In the grocery store you can buy a pack of 10 hot dogs, but if you want to enjoy them on buns, you’ll need to buy two packs to cover your meaty bases. Whereas at 7-Eleven, you can simply buy two hot Big Bites and two buns (and you can even dress them). Sometimes you make choices based on fixed sizes, and sometimes you want a specific product to meet a specific need.

Employ, the recruiting software company, is doing what the hot dog and bun companies have so far refused to do: sell solutions to meet customer needs rather than simply offer out of box products based on assumptions.

A few of the most popular applicant tracking systems (ATS) are owned and run by Employ. The company’s new CEO, Steve Cox, joined in April and dove into the company’s product offerings and explored the market, wherein nearly every Fortune 500 employer relies on ATS for hiring.

The deeper Cox dug, the more he understood the complexity of individual hiring needs of every client, and it led to a repositioning of the products based on solution needs and pain points.

Keep reading here.—AD

HR and compliance teams worried about a regulatory change increasing overtime eligibility for white-collar workers can stop fretting—for now.

What happened? On Friday, a federal judge in Texas blocked a change to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that would have increased the annual salary threshold for white-collar workers qualifying for overtime to $58,656. The judge, who was appointed to his role by President-elect Donald Trump during his first term, ruled that the Department of Labor overstepped its authority by determining the salary threshold based on pay instead of job duties. The decision keeps the salary threshold at $35,568, which was set in 2019. In some ways, the ruling helps HR teams avoid a compliance headache: Even if the rule had gone into effect, some employment attorneys speculated that the incoming Trump administration would have struck it down.

What’s next? It’s not clear if the Department of Labor will appeal the decision. If it were to request a review, it would go to the most conservative federal appeals court, according to Reuters. Either way, the Trump administration could still rescind the rule.

Despite the change, people pros would be wise not to throw out any contingency plans just yet.

Keep reading here.—PM

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday resurrected the controversial congestion pricing plan that would charge drivers for entering Manhattan below 60th Street during peak hours but lowered the proposed toll by $6, according to the New York Times.

Hochul killed the plan over the summer because critics said the initial toll of $15 was too high. But even at $9, the plan will likely face opposition from multiple parties, including the state of New Jersey and President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has said he would kill the plan, the Times reported. The plan, which would be the nation’s first, is designed to raise money for mass transit as it improves air quality and gridlock. Cities such as London and Stockholm have seen a reduction in congestion and air pollution levels since rolling out congestion pricing.

Over the summer, congestion pricing advocates told HR Brew that employers can think about ways to include public transit options in their commuter benefits. To consider how best to accomplish that goal, employers need to study where their workers are coming from and what mode of transportation they are using to get to work, said Matt Caywood, co-founder and CEO of Actionfigure, a tech firm that helps employers understand how their workers are commuting.

Keep reading here.—TA