This HR News Roundup covers a legal ruling that offers lessons on termination, results of a survey on corporate trust, office drama that has returned with a vengeance, ChatGPT for recruitment, and much more. Don’t miss our Quick Links and items from “the lighter side.”
UPS defeat delivers lesson for employers on how to fire properly
Jason Knott, Human Resource Executive
When Mark Fowler interviewed for a job with UPS unloading boxes, he told his interviewer that he had diabetes and requested breaks to monitor his blood sugar and eat snacks. He was allegedly told that would be no problem. Yet when Mr. Fowler showed up for work, he found nothing but problems—problems that would lead to a federal lawsuit, a judgment against UPS, and important lessons for employers on handling terminations.
PwC’s 2023 Trust Survey: 9 key findings and lessons for business executives
While there’s general agreement that trust is important, there’s far less agreement on how much companies are trusted. Among respondents, 84% of business executives think that customers highly trust the company, yet only 27% of customers say the same. Employees show a less dramatic trust gap: 79% of business executives say their employees trust the company, but only 65% of employees agree. In both cases, this gap in perceived trust remained just as large as our June 2022 survey — 57 percentage points for customers and 14 points for employees.
The Biggest Source of Office Drama Has Returned With a Vengeance
Alsion Greene, Slate
As a workplace advice columnist, my mail changed dramatically during the first few years of the pandemic. With so many people working from home rather than in offices, I received far fewer letters about the daily annoyances of being around other people: the co-worker who takes all his calls on speakerphone, the colleague who shows up at your desk to ask if you got the email she just sent a minute ago, the constant battles for control over the thermostat. One of the most notable absences: complaints about office kitchen behavior. The folder in my inbox for kitchen aggravations has been sitting mostly empty since 2020. Until now. Workplace kitchen wars are back!
ChatGPT in recruiting: How to (carefully) start down the path
Tom Starner, Human Resource Executive
Based on early uses, artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT look to have a serious upside for HR, especially in the search for talent. Even so, according to experts, HR leaders need to be careful when dipping their collective toes into the ChatGPT waters.
Related: Workers are already using ChatGPT. How can HR catch up?
The Benefits of a Diverse Aged Workforce
Bianca Herron, HR Daily Advisor
With five generations in the workforce, HR leaders and organizations are continually looking for best practices to manage the clashing generations. We recently featured an article discussing how organizations can bridge generational divides. If you still aren’t sure how to cultivate generational diversity in the workplace – or aren’t even sure there are benefits to it – read on to find out the pros and cons of a diverse aged workforce. In this Q&A, Jamie Johnson, Career Advisor at University of Phoenix, addresses the challenges between workers with different perspectives, as well as the strengths that workers from different generations bring to the workplace.
Mobile Robots at Work
Tam Harbert, SHRM
Adopting smart robots in the workplace will require a re-evaluation of work processes and a new strategy for humans and machines to work together.
A Look at What is Driving Female Leaders
Hunt Scanlon Media
In a new report, Russell Reynolds Associates examines the exodus of women from the workforce from a leadership perspective. Fewer women leaders than men are interested in taking on the CEO role, says the study. And when women left the C-suite this past year, it was because they felt undervalued. Men, on the other hand, were seeking better pay.
https://huntscanlon.com/a-look-at-what-is-driving-female-leaders/
HR News Roundup: Quick Takes
- Second Omicron Booster Authorized
- Stop requiring college degrees for jobs that don’t need them
- Nearly four in five employers struggle to fill job roles, a 17-year high
- 5 tips for moving through grief at work
- How LinkedIn is changing and why some are not happy
- ‘Live free and die?’ The sad state of U.S. life expectancy
- The Average Worker Requires a $76,000 Salary to Take a New Job — an All-Time High
- The secrets of cooperation
- 70% of Americans are feeling financially stressed, new survey finds
- Five Important Changes to Your Health Coverage Once the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Ends
- Road rage is up. How to deal with an angry driver — even if it’s you.
HR News Roundup: From the Lighter Side …
- Word lovers – do you know what a contronym is? It is a word with contradictory meanings, depending on the context. Here are 75 contranyms. The author suggests that. “When you use these words, be sure the context clearly identifies which meaning is intended.”
- Looking for a new job? Here’s one you might not have thought of. (Twitter)
- Speaking of unusual jobs … what about a Knocker Upper, a Bematist, or a Gandy Dancer? All real jobs that once existed. Here are 41 jobs that no longer exist.
- We thought this next item coordinated well with our article above about sharing the workplace with robots. They look fun …
I see our replacements are coming along nicely pic.twitter.com/fMTC3oAB2X
— Scott Kerr (@scott_kerr) March 22, 2023