Workplace News this Week: C-Suite on the rise, Taking the pill and more!

Here are the topics and trends grabbing attention ?? in the workplace this week. As an Employee Benefits Advisor, we get the inside scoop on what employers and employees are concerned, excited, and stressed about. What is the topic grabbing your attention this week?

1. When is the last time you updated your bereavement policy? In a post that went viral on LinkedIn last month, Namitha Jacob, shared her frustration around her company’s 2.5 day bereavement policy which required a proof of relationship/death and only applied to ‘immediate family’. Does a best friend or uncle that you have grown up with your entire life deserve less bereavement time than a sibling or parent? HR Consultant, Tamara Rasberry makes a point in saying “Senior leadership teams tend to, in my experience, want to give you the least amount of something that they can give you while also trying to seem halfway compassionate”. So how to build the right policy? Consider extending your bereavement policy to be more than a couple of days and make it more inclusive of all relationships that are important to the lives of your employees. ?
2. How could a drone station revolutionize our healthcare system? Matternet, the first fully-automated drone station, has been located at a hospital in Lugane, Switzerland, for the past four years. Human operators load a patient’s blood sample into a box with a designated QR code on the side. The box is scanned and inserted into the drone. The drone then travels on a pre-planned route to a nearby lab. The lab then scans a barcode to retrieve the sample. Wa-lah…same day results. Matternet plans to install 40 drone ports in Abu Dhabi by the end of the first year of operation. Once Matternet gets past regulators, the U.S. will be next.
3. Forget the shot, take the pill. Pharmaceutical company, Merck, said today that an experimental pill they are developing with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics reduced the risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19 by around 50% in a clinical trial of 700+ people. Why could this be a game changer for employers? Employees may be more likely to take a pill than get vaccinated and the pill can also be more easily distributed. Next step for the pill is a clinical trial with double of the number of individuals.
4. The C-suite is getting much larger in 2021. #LinkedIn analyzed more than 100,000 U.S. hiring decisions involving “chief” in their job titles. For the second year in a row, the most intense hiring push included the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer. Hats off to you, employers. What makes me happy about this? It provides a greater opportunity for more employees. For too long we have seen a wide gap between the “Chiefs” and the rest of the staff. When done right, the job title should come with more diversity and higher pay. Here are the other C-suite positions on a rise:?

To view trending topics in greater depth, make sure to check out my weekly LinkedIn Live, FriYay Workplace News, on Friday's at 9AM EST.?