Skip to main content

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

 

For those in the HR field looking for a relevant article, I refer you to the first one this week.  It should come as no surprise that employee retention is a key part of the job for any HR professional...but more so in this employee friendly job market.   

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.


Tips For Improving Management Styles in the Midst of an Employee Friendly Job Market

As the saying goes, “employees do not leave companies, they leave bad bosses.”  (I would posit that money is a key factor too, but I digress.)  This article from The Fast Company has four tips for how employers can be a better boss while working (or struggling) to maintain a fully staffed workforce.  While some tips are somewhat common sense (such as a suggestion that employers stop micromanaging and focus on the big picture), there are a few that might not have crossed your mind (such as encouraging employees to pursue internal opportunities.)  As always, some of these tips might not be applicable to every workplace but at a minimum, they are worth considering.


Employer Paid College Tuition Programs: Not All They Are Cracked Up to Be?

Vox published a recent article in which it took stock of some employers that have started to offer employer paid (or employer assisted) college tuition programs for their workers.  Readers might have heard of several employers initiating these programs, such as Starbucks, Target, and Chipotle, among others.  However, as the article notes, these college tuition programs might not be as beneficial as they seem.  For instance, some employers only offer to pay the tuition costs of their employees if the employees attend a certain college or university or only major in a certain field of study.  These restrictions can greatly limit the options employees have to get their employer to pay the tuition costs.  With that being said, it is understandable that employers might limit these college tuition programs to only fields of study that apply to the job (ie marketing, business, finance, etc.) rather than underwater basket weaving or a leisure studies.  Although this article does not necessarily opine one way or the other as to the “success” of these college tuition programs, in so much as to whether these programs actually help employers draw in/retain employees, it is worth a read for those looking for a more in depth analysis of the matter.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo
Post a Comment
Read more

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies in the state, to per
Post a Comment
Read more