Quarterly HR Update – March 2026

As we wrap up the first quarter of 2026 and welcome the start of spring, we’re sharing our latest HR updates and insights to help you stay informed and be prepared. While the legal landscape has been relatively quiet this quarter, we’re still bringing you practical updates and information that may impact your workplace.

This quarter we’re also adding something a little unexpected to the mix: ghosts. Don’t worry—nothing too spooky. We’re diving into the very real phenomenon of candidate ghosting, along with a few practical tips to help you navigate it.

So grab a coffee, enjoy the seasonal shift, and read on—we promise it’s more helpful than haunting.

Please reach out with any questions.

Please note this is a summary of upcoming changes and not an all-inclusive overview.

Now You See Them, Now You Don’t: Candidate Ghosting

In your efforts to hire people for your team, have you ever been ghosted? You’ve engaged with a great candidate, you’re excited about the potential hire and then all of the sudden: silence.

Candidate ghosting is an all-too-familiar trend for employers and hiring managers, especially those who are hiring entry-level and minimum wage staff. A SHRM article from July 2025 and a NY Post article from January 2026 share more about this increased trend.

What should an employer do? Here are some tips to keep your process smooth and effective, despite any ghosts you may encounter:

• Define. Clarify why employees choose to work for you—whether it’s your team culture, training, or family-friendly benefits—and ask long-tenured employees what keeps them engaged.
• Excite. Get candidates excited to work for you—share testimonials or a short video highlighting your team and workplace, and feature it across your website, social media, and job postings.
• Communicate. Communicate early and often—acknowledge applications within 1 to 2 business days and share next steps via text or email.
• Personalize. Keep communication upbeat and personalized—sell your company with friendly, engaging messages that show genuine interest in the candidate.
• Easy. Make interviews easy for candidates: streamline the process, limit the number of interviews as appropriate for the level of the role, send clear calendar invites with all details (parking, duration, interviewer names), and follow up with reminders via text or email.
• Outline. Clearly explain your process and the timeline for next steps.
• Plan. Consider over-hiring or keeping a larger candidate pipeline to account for potential drop-offs.
• Training. Create written processes and checklists for new hires, especially for roles with expected turnover, so your team stays strong even as you hire continuously.

Give these tips a try—and don’t hesitate to book time with us to discuss further! We can help you craft a recruitment plan that aligns perfectly with your goals and business realities. We can be reached at info@hrtnorthwest.com.

Legal Updates & Info

Under Federal Law…

OSHA Posting: For employers required to do so, the deadlines for internal OSHA posting and online submission were required back in February and March, respectively. A friendly reminder that internal OSHA postings can be removed from company bulletin boards as of May 1, 2026, and filed internally.

EEO-1 Reporting: The EEOC has bounced around the last few years in establishing deadlines for the prior year’s EEO-1 reports. For 2025 EEO-1 reports, no 2026 deadline has been announced. We’ll provide an update when it is announced.

Under Washington Law…

Preventing Workplace Coercion Against Immigrants: The Washington Department of L&I recently issued rules related to Substitute Senate Bill 5104, which prohibits employers from threatening employees or deterring them from protected workplace activities based on real or perceived immigration status. With these new rules being established, many believe heightened enforcement is coming. So, what do the rules outline in relation to SSB 5104?

• Employers cannot make comments (blatant or implied) about an employee’s (or their family member’s) actual or perceived immigration status in any way that tries to deter or stop the employee from engaging in protected activity.
• Protected activity includes actions an employee may take in exercising their rights under Washington’s labor laws, such as reporting minimum wage or overtime violations, complaining about workplace safety, filing complaints with L&I, refusing unsafe work, etc.
• Employees can file a complaint within 180 days of an incident. L&I will investigate and during that investigation, if other violations are discovered, L&I can pursue additional violations. I.e. it doesn’t have to be initiated with an employee complaint. L& I can also act on coercion violations it finds during other investigations, even if no one files a separate complaint.

City-Specific Minimum Wage Changes: A few cities in Washington have mid-year minimum wage changes for 2026, as reported by the Local Minimum Wage Rates page on the L&I website. Here’s what we know:

• City of Everett, WA: Effective July 1, 2026, for employers with between 15 and 500 employees, the minimum wage will increase to $19.77 per hour.
• City of Renton, WA: Effective July 1, 2026, for employers with 15 to 500 employees, minimum wage will increase to $21.57 per hour.

Minor Work Law Updates: Effective July 1, 2026, House Bills 1121 and 1644 will provide minor employees with the potential for expanded work hours as well as increased safety protections. As an overview:

• In efforts to expand opportunities for students to gain practical work experience, minors aged 16 and 17 who are enrolled in approved programs will be allowed to work the same number of hours during the school year as during school breaks.
• The increased safety protections fall to the employer: when hiring for certain roles, the employer must complete a safety consultation through Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) before minors would be allowed to perform age-restricted work. Employers will also face more scrutiny and can be barred from hiring minors if they fail to meet stricter safety standards or cause serious harm.

If you hire minor employees, or plan to, it’s advisable to review these new laws in more detail prior to July.

Domestic Employees: While it’s not effective until July 1, 2027, we are sharing this interesting and significant new Washington law called the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, as it relates to domestic workers. While many private employers, unless they are agencies employing domestic workers, may not be directly affected, the law could impact other domestic working relationships you or your family have.

This article from Davis Wright Tremaine sums it up nicely: “…: if you pay someone to perform domestic work in a private residence for 4-plus hours per month, you are a hiring entity with legal obligations.”  We will leave it to the DWT article to provide specifics, including requirements for written contracts, wage and hour compliance, termination notices, and limitations on monitoring and surveillance.

Under California Law…

Pay Data Reporting: As enforced by the California Civil Rights Department “California law requires private employers of 100 or more employees and/or 100 or more workers hired through labor contractors to annually report pay, demographic, and other workforce data to the Civil Rights Department (CRD).” This is a friendly reminder for our payroll partners: the California Pay Data Reports for 2025 are due by May 13, 2026. More information can be found here.

Under Oregon Law…

Nothing to report from Oregon this quarter!

HRT Northwest: Your Northwest HR Team

Seattle: (253) 642-7372 | info@hrtnorthwest.com

This Update is not a full overview of all recent or upcoming legal changes. HRT Northwest is staffed by professionals in the field of Human Resources and business management. We are glad to help with your HR needs; however, we do not offer legal advice and our services are not a substitute for the help of a qualified attorney.