Are you overwhelmed by email? Join the club.  67% of people feel overwhelmed by their inbox, and 82% say they miss important emails because their inboxes are bogged down, a survey released by email service provider Gated, found.  On average, a work inbox receives 71 emails per day Monday through Friday, the survey found. The sheer volume of messages has even spurred 30% of respondents to completely empty or abandon their inbox at some point.  Not having the bandwidth to read or respond to every email leaves 74% of workers feeling guilty or stressed.  Source:  HR Dive 12/1/22

Do you experience “buyer’s remorse” in your recruitment of new hires? Most human resource departments across the planet are feeling deep buyer’s remorse, according to new research.  Thomas International, a talent assessment platform provider, surveyed 900 HR professionals globally and found nearly two-thirds (60%) of new hires are not working out. And the majority of respondents blamed themselves for effectively taking shortcuts that turned out to be dead ends.  Nearly half (49%) of hiring managers said recruits were unsuccessful because of a “poor fit between the candidate and the role,” and 74% admitted to compromising candidate quality due to time pressures in response to the Great Resignation and a tight labor market. Piers Hudson, senior director of Gartner’s HR functional strategy and management research team said that HR professionals have confided that they have found it incredibly challenging to keep younger hires happy. “We often hear that they expect much quicker progression, and HR leaders are worried that they can’t match those expectations.”  Other new factors are causing more significant disparity between expectation and reality for new hires. “A lot of the work around flexibility and hybrid working is shaking out, and organizations are still feeling their way,” said Hudson. Source:  Worklife 11/29/22

New hires’ new expectations – job stability:  If you’re feeling a bit unsettled about the future or your career, you’re not alone. In fact, 66% of respondents think a recession could cause layoffs at their organization, according to a study by Clarify Capital. In addition, 81% of people are personally concerned about losing their job. 37% of respondents don’t believe they could handle being laid off either emotionally or financially. Potential recession is impacting the ways companies manage as well. Fully 70% of people say potential recession has impacted raises at their organization, 65% say it has impacted productivity, and 61% report it’s had an effect on hiring. People are most concerned within the business and information industry (66%), the finance and insurance industry (61%), and the education industry (58%).  The threat of recession also has an emotional effect as 45% report feeling stressed, 36% say they’re scared or depressed, and 25% report feeling demotivated.  Therefore, many new hires are looking for job stability in today’s market.  Source:  Forbes 12/2/22

Mexico minimum wage increases:  On December 1, 2022, the National Minimum Wage Commission agreed to increase Mexico’s general minimum wage to $207.44 Mexican pesos per day, and to $312.41 Mexican pesos per day in the Free Economic Zone of the Northern Border, effective January 1, 2023. The minimum wage in force for 2023 will result in an overall increase of 20% (10% as direct increase and $15.72 Mexican pesos as a fixed amount increase).  Source: Littler 12/5/22

Business travel may never be the same: Business travel came back this year more strongly than most industry analysts had predicted in the depths of the pandemic, with domestic travel rebounding by this fall to about two-thirds of the 2019 level.  But in recent weeks, it appears to have hit a new hurdle — companies tightening their spending in a slowing economy. In a survey taken in late September by the Global Business Travel Association, a trade group, corporate travel managers estimated that their employers’ business travel volume in their home countries was back up to 63% of prepandemic levels, and international business travel was at 50% of those levels. A survey by Tourism Economics, U.S. Travel Association and J.D. Power released in October found that 42% of corporate executives had policies in place restricting business travel because of the pandemic, down from 50% in the second quarter. Over half expected pandemic-related business travel policies to be re-evaluated in the first half of 2023. However, experts cannot accurately predict how strong business travel will be and what airfares and hotel room rates will look like because of many unknowns such as possible global recession; increasing gasoline and jet fuel prices; and rising inflation, and political uncertainty.  Source:  NYTimes 11/27/22

French Baguette is now a protected icon:  There are few visuals more iconic than a French person carrying a baguette through the streets of Paris or home from the baker in a quaint countryside town. Now, everyone’s favorite crusty loaf of bread has been classified as essential to humanity’s cultural heritage. UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural agency, added the artistry of baguette making to its “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” list. According to UNESCO, intangible cultural heritage “includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants.”  The art of Neapolitan pizza, Arabic coffee and kimchi are just a few of the other foodstuffs that have been placed on the list in the past. When you think about how difficult it is to master bread baking, it makes total sense that the French icon is being given this high honor. UNESCO’s director general, Audrey Azoulay, told CNN that it took France six years to collect all of the necessary documentation to submit its request to the agency.  “It’s kind of a way of life,” Azoulay said to CNN. “There is always a boulangerie nearby, you can go and buy fresh affordable bread and you meet people, meet with bakers, it’s a very important element of social cohesion. [The baguette] comes from history and it has character and it’s important to make the public aware of this, to be proud of it.”  Maybe it’s time for a business trip to France? Source: Food & Drink 11/30/22