The Employment Trends You Need to Watch Out For in 2022 and Beyond

As we move further into the year 2022, workers and employees are going to face many ongoing and new challenges that deal with legal restrictions about rules and regulations regarding working. Yes, the coming year will continue to pose many serious challenges, for instance, the company’s many legal-based restrictions will be a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is seemingly behind us, there still would be many questions regarding the vaccine rules, remote working problems, and reasonable accommodations. These niggling issues will be understood and addressed. Here are some of the things that you need to watch out for.

Accommodations Based on Religious & Medical Grounds

When it comes to accommodations based on religious or medical issues, it is often requested by an employee when there is a conflict between certain tasks or positions that the employee cannot cater to, based on medical or religious reasons.

Today it may mean that an employee may not be eligible for vaccination accommodation for religious reasons. For example, on December 15, 2021, guidance released by the New York City explained that workers who work or interact with the public need to show proof that they have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

It means that the in-house HR people have to release a fresh mandate by taking into account the employee number and by figuring out whether a certain employee remains unvaccinated because of their accommodation type.

Privacy & Productivity Issues Concerning Remoting Working

Hybrid scheduling has become the new norm now and it will be so in the second half of 2022 too. This implies that employers can gauge productivity without having to breach privacy and the other issues regarding confidentiality issues will become another concerning issue to take heed of.

Employers who need to incorporate certain surveillance-aiding tools may end up breaching privacy issues. However, in certain cases, employers may incorporate tools that are legalized.

Paid Family Leave Laws

There has been a greater interest in the paid family leave laws and coverage increased over the past few years apart from paying for a federal mandate for paid family leave. A paid family leave protects the job of most employees and can help spend proper time helping children (whether newborns, under foster care, or put up for adoption care) for the family members who are ill and maybe there for people who have been deployed in the military deployments.

Paid family leave may also be available in certain situations when an employee with their minor, dependent child is put under quarantine or isolation because of COVID-19.

Vaccine Mandates & the Supreme Court

Very recently, the US Supreme Court ruled out a mandate that large corporations require their workforce to either get the COVID-19 vaccine or get tested once every week. As per the apex court, the employers must extend help by coordinating and facilitating the testing of the employees. The company’s HR must ensure that the employee policy handbooks are constantly updated to reflect state law changes.

Mental Health Mandates

By the end of 2021, many companies started realizing the importance of offering mental health days for employees. These days are one way of helping employees to handle the stressful effects of the pandemic. It also helps the employees in securing help for the effects of remote working.

However, some questions are being asked about how many mental health days should be given and for how long. The in-house lawyers must work hard to ensure that employee handbooks must be updated as per changes made in the state laws in 2022.

As the uncertainty at workplaces refuses to completely disappear in 2022, in-house counsel and HR professionals need to put a strict eye on the updates and changes in policy in the employment laws and the way the workplace functions. The in-house counsel and HR professionals need to work in tandem to offer better plans based on operational and business ideas for employers. They need to continue to keep tabs on state laws and ensure the implementation of such laws in their respective companies.

In 2022 and beyond, both employees and employers are going to face challenges while dealing with new mandates and restrictions. If you are joining a company, you should check and ensure all these laws are followed and updated in the HR handbook.