Mathew W. Burr, MJ-LEL, MBA, MHRIR, GPHR, SHRM-SCP, SPHR, CPHR-INT, Chartered CIPD Uncategorized

2026 HR Consulting Priorities

Always opportunity to continue to build culture, strategy and partnerships. 

Benefits for Employers

1. Harnessing AI to Revolutionize HR

  • AI Strategy: HR leaders are expected to craft and implement a clearly defined, HR-focused AI strategy. This includes leveraging AI for talent management, recruitment, and employee experience, while ensuring ethical and responsible use 
  • AI’s Impact on Work: There is a strong emphasis on taking an enterprise-wide view of AI’s impact, not just on processes but also on how it changes leadership roles, employee expectations, and organizational culture 
  • AI Agents: The adoption of AI agents is already transforming HR, making it crucial for HR consultants to guide organizations through this technological shift 

2. Adapting to Shifting Talent Models

  • Agile, Multidisciplinary Teams: Organizations are moving away from traditional HR structures, forming agile pods that focus on priority areas such as onboarding redesign, retention improvement, and leadership pipeline development 
  • Talent Flexibility: HR must help organizations adapt to new talent models, including gig work, remote/hybrid arrangements, and skills-based hiring 

3. Driving Organizational Culture and Change

  • Culture Evolution: As AI and new talent models disrupt the workplace, evolving organizational culture to support performance, innovation, and adaptability is a top priority 
  • Well-being, Fairness, and Trust: Employees expect organizations to prioritize well-being, fairness, and trust. HR consultants must help leaders balance innovation with a people-first approach 

4. Building Alignment, Adaptability, and Trust

  • Strategic Alignment: HR must ensure that people strategies are tightly aligned with business goals, especially as organizations navigate rapid change 
  • Adaptability: Helping organizations remain agile and responsive to market signals, regulatory changes, and workforce expectations is essential 
  • Trust: Maintaining trust, especially as AI and automation increase is critical for employee engagement and retention 

5. Supporting Leadership and Employee Experience

  • Leadership Development: There is a renewed focus on developing leaders who can manage change, inspire teams, and drive transformation 
  • Employee Experience: HR must continue to enhance the employee experience, from onboarding to career development, ensuring that technology enhances rather than detracts from human connection 
Mathew W. Burr, MJ-LEL, MBA, MHRIR, GPHR, SHRM-SCP, SPHR, CPHR-INT, Chartered CIPD Uncategorized

Developing an Effective and Legal Hiring Process

Original Posting Date: 10/8/2024

The hiring process for any organization can make or break the recruitment and retention efforts for talented employees in a very competitive labor market and low levels of unemployment.  Setting the tone with an inefficient or ineffective hiring process will impact the successes we have recruiting applicants into any organizations, regardless of benefits and perks being offered.  Most people decide to stay or start looking for a new job within the first 60-days of employment.  We should investigate the applicant’s qualifications, collect valid and useful data, avoid any stereotypes and hire legally.  We should communicate and train supervisors and managers in our hiring processes, to ensure a consistent and effective method throughout the organization.    

Questions and Inquiries Not to Ask:

  1. You look so familiar to me.  You sit behind me in church, right?
  2. I can’t place your accent.  What is it?
  3. How are you feeling?  When are you due?  Do you have kids?
  4. Are you married?
  5. Do you have a disability?
  6. Would you need a reasonable accommodation if you were offered this job?
  7. How many sick days did you use last year?
  8. Have you ever been on Workers’ Compensation?
  9. Have you ever had a work-related injury?
  10. What medications are you currently taking? 

New York Labor Law Section 201-d:

This labor law prohibits employers from refusing to hire individuals because of lawful; off-duty recreational activities.  What does this mean for our organizations?  If you review social media or conduct Google searches on applicants prior to the making an offer, be aware of this law.  Social media reviews or searches can lead to bias decision making. 

Reference & Employment Checks:

Reference and employment checks can be an effective tool to use during the hiring process.  Asking the applicant to sign a waiver prior to conducting reference and employment checks, can increase the information we can obtain during the process.  The waiver provides a release of liability and claims for providing information about the applicant.  I’m happy to draft waiver language for an employer.

Educational and Certification History:

A SHRM survey found that only half of employers verify candidate’s education credentials and 85% of others surveyed, reported uncovering a lie or misrepresentation on a candidate’s resume or job application.  In my career, I have been involved in two cases of lying about degrees on a resume and job application.  The one area I do not see employers check often is, certification active vs. in-active certification status or not renewed/no continuing education credit.  With SHRM and HRCI credentials, certified professionals must recertify with continuing education credit every three-years.  Many professional certifications have a similar process, we can and should review the active status of certifications, along with academic credentials.

Salary History: 

Watch for changes in New York State on this law, it will impact most employers throughout the state, if not all.  We will need to review our hiring process, job applications and communicate the changes to managers and supervisors.  This will be a change to watch for at the end of 2019, start preparing now.  Remember city and county specific requirements in this area.

“Ban the Box” Regulations:

  1. New York City: Fair Chance Act; applies to employers with 4 or more employees, prohibits inquiring about or considering the criminal history of job applicants until after extending a conditional offer of employment
  2. Buffalo: no criminal history inquires on initial job applications
  3. Rochester: no criminal history inquiries until after initial job interview or conditional job offer.
  4. Syracuse: no criminal history inquiries or background checks until after conditional job offer
  5. Westchester: no criminal history inquiries until after application is submitted (includes job posting prohibition)

Criminal Background Checks New York Employers:

  1. Post a copy of Article 23-A of the New York Corrections Law
  2. Provide a copy of Article 23-A to a candidate if a background check report contains criminal information. Recommendation provide to the candidate before conducting the check.
  3. We must also comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act disclosures and notice requirements as well.

New York City Information

These are just a few thoughts on developing a legal and effective hiring process.  As laws continue to change, so to should our hiring processes. Open communication, proactive feedback and follow-up is necessary for an effective process.  Ask for feedback during the hiring process and make evolutionary changes to ensure a successful recruiting campaign.