Employee Relationships Archives

Kimberly Prescott
Blog
January 16, 2023

Pronouns in the Workplace

Personal pronouns have become a wide topic of conversation in the world of human resources over the last several years. When your organization makes the effort to acknowledge each team member’s personal pronouns, you are conveying a message of inclusivity and equity in the workplace. Keep reading to learn about how to incorporate pronouns into the workplace from the experts at Prescott HR.

What is a personal pronoun?

Personal pronouns are an important component of a person’s identity. Individuals use pronouns to convey what they would like to be called when not using their first name. Here are some examples of personal pronouns:

He/him/his
She/her/hers
They/them/theirs

Why use personal pronouns?

Some individuals value personal pronouns more than others because they want to avoid the experience of being misgendered, which can lead to feeling alienated or excluded. Allowing your team members to express their personal pronouns can help avoid anxiety or stress in your organization.

How can my organization incorporate personal pronouns?

Now that you understand how personal pronouns work and why they are important, here are a few ideas to implement them at your organization:

Use inclusive language: Avoid using blanket pronouns when addressing a group. Instead of saying “hey [guys, girls, ladies, etc.] when starting a meeting, try saying “hello, everyone,” to communicate with a group.

Allow pronouns in email signatures: While this should not be a requirement, you should give your employees the option to express their personal pronouns in their email signatures. In addition to email signatures, you can encourage your employees to also share their preferred pronouns in their LinkedIn bios, Slack bios, or Zoom profiles.

Share your pronouns when you meet someone: This is a great practice, especially during the hiring process. When introducing yourself to someone new at your organization, get in the habit of also saying your preferred pronouns along with your first name.

Apologize when you make a mistake: Incorporating more inclusive personal pronouns in the workplace can take practice. Give yourself some grace if you make a mistake and state the wrong pronouns for a colleague or team member. Start by apologizing, then correcting the pronoun, and don’t dwell on the mistake. This can make the person feel uncomfortable or cause anxiety.
Keep job descriptions inclusive: If you allow online applications to open positions within your organization, then give the option for job candidates to provide their preferred personal pronouns. This conveys that you respect your team members’ preferences and how they want to be addressed by their employer.

Work with Prescott HR

Are you interested in making your organization more inclusive? We are here to help! Prescott HR offers a wide range of services that can help your organization evaluate your current policies and incorporate new ones, as needed. Our unintimated HR practices allow us to be focused and effective, providing your business with precisely what you need. Give us a call today at 443-351-8818 or contact us online.

Kimberly Prescott
Blog
January 9, 2023

How to Create a Healthier Work Environment

Employee wellness has been a hot topic ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gone are the days of stretching your team members to their breaking point or not prioritizing employee wellness. Now, employees expect to find value in their organization through wellness initiatives and a better work-life balance. If you want to create a healthier work environment for your team in 2023, keep reading for a few expert tips from Prescott HR!

Why create a healthy work environment?

Investing in a healthier work environment may raise a few eyebrows with upper management, but there are many benefits to implementing these changes in the workplace. Studies have shown that a healthier workplace can increase job satisfaction and team productivity while lowering employee turnover and absenteeism. When your employees are happy, your organization can thrive.

How to create a healthier work environment

Now that you understand the importance of creating a healthy work environment, here are our recommendations for implementing change:

Establish a health and wellness program: Now that we’re in a new year, many individuals are focused on living their best and most active lifestyle. Your organization can contribute to your team’s wellness goals by establishing a program to encourage a healthier lifestyle. Health and wellness programs have a number of benefits for both the employee and your organization. Investing in your team member’s health can contribute to lower stress, improved morale, and increased productivity. Also, when your team members are living a more healthy and active lifestyle, they are less likely to miss work due to sick days. One important factor to keep in mind is that not every team member will want to exercise in the same way. Consider offering a stipend to give your teammates options on how they want to live a more healthy lifestyle.

Offer Mental Health Resources and Support: Whole body health is about more than just improving your physical appearance. Employees need to have a healthy mind and mental state, too. Many individuals suffer from stress or mental illness but are unlikely to approach their employer about their issues. If your organization wants to help your team achieve whole-body wellness, we recommend offering mental health resources and support to everyone on your team. This can include stipends towards counseling services to keep your employee’s personal health private.

Stock Your Kitchen: To feel great, you have to eat great. That’s why we recommend stocking your office kitchen with healthy and wholesome snack options to fuel your team. Rather than reach for a soda or candy from the vending machine, provide your staff with complimentary nutritious foods to nourish their bodies.

Work with Prescott HR

Does your organization need help to create a more healthy work environment? Prescott HR is here to help! Prescott HR offers a wide range of services that can help your organization evaluate your current policies and incorporate new ones, as needed. Our unintimated HR practices allow us to be focused and effective, providing your business with precisely what you need. Give us a call today at 443-351-8818 or contact us online.

Kimberly Prescott
Blog
September 5, 2022

Here’s What Quiet Quitting Means

There’s a new workplace buzzword popping up in the news that you may have already heard by now: quiet quitting. If you own or manage a workplace organization, you’re going to want to keep reading about this new phenomenon.

Learn more about quiet quitting from the experts at Prescott HR.

What is quiet quitting?

An important thing to understand about the term “quiet quitting” is that it’s not a literal term. Rather than assume quiet quitting is when an employee decides to leave their job abruptly and without much fuss, there is actually a deeper meaning behind it.

Quiet quitting is when an employee performs all of their regular work but refuses to engage with the “hustle culture” of many workplace organizations by not engaging in work behavior that goes above and beyond their job description.

What are the signs of quiet quitting?

If you run an organization, you may have noticed some behavior shifts over recent years with your employees. Here are several signs of quiet quitting that your team may be performing:

Not engaging in or attending team meetings
Reducing contribution to team projects
Lack of passion or enthusiasm for their role
Arriving late to work or leaving early
Displaying a negative attitude at work or during team functions

Why are employees quiet quitting?

Quiet quitting is far from a new phenomenon. Many employees have been engaging in this behavior for years, as it is not technically required for a team member to go above and beyond in their role to perform their work well.

So why is quiet quitting coming up in the news recently? The COVID-19 pandemic changed many things in the workplace, including team members’ comfort with voicing how they are feeling in their roles.

The rise in quiet quitting could be due to a lack of growth opportunities in your organization, unmanageable workload, low pay, or overall employee burnout. The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed employees to evaluate the overall satisfaction of their careers, which has led many to seek more work-life balance. Quiet quitting can help facilitate that balance.

Why is quiet quitting problematic for employers?

While we are all required to perform our work roles within our designated job descriptions, many companies often rely on employees who are willing to step up and take on extra tasks outside of their usual roles. When an entire workforce starts engaging in quiet quitting, this can disrupt the usual flow of your organization’s business.

Plus, quiet quitting can lead to lower team morale within your organization, which can lead to hiring or employee retention issues.

Work with Prescott HR

Is your organization experiencing team members who are quietly quitting? We are here to help! Prescott HR offers a wide range of services that can help your organization evaluate issues that may be contributing to a lack of engagement amongst your employees, including burnout or lack of growth opportunities.

Our unintimated HR practices allow us to be focused and effective, providing your business with exactly what you need. Give us a call today at 443-351-8818 or contact us online.