Donald Trump’s election to the nation's top office has left U.S. employers wondering how the employment landscape will change and whether it will be for the better.
XpertHR’s annual survey of employers, HR’s Most Challenging Compliance Issues for 2017, looks at changes the workplace can expect in the upcoming year, especially under the new Republican president. This summary of the report outlines the 10 critical issues employers face and the survey results.
1. Election Uncertainty
- What will happen to the National Labor Relations Board and its pro-labor policies under the pro-business Trump administration?
- What will happen to President Barack Obama’s pro-labor mandates, such as the EEO-1 reporting rule and the overtime rule?
Employers’ actions and solutions
Given the intense uncertainty of the direction a GOP-led Congress and President-elect Trump’s directions for the nation, employers must make sure they comply with every law and regulation enacted and don’t sit and wait for change.
2. Workforce Planning
Employers are facing some extraordinary changes: a growing “gig” economy, brain drain from an aging workforce, the demands of an alternative work arrangements and a difficult search for high-tech and other skilled talent. Here are some sobering statistics employers should keep in mind as 2017 approaches:
- Most of the survey respondents — 55% — felt extremely or very challenged in their search for high-quality talent
- 21% said they were extremely or very challenged by a screening process that now includes Ban the Box and FCRA credit-checking requirements
Employers’ actions and solutions
HR should align its goals with the company’s and help shape the workforce as it undergoes extreme changes. Recruiting top-quality talent should be the focus for 2017.
3. Mandated employee leave protections
Coordinating leave policies between the Family Medical Leave Act, Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act and Americans with Disabilities Act are challenging enough. Now employers must contend with the increase in the number of states that issued employee leave policies during the 2016 election cycle. The survey found that:
- 34% of employers found managing leaves extremely of very challenging
- 33% of employers found complying with regulations across states extremely or very challenging
Employers’ actions and solutions
To keep in compliance with leave mandates, employers need to understand how leave laws intersect and revise or update their leave procedures and policies, if necessary.
4. Threat of cyber breach
Hacking into systems seems easier than ever and more frequent. With so much data to protect – employees’ health records, financial information, social security numbers, company trade secrets, patents and other proprietary data – it’s not surprising that employers feel very challenged in preventing cyber breaches. The study found that:
- 44% of respondents said they found preventing cyber breaches to be extremely or very challenging
- 32% of respondents felt that managing mobile devices extremely or very challenging.
Employers’ actions and solutions
Employers should limit access to private information to only those who need to see it, and draft and enforce anti-breaching policies and communicate them to staff. Monitor BYOD policies appropriately, and have avenues in place with IT to address issues.
5. Benefits and the ACA
The Affordable Care Act is a complex law with daunting classification, tracking and tax-related responsibilities for employers that is once again at the forefront of employers' minds. Here is how some survey responded:
- 38% of respondents said that ACA reporting requirements were very or extremely challenging.
- 36% were found the ACA extremely or very challenging in general.
Employers’ actions and solutions
Until the ACA is either amended, overhauled or repealed, which could happen under a Republican-dominated Congress, employers must continue classifying and tracking affected workers and file all necessary paperwork.
6. Evolving workforce
Two big changes in the workforce are the transition from a 9 to 5 work schedule to a flexible-hour gig economy and more bargaining rights for workers under the National Labor Relations Act. The survey respondents reacted this way:
- 20% of them said they’re feeling extremely challenged by the emergence of more alternative work arrangements, such as telecommuting, job sharing and flex time.
- 50% of respondents rank the evolving workforce as among their top workplace concerns.
Employers’ actions and solutions
HR should have clear policies about remote working arrangements and flex time so that workplace rules and productivity are maintained.
HR also should have agreements with independent contractors, temporary workers, freelancers and other workers in the gig economy what their responsibilities and the employer’s expectations. This can avoid job classification problems later.
7. Equal pay
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has stepped up its enforcement of the Equal Pay Act with its EEO-1 Report for tracking and reporting information on protected workers’ compensation and work hours. The survey found that:
- 25% of respondents in the survey think that changes to the EEO-1 Report will be extremely or very challenging.
- 25% find equal pay and wage transparency extremely or very challenging.
Employers’ actions and solutions
HR should review pay practices, skills, job descriptions, wages, bonuses and other monetary-related information to make sure there’s no discriminatory basis for an employee’s pay. This may be a data-intensive process and could require some company-wide examination.
8. Employee handbooks
Employee handbooks should be clearly state a company’s policies and expectations of workplace standards and conduct. They also should be kept up-to-date as policies and regulations inside and outside the company change. But survey respondents had concerns about maintaining the information they contain:
- 21% of respondents said they felt extremely or very challenged by the NLRB declaring invalid employer policies that infringe upon the workers’ right to engage in protected concerted activity.
- 42% said that ensuring handbooks were read and used was extremely or very challenging.
Employers’ actions and solutions
Problems with handbooks have been common this past year. Employers need to make sure employees know about important workplace changes affecting them by making employee handbooks easily accessible and interesting to read.
9. Overtime changes
A Texas court’s injunction against the Labor Department’s overtime could pave the way for permanent injunction of the rule or repeal from the new administration. 20% of survey respondents figured that managing and properly classifying nonexempt employees under the new rule would be extremely or very challenging.
Employers’ actions and solutions
The Texas court injunction could stop the rule’s action. Employees who haven’t made any pay-scale changes might want to hold off on doing so, but if changes have been made, the company will have to weigh the potential morale backlash of taking back those raises.
10. Diversity in an increasingly global world
Attracting, hiring and retaining a diverse staff is always challenging. Here’s what survey respondents said:
- 20% found building and managing a diverse workforce to be extremely or very challenging.
- 26% of respondents said they were extremely challenged or very challenged about managing different generations in one workplace.
Employers’ actions and solutions
Employers must proactively recruit and hire a diverse workforce for the benefit of both the organization and talented job candidates of various backgrounds. Various techniques have emerged to encourage such recruiting and eliminate as much bias as possible, including removing names from resumes or adjusting job ads to ensure the language feels open enough for people of all backgrounds.
