good intentions and well-thought-out programs. We know that “like being attracted to like” infiltrates our mentoring and sponsored relationships. This phenomenon plagues our ability to make progress in moving women and minorities up the ladder because, even when a formal program exists, women and minorities are just not chosen often enough.

Leaning In On Pay Equity: It’s More Than A Notion

Posted in Forbes Community Voice

Massachusetts, New York City and California have been among the first to enact laws that forbid employers from asking applicants their salary histories. Like any law, this only works if we as employers embrace the full spirit of the law, rather than just the letter. Embracing this change will be a test of our resolve and commitment to do right by employees to offer pay equity. We employers are so used to asking for and receiving information about a candidate’s salary history, so naturally some will struggle to understand why it is important to not ask — and more will struggle to fully make the adjustment in their recruiting practice, because it is simply easier and in some ways more efficient to know the applicant’s salary up front.

Driving Diversity And Inclusion Requires Cracking The Code On Sponsorship

Posted in Forbes Community Voice

It’s well-established in the field of human development that sponsors are a strong vehicle to developing talent. In a business setting, sponsors are senior leaders who are willing to invest their own reputation advocating for an employee behind closed doors. This is how a sponsor differs from a mentor: Sponsors have an investment that mentors don’t. The protégé’s career outcome is a direct reflection of the sponsor’s advocacy, and thus the sponsor works harder to ensure favorable outcomes and everybody wins. Mentors have an interest and provide sound advice, but they are not necessarily providing air cover and counting on the success of a mentee the same way a sponsor counts on a protégé to be successful.