Company plans to track workers' locations in return-to-office crackdown

One of the world's biggest consulting and accounting firms plans to monitor its employees' locations to ensure compliance with a stricter return-to-office policy set to take effect next year. 

PricewaterhouseCoopers, known as PwC, announced that its U.K. branch is "placing more emphasis on in-person working." It initiated a new policy that requires staff to spend at least three days a week, or 60% of their time, in the office or with clients. That's up from the previously mandated two to three days in the office or with clients, according to the firm. READ MORE

How Sony Music reimagines performance management to drive innovation

For some employees, the culmination of a year’s hard work and the accompanying rewards or lack thereof still depend on the singular event of the annual performance review. Long a critical component of an effective employee performance management program, are annual performance reviews losing their relevance in today’s rapidly evolving workplace?

Detractors see little upside, citing limited engagement because of their infrequency and resulting delayed feedback and employee anxiety because they often focus on weaknesses instead of achievements. In response, forward-looking organizations increasingly are shifting toward a continuous performance management approach that motivates rather than demotivates employees. READ MORE

US employers have good reasons not to hire more workers now

It couldn’t be clearer at this point that the US labor market is cooling.

Even though the unemployment rate edged lower last month to 4.2%, joblessness is still hovering near highs not seen since the fall of 2021. On top of that, employers have hired significantly fewer workers in recent months compared to prior years and the number of job openings fell in July to the lowest level since January 2021, according to Labor Department data. READ MORE

This is one of America’s hottest jobs right now

Americans may be finding it a little tougher to land a job these days, but not so much in one field in which salaries are climbing fast and employers are offering robust perks. READ MORE

To Make It Big, Most Tech Startups Have A Limited Post-IPO Window To Turn Profitable

Covering tech startup IPOs generally involves writing about companies that lose money.

Sure, there are exceptions. Blockbusters, like Google, which was minting search advertising cash well before its IPO. Or, more recently, companies like Instacart or Klaviyo that tapped public markets shortly after turning a modest profit. READ MORE

Workers in Japan can’t quit their jobs. They hire resignation experts to help

Yuki Watanabe used to spend 12 hours every day toiling away in the office. And that’s considered a short day.

A typical 9-to-9 workday is the bare minimum. “The latest I would leave [the office] would be 11 p.m.,” said the 24-year-old, who used to work for some of Japan’s largest telecoms and e-payment companies. READ MORE

Why it might be time to reassess using ‘ghost jobs’

When recruiting talent in today’s uncertain hiring environment, HR professionals may be more willing to get creative than they used to. However, one rising trend—the use of so-called “ghost jobs”—could do more harm than good for employers’ chances of capturing top candidates.

In its recently released 2024 Recruiting Trends Survey, career and resume service MyPerfectResume found a significant 81% of the more than 750 recruiters nationwide it polled are posting so-called ghost jobs. Such a practice refers to strategically advertising for a job that isn’t actually open, either because it is already filled or non-existent. READ MORE

The right-wing activist riding a wave of opposition to DEI in corporate America

Robby Starbuck, a former Hollywood music video director and turned conservative activist, has caught fire campaigning online against some major American brands’ diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI), support for gay Pride marches and LGBTQ events, strategies to slow climate change and other social policies.

Starbuck is both riding a wave of right-wing hostility to DEI programs and corporate advocacy on issues like climate change and LGBTQ rights and advancing the opposition himself. He has channeled energy on the right to target specific brands popular with politically conservative customers — Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply Co. and John Deere — and relentlessly drawn attention online to their past publicly-stated policies. Starbuck has also claimed credit for Brown-Forman and Lowe’s internal announcements in recent weeks to scale back some of their diversity and inclusion programs. READ MORE

Brown-Forman joins groups moving away from DEI programs

Some big Kentucky names are moving away from their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs.

Louisville-based Brown-Forman is one of them. The company said since it launched its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy in 2019, the world has evolved, its business has changed and the legal landscape has shifted.

Officials did not provide specific details about what will change, but said it "adjusted its work" to drive business results. READ MORE

New Boeing CEO Faces Hard Choices After NASA Snubs Starliner for SpaceX

After a humiliating setback to its space ambitions, Boeing Co. faces a dilemma that pits its national duty against strained cash reserves.

The decision about the future of the struggling Starliner program now rests with Boeing’s newly installed chief executive officer, Kelly Ortberg, after NASA announced over the weekend that it wouldn’t send astronauts home from the space station on the faulty spacecraft. Following weeks of testing and heated debate, the space agency decided it was safer to use Elon Musk’s SpaceX. READ MORE

America's most boring job is on the brink of extinction

For most of his youth, Bryan wanted to be an astrophysicist.

He was obsessed with the Hubble telescope, and his bedroom ceiling was dotted with plastic glow-in-the-dark stars. When the Scholastic Book Fair came to his library, he'd beg his parents for cash to buy NASA photo books. To him, space science seemed the pinnacle of innovation, excitement, and existentialism. READ MORE

US firms' 'low firing' approach may turn to more layoffs, Fed's Barkin tells BBG

The "low-hiring, low-firing" approach that U.S. businesses currently take to their employment decisions is unlikely to last, Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin said in newly released comments, citing the risk that firms could resort to layoffs if the economy weakens.

Concerns about the job market have intensified at the U.S. central bank in recent weeks and are a core reason for why Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a speech on Friday that interest rate cuts were needed to prevent any further and unwanted erosion in U.S. joblessness. READ MORE

This former Credit Suisse exec says Americans should ‘never quit’ their jobs if they’re unhappy — do this instead

See if this sounds familiar: You’re miserable in your job. You’ve been “quiet quitting” (or thinking about it) for months. You’ve concluded it’s time to quit for real and the boss’ office is just a few steps away.

But hang on a minute there. READ MORE

The Summer Is So Hot, Workers Are Wearing High-Tech Ice Packs

In his 2021 novel “Termination Shock,” about a near-future Earth that is much warmer, science-fiction maestro Neal Stephenson imagined that in the hottest and most humid parts of the world—including Texas—people would don spacesuits, but for Earth, called “earthsuits.” 

That science-fiction future is, for millions of Americans, our present. Heat waves are more intense and longer thanks to climate change. For people who work outside in hotter regions or in broiling indoor spaces like large warehouses without air conditioning, heat injury, illness and even death are a growing concern. READ MORE

Harley-Davidson sunsets DEI programming following backlash

Harley-Davidson has “not operated a DEI function” since April 2024 and does not have one currently, the company revealed earlier this week. Harley-Davidson does not have hiring quotas and no longer has supplier diversity objectives, the company added in its Aug. 19 statement shared on X. HR Dive reached out for comment and did not hear back by the time of publication.

Reports of backlash against the motorcycle company surfaced in July.  READ MORE

Target CFO says GenAI tool is boosting worker efficiency

Target’s generative AI initiative is part of the retail giant’s broader effort to use the technology across its business to empower its workers, enhance the guest experience and support the company’s long-term growth, according to a June press release. 

During Wednesday’s call, Fiddelke said Target store leaders are now expecting the new tool to be “particularly helpful as we bring on new permanent and seasonal team members in advance of this year’s holiday season, helping them to become more productive, more quickly than in the past.” READ MORE

Wall Street regulator approves tougher rules for accounting 'negligence'

Wall Street's top regulator on Tuesday voted 3-2 to bless new rules making it easier for an audit watchdog to hold people responsible for audit firms' violations.

Divided along party lines, the five-member U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a rule change adopted in June by the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. READ MORE

More than 28% of Americans are searching for new jobs — the highest rate in a decade

A new labor market survey shows Americans have rarely felt more in need of new job opportunities — an indication of a more negative outlook about the economy despite other data that suggests a more stable picture.

The New York Federal Reserve's latest poll of consumers found 28.4% of respondents were looking for a job — the highest reading since March 2014 and up from 19.4% a year ago. That includes both individuals already out of a job and ones currently employed but seeking new roles. READ MORE

US judge strikes down Biden administration ban on worker ‘noncompete’ agreements

A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday barred a US Federal Trade Commission rule from taking effect that would ban employers from requiring their workers to sign non-compete agreements.

The ban, which had been scheduled to go into effect nationwide on September 4, is now effectively blocked. READ MORE

Target slashed prices. It paid off

US consumers, strained by years of higher prices and elevated interest rates, are changing their shopping patterns. Americans are buying more at discount chains like Target and Walmart while dialing back spending at Macy’s and Lowe’s.

Target’s sales at stores open at least one year increased 2% last quarter, and its profit boomed 36%. The company’s stock (TGT) surged 13% in premarket trading. READ MORE