The Japanese economy is being buoyed while inflation is being tamed largely due to the working class senior and women professionals in the country, the central bank of Japan stated, in one of its more candid reports recently. The rise of the gig economy has also seen senior level workers working part time while organizations, both large and small, have continued their efforts to streamline their operations and augment their competencies. Japan expects to see a gradual acceleration of inflation to 2% soon.
The bias against women in compensation is hitting new highs with each passing day even as more companies are being nudged to comply with the compensation reporting rules. Discrepancies in hourly wages between men and women are not new, however, with more than 1,377 firms being having found to have a pay gap of more than 30% between genders for the same job, the Government Equalities Office seems to have a huge task in their hand. Expect more surprises as the scope of pay gap reporting is expected to increase in breadth and scope.
The 2005 housing boom, which saw young workers touch 11.7 million has dropped to 10.2 million. This was in 2016 but the picture looks no better today. The lure of employment has shifted to the digital economy which promises a life-long experience of relentless learning. That said, the lack of labor would only contribute towards rising house prices coupled with a shortfall in construction project delivery.
Airlines chief Michael O’ Leary seems unfazed with the prospect of strikes in Germany that feed on recent disturbances with flight crews in Dublin, Spain, Portugal & Belgium. In December, while the situation with many labor unions was settled, work still remains. However, the company chief alludes if the worker demands defy the laws of common sense, the management wouldn’t think twice in shifting jobs to promising geographies of Poland.
Micaela le Divelec Lemmi is the new CEO of the shoe maker brand Salvatore Ferragamo SpA. She has spent 20 years contributing towards the success of Gucci. Ferragamo, which famously designed apparels for Audrey Hepburn and Margaret Thatcher, needs heavy uplifting as the recent revenue numbers upset expectations. Their last CEO Eraldo Poletto, had put pen to resignation earlier this year stating investment needed to flow towards tech and marketing.
In what appears to herald the first minor skirmish of many employment battles to come, humans may have lost to the machines. Nordea Bank’s Chief Executive Casper von Koskull was in the news recently for his prediction that his bank is likely to lose 50% of it’s current human workforce in less than 10 years. If that wasn’t enough, he backed up his prophecy by laying off 6,000 of its staff members. He is not alone, though. SEB AB CEO John Targeby laid the drift for the entire human workforce in the industry recently, saying, “Whatever can be automated, will be automated.”
Singapore seems to be woefully short in gender diversity, despite being one of the most prosperous financial centers on the planet. Thanks to a recent government initiative through an agency, financial services companies are finally, for the first time, naming women in their boards. This imperative was taken after a study revealed a complete lack of any female representation in 38% of the boards of the 100 biggest companies. Since the announcement of the biannual public ranking, the number fell to 27%.
The war for talent is turning into a race for talent after several large employers of the country decided to waive off several prior experience requirements and advanced qualifications in several cities. This is likely to step up the hires for freshers and college graduates, with the demand for workers soaring in cities like Dallas Louisville. While this may seem largely prevalent in labor intensive functions like customer service or warehousing, high tech companies like Intel and Github have been, for years, making formal college education “optional” for their experienced hires.
2,200 jobs from the non-manufacturing global units will get the boot by the troubled toy maker. Part of its cost saving schema also includes auctioning its factory hubs in Mexico. The restructuring raucous is being initiated to save up to $650 million. The downfall of Mattel’s once great customer Toys “R” Us and a lack of movie franchise partnerships have majorly anchored company shares by 9%.
Unexpected turn of events, have seen Hyundai’s labor union succumb to a 2.1% raise instead of the demanded 5.3%. This is still modicum compared to last year’s victory when the workers got $14,000 in bonuses and wage increases. There is a general consensus amongst all that the pact reached is justified, bearing in mind the challenges Hyundai has had to take dealing with USA.
The State’s Supreme Court ruled employee inputs after accounted log-in hours will have to be compensated for by the employers. The new ruling could especially revitalize a case against Starbucks, whose one ex-employee complained of being owed $100 for unaccounted overtime. Home to America’s 10% workforce, employers in California could counter-act the verdict with their employment practices, making the situation tumultuous!
Sigal, who has braced leadership roles at GE and PwC, will oversee the tech transformation that Morgan Stanley yearns. As per the company’s Head of Technology, Robert Rooney, Zarmi’s inputs would “provide … businesses with innovative products and solutions.” The move doesn’t surprise, as Wall Street has overtly displayed a tendency to adopt financial technology to stay relevant with times.
While many Silicon Valley start-ups subsidize food for employees, it is the Mountain View Council’s stand that local restaurant holdings should monetize the opportunity. Hence, as per the law enacted in 2014, enterprises leasing space in the region can subsidize staff meals provided they deal with the surrounding eateries, only. Facebook is the first tenant to move in to the area circumscribed by the law.
Instant Financial, a Fin-tech app is aiding retail/service firms reduce employee turnover. Subscribed businesses, can allow their personnel to withdraw up to 50% wages of their last log-in through a debit card. With the interim period between paydays curbing expenses for the average American, the feature has so far proven valuable for its 250,000 strong employer user base. Could we expect something similar soon in Corporate America.
Around 10% of the workforce will receive a pay-boost commencing this fall. The action has been called forth following an introspection of the yester year company policies, something that forced an apology from CEO Mark Parker in his town hall address. Nike’s workplace norms were becoming more of an issue with brand President Trevor Edwards, rumored to have exited the company failing to quell the same.
Stepping into his new shoes, the incoming Goldman Sachs CEO David Soloman has inducted four women into its elusive C-suite. The names include Stephanie Cohen, Alison Mass, Laurence Stein and Sheila Patel whose participation will now take the number of women in a board of 33 to 7. The investment bank has been striving to achieve and promote gender equivalence in light of which it has invested in a few female company founders as well.
Although in association with Microsoft, Walmart has bought into the formers’ automation offerings, deciding to input the same for a productive workplace output. It is also consolidating its IoT platform atop Microsoft’s Azure to carve a network of devices for business operations such as managing freezers & retail management. Similarly, MyAnalytics app would be leveraged for employee productivity assessing the time people spend on emails.
Though they may outnumber humans and outrun manual labor, yet humans would always preserve the trait of intuition, paraphrasing Dennis Becker, director of Global Data Science at Visa Inc. At a broader level, their cognitive faculties will earn human their right to preserve positions mandating person-to-person interaction. Various estimates have been thrown in open regarding the displacement of us all by the machines although this, in particular, is a positive one.
An expert panel at the Farnborough Airshow concluded, its implausible to operate an industry if the lion share of it belongs to men. The demand for skilled manpower has off-late overshadowed the supply within the sector. Backed by champions of the cause such as Charlotte Pederson, the solution was zeroed in at a gender neutral recruitment policy. Subsequently, top executives signed a UK charter committing reservation for women at the table.
Perpetual Garden conducted a four-day working week trail paying their employees for five. Auckland academia experts documenting the numbers revealed that stress levels dropped from 45% to 38% while the work life balance jump shot from 54 to 78 per cent. This brings to memory a Swedish rendition of the idea where the workforce was subjected to a 6-hour workday. The only question being, when will such changes become mainstream.
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