While union participation reached a record-low of 10% last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, strike activity was on the rise, with workers leading 33 major work stoppages, a 24-year high.HR pros can play a strategic role in helping management navigate unionization efforts, and to best guide them, HR needs to understand what they legally can and cannot do, according to Devora Lindeman, an employment lawyer at New York City-based firm Greenwald Doherty, LLP. A misstep, she said, can result in an unfair labor practice charge from the National Labor Relations Board.

Lindeman and John Frehse, the global head of labor strategy at consulting firm Ankura, shared with HR Brew what people pros need to know.

What you can’t do. When advising companies on how they legally cannot respond to unionization efforts, Lindemand said she uses a handy acronym: TIPS, or threaten, interrogate, promise, and surveil.

Keep reading here.—MC

We know every hour of your day is precious (it’s why you love reading this little newsletter in five minutes). But what if we told you about a training that could save you many hours on a daily basis?

The Copilot for Microsoft 365 for HR professionals training series is a small n’ mighty, short n’ sweet training created specifically for HR pros.

By spending an hour of your time at this training, you’ll get tons of hours back, thanks to Copilot’s capabilities. Think: creating job descriptions, screening resumes, and scheduling interviews.

And its features don’t stop at the recruitment process. In the (free) training, you’ll discover all the ways Copilot can help you:

• Onboard new employees.
• Manage employee performance.
• Improve employee engagement.
• Ensure compliance with regulations.

See how much time Copilot can save you and your team. Register here.

Oracle announced Wednesday an update to its skills infrastructure within its Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM platform that allows HR pros to develop a skills-based talent strategy in every facet of the function: from learning and development (L&D) to performance management to recruiting to workforce planning.

Oracle Dynamic Skills aims to facilitate a skills framework across the platform so recruiters, L&D pros, HR teams, and beyond can operate from a skill-informed approach to their people work. The update was aimed at making it easier for organizations to build out a skill-based talent strategy.

“We have taken [previous skills] infrastructure and supercharged it with better AI and with the aggregation approach, bringing in…third party capabilities,” said Yvette Cameron, SVP of global HCM product strategy at Oracle.

Zoom out. The move comes as advancements in AI are changing the way talent leaders are thinking about skills in the workplace. The shelf life of skills is getting shorter, a comprehensive skilling strategy important for HR pros to consider.

Keep reading here.—AD

If no one’s told you yet, you are influential.

Or you can be—and knowing how to find your influence at work is what Brian Smith, founder and managing partner at consulting firm IA Business Advisors, hopes readers will take away from his and Mary Griffin’s three-part series, The “I” in Team. The final book in the series, Responsible Influence: Build the “I” in Team, was published on June 4.

Smith shared with HR Brew how people pros can find their influence and help employees do the same.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What do you want HR pros to know about your book series?

The three books are about the influence of humans in the different aspects we find ourselves, which is individual, alone, or together with one or more people on a team. That’s why it’s called The ‘I’ in Team Series. And, the books go over how to first find yourself and what your influence is…and then it progresses through our second book on what [you] do with that understanding, and third, with that understanding of what you want to do, how can you build and expand your influence to others?

Keep reading here.—MC

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