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Worried About Your Employees Leaving? Survey Suggests You Should Be.

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Up to half of your employees may be looking to leave, but they might be willing to stay with the right incentive.

While their strategies to retain good team members vary widely, employers are almost universally concerned about their ability to succeed in these efforts. In a new survey from Robert Half, only 19% of employers say they are “not at all concerned” about their company’s ability to retain valued employees. A third (33%) say they are “very concerned,” and nearly half (48%) say they are “somewhat” concerned. These worries appear to be well-founded, as 43% of workers in the same survey say they plan to look for a new job in the next 12 months.

FMLA Audits Are on the Rise. You Could Be Next

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Don’t panic; follow some tips to survive an audit of your family leave policies, procedures.

A Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) audit could be in your organization’s future. The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) receives more than 1,000 FMLA-related complaints per year, and many of these have uncovered violations; so increasingly the agency is on high alert. Read on to learn about what can trigger a FMLA audit and what you can do to make the best of a challenging situation.

How to Make Employee Loyalty Trend at Your Company

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Survey: Workers blame weak company culture for lack of engagement.

There was a time when employees commonly worked at a company for years, often receiving gold watches and pensions from the same place where they started their careers. However, recent findings suggest that employee loyalty is a thing of the past and that employers need to work harder to win engagement and buy-in. Read on to find out what employees like about their jobs, what impacts their morale and productivity, and what makes them head out the door.

DOL Seeks Input on Proposed Changes to FMLA Forms

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Government plans changes designed to improve family leave law compliance and make forms easier to use.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is seeking public comments on proposed revisions to optional use forms that the Department’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) uses to administer the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

The revisions, according to WHD, are designed to make the forms easier to understand for employers, leave administrators, healthcare providers, and employees seeking leave. The agency expects the changes to increase compliance with and administration of the law, as well as improve customer service. “Workers succeed when they know they don’t have to choose between taking care of themselves or a loved one, and keeping a job,” said Cheryl Stanton, WHD administrator. She further noted, “Proposing these changes to improve compliance under the Family and Medical Leave Act is a win for workers and employers. It’s an important step forward to meet the needs of the rapidly changing 21st century economy.” 

The Department of Labor is especially interested in comments that:

·         Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the agency’s functions, including whether the information will have practical utility.

·         Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected.

·         Evaluate the accuracy of the agency’s estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used.

·         Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

 It is important to ensure that your employees at all levels understand FMLA and how it applies to them. Specifically, it requires private sector employers with more than 50 workers to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave during any 12-month period to eligible employees for certain family and medical reasons (for birth of a son or daughter and to care for the newborn child; for placement with the employee of a son or daughter for adoption or foster care; to care for the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent with a serious health condition; because of a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform his or her job functions; and to address qualifying exigencies arising out of the deployment of the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent to covered active duty in the military), and up to 26 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave during a single 12-month period to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness who is the spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin to the employee. 

Read more from the Federal Register about the proposed changes here.

Your Nurses May Not Be as Prepared to Handle a Crisis as You Think

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Studies suggest nurses could use, would welcome more training on disaster management.

Nursing staff, particularly practitioners who are fresh out of school, may have insufficient training to handle a catastrophic event such as a pandemic, water contamination crisis, or mass shooting. According to two recent studies, most nursing students say they are not getting enough emergency response instruction. At same time, professors and lecturers say they are unprepared to educate students adequately about how to provide care during and after a disaster.

Are You Prepared for a Deepfake Disaster?

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Sophisticated new technology can cause serious trouble for your employees and your organization. Don’t let it take you by surprise.

Deepfake, a skillful blending of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning that lets people alter video, audio, and photos to make it appear that people are doing and/or saying things they aren’t, may not affect your workplace now. But experts suggest that it is coming and can create new security headaches for employers.

How to Support Employees When Tragedy Touches Their Lives, Hearts

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It’s time to make sure you have tools, skills, resources to help workers deal with disaster—whether it’s around the block or across the country.

The mass shootings this past weekend likely have had an impact on your employees. Some may be sad, others anxious or angry. Even when a tragedy doesn’t affect people directly, they often feel pain—either because of their empathy for the victims or because it opens wounds regarding their own experiences. Compassionate leadership during times of tragedy doesn’t just ease suffering; it sets a tone that enables people to recover more quickly from future setbacks. It increases colleagues’ connections and loyalty to each other and helps them see leadership as being on their side. All of this has a positive impact on the culture, atmosphere, and functioning of the organization. Read on for steps you can take to ensure employees feel supported, heard, and empowered in the aftermath of tragedy.

Survey: Working Moms Don’t Know Their Rights About Breastfeeding, Pumping

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Employers can–and should–do more to ensure new mothers feel supported, empowered on the job.

According to a new survey from Byram Healthcare Centers, only 18% of working mothers who breastfeed know what rights they have in the workplace. More than half (52%) say they didn’t know that they are legally entitled to a room to pump/express milk for a year after giving birth, nor did they realize that this room must have shades or no window and a lock. Just 11% of respondents say they didn’t think they were entitled to any protections. 

Immigration Technology Makes Managing Employee Verification Easier

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Cutting-edge platforms are popping up to help HR manage employment-related immigration issues.

Employers must verify that their employees are authorized to work in the U.S. However, keeping up with rapidly changing immigration policies is challenging for organizations and can cause headaches and sleepless nights for HR; and gaps in capturing and storing the right documents and information is putting more companies at risk for audits. However, technology is emerging to improve communication on immigration issues, capture information faster and more accurately, and identify gaps in documentation.

Bill to Strengthen Unions Causing Debates, Concerns

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House considers legislation aimed at strengthening protections for workers’ right to organize unions, bargain for wages, benefits.

A new bill currently being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives is stirring concerns and controversy. The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act (H.R. 2474) is designed to strengthen protections for workers’ right to organize a union and bargain for higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions. Read on for more information about the bill and what advocates and proponents say about it.