When we think of company perks, the standard offerings often come to mind: A gym membership, subway card, or office snacks are all items employers might foot the bill for in order to keep their employees happy. If you’re lucky, maybe you get a branded company mug at the holiday party.

But what about country club dues, or tickets to a sporting event? How about a ride on the corporate jet? These more lavish rewards—known as perquisites, or perks—are typically non-cash benefits reserved for executives at larger firms. They’re also regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which requires public companies to disclose these benefits when they amount to more than $10,000 annually, unless the perk is “integrally and directly related to the performance of the executive’s duties.” Such personal benefits are considered a form of income, and thus subject to taxation.

Boeing recently revealed in an SEC filing that it neglected to properly disclose more than $500,000 worth of travel that executives took on the company’s aircraft in 2021 and 2022. While these trips were initially recorded as business travel, they should have been disclosed as perquisites.

How employers should approach perquisites. Perks like the one Boeing grants its executives are coming under closer federal scrutiny.

Keep reading here.—CV

HR teams stare at a hefty load of admin work on the daily. Imagine if HR and payroll functions were consolidated to improve efficiency and increase the time left for strategizing.

Dreams do come true. Paylocity’s unified software suite simplifies essential HR and payroll needs to foster flexibility…and eliminate the multiple tabs you probably have open right now (hey, no judgment).

Improve efficiency by decreasing admin work, reduce turnover with employee experience tech, and do it all while staying compliant with doc collection, automation, and custom reporting. It can all be done, courtesy of Paylocity’s singular platform.

Paylocity can help teams drive better business outcomes—like 17% higher headcount and 20% better employee retention, for starters.

Try it out.

Following a summer of record-breaking heat and associated deaths, Phoenix amended its city code to better protect contractors working in the Arizona capital from “heat-related illnesses and injuries in the workplace.”

The ordinance, which Phoenix’s city council passed unanimously, applies to city contractors and subcontractors whose employees work “in an outdoor environment.” Under the new rule, covered employers must develop a written heat safety plan that, at a minimum:

• Makes “sanitized cool drinking water” available to all employees and contract workers for free, at easily accessible locations
• Allows workers to take “regular and necessary breaks,” in addition to hydration breaks
• Provides access to air conditioning and/or shaded areas
• Installs functional air conditioning in “vehicles with enclosed cabs” by May 1, 2025
• Includes “effective acclimatization practices”
• Conducts training that is available and easy to understand for all employees and contract workers

Turning up the heat. Despite a push to develop a federal heat-specific workplace standard, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn’t currently have one in place. Local efforts to protect workers from the heat in Florida and Texas have been thwarted by Republican lawmakers. In the absence of more meaningful policies, there are a few measures HR can take to protect workers exposed to the heat.

Keep reading here.—CV

We chat 1:1 with HR pros about their career journeys. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to share your story with us.

Is working as a camp counselor anything like working as an HR manager?

Ask Joe Cottew, people operations manager at coffee importer Cafe Imports, and he’ll say the two jobs are actually pretty similar. Long before Cottew ventured into HR, the then-16-year-old got his start as an assistant camp counselor at the YMCA’s Camp Ihduhapi in Loretto, Minnesota.

From crisis management to mentoring, Cottew told HR Brew how spending his summers getting kids to play nice taught him invaluable skills that have assisted him in his HR career.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did your first job help your HR career?

Being a camp counselor is one of those roles where there are so many transferable skills. When you start out as a young person and you don’t know much about anything, you learn about teamwork, leadership, following through, being true to your word, caring for others. And [what’s] absolutely essential is being able to listen and understand, because when you’re working with kids, if you don’t listen, you get lost.

Keep reading here.—MC

New HR dream team just dropped. Humans are the heart of every talent experience, but AI is ready to help. Dig into the new relationship between AI and human intelligence at Beamery’s Spark Live virtual conference on June 5. You’ll learn about the evolving role of HR and the transformative power of AI. RSVP here.