Is talent management a worthwhile activity to undertake in your company or organization? And can it help meet your recruitment and employee retention objectives for the remainder of the year ahead? 
Overall, talent management is a set of integrated HR processes designed to attract, develop, motivate and retain productive, engaged employees.
The goals of talent management are simple: to create a high-performance, sustainable organization that meets its strategic and operational business objectives.
In a nutshell, talent management helps organizations:
- Compete effectively in a complex, dynamic business environment to achieve sustainable growth.
- Develop leaders for tomorrow from within the organization.
- Maximize employee performance as a source of competitive advantage.
- Reduce regrettable turnover (by capturing meaningful real-time feedback from employees).
Successful keys in implementing a talent management program include:
- Elevating your company culture by ensuring HR programs are aligned with the vision and values of the company.
- Ensuring your job descriptions are accurate and up to date and interviews are aligned with each job’s requirements.
- Beginning your retention and brand strategy before new employees start by providing engagement strategies immediately.
- Providing ongoing two-way communication and incentive opportunities with employee coaching and career development.
Indeed, once an organization recruits and hires its preferred candidates, it’s all about retaining the most talented among them.
As part of this, consider developing employee management programs that focus on making sure these employees are adequately challenged in their roles and able to meet their goals and objectives. In addition, provide training and learning activities that lead to advancement opportunities (e.g., career planning programs and use of Individual Development Plans).
impactAction: If you’re interested in learning more about talent management programs for your team, contact us at info@impacthrllc.com or 443-741-3900.
Minimum Wage Levels Increase in DC, Montgomery County (MD), July 1
The minimum wage in the District of Columbia increases to $15.20/hour this July 1. In addition, the minimum wage in Montgomery County (MD) increases as follows: employers with 51 or more employees: $15/hour; employers with 11 to 50 employees: $14/hour; and employers with 10 or fewer employees: $13.50/hour.
EEOC Issues Clarification on Requiring Employee Vaccinations
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently issued new technical clarification as to whether employers may or may not require employees to receive COVID-19 vaccinations before entering their workplaces. 
According to the EEOC, federal laws do not prevent an employer from requiring employees entering the workplace to show proof of vaccination subject to the reasonable accommodation provisions of the Civil Rights Act and the ADA.
An accommodation could include employers asking un-vaccinated employees to wear masks while at work; stay socially distant during work hours; or get periodic COVID-19 tests.
The EEOC noted these principles apply whether employees get vaccinated in their communities or directly from their employers.
Read more (see Section K: Vaccinations).
impactAction: If you have questions about this EEOC vaccination policy, contact us at info@impacthrllc.com or 443-741-3900.
Employers: Best Practices to Keep the Workplace Safe
Safety in the workplace, especially during the pandemic, continues to be a key issue, especially as companies and organizations prepare for re-openings in their workplaces in the weeks ahead. 
As you work to build and maintain a safe workplace safe, consider some of these overarching best practices:
- Create and issue a written safety policy for employees to read and acknowledge. Employees should know they will be held accountable to the policy.
- Provide employees with a form (either paper or digital) so they can document and report their safety concerns. This promotes employee involvement in proactive safety assessments of the workplace.
- Make sure your employees feel comfortable raising concerns and confident those concerns will be addressed.
- Investigate all health and safety concerns, even if no one has made an official complaint.
- Provide paid sick leave and make requesting leave hassle-free. When sick employees are worried about a smaller paycheck or are required to find a substitute to cover their shift, they may feel pressured to come in to work while ill, putting colleagues and customers at risk.
- Quickly and thoroughly address instances of sexism, racism and other forms of inequality and discrimination.
impactAction: If you have questions about workplace safety, contact us at info@impacthrllc.com or 443-741-3900.
Virginia: New Overtime Pay Policy Begins July 1
For Virginia employees, a new overtime pay policy goes into effect Thursday, July 1, 2021.
The new law stipulates that for “any hours worked by an employee in excess of 40 hours in any one workweek, an employer shall pay such employee an overtime premium at a rate not less than one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate.”
While this provision tracks with federal overtime rules via the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Virginia’s new policy contains several slight differences including: a specific state method for calculating the regular rate of pay; an extended statute of limitations; automatic liquidated damages; and possible treble damages.
With this new law, Virginia employers are advised to review their overtime pay practices to ensure compliance with both the FLSA and Virginia law. Read more.
Report: Marijuana Usage in US Workforce Increases 2019-2020
Marijuana usage by employees in the U.S. workforce increased in the 2019-2020 time period with lower positivity rates in states permitting only medical marijuana use compared with states that have legalized recreational marijuana, according to a new report from Quest Diagnostics.
In the U.S. general workforce, marijuana positivity rates increased 16.1 percent in urine testing (2019-2020), 35.2 percent in oral fluid testing and 22.5 percent in hair testing.
Quest Diagnostics’ “Drug Testing Index” report data showed marijuana positivity increased in states with legal recreational use statutes 118 percent over an eight-year period (2012-2020).
View an interactive map with drug-test positivity rates for the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, plus the US. Read more.
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