President Barack Obama has issued a memorandum ordering defense, intelligence and homeland security agencies to overhaul recruitment and hiring of minorities through additional data collection and analysis. Nearly 25% of intelligence employees are minorities, compared with 35.4% of the federal workforce.

LinkedIn will soon allow job seekers to discreetly let employers know they're open to new job opportunities. The Open Candidates feature will only be visible to those who work at other companies and pay for LinkedIn's premium recruiter service.

OSHA has taken a stance against gag provisions in an attempt to protect and encourage whistleblowing, writes Jon Hyman. Organizations should be sure to work with a labor or employment lawyer to update settlements and releases, he writes.

Video game company Activision Blizzard has added compassionate leave, giving employees paid time off to handle upsetting personal events. Activision also offers eight weeks of parental leave.

A study of 800 full-time workers published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology found employees given a Fitbit device plus cash incentives had an increase in steps at six months over baseline, while no increases were seen among the Fitbit-only group, the Fitbit with charity-based incentives or the control group. However, only 10% from all groups still used the device after incentives were discontinued and by 12 months, those in the incentive groups had equal or worse activity levels than their baseline.

As president of the Agricultural Council of California, Emily Rooney knows the pressure that comes from having complex, high-stakes responsibilities and many constituents to please. "All of us carry backpacks with lots of bricks in it, so don't let someone else put bricks in your backpack," she says of the best advice she's received.