Here's what to have on your radar for the week ahead:
Compensation professionals are all the rage.
According to a new analysis by workforce-intelligence company Revelio Labs and World at Work, there’s been a surge in demand for compensation professionals since Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act went into effect in 2021. Among other things, the law requires companies to include pay ranges in job postings, and nine other states have since followed Colorado’s lead.
“The increased demand for compensation professionals is driven by companies that are more affected by the new state laws,” write the researchers. They show that companies that are “highly exposed” to such laws—those with at least 50% of their workers in affected states—have increased their number of compensation professionals and the salaries for those positions. The skill set that companies demand from those workers has also changed. As more salary data becomes public, companies are looking for skills related to data analysis rather than those related to data collection through surveying.
Ensure that your HR department has the data skills it needs. The growth of public compensation data is an opportunity for companies to stay competitive. But as this analysis indicates, it also means companies need HR professionals with the skills to take advantage of that data.
New overtime rules proposed by the Department of Labor could change who is eligible for overtime pay.
Proposed changes to the enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act would raise the salary threshold for overtime eligibility from about $35,000 to about $55,000. “Our estimate is that our rule would benefit up to 3.6 million workers,” acting secretary of labor Julie Su told reporters during the CareFest conference earlier this month.
As employers evaluate how these new rules will change their compensation strategy, whether that means increasing salaries for some workers or budgeting for additional overtime payments, it’s also an opportunity to communicate transparently and proactively about your compensation strategy.
Prepare managers to have conversations about any new compensation policies, which means briefing them on how changes may affect their direct reports. Encourage them to tie these conversations to an overall check-in about compensation, with our compensation check-in script as a guide.
Our reporting from CareFest, including our takeaways for workplaces and our interviews with the National Women’s Law Center’s Fatima Goss Graves, Paid Leave for All’s Dawn Huckelbridge, and Moms First’s Reshma Saujani.
A script for addressing workplace tension over the Israel-Hamas war.
Last week, my colleague Massella Dukuly shared principles for navigating workplace conflict over the ongoing violence, including a recommendation to reshare your policies on professionalism, harassment and bullying, as well as any other rules you have in place governing workplace behavior. Below, we’ve drafted some sample language based on her advice that you can use to share those policies:
The news out of Israel and Gaza continues to be heartbreaking, and for some members of our community, deeply personal.
Our workplace is not immune to the tensions that are rising the world over right now, but we are all united in our desire to make this company one where every person feels valued, respected, and heard. To that end, I wanted to share a few reminders about how we treat one another:
- We know that it’s impossible to leave our emotions, experiences, and opinions at the door when we show up for work. We don’t expect you to do so. In fact, we know that these varied perspectives make our community all the richer.
- Situations like the current conflict can make visible new differences with our colleagues that we were previously unaware of, or make those differences more glaring. It can be all too easy to start to see one another as sides, rather than as individuals. Remember that your colleagues are still your colleagues: people you know, respect, and collaborate with every day.
- There’s a difference between respectful self-expression and hateful or bigoted speech. We will not stifle the former. We will not tolerate the latter. Our workplace is built on trust, and we trust you to know the difference.
- In turn, you can trust us to hold all employees, at all levels, responsible for upholding our values [link] and acting in alignment with our code of conduct [link].
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or to your manager with any questions or concerns.