Recently I interviewed China Gorman, Chief Operating Officer of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), about her testimony in front of the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Workforce Protections on June 11. China was called upon to discuss SHRM’s comprehensive plan for Workplace Flexibility.
What was the subject of your Congressional testimony?
SHRM is advocating a 21st Century workplace flexibility policy that meets the needs of today’s employers and employees. SHRM believes that employers should be encouraged to provide paid leave without new federal rules and regulations.
Under SHRM’s proposal, employers that offer a certain amount of paid leave voluntarily would be deemed to have met all federal, state and local leave requirements. We believe this approach will lead to more paid leave for employees and more predictability for employers.
In a nutshell, our new idea is to advance the idea of paid leave to cover sick leave, vacation, personal days, so that we’re no longer going to have the Family Medical Leave Act, the Healthy Families Act, etc. Having all of these acts is costly and the unintended consequences will be far greater than people think.
Instead, have one approach that offers much more flexibility. Let employees have paid time off and use it however they want and need. Leave it up to the employees and it will provide workforce predictability for the employer. Have a mandated number of paid days off for employees and leave it up to the employee. This also makes for less paperwork for federal and state governments as well as employers.
How did this opportunity come about?
SHRM’s government affairs team, led by Mike Aitken and Lisa Horn, have been having conversations about this issue on the Hill. This hearing around whether to consider the Healthy Families Act and the FIRST Act (Family Income to Respond to Significant Transitions) really focused on the Healthy Families Act.
Mike and his team have been talking with individual leaders on his staff about this approach which, if adopted, would make the Healthy Families Act essentially moot. Piecemeal, one-size-fits-all approaches such as this don’t work for businesses or employees; they are too costly on every level to continue.
This meeting with the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Workforce Protections was SHRM’s first opportunity – other than one-on-one conversations with our members, HR leaders, and legislative leaders – to have a public conversation about our new approach to workplace flexibility. There was standing room only in the committee room! It was televised, all over Twitter, blogs…it was very public.
How did it go?
I think it went well. Eight people testified. Representative Price had us as well as Vicki Lipnic, Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor. Her testimony was representative of the Family and Medical Leave Act.
I talked about the fact that this is the wrong conversation to be having. This is a whole new way to provide workplace flexibility in the 21st Century. This is a 21st Century workforce and we ought to have 21st Century solutions. It was contentious; it’s a brand new idea. It caused a little discussion, which is great.
How were you chosen for this historic event?
The committee Chair chooses who testifies and the ranking member of the minority party gets to select a number of testifiers as well.
How does it work when you testify in front of Congress?
The way it works is that you give your testimony for the record. I think ours was 20 pages long. We gave the background, principles, and our recommendations. You get five minutes to give an oral testimony which is essentially a summary of the written testimony.
There were two members of Congress who testified and six others. It is really formal. The clock starts ticking the light is green. When you have one minute left it turns yellow, then red, and the clock starts counting back up so you can see how far over you are. The Chair then gets five minutes to ask questions and then the Chair on the majority side gets five minutes and they can use it however they want. She zoomed in on me. “What do HR people want? They want people coming to work sick. I thought HR people cared about people.” Lots of theatre! We started at 10:00 a.m. and were done at noon. Lots of press afterwards and two interviews. It was a really interesting experience.
What was the objective of your testimony?
Our agenda is to change the conversation and this really did that.
What has been the outcome to-date?
From a legislative perspective it’s too soon to tell, but this opportunity gave us a bigger spotlight for our new approach. It has catapulted our Government Affairs team to have many more conversation with officials and employer groups to gather their support. And we’ve gotten a lot of press coverage – both online and in print.
How are the employer groups reacting?
One of the things we like about it is that when we look at the Healthy Families Act – which will be a very decisive debate – SHRM can take a position that’s more definitive than just “we’re against the Health Families Act.”
Of course people shouldn’t go to work sick, but it’s a bigger issue than that, and mandate is not the way to do it. We need to include solutions for sick leave, personal issues, meeting the needs of our kids, parents’ medical issues, religious holidays – it can’t be just about one thing at a time. If you just come out against something the conversation stops. If you come out with a substantive proposal it keeps you moving forward and the conversation may even change.
The money has to come from somewhere. Mandating these piecemeal acts is costly. Employers know best what their employees in Little Rock need vs. those in Milwaukee.
We need a system that doesn’t require all this regulation. If you say that you can’t be here next Friday, do I really care why? No. I just need to know how we’re going to get all your work one. It’s about balancing in a really respectful way. A federal government mandated, one-size-fits-all approach…that’s just not how people work anymore.
What are SHRM’s next steps on this initiative?
We’re continuing the dialogue. This opportunity to provide this testimony put a spotlight on the issue. It’s opened the doors for more legislators in the Senate and House. With other employer groups who may be thinking this is pretty out there, now more and more of them are willing to have the conversation with us. The more they understand the principles and interest behind it, they may not line up for it, but they may not work against it.
Now give us the scoop! What is it like to testify in front of Congress?
Altogether at one point there was the Chairman, there might have been five Democrats present, maybe six, and probably four or five Republicans. Ten member of Congress were there along with and their staffs, eight testifiers and their staffs, press – all kinds of interested parties. It was televised and they had it live on two big flat screen TVs on the side walls. You have to press your microphone to talk. They have the green/yellow/red light system to manage time. Very self-posing, formal rules – you never know what’s going to happen.
I was a little nervous, but once we got started it just flowed. We conveyed the strength of 250,000 members and their employers behind us.
It was inspiring to be personally involved in the governing and legislative process. It’s humbling, and I felt proud to be representing SHRM. To be honest I took a lot of strength from that. And I’ll be even better next time!
So you were nervous?
Of course! I’ve never testified in front of Congress before. Mike Aitken and his team prepared me fabulously. I felt really prepared.
It was interesting, though. We expected that the questions would be focused on money. The focus was more on public health as WHO had upped pandemic threat that morning, so it was front of mind.
I give a lot of credit to the SHRM Board of Directors for taking this position. We’ve been working on this position for about a year. We’ve conducted focus groups, talked to employers, groups of employers, members…it’s a somewhat controversial issue and we’re breaking new ground. I see the wisdom of our board in approving this position and allowing us to move quickly into the public arena with it.
To learn more about SHRM’s comprehensive plan on Workplace Flexibility click HERE.
Watch the hearing here:
http://edwork.edgeboss.net/wmedia/edwork/wp/wp061109.wvx
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