Uber and Lfyt are urging lawmakers to exempt them from the legislation that would make it mandatory for them to treat their contractual drivers like employees. It is a classification conundrum for the two car-rent companies. Along with the two other companies, many other agencies and individuals are rooting for the gig model.
On Thursday, Trump administration announced that it had no plans to cap H-1B work visas for countries that store data locally. H-1B program issues U.S. Visas to foreign workers. U.S. issues 85,000 H-1B visas and around 70 percent go to Indians. Earlier, the U.S. had conveyed its plan to cap the visas between 10-15 percent issued to Indians.
Independent workers in the U.S. feel more confident now, research from MBO Partners revealed. The report counts freelancers, contractors, consultants, temporary or on-call workers as independent workers. Further, the report attributed the growth in online talent marketplaces and a shortage of skilled talent as reasons for higher confidence among independent workers. In 2019, independent workers added $1.3 trillion to the U.S. economy.
A new rule from the Trump administration will allow workers to shop for healthcare coverage from the funds provided by employers. This change will come into effect from next year. Employers will be required to deposit money into a tax-exempt HRA standalone account which employees can use to shop for coverage. 800,000 workers are expected to benefit from this change.
World Bank’s 2016 report says women are at more risk of losing jobs as compared to their men counterparts. As per the report, about two-thirds of jobs in developing countries are at risk from the new developing and evolving technologies. Unfortunately, women will fare worse than men, and will lose more of the existing jobs and will land fewer of the emerging higher-skilled jobs.
Despite numerous employees protesting outside the venue of the annual shareholder meeting, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, rejected various proposals to address sexual harassment, antitrust issues, and diversity policies at the meeting. Earlier, in November 2018, Google had done away with its forced arbitration policy that addressed sexual assault claims for full-time employees. It was followed by a walkout of about 20,000 employees.
Some 50 odd companies in the US were honored on Monday for their commitment to ‘moving social impact, and civic engagement’ among other causes. These Civic 50 honorees included all public and private US companies who had revenues of USD1 billion or more and were selected on the basis of four criteria namely – investment, integration, institutionalization, and impact. ATT and Hasbro were among them.
Hiring ex-offenders seems to be a growing trend among U.S. employers. About 700 million persons in the U.S have a criminal background. However, it doesn’t necessarily indicate that they are convicted. A study by Northwestern University reported that the hiring rate among ex-offenders is lower than non-offenders in customer service roles. Brown’s Super Stores employ between 600 and 700 workers with criminal histories.
More than half of the CEOs are optimistic that their business will grow by at least 2 percent in the next three years, KPMG’s fifth Global CEO Outlook found. The survey further found that 33 percent of CEOs plan to grow their workforce by 6 percent. 70 percent of CEOs plan to invest in technology, 30 percent plan to invest in employee development as part of workforce development.
Other than regular personality traits; confidence, empathy, ambition, conscientiousness; sensation seeking is a new personality trait that is gaining popularity. People with this trait seek unpredictable, strange, and even frightening experiences. This trait is also being associated with entrepreneurs or risk takers.
Company perks, beer taps, ball pits, open-office don’t seem to be a priority to attract employees anymore. In the past few years, diversity deficiencies, harassment allegations, and ‘stack and rank’ mechanics at top companies including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook have brought the focus back to building the company culture Organizations are now putting more emphasis on building a holistic culture.
On Monday, employees of BuzzFeed News staged a walkout to demand recognition of their union. This came after months of a failed negotiation with management, Huffington Post reported. BuzzFeed employees had announced the formation of a union in February after 15 percent of its workforce was laid off. The employees demand recognition of their union with the News Guild of New York.
Slowly moving away from fixed benefits, companies now increasingly offer flexible benefits plans to employees. These plans can be customized according to the needs of employees. The trend is driven by the bulk of the millennial workforce and the rising healthcare cost. Expectedly, this trend will grow as the millennial workforce grows.
A Guardian report says there have been sudden mass layoffs at AT & T, Wells Fargo, and many other U.S firms. This comes after recent promises of more jobs and more investment for the betterment of workers in the light of Trump tax cut bill. Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T, promised to invest $1bn and Wells Fargo pledged to increase investments in workers and raise the minimum wage by $15.
On Tuesday, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, apologized to the company’s LGBTQ employees. Reportedly, YouTube’s decision that Steven Crowder’s YouTube Channel didn’t violate YouTube’s policies created a backlash. CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, also apologized to LGBTQ workers. Sundar Pichai and other Google executives discussed issues affecting the community and the rising need for policy decisions, The Verge reported.
Mental & physical health and job characteristics have the most direct and indirect impact on productivity, a study from Vitality Group revealed. The study was conducted among 30,000 employees from 173 organizations as part of Vitality’s annual Britain’s healthiest workplace survey. The study evaluated the impact on productivity due to employee’s physical & mental health, well-being, lifestyle, and commuting time.
New Mothers experience fewer health problems and improved mental health after childbirth, if fathers have workplace flexibility, new research from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research has concluded. The research analyzed data based on leave practices in Sweden. The country allows 30-days capped time off for parents to spend together during the first year of childbirth.
New state law and regulation that bans abortions and blocks access to reproductive healthcare has been opposed by more than 150 company heads, a CNBC report said. The letters written in opposition appeared in a full-page ad in the New York Times. According to the report, the executives feel the bill inhibits their ability to build a diverse and inclusive workforce and recruit top talent across the states.
Chegg has announced Equity for Education program to help its employees pay their education loan. The program will apply to staff that has completed two years at the company. USD 3000 and USD 5000 will available annually to VPs and other staff respectively. Chegg already provides USD 1000 to its workers to pay student debt, the company said in a press release.
A new survey conducted by Robert Half found that nearly half of workers believe that automation will not change their job. Among the surveyed workers, about 12 percent feel that artificial intelligence will negatively impact their job, and 40 percent think that it will positively impact their job. Further, the survey found managers to be less enthusiastic about training staff on new tech.
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