Curated Intel from the Talent Tech Industry
May 30-June 5, 2022:
• Helping moms step up to success: Laddrr launches to boost careers of working women;
• Ditching employers that undervalue them: Employee quit rate remains near record high;
• Teeing up a false choice: Forget technology, talent is the key to modernization says CIO pub;
• VRing your way to grandma’s house: Inside Apples crazy patent for its new car;
• Losing out in the race to modernize: Survey finds EU behind the US in workplace digitalization.
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• Make the smart investment with no downside risk. Join an association totally dedicated to the bottom-line success of talent technology companies – join TAtech: The Association for Talent Acquisition Solutions. Get the information, insights, business contacts and new ideas you can use to grow your business.
Laddrr Launches to Boost Careers for Ten Million Moms
Laddrr, a platform reimagining the landscape for working women from young adults to empty nesters, today announced its launch so that ten million moms across the globe can climb higher in their careers. Laddrr will be the most comprehensive resource hub for planning and managing both children and thriving careers. Young adults, parents-to-be, parents, corporate managers and policy makers will find vital information to inform their life and career choices, policy making and management decisions. Laddrr also brings together a wealth of learning from parents at different stages as well as experts and partner organizations. Laddrr is founded by individuals who are committed to this cause. This social impact initiative is the brainchild of Ashutosh Garg, CEO, Eightfold.ai, and Kirthiga Reddy, President, Athena SPAC; formerly Investment Partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers. Why is this so important? Because the ladder of social and business advancement is broken for women. Or, to put it another way, the motherhood penalty is alive and well in 2022.
Job Openings, Quits Hold Near Record Highs
Available jobs fell to 11.4 million in April, just under the highest number on record, according to the monthly JOLTS report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition to the continued high volume of job openings, the number of workers voluntarily leaving their jobs also remains high. Quits ticked down to 4.4 million in April, just under the record high. As a share of the labor force, the quits rate held at 2.9 percent. Job openings surged to record highs throughout 2021 and have since stabilized at levels nearly twice as high as the pre-pandemic norm. Yet the recovery in labor force participation has been much slower, leaving the labor market with a massive gap between supply and demand that's persisted into 2022. Job openings outnumbered unemployed workers by about 5.5 million in April. April also marks the 11th consecutive month that more than 4 million workers left their jobs. The wave of quitting signals workers feel comfortable enough amid record-high openings to switch jobs in pursuit of better pay or working conditions. Employers have responded to the exodus by raising wages as they compete to attract talent, and that higher pay is luring workers away from their current jobs, experts said.
Forget technology: Talent is the key to modernization
Consider the CIO’s laundry list: Migrating to the cloud, cybersecurity solutions, deploying the latest AI/ML technologies, UX/UI and agile. They’re just a few of the never-ending tasks before the technology department. Each upgrade requires people with the knowledge, ability and experience to execute strategic plans while maintaining day-to-day IT operations. Modernization, it turns out, is really a people problem. In the face of the Great Resignation and pandemic-related disruptions, Westerman’s question — and its implicit answer — begged further questions about what tech companies and organizations on the pathway to becoming fully digital can do to address shortages of crucial skills and talent. The solutions may require CIOs and other tech leaders to forge stronger working relationships with HR departments, and to adopt more of an HR mindset regarding workforce planning.
Inside Apple's Crazy Patent For Their New Car
Rumors began swirling about Apple's upcoming and first-ever car in 2015 when the tech giant established "Project Titan," a research and development initiative that explores the wonders of electric vehicles and autonomous driving. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2015 that Apple is "accelerating efforts" to make a production-intent Apple Car by 2019, but Apple had other things in mind. The company laid off 200 employees from Project Titan in early 2019, said CNBC, preceding the first wave of layoffs in 2016 as Apple shifted its focus from EV development to autonomous driving software. Most recently, the Apple Car resurfaced in worldwide headlines when official patents leaked about a fully-autonomous, self-driving electric vehicle equipped with an in-car VR entertainment system. As first detailed in a report by VR Scout, Apple filed a patent with the United States Patent & Trademark Office for an innovative virtual reality in-car entertainment system that uses vehicle movements as part of the VR experience. The report came with a Twitter post that said, "Apple's self-driving car could feature VR technology and no windows," along with a concept image of a mouse-shaped Apple Car with no windows.
EU falls behind the US in workplace digitalization
Digital transformation has been essential in the pandemic as teams have been geographically dispersed. The need for a digital workplace has been reflected in the skyrocketing value of communication tools like Zoom. European companies rapidly introduced new ways of working as they accelerated their digital plans during the pandemic. However, questions remain about the impact of these changes and where they leave organizations in the present day. Fortunately, the annual EIB (European Investment Bank) Digitalization in Europe survey aims to answer questions about the investments being made in digital transformations. To do this, EIB spoke to 13,500 small (below 250 employees) and medium (above 250 employees) sized businesses across the European Union the United Kingdom, and the United States between April to July 2021. There are plenty of positive findings but the EU has some ground to make on its US counterparts. The report found that 46% of businesses in the European Union took action to become more digital in 2021. However, the technology that is being implemented varies, with advanced implementations like 3-D printing and advanced robotics being in the plans of 61% of companies, down from 63% in 2020.
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