Quick Hits - January 29, 2020 - American Society of Employers - Heather Nezich

Quick Hits - January 29, 2020

Quick HitsIs hiring slowing down? Job openings fell 10.8% in November from a year earlier to 6.8 million, the Labor Department said. That marked the sixth straight month of annual declines and was the steepest fall since December 2009, when openings dropped 18.7% from a year earlier. Job openings peaked at 7.6 million in November 2018 and have declined about 800,000 since then. They remain elevated compared with pre-2018 years. Many businesses cite widespread labor shortages as a factor holding back job growth, according to the Federal’s “beige book,” a collection of anecdotal reports from businesses around the country.  The job market broadly remains in solid shape. Openings continued to run higher than the number of unemployed workers for the 21st straight month in November. Further, the U.S. labor market is still adding jobs at a steady pace and the unemployment rate is at a half-century low of 3.5%. One missing piece has been wages, which grew 2.9% in December from a year earlier, the smallest gain since July 2018. The rate at which workers are quitting their jobs isn’t budging, a possible explanation for sluggish pay growth. Workers tend to command higher pay when they move from one job to another. The so-called quits rate logged in at 2.3% in November for the ninth time in 2019.  Source:  Wall Street Journal 1/17/19

When recruiting IT, the game is different: Employers are upping the ante on perks and benefits for tech workers, new research from global staffing firm Robert Half Technology shows. About three-quarters of technology leaders surveyed (76%) said their company offers IT staff more than the norm when it comes to things like remote work opportunities and sign-on bonuses. Among the 28 U.S. cities in the survey, Miami (92%), Seattle (85%), and Raleigh (84%) have the most organizations that are sweetening the pot for hard-to-find IT talent. Six in 10 IT managers said the main reason for the extras is to gain a recruiting edge over competitors. One-third (33%) reported that it boosts staff retention. More than half of survey respondents (58%) at companies that don't offer additional perks or benefits to IT workers conceded that doing so could help them find talent — a persistent challenge in the current hiring market, according to 86% of technology leaders in separate State of Tech Hiring research from Robert Half.  Source:  Robert Half 1/14/20

Reducing response time rate for benefit questions:  As many employees know, it may take a while to get answers on benefit coverage questions.  So, BMW enlisted a new teammate to help educate employees, while easing some of HR’s burdens: Sofia, an AI-enabled personalized benefits assistant that can respond to workers’ benefits questions through chat and voice.  Sofia—the brainchild of benefits-administration company Businessolver—is available immediately, so employees don’t have to wait for an email to be returned or someone to be in the office to get their question answered. Available via desktop and app, it can help with everything from dependent verification to explaining to employees what a copay is or how a health-savings account works. BMW is among a growing number of employers turning to artificial intelligence—including enrollment chatbots and improved decision support—to help human resource professionals ease administrative burdens and spread the word about employee benefits. In the process, companies deliver more personalized information to employees while better engaging them.  Source:  HR Executive 1/21/20

401k matches encourage savings:  New research, by economists at the Congressional Budget Office, examined the effect of matches by assessing a shift for federal government employees hired in 1984 and later compared to those hired in 1983 and before. Only the new employees were eligible for a match if they participated in the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan: 100% of the first 3% of salary contributed, and then 50% of the next 2%. The CBO economists compared savings rates for those hired right after and right before the change. They found the match to be very effective: both participation rates and contributions boomed afterwards. The research shows that both a match and automatic enrollment have significant positive effects, especially on groups (including moderate-income workers) that tend to have lower participation and contribution rates. If we’re going to continue relying on defined contribution plans, these features can help to make the system function better. Which is why it was a step in the right direction in December when President Donald Trump signed a new federal law encouraging small businesses to adopt automatic enrollment by giving a tax credit to those that do so. Source: Bloomberg 1/15/20

Is the remote workforce growing? In a new survey from Robert Half, less than half of professionals (47%) said their company provides the option to work off-site. Of those, 70% take advantage of the perk and work from home; an additional 6% do their job from another location, such as a café or shared office space. For the remaining 24%, not having the right technology (39%) and being less productive due to distractions (38%) are the main deterrents to working outside the office.   Missing out on work assignments when not in office (29%) and loneliness (22%) are the other two deterrents reported.  Companies today are taking steps to support staff who want more flexibility. In a separate Robert Half survey of senior managers, more than half of respondents (56%) said their organization has expanded remote work opportunities for employees in the past three years.  Source: Robert Half 1/21/20

Do you have fatigued workers at your manufacturing centers? Mental and physical fatigue costs the U.S. economy over $136 billion in health-related lost production time, OSHA said. In manufacturing specifically, over 57% of workers have reported being fatigued at work, according to research from Auburn University. The research found workers reported feeling fatigue mostly in the ankles/feet, lower back, and eyes. What exactly to measure and how to measure it, Megahed said, is tricky because so many different things about a person can show they're fatigued. It also raises issues of privacy concerns if biometric data is in the mix.   Wearable device makers are putting controls in place to make sure worker privacy is protected. StrongArm Technologies, which makes a wearable called FUSE, said it does not collect biometric data because of worker privacy. Managers can use these metrics with warehouse management software to determine "what can you reasonably expect," said Eric Allais, president and CEO of PathGuide Technologies, in terms of productivity without driving workers into the ground.  That's assuming expectations stay reasonable, which they should even if employers don't have their workers best interest at heart, said Allais. If workers are mistreated, or realize this technology is being used to exploit them, they can go out the door and find another opportunity.  Source: HRDive 1/22/20

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