The number of job openings, as well as people voluntarily leaving employers, hit all-time highs in recent months. New data finds an astounding 95% of workers say they are considering changing jobs. The U.S. has 9.2 million jobs open, with 92% of workers saying they are willing to switch industries for a new job.
Many assume that today’s labor shortage is due to the additional unemployment benefits being provided by the federal government through September. But is this really the case?
On April 27, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order (EO 14026), “Increasing the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors.” The EO would set the hourly minimum wage paid to workers performing work on or in connection with covered federal contracts to $15.00 per hour, beginning January 30, 2022. In order to do so, implementing regulations would have to be promulgated.
It’s neither the one job for life nor the one specific career path for life that motivates the new workforce. Today, particularly millennials (aged between 25 and 40 years old) and Gen Z (up to 24 years old), are rejecting the concept of one full-time job and a single boss in favor of something that’s being dubbed polywork, or having multiple jobs at once.
A “No Show, No Call” policy states simply if an employee is absent from work and does not call within a certain period of time the company will consider this abandonment of a job and a voluntary quit. In Michigan, our unemployment compensation law considers not calling and not showing up for work for three days a disqualification for unemployment benefits when a “No Show, No Call” policy is in place.
A reimbursement or expense policy should clearly outline how your business deals with company related expenses and offer a detailed explanation on how employees are able to get reimbursed. Most include the following key elements:
While challenging, workplace flexibility in manufacturing will prove invaluable for remaining competitive now and into the future. A new report, "The Future of Flexible Work in Manufacturing: Workforce Priorities for a Hybrid World," by Manufacturers Alliance, in collaboration with Aon plc, finds five major drivers of success for manufacturers as they shift out of the pandemic and into the future.
The benefits of remote work, when logistically feasible, are immense. Employees have more flexibility with their day, and employers have found that employees tend to work longer. It has forced employers to rethink the future workplace. But there are drawbacks.
ASE recently published the results to its biennial Policies and Benefits Survey. Survey results are broken into nine major categories and are based on three employer sizes in both the National and Michigan (a subset of the national report) editions. Over 125 Michigan employers participated in the 2021/2022 edition, and 332 questions were answered regarding human resource policies and employee benefit offerings.
Every couple of years (or less) a lawsuit ruling is published that reminds and confirms the importance of employer policies and handbooks for protecting the employer. A recent example is the case handed down by Michigan’s Court of Appeals (6/24/2021) about an employee of Emmett Charter Township that over the years had been both an employee and an independent contractor for the Township.