Workforce Trends

Where should Michigan employers go on domestic partner benefits?

If the latest statewide poll results are an indicator of where Michiganders stand on the question of same-sex marriage, many Michigan private-sector employers will feel the need to take a fresh, hard look at whether or not they should be offering domestic partner benefits to their unmarried employees.

NLRB nominees facing mixed reception in Senate: The fate of the nominees—three Democrats and two Republicans—is tied in part to a January decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which ruled in Noel Canning v. NLRB that the recess appointments of two board members were unconstitutional. That decision is on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. If it is upheld, it is likely that all board decisions since the appointments were made (in January 2012) would be vacated for lack of a quorum. Also on May 16, 2013, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit fell in line with the D.C. Circuit, ruling that an NLRB recess appointment was invalid because it was made when the Senate was not in recess. The committee will vote on the nominees on May 29^th.  Source: Law.com 5/20/13

Many companies have casual days, generally Fridays. Casual Fridays are dress down days—a nice perk for employees that costs the employer little to nothing to implement. But how far “down” is it appropriate to dress on a casual Friday? Linda Baugh, president of American Career Executives in Scottsdale, Arizona says standards for setting a Casual Friday dress code vary. "It depends on the industry; if you're dressed very casually in front of clients, then they may not take you seriously as the provider of the service," Baugh says.

If you had to assemble a team for a work project, who would you pick?  According to new study, persons categorized as neurotic are better team players and more appreciated by the team than other work types, especially the extrovert. The study’s authors are Corinne Bendersky, an associate professor at UCLA’s business school, and Neha Parikh Shah, an assistant professor at Rutgers Business School.

Michigan, like many states, depends on new college graduates to bring their learning and fresh ideas into the workforce to sustain and hopefully grow their state’s economy. Just like Human Resources professionals on the ground, many states find it difficult to retain some of their talent. Michigan has been suffering from a widely-perceived “brain drain” for several years now, although it is certainly not the only state afflicted with the problem.

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’.

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.

 

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.

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 they haven’t already, employers in Michigan and its neighbor states may soon begin to feel surrounded and under siege by the forces for mandated paid sick leave, which are now coming at them from both the left and right coasts. In fact some legislators in Lansing want to figuratively turn the state into a fortress, complete with figurative moat, drawbridge, and ramparts, to give employers the wherewithal to hold out indefinitely against the oncoming hordes.