The 10 concerns that cause the most stress for HR professionals

Human resources professionals wear many hats. They are in charge of payroll and benefits. They handle recruitment, screening, hiring, onboarding, training and development. They create and enforce workplace policies. They monitor federal and state laws and regulations and focus on compliance. They oversee workplace health, safety and wellness.

And, since March 2020, HR professionals have been at the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Based on a recent survey of HR professionals, we have come up with a list of issues that keep them awake at night:

1. Complying with OSHA workplace safety guidelines: OSHA’s general duty clause took on new meaning over the last year as employers scrambled to comply with changing CDC guidance with regard to workplace safety measures and keeping employees safe from Covid-19 exposure. That involved daily screening, mask requirements, one-way corridors, social distancing, room density monitoring, no shared equipment and single-user bathrooms, not to mention closing down lunchrooms and no shared food.

2. Keeping up with CDC and state Covid requirements and recommendations: Keeping up with evolving CDC guidance was tough enough, but when state mandates and guidelines were added to the mix, HR professionals had to stay current and answer seemingly endless questions from the C-suite to the loading dock. For employers with operations in more than one state, the challenge was daunting.

3. Surveying employees on vaccination: This has been a challenge since December 2020, when the first vaccine was approved. It has been even busier in recent months with the spike in variant cases and as more and more employers considered vaccine mandates. HR professionals report that some employees either refuse to respond or raise objections to survey responses, with objections ranging from HIPAA and other privacy concerns to concerns about the efficacy, safety and side effects of the vaccines. One HR professional has simply referred those complaints to Dr. Anthony Fauci.

4. Monitoring employee social media posts about the employer’s workplace and policies: This is nothing new, but with more employees working remotely over the last year or so, many have been more vocal on social media about their employer’s workplace policies, especially with regard to Covid, the conduct of their co-workers and their personal beliefs about the origin of the virus, the vaccine, remote work, their return to work and related matters. While most CEOs and CFOs are intolerant of employee complaints and comments on social media, because of the potential adverse impact on the employer’s organization, some of those comments are actually protected under the National Labor Relations Act, making for a difficult conversation with senior management who might want the employee disciplined for those posts.

5. Wading through and evaluating religious and medical exemptions to vaccine mandates and policies: The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission offered guidance soon after the first vaccines were approved saying that employers needed to consider an employee’s medical or religious exemptions to the vaccines. Medical exemptions needed to be accompanied by some sort of verification from a healthcare provider. Religious exemptions need to identify and be supported by a specific religious doctrine, as well as something that would attest to the person’s sincerely held religious belief. While HR professionals are accustomed to reasonable accommodation discussion, these requests took those discussions to a whole new level.

6. Figuring out reasonable accommodations for the unvaccinated: Even if an employer was inclined to approve an employee’s request for a vaccine exemption, the analysis also involves whether the employee could still perform the essential functions of the job with some sort of reasonable accommodation. This generally means determining whether the unvaccinated employee could still perform their job. It could be as simple as wearing an approved mask or other PPE, working remotely, transferring to another position or some other creative solution. It could also mean that there is no reasonable accommodation, so the employee might have to be furloughed or terminated.

7. Managing remote work requests: As many employers prepared for employees to return to the workplace — at least before the recent spike in cases — they also experienced significant resistance from employees who claimed they had a need to, or simply preferred to, work at home.

Recent surveys suggest that as many as a third of employees who are required to return to the workplace will seek employment elsewhere.

8. Addressing stress, depression and wellness issues for remote and in office employees: With isolation, fear of the virus and financial distress from uncertainty about work, there has been a reported significant increase in mental health and substance abuse issues. Group health plans have reported an increase in employee claims, but with priorities focused on Covid-19 cases, many mental health and substance abuse issues were not addressed. Now, as employers seek to have employees return to work, some report they simply cannot.

9. Recruiting and retaining employees: Economic aid in the form of stimulus checks and augmented unemployment benefits were much needed for many who were out of work or underemployed last year. Now with the economy in recovery, unemployment rates have dropped from record highs to near record lows. Recent reports noted that there are over 10 million unfilled jobs in the U.S. Retaining existing employees and finding the best new hires to meet business needs is one of the greatest challenges for HR professionals today.

10. Guarding against or mediating disputes between vaccinated and unvaccinated employees: While more employers have considered implementing a vaccine mandate, most are still content with a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated employees, with necessary workplace safety policies in place. But in recent months, there have been several reported disputes between vaccinated and unvaccinated employees over issues related to comments about the vaccine, questioning the sincerity of exemptions, challenging their remote work accommodations and suggesting that they create a workplace safety risk.

Like all other workplace disputes, HR professionals are at the center, trying to restore order and keep the peace, while still complying with evolving safety policies.

James. P. Reidy, a management-side labor and employment lawyer, is a shareholder at the law firm of Sheehan, Phinney Bass & Green. Rachel Brook-Reidy is an HR generalist with Stand Together, a national nonprofit organization.