Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER August 8, 2016 12 EXECUTIVE SERIES EmploymentSource™ Works as hard for you as you do for your clients Our premier employment content on WestlawNext® Canada is integrated with relevant case law, legislation, expert commentary and legal memos, allowing you to manage your practice in the most efficient way possible. It's the complete mix of resources you need to confidently advise on compliance, defend occupational and health and safety charges, or prepare successful dismissal or termination strategies. Search across multiple content types simultaneously Instantly evaluate what a claim is worth with the Wrongful Dismissal Quantum Service, an interactive service with report- building functionality Review exclusive commentary by Canada's foremost employment and occupational health and safety law experts Start ahead − and stay ahead − with our exclusive collection of legal memoranda Keep current with two leading employment and dismissal law newsletters and digests For a free demonstration, call 1-866-609-5811 or visit westlawnextcanada.com/employmentsource 00233WZ-52632 fashion, because they worry that it could put them at a disadvantage in the workplace," she said. "The catch-22 for organiza- tions is there's so much evidence to show that technology is good. Technology helps organizations, helps companies to compete better. But, on the flip side, as we use more and more technology, what's really happening to un- dermine the employee produc- tivity, their innovation and their well-being?" Research has been very focused on encouraging use, but now we're finally starting to shift from encouraging use but also under- standing misuse, said Head. If a person is stressed or addict- ed to technology in his private life, it bleeds over into the work world and vice versa. ere are a number of negative consequences to tech- nostress, including job conflict and fear of missing out. "Research has also shown that there are individual characteris- tics that might impact us more," she said. One of them is gender — men actually experience more tech- nostress than women do. Also, generally, younger people expe- rience more technostress and it tends to decrease with age. Head and fellow researchers have also coined the term "sec- ondhand technostress," which is the phenomenon of people becoming stressed simply by be- ing in the vicinity of others using these technologies — they are not even using them themselves. For some employees, however, particularly millennials from a generational perspective, it can also cause stress to not have ac- cess to devices. Yet having millennials glued to their phones can create tension and misunderstanding within the workplace. Some of the ini- tial research in this area is actu- ally showing that as people get older, they are more susceptible to secondhand technostress, said Head. "As you see the people around you and you're having a conver- sation with someone and they're on their phone, as you get older, that causes you a lot of stress — more so than other generations," she said. "So it's a matter of how do you strike that balance in the work- place? How do you make sure that you are enabling the younger generation to work how they need to work to become most produc- tive, to become happy in their workplace — but then be mindful of the other generations who are getting stressed out? "A lot of it comes down to how do you have that discussion, and how do you understand the view- points and the concerns and the values that different generations have within the workforce?" Understand misuse BUILDING < pg. 8 Trish Maguire Leadership In Action Strengthening HR strategies Senior HR leaders had a firsthand opportu- nity to hear key insights from recent aca- demia research about the people side of business. Research on organizational cyni- cism by Krystin Scott of Ryerson University clearly confirms that a) engagement and cynicism cannot co-exist and b) trust is the single most effective antidote to organi- zational cynicism. In other words, when people are truly engaged, there is no in- terest, time or energy for cyni- cism, and vice versa. So, what can HR leaders do about it? Perhaps the starting point is to assess the following: • When employees share ideas and input, can they expect to be taken seriously? • How much confidence do em- ployees have in their leaders keeping promises, acting with in- tegrity and looking out for their best interests? • Does trust — or fear — rule our organization? Agnes Zdaniuk of the Univer- sity of Guelph presented her find- ings on workplace mistreatment. A key learning for HR leaders was the pivotal role leaders play in "in- fluencing" employee responses to workplace mistreatment. Inter- estingly, the research contradicts the justification held by many that forgiveness can easily be in- terpreted as management ignor- ing or possibly condoning work- place mistreatment. Essentially, a culture of forgiveness increases people's sense of well-being and job satisfaction, and promotes greater productivity. Have you noticed that people can give several descriptions for forgiveness but not so many tech- niques to actually achieve it? e compelling suggestion for HR is to promote leaders learning and adopting "idealized influence leadership." Effectiveness lies in consistently refocusing employ- ees' needs, values, preferences and aspirations from self-interest to collective interests. "Technostress" was the final research presented by Milena Head of McMaster University. Technostress establishes that technology is escalating people's irritation, frustration, stress and lack of sleep. We also learned that "information fatigue syndrome" is on the rise because people, more than ever before, are receiving more information than they can read, never mind absorb it. Besides people no longer hav- ing any down time, "secondhand technostress" is evidently having an equally negative impact on people's health. Especially inter- esting is the impact of "technor- ruptions." Apparently, because people feel obliged to instantly respond to these interruptions, it can take 25 minutes for people to catch up with their activities. Clearly, HR leaders need to introduce strategies and pro- tocols that move people from technostress to "technohealth." Proposed suggestions from the research start with: • ensuring the senior leadership team is leading by example • prohibiting the use of technology for specific periods of time • building companywide aware- ness about the misuse and ap- propriate use of technology. How can academia research strengthen HR strategies? By HR leaders taking the opportunity to learn, transform their learning and act on it — now, not tomorrow. Trish Maguire is a commentator for SCNetwork on leadership in action and founding principal of Synergyx Solutions, focused on high-potential leadership development coaching. She has held senior leadership roles in HR and organizational development in education, manufacturing and entre- preneurial firms. She can be reached at synergyx@sympatico.ca.

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