Employco Blog

Recruiting has never been simple, and the COVID-19 pandemic is complicating matters even more. In this rapidly changing landscape, employers need to adapt if they want to attract and retain quality talent. To better prepare for this task, here are some recruiting practice trends employers should monitor in 2021.

1. Looking Inward for Talent – Recruiting is a challenge at any time, but especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, recruiters are suffering from many constraints, chief among them being slim budgets. In fact, 50% of talent professionals expect a smaller budget this year compared to last, according to a LinkedIn survey. This reality is spurring companies to look internally for talent. Year over year, internal mobility has increased 20%, according to LinkedIn. And that’s not a huge surprise, given that upskilling and retraining workers can be more cost efficient than hiring from outside an organization. Employers can focus on transferrable skills over task-specific abilities in 2021.

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Due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, more employees are working remotely than ever before. As management is challenged with leading effective remote teams, organizations may consider internal best practices and question whether any adjustments would help these teams succeed. By addressing the unique needs of employees in the remote workplace, employers can set the stage for effective and productive teams.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an all-time high of employees telecommuting, remote work had previously been growing steadily, and likely will continue to expand in the coming years. While many of the same principles of leading effective teams remain in place, organizations can take steps to ensure that remote teams are performing at a high level.

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Each presidential transition brings changes to the human resources landscape and we expect that to continue under President Joe Biden.

With any legislative change—regardless of intent or outcome—employers must adapt quickly or risk penalties. This can mean redrafting internal policies, recategorizing workers, changing organizational priorities, rewriting employee handbooks and any other HR responsibility. Essentially, the more prepared an employer is, the easier it will be for them to succeed in a changing landscape. To that end, this article discusses a few of the potential significant changes employers can expect during a Biden presidency.

• Minimum Wage: Many states have started gradually increasing their minimum wages at the end of 2020, but not all of them. President Biden wants to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026 and eliminate the tipped wage. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 and has historically only increased by a couple of dollars every two decades. Another significant impact would be the elimination of the tipped wage ($2.13 per hour). Currently, tipped employees earn a lower minimum wage (called a tip credit), but are expected to make up the difference with tips or be paid the remainder by their employer if they don’t make enough in tips. If President Biden eliminates the tip credit, employers would have to start paying those employees significantly more money, which could lead to much higher labor costs. Employers are currently unable to retain tips themselves—they all go to employees. If the tip credit is eliminated, such regulations might also be amended as a way to lower labor costs.

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On Dec. 22, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a final rule to amend employee tip regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The final rule will become effective 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

• Tip Pooling – The FLSA allows employers to collect all the tips employees receive into a common employee tip pool, then redistribute these tips among employees in an equitable manner.

• The Final Rule – This new final rule prohibits employers from keeping their employees’ tips and specifically prohibits managers and supervisors from keeping any portion of employee tips, including tips from a tip pool. In addition, the rule limits an employer’s ability to implement mandatory tip pools that include non-tipped employees and incorporates a new recordkeeping requirement for employers that do not take a tip credit but collect employees’ tips to operate a mandatory tip pool. Finally, the new rule also incorporates new civil monetary penalties, codifies recent DOL guidance on how to compensate a tipped employee who performs non-tipped duties at work and harmonizes FLSA requirements with Executive Order 13658 (Establishing a Minimum Wage for Contractors).

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An appropriations bill, which was signed into law on Dec. 27, 2020, does not extend the leave mandates created by the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLA) and the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA), which expire on Dec. 31, 2020.

As a result, the requirement for employers to provide employee paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) will end on that date. However, the bill does extend the time limit for employer tax credits for employee leave required by those laws. Specifically, the tax credits will continue to be available for employers that offer EFMLA and EPSLA leave through March 31, 2021.

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