How do you know your applicant isn’t AI? New artificial intelligence tools are making it easy to generate professional and personalized application materials, and recruiters encourage job seekers to use them. Human resources professionals believe tools like Open AI’s ChatGPT are poised to forever change how candidates construct application materials, such as cover letters, résumé points, or writing samples, following some early experiments that prove their effectiveness. In one example, the owner of a British-based communications consulting firm tested the software on his own recruitment team, using it to generate a writing sample that was required from candidates for an open position without their knowledge. The response provided by the software was good enough to be shortlisted for an interview, which was only offered to the top 20% of applicants. “For a candidate it’s obviously a game changer,” said Somen Mondal, the general manager of talent intelligence at HR software provider Ceridian. “You can say, ‘I’m applying to a job at Ceridian, here is the job description, here’s my résumé,’ and it can generate a cover letter that is very fine-tuned.”  Source: The Globe and Mail 2/13/23

OSHA focuses on site-specific selections:  OSHA’s Site-Specific Targeting (SST) inspection program directs OSHA’s enforcement resources to those workplaces with the highest rates of injuries and illnesses.  In the revised instruction, OSHA has made several changes based on new data, including selection of individual establishments for inspection among: high-rate establishments, which it will base on CY 2021 Form 300A data, rather than CY 2019 data; upward trending establishments, which it will base on CY 2019 through 2021 Form 300A data rather than the previously used CY 2017 through 2019 data; low-rate establishments, for which the list will be generated based on CY 2021 Form 300 A data, rather than CY 2019 data; and non-responders, for which the list will be generated using CY 2021 data, rather than CY 2019 data. ASE Members can perform a Mock OSHA Audit with our partner, Three Sixty Safety, at a 20% discount.  Source:  CCH 2/13/23

Are your employees engaged? A report from Gallup finds that large numbers of workers, especially Gen Zers and young millennials, are not engaged with their jobs. That could make their climb up the career ladder harder, as well as hurt companies' overall performance.  The Gallup survey of roughly 67,000 people in 2022 found only 32% of workers are engaged with their work compared with 36% in 2020.  The share of workers found to be "actively disengaged" has risen since 2020, while the share of those in the middle — those considered "not engaged" — has remained about the same. Engagement had been rising in the decade before the pandemic, following the Great Recession, but started to fall in 2021.  Younger workers have seen a bigger drop in engagement than older ones. Those under 35 reported feeling less heard and less cared about at work. Fewer Gen Zers and young millennials reported having someone at work who encourages their development and fewer opportunities to learn and grow. While engagement dipped across a wide swath of workers, the biggest declines were among what Gallup calls "remote-ready onsite workers" — those who could do their jobs from home but are working from the office. Do you know how engaged your employees are? Find out with an ASE engagement survey.  Source: NPR 1/25/23

Mental health is a major concern for employees:  Calm Business recently conducted their annual Workplace Mental Health trends survey and found that more than half of respondents reported feeling anxious and stressed and having trouble sleeping. The reason behind their monkey-mind brains? Work.  42% of respondents said challenges at work are the top reasons they seek mental health support, followed by personal illness, dealing with the illness of a family member, losing a loved one, and dealing with financial stress. Employees have a hard time leaving their work stress to just the 9-to-5: 50% said stress also impacts their relationships with family, friends, and themselves. And while work causes their stress, employees aren't convinced they're doing enough to solve it. Calm data found that while 67% think employers should be responsible for providing mental health support, just 32% said their employer offers mental health programs and benefits.  Looking for an edge in recruiting?  Up your mental health benefits from classes for mindfulness to financial classes to elder and childcare assistance to time off for mental health. Find resources at https://www.aseonline.org/Data-Resources/Wellness-Resources.  Source:  EBN 1/24/23

Labor shortage will accelerate automation: Sources as diverse as Scott Galloway and John Mauldin believe the current labor shortage is not a cyclical blip, but is instead a demographic trend. Significantly, due to declining birth rates, the number of potential workers for available jobs has been in a decline that began well before the pandemic.  In 1970 in the U.S., nearly 80 million people were employed full- or part-time. Today there are nearly 159 million employed. However, the birth rate—or number of live births per 1,000 residents—at 11 in 2021 is less than half the levels of the 1960s. As Mauldin notes, the underlying problem beyond immediate worker shortages is that we are making fewer humans. One solution for the convergence of the looming economic and ongoing demographic shift is automation. The next generation of automation—one powered by a new generation of data-intensive applications, machine learning, and AI—can dramatically improve efficiency and work output while minimizing the need for more workers. Businesses have been acquiring a growing number of robots to cope with the labor shortage, with machines ideally equipped to perform many manufacturing and fixed-function jobs including Chipotle testing a robot to make its tortilla chips. Even a pizza-making robot has emerged.  Source:  Fast Company 1/25/23