In every organization, top performers stand out not just for their skills but for their attitude and approach to work. These individuals possess certain traits that set them apart and drive the success of their teams and companies. Here are 15 critical traits of top performers:

Payscale Inc., ASE partner and the leading provider of compensation data, software and services, released its 2024 Top Performers Report. Leveraging data from Payscale’s flagship Compensation Best Practices Report, the new research examines what differentiates top performing companies, defined as organizations who self-report that they exceeded their revenue targets in 2023, from non-top performers: those that missed their revenue goals. Payscale found that being proactive,...

140 Michigan employment and labor bills have been introduced since the start of the current legislative session back in January 2023. Most are still in committee. Those that have been passed are primarily focused on public employers which leaves many bills that impact private employers in Michigan still languishing in their respective committees.

In Groff v. DeJoy, 600 U.S. 447 (2023), the U.S. Supreme Court raised the bar on denying religious accommodations from showing an "undue hardship" in making the accommodation to incur "substantial increased costs" compared to the normal costs of business.  Previously, an employer could show that de minimis increase of costs would be an undue hardship. 

USERRA is the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. It is a federal law that establishes rights and responsibilities for members of the National Guard and Reserve and their civilian employers. The Department of Labor (DOL) is in charge of investigating USERRA violations, and it covers all public and private employers, regardless of size. It can also cover multiple employers for one service member.

 If you are hiring for remote IT jobs, do a real background check: North Korean IT workers are posing as Americans to score coveted remote jobs and use the salaries to pay for their country's missile program.  Remote hiring practices have made it dangerously easy for North Korean IT workers to dupe hiring managers who historically had relied on in-person interviews to detect imposters.

RSQE, a modeling and forecasting unit that has been in operation at the University of Michigan since 1952, released Michigan’s economic forecast for 2024-2025 last month. I was happy to see that they predict steady job growth, low unemployment, and continued progress toward lower inflation.

Did you know that the costs for being unionized are far more than just increased wages and benefits?

A 2003 Employment Policy Foundation study found that a company with 10% of its workforce in a union could experience 2.6% higher unit labor costs and a 21% lower before-tax profit than its non-union counterparts.

Summer is almost here, and orange barrel mating season is well underway. The nice weather also brings more motorcycles, cars pulling boats, and large recreational vehicles on the roads. In other words, there are a lot more hazards on the roads.

Colorado’s governor signed the Artificial Intelligence Act, Senate Bill (SB) 24-205, on May 17, 2024. This law is a comprehensive AI law that follows the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s technical assistance documents, the Department of Labor’s recent guidance, the New York City automated employment decision tools law, Tennessee’s regulation of deepfakes, Illinois’ Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act, and Maryland’s facial...

American employers continue to show interest in hiring college graduates with more than half (55%) planning to hire recent alumni, a positive trend over the past few years, aside from a dip in the first half of 2023. This is according to a recent Express Employment Professionals-Harris Poll survey in which companies also outlined other in-demand demographic segments and industries.

Hopefully you filed your EEO-1 report:  The EEO-1 tool initial closure date was June 4^th.  The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a spate of lawsuits (15) last week against hospitality, transportation, food service, and construction companies across the country, alleging they've shirked their legal responsibility to report demographic data about their employees for several years.

Employers must provide employees with information about their rights under various federal, state, and local employment laws. This information is typically communicated through either labor law posters or individual notices, as specified by the law.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being embedded in HR tools without warning.  From applicant tracking to learning management systems, AI is becoming a staple of the HR arsenal.  Going back to the late 1990s and 2000s, big data analysis was the “thing.”  Degrees popped up, statisticians and/or statistical knowledge became a sexy and necessary requirement as internal databases became overwhelming. 

The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I narcotic down to a Schedule III drug. Schedule I controlled substances are in the “mean street neighborhood” including heroin, LSD, and other drugs with “no currently acceptable medical use or treatment.” Schedule III drugs, on the other hand, where it is proposed marijuana be moved to is in a “friendlier neighborhood” of classified...

While ASE’s latest Employee Turnover Survey shows that voluntary turnover has significantly reduced over the past year – from 20.1% in 2022 to 10.1% in 2023, it is still a crucial data point for organizations to keep track of and continually work to improve. Talent is increasingly hard to find so it’s important to retain your top employees.

In the realm of remote work, the necessity of taking a lunch break often gets overlooked. Just like in traditional office settings these breaks are crucial for the health and productivity of remote workers. Let's explore why lunch breaks matter for those working remotely and how they contribute to overall well-being and efficiency.

Is your employer worried about government regulatory power?  Many are:  Almost three-quarters of U.S. employers share great concern over the impact that the U.S. Department of Labor's and the National Labor Relations Board's enforcement actions will have on their businesses, according to a survey from Littler Mendelson PC.

It’s become apparent that AI is here to stay, so we might as well embrace it. Although, ASE recently surveyed Michigan employers and it revealed that that only a quarter of Michigan employers are currently using or planning to implement AI in HR, with significant concerns about reliability, data privacy, and bias.

Last week workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuskaloosa, Alabama voted down unionization by the United Auto Workers (UAW). The unofficial vote count was 2642 votes against vs. 2045 votes for the union. This came about a month after the UAW won its election at the Volkswagen (VW) plant further north in Chattanooga, Tennessee. There the UAW won 2628 votes for the union vs. 985 against the union.

Listening, much like intelligence, is a skill where most people consider themselves above average, though logically, this can't be true for everyone. Nonetheless, effective listening is a vital skill to master. A study from George Washington University found that listening can influence up to 40% of a leader’s job performance.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has been a hot topic the past few years.  The diversity and inclusion part, not as much, but the equity aspect quite a bit.  The Harvard case was called an affirmative action case, but it had nothing to do with affirmative action.  It was a case about equity and access to Harvard.  The approach taken was a quota system, which is illegal under all laws.  Diversity is not about quotas, it’s about working together to provide...

On May 16, 2024, the Department of Labor announced a comprehensive set of guidelines to help employers and developers create and use artificial intelligence. These principles aim to improve job quality and safeguard workers' rights.

AI officially cited as causing job losses:  Nearly 65,000 people were cut from their jobs at U.S. based companies in April according to a report released Thursday by career services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Continued cuts in the technology sector, a large layoff at Tesla, and the replacement of jobs by artificial intelligence largely to blame.

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled last Friday that the friends of an employee who also work at the same place are protected from retaliation by the employer.  Following similar protections found under the federal civil rights act under Title VII, the Michigan Court found that Michigan’s Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act also permits workers to bring third party, or associational, retaliation claims if they think the employer targeted them to punish a coworker for bringing a claim...