Nearly half of HR are new employees:  According to a new Paycor survey, nearly half (46%) of HR professionals have been in their roles for two years or less. To counteract recent hire turnover, smart companies will invest in an extended, more robust onboarding experience and best-in-class HR and talent tools. The report, HR in 2025: Insights & Predictions, dives into key trends expected to shape the human resources landscape over the next year, drawing on insights from a survey of more than 7,000 professionals. Another insight from the report is that employees with two years or less at a company are the biggest flight risk. They are 38% more likely to search for a new job in the next 12 months. Also, employees who have been with a company for one year or less are 21% less likely to rate their leaders favorably. Further, C-suite executives see HR as the owner of leadership development. Chief executives cite "lack of HR support" and "outdated performance management systems" as the top two reasons for ineffective management. There's no longer any doubt that the top of the organization views HR as a mission-critical strategic partner.  Source: Paycor 7/9/24

The Workday AI applicant tracking lawsuit continues: A closely watched discrimination lawsuit over software provider Workday's artificial intelligence-powered hiring tools is headed into discovery after a California federal court ruled the company may be subject to federal antidiscrimination laws if its products make decisions on candidates.  The case was lodged in early 2023 by Derek Mobley, who is Black, over the age of 40, and suffers from depression and anxiety. He said in a proposed class action that Workday's applicant screening software dictates which resumes are passed on to companies and unfairly disfavors candidates like him.  Mobley, who has degrees and experience in finance and information technology, applied for more than 100 jobs since 2017 that used the Workday platform and was rejected by each one, he said.  The questions are whether Workday’s AI tool was instrumental in rejecting Mobley or whether the company to which he applied reviewed the resume and determined that there were better qualified candidates than Mobley.  There is also a question as to which dataset was used for the AI tool - Workday’s or the various companies. Depending how the facts play out, Mobley may still lose.  Source:  Law360 7/15/24

Hiring is slowing down:  The unemployment rate rose to a three-year high of 4.1% in June, with 6.8 million people unemployed. At that time a year ago, the unemployment rate was at 3.6% and 6 million people were unemployed.  The rising unemployment rate — driven primarily by more people entering the workforce — means that it’s getting more competitive for job hunters to get hired. It’s just one of several signs of the changing narrative in the labor market.  Hiring was driven by federal and local government, healthcare, social services, and construction, with all other sectors at minimum hiring or at a negative. The quits rate has held steady at just 2.2% for seven months running, after reaching 3% during the pandemic.  Employees are less likely to switch to “greener” pastures.  The median duration of unemployment jumped higher last month, to 9.8 weeks from 8.9 weeks in May, and landed at a level not seen since January 2023, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.  If this trend continues the rest of the year, it is likely that the U.S. economy is slowing in growth, and increased hiring will be a burden on employers as healthcare costs are expected to eat up the salary budget.  Source:  CNN 7/8/24

Is there still a great resignation? The proportion of workers who expect to switch employers in the next 12 months is higher than that from the "Great Resignation" period of 2022, a PwC survey of the global workforce found. Around 28% of more than 56,000 workers surveyed by PwC said they were "very or extremely likely" to move from their current companies, compared to 19% in 2022, and 26% in 2023.  PwC's 2024 "Hopes and Fears" survey also showed workers are embracing emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and prioritizing upskilling amid rising workloads and heightened workplace uncertainty. About 45% of the workers surveyed said they have experienced rising workloads and an accelerating pace of workplace change in the last 12 months, with 62% saying they have seen more change at work in the past year than the previous 12 months. Among employees who use GenAI daily, 82% said they expect it to increase their efficiency in the next 12 months. Carol Stubbings, global markets and tax and legal services leader at PwC UK, said employers must invest in staff and tech platforms to mitigate pressures and retain talent. "The findings suggest that job satisfaction is no longer enough," she said.  Source:  Reuters 6/24/24

Are you satisfied with your compensation plan? Half of companies rated their overall compensation package as above average, according to exclusive research from EBN's 2024 compensation research report, which sought to explore current compensation trends and highlight best practices for adapting to market shifts. This is significantly higher than satisfaction around other competitive offerings, such as healthcare benefits and paid vacation.  As for how companies are determining the makeup of their compensation packages, 82% cited external benchmarking, 79% took into account an employee's experience, 76% listed budget constraints, and 60% said salary bands determined their pay and benefits strategy. As external benchmarking was the most popular strategy when determining compensation, 80% referenced similar roles in their geographic area. Among employers who use salary bands to determine compensation, 70% had bands for all positions at their company. Further, 80% percent say pay at their company is mostly or totally equitable and another 80% of employers have reviewed pay across the organization for equity within the past 24 months. It's paying off: One-third of employers said a move towards salary transparency has changed their compensation discussions with current employees. Most employers have issued or will issue raises in 2024, the report found, and the majority of those boosts — 90% — are based on performance.  Source:  EBN 6/24/24

Mail order drug plans costing more to employers than brick and mortar retail plans: At the urging of firms that manage their drug benefits, employers have turned to mail-order pharmacies to save money on prescriptions. The pharmacies promised to sell medicines to employees at lower prices than their bricks-and-mortar rivals by buying larger quantities from drugmakers and providing 90-day supplies.  Instead, the opposite is happening. Drugs ordered through the mail-order pharmacies are costing more, raising employers’ spending.  For example, one employee’s three-month supply of a prescription for a generic antidepressant, fluoxetine, would cost about $100, more than twice the average price that retail pharmacies paid for the drug. The same fluoxetine prescription could be purchased from the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug pharmacy for about $12.  The PBM mark ups are partly to blame. Generic prescriptions dispensed by mail pharmacies were marked up on average more than three times higher than prescriptions filled by bricks-and-mortar pharmacies, according to a recent analysis by 3 Axis Advisors, a healthcare research firm.  When weighing benefit options in the new plan year, it may be wise to move away from mail-order to brick and mortar to save on costs.  Source:  The Wall Street Journal 6/25/24