In a recent official announcement dated 4 February 2020, Macy’s disclosed its plan to shut its 125 least productive stores over a period of three years. The move is an effort to curtail the rising cost and decreasing footfall at the malls. The move would also cut more than 2000 corporate jobs as a cost-saving effort. According to the official announcement, Macy’s would be closing its stores in ‘lower tier’ malls and explore other formats for its stores.
According to a Zapier Survey dated 27 January 2020, revealed millennials and Gen Z ditch the labels of job hoppers and social media fanatics. The report revealed most millennials and Gen Z workers want to stay in their current organization and spent off-work hours answering work-related queries. The report further stated millennials and Gen Z had 10 and six-year plans respectively in their current company.
The recent report by Axonify released in January 2020, revealed that about 29% of client business results could be attributed to the learning and development programs it delivered. The official report by the company showcased training programs had about a 33% impact on sales and revenue, which is one of the most frequently used key performance indicators. The report stated that about 84% of the KPIs organization measured were related to top-line revenue.
According to a new study by the research firm Equilar, dated 30 January 2020 revealed while women gained seats on US corporate boards at a steady pace, there was a decline in their share of board leadership roles, which were still stuck at a low level. The report found out while the share of women directors rose to 20.5% in 2019 from 18.9% in 2015, there has been less to no shift in the board leadership roles.
In a recent study released by Pew Research Center, it was found women make up the majority of employees in the roles that require a high level of social or fundamental skills. The research revealed that jobs included roles in law, education, and counseling. The study also noted an increased number of women participation in the occupations relying heavily on analytics like accounting and dentistry.
The recent report by Business Talent Group’s (BTG) third annual report on gig hiring trends shared Project Management as the most in-demand skills for independent workers. The Talent Report featured top industries and business functions using highly skilled independent talent along with most in-demand project types and skillsets. The report also featured all the unique needs an independent talent would serve across numerous industries and business functions.
The recent partnership announced between the University of Houston researchers and energy companies Diamond Offshore Drilling and Baker Hughes, dated 27 January 2020 was aimed to build tools that would use mindfulness training to improve safety for offshore energy workers. The participating workers would undergo a 30-day training program including two daily exercises, which would train them to focus at the moment on specific job tasks.
According to an iCIMS report, HR technology has experienced a setback just as the digital transformation became imperative. The report implied Human Resource needs to rethink its partnership with Information Technology to modernize talent acquisition. The report also found out, HR practitioners globally agreed to the fact hiring is critical to an organization’s success. But HR is at a low priority for IT. The report recommended HR and IT professionals should collaborate together and determine their organization’s data needs.
In a recent development, union workers at Exxon Mobil Corp’s Baytown, Texas, refinery, had rejected a contract extension. The workers had rejected the offer in the voting that was completed on 31 January 2020. According to the sources, Members of the United Steelworkers in the refinery and laboratory voted down the three-year extension because as per the contract the entry workers must wait before their pay reaches parity with veteran hourly employees.
In a recent development at International Business Machines Corp (IBM), it was revealed the current CEO Ginni Rometty, 62, step down from her position at the organization. She would be succeeded by Arvind Krishna, 57, who currently is heading IBM’s cloud business. The decision came in the wake of pioneer tech company continues its efforts to rejuvenate itself. Rometty in her eight years at the wheel, IBM completed 65 acquisitions, culminated in the $34 billion deal for Red Hat last year. Arvind Krishna had spearheaded the Red Hat deal.
According to the recent survey by Bullhorn, dated 28 January 2020, about 77% of recruiting firms felt employers must raise wages to compete for qualified talent in 2020. About 44% of recruiting firms revealed this as one of their top three hiring challenges for the coming years – an up from 30% in 2019. Other challenges represented in the survey report included the requirement of diverse shortlisted candidates. The report also revealed skills shortage was one of the top recruiting challenges along with others.
The latest index by Randstad Sourceright's Business Health Index dated 28 January 2020, revealed that HR leaders and C-suite executives were optimistic about the economy in 2020. The index also showcased that the positive business outlook on the economy was up by 11 points from 2019’s score. According to the survey, about 65% of respondents worldwide revealed that there was extensive hiring in the last year. Another 45% of respondents shared that they expect the political environment would positively impact their businesses as well.
According to the latest report from Accenture and Qlik dated 22 January 2020, the lack of data literacy in employees cost their employers five days of productivity per person each year. The researchers pointed out in the report how data could fuel a culture of innovation and growth, however when employees don’t have the required knowledge to use it, resulting in lowered productivity because of procrastination and sick leave. The report emphasized continuous learning as the key to growth.
In the recent survey by Neuvana of about 1,076 US professionals revealed ‘work-life’ balance is almost non-existent for most of the professionals thus prompting them to work continuously even from home. The report also threw light on about 60% of respondents working remotely at least once a month and about 51% revealed working from elevates their stress levels. The report suggested employees need to take a break from time-to-time to ensure there is no burnout at the workplace.
In a recent survey by Welltok dated 23 January 2020, it was found that Gen X wanted their employers to play an active part in their health. The survey report revealed about 70% of the employees felt the organization should do more to support holistic health. The group of Gen X was surveyed in December 2018 and there were about 500 employees with full-time positions. Welltok concluded the report by saying employers could reinforce loyalty among the Gen X workforce by offering benefits that would meet their personal health and well-being needs.
According to the research by Tilr dated 22 January 2020, HR professionals revealed that they plan to include skills tests in their hiring process from 2020. The surveyed HR professionals described skills as the ‘new talent currency’ and ranked it as the number one factor in the jobs market, with culture fit and learning capacity following closely at numbers two and three respectively.
The recent development in the jobs front includes hybrid jobs – the jobs that require a blend of both technical and soft skills – evolving into super jobs. With workplaces adopting technology including AI and RPA to do some of the work, it has become necessary for the workforce to be competent in both technical and soft skills in order to succeed at a workplace. Some of the hybrid skills recruiters look for include analytical abilities, empathy and communication and a keen desire to learn and grow as per the industry experts.
The recent report released by INSEAD dated 22, January 2020, revealed that AI has transformed numerous parts of work including talent acquisition. However, the report also revealed a disturbing fact stating the uneven distribution of AI skills across the industries and nation, without proper intervention, could lead to a widened digital divide. The report emphasized the importance of creating an internal team and less reliance on external vendors for AI initiatives. Emphasizing on other important facts, the experts featured in the report revealed that buying and building talent would be the best strategy to adopt AI-driven initiatives in the organization.
According to The Hackett Group’s Annual Key Issues Study, the top goal for HR in 2020 is to drive organizations’ performance and growth while navigating the digital transformation and this has left HR feeling ‘overcommitted’ under the rising expectations. The report emphasized talent management and development along with addressing skills gap were the top HR priorities in 2020, the sectors are also the critical development areas for HR departments, inferring requirements might be needed in the said areas.
In the latest nationwide Cigna study dated 23 January 2020 revealed that about 61% of the employees suffer from loneliness in their jobs. According to the report, the number is up from 54% in 2018. The study also emphasized the most afflicted by loneliness were Gen Z, entry-level and senior-level employees, telecommuters and Gig workers. The study revealed that the 2020 Loneliness Index also indicated the fact about lonely workers taking double the number of sick leaves, missing the workdays five times more due to stress as compared to their non-lonely workers.
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