Aspen Highlights & Updates
Aspen HR kicked off the year by sponsoring two events in January. Our CEO Mark Sinatra led a roundtable at Sadis & Goldberg’s Earnout Magazine Independent Sponsor Summit on January 30th, focusing on minimizing liability and identifying hidden upside. We also sponsored the Search Fund Coalition’s ETA Deal Team Day, connecting with searchers and supporting their acquisition goals through expert insights, 1:1 meetings, and networking. We enjoyed connecting with attendees at both events!
Featured in The Earnout Magazine – Our recent article, “Unlocking Growth Through Roll-Ups: The HR Playbook,” has been published in The Earnout Magazine! This piece offers valuable insights into effectively managing human resources during roll-ups to drive accelerated value creation. You can find the full article on page 17 of the digital edition.
Partner Spotlight!
Lively: Top-Rated Health & Lifestyle Benefits Provider – Aspen HR is proud to partner with Lively to offer our clients a suite of flexible employee benefits including Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs), customizable Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSAs), and commuter benefits. The Lively platform features easy-to-use dashboards and a streamlined mobile app. Lively’s innovative features like expense scout, which reviews an account holder’s transactions to identify HSA-eligible purchases, help drive benefits adoption and save employees money.
Lively has a proven track record serving a wide range of companies, backed up by unrivaled customer service. Lively offers year-round access to a dedicated customer success team, and responsive, knowledgeable customer service for account holders and has earned a 95+ customer satisfaction score from HR admins.
To learn more visit Lively’s website: https://livelyme.com/employers
New Aspenites
Join us in welcoming several new Aspenites to our team!
- Joe Narvaez, Associate Director, Sales
- Hiba Khan, Client HR Associate
- Colleen Frislid, Client HR Business Partner
HR and Legal Alerts!
Please refer to our December 2024 issue of the Aspenite for an overview of many new nationwide laws and regulations that become effective on January 1, 2025. Please contact your Aspen HR representative for a more detailed analysis of any particular update.
Presidential Administrative Changes – On January 20, 2025, President Trump was sworn into office and immediately his administration got to work. As of February 7, 2025, President Trump has already issued roughly 70 executive orders and many of those signed will impact business nationwide. With the change in administration, we are likely to continue to see a massive shift in federal administrative agency action and a response at the individual state level. Below is a summary of several key executive orders. Please note that we cannot summarize every new compliance change, and this update is not intended to be legal advice.
Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity – The order seeks to ensure the enforcement of federal civil rights laws and terminates policies that involve race- and sex-based preferences under diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives. The order emphasizes protecting civil rights, promoting individual merit, and eliminating discriminatory practices in both the public and private sectors. The order also directs federal agencies to take steps to end DEI practices in the private sector and to issue guidance to educational institutions on complying with civil rights laws. We are likely to see the administration target “illegal” corporate DEI programs. Companies should review their DEI programs to ensure they are not engaging in prohibited conduct such as race quotas.
Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremes and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government – The order establishes definitions of sex-based terms and seeks to ensure federal policies and laws reflect these definitions. The order emphasizes recognizing two immutable biological sexes, male and female, and directs federal agencies to use these definitions in all official documents and policies. On January 31, 2025, the EEOC advised that all charges alleging discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity will be sent to national headquarters for review to ensure that they comply with any executive orders. The agency also indicated that with respect to such charges it will issue a notice of right to sue if asked to by a charging party. Finally, the EEOC indicated that the acting chair intends to propose rescission or revision of anti-harassment and other guidance relating to gender identity and sexual orientation that is in conflict with these orders. Important to remember, the Supreme Court held in Bostock v. Clayton County held that Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination and sexual harassment extends to discrimination and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and individual states have laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Several Executive Orders on Illegal Immigration and the Border – These orders declare a national emergency at the southern border, designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and mandate actions to repel, repatriate, or remove illegal immigrants. Deportation raids have already begun in major cities and we are likely to see an increase in ICE audits. Employers should ensure every hire completes and properly fills out a Form I-9. Managers and HR staff should be trained on how to complete Form I-9s, recognize the appropriate List A, B, and C documents, and take appropriate action if a prospective or current employee lacks proper work authorization. Please reach out to your HR Representative if you have questions or need additional training.
Removing Barriers to American Leadership in AI – This order is intended to fund AI across the United States to maintain the United States AI dominance.
Federal Hiring Freeze & Return to Office & Resignation Offer – The orders freeze the hiring of federal civilian employees across the executive branch and require all federal workers to return to office. This freeze applies to all vacant positions as of January 20, 2025, and prohibits the creation of new positions, with exceptions for military personnel, immigration enforcement, national security, and public safety roles. Additionally, the Trump administration offered to pay federal workers through September 30, 2025, if they agree to resign. These orders likely will lead to an increase in federal workers seeking employment at private companies. A federal judge in Massachusetts delayed the February 6 deadline to respond to the resignation offer and set a hearing to determine whether it should be blocked.
Regulatory Freeze – This order directs all executive agencies and departments to halt the proposal or issuance of new rules until they are reviewed and approved by a department or agency head appointed by the president. This is a significant change as the executive agencies were very active in rulemaking during the last administration.
Federal Aid Freeze – The White House budget office ordered a pause on federal financial assistance programs. Federal agencies “must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance,” White House Office of Management and Budget acting director Matthew Vaeth said in the memorandum. We are still unsure what the broad impact is of this decree but financial assistance to employers or potential SBA lending and related programs may be impacted. Federal courts have temporarily blocked this executive order from taking effect.
Change in Administrative Agency Leadership:
President Trump terminates key NLRB leadership – On January 27, 2025, President Trump terminated Nation Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo and Board Member Gwynne Wilcox. Under Abruzzo’s leadership, the NLRB attempted and succeeded on multiple occasions to expand workers’ rights, non-compete agreements, employment handbooks, joint employer status, and restricting confidentiality in severance and separation agreements. With the change in leadership and current board with no quorum, we are likely to see a reversal on many rulemakings and shift in enforcement priorities. Currently, the best action items are to monitor NRLB developments and prepare for significant changes over the next four years. Litigation is pending arguing that the firings were without cause and authority.
President Trump appoints Andrea Lucas as Acting EEOC Chair – On the back of issuing Executive Orders announcing that the federal government will recognize only two sexes and rolling back prior administration EEO guidance on LGBTQ+ harassment, President Trump appointed Andrea Lucas as acting EEOC Chair. She outlines her priorities as follows:
- rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination;
- protecting American workers from anti-American national origin discrimination;
- defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights, including women’s rights to single‑sex spaces at work;
- protecting workers from religious bias and harassment, including antisemitism; and
- remedying other areas of recent under-enforcement.
Employers can expect changes to EEO-1 reporting, the types of lawsuits the agency will prioritize, potential litigation over gender-affirming bathroom access, and amendments to the recent Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PFWA”). Litigation is pending arguing that the firings were without cause and authority.
Have questions? Don’t hesitate to contact our team.
