Australia has upped its job creation rate by 2.4 % to meet its 1.6 % increase in population. At the same time in March, its unemployment rate rose to five percent from its eight-year mark of 4.6 percent. This number can be attributed to the fact that more people went looking for work. The Australian dollar too improved about a quarter of US cent and reached $0.7200. Reserve Bank of Australia remains firm on its rates despite temporary loss in the economy’s momentum. Central Bank is closely watching the employment report and is depending on the labor market to gain wage growth and inflation.
Lack of diversity is rendering the AI field imperfect. More than 80% of AI professors are male and a meager 15% and 10% of AI researchers at Facebook and Google are women. A study published by New York University research canter has said that “diversity disaster” is leading to a flawed system which in turn is giving rise to gender and racial biases. People designing AI are usually male and white which is thought of to be the prime reason behind the discrimination. In different instances AI has made offensive image classifications of minorities, chatbots have taken to hate speech and Amazon technology has failed to identify users with darker skin tones.
Monster, after acknowledging that job seekers aren’t having the greatest candidate experience on its portal, has begun to take corrective actions for its application process. The company has launched an ad campaign “This isn't working anymore" with creative agency MullenLowe Group to fix its recruiting process. With its digital candidate experience, it plans to improve its recruiting process for both candidates and employers. In its global TV spots, the company is highlighting new tools to address long times-to-hire, infrequent or impersonal feedback and job sites that aren't working for either applicants or recruiters. Candidates have complained about unresponsive applications, delayed interview feedback, and absence of communication on the employer’s end.
Microsoft is taking a discreet approach while facilitating its facial recognition technology to outside agencies. The company’s President Brad Smith said that it has turned down a California law enforcement agency’s request to install the technology in officer’s body cameras and cars. Adding to his statement Smith said that adoption of the technology might raise human rights concerns. A number of researches have concluded that women and minorities might become more vulnerable and can be questioned unreasonably by the AI as it is accustomed to white and male pictures. In another incidence, Microsoft rejected a deal to install the technology to blanket the capital city of an unidentified country.
In 2018 Wrike study, a staggering 94% of workers in the US and UK admitted to experiencing work-related stress. Similar were the results floated by the CareerCast survey. 4 out 5 of the respondents said they were more stressed than they were two years back. The University of Phoenix conducted a poll and found more than half of the employees are burnt out in their jobs. LinkedIn showed similar results. 70% of the respondents said their workload was the main cause of stress. Stress levels seem to even out across genders. But women say they are more affected by office politics. Gen-X stood out as the most stressed-out generation at 54%.
Organizations are expecting disruption in some of the other form in the near future. Sixty-three percent of HR leaders have said that in the coming three years they foresee a significant change in their industry. Employee engagement and hiring can be crucial as top performers may switch their jobs. Craig Johnson, a partner at Mercer, said that planning for this disruption should start well before the disruption hits. Few companies are opting for “change toolkits” that show the right ways to address change. Brian Kropp, group vice president at Gartner’s HR Practice said: "To achieve employee understanding, organizations should shift to open-talk conversations with employees rather than the typical top-down approach of telling employees things."
The grocery chain Stop and Shop literally came to a stop when more than 31,000 employees walked off the job. The strike was called for when the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) and management reached a deadlock in negotiations. Senator Elizabeth Warren and former vice-president Joe Biden have supported the demands which have driven the UFCW and management to meet for another round of talks over the weekend. A compromise over healthcare, wages, and pensions between the two sides is expected in the second round. While many stores opened on Friday, the staff strength was quite reduced. The strikers came from a variety of roles – from cashiers to bakers, butchers and deli employees. As per the current reports, the latest proposal from Stop & Shop included pay hikes for associates and an increase of $4 from $2 previously on health insurance premiums. Though the pay rise will be 50 cents an hour, the union says that it will not offset higher healthcare costs.
In a recent announcement the US burger chain McDonald's revealed its growth plans for 2019. The company will open 25 new restaurants across Italy. McDonald's also made an official statement that it plans to increase its 23, 000 staff by 10 percent. It will add 2, 300 more employees across Italy. McDonald's has hired 3,000 people during the last two years. This is a significant step toward McDonald's diversity initiatives as around 62% of its employees across these stores are women, and many of these women are store managers.
A report by Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc. says there has been a 22 percent rise in the CEO turnover in the first quarter of 2019 as compared to 2018 during the same time. The report revealed that organizations announced around 135 changeovers in March, which is an 8.9% increase over February’s total 124 changeovers. The report also revealed that the figure was the highest first-quarter total ever since the company started tracking CEO turnover in 2000. Andrew Challenger, VP of the company said in a press release, “We are seeing considerable churn in the chief executive role. Companies are grappling with changing consumer behavior and new technologies disrupting almost all industries.”
.jpg "GOING PRO CAMPAIGN IS TAKING PEOPLE BACK TO BASICS")
The Going Pro campaign of State Department of Talent and Economic Development is trying to create a buzz around skill development. Graduate Senior Cassian O’Neill says that instead of going for another four-year college degree he would continue with plumbing work. “I don’t want to sit at a desk all day and work on a computer…I want to do more hands-on work, so I thought the best way to do that was being a plumber or an electrician or a welder. The amount of money plumbers are making is definitely decent and it can always go up because so few people know how to do that work.” Cassian might not be wrong in his choice. In Superior Plumbing, Atlanta 40 plumbers reported earning around $90,000 in wages and commissions. This number is about 70% more than the average income in the region.
Business Success and Growth Through LGBT-Inclusive Culture report states that companies with LGBT inclusive culture have less turnover and attract better talent. These companies also see a rise in their stock prices by average 6.5% as compared with their peers in the industry. About 10 million adults in the US have identified themselves as LGBT. Large corporations including IBM, AT&T, and Booz Allen Hamilton have introduced various formal and informal LGBT friendly policies which include training, awareness, expanded family leave, same-sex health and retirement benefits coverage and, reimbursement for fertility treatment. These companies are also asking their contractors to comply with their non-discrimination policies. But that is just one side of the coin. The report also says that in the absence of federal laws around 40% of LGBT employees say that they are bullied at work and 41% say that they have left jobs for similar reasons.
Are you recruiting from college campuses? Then you may want to follow this. Collective action has been filed against PwC for discriminating against older applicants. The plaintiffs alleged that PwC is recruiting applicants from college campuses while qualified older applicants (40 years or more) were denied the same position. The collective action is applicable to individuals who applied in PwC’s tax or assurance departments for associate, experienced associate or senior associate positions. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act forbids employers from discriminating against 40 years or older applicants or workers on the basis of their age. Age discrimination remains to be an open secret among employers.
This Wednesday, Bank of America announced its plans to raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour. The plan will be implemented during a two-year phase. By May 1, 2019, BofA will increase its minimum wage to $17 and the wage will be subsequently hiked until it reaches its $20 mark by 2021. The move will augment the BofA’s commitment to establish itself as “a great place to work” to attract and engage talent. The Bank added that it has been committed to its drive to increase the minimum wages and has upped the number by $4 /hour since 2010. In 2016, it had increased it to $15. Sheri Bronstein, Bank of America's CHRO said: "We are raising our minimum wage because we believe that to best serve our customers and clients, we need the best teams.”
“Pension detective” Ted Siedle has dropped a truth-bomb on the pension industry with his recent disclosure. In a recent podcast he said, “In the decades to come, we will witness millions of elderly Americans, Baby Boomers, and others, slipping into poverty.” Adding to his statement, Siedle said that decisions are being made by inexperienced people under political influence and aren’t sufficiently audited. Ted Siedle has been a former SEC lawyer and has been awarded $78 million for blowing the whistle on JPM +0.84% of JP Morgan Chase. In the past, Ted Siedle had testified in front of Congress and had dealt with forensic investigations in money management.
NAVEX Global’s 2019 Ethics & Compliance Hotline Benchmark Report says that employee harassment complaints grew by 18% in the past two years. Forty-one percent of these complaints were substantiated. Carrie Penman, chief compliance officer and senior vice president, advisory services, NAVEX Global said: "These findings reflect strong growth in the number of employees willing to speak out against harassment – and they should serve as notice to employers that #MeToo is a fundamental shift in employees’ willingness to tolerate harassment.” In its analysis of more than 1 million employee complaints, the report also found that complaints come from various tracks including anonymous hotlines, web forms, and open door policies. Approximately five million people suffer sexual harassment at workplaces and 99.8% of them never file a case.
.jpg "AMAZON DEFENDS ITS ECHO SPEAKERS QUALITY CHECK PROCESS")
An Amazon spokesperson said in an email statement that the company takes the security and privacy of its customers’ personal information quite seriously. Point in case is the Amazon’s Echo speakers quality check process. Amazon has employed thousands of people to listen to voice recordings captured in Echo owners’ homes and offices. This disclosure has raised serious questions on the privacy of its users. Defending the move, Amazon’s spokesman has said that the employees only annotate an ‘extremely small sample of Alexa voice recordings’ so as to enhance customer experience. He also added that this information helps the developers to train their speech recognition and natural language understanding systems. As a result, Alexa is better equipped to understand the customer’s voice requests.
Excess of job openings and the shortage of qualified candidates has upturned the global job market. The head-hunters across the globe are upping their game to match the requirements. Prospective candidates are more educated and aware of their needs and informed about the company and they expect to be hired soon. According to a survey done by Addison Group, about 45% of job seekers said the shortest feedback time they had ‘experienced between submitting an application and getting a job was less than a week.’ Employers too seek reduced recruitment time. However, how recruiters will link this to the employee experience remains to be seen.
Melissa Dell, an economics professor at Harvard, at the International Monetary Fund, said about 25% of an increase in crime rate in Mexico can be linked to poor economic conditions and job loss. Dell recommends the IMF to directly collaborate with Mexico to boost the availability of manufacturing jobs and to strengthen people’s trust in their government. Dell also pointed out that countries like Mexico will have better economic conditions if the government invested more in job-adjustment programs rather than spending on controlling drug violence. The move will ensure that workers are exposed to alternative job options and don’t turn to drug trafficking.
A report from Robert Hall said that 940 out of 1000 CFOs’ who were surveyed agree that their company is paying for the partial or full cost of their employee’s professional certifications. Benefits have proved to be an excellent approach for engaging and retaining employees in smaller businesses, though most of them are still reluctant to include the same in their talent strategy. The impact of talent development benefit cannot be ignored when both the current employees and prospective applicants approve of its appeal. Employers are introducing tuition reimbursement programs to attract talent pool. With promising results on the horizon, it seems to be a win-win deal. While employers get to keep and develop their talent, employees upgrade themselves and avail the required validation of their skill and knowledge.
Microsoft is training the U.S., France and the U.K.’s students for artificial intelligence jobs. A new partnership between Microsoft and OpenClassrooms aims at recruiting 1000 students in an online “masters-level program”. The program guarantees job placement within 6 months of course completion. In 2018, Microsoft had joined Rework America Business Network that aims at "[accelerating] the development and adoption of innovative hiring and training practices." In view of present talent drought, many employers have partnered to upskill talent. Microsoft has also partnered with Boeing and Accenture to form the Internet of Learning Consortium and, with freelancer platform Upwork to source freelancers and gauge their skill sets.
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