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Sign on Dotted Line: Arbitration Agreement Enforceability Against Predecessor Company

The New Jersey Appellate Division recently vacated a September 2020 trial court order dismissing a former employee’s lawsuit and compelling him to arbitrate his Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA) claims against his former employer’s predecessor. In so doing, the appellate court found the trial court must first determine whether the arbitration agreement was binding on […]

Aligning Reality with the Ideal: Diversity Exec Working to Bridge Equity Gaps

When Ellen Bailey, Senior Director of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning, was growing up, she remembers her parents telling her, “You can be anything you want.” She took that to heart when she was a kid, but when she grew up and started looking at the statistics, she found out […]

How to Return to Physical Workspaces if We Don’t Reach Herd Immunity

COVID-19 has pitted health and safety against the well-being of people and organizations. Keeping communities safe has meant sacrificing so much, and the pains of the past year have been twofold: Businesses have been forced to close or become remote, and workers’ emotional well-being has been at risk.

Can a 17-Year-Old Sign to Authorize a Background Check?

Background checks have become a fairly standard component of the hiring process. Most employers perform some form of background screening, though it varies in terms of how in-depth it is and what is covered. This can not only help the employer with decision-making but also ensure the employer uncovers potential issues.

Employee, Spouse Blame Employer for COVID-19 Infection, but Lawsuit Fails

A federal court recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by an employee and his spouse attempting to hold his employer liable for both of them contracting COVID-19. The dismissal should bring comfort to employer anxiety over negligence lawsuits by employees and their family members seeking damages for possibly bringing a coronavirus infection home from the workplace.

remote work

Recommendations for Employers Looking to Transition Employees Back to the Office

With the COVID-19 vaccine now widely available in the United States to those who are eligible, the percentage of Americans getting vaccinated is rising. This development is causing employers across the country to reflect on whether to call their employees who have been working remotely due to the pandemic back into the workplace. Many employees […]

marijuana

Virginians Will Be Lighting Their Joints on July 1

Starting July 1, Virginia will be the first state in the southern United States to allow the use of recreational marijuana. That’s because on April 21, at the close of this year’s General Assembly session, Governor Ralph Northam signed a historic marijuana legalization bill allowing adults to possess small amounts of pot. Although the original […]

hiring sign

The Benefit of (Some) Turnover

Employers, given their preference, would love to keep most employees around indefinitely—to have their top performers spend their entire careers with the company. Not only would that tenure demonstrate dedication and commitment to the company, but it would also reduce the time, effort, and cost of recruiting and onboarding new staff and help retain institutional […]

The Pandemic Has Taken a Toll on Manager Wellbeing

Managers have often seen themselves as dispassionate observers of their employees, implementers of systems and protocols, and enforcers of time management—all in the name of productivity and efficiency. This past year proved a major challenge to all those systems, ongoing work assignments, ways of working, and job roles as the pandemic brought dramatic change at […]

training

What is Skill Data?

Skill data, as the name implies, is any data point that is in reference to an individual’s skills and includes data that measures what someone can do. Some examples of skill data include: