The climate is ever-changing when you own a business. Having a solid back-office team in place and having access to expects is vitally important.
What a difference a year makes.
Last January I put together a list of the top 10 mistakes gym owners make to kick off the new year. While the vast majority of the items on this list still ring very true (you should review all 10 here), we find ourselves heading into 2018 with several very new areas of focus to add to this list. Here is what’s trending for 2018.
Pay Equity
In 2017 more and more states adopted a ban on previous salary questions on applications and during job interviews. This trend is likely to continue this year. The intent is to eliminate the influence of gender and race on the wage-setting practices of businesses. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, “Women are almost half of the workforce. They are the sole or co-breadwinners in half of American families with children. They receive more college and graduate degrees than men. Yet, on average, women continue to earn considerably less than men. In 2015, female full-time, year-round workers made only 80 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 20 percent.
Women, on average, earn less than men in nearly every single occupation for which there is sufficient earnings data for both men and women to calculate an earnings ratio. In middle-skill occupations, workers in jobs mainly done by women earn only 66 percent of workers in jobs mainly done by men. IWPR’s report on sex and race discrimination in the workplace shows that outright discrimination in pay, hiring, or promotions continues to be a significant feature of working life.” This disparity in pay is still very prevalent for minorities as well. It will take the next 44 years for women to reach pay equality, but Hispanic women will have to wait another 215 years and black women another 106 years based on IWPR’s research.
Other trends emerging in this arena are blind hiring and pay transparency initiatives. Many companies are employing techniques that anonymize or “blind” demographic information for a candidate during the initial screening process. Pay transparency policies are becoming increasingly popular and more businesses (e.g., Google, Whole Foods, and Buffer) have begun to display salary info next to job postings or even lifting the lid on what employees within the company earn. This practice pushes businesses to do a better job explaining how pay rates are set.
Paid Sick & Family Leave
Several years ago only a few states had mandated paid leave specific to personal time for illness or family care. This is changing. Eight states and Washington D.C. currently require paid sick leave (AZ, CA, CT, MA, OR, RI, VT, WA, and DC). Moreover, five states and DC have paid family leave (CA, NJ, WA, NY, RI, and DC). 2018 will likely bring additional states to the table, and there is growing pressure to refine and implement a national program.
Employers should be mindful of changes in their state’s requirements and ensure, where required, proper accruals and tracking are in place for their employees. Failure to comply can come with stiff penalties.
Sexual Harassment Training
Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last several months, you have undoubtedly already recognized that ensuring a safe and harassment-free work environment for ALL team members is more important than it has ever been. From a risk management perspective, ensuring you have a comprehensive sexual harassment policy in place is imperative. However, having a policy in your handbook is not enough. Training of management and all staff on a consistent basis takes the necessary next step to ensure your team is well-versed in your policy, and your management team is capable of properly tackling issues as they arise. Policy is all but useless without buy-in from your team and consistent application by your managers. Not only is this the smart thing to do, any owner worth their salt should see the importance of their team feeling safe and comfortable while performing their job duties.
Privacy
The fitness industry has a somewhat spotty track record and a tendency to lag behind other sectores when it comes to the adoption of technology. It is incredible to me how many clubs are still utilizing paper agreements! However, the tide is turning, and even in our industry automation and paperless everything is becoming the norm. With better tech solutions available, we find ourselves faced with a new dilemma, ensuring our members’ data remains private and safe. Data security breaches are becoming more commonplace even at seemingly well-protected organizations (see the Equifax debacle), and legislation is rapidly being written to combat this issue and force companies to take additional protective measures. A recent example of this type legislation is the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which goes into effect May 2018. Even if your business is 100% US-based, the GDPR may still affect you. Say you sell a temporary pass or membership to an EU citizen; you may be held accountable for complying with the GDPR rules. These include provisions on encryption of data, tighter definitions of consent, and a broader view of what constitutes personal data. It even codifies a “right to be forgotten” so individuals can ask a business to delete their data.
While there are still many questions surrounding this new law and its application for US businesses, it is certainly worth a place on this list and your radar for early this year. As with most regulations, failure to comply carries massive penalties.
The most important thing to remember is that the climate is ever-changing when you own a business. Having a solid back-office team in place and having access to expects is vitally important. When the stakes are so high, there is no room for guessing. Have a safe and prosperous 2018!