This first week of February is starting out as eventful as the month of January.
The most recent jobs report shows The Strongest Job Growth in 10 Years, according to today’s story in TLNT … Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch, by all accounts a highly qualified jurist, to the Supreme Court; but the nomination promised to be a battle royale, not because of his qualifications, but due to the highly charged political environment. Whatever your politics, we believe, if approved, Neil Gorsuch will be a strong pick for small business – that story from our eESI blog …
President Trump also signed more executive orders (seven to date); some of which created significant controversy, like the Immigration ban. By comparison, though, Barack Obama signed 276 executive orders while president, including nine in his first two weeks; several of which were also politically controversial.
The Daily Signal believes Trump’s executive order calling for a 75% decrease in business regulations may provide a strong boost to small business …
In HR, eESI posted ‘Trump, Labor and Employment,’ a look at the administration’s policies, and the effect they will likely have in coming months … Glassdoor posted The Top 50 Jobs in America … and, the Fundera Blog published, 16 Small Business Regulations You Need-to-Know – a very good resource worth downloading … The IRS reminded business owners to beware of the W2 Phishing Scam that uses internal employee names to request W2 information.
Two stories about employee engagement made our list this week: first, several publications reported on Kraft-Heinz’s decision to forego buying a Super Bowl Ad this year and give their employees a paid holiday instead. We liked the Daily Dot’s version of the story because it included last year’s Super Bowl Ad, which was a real dog (sorry); and, we posted Daniel Pink’s Classic TED talk, The Puzzle of Motivation. The talk is 18 minutes, but well worth the time investment.
In Productivity, SHRM posted a story on The Workforce Burnout Epidemic. The article reveals some of the symptoms and causes of serious employee disengagement. On this issue, MindTools’s article, How to Avoid Burnout, provides a very good understanding of what causes burnout, how it differs from stress, and what can be done to prevent and deal with it – highly recommended.
Well, it’s Super Bowl weekend, and Houston is this year’s home of the event … we would be amiss if we didn’t include one of the best commercials – especially relevant in light of all the recent controversy about our neighbors to the south …
Enjoy the Super Bowl, and your weekend.
