A recent report from The Best Place for Working Parents® and Southern Methodist University's Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE) highlights the advantages of family-friendly policies, revealing their positive impact on both working parents and businesses' overall performance.

ASE has advised on this in the past but with the current state of social media use and the growing rancor and divisiveness in society we remind employers again: employers do have rights when it comes to its employees’ off-work verbal and social media communications.

In the past, employers did not actively surveil employees except in two major areas.  First, the internet.  Employers had to make sure that employees were not going to illicit sites.  Second, on factory floors.  For many, insurance coverage played a role in filming employee activity in case of accidents and other like activities.  There is also recording of calls for customer service, for example, that are stated to be used for training purposes. 

Employers are advised to review certain employee handbook policies to ensure they will not be found to violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). As we have reported, the pro-labor National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is issuing new Board decisions that are decidedly pro-labor and challenge some long standing employer policies as a violation of a worker’s right to engage in protected concerted activity.

Now that marijuana has been legalized for recreational use in Michigan and 23 other states and all 50 states have legalized some form of use – from CBD oil only to medical marijuana to fully legalizing use – employers are wondering if they should continue to have applicants/employees submit to drug tests.

HR professionals are continually seeking ways to cut expenses, enhance operational efficiency, and uphold productivity. When it comes to onboarding procedures, the transition to a paperless approach emerges as a strategic way to realize these objectives. Below, we examine the advantages of paperless onboarding.

In a March report released by the Pew Research Center, it was revealed that in 2022, women in the United States typically earned 82 cents for each dollar earned by men in similar roles. This statistic remained stagnant when compared to the year 2002 when women earned 80 cents on the dollar. The slow pace of narrowing the gender pay gap in the 21st century stands in stark contrast to the considerable progress made in the preceding two decades. In 1982, women were earning a mere 65 cents for...

Not unexpectedly, last week the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) changed its work rule test. The NLRB’s work rule test assesses whether particular employer policies (rules) illegally restrict workers’ rights. The Biden labor Board, now comprised of his appointees, and its General Counsel stated that since this Administration came into office, it would be reviewing many Trump-era labor rules and this rule in particular.

With the enactment of both the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) effective June 27, 2023, and the Nursing Mothers Act also known as the PUMP Act, covered employers should consider adding new policies to communicate compliance and inform employees what they are providing them as a result of those laws.

ChatGPT and other AI tools are being used by employees to perform their jobs.  In one survey, it was found that around 43% of employees use AI such as ChatGPT at work, mostly without telling their boss.  The problem isn’t just the use of these tools, but the fact employees are providing potentially confidential information to the tools to create solutions. Once the confidential information is in the AI tool, which is a generative AI tool, continuously learning, it is...

About half of workers are not fully engaged in their jobs, according to a study conducted by Gallup. This means they are only doing the minimum required to get by – not good for employers. This drop in employee engagement has happened two years in a row. But why?

With the passage of the PUMP Act last year employers with 50 or more employees should now consider including a policy addressing nursing mothers in the workplace. Employers under 50 in size may have an exemption but only if they can demonstrate that compliance for a particular employee causes undue hardship.

Updating your employee handbook is a critical annual initiative for an HR department.  It ensures compliance with industry standards and federal and state laws.  

What is a statute of limitations agreement? In the employment context, this is an agreement between the employer and employee that states the employee agrees to bring any claims against the employer within a specific period of time after employment.

Many organizations have had to adjust their return to office plans due to employees revolting. Rather than compete with the home office, try embracing it by creating an office that builds off of what your employees love about working from home.

Businesses, both large and small, are increasingly reliant on the internet for daily operations, creating attractive and potentially lucrative targets for cyber criminals.  As a new era of work from anywhere is ushered in, traditional in-office firewalls don’t work.  A cyber attack can cripple any size company.

Cell phones in the workplace are a distraction that employers want to control and employees don’t want them to control.  The common statement by an employee is “what if I get an emergency call?  I cannot be unavailable to my . . .“ And what makes this worse is that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) generally sides with employees without regard to the practicalities involved.

As you put together your 2023 holiday calendar, have you considered Juneteenth? Since June 2021, Juneteenth National Independence Day (“Juneteenth”) is recognized as a U.S. federal holiday.  According to a survey performed by Harvard Business Review, only 41% of U.S. workers were aware of Juneteenth prior to 2020.   Why the date, June 19th, you ask? On this date in the year 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Texas to announce that the Civil War was over, and...

A recent article published in CCH HRAnswersNow Expert Insights looks at the issue of FMLA coverage for remote workers. In this case, a person worked from their home which was well outside what could be reasonably considered within the coverage area of the FMLA.

Does your organization award perfect attendance?  Is it done on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis?  And what does perfect attendance mean exactly?  Perfect attendance needs to also take into account the variety of days that should still be counted towards perfect attendance without penalizing the employee for taking them.

Employers have had to scramble over the last three years while dealing with COVID. Suddenly working from home was not a rare option but a required way to keep businesses going while keeping employees as safe as possible. Now that most companies and employees have found their groove in dealing with the pandemic, long COVID is creating new challenges for employers and the employees suffering from the symptoms.

MRA, one of ASE’s sister associations located in Wisconsin and Illinois, released the results of their latest Hot Topic Survey on Remote Work and Inflation.  The survey revealed that remote work has become one of the most valued benefits companies can offer.

Over one in four employers is exploring the expansion of covered abortion services, according to a new report from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. The Post-Dobbs Employer Coverage: July 2022 Pulse Survey revealed current abortion coverage offerings and future considerations. When asked about making changes to current coverage for abortion services, employers responded with the following:

Last month the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled against an employer that did not follow its employee handbook policies properly. The Court pointed to the importance not only of having an employee handbook but to set up the policies properly in order to achieve the true intent of what the employer wants from its handbook policies

The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) finished its term this year with some decisions that though not directly impacting employers, does compel them to review their benefit plans and other select policies to ensure they stay up to date.