Janie Eagles

No one expected it to be easy to understand and implement the Affordable Care Act, but at some point they figured it should start to make sense. But the truth is that for many employers and individuals, we have not reached that point yet.  Everybody from insurance companies to small businesses to healthcare systems appears to be in a sustained state of anxiety. So we plod along hoping that point in time will get here, and soon.

Have you ever heard of the acronym VORP or WAR?  How about WHIP or SLG?  If not, don’t worry. Unless you are the general manager of a major league baseball team, or you manage or play on one, those acronyms should have little meaning to you. (On the other hand, if you are one of those people and you don’t know what they mean, you better google each one of them. Right now.) Baseball has been a gold mine for statistic-minded fans from its very earliest days. They gathered and analyzed data in order to gain more insight into the game, but more importantly to dispel commonly-held misconceptions about the game. As they figured, the data don’t lie.

 

The bombings and criminal manhunt in Boston and the massive explosion in the town of West, Texas compel employers to consider the physical crises that can hit their facilities and the impact they can have on the organization and the lives of its employees.

For Millenial workers transparency trumps everything, particularly privacy. Today the traditional taboo against employees discussing salaries with each other is going away. Think about it: Millenials have grown up with virtually every aspect of their lives documented publicly, from Facebook to Twitter and Instagram to Flicker. Hardly anything is private to them anymore. Baby Boomer managers struggling to comprehend that fact need to remind themselves of their own mantra from many years ago: The times they are a-changin’.

USDOL FY 2014 budget sends strong message to employers who wander from the straight and narrow: The Department of Labor (DOL) has requested $12.1 billion in discretionary budget authority (an increase $12.0 billion over the enacted 2013 budget) and 17,450 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) for FY 2014.

An apparently chastened Steve Arwood, head of Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency, has assured the state Senate that the agency would once again show up at hearings to support employers who contest fraudulent unemployment comp claims over $3,500. The question remains, however, as to how the now-much smaller agency plans to pull it off. Last fall, the agency laid off 450 of its workers—about one-third of its entire manpower—due to budget cuts.

ASE has been writing and reviewing employee handbooks for many years now. Until recently, the policy environment was relatively stable and when policy changes became necessary they usually came at a reasonably manageable pace. Most changes were driven by new laws or new issues but typically came months or even years apart. The Family and Medical Leave Act, which came in the early 90s, is an example of an important law that drove much policy change. But companies were able to develop and implement the policy changes driven by FMLA in a fairly planned, thoughtful way.  

Michigan House introduces bill to increase minimum wage to $10 per hour:  Democratic lawmakers have introduced more legislation to raise Michigan's minimum wage to $10 an hour over three years. The current state minimum wage is $7.40 per hour.

Under Michigan law, employers cannot discriminate against people on the basis of weight, but this discrimination appears rampant in the U.S.  According to studies at the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, up to 50% of all Americans are considered overweight.  Being overweight is linked to coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer and is estimated to cause 310,000 - 580,000 deaths and cost $71 billion annually in health care.  According to the center, if current trends continue, every person in the U.S. will be obese by 2230.  Not good news.

If 2013 happens to be the year for putting together your next five-year strategic outlook, talent is sure to be part of the discussion.  Having just survived a five-year period unlike any other since the 1930s, many employers are starting to think about moving forward for the first time in a long time.