2019 is already more than halfway over, and HR Dive's tracking of the trends reveals that as much as some things change, some things stay the same.
The talent shortage has emerged as a top risk for organizations this year, surpassing even privacy regulations and cloud computing, Gartner said. Finding and keeping talent is one of HR's biggest concerns, and employers have reacted accordingly, upping benefits and remixing their talent processes to try and get more people in the door.
But the old challenges haven't gone away, either. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) remain perennial headaches for employers, as can be seen on this list.
Afraid you missed something? Two of our column series, Back to Basics and The Talent Textbook, give HR professionals a quick and accessible run-down of these critical compliance and management issues. Our top six most-read stories (or the most up-to-date versions) for the year thus far are below.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise announces 6 months of paid parental leave
The benefits HPE introduced correlate with those gaining popularity among many large employers, especially as organizations bulk up their compensation packages to compete for talent. Employers are still determining just how much paid time off is best; the Gates Foundation recently ended its year-long parental leave policy after it disrupted company operations. Read More »
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Jury awards $3.8M to paramedic told her breastfeeding schedule was 'excessive'
Tucson's fire department violated the FLSA and Title VII when it assigned the employee to stations without a lactation space, the jury found. Among other things, her complaint alleged that the fire department's scheduler said he didn't believe she deserved any special accommodations. Read More »
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Managing — and measuring — workplace culture
It's not about expensive tech or branding, Marriott executive vice president and global CHRO David Rodriguez told attendees at Workhuman. Marriott instead falls back on an old motto: "Take care of your employees, they'll take care of your customers and the customers will keep coming back again and again." Read More »
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Report: New FLSA overtime rule threshold will be $35K
The overtime saga continues. A former DOL economist told HR Dive that a $35,000 threshold would leave out more than half of the workers who would've received new or strengthened overtime protections under the Obama-era proposal. Read More »
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'I'm not out here': Facebook fishing trip video dooms worker's FMLA claim
Employers understandably want to crack down on FMLA abuses, and they are justified in doing so. But caution is necessary. In this case, it was considered undisputed that Union Pacific Railroad (UP) had a legitimate, non-pretextual, nondiscriminatory reason for firing the employee — his violation of the policy — so a federal district court in California granted UP's motion for summary judgment. Read More »
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Brené Brown on 6 problems that arise without 'brave leadership'
"Courage is teachable, observable and measurable," the University of Houston speaker and researcher told attendees at #SHRM19. But what happens when it's missing? Read More »
