Our year-end HR News Roundup includes items on handbook updates, preparing for workplace immigration enforcement, employee retention, RTO, and much more. Don’t miss the items from the lighter side, with a focus on seasonal items – including an analysis of the guy in the red suit and how he runs his business.
Handbook Season Arrives with a Flurry of Potential Policy Updates
Littler
2024 produced a number of new laws and legal developments requiring changes to employer policies, including changes related to discrimination and harassment, pregnancy and lactation, workplace safety and violence, and paid leaves, among others.
Employers should review their handbooks and policies to ensure compliance with new federal, state, and local laws and set up a review schedule.
Legal updates may also have related effects, such as requiring updated notices, new posters and on-boarding documents, and training requirements, although this article focuses on policy updates.
Navigating the Changing Landscape of Employee Retention
Jennifer Morehead, Training
Understanding the generational differences in employee loyalty and tenure has become crucial for companies seeking to attract, retain, and develop top talent. As Baby Boomers approach retirement and Generation Z enters the workforce, employers must adapt their strategies to address these distinct generations’ unique attitudes and expectations.
Why New Hire Retention Should Be on Everyone’s Dashboard in 2025
Elissa Tucker, HR Executive
In this column, after breaking down cross-industry data for new hire retention, we discuss the risks that organizations face when their retention is lower than it should be and the role that groups across the business can play to help strengthen it. Given the impact that poor new hire retention has across the business and the collective effort that is needed to keep it strong, this is a measure that should be on everyone’s dashboard.
What Will It Take to Confront the Invisible Mental Health Crisis in Business?
Kara Baskin, Working Knowledge, Harvard Business School
As a finance specialist, Harvard Business School Professor Lauren Cohen works to understand the dynamics that make businesses thrive. In his recent research on family companies, he has found one common thread among successful firms: They actively support their employees’ mental health.
In the following interview, Cohen, the L.E. Simmons Professor of Business Administration at HBS, discusses why it’s important for organizations to address mental health and how executives should handle pressure at the top.
Employers Should Prepare for Immigration Raids
Robert C. Divine and Matthew S. Chester, SHRM
U.S. employers—particularly those in the manufacturing, food processing, agricultural, construction, and hospitality industries with a relatively unskilled workforce—should immediately prepare for ramped-up government immigration enforcement in the workplace. Employers should get ready to endure a painful process, a sudden loss of workers, and administrative and criminal penalties.
Related:
- How HR Can Prepare for an Immigration Crackdown, Deportations
- Steps Employers Can Take to Prepare for Expected Increase in Immigration Enforcement
RTO Failing to Deliver on Boosted Collaboration
Hailey Mensick, WorkLife
Corporate leaders’ demands for staff to return to in-person work came with one primary goal — to bring people together and boost collaboration.
But so far that hasn’t been the result. Actually, employees in hybrid and fully on-site arrangements are now having an even harder time effectively working with their colleagues, according to recent data.
Satisfaction with workplace collaboration fell from 36% in 2021 to 29% this year, coinciding with the return to offices, a Gartner survey of over 18,000 employees found. Other data from Gartner shows “hybrid and remote workers are consistently more satisfied with collaboration than their fully on-site peers,” said Jessica Knight, vp, research, at Gartner. “Clearly, physical proximity and co-location is not a silver bullet to solve the collaboration challenge,” Knight said.
Sleep Woes: Fatigue in the Workplace
RxInformer
Sleep deprivation and fatigue have far-reaching consequences in the workplace, from poor productivity to injury or death. This report discusses the Causes of Fatigue in the Workplace; Percentage of Employees Reporting Feeling Tired at Work; Consequences of Fatigue in the Workplace; Levels of Fatigue; How Sleep Deprivation Mimics Alcohol Intoxication; Prescription Medications and Fatigue in Injured Workers. and 5 Strategies for Managing Fatigue in the Workplace.
HR News Roundup: Quick Takes
- 6 of the Most Annoying Employees & How to Handle Them
- How Communicators Encourage Employees to Take PTO
- Can Your Organization Weather the Storm? Wage and Hour Concerns for Employers During Inclement Weather
- Iceland Embraced a Shorter Work Week. Here’s How it Turned Out
- 4 Factors Driving Up Healthcare Costs—and What HR Can Do Today
- Pharmacies Are Closing Nationwide. How Is This Affecting Employees — and HR?
- Three Realities That Define Gen Z’s Perception of Leaders
- Safe Driving Tips for Hazardous Conditions
- Narcissistic Leaders Often Fall, In Time
- Responding to Someone Who Dominates the Conversation
- 3 Science-Based Tips on How to Break Bad Habits
- U.S. Workplace Injuries & Illness Hit 20-Year Low
- Military Suicides Rose in 2023, Continuing Upward Trend Pentagon Sees as ‘Real Change’
From the Lighter Side …
- We have a few seasonal related amusements for this issue, starting with the guy in the red suit. We’re revisiting our post from last year in case you missed it: Evaluating Santa’s dual roles as employer and employee
- Minnesota 2024-25 Name a Snowplow contest is back by popular request. This is an annual event sponsored by the MN Department of Transportation. The 2023-24 winners seemed to lean to musical stars: Taylor Drift, Dolly Plowton, and Beyonsleigh to cite a few. Click the link to see prior year winners. We particularly liked “Plowy McPlowface” from 2020-21. If you are feeling creative, drop some suggestions – they take submissions until Dec. 20.
- Next, we have a few seasonal videos, one from the present and one revisiting a bit of seasonal nostalgia from bygone years.
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