A Stanford professor of organizational behavior makes an interesting observation about certain employer lay off practices. He believes when certain industries start laying off employees in anticipation or reaction to a perceived business downturn that in many are just copying off one another rather than reducing their workforce by necessity.

As the world continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies are planning to bring their employees back to the office. It is important to remember, however, that the pandemic has changed the way we work and interact with one another. As a result, many companies are looking for ways to ensure that employees are comfortable returning to the office and are able to work effectively with their colleagues. One way to do this is through the use of personality tests.

It was thought by the founders that if the government was divided, it would likely be a push towards bipartisanship and compromise – a check and balance.  But in recent times, bipartisanship on major issues has become extremely political.

Are your employees passionate about a cause or do they want to volunteer at their kids’ reading day for an hour?  Then it’s time you look at offering VTO – Volunteer Time Off.  It is proven to improve employee engagement and productivity.  It is also great for your brand.

If you have a teenager in your home, you’ve likely heard many of their terms….and maybe had to ask them what it means or secretly google it.  This year, Gen Z will turn anywhere from 11 to 26 years old.  This means many of them are now bringing their slang to the workplace.

Right to Work in Michigan is no longer the law: On Friday last week Governor Whitmer signed the bill repealing Right to Work. Michigan became the first state to repeal Right to Work in the country in the past sixty years.  This was no surprise. The Governor said she would sign the bill once passed even though it contains features that prevent a popular vote referendum.

There has been a lot of discussion recently around ChatGPT and how it affects HR and the workplace.  So, as an experiment I tried it.  I asked ChatGPT to write me 500 words on the effect of ChatGPT on HR.  This is the unedited response it generated:

Most employer handbooks have a policy addressing solicitations at work. One major purpose of a no solicitation policy is to prevent union organizing on an employer’s premises. Union organizers want easy access to employees and where better to reach them?

We are officially in a post pandemic workspace now.  What does that mean?  We probably are managing remote teams, figuring out smarter ways to work, and meeting more efficiently. 

If an employee goes off on military leave, is the leave paid or unpaid?  It depends on how the company covers other comparable leaves for non-military reasons.

Last week, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation expanding the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA). The bill reaffirms legal protections for sexual orientation and expands coverage to include gender identity and expression. 

Highest share of work at home has stabilized: Nearly 30% of all work happened at home in January, six times the rate in 2019, according to WFH Research, a data-collection project. In Washington and other large urban centers, the share of remote work is closer to half. In the nation’s biggest cities, entire office buildings sit empty.

Chester Murphy Culver served as the general manager of the Employers’ Association of Detroit (EAD) from 1916 to 1952.  Long before he took that position, however, he was intimately connected to the people who created the EAD in 1902. 

Intermittent FMLA is one of the most difficult issues for HR professionals.  It can be difficult to manage, and personal liability could attach if they interfere with FMLA leave.  Therefore, a conservative approach is recommended.  However, a recent Federal 6^th Circuit of Appeals case (which covers Michigan) may provide some helpful guidance.

Michigan’s Legislature moved quickly to repeal Michigan’s 10-year-old Right to Work law. Right to Work allows private sector union members to opt out of union dues payment should they disagree with the services rendered, the political position their union takes, or any other reason the union member may have for deciding the union has not earned their support. Right to Work gives thousands of Michigan union workers leverage to hold their unions accountable.

The mental health crisis in the U.S. is not going away anytime soon, and managers are on the front lines of a rapidly evolving mental health crisis in the workplace often without the resources they need to support workers. That’s according to the findings of Lyra Health’s 2023 State of Workforce Mental Health Report. The third annual survey compiles responses from more than 2,500 employees and 250 employee benefits leaders.

As part of the recruiting process, most organizations understand the need to create job descriptions and post them to various job boards and social media platforms with the intent to get in front of a large and relevant talent pool. However, all this effort to catch the attention of top talent can easily go to waste when the organization is not equipped to handle incoming applicant interest in an organized way with a good applicant tracking system.

So, your nonprofit employee also wants to volunteer at your nonprofit?  It can be done, but employers must make sure they don’t violate the law. 

ChatGPT is an edge to applicants applying for jobs: A recent report from resume template service ResumeBuilder found that 46% of applicants are actively using ChatGPT to write their resumes and cover letters. And the results were overwhelmingly positive — 78% secured an interview when using application materials written by the AI and 59% were eventually hired. 

A recent article on Safeguardglobal.com shared some quotes from leaders on their thoughts about the future of work. With our upcoming Future of Work panel discussion at the HR Conference on March 16th, I thought I would share some of the quotes shared in the article as well as some from our panelists.

The National Labor Relations Board Office of General Counsel issued an Advice Memorandum with the position that group discussions in the workplace concerning racial bias are protected concerted activity under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), and employees who engage in such activity are protected from employer retaliation.  This memo applies to both union and nonunion employees.

Employers that have multistate locations or just employees located in another state (including remote workers) need to monitor those state and local employment related laws and regulations to ensure their employee handbooks stay up to date and in compliance.

Aon plc has published its 2022-2023 Global Wellbeing Survey revealing that improving employee wellbeing factors can enhance company performance by at least 11% and up to 55%.

Recently, I had conversations with several people about brain fog, and most of those people chalked it up to age. However, there are other causes for not being able to find your words, having trouble concentrating, or not remembering why you walked into the kitchen.

Daylight Savings starts March 12th:  Set your clocks forward one hour Sunday morning, March 12^th. Daylight Saving Time was first proposed by George Vernon Hudson in 1895, and its use in the U.S. was first mandated during World War I. It was subsequently used on and off for years by various countries and U.S. states.