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In episode 113 of “The JoyPowered® Workspace Podcast,” JoDee and Susan discuss the challenges employers are facing today with Domenique Camacho Moran, Head of the Labor and Employment Group at Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Employers and HR professionals certainly faced lots of changes in 2020, and some of those changes may affect what the future of work will look like. JoDee and Susan discuss a SHRM article listing six key areas expected to be important in workplaces in the next 5 years.

Domenique Camacho Moran joins the show to share her thoughts on some of the challenges we faced in 2020 and what those impacts might be in 2021 and beyond. There are lots of issues HR professionals are dealing with right now, and it’s important to prioritize what needs to be done now, what should be done soon, and what you can wait on.

Remote work has made it easier to give people good feedback, but also easier to avoid the feedback that isn’t so positive. Now is a good time to do some resetting and make sure our performance appraisals are addressing the things we want to evaluate.

Some lessons from 2020 stand out to Domenique. The first is that emergency plans are essential; we may not be able to predict crises, but it’s important to be prepared with what to do in a crisis. The second is that crisis management skills are a critical component of your senior leadership teams. Lastly, fear matters; fear has been a real part of the workplace experience over the last year , and you can’t ignore the fear your employees are feeling.

Coming up, the vaccine question is a big one – should you require employees to get vaccinated? We’ve also seen a lot of tension and political acrimony, and it’s started to bleed into the workplace; make sure you’re considering things like whether employees will be allowed to have slogans on their masks, and if so, which ones.

In this episode’s listener question, the co-hosts are asked whether it’s okay to include information on how to apply for unemployment in materials given to departing employees in a layoff. In the news, the U.S. Department of Justice filed its first criminal charge alleging a group of employers agreed not to poach each other’s employees.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Purple Ink
• Susan Tinder White Consulting
• “What Will the Workplace Look Like in 2025?”
• HR on the Mat
• Farrell Fritz, P.C.
• Domenique’s email
• “DOJ brings first criminal no-poach charge after warning HR pros of prison time”

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