On January 29, 2016 (seventh anniversary of President Obama’s signing of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act), The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced the long-anticipated proposed regulations for pay data collection. Private-sector employers with 100 or more employees will complete an expanded EEO-1 annual workforce demographics report that will now include 12 pay categories. The EEO-1 has been around since 1966; the current rules for which employers are required to file the report are not changing. Pay data would be based on W-2 earnings; employers would also report total hours by pay band. EEOC is soliciting comments on how to handle hours for salaried employees whose hours are not generally tracked. The first pay report would be due in September 2017; employers would report a year of pay data looking back from any pay period between July 1 and September 30 of the reporting year. The rule includes federal contractors and supersedes the Department of Labor proposed regulation announced in 2014; the two agencies are together on the EEOC plan. There is speculation that federal contractors with 50-99 employees who currently file EEO-1 might be included later. Comments were being taken until April 1.

In February, SIOP President-Elect Jim Outtz joined Lewis-Burke for a series of meetings with representatives from Capitol Hill and nongovernmental organizations to highlight the impacts and applications of I-O evidence-based research on policing reform, to urge stakeholders to apply I-O research to related policies and programs, and to position and promote SIOP as a collaborator and resource for these organizations going forward. 

Over the past 3 years, we’ve highlighted technology and social media trends in this column that were having a large impact in the workplace. Those key trends included big data, adaptive training, virtual reality, gamification, simulations, and social media, as well as virtual communication and teamwork. Every so often, we find it’s important to step back and reflect in order to learn and prepare for the future of the field. This issue will cover the trends we’ve seen since the inception of The Modern App that we believe are here to stay.  We also provide suggestions for how you can learn more about these topics!

The first two columns that I wrote “set up” the science–practitioner issues, and the next three addressed three of the five significant ways in which I-O contributes to the employee lifecycle:

• June 2015: Performance Management
• September 2015: Staffing
• January 2016: Strategy and Measurement

This column will tackle the issues related to learning and development and the July TIP will address talent management.  To find how I-O contributes to all five employee lifecycle areas, from the SIOP website, click on “Professionals” and you will see “I-O and the Employee Lifecycle.” 

Frank Schmidt has provided the leadership to create a new endowment in the SIOP Foundation.  The Schmidt-Hunter Fund will support the Schmidt-Hunter Meta-Analysis Award. It will recognize the best advances related to industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology as documented in published research in which meta-analysis is used. The new award will be given by SIOP for the first time in 2017.