Talent acquisition professionals are navigating an increasingly complicated web of political activism and personal biases in their workplaces, Mark Fogel writes. Fogel rejects the notion of a "one-size-fits-all" solution -- maintaining that there's a lot of gray area to consider -- and instead suggests that HR professionals come together to share best practices.

Employers can support Gen Z employees -- the youngest affected by the pandemic -- by helping them with skills development, reducing stress levels and building emotional intelligence, writes Lauren Stiller Rikleen, president of the Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership. "Having experienced both the significant disruption to their own lives and the pain and sorrow felt by friends and loved ones who suffered during the pandemic, Gen Zers are likely to be vigilant to the emotions of others at work," she writes.

Many businesses will not be in a place to offer pay increases this year, but it is important for management to make clear to employees why, and to find ways to recognize their contributions. These could include one-time bonuses or some other effort to assist with projected career opportunities.

Most US companies expect remote employees to return to the office when the pandemic ends, a Society for Human Resource Management and Oxford Economics survey says, but an inflexible approach could cause employees to look elsewhere. Companies can maintain a remote workforce in the long term by reviewing the costs of keeping an office open, revising expectations for remote workers and reviewing such processes every year, writes Megan Shroy, who has run remote-based Approach Marketing for a decade.

Al Capone started a soup kitchen in 1930 partly to offset bad publicity from the previous year's Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. While the soup kitchen did serve many residents during the early days of the Great Depression, it was built through bribes and extortion, and it closed shortly before Capone was indicted on federal charges in 1932.