Employers' compliance challenges have swelled on multiple fronts over the past year as HR and business leaders grapple with an increasingly complex regulatory landscape. With changes under the Trump administration proving slow to materialize, most employers continue to anticipate robust enforcement by the Department of Labor and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in particular. Meanwhile, the growing patchwork of state and local employment laws has made it difficult for companies to develop policies that apply across jurisdictions, especially with regard to paid sick leave, marijuana legalization and background checks.
With the continued momentum of the #MeToo movement and calls for workplace equality extending to include equal pay, employers are keenly focused on preventing workplace harassment and pay inequality. Companies are also starting to use robotics, artificial intelligence and analytics to boost efficiency and improve performance, but few are seizing on the full range of opportunities, nor are they sufficiently preparing for the impact on the workforce.
Littler's eighth annual survey – completed by 1,331 in-house counsel, HR professionals and C-suite executives – analyzes the impact of these legal, social and technological issues on the workplace.