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This weekend, SHRM leadership met and emerged with a powerful vision for how we can lead forward on equity in the workplace and mitigating racism, particularly among Black Americans and other communities of color. It’s important to me that we share our thinking in response to your inquiries and interest on this important topic.

SHRM will be announcing a definitive and significant course of action: to convene the best minds to drive actions and solutions around equity in the workplace for the Black community. Our working title for this is “Together Forward @Work” with an initial focus on addressing racism in the workplace. Over the coming weeks you will hear more about this initiative and how we will further demonstrate our commitment.

Our first action is to establish a Blue Ribbon Commission that brings together the collective voices of those who can lead the way toward action, accountability and ownership. It’s clear, that after decades of actions, we need to find new and innovative ways to create the inclusive, diverse and safe world our members and their companies are desperately seeking, which is why this Commission is so critical. They will include contributors in positions of power and with critical expertise within SHRM and beyond. We will look to the Blue Ribbon Commission to strategize and co-create a robust set of actions that will also drive a longer-range agenda on diversity and bias.

The convening of this Blue Ribbon Commission is a significant and meaningful first step for our organization. We believe this is the right way for us to begin to contribute resources and create impact. The power of our 300,000 members to directly impact the lives of people where they often spend a majority of their days – at work – is enormous. And it comes with a significant responsibility to be substantive in how we serve. We are confident this will live up to that responsibility.

Finally, I recognize you are the front-line leaders to help your organizations manage through these extraordinary times of health, social and racial injustice. I am enormously proud of the power and positivity HR professionals bring to the table right now for business and society. We all know better workplaces = a better world and if all people are equitably represented in the workforce, everyone will achieve “better” even faster. While the Blue Ribbon Commission is busy at work, we encourage you to visit our Workplace Bias web page as a resource to support you today.

We look forward to the progress we can make together and will share more in the coming weeks. 

Sincerely,

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP 
SHRM President & CEO 

Dear MNSHRM Community,

Last Thursday we watched as George Floyd’s family and friends mourned his untimely death. He was a son, a brother, a father, a friend to many, and a fellow Minnesotan. His life was unjustly taken. 

Inequality, racism, and discrimination are issues in our country, communities, and in our organizations. This thread in the fabric of our society adversely impacts people of color, and black men in particular when we look at our criminal justice system.

As Human Resources professionals we have a responsibility to lead the way and show our colleagues, employees, and communities that everyone deserves fair and equal treatment. With the presence of racism happening in our communities now is the time for HR to lead, listen, understand and take real action to make our world at work and beyond a place with equality for all people.

We understand the events surrounding the murder of George Floyd have led to the unrest we are experiencing on our city streets and across the country. We further understand our voices and our actions will make a difference, and as MNSHRM, we further understand our voices and our actions make a difference, and we are committed to listen, learn and lead.

Yours in service,

MNSHRM State Council

After this weekend's protests over the death of George Floyd—plus the stress of the coronavirus pandemic—people will be coming to work with a lot on their minds. How can you support employees who are worried, angry or scared? How can you work to eliminate racism from your workplace?

SHRM Online has gathered resources to help HR professionals and people managers create safe spaces for difficult conversations, support employees who are facing discrimination, and create more open and inclusive workplaces. Read more.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released guidance on reopening schools, restaurants and other institutions locked down during the pandemic. The Federal Emergency Management Agency also released an Exercise Starter Kit to help companies discuss and work through how to safely reopen after weeks of coronavirus-related closures. Read more.

The Society for Human Resource Management canceled its 2020 annual conference May 11 in response to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the City of San Diego. https://bit.ly/2WjUE74

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that it will delay until March 2021 collection of EEO-1 Component 1 information—which asks for the number of employees who work for a covered business sorted by job category, race, ethnicity and gender. 

Read more.

As the coronavirus pandemic forced millions of Americans to suspend their normal daily activities and stay at home, huge swaths of the economy—airlines, hotels, restaurants, stores and even doctors’ offices—lost billions of dollars in income. The widespread commitment to public safety has had a catastrophic impact on the economy. As of late April, 30 million Americans had filed for unemployment benefits—the most dramatic rise in claims ever recorded. Virtually all of the job gains made in the decade since the Great Recession were erased in a matter of weeks.

Despite the passage of historic economic relief legislation that includes hundreds of billions of dollars in forgivable loans to businesses that keep their employees on payroll through the downturn, there’s mounting evidence that the job cuts are far from over. A research brief issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in late March estimated that more than 47 million Americans could be laid off by the end of the second quarter of 2020.

For many organizations, staff cuts provide a first line of defense against financial devastation. But business leaders contemplating layoffs, as well as when to recall employees, must work through myriad strategic considerations and navigate a complex tangle of federal and state laws governing pay, benefits and notice requirements. The decisions they make now will affect the ability of their businesses to recover as the economy rebounds.

Read more.

Under OSHA’s record-keeping requirements, COVID-19 is a recordable illness, and employers are responsible for recording cases of COVID-19.

With the SHRM OSHA Incident Tracker, comply with OSHA’s 300 record-keeping requirements — anywhere — anytime. With 1-year, 2-year and 3-year packages available, there is an option for everyone's needs. https://bit.ly/2zgFu9C

As coronavirus-related claims for unemployment insurance reach historic levels, state systems are overwhelmed, laid-off workers are frustrated, and anxiety is mounting.

Employers can't solve all these problems, but they can provide support to make the employees' transition as smooth as possible. That begins by recognizing there may be a stigma around collecting unemployment benefits even in these unique times.

"For generations it's been embedded in our culture that it's shameful to collect unemployment," said Deb Best, SHRM-SCP, a consultant near Schenectady, N.Y. "As HR professionals, we have to help normalize it. Read more.

When dealing with a critical situation such as the coronavirus pandemic, it's important for employers to overcommunicate, says columnist Jathan Janove. Don't hunker down with your own anxieties or leave employees to assume the worst about what will happen next. Continue routine employee communications, plus communications related to the crisis. Read more.