Before this law, Illinois already required employers to give employees time off for jury service, along with notice and anti-retaliation protections. HB 4844 adds a pay requirement to those protections.

Employees must still provide their employer with a copy of the jury summons within 10 days after it is issued. Employers still cannot discharge, threaten to discharge, intimidate or coerce employees because of jury service. An employer that violates the law may be liable for lost wages and benefits as well as attorney fees. It may also be enjoined and ordered to reinstate a discharged employee.

Takeaway: Update payroll practices, handbooks and leave policies before Jan. 1, 2027, and provide training on the new compliance obligations.

More info: Illinois HB 4844

Qualified Overtime Remains Subject to Withholding

Qualified overtime pay remains subject to federal income tax withholding, and payroll may not reduce withholding because an employee expects to claim the deduction.

An employee who wants withholding adjusted must furnish an updated, valid Form W-4 that accounts for the expected deduction. The 2026 Form W-4 has a place for it in step 4(b).

Code TT: What to Report

Beginning with tax year 2026, employers must report qualified overtime compensation separately on Form W-2, in box 12 using code TT. Qualified overtime compensation is the portion of overtime pay required under Section 7 of the FLSA that exceeds the employee’s regular rate – generally, the half-time premium rather than the employee’s entire time-and-a-half payment.

Report the full amount of qualified overtime compensation, even when the employee can’t deduct all of it. The IRS example: an employer that paid $30,000 in qualified overtime reports $30,000, though the deduction is capped at $12,500, or $25,000 for taxpayers filing a joint return.

Correct Errors on a Form W-2c

An employer that finds an error in box 12, code TT must file Form W-2c with the Social Security Administration and furnish a copy to the employee as soon as possible.

Information-reporting penalties may apply and may also be reduced for timely corrections.

More info: Fact Sheet FS-2026-13

In the study, InComm surveyed more than 300 HR professionals about Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and the challenges of spending-account administration. 

More than half (58%) said employees come to them for help with their spending accounts, most often asking basic questions, including:

• What purchases are eligible to use in my spending account?
• How do I submit claims?
• How do I use my account?
• What are the claim deadlines and rollover rules?

For HR, vendor selection provides an opportunity to reduce the administrative burden of answering employee questions. In fact, 73% of HR pros said employee feedback is the No. 1 factor they consider when reevaluating spending account providers, according to InComm. That finding is particularly relevant for employers evaluating HSA providers, since employees rely on the provider through the life of the account. 

Before signing or renewing a contract, ask pointed questions to assess whether a provider can realistically take routine spending account questions off HR’s plate. 

4 Questions to Ask Spending Account Providers 

The goal is to find out how much direct support a provider will give employees and how much of that support will fall to HR. That’s especially important for HSAs, since employees use the account throughout the year rather than only during open enrollment. Focus on four areas when evaluating a new provider or renewing an existing contract.

1. Can an employee get answers without coming to HR? 

Why ask it: Routine questions about eligibility, claims, account use, deadlines and rollover rules shouldn’t require HR intervention. A provider’s tools and educational resources should give employees a reliable way to find those answers.

What you’re looking for: Clear employee-facing education and intuitive tools that make eligibility, claims, deadlines and account rules easy to find and understand.

2. What happens when an employee needs additional help? 

Why ask it: Self-service won’t answer every question. The quality and speed of provider support can determine whether an employee gets a direct answer from the provider or ends up back with HR to solve the issue.

What you’re looking for: Responsive employee support with defined response times and a straightforward process for escalating unresolved issues.

3. Who will be our dedicated contact? 

Why ask it: HR shouldn’t have to explain the company’s workforce, goals or recurring issues to a different support representative every time an issue comes up. 

What you’re looking for: A dedicated account manager who understands the organization, knows its workforce and provides proactive guidance rather than only addressing individual problems as they arise.

4. How will you know whether the employee experience is working? 

Why ask it: A provider may point to a strong employee experience when pitching for new business or asking for a renewal. Dig into how the provider measures that experience once the contract is in place and how the provider responds when employee feedback points to a problem.

What you’re looking for: A provider that actively gathers employee feedback, shares meaningful service data with HR and uses that info to improve the employee experience.

The right provider should make employees more self-sufficient without leaving HR to pick up the slack. That makes a provider’s approach to employee support an important consideration when HR is choosing or renewing a spending account provider. 

Want to dig deeper into the employee HSA experience? Join us on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, for a free webinar, Why Your HSA Isn’t Working the Way You Think: New Research on Employee Behavior, to learn why employees underuse their HSAs and what causes the confusion. Register now.

While managers want — and need — to take all employee complaints seriously, some petty complaints might remind you of grammar school behavior: “He’s picking on me!” “She’s bugging me!”

Petty Complaints Fuel a Fire

One of the worst things about petty complaints is that they tend to fuel a fire. Once one person points a finger, you can almost count on a finger being pointed back.

So you want to head off the disruptions.

Here are five classic petty complaints that riddle almost all workplaces, plus some deft handling tips so you can head them off.

1. ‘I Do More Work Than She Does!’

When an employee hollers that she works harder than employee A, B or C, what she likely means is that she feels overworked. So, to her, it seems everyone is pulling less than their weight.

It could also be a time management issue.

Try this: Take the employee aside and ask how she’s doing and if she feels a little swamped.

When she starts to open up, explain that you know she can do the work, but you’d understand if there’s too much on her plate right now.

She’ll likely appreciate your concern and will be more candid. Then you can both address how to prioritize tasks and set some deadlines so she feels less overwhelmed. Then she may feel less inclined to take out her stress on co-workers.

2. ‘Everyone Steals My Ideas!’

This is often an employee who doesn’t speak up. He has great ideas for projects but keeps them to himself. Sooner or later, someone else comes up with the same idea and claims it.

Try this: Once he complains about it too many times, encourage the employee to be more open about his thoughts when he has the chance. Help him recognize that others are just doing their jobs by bringing up ideas he didn’t mention sooner.

Encourage the employee to come directly to you if it’ll make him less reticent. That way, you know that good idea was his from the start – and he doesn’t feel slighted by his peers.

As a manager, you’ll want to recognize and call on employees who are frequently introverted and don’t speak up during meetings.

3. ‘I Got In Trouble For Something Everyone Does!’

The classic “but everyone’s doing it” dodge never worked when you were a kid, and it definitely shouldn’t work in professional life. But that doesn’t stop some employees from using this lame excuse.

In the event an employee breaks the rules because he saw others doing it, it’s best to stand firm and tell the employee that it doesn’t make whatever he did less wrong.

Try this: Explain that if someone else committed the same offense and seemingly got away with it, it was because it went unnoticed, not because it’s acceptable.

Reassure the employee that he’s not being picked on or singled out in any way. Then have that difficult talk with the other employee(s) who broke the rules but weren’t busted.

This way, everyone knows what’s acceptable and what isn’t, and no one gets special preference.

4. ‘He Got the Assignment I Wanted!‘

It can happen when two employees want the same thing or ask for a project they know will elevate them in the ranks.

When one gets the job the other wanted, it can start a cycle of resentment and cries of “playing favorites.”

Try this: Clarify for all employees how the choice will be made and the efforts you take to make an impartial decision. Relay the qualifications, expectations and the timing involved.

In any case, emphasize that all employees are given a fair chance to improve or get ahead, and they should focus on the next opportunity rather than dwelling on what went to someone else.

5. ‘She Thinks She’s Better Than the Rest of Us!’

This one’s tricky because employees can put this label on a co-worker when they feel that person is subtly trying to “show them up” in front of the boss.

Sometimes it’s actually warranted, but other times the employee in question just does her job well and speaks up frequently. Naturally, she’ll get noticed – but the rest of the team might resent it.

It’s important to take note when one employee seems ostracized or excluded. This is when petty jealousy rears its head and can threaten the entire team dynamic.

Try this: Remind employees that everyone is treated equally, and it’s not a crime to be eager about work and do it well.

Encourage the team to follow the tried-and-true rule: Concentrate on your own work, and don’t get hung up on someone else’s.

Putting out employee fires effectively so they don’t flare up again requires persistence and active management. Unless they’re handled early, they could become much bigger and affect an entire department.

That gap has little to do with resources. Onboarding gets real budget and attention in most organizations, yet almost no measurement. According to Shortlister, 55% of companies do not track onboarding effectiveness at all. The average program runs with zero metrics besides waiting to see who is still there at 90 days.

From where I sit, watching how thousands of organizations distribute workplace documents, the strangest part is how differently HR treats onboarding compared to every other learning intervention it runs. Compliance training tracks completion rates. Sales enablement ties directly to ramp time. Onboarding, the first and most consequential learning experience of an employee’s tenure, gets handled as a paperwork process. Nobody asks the measurement question because nobody applies the measurement frame.

The cost of that framing shows up in the numbers organizations do collect. According to Gallup, only 12% of employees say their organization delivers a strong onboarding experience. And when a new hire leaves within the first year, every cost of hiring gets paid twice. The recruiting cycle restarts from scratch, and the seat produces nothing while a second ramp period runs. Most organizations absorb that bill without ever connecting it back to what happened in week one.

Put a Dollar Figure on Time-to-Productivity

Onboarding costs money whether or not anyone tracks it. Leadership manages what it can see in dollar terms, so the organizations that close this gap put a financial framework around onboarding before evaluating any new software.

Time-to-productivity is the metric that does this. How long does it take a new hire to reach full contribution? Most managers carry an intuitive answer and have never put a number on it. Once that number exists, every week shaved off it has a calculable value, and every cohort that ramps slower than the last one raises a question someone has to answer. Satisfaction scores never generate that kind of pressure.

Two supporting metrics round out the picture. Track 90-day retention by hiring cohort, so HR can see whether results improve or decline across cycles. Most organizations already hold the underlying data and simply have not cut it this way. Then add manager-rated readiness at 30 days: one structured question to the hiring manager asking whether this person is on track. It arrives early enough to act on, before the 90-day window closes and the cost is already in motion.

These numbers go nowhere unless someone owns them. Assign the metrics to a named owner and set a review date before the next hiring cycle opens. The summary should travel to the same leadership meeting where recruiting pipeline data lives, with one standing question: Did this cohort do better than the last one, and do we know why?

Catch Onboarding Problems Before the 90-Day Mark

Outcome metrics have their place, but they arrive too late for a course correction. The signals that predict onboarding failure surface within the first two to four weeks, if HR knows how to collect them.

A short pulse survey at day seven and day 30 is the lowest-friction option. Ask new hires to rate their own confidence and clarity in the role. Confusion surfaces early, before it compounds into disengagement. Most organizations already run 30-60-90 check-ins and get nothing out of them. The shift is small. “How are you settling in?” is a conversation. “On a scale of one to five, how clear are your priorities for the next 30 days?” is a data point.

Comprehension checks after high-stakes content serve a different purpose. Benefits enrollment and compliance requirements are where misunderstandings carry the most cost, and a brief check after each tells HR whether the content was absorbed.

The format of the materials themselves determines what else HR can learn. A static PDF gets delivered and disappears. Interactive digital documents, such as embedded-media guides or flipbooks, log how new hires move through the material: where they slow down and what they skip entirely. That data arrives without anyone having to ask for it, and it reaches a layer that self-reporting can’t. A pulse survey captures what someone believes they understood, while engagement data shows where attention really went.

Return visits are the most diagnostic pattern in that data. The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, established over a century ago, shows that most new information fades within weeks unless it gets reinforced, and return-visit behavior shows exactly where that decay is happening. Picture a 20-person cohort in which seven people reopen the same benefits page in week two. That page failed on first read. The fix is a rewrite, and in a digital format, the corrected version reaches every future cohort without redistributing a thing. One cohort’s data is a snapshot. By the third cohort, HR has enough of a pattern to make program decisions with confidence.

3 Questions to Evaluate Your Onboarding Program

The teams that get more back from onboarding built the instruments to know what was working and fixed what wasn’t. Three questions tell you where your own program stands:

1. Does onboarding have an outcome metric that gets reviewed on the same cadence as recruiting data?
2. Is HR collecting any signal from new hires in the first 30 days, before the 90-day result arrives?
3. Can your current onboarding materials tell you anything about whether new hires absorbed them?

A program can be built to answer all of them. The investment is already being made. What changes is whether HR gets anything back from it.

New collar workers tend to have technical fluency, manual capability and adaptability. And new collar jobs are becoming the backbone of the ever-changing economy, according to a report from LinkedIn.

In fact, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that about 60% of new jobs will come from occupations that typically don’t require a degree – aka new collar jobs – by 2030. 

“Some of these roles will pay well and undergo the new-collar transformation reshaping the labor market today,” the LinkedIn researchers noted.

Is your organization ready to embrace, promote and nurture new collar jobs? You’ll want to be, and here’s help.

Who’s Filling New Collar Jobs?

If blue collar employees are traditionally trade workers, and white collar workers are traditionally those with four-year degrees, then let’s take a closer look at how to define new collar workers.

“What we’re starting to realize is that both of those terms leave out a tremendous segment of our population: smart, high-aptitude, and in many cases skilled individuals who, for whatever reason, decided not to pursue a degree — the new collar workers,” says Don Gannon-Jones, VP of Content at Karat.

The newest new collar workers are in good company: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Jack Dorsey and Larry Ellison — all billionaires and founders of major tech companies — were new collar workers before we called them that!

Today, as AI accelerates change across every industry, new collar jobs are popping up in almost every industry. The BLS report shows them in construction and installation, maintenance and repair, transportation, healthcare, technology and practically every industry that touches those.

Benefits of New Collar Jobs

The good news: Because new collar jobs don’t require degrees, but do require adaptability, you can likely train tenured or new employees for the role you need to fill. This is especially important because the roles will likely evolve, too, and degree-less employees can continue to pursue training and certifications that will only make them more valuable.

Continuing ed courses, online classes, certification programs, boot camps and intentional upskilling efforts are popular and relatively inexpensive — especially compared to a four-year degree — to get up to speed on technology. New collar employees only need relevant skills to get a foot in the door.

Case in point: “I also don’t have a degree. I was a trade apprentice, and I’ve learned about technology, tech education, assessment and leadership through on-the-job work and being given an opportunity to learn and grow on the job,” says Gannon-Jones.

What else can new collar workers bring to the table: “Aptitude. Productivity. Actually-useful-on-the-job skills,” says Gannon-Jones. “In my experience, they can also bring a greater sense of humility and a strong desire to learn the business from the inside out.”

Finding New Collar Workers

You don’t have to look far to find people to fill evolving new collar jobs. Current employees already understand the business and have institutional knowledge that can’t be replaced. Then it’s just a case of upskilling or reskilling.

There’s also a new generation of young adults, soured by rising college costs and potential student loan debt, who’ve pursued alternative routes such as trade school, certifications and the school of hard knocks.

Both are strong candidates for new collar jobs. 

Here are three tips to find, recruit and hire them through your internal mobility programs and traditional outward recruiting efforts:

• Go through job descriptions and delete requirements or preferences for degrees — except in fields where a degree is a hard requirement, such as law, finance and medicine. In those cases, ask for the specific degree that is required for the role. On the fence about dumping the degree requirement? “Ask yourself, ‘Are there other ways to become well-educated for this role?'” says Gannon-Jones. Example: Many software engineers have a computer science degree, but a job candidate can get those skills from a coding program. So, no need for a degree.
• Be clear that you’re looking for specific job-relevant skills. List those as the absolute make-or-break for the role. Don’t list nice-to-haves because you can probe for those in interviews. Describe the specific aptitudes that are important to your organization — for instance, collaboration, professionalism and collegiality. Or whittle it down to the specific aptitudes that are important to the role.
• Assess skills and abilities as you interview. Evaluating candidates based on what they can actually do, rather than relying on where they’ve worked or studied, will help you find better-fit employees.

Help New Collar Workers Succeed

“Because only a small share of today’s workforce is equipped for this evolving world of work, companies will struggle to fill these roles,” the LinkedIn researchers predicted. “Leaders therefore have a strong incentive to widen how they define and develop skills.”

And that’s the key: Recognize that new collar roles will continue to evolve – probably more so than traditional jobs have in the past decades. Training and reskilling will likely always be essential in the new collar world. 

Invest in new collar employees, and you’ll help them succeed. Four tips:

• Offer opportunities to continue to learn and grow on-the-job in different ways. Expand technical training to opportunities to develop communication, leadership, business decision-making and feedback skills. When you invest in these softer skills, employees are more valuable to your entire culture. That’ll make them more loyal to you.
• Set up mentorships. This is especially helpful in smaller organizations where time and resources for more formal training are limited. Mentors don’t need to have a degree either. Your internal experts from all walks of work can help new employees adapt to your workplace. 
• Broaden their view. Expose new collar workers to situations and experiences outside their normal work groove. They need to see the “why” behind operations and business decisions. That may be having them attend operations meetings, shadowing C-level leaders or spending time in different departments.
• Redefine worker success and do performance appraisals to reflect that. For example, you might add room between “Does Not Meet Expectations” and “Meets Expectations” for a worker who’s developing into their role. You might create new reasonable expectations for how long that will take. And you’ll want to find a mechanism to identify high-aptitude, strong performers who you can nurture and grow into future leaders.

Consider the following: Joseph Bolt is a product design manager at a global technology firm, and he’s feeling good. His team has spent the past year working on the next new hot gadget for dog and cat lovers: AI-enabled collars that provide owners with both real-time and predictive health updates on their furry friends.

A day before the product’s launch, Joseph sits at his desk and pulls up Kalshi, the booming prediction market platform where he’s had an account for a couple of weeks. Using information he learned through his position as a product design manager, Joseph wins $10,000 by placing bets on the next biggest technology item for pet owners.

Although Joseph is a fictional character, the emerging risks that prediction markets pose to companies are real. While the company information Joseph used for his personal profit may seem benign, his actions have increasingly landed employees like him (and their employers) under the watchful eye of state and federal regulators.

For HR leaders, prediction markets create new risks around the sharing of confidential information that existing company policies are often unequipped to handle. However, as this article addresses, there are practical steps companies can take to address compliance gaps created by the booming new industry of prediction markets.

What Is the Current Regulatory Landscape?

As prediction markets have continued to rise at a meteoric pace, a legal debate has cropped up that asks the question: Should these markets be regulated at the state or federal level?

Popular prediction market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket characterize event contracts as federally regulated derivatives falling within the Commodity Exchange Act and subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) oversight. The CFTC characterizes prediction market event contracts as federally regulated commodity derivatives, and has become increasingly aggressive in defending its authority over these designated contract markets.

State regulators disagree, and consider the contracts, particularly sport event contracts, as gambling activity subject to state gaming laws. State attorneys general throughout the U.S. have filed numerous lawsuits against prediction market platforms for violating state gambling laws and want to ban the markets from operating in their states. These lawsuits are currently making their way through the court system, resulting in an increasingly fragmented and murky legal landscape.

In June 2026, the CFTC proposed a rule to create a more structured framework for evaluating whether prediction market contracts are contrary to the public interest. Recent compliance policy reforms by prediction market platforms indicate that these operators are preparing for a more heavily regulated environment, such as Kalshi’s announcement that it has developed a framework to address insider trading and manipulation concerns for certain types of business industries.

Importantly for HR teams, some prediction market platforms are also beginning to police themselves by requiring users to report their employer information before they can utilize the platforms, further raising the potential risk exposure to companies.

What Risks Do HR Leaders Face With Prediction Markets?

The average company’s compliance policy was most likely not designed to address the type of activity we’re now seeing with employee participation in prediction markets.

The reason for this is because most employers’ existing compliance policies focus on the use of material nonpublic information (MNPI) in connection with trading stocks, bonds, and other securities regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, company information that doesn’t fit the specific definition of MNPI can still create a broader risk for employers whose employees have access to confidential information not subject to regulation by a federal agency like the SEC. The SEC polices the markets for fraudulent use of non-public information for personal benefit or to manipulate the public markets.

This means that prediction market risk is not limited solely to publicly traded companies, as information need not affect a company’s stock price to obtain an unfair advantage in a prediction market.

Private companies that may have less stringent compliance policies can still possess confidential information capable of influencing prediction market contracts, even if the information does not meet the traditional definition of MNPI. This includes entities such as universities, healthcare organizations, government contractors, and professional-services firms.

Nonpublic information that employees can use to profit in prediction markets encompasses a much wider range of seemingly benign information, such as information related to:

• Product launches and delays
• Regulatory approvals or enforcement actions
• Customer trends or operational metrics
• Changes to executive leadership or the workforce, and
• Government contracts or funding decisions.

HR leaders should also be aware of reputational risks resulting from regulatory investigations or civil or criminal charges due to employee misuse of prediction market platforms. The CFTC has made it clear that the misuse of confidential information obtained through a relationship of trust and confidence may constitute insider-trading-type misconduct. Recent enforcement actions demonstrate regulators’ willingness to pursue employees accused of using confidential employer information to trade event contracts.

Additionally, public reports often identify the employer whose information was allegedly misappropriated, leading to unwanted or negative press exposure and a loss of trust in the company from its customers, investors, business partners, and employees. Even unsubstantiated allegations may still generate significant adverse publicity.

In the course of an investigation, regulators may seek employers’ internal business records, communications and policies. They may also interview witnesses. Plus, employers will likely need to devote substantial resources to respond to a CFTC investigation of an employee.

What Are Some Practical Steps HR Teams Can Take Now?

HR teams should begin by reassessing whether the company’s existing confidentiality, insider trading, ethics, conflicts of interest and acceptable use policies adequately address prediction markets and event contracts. Employers should consider adding clear language prohibiting employees from using any confidential information for personal wagers or trades, regardless of whether that information would qualify as traditional MNPI.

Next, HR should partner with legal, compliance and business leaders to identify higher-risk roles and functions within the company, including employees with access to sensitive customer data, product timelines, regulatory developments, government contracts, workforce changes, M&A activity, cybersecurity issues or clinical and research information. To identify these roles, employers should consider targeted restrictions, pre-clearance requirements, disclosure obligations or attestations tailored to the organization’s industry and risk profile.

HR should also incorporate prediction-market risks into employee training and onboarding. Training should explain what prediction markets are, give concrete examples of prohibited conduct, and reinforce that company and client information may not be used for personal financial gain.

Finally, employers should also document compliance expectations in handbooks, training materials, and employee certifications, while reviewing whether company devices and systems should be restricted from accessing prediction-market platforms. These steps can help employers close policy gaps, reduce regulatory and reputational risk, and show that they are responding proactively to an emerging compliance issue.

Tory Summey, Partner at Parker Poe, and Tiffany Rowe, Counsel at Parker Poe, contributed to this article.

In fact, some estimates suggest upwards of 300 million global workers, about 9% of the workforce, could be displaced by AI and related technologies in the coming years.

These shifts are expected to disproportionately impact white-collar roles, particularly in administrative support, customer service, and even portions of finance, legal and marketing.

Much of the discussion has focused on what jobs will be impacted. Far less attention has been paid to where displaced employees will go next.

The answer won’t come from any single solution. Instead, it requires looking toward resilient industries and developing strategies to equip workers to transition into those roles.

What Fields Will Be Resilient?

While AI excels at recognizing patterns, analyzing large datasets, and generating content, there has been limited success in automating physical work environments. Roles that require real-time decision-making, spatial reasoning and hands-on technical expertise remain difficult to automate.

Electricians, welders, HVAC technicians, machinists, maintenance technicians and advanced manufacturing professionals, what I refer to as skilled technicians, operate in dynamic environments that demand adaptability and human judgment.

These careers combine technical knowledge, problem-solving, and hands-on expertise, capabilities that AI is unlikely to fully replicate anytime soon.

At the same time, investment in domestic manufacturing, infrastructure, clean energy and reshoring initiatives is accelerating demand for these roles. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects continued growth across many of these technical occupations.

This creates a unique opportunity: a growing pool of displaced employees on one side and expanding demand for skilled technicians on the other.

Retooling Displaced White-Collar Workers

The challenge lies in how we help displaced professionals transition into these careers.

Shifting careers is not simply about finding open positions. It requires retraining, career navigation and often a shift in professional identity.

Professionals impacted by AI face several barriers, including:

• Lack of technical experience
• Limited awareness of training opportunities
• Financial constraint, and
• Uncertainty about which career path to pursue.

Without structured pathways, many displaced workers risk falling into unemployment or underemployment.

Effective retooling programs address these challenges holistically. They combine accelerated, hands-on training with wraparound support services such as career coaching, financial assistance and job placement.

An Existing Example

The Northland Workforce Training Center in Buffalo, NY, is one example of this approach. As an industry-driven training center, Northland prepares individuals from diverse backgrounds for technical careers in advanced manufacturing and clean energy.

Through my role as Executive Director of the WNY Manufacturing & Tech Workforce Coalition, we work directly with employers across Western New York to identify workforce needs and develop training pathways aligned with real-world demand. This employer-driven approach ensures that training leads directly to employment opportunities.

Training programs are developed with direct input from industry partners to ensure participants gain the most relevant and practical skills. Instruction emphasizes hands-on learning, with more time spent applying skills and less time in traditional classroom settings.

For instance, someone enrolling in a welding program at Northland would:

• Start their instruction in a classroom, learning the principles of the trade as well as safety methods, required math and related skills, welding codes and standards, testing and more
• Have the tools of the trade be placed directly in their hands, with students training according to the American Welding Society’s standards for an entry-level welder in the first year of a two-year program, with the second bringing them up to more advanced techniques
• Be given instruction from knowledgeable instructors who have done the work in the field every step of the way, and
• Be given career guidance services upon completion of the program, helping graduates land meaningful jobs related to what they practiced.

When combined with flexible scheduling, financial support, and career services, these models create new pathways for individuals looking to transition into resilient careers.

This approach is scalable and adaptable to regions across the country. As workforce disruption accelerates, these types of training ecosystems will play a critical role in helping workers transition into new careers while meeting growing employer demand.

Looking Ahead: Building a More Resilient Workforce

As AI continues to evolve, workforce disruption is likely to accelerate. That means organizations want to take proactive steps now. This includes investing in training models that are:

• Flexible
• Inclusive
• Employer-driven, and
• Aligned with labor market demand.

Economic development organizations, workforce leaders, educational institutions and employers all have a role to play. By working collaboratively, they can create ecosystems that support lifelong learning and career mobility.

Programs like those at Northland Workforce Training Center and initiatives led by regional workforce coalitions demonstrate what this can look like in practice.

The broader lesson is clear: The future of work will require new partnerships, new strategies and a willingness to rethink traditional career pathways.

The question is not whether change is coming; it’s whether we are prepared to meet it.

Most notably, the expanded Section 45S credit gives employers a new way to calculate the credit through paid leave insurance premiums.  

Key Changes to the Tax Credit

H.R. 1, P.L. 119-21, commonly referred to as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, made the Section 45S credit permanent and allows employers to claim the credit for up to 12 weeks of paid leave.

The legislation also made other changes to the credit:

• Expanded eligibility: Employers can claim the credit for employees with six months of service and for part-time employees customarily working 20 hours or more per week.
• Expanded coverage: Employers can claim the credit for insurance premiums to provide leave or for wages paid during leave.
• State and local mandates: Employers can count leave provided under state or local mandates toward the eligibility for this federal tax credit, but not toward the credit calculation.

What Notice 2026-28 Covers

Notice 2026-28, issued Aug. 5, 2026, explains how the new premium method works alongside the existing wage method and what employers need to document to claim the credit.

Under the wage method, the credit ranges from 12.5% to 25% of qualifying wages paid, for up to 12 weeks of leave per employee per taxable year. Under the new premium method, the applicable percentage is applied to qualifying insurance premiums instead.

The portion of a premium that funds leave required by state or local law doesn’t qualify for the credit. However, required leave may be considered when determining whether the employer meets Section 45S eligibility requirements. Premiums covering someone who is not a qualifying employee at the time the premium is paid or incurred do not qualify.

Keep an eye out for proposed regulations from the Treasury and the IRS, which are expected to provide additional guidance on the Section 45S credit. Comments on Notice 2026-28 are due by Oct. 16, 2026.

More info: Notice 2026-28

But it has a dark side, too: A steep learning curve, workslop and the elimination of some human connection in the workplace.

Without that, company culture suffers, too.

What’s Up in This Episode: Rebuilding Human Connections

That’s why in this episode of HRMorning’s 3-Point, we explore the toll AI has taken on human connection. Our expert, Hannah Yardley, Chief People and Culture Officer at Achievers, shares some research on who’s suffering and who can best help rebuild workplace connections.

Click, watch and listen for more details on rebuilding relationships, connections and culture.

Transcript (edited for clarity):

AI at work is inevitable. While it’s helpful, all that interaction with technology has had some negative effects. Workslop, for one. Disconnect is another. So in this episode of the 3-Point, we’re going to cover what helps eliminate both. Our expert dives directly into the problem and solution.

Hannah Yardley, Chief People and Culture Officer, Achievers: “If employees are doing more, taking on more tasks, how do you really focus them on doing the things that are important? Not just that you get workslop, but how do you actually direct people to know that the things that they’re working on are those that are most meaningful? And that’s where stuff like good middle management or reinforcing of that through effective feedback and recognition are all mechanisms that help.”

So front-line managers are key to keeping work meaningful in the age of AI. After all, we’re all still learning, and that alone can be overwhelming and sloppy. Now, how can they do it?

Yardley: “There’s absolute data around that things like frequent one-on-ones and connections and recognition are making employees feel much, much more — like three times more — connected to their organizations. And that’s really important. But it only works if it’s a meaningful, frequent connection. And the meaningful also needs to be unpacked: It’s not that you’re doing things like, ‘You did a great job.’ You can actually do more than ‘You’ve done a great job,’ because then it becomes meaningless. But if you connect it back to the important things that people are working on, the things that they feel valued for, and what the manager’s actually connecting back to having a bigger or broader impact.” 

We know feedback and connecting one-on-one is important, but how frequently?

Yardley: “It’s so dependent on the job. So if you have multiple people doing multiple types of jobs, then you need a context switch all the time, and you can probably manage less people. But if you have people doing a similar function, such as an SDR function, you’re much more likely to be able to manage more people because you can do a lot more group coaching.”

So to help employees feel more connected when they’re working harder and overwhelmed:

• Circle back to meaning. Managers want to regularly talk about why their work matters and how their tasks affect the bigger picture.
• Be intentional. These “meaningful” conversations need to be intentional. Try one-on-ones and feedback conversations.
• Be consistent. The number of meetings may vary, but the importance of consistency is the same.

Now, for more tips on AI use and keeping employees connected, check out the 3-Point library for plenty more from experts in both fields. As always, thanks for joining me.