Curated Intel from the Talent Tech Industry
January 2-8, 2023:
• Shushing the sound of recruiting: HR expert says Quiet Hiring to “dominate the US” in 2023;
• Bringing sunlight to salaries: New California law requires employers to show pay on job listings;
• Going backwards a distinct possibility: Big Tech layoffs may hurt DE&I efforts in the tech sector.
• Changing the rules of the game: The Federal Trade Commission proposes banning noncompetes;
• Staying strong for jobs: Decelerating payroll growth not enough to signal a cooling economy;
PLUS
• Register now, before early Bird Discounts end for TAtech North America & The World Job Board Forum, which will be held in Austin, Texas USA on May 22-24, 2023. Unlike the conferences that treat talent technology companies as a subset of HR tech, this event is totally focused on the providers of talent technology and their bottom-line success. Its core theme is as simple as it is powerful: A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats!
‘Quiet hiring’ will dominate the U.S. in 2023, says HR expert—and you need to prepare for it
A new year is here, and with it, a new workplace phenomenon that bosses and employees should prepare for: quiet hiring. Quiet hiring is when an organization acquires new skills without actually hiring new full-time employees, says Emily Rose McRae, who has led Gartner’s future of work research team since its 2019 inception, focusing on HR practices. Sometimes, it means hiring short-term contractors. Other times, it means encouraging current employees to temporarily move into new roles within the organization, McRae says. “The reality for the next year is — whether or not we go into a recession — everyone’s a little nervous,” she says. “In a lot of cases, organizations are not necessarily doing a hiring freeze, or layoffs, but maybe slowing down a little bit on their hiring.” Hiring usually falls into one of three categories: backfilling old roles, creating new ones to help the company grow or addressing an acute, immediate need. Quiet hiring is all about that third category, even if it doesn’t technically involve any new hiring at all. The idea is to prioritize the most crucial business functions at a given time, which could mean temporarily mixing up the roles of current employees.
California forces companies to show pay on job listings, revealing big tech salaries
A new law that went into effect this week requires most California employers to disclose salaries on job listings. The law affects every company with more than 15 employees looking to fill a job that could be performed from the state of California. It covers hourly and temporary work, all the way up to openings for highly paid technology executives. That means it’s now possible to know the salaries top tech companies pay their workers. For example: A program manager in Apple’s augmented reality group will receive base pay between $121,000 and $230,000 per year, according to an Apple posting Wednesday. Notably, these salary listings do not include any bonuses or equity grants, which many tech companies use to attract and retain employees. California is the latest and biggest of the states and cities that have enacted pay transparency laws, including Colorado and New York City. But more than 20% of Fortune 500 companies are based in California, including leaders in technology and media, and advocates hope that California’s new law will be the tipping point that turns posting salary information into standard practice.
Big tech layoffs may further disrupt equity and diversity efforts
2023 is shaping up as a challenging year to be a woman or minority working in the tech sector, or even a person with one too many years under their belt. Surging firings by technology companies last year are disproportionately affecting women and mid-career talent which may make it more difficult to improve diversity in one of the most sought-after industries, according to data from a research firm. In recent years, U.S. tech majors have stepped up hiring and made diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) a priority. But as the industry grapples with over-hiring since mid-2020, rising interest rates and changes in business and consumer behavior, tech companies have announced deep cuts, risking their diversity efforts. Amazon.com Inc's layoffs will now include more than 18,000 roles as part of a workforce reduction it previously disclosed, its CEO said on Wednesday. That comes to about 6% of its corporate workforce. Salesforce Inc said on Wednesday it planned to eliminate about 10% of its staff. The rare shakeup in big tech companies risks further disrupting diversity pledges that have already grown stagnant as companies de-emphasize DEI efforts.
The FTC wants to ban companies from telling their employees they can't work for competitors
The Federal Trade Commission wants to make sure your boss can't force you to sign away your rights to work at a similar company — or even start your own business. Under a new proposed rule, the FTC would ban employers from saddling workers with noncompete agreements that prohibit them from working at competitors, or starting similar businesses. The Commission argues that noncompetes are an unfair method of competition, violating the Federal Trade Commission Act — and their ban would broaden opportunities for American workers, putting almost $300 billion more in their pockets annually. "Why are we doing this? Basically, in short, there's a whole raft of economic evidence that now documents the ways in which these noncompete clauses undermine competition and competitive conditions," FTC chair Lina Khan said. Theoretically, noncompetes are meant to stop primarily high-level employees from jumping ship to other companies, bringing proprietary information and other knowledge with them. But, in practice, noncompetes are more sweeping. Over 30 million workers are made to sign noncompetes, according to the National Employment Law Project, and over a third of those workers are asked to sign the agreements after they've already accepted a job. In some cases, workers can't start their own businesses similar to the ones they're working in.
Nonfarm payrolls rose 223,000 in December, as strong jobs market tops expectations
Payroll growth decelerated in December but was still better than expected, a sign that the labor market remains strong even as the Federal Reserve tries to slow economic growth. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 223,000 for the month, above the Dow Jones estimate for 200,000, while the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, 0.2 percentage point below the expectation. The job growth marked a small decrease from the 256,000 gain in November, which was revised down 7,000 from the initial estimate. Wage growth was less than expected in an indication that inflation pressures could be weakening. Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% for the month and increased 4.6% from a year ago. The respective estimates were for growth of 0.4% and 5%.
Get Early Bird Discounts for TAtech North America
Register now, before early Bird Discounts end for TAtech North America & The World Job Board Forum, which will be held in Austin, Texas USA on May 22-24, 2023. This is the only conference totally focused on the providers of talent technology and their bottom-line success. Unlike the conferences that treat talent technology companies as a subset of HR tech, this event is specifically designed to advance the success of job boards, aggregators, talent marketplaces and the enterprises that offer programmatic solutions, conversational AI products, recruitment marketing solutions, recruitment advertising services, candidate management platforms, and interviewing and assessment systems. If that’s you, don’t miss this opportunity to meet and interact with your industry peers. Its core theme is as simple as it is powerful: A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats!