Turnover will continue at higher rates in 2019:  According to the 2019 Emerging Workforce Study commissioned by Spherion, 29% of employees are planning to leave their jobs in the next 12 months. The risk of turnover increases for Millennials, with 38% of this group reporting they are planning to leave their current jobs in the next 12 months.  Dissatisfaction with work-life balance and compensation are chief drivers of turnover. Significant numbers of employees surveyed (42%) report they are not happy with their current salaries, and a majority of employees (62%) say flexibility at work and other work-life balance programs and perks have decreased in the last year. Only 19% of employees feel their companies have put in more effort to retain them this year.   While employees believe employers are doing less to keep them, more employers say they are worried about their workforces than in previous years. A majority of employers (71%) report being more worried this year about the talent shortage, citing finding qualified/skilled workers and turnover/retention as top concerns. Employers are also worried about worker engagement: only one-third believe their employees are highly engaged; yet, almost half (48%) of employees say they are highly engaged at work, indicating a disconnect between employers and their employees.  Source:  CCH 6/14/19

Do you have a heat policy?  No, this isn’t a joke given summer is upon us.  The concept of a heat policy is pretty straightforward. Its purpose is to protect employees who are working in environments where heat can present a health and safety issue, or where it can negatively impact employee productivity. This issue can arise in outdoor environments in certain parts of the world, as well as indoors within facilities that operate equipment that generates significant heat. A heat policy would be based on an assessment of the specific circumstances and might address issues such as working hours (such as to avoid the hottest parts of the day), shade, hydration, ventilation, and rest breaks. If it’s not something you have ever considered, it is worth looking at your foreign and domestic operations, as well as your supply chains, to consider whether this is something that you should be implementing in certain locations, or requiring your contractors to put in place.  Source: Vinson & Elkins LLP   6/6/19

Employers focusing on employee financial well-being: Companies are responding to data that indicates American workers are financially stressed.  A growing number of employers are helping workers start emergency savings accounts, reflecting concern over the impact money problems are having on productivity levels and workers’ ability to retire.  Companies including Levi Strauss & Co., SunTrust Banks Inc., and Kroger Co. are encouraging employees to fund emergency accounts, in some cases by offering them cash and other incentives. Others are diverting a portion of employees’ paychecks into rainy-day funds related to their 401(k) plans.  The aim: encourage employees to get their finances in order on all fronts. “There is a growing recognition on the part of employers that people cannot save for retirement if they don’t also save for emergencies and figure out a way to pay down debt,” said Ida Rademacher, executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program.  Source:  Wall Street Journal 6/13/19

Nevada bans pre-employment testing for cannabis:  Following closely on the heels of a similar law in New York City, effective January 1, 2020, it will be unlawful for Nevada employers to reject a job applicant who tests positive for cannabis on a pre-employment drug test. While there is debate as to whether some medical and recreational cannabis laws, including in Maine, allow an employer to take action based on off-duty or off-premises cannabis use, when it comes to job applicants, Nevada law could not be more clear.  Source:  Seyfarth Shaw 6/10/19

Maine’s new paid sick leave law the new future?  Maine just enacted a paid sick leave law that mandates that covered employers provide paid leave to be used not just for illness, but for any reason.  The law comes into effect January 1, 2021, and covers any employer with 10 or more employees who have worked 120 days or more for the employer.  Employees accrue 1 hour for every 40 hours worked, up to 40 hours per year. The statute requires employees to provide “reasonable” notice of their intent to use leave, unless they are prevented from doing so because the leave is to address an emergency, illness, or other sudden necessity. Where possible, employers may insist that leave be scheduled to prevent undue hardship on the employer’s operations.  Source: Pierce Atwood LLP 6/5/19

Automation could hit women hard in employment:  Automation could force more than 100 million women globally to find new occupations by 2030, according to a study from McKinsey Global Institute.  The study shows technological advancements affect the genders nearly evenly.  That finding upends the notion that automation hits predominantly male manufacturing workers the hardest.  Emerging automation technologies will look different and displace a large number of women, said Mekala Krishnan, fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute and one of the report’s authors. Advancements could take the form of Alexa-like virtual assistants replacing clerical tasks, wider adoption of cashierless checkouts, and artificial intelligence replacing customer-service workers at call centers.  And that technology could change the jobs done by women in the way robotic arms in factories put downward pressure on mostly male manufacturing jobs in the U.S. in recent decades.  Clerical work, such as by secretaries, schedulers, and bookkeepers, is an area especially susceptible to automation, and 72% of those jobs in advanced economies are held by women, the McKinsey study said. Service workers, including those employed in retail and food service, are also susceptible to automation, and include women in high numbers.  Source:  Wall Street Journal 6/4/19

Is punch clock requirement re-required in European Union? On May 15, 2019, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued a groundbreaking judgment in a court case between a Spanish trade union and the Spanish subsidiary of Deutsche Bank. The judges held that, to effectuate health and safety protections of employees as based both on the EU Working Time Directive and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, employers in the European Union (EU) must be obligated to record any time worked by an employee, each day.  The court specifically ruled that, in order to guarantee employees' rights, EU Member States "must require employers to set up an objective, reliable, and accessible system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured." In the past, Member States such as Germany and Spain have only required employers to keep track of overtime, but not of regular working time. This approach will likely no longer be sufficient.  The decision has caused a remarkable public uproar, even including – amongst others – claims of the "return of the punch clock." The ECJ judgment leaves it up to the Member States to determine specific measures for implementing an "effective" time-recording system. Bottom line is, however, that any working time will need to be recorded, which gives rise to a multitude of questions, the most pressing of which is whether flexible and trust-based working time arrangements remain permissible. The ECJ judgment leaves a considerable amount of flexibility to the national legislators by pointing at the particularities of different industry sectors and other relevant factors, such as company size, that may be taken into account.  Source: Littler 6/7/19