During his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump called for paid family leave, lower health care costs, new trade policies and infrastructure investments to create new jobs. Trump previously said that he wants to close the skills gap, but he did not mention the issue in this address.

Tech talent is starting to see retail as a much more viable and innovative place to be than other options, according to Margo Downs, chief people and culture officer at Stitch Fix. Downs joined Karalyn Smith, senior vice president of human resources with Sephora, for a Fast Company session at NRF 2019: Retail's Big Show. "People want to solve interesting problems, and we've got really interesting problems to solve," Downs said. Read more.

Unum Group has announced it will cover a part of its employees' student loan payments -- up to $250 per month -- if the workers will give up five paid vacation days. The company estimates that 30% of workers will take the company up on the offer.

A recent expert panel of human resources leaders discussed how to use technology to make decision-making processes run more smoothly. Angela Nguyen, a leader in HR with the Ad Exchange Group said technology can help with hiring decisions by using "personality and performance tests, and cross-referencing those responses with data gathered from existing employees, which can then be used to better predict which types of personalities and strengths perform better in which roles."

Research suggests that people will speak up in work situations based on how safe it feels, which places the onus on leaders to minimize the risk of sharing opinions, write Khalil Smith, Chris Weller and David Rock of the NeuroLeadership Institute. Leaders can foster "employee voice" through risk-minimizing language and waiting to speak until the end of a meeting.