The M.I.D., as we call it, is curated by our editorial team from more than 50 news sources. Like a lot of good ideas, this started as something I wanted for myself. If I can’t read everything, I at least want to stay abreast of the most important developments.
This week in HR, companies began to hire refugees, healthcare heated up, top-paying HR positions were revealed, and social media continued to bedevil HR.
When Abdul Nasir Rahimi started his job hunt in the U.S., employers didn’t quite know what to make of him: a former interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan with a law degree and experience overseeing major infrastructure projects. He made little headway submitting his CV online. Finally at a job fair he managed to land a role as a security manager for the Hilton hotel company. “I told them I’m not overqualified. I’m ready to work. I have to start from somewhere,” the 36-year-old recalls. As the flight of millions of people from Afghanistan and Ukraine push the world’s refugee crisis to a brink, America’s corporate world is starting to respond. Hilton is among the more than 40 major companies, including Amazon, Pfizer and Pepsico, that pledged this week to hire nearly 23,000 refugees over the next three years — one of the biggest public commitments to date. BBC
With healthcare costs expected to rise over the next three years, managing health plan costs is a top priority for many U.S. employers, a survey released Thursday found. The Willis Towers Watson (WTW) report received responses from 455 U.S. employers in August. Employers expect healthcare costs to increase 6% next year, up from the 5% increase they are experiencing this year. Respondents don’t see this improving down the road either, with 71% saying they anticipate moderate to significant increases over the next three years. Another 54% of respondents said they expect their healthcare costs to be above their budget for 2022. To combat this, 41% of employers said they have made changes to their three-year budget plans and 47% said they are discussing changes. These adjustments include implementing programs and/or selecting vendors that will bring down costs; increasing emphasis on account-based health plans or consumer-directed health plans; and shifting costs to employees through premium contributions. An account-based health plan combines a high deductible health plan with a health savings account. MedCity News
Employees’ greater expectations for a supportive organizational culture are being reflected in higher pay for HR professionals, new research shows. Compensation data and software firm Payscale’s Top Jobs and Skills in HR Wage Report analyzed salary profiles completed between July 2021 and July 2022 by 37,859 HR professionals throughout the U.S. Among the findings: Organizations are investing in training programs and professional development. Training Administrator II tops the list of jobs with the fastest wage growth, with a 21.7% increase in pay. Professional Development Manager III and Learning Manager are first and third on the highest-paying jobs list, with median pay of $308,000 and $214,000, respectively. Nontraditional HR positions in areas such as wellness promotion and diversity management have grown in importance. As a result, wages for these positions have also grown in recent years. This shift reflects the breadth of expectations employees now hold for their employers. SHRM
TikTok is all the rage in an unexpected place — the workplace. The Gen Z-adored app where people can post short videos reached one billion active global users last September and has only grown since. The app has increasingly been used to chronicle the good, bad and ugly of workplaces, with employees posting their own content during their shifts. Dunkin’ approved brand ambassadors to share their work experiences and favorite products back in 2020. One former ambassador, Patrick Navarro, went viral last year for his under 60-second clip sharing his most interesting work experiences at the coffee chain that resulted in 1.5 million views. Still, employees have been fired after posting a TikTok at work or about work. A Chick-fil-A employee said she was fired after sharing a viral video that revealed how to save money at the chain when ordering a mango passion tea. A Domino’s employee also posted that he was fired for his videos, which were mostly of him preparing and boxing pizzas, because they were “apparently against company policy.” And one user posted on her TikTok account about how she got a new job in the tech industry that raised her income from $70,000 to $90,000 and other videos about how she got the job. Soon thereafter she shared, on TikTok of course, that she had been fired from her new job for her posts. Worklife
An image of a notice from an employer stating workers are “subject to attendance discipline” if they’re late to work by a minute has gone viral on Reddit, where it received over 10,200 upvotes at the time of this writing. The image showed a notice from “Human Resources,” which began: “Please be aware when you swipe in late or swipe out early, there is no grace period and you are subject to attendance discipline as this will count as a full EL [earned leave, the equivalent of annual leave] day. Documentation will need to be provided to avoid discipline. You are expected to be at your work station ready to work at the start of your shift and to remain there except for breaks or the end of your shift.” Several other Redditors could relate to the frustration of the original poster, with some sharing their own similar stories. In a comment that received 1,100 upvotes, user notyourbrobro10 said: “This is how I always approached ‘even a minute late is a tardy’ OK cool then I’ll be 5 hours late instead of 5 minutes. Happy?” Newsweek
