Leaders and HR professionals may associate intrusive leadership with micromanagement, excessive oversight, or crossed workplace boundaries. In the military, however, the concept developed by U.S. Coast Guard Captain Marcus A. Canady emphasizes knowing people, building trust, listening actively, and recognizing when support may be needed. It asks leaders to understand the people behind the work rather than simply manage the work. For civilian employers, the question is where this proactive...

Small and midsize employers are heading into another difficult health insurance renewal season. A recent analysis from the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker found that insurers requested a median 14% premium increase for 2027 fully insured small-group plans. These are proposed rates, not final increases, and they do not include self-funded plans. Insurers cited rising medical costs and utilization, specialty drugs, and increased use of GLP-1 medications. The median estimated increase in...

More employers are calling employees back to the office, but a return-to-office policy may not be the final word when an employee requests remote work as a disability accommodation. Recent court decisions are putting renewed attention on a familiar ADA question: Is being physically present in the workplace truly an essential function of the job?

Job hopping, particularly in the IT industry, has become increasingly common. For many employees, changing employers can feel like the most effective way to earn a promotion, build new skills, and advance their careers.

Benefits communication should do more than tell employees what benefits are available. Effective communication helps employees understand their benefits, recognize how changes affect them, and make informed decisions about using those benefits.

Keith Sonderling confirmed as Secretary of U.S. Department of Labor: The full U.S. Senate late Wednesday approved President Donald Trump's nomination of Keith Sonderling to serve as secretary of labor and lead the U.S. Department of Labor.

If there is one thing I've learned from talking with employers across Michigan, it's that challenges rarely arrive one at a time.

The U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued three opinion letters of interest to employers.  Although opinion letters are not the force of law, they do provide guidance as how WHD will review situations that arise. Two were more pertinent to ASE employers:

Ghosting is usually discussed as something job candidates do to employers. A candidate stops responding to emails, misses an interview, or accepts an offer and never shows up. But often, employers ghost candidates too. And when it happens after an interview, the impact can be particularly damaging.

Manufacturing Day is this Friday, October 2, and is a good reminder that attracting the next generation of manufacturing talent takes more than putting a “Now Hiring” sign outside the building.

Grail, a biotechnical company based out of California and with locations in Washington, DC, Research Triangle Park NC, and London, UK, has developed new multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test that checks a person’s blood for cancer. The company has conducted many clinical studies with over 380,000 participants.

iCIMS AI hiring tool under attack for discriminatory learning: In Harper v. Sirius XM Radio, LLC, No. 2:25-cv-12403 (E.D. Mich.), plaintiff Arshon Harper alleges that Sirius XM’s use of its AI application screening tool (called, “iCIMS”) discriminated against him on the basis of race.

Performance reviews influence pay decisions, promotions, development opportunities, and succession planning. While most organizations strive for fairness and objectivity, recent research suggests that gender-based differences in performance feedback remain common, particularly when managers evaluate subjective traits such as communication style, leadership, assertiveness, and emotional expression.

Two weeks ago, a fire at a Southeast- Michigan100 year old golf club provided a powerful reminder that emergencies are not abstract possibilities. In a matter of hours, employees can lose access to their workplace, planned events can be canceled, critical equipment and records can be destroyed, and normal operations can come to a sudden stop. The weeks that follow may require difficult decisions about employee communication, work arrangements, payroll, insurance, member services, and...

When an employee is not working out, termination may seem like a straightforward business decision. In an at-will employment relationship, employers generally have significant flexibility to end employment. But “at-will” does not mean “anything goes.”

In an increasingly crowded talent market, employers often look for ways to stand out. Some organizations have turned to humor in job postings, hoping that witty language, clever headlines, or playful descriptions will capture attention and make their opportunities more attractive. While the approach may generate clicks and social media engagement, new research suggests it may not improve candidate attraction and could even create unintended consequences.

Although management-side attorneys have expressed skepticism about the claim, Andrew Hartley filed a lawsuit against Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., alleging that he was unlawfully forced to compromise his religious beliefs through participation in the company's 401(k) plan due to his moral objection to fossil fuel investments. Hartley brought the claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits religious discrimination in the workplace.

The daughter tax: Daughters are nearly two times (1.9) more likely than sons to provide unpaid, hands-on care for aging parents, according to recent analysis from AI-powered long-term care prediction platform Waterlily.

When leaders think about building successful organizations, conversations typically focus on engagement, productivity, retention, and performance. These goals are essential, but they are often supported by something less frequently discussed. Employees who experience joy at work are more likely to be connected, committed, and motivated to contribute their best.

As organizations continue to evaluate workplace flexibility, new research suggests that remote work may offer significant benefits for employee well-being without the drawbacks many employers fear. A recent University of Colorado study published in Frontiers in Psychology, "Rethinking Return-to-Office: The Positive Impact of Remote Work on Well-Being, Connection, and Employee Retention," examined survey data from more than 7,700 employees at a large healthcare organization and...

On August 30, the California legislature passed AB-1883 which prohibits employers from using workplace surveillance tools that rely on artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize, infer, or predict an employee’s emotional state, or to collect “neural data.”  Illinois, a leader in biometric data, has bills that would amend the biometric law to include “neural data.”  Other states including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, and Vermont are...

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' July Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed relatively little movement in the labor market. Job openings totaled 7.3 million, up approximately 89,000 from a downwardly revised 7.2 million in June. The job openings rate remained at 4.4%.

When we think about workplace safety, it is easy to focus on minor injuries cuts, bruises, strains or sprains. But MIOSHA fatality reports remind us that some workplace hazards can have much more serious consequences. Four categories that repeatedly appear in Michigan workplace fatalities are electrical shock, caught-in or between, falls from elevation, and struck-by incidents.

 

New survey shows 3.3% increase in salary budgets for 2027: Despite the current economic turbulence, most employees in a majority of companies will be getting a base salary increase for 2027, according to a large survey by Korn Ferry.

As organizations continue to adopt AI, new risks are emerging. In a recent security test, OpenAI reported that one of its advanced AI agents identified vulnerabilities in a controlled environment, escaped its containment measures, accessed the internet, and ultimately infiltrated systems at Hugging Face, a major platform for sharing AI models. Similarly, Anthropic disclosed that its Claude AI models gained unauthorized access to the live systems of three organizations after breaking out of...