More Than 80% of Organizations Acted on DEI Initiatives in 2021

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is increasingly becoming a fundamental part of doing business, according to a new WorldatWork study.

“Trends in DEI Practices and Policies” shows that both management and employees see dramatic increase in DEI activities in the workplace. The study’s findings support what many observers have been saying: The social movements of 2020 and 2021, such as Black Lives Matter, provided an “a-ha” moment to business leaders. Instituting workplace DEI initiatives went from sounding like a noble concept to being a top-priority action item. READ MORE

5 ways to engage workers, limit departures in the ‘turnover tsunami’

An epic game of employee musical chairs is unfolding across industries as workers are voluntarily leaving their jobs in record numbers. Twenty-five percent of workers say they expect to leave their job this year, according to a recent survey from Prudential. In April alone, nearly four million people quit their jobs: the most on record. As a result, companies across industries are scrambling to deal with this so-called “turnover tsunami.” READ MORE

Automakers' problems are much worse than we thought

For a year and a half, a lack of computer chips has been plaguing the auto industry, forcing plants to shut down, delaying auto shipments and sending car prices through the roof. But that's not the only problem automakers face.

Industry experts say automakers are having trouble getting all manner of parts and raw materials for a variety of reasons, including Covid-related plant shutdowns by suppliers, logistical problems involving shortages of ships, shipping containers and truck drivers, and difficulty that some suppliers are having filling jobs. READ MORE

IAC Pursuing $2.5B Deal For Meredith Corp.

InterActive Corp., the digital media company founded by Barry Diller, is in advanced discussions to acquire magazine publisher Meredith Corp.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the talks, said a deal would value Meredith at more than $2.5 billion. The Iowa-based company, which recently sold its local TV stations to Gray Television, publishes People, Better Homes & Gardens and Entertainment Weekly. Meredith closed a $1.34 billion deal for Time Inc. in 2018, but People ended up being the only tentpole brand to stay under the tent. Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated were sold in separate transactions after Meredith determined they did not fit with its female-skewing lifestyle holdings. READ MORE

Marijuana jobs are becoming a refuge for retail and restaurant workers

Now instead of administering vaccines and filling prescriptions, he’s helping customers make sense of concentrates, tablets and lozenges. His pay is 5 percent lower, he said, but the hours are more manageable.

“I am so much happier,” said Zvokel, 46, who’s worked in retail since he was 18. “For the first time in years, I’m not miserable when I come home from work.” READ MORE

Parler CEO says Facebook demoting content ‘very worrying’

George Farmer, the CEO Parler, told FOX Business’ "Mornings with Maria" Friday, Facebook was "almost certainly" trying to censor free speech after it published guidelines to offer more information about how content is distributed on the platform. 

"They promoted content that they believe is in line with their ideological views and they demote content which they find to be outside the purview of mainstream conversation," Farmer told host Maria Bartiromo. READ MORE

They took a stand against Amazon for their drivers. They say it cost them their businesses

Ryan Schmutzer and Tracy Bloemer, owners of businesses that deliver packages for Amazon in Portland, Oregon, hit their breaking point this spring.

Both had run technically independent businesses since 2019 that usually rent vans owned by Amazon, and are paid by Amazon to deliver its packages. The businesses are called "delivery service partners," or DSPs, for short. DSPs have about 20-40 vans and up to 100 employees. The DSP program has expanded to nine countries, creating 158,000 jobs at 2,500 DSPs, according to Amazon. READ MORE

Biden's IRS bank account snooping plan faces mounting opposition

Banks are pushing back against a proposal from the Biden administration that could force them to turn over customers' account information to the Internal Revenue Service.

Under the plan, banks and other financial institutions would be required to annually report customers' account inflows and outflows of $600 or more to the IRS. The White House has estimated the policy, which would apply to bank, loan and investment accounts, could generate about $463 billion in additional revenue over the next decade. READ MORE

Why everybody’s hiring but nobody’s getting hired

Patrick Healy says he did everything right in his job search. After being laid off as a designer early on in the pandemic, Healy, 36, tried his hand at a couple of entrepreneurial ventures before looking for a new full-time position at the start of 2021. He estimates he applied for hundreds of positions, relying on nearly a dozen jobs boards, researching potential employers, and writing personalized cover letters to accompany his résumé.

For the most part, he heard nothing back, regardless of how qualified he was. READ MORE

General Motors reveals the Ultium electric motors that will power it into the future

The automaker revealed the three electric motors that will be featured across the upcoming lineup of electric models that will be built on its Ultium battery-powered platform.

The three motors come in three power levels and will be mixed and matched as required by each model. The trio includes a 180-kilowatt motor intended for front-wheel-drive applications, a 255-kilowatt motor that can be used in the front or rear and a 62-kilowatt auxiliary motor. READ MORE

Tech Giants Operate Under the Radar to Buy Market Power

Since February 2020, staff members at the Federal Trade Commission have been studying past acquisitions by Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft – several years’ worth of deals that did not require reporting to antitrust authorities because the deal sizes fell below regulatory requirements. FTC Chair Lina M. Khan says the study reveals “the extent to which these firms have devoted tremendous resources to acquiring start-ups, patent portfolios, and entire teams of technologists—and how they were able to do so largely outside of our purview.” She said the Commission’s enforcement actions have focused on how these companies “buy their way out of competing.” READ MORE

Think remote meetings are hard? Hybrid meetings are much more complicated

Think all-remote meetings are difficult? Running an effective and productive meeting is going to be even harder in a hybrid office...at least at first.

When everyone is in person in the same room or when they are squished into the same small virtual boxes, the playing field is even for everyone participating in the meeting. But that dynamic changes with a hybrid workforce, in which some meeting participants are in the office and others are remote. READ MORE

A billionaire wants to build a utopia in the US desert. Seems like this could go wrong

Welcome to Telosa, a $400bn “city of the future,” according to its founder, the billionaire Marc Lore. The city doesn’t exist yet, nor is it clear which state will house the experiment, but the architects of the proposed 150,000-acre project are scouting the American south-west. They’re already predicting the first residents can move in by 2030.

Telosa will eventually house 5 million people, according to its website, and benefit from a halo of utopian promises: avant-garde architecture, drought resistance, minimal environmental impact, communal resources. This hypothetical metropolis promises to take some of the most cutting-edge ideas about sustainability and urban design and make them reality. READ MORE

FTC Releases Study of Big-Tech Mergers

In another sign that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is seeking to beef up antitrust enforcement, the agency has released a study of Big Tech mergers that fly “under the radar” of reporting requirements.

The FTC has been studying Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft since February 2020. On Wednesday, it announced that the review found the companies made 616 nonreportable transactions of more than $1 million between the beginning of 2010 and end of 2019. READ MORE