If you’ve relied on noncompete agreements to protect your business and your business secrets, you’re in for a bit of a bumpy ride: The Federal Trade Commission just voted to ban noncompete agreements for all workers. This ban not only looks forward, preventing employers and employees from entering into new agreements, but invalidates current noncompetes for everyone but senior executives (defined as people earning “more than $151,164 annually who are in a ‘policy-making position.'”) Here’s what you need to know. No new noncompetes As soon as this goes into effe ..read more

Sometimes, the universe hands you the perfect thing that you need at the moment. Sometimes, it hands you the worst possible thing. Regardless, you can’t give up. You have to keep going. Improv is all about “yes, anding” whatever life throws at you instead of sitting down and crying. (Although, to be fair, crying is allowed in improv. Crying is allowed in real life. You can cry as you move forward.) When life hands you the right thing Last night, in my beginning improv class, we played one of my favorite games. For this one, the audience (or, in our case, the class members) wrote down three or ..read more

Humans of Talent Acquisition, would it help you to know how to: Get even the most avoidant hiring manager onto a call/meeting Demonstrate your AI-proof skills and value within the first 5 minutes Skillfully glean information from your hiring manager––something AI will never be able to do!––so you know who they need to hire, not want to hire. Gain their respect and commitment so the entire hiring process saves them (& you) time, money, and hassle Katrina Collier, author of The Robot-Proof Recruiter and the upcoming Reboot Hiring will present a webinar that will help you be a better ..read more

Shopify recently rolled out an extremely … interesting … compensation policy. Basically, the company will now limit pay raises to employees who amass the most points within a competitive ranking system. Those with higher point scores get raises. And others? Well, they’re out of luck, with not even a small raise. It sounds horrifying, and, indeed the consultancy CTOL Digital says, “While intended to drive performance, it pits colleagues against each other for pay raises, potentially eroding teamwork. In the short term, this may lead to decreased coo ..read more

When I was a teenager, my mother told me I should become a senator. Why? Because of this lovely little thing called the “filibuster,” where you could just keep talking forever and stop all Senate business until you either passed out, a la Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, or the rest of the Senate gives up and gives you what you want. Apparently, I liked to talk, and I had a lot to say – some of it ridiculous (well, in high school, most of it). But now, I think I’m a bit more educated than I was <cough> 30 <cough> years ago, with a couple of degrees (in political science, of course) an ..read more

  Suzanne Lucas, known as the Evil HR Lady, has a distinctive writing style characterized by clarity, directness, and a touch of humor. She addresses complex human resources issues in a manner that is accessible to both HR professionals and general readers. Lucas is known for demystifying the often bureaucratic and jargon-laden field of HR with straightforward, no-nonsense advice. Her style typically includes: Practicality: Suzanne focuses on giving practical, actionable advice that readers can apply directly to their workplace situations. This approach helps make her advice very relata ..read more

The White House just approved a proposal from the Department of Labor to raise the minimum salary for exemption to $55,068 per year. It’s currently at $35,568 per year, so this is quite a jump. What does this mean for your business? Let’s break it down. Salary exemption Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employees who work more than 40 hours a week are entitled to overtime. However, some employees are exempt from this rule under certain conditions. The first requirement an employee must meet to be exempt from overtime is that they be paid on a salary basi ..read more

Remember January of 2020 when you had never, not once, thought about rules regarding vaccines in the workplace? (Unless, of course, you worked in healthcare.) And 18 months later you could cite huge swaths of CDC guidelines by memory and had talked more about health than you had since your Junior Year in high school where the football coach taught health class. Think of all the disruption you’ve seen in your career just since 2020: Pandemics, layoffs, hiring pushes, AI, more layoffs, salaries going bonkers, new regulations, new rules, and whew! What’s next? No one knows, but it’s still your j ..read more

One in three hiring managers knowingly ask “illegal” questions during job interviews, according to a recent Resume Builder survey. And while, technically, very few of the questions mentioned in the survey are illegal to ask, queries about religion, race, gender, and pregnancy status (among other things) can still land you in hot water. Why? Because it is illegal to consider a candidate’s answer to those questions as part of the hiring process. The distinction between the two is critical. Obviously, you don’t need to panic if a candidate sees a pictu ..read more

It’s great when you can hire someone who can be up to speed in the first 15 minutes, but most people need training time. Even your newly hired chief financial officer needs considerable time to understand your processes and procedures. So, it’s certainly not surprising that it would take at least a couple of days of training to onboard a brand-new, entry-level employee. And that costs money. Which is why it’s no surprise that an ice cream company in California recently ran a job posting that contained this line: “Requires 2 Preliminary days of training (unpaid) wh ..read more