As we settle into 2024, companies across the United States face a wave of new state employment laws. These changes, spanning from minimum wage adjustments to increased worker protections, carry significant implications for employers across the country. In this article, we’ll delve into some of the major changes and their potential impact on operations.
Some companies choose to fully outsource all their Human Resources to Flex HR, while other organizations hire us on the interim to bridge the gap until they find the right HR leadership. Business owners know that Human Resources are the most valuable asset, so handling them properly is vital to your company. It’s important to document major factors about your organization such as mission and values, policies and procedures and even software and internet rules and regulations.
Illinois recently joined the 16 other states with required paid leave laws, a trend that started back in 2011 when Connecticut required employers in the private sector to give employees paid sick leave.
Money For Lunch turned to Flex HR’s CEO, Jenny Morehead to discuss how companies are finding it more challenging than ever to motivate and retain top talent in today’s competitive job market. Unemployment rates are holding low, and so employees have ample options and are continuously evaluating whether their current role provides opportunities for advancement. Organizations need to prioritize professional development to engage and incentivize their people now more than ever to be able to retain their valuable talent.
It’s the dream of any freshly-hired startup employee: Start with stock options in your fledgling company, work hard to see that company become a success and reap the rewards of your equity with a handsome post-IPO payday. Real-world stories of employees at world-famous startups like Lululemon securing $1.5 million from their stock options are not only possible to replicate, but create incentives in the mind of many.
Chances are you use teamwork skills every day without even knowing it. Even if you’ve never had a professional job. You use teamwork skills, or the skills used to work well with others, with coworkers in the classroom, while volunteering, or during your extracurricular activities. Teamwork skills are the soft skills you practice to work efficiently and effectively with others.
In the past years, we’ve seen some great changes in the workplace as workers and those who have less advantages are seen and valued more. Laws and policies have helped in this, along with some important cultural shifts.
As the new year approaches, you should keep an eye on these seven trends that may continue, change, or emerge, and what they mean for HR:
Companies use strategies for performance action plans called a performance improvement plan (PIP). A PIP is typically used to help employees who are not meeting performance objectives. This could mean consistent failures or due to behavioral-related concerns. Human Resources professionals determine whether or not the PIP is appropriate given the situation.
A document should be created that outlines role expectations, areas for improvement, and goals to get employee performance back on track. These should not be used as a disciplinary action or step before termination. PIPs should be administered in conjunction with the manager to prevent bias.
It can be hard to speak up while at work about things that are not meeting your expectations. Or the opposite – activities or good deeds that go unrecognized that you feel should be acknowledged. Therefore, employee engagement surveys can be a useful tool when it comes to seeking an understanding of how the workforce is feeling about the company.
However, sometimes staff members refuse to participate, or the responses are too minimal to turn into action, or so negative that HR feels defeated.
Being strategic about engagement surveys will not only drive up response rates but also provoke the kind of high-quality employee feedback that can be used to drive wanted positive changes.
Managing remote employees can be tricky, but it’s possible to overcome the challenges inherent in the hybrid workplace. Hybrid work plans, which combine in-office and remote work, are becoming increasingly popular as employees seek a balance between both models. Hybrid work plans give employees the opportunity to interact with one another in the office while providing the flexibility to work from home.
However, it’s important to understand that a hybrid work plan may not be the most effective for all companies. According to a survey by Owl Labs, 16% of global employees are working remotely, while 62% work a hybrid schedule.
