Experts expect surge of unemployment claims this week | Trust is key to making a remote workforce productive | Tips for a healthy home work environment
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Goldman Sachs predicts 2.25 million Americans this week will file for their first week of unemployment, eight times the 33% jump in new claims the market experienced last week. The firm expects the unemployment rate will swell to 9% over the next few quarters.
Flexibility, ensuring employees have the tools they need and trusting them to do their work are key to making a remote workforce productive, writes Alison Green. "If a manager has an employee on their team whom they don't trust to work when they're not being closely watched, that's a failure of the manager's and something that should have been addressed long before this crisis hit," she writes.
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act requires some employers to provide paid leave to eligible employees during the coronavirus pandemic, but allows employers to take tax credits for that leave, write attorneys April Boyer and Erinn Rigney. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees do not have to comply with Division C of the FFCRA if they can prove compliance would jeopardize their viability.
A team approach to keeping workers safe from the coronavirus is critical, and it's not too late to develop a plan for your employees, said John Howard, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health director, during a recent webinar on virus response held by the National Safety Council. "I would look at that as a crisis team," Howard said, adding, "Clearly, your emergency response plan now has to be a coronavirus emergency plan."
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