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.
Growth and evolution are the two terms that would continue to relate with the HR tech industry in 2020 as well. According to industry experts, as the new players enter the market, organizations would turn to technology for further efficiency and productivity gains. In addition, the venture capitalists would remain enticed by the promising HR tech firms. Josh Bersin, an industry analyst in his recent article mentioned that HR software would continue to be ‘white-hot,’ in part because organizations operating in ‘talent-constrained environments’ would seek to invest in tools that would aid them in making better recruitment decisions; develop and support their workforce.
Starting January 1, 2020, 21 states in the US would see a rise in the minimum wages; states like Connecticut, Delaware, Nevada, and Oregon would see an increase in the minimum wage in the latter part of the year. According to the research carried out by Paycor, it was revealed that about 42% of the surveyed organizations reported negative feelings about their compliance with management practices, partly due to limited resources and partly due to frequent changes in the minimum wage laws along with paid sick leave and pay equity laws.
According to the lawsuit filed on Monday by Uber Technologies Inc. and other services along with other app-based companies have asked the US court to block a California labor law that would go in effect from January 1, 2020. The lawsuit stated that the bill violates the US constitution and is a veiled attempt to target the gig economies that rely heavily on the contractual workforce as compared to the full-time employees. The office of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra in his statement on Monday said that they are reviewing the complaint. It seems the bill – AB5 – faces numerous legal challenges.
The Department of Labor (DOL) would be reeling out anew overtime rule from January 1, 2020. According to DOL, this new overtime rule would ensure that about 1.3 million new workers are eligible for overtime pay. What it implies for employers is that starting January 1, 2020, the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) threshold would be increasing to $35,568 annually, or $684 weekly from the previous salary threshold of $23,660 per year, or $455 per week. Thus adding previously exempted employees into the nonexempt employee category.
The Walt Disney Company is in the news again and this time it is the character staff of Walt Disney World that took the center-stage and report indecent groping by the tourists. The Walt Disney World employees portraying the popular characters Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck, each filed a police complaint in December, stating that they were touched inappropriately by the tourists. The incidents came to light when one 51-year-old man was arrested in November after a complaint by an employee portraying a Disney princess. Andrea Finger, a Disney spokesperson said that Disney encourages cast members to come forward and report any incident where they don’t feel safe while portraying Disney characters.
Contrary to the idea of holidays that workers revel in the festivities and not engage in office-related work during their off time, more than 50% of workers don’t switch off, Fortune reports. The issue now is: how do you encourage people to disconnect? According to a LinkedIn survey conducted among 2,000 office workers, 51% of workers have been contacted by colleagues or bosses via phone, text, or email while they were on a holiday break.
PTO, or paid time off, is the most desired non-insurance benefit among employees, according to the findings of an Unum survey. Flexibility paid family leaves, gym memberships and fitness/healthy lifestyle incentives were the top five most-desired benefits according to the survey. Unemployment is as low as 3.6%. If workers don’t get what they want from their employer, they will look for better benefits elsewhere, HR Dive suggests.
In a new ruling by the National Labor Relations Board, an employer can restrict the employees’ use of its email system in a way that doesn’t discriminate against union communications or other protected communications. In 2014, however, NLRB had ruled that employees with access to their employer’s email system for work-related purposes had a right to use that system for communications during non-work time.
A Bankrate poll found that in the past 12 months, half of the U.S. workers haven’t received a pay boost either via a raise or a job change. Among those who received a raise, 38% said their increase was based on performance, 31% were promoted to receive additional responsibilities, and 26% were compensated for the increased cost of living.
Travis Kalanick, the co-founder of Uber, has severed his ties with the company. Kalanick resigned from the company’s board and sold all his shares to turn his focus to a new venture creating “ghost kitchens” for food delivery services, Reuters reported. Kalanick stepped down as chief executive in June 2017 under pressure from investors and after a string of setbacks.
Women are less likely to engage in self-promotion than men, according to new research in HBR. The findings came out in an experiment conducted by professors at Harvard Business School and Wharton. Women gave themselves lower performance ratings even when they knew how they had done relative to their peers. Fortune suggests employers should investigate why women are likely to be swayed by male employees’ self-promotion.
BRT companies are more likely than non-BRT companies to offer paid parental leaves and have better disclosure properties around paid parental leave. However, they tend to offer fewer leaves than non - BRT companies -11 weeks to new mothers and six weeks to new fathers, compared to 12 weeks by non-BRT companies. For flexibility in planning, BRT companies are seeking same requirements for paid parental leaves as FMLA.
Workers with imposter syndrome have lower job satisfaction, higher burnout and perform poorly, according to a report by Crossover Health. Imposter syndrome affects both men and women across all age groups in many industries. Employees are increasingly looking at their employers to address mental health issues. Training managers can spot troubling behavior or performance problems among employees to bring mental health issues under control.
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