EverythingPeople This Week!

At a hearing on April 28, 2021, the EEOC heard from a dozen invited experts on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on civil rights in the workplace. EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows said that the testimony of the panelist made clear that while the pandemic continues to have serious impacts on public health and our economy, it has also created a civil rights crisis for many of America’s workers.

In ASE’s latest COVID-19 Business Impact Survey, over 52% of Michigan employers report that some staff will work remotely on a regular full-time basis after the pandemic, if their job allows it. Nationally, more than 80% of employers describe that their organizations’ shift to remote work during the pandemic has been successful, and nearly 40% have reported an increase in productivity, according to a recent Pearl Meyer survey.

On Monday, May 10th, Governor Whitmer announced that Michigan achieved the 55% threshold of the population having received at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.  This milestone was identified as required in the “The Vacc to Normal Plan” to allow all in-person work to resume.  In-person work begins two weeks after the date the milestone was reached, which is May 24th.  This reopening has many employers smiling and many employees mourning as the flexibility...

Last week the U.S. Department of Labor officially repealed the Trump rules on independent contractor status. Going back to the Obama Administration, the Trump rules loosened up a very strict or narrow definition of independent contractor that virtually had eliminated most forms of independent contractor status.

To say things have changed in the workplace is an understatement.  Make sure your benefits and programs have kept up. Here are total rewards trends to consider for your organization this year.

Unfilled manufacturing jobs could cost $1 trillion to the economy: Even though U.S. manufacturing activity surged to a 37-year high in March, the industry has more than half a million job openings. Factories are struggling to find skilled workers for specialized roles such as welders and machinists. 

Agile: The ability to move quickly and easily; relating to or denoting a method of project management that is characterized by the division of tasks into short phases of work and frequent reassessment and adaptation of plans.  Agility has been working its way into areas and functions from product development to manufacturing to marketing—and now it’s transforming how organizations hire, develop, and manage their people.

More than two-thirds (68%) of U.S. workers prefer a hybrid workplace model after the pandemic ends, according to Prudential’s Pulse of the American Worker survey, conducted by Morning Consult in March. Of those surveyed who have been working remotely, 87% want to continue to work remotely at least one day per week post-pandemic.

In December 2018, the Canadian Parliament passed the Pay Equity Act.   The law establishes proactive pay obligations on employers in the public and private sectors.  Although the law’s effective date is still to be determined, it will be in 2021.  The law will likely impact 18,000 organizations and nearly 1 million employees, according to the Canadian government.

As EPTW has previously stated, President Biden is not just a pro-labor supporter in order to get their election endorsement. He is reportedly a true believer.

Medicare at 50? A group of Democratic senators re-introduced legislation, dubbed the "Medicare at 50 Act," that would expand Medicare access to Americans who are between 50 and 64 years old. A 2019 survey by the University of Michigan found that 27% of adults approaching retirement had little or no confidence in being able to afford health insurance over the next year, and 45% had little or no confidence to afford the cost of their health insurance once they retired.

How many times have recruiters reviewed resumes with titles that have little to no meaning and based decisions on those titles?  Mechanical Engineer, HR Business Partner, and others convey meaning but not depth.  And if employers use a job family approach, titles like Staff Engineer, Analyst, Project Manager, and Programmer provide some information at first glance, but again no context as to the work performed. 

Will vaccinations be the next big challenge for HR? Likely so.  49% of working Americans believe that employers should require vaccination proof for those employees returning to the workplace. Similarly, 48% of workers agree that employers should require vaccines, while 53% of workers believe employers should offer vaccine incentives to their employees. More than one-third of workers (35%) say non-vaccinated employees should not be permitted to work in-person with co-workers.

SE is getting quite a few questions from employers surrounding vaccination policy and practice. Employers are advised to make vaccination a voluntary practice.  In other words, do not mandate vaccinations if it is not absolutely necessary. Mandating vaccinations opens employers up to not just employee relations issues but as of last week, OSHA would also require employers that mandate vaccines to record adverse reactions from the vaccination as a recordable workplace illness on their...

Whether working remote or in person chances are you have too many meetings. It is how we collaborate, manage projects, and get work done.  On average each of us are in 62 unproductive meetings per month which equals one whole week.   The side effects include lost productivity, burnout, overworked employees, and wasted time.  Not to mention employees are working at night and on the weekends to make up those hours.  Employees do not get time to put their head down and...