Archives

hiring

The Recruitment Risks of Too Many Interviews

It’s a significant financial and operational commitment for a company to hire a new team member. Onboarding and training require considerable resources, not to mention the salary, benefits, and taxes involved in compensating the new hire. Operationally, new team members are often accountable not just to their boss but also to stakeholders in other departments […]

The Unprecedented Mental Health Crisis Facing Working Parents in America—And How Employers Can Help

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a significant toll on us all, but it has created an increasingly challenging environment for working parents in America. Working parents, many of whom are now indefinitely working from home, have spent the last year learning to balance remote learning and child care without the support of loved ones due […]

SCOTUS Limits Scope of Cybersecurity Law

The U.S. Supreme Court recently issued a ruling interpreting the scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a 1986 federal statute that imposes civil and criminal liability for unauthorized computer access. In short, the Court decided that as long as an individual is authorized to access a computer and data, he doesn’t violate […]

Soft skills

Top Surging Soft Skills

Across the country, employers are struggling to find enough workers to meet the needs of their businesses, and the issue isn’t just anecdotal and specific to a handful of vocal companies. “The economic data is fairly clear: employers are getting desperate for workers in the United States, writes Tom Spiggle in an article for Forbes. […]

The Rubber Meets the Road—Time for Diversity 2.0

It’s 2021. We’re emerging from a pandemic that has disproportionately sickened and killed underrepresented communities and people of color, we’re passing the 1-year anniversary of the biggest racial justice movement in modern American history, and we’re dealing with a labor market in upheaval in a hiring landscape where talent has more power than ever before. […]

5th Circuit Rejects Fired Transgender Employee’s Discrimination Claim

An employer wasn’t liable to a former employee who alleged he was terminated because he was transgender, the 5th Circuit recently ruled, upholding a Houston federal district court decision. The appeals court said the former employee failed to allege he was treated differently than cisgender employees. The court’s opinion offers guidance on an emerging area […]

Bringing Them Back: Key Considerations as Employers Bring Employees Back Into the Office

After the mass rollout of COVID-19 vaccines during spring 2021, Americans were looking forward to the end of the pandemic as millions were vaccinated. The optimists included not only individuals but also companies eager to get staff back into offices after more than a year of working remotely. While the highly publicized Delta variant has […]

Why Long-Term Care Is Taking Center Stage

There’s a recent major development in the insurance world you may not have heard of yet: Washington just became the first state in the nation to develop legislation that makes long-term care affordable for its workers. Called “WA Cares,” this program also impacts companies outside of Washington that have employees in the state.

EEOC

Unchecked Boxes on EEOC Charge Form Halt Bias, Retaliation Claims

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld the dismissal of a former employee’s sexual orientation discrimination and retaliation claims because he hadn’t exhausted administrative remedies with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) before filing suit. Although he mentioned sex discrimination and retaliation in the EEOC intake questionnaire, he hadn’t checked the boxes on […]