Veteran John Landrysmith says he faced retaliation after reporting to federal investigators that free tickets to the USS Arizona Memorial were distributed to tour companies and sold at inflated costs. The National Park Service paid Landrysmith a year's salary after he filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit.

Airbnb marketing chief Jonathan Mildenhall is using the Cannes Lions advertising festival to recruit a more diverse workforce by openly asking women and minorities to meet with him during the event. "I would like other CMOs to join me in putting pressure on their agencies to promote women and to create on-boarding ramps for people of color," Mildenhall said.

Chris Mittelstaedt was an underemployed father-to-be in 1998 when a friend asked him to bring healthy food to employees who were living on espresso beans and Jolt Cola. It was the start of The FruitGuys, now a 150-employee company that delivers fresh, local fruit from small, independent farms to 2,700 companies across the US.

WWT Asynchrony Labs' training program The Learning Team has been designed to improve onboarding by giving hires access to company veterans' knowledge. The program has been so successful that the company has added three teams to bridge skills gaps, engage employees and drive business results.

Congressional Democrats have proposed a bill that would establish a $20 million program controlled by the Department of Labor to investigate ways of extending benefits to the growing number of people who work in the gig economy as part-time or independent workers. At the moment, this workforce is unable to receive funded parental leave or workers' compensation or invest in tax withholding and tax-advantaged retirement savings.

To avoid bias in hiring, understand all relevant laws, don't ask about candidates' salary history and give applicants with a criminal record a chance to explain, attorneys say. Watch out for practices that could lead to age or gender discrimination, and don't rely on technology to eradicate bias.