Employers should be thinking about whether to address the following areas of workplace compliance in 2026. These items on the employer to-do list are not all for the month of January, but don’t forget to come back to them throughout the year.
- Routine Use of Artificial Intelligence. Does your workplace have a policy on how employees may use AI in performing their jobs? Do you have a preferred platform, or do you require certain settings to be used when employees use AI? Does your confidentiality policy address how employees can engage with AI and still protect your data? Or do you pretend that employees don’t use AI at all?
- Training Managers to Understand Requests for Accommodation Under the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act (PWFA). This act has been in effect since June 27, 2023, and there have been a number of recent settlements, lawsuits, and charges against employers for failing to accommodate known limitations due to pregnancy. Recent EEOC enforcement examples include EEOC v. U.S. Steel, Case No. 0:25-cv-04721, filed in the District of Minnesota, EEOC v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., Case No. 25-cv-5448, filed in the Eastern District of New York, and settlements listed here and here. However, now that the EEOC has a three-member quorum, one of its anticipated policy changes will likely be to the PWFA guidelines to remove the requirement to accommodate conditions such as abortion, menstruation, infertility, and menopause. Training managers to act quickly when an employee requests an accommodation will be key for employers.
- Return to Office (RTO) Policies. Some employers are considering stricter enforcement of RTO policies or adopting a formal RTO policy for 2026. This is a good time to pull out the policy and make changes for the new year. Considerations include number of in-office days required, how attendance will be tracked, how the employer will enforce the policy, whether “core” business hours are required, and how meetings will be handled when some employees are in-office and others are remote.
- Protecting Confidential Information and Assets with a Noncompete. Now that the FTC is no longer pursuing a national rule against noncompetes, employers may continue to restrain employees from post-employment competition, depending on the requirements of state law.
- Audit Your Classification of Independent Contractors. This is an area where employers routinely make mistakes — which can be costly. While there is a federal standard under the Fair Labor Standards Act for how to classify a worker as an employee or a contractor, each federal statute and agency (such as the IRS, the EEOC, and the NLRB) uses a different test. State authorities for unemployment benefits, state and local taxes, and wage-and-hour purposes also have different standards. The analysis is deeply fact-specific and usually requires legal counsel. Luckily, we have an upcoming Breakfast with Bradley in March 2026 on this very topic!
- Follow Up on Your Performance Evaluations. A good employer that did those year-end performance reviews will want to get full credit for such good work. Don’t let the end of 2026 come around without following up and making sure that employees with poor performances either improved, were placed on a performance improvement plan and succeeded, or are no longer with the company. Act promptly so that 2025’s problem employees are no longer an issue by the end of 2026.