Screening out is making an exit and recruiters are going for screening in to fill in vacant positions as the unemployment rate hits a fifty year low. The new shift sees the recruiters moving from “must have” to “nice to have” as their skill requirements in a tight job market. A CareerBuilder data report says that 6*5 of HR managers were unable to find the right people for the job after they increased positions and 60% of them reported to have vacancies open for 12 or more weeks. The skill matching is taking a back seat as employees are focusing on a strong base and integrity.
HR leaders are finding more choices than ever in HR technology as big tech names like Microsoft, Google and Facebook are venturing into the domain. 2016 saw Facebook launch Workplace, an employee collaboration platform. Google followed in a similar path with a separate function of HR (recruitment), by launching its job search engine. Microsoft acquired LinkedIn and in 2018 took it a step ahead by channeling more investment towards its talent platforms. Josh Bersin, a longtime HR industry analyst says that Microsoft’s latest products focus on moving HR systems from the back office to the daily work routine of the employees.
Companies in APAC are not very pleased with the HR Tech platforms they currently have with just 45% finding the current technology they have satisfactory reveals a study by Alright Solutions. This is a 6% decrease from 2016-17 data, the explosive growth, however, is evident in automation field with nearly 80% of the companies evaluating and investing in a future structure to effectively accommodate this technology. Companies are increasing their weight on retaining the ‘human’ aspect in human resources and are deploying an increased number of HR Business Partners and Centre of Excellence. This phenomenon is resulting in erosion of the perceived value of both the roles. HR Generalists and HR operations/shared services need a considerable scaling up to fill in the big shoes of company expectations.
The next decade will see 1.4 million U.S. workers losing their jobs and the cost of reskilling will be on the upper side of $34 billion. The World Economic Forum, which published this report further said that the private employers will just provide 25% of the retraining needs that will take the current jobs to a viable, desirable and growing pathway. The private sectors can do more than 25% and help 45% at-risk workers to reskill through stakeholder collaborations that will reduce the cost and time of the entire process. The report mentioned that the government can assist 77% at-risk workers in the task.
GetLinks, a Thai startup is checking all boxes right to get their tech recruitment game right. The 3-year-old startup that raised “eight figures” in US Dollars during last year’s funding has placed 1000 candidates since its inception. GetLinks has clients like Siam Cement Group, a major Thai conglomerate and most of them feel that the focus on specific skills and matching exact requirement saves a lot of time and effort. Google and Temasek in their recent study found that South East Asia’s internet economy will be worth $240 billion by 2025 and platforms like GetLinks answer the burning question of gaps in tech recruitment.
Strong morals and integrity of an employee can be the shield against adopting the ways of bad bosses say a group of international researchers in their studies published in Harvard Business Review. It indicated that an abusive superintendent does not always translate to a cycle of abuse if the employees have their integrity intact. A survey that took 500 supervisory employees and their leaders that the disidentification increased to 12% when the superior is abusive or toxic. If the employee has a strong moral structure then this rate increases to 14%. The psychological distancing factor plays a key factor in the event of a toxic boss and the ethical behavior gets an 8% raise, while the rate of abuse towards the subordinates of a toxic supervisor drops by 6%.
A 46-year old white-collar employee of Subaru Corp known for its Legacy and Forester Cars plunged to his death from the factory roof in 2016 due to overwork or as Japanese say ‘karoshi’. Recent findings by the deceased employee’s regarding the 2016 incident led the automobile company into investigation mode which leads Subaru to reveal that it skipped paying overtime wages to some 3,400 employees who under-logged their hours. The outstanding wages from mid-2015 to mid-2017 amount to $7.08 million, which the company says it paid to its employees last March. The pay issue came out after the reported lapses in governance that lead to below par vehicle inspection in 2017.
‘Get a loan’ is what U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is meaning to say the 80,000 furloughed federal employees. He mentioned that he is out of wits as to why the furloughed employees won’t get a loan to pay their bills as there are advertisements from financial institutions offering the same. He is of the opinion that this is “not a good excuse why there should be a liquidity crisis, true the people might have to pay a little bit of interest.” Meanwhile Ross’s boss, President Trump said that he did not hear the comment, but he does understand where he is coming from.
Department of Labor updated its 2017 lawsuit against Oracle in the light of fresh data and claims that the company’s discriminatory practice against Asians, people of African descent and women cost the mentioned employees $400 million in missed wages. In their complaint, DOL says that the tech company built the discrimination around two “potential pathways”. The first pathway is to design a compensation on the base of their previous pay package and the second one is putting them in less lucrative job roles. DOL put forward an instance where the company that earns $100 million every year in federal and public contracts hired 450 Asians out of their 500 college hires between 2013 and 2015 and held their visa authorization dependency on the company as a tool to suppress them.
Buzfeed is examining “the evolving economics of digital platforms” as per CEO, Jonah Peretti and in the processes trimming their employee weight by 15%. The move is in the light of a turbulent digital marketing and advertisement market and a part of the entire wave of media layoffs. Verizon Communication Inc. went on a similar path earlier this week as they announced to cut-down 7% of its digital media operations that includes names like Yahoo, Huffington Post, and Yahoo. Buzfeed the pioneer when it comes to listicles, personality quizzes and hard news says the move will allow them to win the economics of digital media.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stood divided yet firm in their 8-4 decision where they ruled out older job employees invoking ADEA against their rejected job application. The Court said in a “plain language” that Age Discrimination in Employment Act forbids discrimination against employees who are 40 years or above and does not hold water for job applicants. The decision stands as a contrast to the earlier 2-1 decision made last April by the same panel. The majority opinion for this ruling was written by President Trump appointee Circuit Judge Michael Scudder and the dissent came from Circuit Judge David Hamilton, a President Obama appointee.
The historically low-unemployment might be showing the first signs of a handsome pay rise as UK employers are offering the biggest hikes in the last 10 years. 2019 looks promising for employees in Britain as median annual wage this month stood at 2.8% compared to 2% for December. The wage hike was up by 3.4% the fastest in 10 years and stands as a contrast to the other economic slowdowns as a result of Brexit apprehensions. Andy Haldane, chief economist at The Bank of England looked hopeful as he pointed towards a “new dawn” for wage increase as the bank foresees a smooth Brexit transition.
A pay stub may not be just enough as 36% of U.S. organizations are going for total compensation statement. A pay stub is just about the salary, bonus, tax and other deductions and is not a complete picture of all the employee benefits. A Total compensation statement includes the non-quantifiable rewards that an employee receives from the company in lieu of her time and skill invested. It may include a flexible work schedule, free gym facilities or a free childcare center that is directed toward employee wellness. It puts to notice the perks while a valuable resource might be thinking about a change.
More than 400 firms might be secretly boosting their Glassdoor ratings says a Wall Street Journal Study. The surge came into notice in September and October, where companies enlisted and instructed enthused workers to post five-star ratings leading to a spiked overall rating. An example, in this case, is a mortgage broking company Guaranteed Rate whose ratings fell at 2.6 out of 5 after a slew of negative reviews. The CEO, Victor Ciardelli instructed the team to find motivated workers and instruct them to post ratings on Glassdoor. Guaranteed Rate, now has a rating of 4.1 on Glassdoor.
Governments should make sure that jobs created globally should be targeted not just towards robots, but also towards human economic wellbeing. The Global Commission on the Future of Work, who went into an 18-month deliberation has come up with other far-reaching reforms that will change the corporate focus from quarterly financing and GDP metrics to the creation of a lifelong investment in learning. The ILO fueled commission is co-chaired by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Stefan Lofven, Prime Minister of Sweden and believes that the “future of our societies depends on how we deal with the challenges and opportunities related to the world of work” and the opportunities, as well as the challenges, lie in creating policies to focus on a human-centered agenda.
Employers in the U.S. have all the good intention behind offering caregiving-support benefits, but they are not quite hitting the bull’s eye when it comes to addressing employee needs. The Harvard Business School’s Future of Work Project’s January 2019 report “The Caring Company” indicates that the “caregiver” crisis is costing firms millions of dollars in hidden costs like employee absenteeism and turnover. Three out of Four workers in the U.S. are caregivers and a vast majority of them feels that caregiving affects their productivity at work. Contrasting this point of view are the employers where just a quarter think that caregiving affects performance. The startling part is that 52% of employers never take into cognizance, the caregiving burden on the employee and its subsequent cost to the company.
Ageism exists and refuses to leave even half a century after Congress made it illegal for employers to discriminate against employees who are 40 years or above. The ProPublica and the Urban Institute fueled data analysis found that from 1992 to 2016, 56% of workers, 40 years or above faced a lay off at least once or had to leave their jobs in excruciating and debilitating financial circumstances that it looks like a forceful resignation than a voluntary one. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act or ADEA of 1967 was weakened by a 2009 Supreme Court ruling that burdened aging employees with greater proofs to prove their discrimination allegations.
Employees are more productive if they have a transparent salary policy. Emiliano Huet-Vaughan, an economist at UCLA who ran a 2013 study on similar lines said that a piece of "accurate information about peer compensation” will give them a fair idea about when they are getting underpaid. Without salary transparency, a case against pay-discrimination falls flat. Keeping the compensation secret might encourage inequalities across ranks as it hides the obvious act of discrimination. While at a macro level the wage gap is easier to see when it comes to the ground level or individual cases a wrapped up compensation is a deterrent in proving wage gap.
Pessimism is reaching out to people more than social media and people are pinning their trust on employers as per Edelman fueled global attitude survey. The survey by the public relations firm, Edelman also found that 75% of the respondents trusted their employers, which is 28% more than the media and 27% more than the government. The background of the trust on employers can be attributed to a turbulent world. The survey also found that women are more skeptical than men when it comes to trust institutions. Employers are seen as a ‘closer to home’ entity compared to media and the government.
Tesla comes in the line of fire as it slashes 7% of the jobs to limit spending as it comes in terms with what Elon Musk called the “most challenging” year in its history. The move will affect more than 3,000 jobs and comes with a warning from Musk that the “road ahead is very difficult” to make affordable electric cars for the masses. The company’s shares fell by 7.7 percent after the start of regular trading as the company profits narrowed down since October 2018. Tesla increased the staff by 30% last year and stated that the number was more than they can support.
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