On Monday, Amazon Inc. announced that it had leased office space and posted jobs for its upcoming headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The new headquarters would create 400 jobs this year. In 2017, Amazon had announced to create up to 50,000 jobs at its second campus. Until fall, new hires will work out of temporary office space in Crystal City.
Cynet Systems, a Virginia-based tech recruiting firm, has issued an apology after one of its job listings was found to be racist. The job post sought an account manager who is “preferably Caucasian who has good technical background”. The listing was removed following an outcry from Twitter users. Earlier, another job listing from Cynet Systems was criticized for discriminatory practices.
HR teams are already using AI in the form of chatbots, augmented and virtual reality and machine learning. AI can speed the process and free up HR to work more closely on developing talent and growing workforces. It has the potential to change the way human resources operates.
Facebook recently announced its partnership with SAP and other HR tech companies to enhance its jobs feature. According to the announcement made by Facebook, this move will help businesses post and track applicants easily. In 2018, it had partnered with ADP and Paychex, both HCM (human capital management) system providers. The social media giant has been keen on expanding into talent management space.
PayScale, in its first quarterly report of the year, reported negative growth in real wages. According to the report, tech-dominated cities have seen an overall increase in wages. However, this increase is limited to a few cities. Wages in the manufacturing and transportation sectors didn’t show much growth. To compensate for low pay rates, employers are using other incentives to attract and retain talent.
Hong Kong’s banking sector is recruiting more people. According to a Bloomberg report, this increase is due to newly licensed virtual banks. Four ventures have obtained permits and have about 200 people, a number which may double by the time they start operating. Hong Kong, a financial hub, employs around 100, 000 people.
Thursday, The Shell Trade Union agreed to the new wage offer by Royal Dutch Shell. This marks the end of the ongoing wage dispute. The strike began on April 8th, 2019 and affected the production at Shell’s Pernis Oil Refinery and Moerdijk chemical plants. According to Piet Verburg, CNV union spokesman, this Friday the unions will advise employees to end their strikes.
An unidentified individual has filed a complaint against Google, accusing it of retaliating against an employee. According to the case summary submitted online, the filing accused Google of punishing employees for involvement in collective action related to working conditions. In the past few days, Google has been under a slew of legal actions from its employees, which started with Meredith Walker and Claire Stapleton organizing a mass walkout.
There’s a growing concern among workplace safety advocates that Trump safety cuts may increase workplace deaths. According to the AFL-CIO report, the number of workplace deaths decreased from 5190 in 2016 to 5147 in 2017. So far, Osha, the federal work safety regulator, has cut workplace safety inspectors to the lowest level. Thus authorities fear that any more cuts would increase the number of workplace deaths.
Uber drivers are displeased with their working condition and declining wages. On May 8th, the drivers will stage a shutdown. Uber goes for IPO the same day. Drivers will log off the app for 12 hours. Rising fuel cost and decreasing wages are the major concerns among the drivers.
Meredith Whittaker and Claire Stapleton, both Google employees, have accused Google of retaliation. According to a report by Forbes, Google allegedly retaliated against the two employees after they tried to organize workers. In November last year, the two employees had led an organized mass walkout, protesting alleged mishandling of sexual harassment claims and workplaces policies around equity and transparency.
A recent survey from Clutch stated that almost 90% of the tele-customers prefer human interaction over AI chatbots. The finding has already been validated by 2018 PwC survey, which revealed almost three-quarters of respondents ‘wanted more and not less’ human interaction while sharing their grievances over the phone.
PG&E Corp can pay employees up to $350 million in bonuses this year. The company wants to implement the bonus plan to spur employees to carry out tasks such as clearing trees and branches around power lines and avert contact that triggers wildfires. This will help PG&E Corp to meet the now-bankrupt California power provider’s safety goals to prevent wildfires. Though the maximum cost of the plan is $350 million, PG&E Corp expects the cost of the entire plan would be $235 million. Monetary incentives motivate employees to do more, but performance linked incentives, when safety is at stake, might not be a good strategy.
HempStaff, a cannabis-industry, recruiting agency announced a webinar for the people looking to start a career in the cannabis industry. The training is for job seekers in Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, and Taxes. The cannabis industry continues to grow with more states and cities legalizing its use for medical and recreational purposes. However, there’s been a shortage of workers with the right set of skills. To tackle this, HempStaff webinar would include training on industry science and how to recommend doses and rules and regulations on Marijuana law across the country. So far HempStaff has trained more than 7000 marijuana workers in 20 states.
In a recent study conducted by Kforce, a staffing agency, 80 percent of workers gave their job a letter grade of B-. This as a cumulative grade for factors including work-life balance, company morale, and benefits package. Men in the American workforce love their job more than women. Interestingly, about half of the respondents said they were willing to sacrifice 29% of their salary to work a more enjoyable job. While B- job ratings shouldn’t be a grave concern for employers, factors such as work-life balance, compensation and culture should be taken under consideration and acted upon.
The number of 65-and-above-year-old Americans in the workforce has gone up. Compared to 1985, the number of people who are now working or seeking paid work in this age group has nearly doubled from 10 percent. College-educated older workers contribute the most to this rise. Now 53 percent of people in this age group have an undergraduate degree, the number which earlier, in 1985, stood at 25 percent. Consequently, there has also been a significant rise in the average income which now stands at $78,000 compared to $48000 in 1985. Contrarily, over the same period, the average income among workers below the age of 65 has increased by only 38 percent and now stands at $55000.
Enterprises need talent. Multiple studies have shown that sourcing the right talent is the biggest challenge among business executives in the era of disruption. A recent study carried out by Gartner brought forth that the talent shortage is a more pressing concern for organizations other than privacy regulations and cloud computing. But with employment around 4%, this has forced employers to decide whether they should build or buy talent. Building a workforce means training current employees and giving them the required skills to succeed in future challenges. Buying the workforce, on the other hand, means sourcing talent through various techniques like remote hiring. However, the shortage of required talent in the market could still be a deterrent to hiring. In such cases, upskilling may be the only way to go for employers.
Late Friday, Tesla announced that its four directors including three long-time insiders would leave the organization when their current terms expire. Following the announcement, Brad Buss, Antonio Gracias, Stephen Jurvetson, and Linda Johnson Rice would step down as directors from the board. The announcement was made in the recent SEC filing. According to the filing, all the four directors have collectively agreed “with the Board and its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee that each of them will not stand for re-election to the Board at the expiration of their respective current terms,”. Terms for Buss and Rice will conclude on June 11, while Jurvetson’s and Gracias’ terms will complete next year.
With the number of full-service restaurants on the rise in the US, the restaurant owners/employers face staff crunch almost daily. However, with the jobs app called Pared, the restaurateurs are able to solve their staffing crisis in a pinch and on a temporary basis. The app doesn’t help just employers but also help individuals seeking work. The Pared app was designed by Will Pacio – a Stanford graduate who was a cook at the legendary Napa Valley restaurant and Dave Lu – a veteran of Apple and Yahoo. The app was designed to solve the staffing issues at busy restaurants and is expected to expand its reach to Philadelphia and Washington DC by the middle/end of this year.
As the legal sales of weed cross over $10 billion in 2018 – amid the less stringent regulations around the US – it is believed that Gen Z will be the highest pot consumer. The new generation will be more comfortable in talking about cannabis and will also know how to roll a joint. Gen Z, which is about 25% of the US population, has accepted marijuana for its medicinal purposes and is using it to treat insomnia and anxiety. The drug also helps in unwinding thus dispelling the earlier stigma of being a drug for lazy stoners. While marijuana is legal in some parts of the country, the legal age to buy this weed is 21 years. And as the sale increases every year, corporate America is taking note and is opening multi-state operations related to the weed in the US.
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