Mind Matters: Navigating Mental Health Awareness Month & Workplace Initiatives
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. How will your company honor it?
Thatโs the topic of this monthโs newsletter, along with updates on the Secure 2.0 Retirement Savings Act and the schism between high salary expectations and low hiring budgets. Read on.
๐๐ผ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น๐๐ต ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ต
Mental health is a big deal to your employees. Whether your organization makes it a priority can make a big difference in how youโre perceived as an employer.
Aside from the table stakes โ offering decent healthcare benefits that include mental health coverage, I have a few ideas to share:
Establish peer support programs for people who have lived experience with mental health challenges
Sponsor a community wellness event or a โlunch and learnโ with a mental health theme
Create a mental health resource corner for your employees
Set up a gratitude wall!
Carve out โstress-free zonesโ at your office where people can come for quiet contemplation and relaxation
"Kip, my kid has a 'stress-free zone' at their preschool."
Yes, and it works, doesnโt it?
Iโd love to hear other ideas you have to celebrate Mental Health Month. How does your company do it?
๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฎ.๐ฌ ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด๐ ๐๐ฐ๐
If youโre hiring young workers fresh out of school, listen up, because the SECURE 2.0 Retirement Savings Act is rolling out, and it gives you an opportunity, as an employer, to invest in your employeesโ financial well-being.
The short story: As long as employees are making payments on their student loans, employers now have the option to match those student loan payments with 401K contributions. In this way, your younger employees can start planning for retirement along with paying off their loans, and this is a very enticing benefit in a time when BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has pronounced a โretirement crisisโ in this country.
In general, benefits are key when candidates are weighing which role to take. As a recruiter for many years, I always have an opportunity to discuss offer packages with job seekers, so I know just how much these things really do matter. Read more, and consider taking advantage of SECURE 2.0 as a part of the benefits package you offer.
๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด
From the San Francisco Business Times: Job interviews are a hotbed for lawsuits โ and these common questions are illegal
On Inc.: The 1 Thing That Will Determine If That New Hire Will Stay
On HubSpot: AI in Hiring: Reducing Bias or Making It Worse?
๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐๐ถ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐๐ฑ๐ด๐ฒ๐๐
One of the biggest conflicts weโre seeing in the HR world these days is that job seekers have high expectations for compensation โ and rightly so, with inflation where it is โ but companies have low hiring budgets (partly for the same reason).
A 2024 CareerBuilder/HR Brew survey found that 64% of enterprise companies have decreased hiring budgets this year. (Though small businesses actually have higher budgets.) Within the enterprise arena, 20% of new roles filled pay $75kโ$100k, and a third pay more than that. Sales and marketing are doing the most hiring, with IT and customer service in second place.
Hiring is complicated, any way you slice it. As a recruiter at KIP Search, I only pay so much attention to these kinds of headlines, because every individual company has its own dynamics and nuances. Still, itโs worth noting the struggles companies are having with hiring โ and the value in partnering with a recruiter to solve them.