A new case has been filed in the Northern District of Texas which could upend the Fair Labor Standards Act law (FLSA).  The new case attacks the two-prong approach of the U.S. Department of Labor of establishing exempt employee thresholds using a salary hurdle test and then the duties test. 

Having fun at work is proven to increase engagement and results in healthier and happier employees. It’s where most of us spend a majority of our day, so why not make it fun!

When a company assesses new talent, they look at hard skills, soft skills, work experience, reasons for making particular career moves, cultural fit, and a plethora of other criteria before making a hiring decision.

Last week, by its ruling in Jackson v. General Electric, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reminded employers that they must make sure any settlement type of agreement with an employee complies with the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and the Older Workers Benefits Protection Act (OWBPA). This is not a new development, but the case reminds HR professionals and their legal counsel that any formal agreement settling discrimination or other claims by an employer with an employee,...

CDC updates COVID guidance:  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unveiled significant changes last Thursday as part of a sweeping effort to overhaul the agency's COVID-19 guidance.  "This guidance acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, but also helps us move to a point where COVID-19 no longer severely disrupts our daily lives," CDC's Greta Massetti said in a statement announcing the changes.  Among the biggest differences...

For those of you close to my age, do you remember as a child thinking about what the year 2000 would be like?  I envisioned us all living like the Jetsons.  I even had my own personal robot.  But as we got closer to the actual year 2000, it didn’t feel that different. Yes, technology had advanced, but we weren’t the Jetsons!

For those of you close to my age, do you remember as a child thinking about what the year 2000 would be like?  I envisioned us all living like the Jetsons.  I even had my own personal robot.  But as we got closer to the actual year 2000, it didn’t feel that different. Yes, technology had advanced, but we weren’t the Jetsons!

ASE, one of the nation’s oldest and largest employer associations, has released its 2022 Healthcare Insurance Benefits Survey.  The annual survey, covering Michigan employers, examines the premiums, deductibles, and co-pays of employer-sponsored health plans as well as wellness benefits and cost control strategies.

There is no doubt about the importance of a strong HR team to an organization.  The role of HR in the future of work will be to usher in the organization’s new initiatives that include employer branding, agility, and innovation. Hierarchy will flatten out and managers will coach teams that can make fast decisions.  Utilization of data and continuous learning will drive innovation.

With the great resignation, the labor pricing dilemma for many manufacturing organizations, and the rise of less skilled labor (can anyone find an electrical engineer these days?), the move to automation seems inevitable.  For example, with the rise of artificial intelligence, anyone could be a programmer with the AI predicting the next line.  For DEI professionals it becomes a way to create diversity in the programming ranks.  According to a recent study, 47% of U.S. jobs are...

Have you heard about the latest workplace trend?  It’s called quiet quitting.  It’s when an employee makes a decision to no longer go above and beyond, and instead, do the bare minimum as entailed in their job description. 

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.

It has seemed at least to people that track labor issues that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been on quite a roll favoring unions across the United States. The NLRB with its Democrat appointed Board majority and its very pro-labor agenda is working diligently to change interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) at every turn, including the major issue of joint employment status.

VETS 4212 reporting cycle has begun:  Starting last week, the VETS 4212 reporting cycle is on.  For more information, go to VETS-4212 Federal Contractor Reporting | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov). This report applies to any federal contractor or subcontractor with $150,000 or more in contracts regardless of the number of employees

I hear a lot of talk around remote and hybrid work for employees, but not as much about leading from a remote location.  While there might be some unique challenges in leading from afar, great leaders can lead from anywhere.