Ask HR: We got a bad review after an employee having a bad day snapped at a customer. What do I do?
QUESTION: Customer service is key in my business. Recently, an employee was having a bad day and snapped at a customer, who gave us a bad review on Google. I feel empathetic about what she was going through, but her behavior was unacceptable. I think firing her would be too harsh because she’s been an otherwise great employee. What are my options? TEH ADVICE: Oh, the joys of navigating the human experience of emotions, especially when they’re not your own! This is such a valuable question for any position and company, and even more so for leaders. Whether we choose to act like we have them or not, feelings and emotions are a part of being human, and as much as some try to foster the “leave it at the door” mentality in the workplace (as if that’s fully possible or healthy), we are each bound to endure hardships, stressors and tough times. Sometimes bad days can even impact our mental state and how we perform both personally and professionally. However, it is still our responsibility to control and process those emotions and be able to healthily channel them without negatively impacting the world around us. For friends, family and employers, it’s certainly beneficial to hold space and provide support and empathy for the person hurting — but to an extent and within certain bounds. There’s a line there, especially when running a business. Let’s touch on the importance of customer service! While there’s something to be said for having quality products, providing excellent service, maintaining smooth logistics, etc., customer service is the backbone of any company and can make or break your brand. People often remember the experience they had with your company long after the product or service has run its course, and high-level customer service is the saving grace to mend a relationship or save a customer when things go wrong. All in all, your company needs to consistently provide that top-tier experience — even when the last thing they want is to deal with people, especially unhappy ones. You’re on the right track in thinking that firing this person right off the bat is too harsh, especially if this is a first offense. This is where constructive leadership comes in, and it can be done by balancing empathy for your employees while protecting the integrity of your business. A good place to start is with a one-on-one with this employee, addressing the unacceptable behavior and the negative result of it. Let this transition into an attempt to understand and hear out what they’re going through. From there, provide support. This can look like encouraging them to lean on loved ones or a professional (let me be clear that this does NOT mean coworkers or customers; even in a “family” culture, there is a line here), spending time on their hobbies, perhaps a bit of time off to collect themselves, or, if your budget allows, investing in mental health resources for them. To conclude the conversation, make it a point to let them know that you empathize and are here to help in the ways you can, but that you, their team and their customers/clients are relying on them to bounce back and continue to be a high performer. The rest is theirs to sort through; that’s the part that no one can do for them. While this may sound harsh, the world keeps turning even when yours is falling apart. Learning how and when to process your emotions is imperative to harnessing the power of emotional intelligence and running your feelings so they don’t run you — and possibly cost you your relationships, your health or your job. As a leader, it is your job to look out for your people and your business. When you take care of your people, they take care of you. But I’ll end by saying this: If you’re at capacity for the resources you can provide this employee and there is still no change in behavior or they do not demonstrate consistent improvement, know when to let go. Unfortunately, sometimes it gets to a point where addition by subtraction is the solution, but only when you can say that you truly tried investing in this professional with no ROI. Hope this helps and best of luck to you in navigating this situation and all to come! Paige Franks is a Senior Executive Search Advisor at BEST Human Capital & Advisory Group. She writes the Ask HR column for Garden Center Magazine.
How to Attract Young Professionals to Horticulture and Your Company
It’s a fact of life – “I don’t understand this younger generation” is a phrase used by every preceding generation since the dawn of recorded time. However, we live in unprecedented times since there are now (5) generations currently in the workforce – Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X (Gen X), Millennials, and Generation Z (Gen Z) where once there were maybe three. Two people in the same company, often in the same role, can literally be separated by over 40-50 years of age. This compounds the lack of understanding between generations, and its effects are being felt in many industries today. The green industry is also unique in that we have limited access to talent compared to other sectors. Those who have horticultural knowledge, a true passion for horticulture, and a drive to advance their careers in our industry are becoming few and far between. From 1997 to 2017, there was a 53% decrease in horticulture-related degrees, and sadly, the trend continues.* We are all working through these challenges at an increasing rate, as so many of our peers, who make up a large percentage of the industry, are beginning to retire. This mass retirement of knowledge and experience is leaving companies with gaping holes in their organizational charts and a terminal lack of leadership and bench strength. How do we, as breeders, growers, manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers, achieve greater access to labor with technical knowledge and motivation to become professionally successful? How do we fill holes by creating candidates? First off, no candidate creation is necessary. They are right in front of us. Investment and patience are all that is required. Awareness of Professional Passions It is true that horticulture programs are less full of students than they were in the 1990s. However, there are still strong university degree paths producing high-level horticulturalists and ag professionals. Most incoming graduates and young career professionals at these schools have no idea how our industry works and the full range of career roles it offers. In conversations regarding their upcoming or initial job in our industry, their answers are almost always one of the following: Greenhouse or Nursery Grower Researcher or Academia Landscape Installer or Salesperson Garden Center Sales Associate Some passion areas for the young professionals include: Developing new varieties that can grow in multiple grow zones. Experiencing multiple grow facilities to learn and become a consultant. Optimizing equipment and exploring AI and automation. Working in data analytics to help companies become more financially stable. Attracting new gardeners to buy plants. None of these passions can be totally achieved in the jobs listed above. The few young professionals in our industry have a hunger for the success of horticulture – if they didn’t, they likely would have chosen a different degree path that paid them more. Career Path Alignment Leaders in our industry are frustrated by the lack of professionals, but it requires spending more focused time implementing solutions. If we want to see a change, we must do a better job of getting in front of young professionals. Career fairs are a dime a dozen in non-horticulture degree programs. Having a presence at just a few of the largest horticulture schools in our country gives you access to hundreds of upcoming, passionate graduates who likely have no idea the career path your company can provide them. What is it worth to you to build a consistent funnel of young talent for your company? Cost and time requirements to do this may be lower than you think, as professors and organizations like Seed Your Future, American Floral Endowment, AmericanHort, FNGLA, and American Horticulture Society are already laying the groundwork for industry involvement to help place these young professionals in Horticulture. Participation at the university and community college level is critical to getting the attention of the next generation of leaders in our industry. Once we have successfully welcomed these early career professionals into the industry, it is imperative to have training and development programs and processes in place to help them grow into future leadership roles. A common mistake often made is hiring new professionals into a role that was held by a long-tenured employee yet not adjusting the job description responsibilities. The outgoing employee wore multiple hats of responsibility due to longevity in the role. Peel the role back to the proper starting point of responsibility and train for the future ability to take on more. Mentoring programs and reverse mentoring are also excellent ways to bridge the ever-increasing generational gap and build understanding and productivity. The Gen Zer, often with little to no experience, could benefit greatly from mentoring and just knowing how everything works. Conversely, the Traditionalist, Boomer, and Gen Xer could benefit greatly from the inbred tech and automation understanding of Millennials and Gen Zers. Don’t Complain— Act When you are not getting any qualified applicants to your job posting, your next employee retirement hits, or you realize that you are severely understaffed heading into spring, please consider reaching out to BEST Human Capital & Advisory Group, the non-profit associations we listed above, or your closest university or community college horticultural program to begin working through how you can make your life and work easier. There is a tsunami of business exits and retirements already happening and continuing to head our way. Start building your bench today, and while the effects of these changes will not be felt immediately, a little work today can make a huge impact five years from now. *Source: Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science Ben Molenda, PRC (bmolenda@bhcagroup.com) is a Senior Executive Search Advisor at BEST Human Capital Advisory Group. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in Human Resource Management, Ben has excelled in executive recruiting and business advisory and has become an excellent resource for both clients and candidates. Passionate about horticulture, Ben has also written and co-written several articles for major industry publications and is a Member of AmericanHort.
Why is Emotional Intelligence Important in the Workplace?
In this age of artificial intelligence, social media, remote work, and an increasingly digitized society, we are seemingly moving further and further away from the fundamentals of humanity. We have never had more ways to connect, yet in the wake of this shift, social and emotional intelligence (EI or EQ), or “soft skills,” have declined, causing significant workforce issues such as disconnects in communication, poor decision-making, and lack of employee engagement and satisfaction. Now more than ever, EI is a valuable and highly sought-after skill in the workplace, especially in leadership. To better understand the benefits and need for EI in today’s workplace, we will define it and its contextual application in the workplace, evaluate its influence on the workforce, and explore resources and strategies for leaders and employees to improve EI in their organizations. What is Emotional Intelligence? According to psychologists and leading researchers Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer, emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and understand emotions in oneself and others. EI comprises five distinct components: self-awareness, self-regulation, internal motivation, empathy, and social skills. In the 1990s, emotional intelligence was initially established as a psychological construct and gained momentum with Daniel Goleman’s 1995 publication “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.” Goleman, an EI expert, argues that while traditional intelligence is essential, emotional competencies are a critical factor in the workplace, ultimately impacting leadership ability, stress management, employee performance, and interpersonal functioning— “The interest in emotional intelligence in the workplace stems from the widespread recognition that these abilities – self-awareness, self-management, empathy, and social skill – separate the most successful workers and leaders from the average. This is especially true in roles like the professions and higher-level executives, where everyone is about as smart as everyone else, and how people manage themselves and their relationships gives the best an edge.” (Goleman, 2012). According to a recent study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, seven key traits deem someone as emotionally intelligent: Emotional stability (greater ability to manage their own emotions and tolerate stress) Conscientiousness (tendency to be diligent, hardworking, and control impulses) Extraversion (a personality trait that makes people more open and better at establishing relationships with others) Ability EI (individuals’ ability to perform emotion-related behaviors, like expressing emotions, empathizing with others, and combining emotion with reasoning) Cognitive ability (IQ; studies suggest there is at least some overlap between IQ and EQ) General self-efficacy (confidence in the ability to cope with the demands of our job) Self-rated job performance (Bailey, 2015). It may seem obvious how these competencies positively influence the workplace, but understanding the how and why of EI implementation is imperative for your future hiring and employee engagement. The Benefits of EI to Your Organization While there are many areas that emotional intelligence benefits the workplace, two are of vital consideration: job satisfaction and job performance. Not only is higher job satisfaction linked to employees with strong EI, but also to those whom leaders with high EI manage. Many studies have shown a negative correlation between EI and burnout and a positive correlation between EI and internal job satisfaction. In addition to employee happiness, job performance is positively impacted by high EI levels, displayed through increased performance metrics, a boost in employee productivity, and improved evaluations from management. However, how exactly does emotional intelligence influence job performance and benefit businesses? In the hospitality sector, EI is considered extremely important, and according to an article in Elite World Hotels, they have identified five significant advantages of EI in the workplace that can be applied to any industry: Motivation – High EI/EQ translates to better control of our motivation and perhaps even more motivation for our coworkers. Common Vision – Those high in EI/EQ can more effectively understand and communicate with others, making it easier to develop and maintain a shared team vision. Change – Highly emotionally intelligent people can handle the stress, uncertainty, and anxiety that come with working in business. Communication – Clear communication is a telltale sign of emotional intelligence, and it contributes to better relationships, an easier time getting help from others, and more effective persuasion and influence of others. Leadership – Self-leadership, leading others, and influencing others— all of these are vital for those in business. (Elite World Hotels, 2018) Therefore, a lack of emotional intelligence in the workplace can negatively impact a company’s communication, decision-making, and organization. Moreover, much like standard workplace metrics, emotional intelligence can be assessed and measured in the workplace. Strategies and Resources There are many reliable and valid measures of EI available, two of the most credible being the Multidimensional Emotional Intelligence Assessment – Workplace (MEIA-W) and the Work Group Emotional Intelligence Profile (WEIP). The MEIA-W measure provides a personality-based measure of EI through 144 short items that are intended to measure ten distinct facets of emotional intelligence: recognition of emotion in the self, regulation of emotion in the self, recognition of emotion in others, regulation of emotion in others, nonverbal emotional expression, empathy, intuition versus reason, creative thinking, mood redirected attention, and motiving emotions and takes about 20 minutes to complete. The WEIP is a self-report measure consisting of 30 points rated from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) between two scales determining the ability to deal with one’s own emotions and the ability to deal with others’ emotions. Utilizing these two resources is essential in beginning the process of measuring EI in an organization. From there, leaders can further train their employees on EI and how to teach it to their staff and themselves. A helpful guide created by EI experts (Cherniss et al., 1998) details four phases to use when implementing emotional intelligence training in your organization: Phase One: Preparation Assessing the organization’s needs Assessing personal strengths and limitations Providing feedback with care Maximizing learner choice Encouraging participation, not requiring it Linking learning goals to personal values Adjusting expectations Gauging readiness. Phase Two: Training Fostering a positive relationship between the trainer
The “Why, Not That” Approach: The BEST Way to Assess Job Hopping
According to a recent Business Insider article (1/22/2023, Stacey), Gen Z is not ashamed of “job-hopping.” But does that make all of them “job-hoppers”? What is a “job-hopper,” and is it a bad thing? What does this mean for employers? Most managers see “job-hopping” as less than two years at a single employer or more than three employers in a career history over 10 years. Gen X and Baby Boomers, even some early Millennials, have all been raised believing job-hopping is a bad thing. However, the Great Recession taught us very differently, and this is the era of Gen Z’s formative years, the time when they began to be aware of and influenced by the world around them. The Great Recession taught us that bad things happen to good people. Just because you left a job that the employment market deems as a “good employer” or you have a gap in employment of 3 months or more, that does not mean you are a bad hire, a poor-performing employee, or lazy. There are many reasons people leave an employer or the job market that have nothing to do with the negative pre-conceived notions of prospective employers. Why, not that, is most important. What this Pandemic has taught us is that sometimes there are serious health issues impacting the family that necessitate leaving your employer or changes in your spouse or other family members’ employment status necessitating relocation. There are many different reasons. Additionally, the Great Recession and the Pandemic have uncovered how poorly some employers have treated and still are treating employees, giving them all the more reason to want to find a better place to share their talents. Job-hopping is not necessarily a bad thing. However, what is more important than how many jobs a person had in the last 10 years, or how long a gap between employment, is the reason for the job change and how they spent their time during a gap in employment. If the reason for a job change is a positive one, such as a move that improves the ability of a person to support their family; an opportunity to expand knowledge, skills, and abilities; or because of a spouse’s promotion necessitating a relocation to a place where there was no employer presence, then there should be no reason job changes should be looked at as negative. Even gaps in employment are not necessarily a bad thing, though you must tread carefully as to how you inquire. HIPAA, ADA, GINA, and other employment laws prohibit inquiry about a candidate’s or relative’s Private (personal) Health Information (PHI) or genetic history. You can ask an open-ended question such as, “how did you occupy your time during this gap in employment?” and let the candidate fill in whatever they want. However, suppose they volunteer that it was for health reasons, either for themselves or their family. In that case, you must be very cautious about what you do with that information and your decisions about whether or not to advance the candidate in the process. Still, the question should be asked as it is relevant and will likely remove any negative concerns about why the gap exists. If they have a reasonable explanation, the gap should not be a negative that keeps them from being considered. The labor market has been a candidate-driven market since before the Pandemic, dating back to late 2017 when the number of open positions finally surpassed the number of unemployed. What this labor market has taught us is that there may be enough labor out there for most positions, but the location of the labor relative to the location of the position is very often mismatched. So, even when there are gaps in employment, that does not mean a candidate is lazy. Instead, it may mean their skills are not aligned with the jobs in the market where they reside. In addition, despite the strong desire by candidates for remote or hybrid work, not all jobs can be performed remotely. For example, the recent tech layoffs have left many people with very specialized skills and a history of high wages unemployed. Tech positions of similar scope won’t be readily available for many of these people for a while. So, just because there is a manufacturing machine operator position open in a food processing plant within a reasonable daily commute of a recently laid-off software developer, that does not mean that person is the right fit to fill that role. It may not pay anywhere near what this person needs, given the lifestyle they built from their previous job. But, of course, the reverse is also true. A recently laid off Project Manager of a corrugated box manufacturer likely is not the right alignment for a Director of FP&A position at the logistics company just down the street from them. Let’s not forget that not all employers are as employee-centered, kind, considerate, and caring as you may be. Not all employers understand that when you care for your people, your people will care for you and your business. In fact, too many employers take the skills from their people and give back as little as possible in compensation and benefits. Can you really be upset at a person who makes a change because their previous employer operated in an unethical manner, violated compliance regulations, or treated their people poorly? Likely, a good candidate will not disparage their prior employer, but there are ways of getting the message across in a positive manner. Likely, a candidate with high integrity knows when their employer is unwilling to act ethically and will make the professional decision to leave. That candidate is likely the right employee for you as you can be assured of their ethical focus and care for your business. There are also benefits to employers for people with numerous jobs on their resumes over a 10-year period. Employers today are looking for a lot of soft skills. They need flexibility, adaptability, innovation,
Succeeding in a Virtual Interview for Candidates
Tips you can use when being interviewed virtually. Thanks to the modern workforce enjoying the freedom of choosing their work hours and office settings and also the increased availability of telecommunication mediums, many organizations and individuals are relying on virtual meetings and interviews when exploring new candidates to join their company. Doing so can limit feelings of connection and develop uneasy feelings during an interview. However, when done correctly, virtual interviewing can establish solid rapport, increase the speed of the hiring schedule, and improve the onboarding experience. The following is a tutorial to make sure that you get the most out of your upcoming virtual interview. 1. Are you a procrastinator? No? Now is not the time to start. Get familiar with the software you will be utilizing. Test your speaker, microphone, and video. Make sure to close out of other applications to enhance the speed of your operating systems. Conduct a run-through with a peer to learn the program’s capabilities and gain feedback. If you do encounter issues where a glitch occurs and you can’t hear the response, be direct and honest. There could be a connection issue, so wait for the audio to resume and ask them to repeat what they said. It is essential to be upfront and obtain the answers necessary to make a thoughtful employment decision. 2. People like pretty Is it a coincidence that the Home & Garden Channel (HGTV) generates over $1B annually and is the fourth most-watched network behind three news outlets? Nope! People enjoy settings that make them feel a sense of comfort and organization. Refrain from overly distracting artwork, display items, and TV screens. If video conferencing from an office, that is great. If not, feel free to move things around to allow for a well-lit, neutral area. While preparing your environment, take note of where your fidget items are. Leave the stress ball in the drawer. Put the metronome in the closet. Make sure you silence notifications on your phone and the device that you are using for your interview. Your focus should be on the interviewer. As such, you should have notes and questions on the device you are using. Tip: This will allow you to maintain eye contact rather than looking down and reading from a notepad. 3. Look in the mirror When interviewing virtually, there is no checking in with the receptionist or lounging in the waiting room with other candidates. Before the call, take some time to remind yourself why you are interviewing for this role and organization. Look yourself in the mirror and get motivated. While doing so, make sure that you are well-groomed and well dressed— FROM HEAD TO TOE. Wearing a business appropriate top and sweatpants bottom is a dangerous game to play. Not only will you not be mentally stimulated wearing sweatpants, but it will also promote poor posture, and what if they ask you to stand up and show them the picture of you and your friends at the Grand Canyon up on the top shelf behind you? Nobody wants to see a half-dressed person in an interview. Enjoy the time you have with your interviewer and get to know them – they could be virtually interviewing many candidates that day. Separate yourself by following these tips and appropriately sending a thank you note of some kind promptly after the interview. Putting this tutorial into action may not have you walking out of the building in a blaze of glory, but it will bring a big smile to your face when you walk away from your camera. Click here for our Candidate Resource Center for more information and tips on resume writing, interview preparation, and more to help candidates on the next step of their career journey.
