Taco Bell in the latest press release dated January 9, 2020, announced that it would test a $100,000 annual salary for its restaurant manager at company-owned stores in few select locations in the latter part of the year. The release also revealed that the chain would also introduce a program called ‘Makers’ for employees who wish to grow their leadership experience but don’t want to be general managers. In addition, the chain announced that as of January 1, company employees would be eligible for at least 24-hours paid sick leave each calendar year.
In a recent announcement by the Governor’s office, Tennessee would be offering paid family leave to its state employees, effective March 1, 2020. The governor signed an executive order on January 7 that granted the popular benefit. According to the governor’s office, the latest leave sanction would be consistent with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The press release also mentioned that the requirement doesn’t apply to private business.
In a recent ruling California Court announced that independent truck drivers were exempted from ‘gig worker’ law as they are subject to federal statute. The ruling Los Angeles judge handed a victory to one industry that was challenging the state effort to clamp down on labor abuses. The said law is known as AB5 and took effect on January 1, making it difficult for organizations to classify their workforce as contractors instead of employees – a discretion that exempts them from being eligible for overtime, healthcare and workers’ compensation.
The US Federal Trade Commission or FTC – the agency that is responsible to enforce antitrust law would reconsider the rule that allows employers to force their workforce to sign the non-compete agreement. According to the announcement made by the officials on Thursday – the law that was meant for white-collar professions like doctors and tech workers; has trickled down to the blue-collar profession that requires minimum or no training. The state has earlier also argued the non-compete agreement was illegal.
According to the latest research by Harvard Business Review, it was revealed that managers who are too much involved with their employees’ personal issues might tend to pay for it in terms of enhanced distress, sadness, and nervousness. The research revealed that while leaders their employees with work problems tend to improve their work engagement, dealing with personal issues could have an opposite effect. The researchers concluded that dealing with personal issues of employees could also be taxing for leaders as well, especially the inexperienced ones.
Two Afro-American executives filed a lawsuit against the fast-food giant for ‘systematic but covert’ racial discrimination prevalent at McDonald’s. The executives alleged that the racial discrimination reached its peak under the former chief executive Steve Easterbrook who took over the company in 2015. The lawsuit comes at a time when McDonald’s conducted a broad examination of its corporate culture in the wake of Easterbrook’s departure. The current suit filed in the latest in a series of racial and sexual harassment cases that were brought against McDonald’s.
A recent study by HR People + Strategy revealed that Chief People Officers lack skills and technical knowledge to meet the demands of the new-gen workforce. According to the study about 520 executives believed the absence of C-suite support as the major cause of not being ready among the officers. The study explored the development of the next generation HR leaders also found that about 99% of CPOs believed that while they had courage and agility to change, there was only a handful about one-third who were ready for the change.
This New Year marked a critical year for ‘training compliance efforts’ especially the sexual harassment training requirements in the US following the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. According to the new training requirement laws, California employers with either five or more employees – irrespective of their employee status—would be required to offer two hours of sexual harassment training to all employees in the managerial roles by January 1. The program also mandates a one-hour of said training to its employees in non-managerial roles by the same date. Post that the employers would be required to conduct the training sessions every two years henceforth. Human trafficking awareness training for 20 minutes for employers in the travel and hospitality business was another law.
In order to strengthen its regional units and speed-up decision-making process, the UBS Group AG had plans to cut as many as 500 private banking jobs as the lender moves ahead with a wealth management revamp. The group would split up its private banking system in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) among its top managers. The changes, as per the memo, released by the group, are the current steps taken to reorganize its wealth management business after the split from the rival.
According to an announcement from Governor Cuomo’s office, New York state would be eliminating subminimum wages for tipped employees across miscellaneous industries statewide. As per the announcement the change would be done in two phases. The first phase would see the difference between minimum wage and current tip wages halved on June 30, 2020, and completely eliminated by December 31, 2020. The change would affect more than 70,000 people in various jobs including but not restricting to nail and salon workers, car wash workers, and other employees who come under the tipped employees' category.
As the new Finnish PM Sanna Marin floats the idea of the four-day week, the critics were ready to criticize the idea of reduced working hours. The reduced work hours boost productivity, reduces carbon footprint and overall make the employees healthy and happy. A study by Henley Business School revealed that about 77% of employees felt that a four-day week would improve their life quality.
The survey by Olivet University strengthened the idea that technology drives office transition trends. It also threw light on the preferences of new-age employees opting for an eclectic mix of both open and private spaces. However, in a recent survey by Zapier, it was revealed that the traditional office space – a closed-in office or a cubicle – would become obsolete by 2030. The Zapier survey also mentioned that employers who wish to redesign their office spaces, they need to keep into account the diverse needs of their employees.
According to the latest research by Myers-Briggs Company released on January 2, 2020, it threw interesting insights. The research revealed how introverts at workplaces are underestimated and often overlooked for leadership positions. As per the findings, the company found that about 57% of respondents claimed to be introverted, however, only 39% of respondents in the US identified as introverts. The company research revealed that it was a myth that leaders should be extraverts. In fact, the research emphasized on the importance of leaders to be able to represent their followers.
In a recent global survey from the Conference Board revealed that C-suite executives and CEOs cited the impending recession and attracting & retaining top talent as two of the major concerns – both internally and externally – in 2020. The survey further revealed that irrespective of the size and location of the organization – talent attraction & retention would be the number 1 internal stressors in the new year. The respondents, also revealed that they plan to counteract their concerns ‘by developing more innovative cultures and new business models.’ Other internal & external concerns include equal pay, preparing next-gen leaders and building a more inclusive work culture.
According to the January 2 announcement by Lowe’s Companies, Inc., the organization plans to hire more than 53,000 workers for both full-time and part-time positions this spring in its 1,700 US stores. The company in its announcement said that it would hold walk-in events for candidates and the deserving candidate may receive on-the-spot job offers as well. The event is likely to begin from January 8 in the states that would expect Spring weather soonest. The announcement also revealed that both full and part-time hires would have access to the benefits including career advancement and development.
As per the data from Paychex that was released on December 31, the second half of 2019 witnessed a significant surge in the hourly wages at small businesses. The findings also revealed that the small businesses have increased their workers’ hours, which has resulted in December representing the strongest gain since 2012. Marin Mucci, Paychex president, and CEO believes that an increase in hours for existing employees is “sure sign employers are responding to the pressures of the tight labor market.”
‘Speak on climate crisis as an Amazon employee, be ready to face the consequences’ – Amazon threatens its employees. In a recent incident where one Maren Costa – a UX principal designer with Amazon – spoke to the media that called for the retail giant to do more to tackle the impending climate crisis. Amazon threatened to fire employees after their public announcement of ‘climate pledge’ in September. According to the plan, Amazon would use 100% renewable energy by 2030 and aims to become carbon-neutral by 2040.
Age discrimination is the last accepted bias in the US; yet it is present, accepted and even tolerated especially in large organizations. According to an AARP investigation, it was revealed that the age discrimination is common in three basic areas: hiring – whereby organizations target young workers through job ad language; on-job situations – where the old workers are harassed owing to the misconceptions about the lack of their tech and other skills; firing – another area where old workers are targeted based on again false perceptions about their salaries and contributions to the organization. The report also revealed that age discrimination is tolerated largely due to weak laws protecting older workers as compared to other forms of biases prevalent in the corporate world.
According to a report by CNBC, Apple would be conducting free genetic screening tests for its employees in its Cupertino, California headquarters. The report revealed that the program would allow Apple employees to receive free genetic screening for diseases from the on-site health clinics at Apple. The sources told CNBC that Apple views this program as a good recruiting and retention tool. CNBC report further revealed that the pilot is being offered in association with Color Genomics – a population health technology company that offers genetics tests and analysis.
HR plays an important role in ensuring that the talent their organization seeks is easily available. In the future, only those organizations would be able to thrive and succeed that have given their HR department a free rein to attract, hire and retain the top tech talent floating in the market. Whether CEOs would be able to fulfill their tech ambitions would solely depend on their HR professionals. Usually, a department with a limited scope, the modern HR department has professionals who are tech and data-savvy and know how to best make use of the latest technologies to wield out the desired results.
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