The median age is rising across the United States, a trend that is expected to continue.

In the workplace, age isn’t just a number. Embracing generational diversity can improve knowledge, performance and culture. But too often, age-related stereotypes lead to conflict, disengagement and legal claims.

Be aware of the challenges

Generational differences may exist in preferred ways of working, including when and where to work. Employees may have different pressures and priorities at different life stages. Gaps in pay, technical knowledge, experience and communication styles can also create tension.

The Silent Generation and Baby Boomers

The number of employees over 55 has doubled since the early 2000s. More than four million Americans will turn 65 this year and every year through 2027, reports Yahoo Finance. 

Some members of the Silent Generation and Baby Boomers feel like they are being pushed out or removed from consideration for specific roles because of their age. Since 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been resolving around 12,000 to 15,000 age discrimination cases a year.

Generation X and Millennials

Generation X is often called “the forgotten generation.” Many Gen Xers feel overlooked as they balance workplace duties with caring for young kids, aging parents or both. 

The same is true for many millennials, who make up the largest cohort in the workforce. They are seeking improvements to work-life balance, office culture and salary disparities.

Generation Z

Generation Z (Gen Z) will soon surpass the workforce percentage of baby boomers. Many members of Gen Z entered the workforce amidst unprecedented global crises, and they are still catching up on interpersonal communication and workplace conflict skills in remote and hybrid arrangements.

In short, every generation faces challenges. It’s essential to understand their viewpoints. Supporting your diverse employees and integrating their skill sets is about more than managing legal issues and discrimination claims. Organizations work best when employees embrace their differences and share their strengths.

Embrace multigenerational strengths and differences

Differences between employees shouldn’t overshadow the advantages of multigenerational workforces. Advantages include:

• Diversity of thought. Different generations bring unique insights, skills and experiences. Together, these contributions can enhance innovation, problem-solving and decision-making.
• Customer and client relations. A workforce with broad experiences can better meet the needs of diverse customers and clients.
• Workplace culture. Working together reduces stereotypes. It encourages employees to appreciate different skill sets and work processes. Respectful interactions lead to better collaboration, engagement, retention and organizational continuity.
• Resilience. A more comprehensive range of knowledge, people skills and technical know-how can help your company withstand disruptive forces. Drawing from diverse abilities and experiences increases your resilience in the face of emerging technologies, social movements, political crises and economic challenges.

Strategies to embrace employees of all ages

Addressing your employees’ varied needs is vital to creating intergenerational harmony. The following three strategies can enhance your workplace for all generations.

• Customize your communications.
• Use diverse training practices.
• Provide voluntary benefits to meet different needs.

Customized communications

Each generation wants to feel valued and respected. Using their preferred forms of communication creates goodwill. Customizing your communications can demonstrate respect and expand your reach. It’s an important caveat that members of each generation are not uniformly alike. Ask managers to get to know the individual preferences of their teams.

However, as a general rule, older generations gravitate toward in-person conversations and phone calls, while younger generations prefer instant messages, text messages and social media posts. Emails tend to be universal. Develop a communications strategy across platforms to highlight the strengths of age diversity and the benefits of collaboration and knowledge-sharing.

Diverse training

Generational differences can also be seen in training preferences. Offer various opportunities to reach your employees where they learn best. Members of the Silent Generation and Baby Boomers may prefer classroom learning and in-person workshops. Gen X, millennials and Gen Z may prefer webcasts, apps and on-the-job training.

A two-way mentoring program is an effective way to pair employees of different ages and experience levels. Older employees can pass along institutional knowledge, experiences and insights from decades of decision-making and dealing with different personalities. Younger employees can explain new trends and ways of working, including emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Voluntary benefits

Voluntary benefits offer another way to meet different generational needs. Voluntary benefits can supplement your core offerings, allowing you to expand your reach without increasing benefits costs. Employees pay for some or all of their voluntary benefits, but they receive the advantage of vetted resources, group rates and automatic payroll deductions.

Voluntary benefits let employees select offerings that meet the needs of their life stages. You can assess your offerings each year to ensure they’re aligned with generational needs. Options may include:

• Dental and vision benefits
• Tuition assistance and student loan repayment programs
• On-demand or faster-access paychecks
• Free or reduced-cost apps for financial wellness, mental health and career development
• Gym memberships
• Life, short- and long-term disability, critical illness and hospital indemnity insurance
• Caregiver benefits such as backup child care and elder care resources
• Pet insurance
• Financial counseling sessions
• Retirement education and Medicare information
• Phased retirement programs
• Volunteer programs

Examine your offerings

For more information on workplace practices and benefits offerings with multigenerational appeal, talk to your insurance broker or benefits adviser. They can help you align your resources with workforce needs to get the most from your diverse employees. 

For more information

Need help with HR? Reach out to our Human Resources Consulting team.

This content is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing professional, financial, medical or legal advice. You should contact your licensed professional to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Please refer to your policy contract for any specific information or questions on applicability of coverage.

Please note coverage can not be bound or a claim reported without written acknowledgment from a OneGroup Representative.

Written content in blog post: Copyright © 2024 Applied Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Approximately 44% of adults ages 19 to 30 and 28% of adults ages 35 to 50 reported using marijuana in any form.

Marijuana use among adults ages 19 to 50 reached an all-time high in 2022, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Given statistics like these, it’s likely some portion of your workforce uses marijuana, either recreationally or medicinally. Thus, it’s important to understand your legal rights to enforce drug-use policies, ensure a healthy and safe work environment, and balance your company obligations with the rights of your employees.

The state of marijuana laws

Though the use of marijuana is illegal at the federal level, it has either been legalized or decriminalized in most states. As of December 2023:

• Federally, the use of marijuana in either a medicinal or recreational capacity is still illegal. The federal government regulates the use of drugs through the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The CSA does not differentiate between medicinal and recreational use.
• Only four states (Idaho, Wyoming, Kansas and South Carolina) have not legalized marijuana in any form, whether for recreational or medicinal use.
• Twenty-four states, Guam, and the District of Columbia have fully legalized marijuana, even though it’s still banned under federal law. The states are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
• Twenty-two states allow the use of marijuana in at least some capacity, or have fully or partially decriminalized it: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Safety at work

You have a duty under the Occupational Safety and Health Act to maintain a safe and healthy work environment. If someone is impaired by the use of cannabis while working and cannot safely perform their duties, they could be putting themselves and potentially others at risk. You are required to address such situations.

This starts with crafting a comprehensive drug use policy and evenhandedly applying and enforcing it. Safety-sensitive industries are likely to have zero tolerance policies, according to the National Safety Council, but even zero-tolerance companies need to be careful when applying anti-marijuana use policies.

In some instances, marijuana may be prescribed to treat a medical condition with authorized use under state law. If the employee can still safely perform their duties, you may be required to provide an accommodation under state law.

Privacy rights and drug screening practices

You should consider whether a workplace drug-testing policy infringes on employees’ legal right to use marijuana when they aren’t working. For instance, disciplining or terminating an employee for consuming cannabis while off the clock could land you in hot water in states where recreational marijuana is legal. (If you have federal contracts, you may still be required to screen applicants for drug use and automatically disqualify those with positive results.)

When crafting a drug screening and use policy to meet state compliance requirements, consider these questions:

• Does the applicable state law limit your ability to perform a pre-hire or employment screening for marijuana?
• Is your ability to enforce a drug use policy limited under a state privacy act (assuming it’s lawful to possess and consume marijuana in your state)?
• Does the applicable state law limit the use of cannabidiol (CBD), tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or other products with low THC levels? (THC is the substance in cannabis that provides a “high.”)
• Do you need to make reasonable accommodations due to medical marijuana use under state law? If so, do you know what’s considered reasonable under applicable law?
• If you have a multijurisdictional workplace, how will your drug testing policy account for the various laws at play? Will you enact separate drug screening and use policies across various states?
• How will you respond if an employee appears to be impaired on the job? (This includes any testing you may want to administer as well as discipline if the employee tests positive.)

Understandably, these can be complex issues to navigate. As a best practice, consult with a licensed labor and employment attorney in your local jurisdiction about your rights and obligations.

When reasonable suspicion arises

In light of state decriminalization trends, a good approach is to think about marijuana use as you would think of alcohol use in your workplace. Your workplace is not likely to ban an employee from drinking when they are not on your premises, on call or working.

If you have a reasonable suspicion that someone is impaired on the job, follow your company’s established procedures for documenting the incident. For instance, a comprehensive process may include steps such as these:

• Document the concern. Who raised a complaint about the person’s behavior? Was it a coworker, a manager or someone else? What did they say they observed?
• Approach the employee to evaluate the situation for yourself. Consider whether the employee appears to be disoriented or experiencing blurred vision, dizziness, slurred speech, or other symptoms that may indicate they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
• Have another member of management evaluate the employee to confirm your observations. Document their findings as well as your own. If you don’t believe reasonable suspicion exists based on both managers’ findings, end the process.
• If the managers have corroborated reasonable suspicion of impairment, immediately remove the employee from any safety-sensitive work environment and ask them to wait in an area that is not safety-sensitive.
• Explain to the employee that they will need to consent to undergo a drug test to rule out a drug policy violation. Refusal to consent could be grounds for discipline or termination, depending on how your drug testing policy is worded and assuming the employee has received a copy of the policy.
• Keep the employee out of work until the test results are in, if your policy allows.
• If the test comes back negative, return the employee to their position as soon as practicable. If it’s positive, consider progressive discipline or automatic termination  pursuant to your policy.
• Communicate with the worker about your employee assistance program (EAP), if applicable.
• Have the employee sign a last chance agreement (LCA), if applicable. An LCA may include provisions like:
  • The employee agrees to participate in the EAP.
  • The employee understands they will be subject to an unpaid suspension (of X days) for violating your drug use policy.
  • The employee agrees to take follow-up drug tests at random or scheduled intervals for a specified duration of time.
  • The employee understands that failure to adhere to LCA terms will result in immediate termination.

As always, consult with an experienced labor attorney or HR compliance professional before implementing or editing your drug screening and use policy.

With many companies experiencing labor shortages, consider whether a positive test result should disqualify someone from work or result in grounds for termination. Again, this requires balancing your duty to address workplace hazards with the legalization of marijuana. Seek counsel before taking disciplinary action against an employee for marijuana use.

For more information

To learn more, reach out to our Human Resources Consulting team.

This content is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing professional, financial, medical or legal advice. You should contact your licensed professional to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Please refer to your policy contract for any specific information or questions on applicability of coverage.

Please note coverage can not be bound or a claim reported without written acknowledgment from a OneGroup Representative.

Written content in blog post: Copyright © 2023 Applied Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Noncompete clauses are a common fixture of employer-employee agreements.

On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) finalized its Noncompete Clause Rule. If the rule takes effect, it will require businesses to:

• Halt enforcement of existing noncompete agreements, or clauses of agreements
• Refrain from entering into new noncompete agreements (with a few exceptions)

In this article, we’ll discuss the basics of the rule and what it means for your business.

What are noncompetes, and do you have them?

Noncompete clauses are a common fixture of employer-employee agreements. They’re most often found in offer letters or other similar documents. If you’ve been using a template agreement with your workers, you may have noncompete clauses that you’re unaware of.

A noncompete clause limits an employee’s ability to seek or accept employment with a competitor or leave their employer and start a competing business. By law, these clauses must define a geographic scope and temporal limit (time period) for the employee’s competitive activities.

When does the Noncompete Clause Rule take effect?

The final rule is set to take effect 120 days after its publication in the Federal Register, which has not yet happened. 

However, the rule is facing immediate legal challenges. These challenges question the rule’s legitimacy and the FTC’s authority to pass it. The rule may not survive these legal challenges. In any event, litigation may push back the rule’s effective date significantly.

Are there any exceptions to the rule?

The FTC has outlined three narrow exceptions to the rule:

1. An exception for senior executives: Senior executives who are in “policy-making positions” and make $151,164 per year or more are excepted from the final rule if their noncompete agreements existed before the rule was finalized. New noncompete agreements with senior executives will be invalid under the rule.
2. An exception for the sale of a business: The final rule does not prohibit noncompete clauses involved in the sale of a business, all of a business’s assets, or the sale of an ownership interest in a business.
3. An exception for current employees: The final rule only prohibits employers from banning competitive activities after the employee’s tenure with the employer has ended. Employers are free to prohibit employees from engaging in competitive activities during their tenure.

How should you communicate with your employees about the rule?

You will be required to notify employees of the nullification of their noncompete clauses within 180 days of the final rule’s effective date. The FTC has provided model language for this purpose. You will not have to formally rescind your existing noncompetes (e.g., amend existing employment agreements).

How can you protect your interests in light of the Noncompete Clause Rule?

While the FTC’s Noncompete Clause Rule may represent a blow to your interests, there are other ways to accomplish similar goals. 

For example, you can strengthen the nondisclosure and nonsolicitation clauses of your employment agreements to protect your confidential information and trade secrets. You can also clearly define what categories of information constitute confidential information and trade secrets.

Seventeen states currently allow employment injunctions in the absence of a noncompete between an employer and an employee. An injunction may be awarded if an employee leaves your company for a competing business, has access to trade secrets, and will inevitably rely on that trade secret information in their new role.

Make sure you comply with the Noncompete Clause Rule and other requirements

No matter the size of your business or the number of workers you employ, barring a successful legal challenge, you should be prepared for the final rule to go into effect. At this juncture, you should review your existing employment agreements for explicit and de facto noncompete agreements. Create a plan for revising the language if the final rule takes effect.

To learn more about how recent FTC actions and other legal developments could affect your business, contact your benefits broker or legal counsel.

Need more information?

To learn more about how the noncompete clause rule will affect your business, and how to prepare, contact our Human Resources Consulting team.

This content is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing professional, financial, medical or legal advice. You should contact your licensed professional to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Please refer to your policy contract for any specific information or questions on applicability of coverage.

Please note coverage can not be bound or a claim reported without written acknowledgment from a OneGroup Representative.

Written content in blog post: Copyright © 2024 Applied Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.