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How Change-Ready Is Your Organization?

The often-used refrain that “change is constant” no longer reflects the current state of the market. While constant state is like a slow but manageable drip from a faucet, change today can more accurately be described as a raging river—unpredictable and often out of control. Research and survey data substantiate this shift from a change […]

Case Study: Colorado Passes Law to Regulate AI Use in Consequential Decision Making

On May 17, 2024, the Colorado Legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 24-205 to protect employees and consumers by prohibiting developers of high-risk artificial intelligence (AI) systems from engaging in “algorithmic discrimination” in consequential decision-making. This prohibition also applies to organizations that deploy these high-risk AI systems. Governor Jared Polis signed the bill into law on […]

Microsoft Scraps DEI Team

In the aftermath of the 2022 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the nationwide social justice movements that followed, many large companies began diving in to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) by hiring chief diversity officers, making public statements and commitments in support of DEI and building out DEI teams. In recent months, however, […]

EEOC

House Bill Would Eliminate Damage Caps in Federal Discrimination Cases

Federal judges are required to reduce jury verdicts in discrimination cases brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Title VII) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) if a jury awards more than is permitted under federal caps. But a bill now pending in Congress, the Equal Remedies Act of 2024, would end […]

Faces of HR: Stephanie Manzelli: The HR Maestro Orchestrating Business Harmony

With a career trajectory that veered from finance to HR, Stephanie Manzelli is a seasoned professional who has mastered the art of aligning people and business goals. Her journey, marked by a stint as a temp worker and a pivotal moment in the world of mergers and acquisitions, has shaped her into a strategic leader […]

Skills-Based Volunteering

Work-life balance can mean different things to different people. To a parent of multiple small children, the ability to be present in their children’s lives is a key factor in the work-life equation. Others may value time spent on personal hobbies, such as marathon running or travel. Still others feel most at balance when they […]

How an Open Culture Combats Quiet Vacationing

On the heels of quiet quitting and firing, this summer employers and HR professionals encountered the latest workplace trend: quiet vacationing, which is the practice of employees taking paid time off (PTO) to establish a better work-life balance by building in periods of reset without informing their manager or officially putting in a request for […]

Ask the Expert: When Does FMLA Allow for Intermittent Parental Leave?

Question: If an employee takes Family Medical and Leave Act (FMLA) leave to bond with his new child, would he be able to take additional bonding time later the same year if he still had FMLA time available? Answer: The FMLA has some restrictions on when an employee can take leave for birth or bonding […]

NLRB in Court: SCOTUS Revises Injunction Standards, Other Standards Under Review

In a ruling widely considered a victory for employers, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the standards for assessing an application by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a 10(j) injunction should be the same as used in other civil injunction applications. Although widely anticipated as bringing harmony to an area with numerous “circuit […]

Insights from the Latest U.S. Jobs Report

The newest U.S. jobs report is a grab bag of labor-market signals. The U.S. economy added 206,000 jobs, down from about 218,000 in May 2024. At the same time, the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 4.1%, while wage growth slowed to its lowest rate in three years. Cooling Labor Demand While 4.1% unemployment is […]