DE&I

Closing in

Black workers have historically earned less on average than their white counterparts, and prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, progress on closing this wage gap stalled. In the early 2000s, the difference between what Black and white workers in the US earned was the same as it had been in 1950, according to academic research cited by the New York Times.

Recent research from pay-equity software platform Syndio offers some encouraging findings, though: Black workers saw higher wage growth than white workers from 2021 to 2023, and as a result the racial wage gap has narrowed to the smallest it’s ever been.

Despite these positive trends, occupational segregation is likely to hinder progress toward closing the racial wage gap entirely, said Chris Martin, a labor research economist with Syndio.

Takeaways for HR. Given the strong wage growth the US economy has seen in recent years, Martin said it’s a good idea for HR leaders to audit their compensation practices to understand how worker pay has kept pace with the market.

Keep reading here.—CV

PRESENTED BY MARSH MCLENNAN AGENCY

Benefits worth bragging about

Your employees know what they want. Team up with Marsh McLennan Agency to create a benefits package that *actually* delivers it.

Their new report, 2024 Employee Health & Benefits Trends: The Evolving Workforce, breaks down the three key themes that are shaping employee benefits this year:

• Better benefits, better talent. Tailor benefits to your employees’ unique needs and make sure they know how to access those benefits and programs.
• Whole-person health. Investing in holistic health—think beyond EAPs to caregiver benefits and financial literacy—boosts organizational output and reduces the onset of costly health conditions.
• Healthcare economics. Plan optimization and data transparency help avoid shifting costs to employees and saves you $$$ amid rising costs of care and…everything else.

Getting mixed messages from junior staff and senior leadership? Marsh McLennan Agency hears that, so they also examined each of these key trends through a generational lens.

Get on the same page as today’s evolving workforce.

TECH

Lattice up

In January, Lattice onboarded its new CEO, Sarah Franklin, a former Salesforce executive. Franklin told employees in a note upon joining the team that the performance management platform is “prime for the age of AI, as there has never been a more important time to help companies manage people and their performance.”

Franklin told HR Brew the performance management platform aims to leverage AI to create simple ways for the technology to improve the way managers manage people and HR leaders create systems to foster “high-performing teams.”

Lattice unveiled this month a new AI feature for the platform’s employee engagement surveying tool. HR teams now have the option to enable this feature that can summarize and highlight insights from the survey responses, and suggest actions to take based on the feedback.

Zoom out. The engagement insights tool is the first in a series the platform is eyeing to augment how to manage people and enable companies to create high-performance teams.

Keep reading here.—AD

HR STRATEGY

The future is now

Since Covid-19 restrictions started loosening, experts have debated whether remote or in-person work is more effective, with some settling somewhere in the middle, promoting hybrid as the best approach. Gustavo Razzetti, CEO of consulting firm Fearless Culture, is one of those experts. In his 2022 book, Remote Not Distant: Design a Company Culture That Will Help You Thrive in a Hybrid Workplace, he shares how leaders can find a hybrid model that works for their organization.

In an interview with HR Brew, he discussed how the RTO debate has changed, and his advice for HR leaders deliberating over work models.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What is a key takeaway from your book?

The future of work is here, so things have already changed for good, and we need to accept the new reality. And…the present of work is flexible. What I mean by flexible is…trying to find what’s the best of remote and what’s the best of [the] in-person experience…What’s driving that need to return to the office? Basically, it’s resistance by leaders that don’t want to admit, and [this] is critical for HR leaders, that the world has changed. When I talk about flexibility, I’m talking [about] the flexibility to choose not only where you work for your location, but also when and how.

Keep reading here.—MC

WORK PERKS