Businesses across the United States are not only facing the uncertain economic times of the COVID-19 pandemic but are also challenged by a record-breaking labor shortage.
The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor (BLS) statistics show more available jobs and fewer available employees creating a record 10.9 million job openings in the country in July 2021.
It has been more than a year since many employees around the country started working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic and employee engagement remains an issue, especially during virtual meetings.
“With the switch to remote work, video calls have replaced traditional in-person meetings for many professionals, leading to new types of burnout altogether a la Zoom fatigue,” wrote R. Dallon Adams for TechRepublic.
Virtual meetings, touted as a panacea by many during the earlier days of the pandemic, are now part of the “new normal” for many companies, even for employees returning to the office as businesses incorporate social distancing at work in the face of Delta variant surge.
According to History.com, there is speculation about who was responsible for coming up with the original idea of honoring workers. Two people are considered as possibilities for proposing a special worker's day: Matthew Maguire, who held the position of secretary of the Central Labor Union was one possibility, and Peter J. McGuire who cofounded the American Federation of Labor was the other.
A positive, happy workforce is a productive workforce. But many employers are struggling with promoting positivity — especially during such a tumultuous time. With many employees now going back to the office, it behooves employers to consider what could improve their workplace culture.
Making a bad hire is something that companies obviously want to avoid, yet nearly three in four have admitted to making this costly mistake.
“When it comes to costly workplace mistakes, few carry as hefty of a price tag as making a wrong hire,” according to a CareerBuilder survey.
The CareerBuilder survey was conducted online by Harris Poll and included a representative sample of 2,257 full-time hiring managers and human resource professionals and 3,697 full-time workers across industries and company sizes in the U.S. private sector.
Job seekers may give a lot of time and thought to crafting perfect resumes and writing creative cover letters, but they should also pay close attention to another part of the application process, your job references.
Portland’s climate is rarely mistaken for South Florida or Death Valley, but the Northwest city known more for its gloom and drizzle hit temperatures over the weekend that would rival those found on any Miami Beach or Joshua Tree outing.
More than half of Portland’s residents do not have air conditioning because the average June high temperature is 74 degrees, but the mercury soared to 116 degrees on June 28 on the heels of 112 and 108 the previous two days.
Companies considering workplace drug testing programs should weigh the risks and rewards of implementing or not implementing testing.
“Employers must provide a safe work environment, and they want to ensure their employees are productive, but is maintaining a drug-testing program in furtherance of these goals worth the hassle?” Lisa Nagele-Piazza asks in a SHRM article. “The answer may depend on the workplace.”
Florida is poised to lead the U.S. economy in 2021 as the state and nation look to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. In Florida TaxWatch’s 2021 economic preview, the state’s Real Gross State Product (RGSP) was projected to grow this year at an uber-healthy 4.9 percent clip.
That growth would out-pace other bellwether states such as Texas (4.0 percent) and the U.S. as a whole (3.6 percent). The nearly 5.0 percent growth rate would be some 1.5 percent ahead of the state’s 2015 to 2019 annual growth, which averaged 3.4 percent.
The job of your dream may be within reach, a conditional offer in hand, when your prospective employer says they first need to run a background check on you.
