We recently released our 4th quarter edition of the Attraction and Retention Newsletter. The newsletter includes the following topics:
Click the following link to read this quarter’s Attraction and Retention Newsletter:
On Sept. 23, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a final rule that will amend Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations for tipped employees. The final rule was publicized in the Federal Register on Sept. 24, 2021, and is expected to become effective on Nov. 23, 2021.
Tips for Managers and Supervisors – The final rule prohibits managers and supervisors from keeping any portion of an employee’s tips, regardless of whether the employer takes a tip credit. New language in the FLSA regulations clarifies that managers and supervisors may only keep the tips they receive directly from customers based on the services they directly and solely provide.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently filed a disability discrimination lawsuit in Georgia federal court. This case represents the first COVID-19 pandemic-related lawsuit the EEOC has filed about a remote work request for an American with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation.
According to the suit, a Denmark-based workplace experience and facility management company with a U.S. headquarters unlawfully denied its employee’s reasonable request for an accommodation for her disability. After requiring employees to work remotely four days per week from March to June 2020, the facility reopened. At that time, the employee requested an accommodation to continue working remotely two days per week and take frequent breaks while working on-site due to a pulmonary condition that causes difficulty breathing. Although the company allowed other employees in similar positions to work from home, it denied her request and, shortly after, fired her, according to the EEOC.
Recently, 24 state attorneys general submitted a letter strongly opposing President Joe Biden’s proposed COVID-19 vaccine mandate among private employers. These states have threatened legal action should the mandate’s efforts move forward. Earlier in September, Biden announced an upcoming mandate for employers with 100 or more employees. These businesses would need to require vaccinations among employees or have unvaccinated individuals submit to weekly COVID-19 testing.
The 24 states who signed the letter made the following key allegations against the mandate, among others:
HR expert speaks to the cost of remote work, and reveals new findings from the Employco 2021 Return to Work Survey
A new survey has found that over 65% of companies have delayed their plans to return to the office due to COVID variants. The decision to stay remote, which is being called ‘The Great Wait,’ could wind up costing American businesses hundreds of millions.
Rob Wilson, employment trends expert and President of Employco USA, a national employment solutions firm with locations around the country, comments on this breaking news.
“Google has just delayed their return to the office until January 2022,” says Wilson. “Other companies like Facebook, Starbucks, Amazon, and Apple have released similar timelines. Sadly, however, this abundance of caution may end up being very costly.”
Employment solutions CEO discusses exclusive new workplace survey
Just in time for the start of the new fiscal year, a newly-released employee survey led by Employco USA offers a revealing portrait of the American workplace.
“We surveyed 3,000 companies, which together employ over 10,000 employees,” says Rob Wilson, President of Employco USA, a national employment solutions firm with locations around the country.
“We made several key findings which illustrate how the workplace has changed since we returned to the ‘new normal,’ as well as findings which help to predict how things might change in the coming months,” says the employment trends expert.
Most notably, says Wilson, is the fact that only 39% of employers are requiring their workers to mask up when on the job.
Employment trends expert comments on the Better Business Bureau study
A new study from the Better Business Bureau has found that employment scams nearly doubled during 2020. Over 14 million victims fell prey to employment scams in 2020, causing losses of nearly $2 billion.
Employment trends expert Rob Wilson speaks on this troubling trend, as well as offers solutions for companies and employers.
“We’ve known these scams have been on the rise for months, and we have been helping our clients with how to best address the issue, but it is still very shocking to see just how quickly these scams mushroomed during the pandemic,” says Wilson, who is the President of Employco USA, an employment solutions firm based in Chicago.
Wilson says that the perpetrators are stealing employees’ identities in order to access government funds under their name.
Employers now have even more extra time to submit equal employment opportunity (EEO-1) workforce data from 2019 and 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on Aug. 18, 2021.
The 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 reports were previously due by Aug. 23, 2021, which was an extension from the original deadline of July 19, 2021. Employers now have until Oct. 25, 2021, to complete their submissions. According to the EEOC, this new deadline is final, and no additional extensions will be made.
The EEOC’s collection of the 2019 and 2020 data, the portal for which opened on April 26, 2021, had been delayed numerous other times due to the coronavirus pandemic. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the EEO-1 Report is usually due by March 31 every year.
Nearly 2 in 3 employees say strong company culture is the main reason for staying at their job, according to a Glassdoor survey. Employers can leverage their company culture to attract and retain top talent in a competitive job market. However, a strong company culture could be at risk in a hybrid workplace as different on-site and remote workplace cultures emerge.
Organizational leaders should intentionally create, foster and nurture culture when people are working from everywhere. This article provides an overview of company culture and considerations for employers managing their culture with a distributed workforce.
What Is Company Culture? Company culture is the personality and environment of an organization. Defined by more than just a mission statement or organizational values, company culture encompasses the unwritten norms of how employees interact with one another. Company culture can be broken into three broad categories:
On Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021, Delta Air Lines announced it will require employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine or pay a $200 monthly fee. Starting Nov. 1, unvaccinated employees on Delta Air Lines’ health plan would be responsible for paying a $200 monthly surcharge for health benefits, in addition to being tested weekly for COVID-19. Unvaccinated workers will undergo weekly testing beginning mid-September, according to the company.
Delta Air Lines’ CEO, Ed Bastian, said the company acknowledges that vaccinations are the “most effective” way to combat the spread of COVID-19—75% of the organization is fully vaccinated. Moreover, Bastian said it costs Delta Air Lines $50,000 per employee hospital stay due to COVID-19. The $200 surcharge is intended to both offset those costs and incentivize employees to get vaccinated.
“We’ve always known that vaccinations are the most effective tool to keep our people safe and healthy in the face of this global health crisis.” – Ed Bastion, Delta Air Lines CEO