EEOC, NLRB, and ODEP nominations before the full Senate:  The nominations of Keith Sonderling (R), Jocelyn Samuels (D), and Andrea Lucas (R) to fill two EEOC vacancies and succeed longtime Commissioner Victoria Lipnic, respectively, were sent up to the entire Senate for confirmation.  Julie Hocker who was nominated to head the DOL's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) was also sent up to the Senate. She is commissioner of the Administration on Disabilities at the Administration for Community Living with the Department of Health and Human Services. Finally, also approved are the renominations of current NLRB member Marvin Kaplan (R) and Lauren McFerran (D) to the NLRB.  It is expected that they will be scheduled for full Senate confirmation before the Senate’s summer break.

Most companies opening by August 31:  More than two-thirds (67%) of organizations plan to resume, or have already resumed, “normal” operations by end of summer. This is a key takeaway from The Back to Work Playbook survey conducted by WorldatWork and HALO Recognition. Key findings from the survey include:  Most organizations believe it will be safe to return to the workplace this summer with enhanced cleaning, sanitation, and PPE protocols in place. 17% are currently operating normally; 25% will do so in June; 19% in July, 6% in August; and only 13% are deferring normal operations until 2021. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of organizations will provide employees with PPE; 28% are not sure, and 9% will not. Remote working arrangements and flexible work schedules are here to stay, particularly for employees with children: half (50%) of organizations are permanently allowing some employees to work remotely and for employees with children, 81% of organizations are allowing them to continue working remotely. 73% are offering flexible work schedules.  Source:  WorldatWork 6/2/20, CCH 6/3/20

Will your employees have the skills needed post COVID-19?  More than a quarter of respondents to a Prudential Financial survey said they worry they lack the skills that will be most in-demand when the economy "starts back up," the results, released May 27, said.   Half of the 2,050 surveyed said the pandemic has increased their use of online learning programs. This figure rose among remote workers. As employers move out of triage and into recovery, the skills conversation has turned to the future. Another recent survey reported 58% of respondents were not confident they could find new jobs where their skills would apply. 56% said they are job hunting in industries that are cutting back employment, the LiveCareer report revealed.  Of those who set out to learn a new skill, nearly half did so because they had the time. Another third wanted to make sure "they had the skills to be employable." When asked to rank a set of skills, respondents more frequently rated soft skills among their top three choices. Adaptability, creativity, and time management were the most popular choices.  Source:  HR Dive 6/2/20

Job seekers may have the same problems: A majority of job seekers can't capture transferable skills on their resumes or identify how those skills apply to other industries, according to a LiveCareer national survey of 1,519 people left unemployed as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. These findings reveal a significant gap in knowledge about transferable skills as well as confidence in how to use them among the more than 36.4 million U.S. workers who filed for unemployment between March 21st through May 9th.  This inability to understand and articulate their transferable skills threatens to make the stay on the unemployment rolls much longer for millions of job seekers who sorely need work.

• 57% (20.8 million) can't identify their transferable skills with a high degree of confidence.

• 58% (21.1 million) aren't sure how to include transferable skills on their resume.

• 53% (19.3 million) can't identify the best resume format to use to get their next job.

• 34% (12.4 million) can't provide good examples of how their skills would apply to another job.

• 58% (21.1 million) aren't confident they can find new jobs where their skills would apply.

• 56% (20.4 million) are looking for a job in a similar industry even though that industry may be significantly cutting back employment.
  
  

Source:  LiveCareer 5/28/20

Work from home a new norm? An ADPResearch report, "A Workplace Redefined: Employee Resilience Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic", found that in the first week of the national emergency, 17% of workers were required to work from home, with this number leaping to more than one in four in just the second week of the pandemic crisis. The percentage of workers doing telework every day increased from 28% in Week 1 to 44% in Week 2 and remained completely unchanged for the next six weeks. The increase in the frequency of employees exclusively working from home appears to have been driven by those who could not do so before the crisis.  The report also found in the first few weeks of the crisis, stress levels were high as workers struggled with childcare constraints, fear of the virus, technical issues, and trouble completing their tasks. Beginning in weeks 3 and 4, many of these issues became less likely to impact their work. In addition, employees were least confident in their ability to retain their jobs in the third week of the survey, which coincided with record unemployment figures.  However, in the last two weeks of the survey there was an increase in confidence, with nearly 70% of workers expecting they would retain their job for at least the next month. For those who had lost their jobs, about one in three were expecting to return to their jobs within the month.  Source:  ADP Research Institute

A Conference Board survey of top HR Leaders thinks so:  77% of surveyed HR leaders expect the shift toward more teleworking to continue, even one year after COVID-19 substantially subsides. Conducted by The Conference Board, the survey assessed more than 150 HR executives primarily at large U.S. companies. They weighed in on the various actions they are taking and plan on taking in light of this pandemic. 37% of companies that had more remote workers before COVID-19 report that they are actually seeing increased employee productivity now, during the crisis. This self-reported boost in productivity suggests the immense potential of remote work—and the flexibility it provides—to improve performance and results. Companies with more industrial and manual services workers are much more likely to implement furloughs with benefits, conduct permanent layoffs, require employees to use paid time off/vacation, and cut salaries/wages.  Source:  The Conference Board

Many want to continue working from home once the pandemic is over:  48% of employees working from home now say they'd like to continue working from home, according to a new employee survey from The Grossman Group, a Chicago-based leadership and communications consultancy.  The survey also found that 78% agreed their company leadership has lived up to the values of their organization during this time; 90% said their trust in their organization increased or stayed the same; 88% said their satisfaction with their organization as an employer increased or stayed the same; and 80% agreed that their direct supervisor is communicating the information they need to do their jobs during the pandemic. Prior to COVID-19, only 7% of U.S. private sector workers had access to a "flexible workplace" benefit, or telework, according to a prominent study of the U.S. Workforce ─ the 2019 National Compensation Survey (NCS) from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. To download key findings from the Grossman survey, visit: https://www.yourthoughtpartner.com/coronavirus-work-from-home-employee-survey.  Source: The Grossman Group 5/14/20

And yet another survey shows many businesses will continue the work from home:  According to a survey released by Littler Mendelson PC asking more than 1,000 employers how they're navigating the return to work, just over half of respondents told the management-side employment giant that they plan to be flexible with workers' requests to work from home until the pandemic subsides. Another 30% said they plan to change policies to allow telework as long as employees have proven they can be productive, Littler found.  13% said they will let employees in high-risk groups telework on a case-by-case basis, and 4% said they can't grant remote work requests because their employees must work on-site, according to the survey. The results show that employers' views on remote work have shifted during the pandemic, said Michelle Barrett Falconer, the co-chair of Littler's leaves of absence and disability accommodation practice group.  For those opening the office, the survey found that 58% of respondents said they plan to conduct temperature or other health screenings. Of these, 89% said they will conduct temperature checks and 72% said they will conduct "symptom screening" in which they assess workers for symptoms of the virus. Fewer than one in 10 said they will implement antibody or other direct tests for infection.  Source:  Law360 6/2/20