Many Americans who lost their jobs during the pandemic are turning to self-employment, a trend reflected in a 32% surge in self-employment tax applications during the first nine months of the year, according to Census Bureau data. "This shock is much more intense and has resulted in people turning to self-employment because they know those jobs probably aren't going to come back," says Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US.

The current climate has inspired many leaders to diversify their organizations, but many may not be aware that failure to focus on diversity and inclusion can also equate to retention issues. Executive-level people of color and women leaders said they felt the need to move to another company if they wanted to progress in their careers, according to DDI's Diversity and Inclusion Report 2020, which also offers three ways to support such strategies.

The pandemic caused employees to put off elective and preventative health care at an "alarming" rate during March and April, and increased use of telemedicine didn't go far enough to offset the problem, according to a Castlight Health study. Employers should guide workers to "high-value care" using digital solutions to prevent future productivity issues, Castlight Health CEO Maeve O'Meara said.

Many remote workers for tech companies such as Apple, IBM, Twitter and Google, are settling in small towns and the trend -- which has earned them the nickname "remotes" -- looks likely to accelerate among other sectors because of the pandemic. "Telling people that we'll pay you this amount but you can live wherever you want is going to just be very attractive to a lot of really high-level talent," says Sierra Allred, who now lives in Burlington, Vt., and works as a machine-learning engineer for a Utah employer.

Learning your team has been talking about you behind your back can be discouraging, but it's important to take a step back and analyze the situation. Be sure to reinforce your commitment to the fundamentals of leadership.