Policies / Handbooks

Positive cannabis tests broke record in 2021

03/31/2022

The number of U.S. employees testing positive for drugs broke records in 2021, a result that has some questioning the value of routinely testing applicants and employees for marijuana.

Is it time to drop your vaccine mandate?

03/24/2022

Is it time for employers to rethink their covid-19 policies, including requiring employees to be vaccinated and boosted as a condition of employment? The answer depends on a number of factors. Before making a decision on internal vaccine mandates, weigh these issues.

Follow 3-part plan for returning to work

03/03/2022

New CDC guidance maps the way from pandemic to endemic, like influenza. Coronavirus may become something that’s always there—hovering in the background—that we learn to work around. For employers, making that transition will require following a three-part strategy.

Snapshot: Return-to-work vax status

03/01/2022

Roughly one in five employees who work on-site say their employer required them to get a covid-19 vaccine.

Lure workers back by welcoming dogs, too

03/01/2022

While 67% of employees polled by pet-product company Honest Paws said they would consider looking for a new job if they were no longer allowed to work remotely, 78% said they would stay if they could bring their pets to work.

Consider updating workplace romance rules

02/24/2022

It will soon be five years since the viral #MeToo social media movement raised awareness about sexual harassment in the workplace. A series of high-profile investigations and firings prompted many employers to amend their policies governing romantic relationships among co-workers and between bosses and subordinates.

Provide lactation privacy for new mothers

02/17/2022

For more than a decade, federal law has required employers with 50 or more employees to provide reasonable break time for workers to express breast milk for up to one year after the child’s birth. The other key part: Employers must also offer a private location (not a bathroom) that is shielded from view and free from interruptions.

Half of private employers will still require vaccines

02/01/2022

OSHA’s vaccinate-or-test mandate may be DOA, but half of private-sector employers have already instituted their own vax requirements or plan to.

Your own vax mandate? How to make the call

01/27/2022

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against OSHA’s vaccine mandate for private companies with 100+ employees, it’s up to employers to make their own call about whether to require employees to be vaccinated or to leave the choice up to individual workers. Here’s how some employers are handling the uncertainty.

Employment lawyers react to Supreme Court stay of OSHA’s ETS

01/18/2022

On Jan. 13, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked enforcement of OSHA’s emergency temporary standard that would have required organizations with 100+ employees to implement vaccine-or-test mandates. Legal experts were quick to offer their views on what the ruling means.