Week in Review – Popular Content
7 Workplace and Employment Trends to Anticipate in 2016 (Money)
When it comes to navigating the workplace in 2016, the news is, well, pretty positive. Employers will award slightly bigger raises, recruit more aggressively and warm up to flexible work environments, experts say. Some changes in 2016 will be spurred by developing technologies. Others may parrot the trends in Silicon Valley. A few may result from an improving economy. Here’s what to expect in your office this year. Read more.
Gig Economy Workers Need Benefits and Job Protections. Now. (Wired)
In the US, we lump workers into two categories, employee or independent contractor, neither of which were designed for Fasil Teka. Teka, 41, joined Uber five years ago in Seattle. He drives roughly 40 hours a week as an independent contractor. He’s also a party planner and sometimes shuttles guests for a local hotel. A growing number of people like Teka are turning to software platforms to find flexible work… the gig economy is a bellwether for a broader shift to an Internet-powered workforce. “Vast sectors of our economy could change quickly,” says Michelle Miller, who cofounded the worker advocacy platform Coworker.org. “You could imagine that 25 years from now, whole industries are managed on a software platform.” In short, work is changing; the protections we offer workers must change as well. Read more
Week Ahead: Trending Topics
Trending topics from the last week impact the stories this week. These are great topics to blog and Tweet about. Learn how HRmarketer software can help your HR and recruiting brand do a better job at content marketing. View plans.
Use Of MOOCs And Online Education Is Exploding: Here’s Why
The folks at Class Central just released their data on the growth of online courses (MOOCs) in 2015 and the data is amazing. More than 35 million people have enrolled in online courses in the last four years, and 2015 enrollments doubled from 2014. (That’s equal to one out of five working professionals in the U.S.!) Read more.
Knife-wielding monkeys may be retaliatory; but, standard severance provisions are not.
Last year, I (Eric B. Meyer) discussed a case in which the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued an employer for retaliation under Title VII. Now, retaliation is the most common claim employment discrimination claim. But, what made this particular claim unusual was the EEOC’s attack on the employer’s use of fairly common settlement provisions. Late last year, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals weighed in. And it didn’t end well for the EEOC. Read more.
Also of interest in employment news is that EEOC Is Pushing Changes to the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.
5 Distractions To Cut From Your Professional Life To Have the Most Productive 2016
I like to go through a “cleansing” and review the dead weight in my professional life to see what I can jettison to start the New Year off on a fresh foot. The best part of this professional cleansing is that it doesn’t require active, ongoing attention or work, which is why 92% of all New Year’s resolutions fail. Instead, a professional end-of-the-year cleanse just requires letting go. Letting go of distraction. Letting go of annoyances. Letting go of clutter. Here are five distractions to cleanse from your professional life to have the most productive New Year yet. Read more.
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Did You Know
The second Monday in January each year recognizes National Clean Off Your Desk Day. Whether you have a private office, shared office, cubicle or home office – having a work space that’s uncluttered, organized, and clean will help with workplace efficiently and may provide a sense of calm. 6 Easy Tips for National Clean Off Your Desk Day.
Terms of the Week:
MOOC (massive open online course): Employee learning done online and designed for the participation of large numbers of geographically dispersed employees. It is “massive” because it is designed to be available to thousands of employees. It is “open” because anyone with access to the Internet can participate. It is “online” because the learning takes place online without the need for a classroom leader.
Vendor M&A And Partnership News
A sampling of this week’s mergers and acquisitions announcements from around the human resource marketplace – and other partnerships. Latest news here.
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