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What I’ve Been Reading This Week


As we hit mid month, I wanted to stop and catch my breath and highlight a couple of good articles this week.  The first is for those HR fans (especially those that work for smaller employers) in which a writer at Business Insider notes a few ways smaller employers are recruiting and retaining employees in the midst of a tight labor market.  The second article delves into a recent labor union movement among graduate students at Yale.  Even for those that are not drawn to labor law news, this article is worth a quick read.

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


Smaller Employers Get Creative On Ways To Attract (& Retain) Employees

Alexandra York at Business Insider wrote an article recently in which she noted a growing trend among some smaller employers to find innovative ways to attract and retain employees.  It should come as no surprise that many industries have an extremely tight labor market now and often, large employers are able to attract and retain the best of the best among the available labor pool.  However, some smaller employers have found that being flexible with scheduling, hours, work from home arrangements, and related employee benefits has helped them stand out from large employers.  Will large employers eventually find a way to circumvent the benefits being offered by smaller employers?  Likely.  However, for the time being, as the article notes, smaller employers appear to have the upper hand.


Yale Grad Students Successfully Form Union

On Monday, it was announced that following an in person and mail in election late last year, graduate and professional students had voted to form a union.  Notably, of the 2,039 votes cast, 1,860 voted in favor of unionization with only 179 votes against.  The next step will be for negotiations to begin over a collective bargaining agreement.

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