From open enrollment to workplace culture, here are the key takeaways from Tuesday's midterm elections employers need to know
Democrats swept control of Congress this week, leaving HR leaders with a long list of questions, from health benefits and pay to AI and immigration. Many of the answers may come through hearings and oversight rather than new laws, but employees are already looking to their employers for a response.
Chatrane Birbal, senior vice president of practice, policy and government relations at the Washington, D.C.-based CHRO Association, said she and her colleagues expected the House to flip, but the Senate result was a surprise.
"It caught many of us as a surprise that Republicans did not maintain the majority in the Senate," Birbal said. "But nonetheless, regardless, we were already anticipating that even with a divided Congress, a lot of the focus in the 120th Congress would be on affordability issues, AI implementation in the workplace, lots of investigative hearings."
Health costs and subsidies
Health care ranked among voters' top concerns, with 69% calling it a top issue in an AP-NORC poll ahead of the vote.
"We know that healthcare costs is a big topic that drove electorates to the polls," Birbal said. "I think employees are going to be looking at what their employers are doing to try to control healthcare costs, especially right now. It is open enrollment season."
Birbal says that premiums, deductibles and access shape whether employees delay care, skip prescriptions or start looking at other employers, and that the way a company communicates plan changes shows whether it's looking out for them.
Birbal expects Democrats to move early on extending enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies.
"I think it's actually going to be one of the very first items that they consider, specifically extending those ACA subsidies," she said. "I do believe the president would sign that into law."
HRD America has reported on how workers have moved into employer health plans since the enhanced subsidies expired, and Birbal said restoring them could ease that strain.
"Having those ACA subsidies back in place will help to alleviate some of the strain on the employer-sponsored system," she said. "Maybe not in 2027, but perhaps in 2028."
AI guardrails
AI ranked lower than health care on voters' lists, but Birbal expects it to draw plenty of attention on Capitol Hill.
"I definitely think that Congress will likely pursue a number of bills aimed at trying to put guardrails on how AI is being implemented in workplaces across the country," Birbal said. "I don't think with Democrats leading that they would pursue any bills to preempt the various state laws."
Birbal doesn't expect the president to sign any AI legislation, though.
"I don't foresee the president signing any type of bills regarding AI because, even when he had the majority in Congress and Congress tried to pursue federal proposals to preempt the state laws, that didn't happen," she said.
Patrick Wright, associate dean for corporate relations and professor of management at the University of South Carolina's Darla Moore School of Business, said companies heavily involved in AI, including those building data centers, will welcome the end of the campaign.
"I actually think companies are going to be happy that the election is over just because a lot of the AI discussion was purely election-oriented," Wright said.
He expects a calmer debate over the risks, benefits and costs of AI and data centers now.
Inside companies, employees have their own questions about AI. Birbal says they worry about whether their roles will change and how their skills will be valued, and that open communication and credible reskilling build more trust than anything lawmakers debate.
Pay and cost of living
The economy topped voters' list, with 84% of registered voters calling it very important to their vote, according to Pew Research Center. Wright said the results won't ease those pressures right away.
"I think most people, the gauge that they're using for affordability is gas prices," he said. "When and if gas prices come down, that will be when people begin to feel like the affordability problem is being addressed in some way. It may be a tiny percent of their total costs, but it's a visible part of their total costs."
Those pressures show up in workplace decisions. Birbal says cost concerns shape how employees view pay and merit budgets, open enrollment costs and return-to-office policies, and that financial stress affects engagement, attendance and retention.
Many workers have little financial buffer, and HRD America has reported that only half of workers could cover a few months without income, according to a Zurich Insurance Group study.
Birbal expects limits on what Congress can deliver on pay and affordability, even with Democrats pushing bills on both.
"While the Democratic majority are going to pursue a lot of hearings and bills regarding workforce protections and affordability topics, I don't think that those legislative proposals will make it across the finish line to the president's desk," she said.
However, a higher minimum wage is one area where she said she could see bipartisan support and passage.
Immigration
The Trump administration's crackdown on employers that sponsor foreign workers was already underway before the election. Last month, it suspended eight technology companies from sponsoring green cards, including Microsoft, through a Labor Department program. The question now is what a Democratic Congress can do about it.
"The Democratic majority is not going to be able to overturn any type of actions that the president has already taken as it relates to H-1Bs and other employment-based visas," Birbal said.
She said House and Senate Judiciary committees could instead call in the Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice for hearings on how they enforce employment-based immigration rules.
She said Democrats may push to reintroduce a bill from Sens. Chuck Grassley and Dick Durbin, the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act, which would add wage, recruitment and attestation requirements and higher penalties.
Wright said a Democratic Congress could bring more willingness to compromise after the administration took firm positions on deportations and employer enforcement.
"I think now this will force a little bit more of a conversation, which may actually be good so that we get back to a reasonable discussion about immigration as opposed to a really contentious, divided discussion about it," he said.
Diversity, equity and inclusion
Many companies stopped using DEI language after the Trump administration targeted it, and Birbal doesn't expect a Democratic Congress to reverse the federal actions that followed. She doesn't expect companies that took positions on DEI earlier to change them now.
"President Trump is still in the White House, and I don't foresee the Democrats passing legislation that would overturn any of the presidential or executive actions as it relates to DE&I programming," Birbal said, "because many of those actions were done through executive orders."
On the other hand, she said companies shouldn't expect a Democratic Congress to call them in to testify before committees about their DEI practices.
"That doesn't mean that enforcement activities at the executive level and agency will cease to exist," she said. "That will still continue on for the duration of this administration."
Wright said the shift in Congress could change how openly companies talk about the work.
"Most companies were still doing good DEI work, but they just weren't calling it that," he said. "I think you may see companies being a little bit more willing to be vocal about what they're doing."
Trust and culture
Birbal said the results underscore a shift in how workers view their employers.
"In recent years, trust in government has declined," she said. "And so as a result, many, many Americans are looking to their employers to take charge and to implement programs and benefits and opportunities for them in the workplace."
Birbal says employees apply the same lens to their employers, asking whether leaders are honest, whether rules are applied evenly and whether it's safe to raise a concern.
That makes employer responses visible. "Let's say a company is called in for a hearing by the Democratic Congress," Birbal said. "An employee will be looking at how their company executives respond and engage on the various topics."
On how to handle the results internally, Wright said the best approach is to talk openly with employees about where things stand.
"If companies or chief HR officers are trying to avoid the discussion, or let's just say they're not talking about any of these things, then I think that creates suspicion on the part of employees," he said.
What HR leaders can do now
Birbal said HR leaders should start with the exit polls on the issues that drove people to vote, such as health insurance costs, paid leave benefits and AI implementation. Employers that want to remain an employer of choice should make adjustments to respond to those concerns, she said.
"It's also a good litmus test," Birbal said. "These are the issues that your workers, your employees are paying attention to, and they care deeply about."
She suggested using employee pulse surveys and other feedback tools companies already have to discuss those topics internally and track job satisfaction.
Wright advised keeping messages to employees general and positive, since it's too early to say anything with certainty. He said leaders can tell employees that the company isn't a political entity but a business operating in a government-regulated environment, one that will adjust to whatever changes the government brings.
Wright said that kind of message can reassure employees.
"I think that's reassuring to employees that, okay, our leaders actually are keeping track of what's going on in the larger environments and managing it," he said.
