Fair Labor Standard Act Mandate: How Do Higher Education Human Resource Departments React?

Abstract

Mandates from the United States government may create drastic changes in the university landscape. The Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) Mandate that was expected to go into effect in December of 2016 provided a means to understand how required changes impact the human resource (HR) departments within institutions. This paper addresses the primary concerns of institutional human resource departments as the FLSA mandate required status changes for up to 15% of the campus workforce. Analysis of forecasted issues with employee engagement generated central issues regarding ability to communicate with constituents, resources available to HR departments, faculty and staff morale, compensation fairness, while not concentrating on employee engagement.