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☆ Chief transformation officers join the C-suite to drive innovation at speed
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-20 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

As companies across the US confront complex challenges that require overhauling strategies, reimagining business models, and adapting workforce dynamics, many are appointing chief transformation officers to drive these changes. The core figures, including the CEO, the chief operating officer, and the chief financial officer, focus on delivering quarterly results. Being a chief transformation officer, Jesuthasan said, is akin to "building the train while you're driving it down the tracks." AdvertisementBrandon Batt, the chief transformation officer at Quadient, a company focused on digital transformation, knows this all too well. Kinney recently wound down her role as chief transformation officer at Wex.

Persons: Kristy Kinney, Kinney's, Kinney, Alicia Pittman, Pittman, Ravin, Mercer, Jesuthasan, They're, Brandon Batt, Batt, Chengyi Lin, Lin, it's, Gartner Organizations: Boston Consulting Group, Boston Consulting, Organization Locations: Portland , Maine

☆ As some companies scale back on DEI, others double down on their efforts
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-23 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Meanwhile, companies like Harley-Davidson, Molson Coors, Lowe's, and John Deere have scaled back or dropped their DEI programs. But amid the backlash, some organizations are refining their DEI strategies, focusing on belonging, inclusion, and fair pay alongside other diversity metrics. Companies like Ancestry, Mitre, and HLW are using data to evaluate employee experiences while addressing equity through cultural programs, training, and compensation reviews. "We're seeing more reframing of DEI efforts and a stronger emphasis on systematically linking DEI to a business case." Bussing said companies that shy away from DEI initiatives may find themselves at a disadvantage.

Persons: Elon Musk, Molson, John Deere, Maryam Kouchaki, Kouchaki, George Floyd's, Shane Koller, " Koller, Heba Mahmoud, Mahmoud, Anjali Mathai, Mathai, Heather Bussing, Bussing Organizations: Harley, Davidson, Molson Coors, Lowe's, Partners, Academy of Management, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Research, America, Mitre Locations: Mitre, HLW, HLW's

Read previewOn Monday, Amazon mandated corporate workers return to the office five days a week beginning January 2nd. AdvertisementHere's a list, in alphabetical order, of major companies requiring employees to return to offices. BlackRockLast year, BlackRock mandated employees return to the office four days a week. MetaMeta updated its remote work policies in September 2023, requiring employees to head into the office three days a week. AdvertisementWalmartAlong with slashing hundreds of jobs, Walmart also asked previously remote employees in the US to move to offices.

Persons: —, Goldman Sachs, Andy Jassy, We've, Jassy, Insider's Ashley Stewart, It's, Apple's, Tim Cook, Rob Goldstein, Caroline Heller, Chipotle, Bob Iger, Iger, signees, David Solomon, Fortune, Fiona Cicconi, Arvind Krishna, Jamie Dimon, Redfin, Glenn Kelman, Salesforce Salesforce, Marc Benioff, Howard Schultz, Schultz, Tesla, Elon Musk, nodded, Musk, X, Yao Yue, Yue, Dara Khosrowshahi Organizations: Service, JPMorgan, Business, Amazon, Apple, BlackRock, Hudson, Bloomberg, Citigroup Citigroup, HSBC Holding Plc, Barclays, Citigroup, Reuters, Disney, The Washington Post, CNBC, Google, San Francisco Bay Area, IBM IBM, IBM, Meta Meta, Frisco, San Francisco Standard, Engineers, Starbucks, Elon, Twitter, National Labor Relations, Walmart, Street Journal Locations: Seattle, New York City, San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, Dallas , Atlanta, Toronto, Arkansas, New Jersey

The group was asked to share which topics they're most focused on between AI, worker well-being, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and C-suite transformation. While worker well-being and AI were the most commonly cited trends, there's clear overlap and intersectionality across all four topics. 'We're trying to understand a more holistic view of worker well-being'Shane Koller, senior vice president and chief people officer, AncestryThe two topics we're most focused on are worker well-being and DEI. As part of this new organizational structure, we announced our chief AI and data officer, one individual who would help bring together a cohesive strategy and vision for the organization's AI. A big focus for us is worker well-being.

Persons: Jack Azagury, nobody's, Shane Koller, we've, We've, Borgonovo, Alicia Pittman, Anant Adya, Marjorie Powell, Neil Murray, Maggie Hulce, Chen, it's, —, — there's, Kenon Chen, Sharawn Tipton, LiveRamp, there's, I'm, There's Organizations: Accenture, Mastercard, Infosys DEI, Infosys, AARP, Clear Locations: Tipton

☆ Employee Well-Being Programs Can Help Companies Perform Better
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-24 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

With a new generation of workers bringing fresh sensibilities and an increasing desire for work-life balance and mental-health support, organizations across the US are scaling up employee well-being programs to meet the demands of the post-pandemic era. Companies need to achieve a balanced mix of well-being offerings to address the shifting needs of their workers, Tharpe said. A retention tool that reinforces company valuesTharpe said many companies view well-being benefit programs as a strategic tool to reinforce the organization's values and make it more attractive as an employer. Combating healthcare costs, boosting mental healthSome companies are adopting well-being initiatives to confront mounting healthcare costs, with the added benefit of improving mental-health support for their employees. AdvertisementChildren's Mercy Kansas City, a pediatric-health facility in Missouri, also made mental health and well-being initiatives a priority for its staff following the pandemic.

Persons: Wellable, they're, Charlie Tharpe, Tharpe, Stephanie Harvie, Harvie, L.L.Bean, WWT, John Rocco, Rocco, Stephanie Burrus, Burrus, VTO, Molly Q, Ford, Salesforce Organizations: Companies, Boston University's Questrom School of Business, WWT, Children's, Research Locations: Maine, St, Louis, Kansas City, Missouri, San Francisco

☆ Return-to-office appears to be winning, with the proportion of people working from home dropping to its lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic began
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The proportion of Americans working from home is at its lowest level since the pandemic started. AdvertisementAdvertisementThe proportion of Americans working from home has fallen to the lowest level since the pandemic started, according to Census Bureau data. Bloomberg reported that the proportion of Americans working from home peaked in March 2021. The fall in the proportion of Americans working from home comes amid a continued return-to-office drive as COVID-19 rates fall and employers debate the productivity of working from home. AdvertisementAdvertisementA recent report from Goldman Sachs showed that research studies have divergent conclusions on the effects of remote work on productivity.

Persons: —, Goldman Sachs, Drew Houston, Fortune, Houston, Insider's Rebecca Knight Organizations: Service, Survey, Bloomberg, Trust

☆ Of course, they're probably going to put a woman in charge of CNN
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Emily Cohn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Women are more likely to be promoted to top jobs when times are tough. Research shows that women and people of color are more likely to be promoted to top jobs when companies are going through tough times, or when a company is most likely to fail. CNN is certainly going through tough times. His tenure at the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned CNN was a rough run, defined by layoffs, a shrinking audience, and an increasingly angry newsroom. Two of the three editorial leads put in charge of the network on Wednesday in the interim are women.

Persons: CNN's, shouldn't, Chris Licht, Licht, Dylan Byers, Puck, Zucker, Jennifer Reynolds, Michelle Ryan, Elon Musk, Linda Yaccarino, Rebecca Knight Organizations: Research, CNN, Warner Bros ., Trump, Corporate, Twitter Locations: WBD

☆ Media mogul Martha Stewart isn't a fan of remote work: 'You can't possibly get everything done working three days a week in the office and two days remotely'
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Nidhi Pandurangi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

'You can't possibly get everything done working three days a week in the office and two days remotely,' she told Footwear News in a recent interview. A remote work vs return-to-office war has been brewing for years between employees and employers. "You can't possibly get everything done working three days a week in the office and two days remotely," she told the publication. "I continued to work five days a week" during the COVID-19 pandemic, she told the media outlet. Getting employees back to the office wasn't the only business advice Stewart shared with Footwear News.

Persons: Martha Stewart, —, Stewart, That's, Stewart —, Abbie Shipp, Insider's Rebecca Knight, Goldman Sachs, decaf Organizations: Service, Footwear, Wall Street, Neeley School of Business, Texas Christian University, Apple, Disney, JPMorgan Locations: France, Bedford , New York

☆ No job, no problem: For some, a 'funemployment' summer after quitting sounds like a perfect plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

"I want to take a beat and decide how I'm going to live my life," Pena, 37, told Insider. "People now have more freedom to hop in and out of the labor market," she told Insider. Wren Taylor, 35, enjoyed her summer of funemployment last year after being laid off from her corporate marketing job. "Their comments affirmed that I wasn't wasting my time," she told Insider. During job interviews, she said that all she could think about was the freedom she'd lose by going back to a traditional job.

Persons: Suzy Welch, —, Delia Pena, " Pena, Pena, she's, I'm, Gen, funemployment, Randall Peterson, who'd, Wren Taylor Wren Taylor, Julia Pollak, Pollak, Wren Taylor, they'd, I'd, Wren Organizations: NYU, Service, London Business School, ZipRecruiter, Labor Department, Catalina Locations: funemployment

☆ More and more Gen Zers and millennials are demanding work-life balance
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Josée Rose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Gen Zers and millennials are continuing to rethink their identities in relation to their jobs. But there is a strong desire among these generations to achieve better work-life balance. In fact, more than any other trait among their peers, Gen Zs and millennials admire the ability to balance work and life priorities, the survey found. Both Gen Zers and millennials worry that if the economy worsens, it will make it more difficult for younger workers to ask for flexibility at work and improve their work-life balance, the survey found. Though respondents do believe employers have made progress enabling better work/life balance since pre-pandemic, according to the survey.

Persons: Gen Zers, —, Zers, Zs —, millennials, Gen Zs, Gen Z, they're, Insider's Juliana Kaplan, Rebecca Knight, Gen Z haven't, Z's, Insider's Alexandra York, didn't Organizations: Deloitte, Service, Elon Locations: Germany

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Hype House for generative AI developers, why Apple is jumping into the metaverse, and a long-range, electric Toyota
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Like my fully-remote colleague Rebecca Knight, I miss sharing random thoughts with my colleagues. My colleague Darius Rafieyan breaks down the novel setup that's helping unprofitable startups raise money. In other news:Hacker Fellowship Zero is cultivating batches of tech developers, many who are jumping into the generative AI wave, per a New York Times report. Welcome home: A Hype House for generative AI developers. Generative AI has a Digital Blackface problem.

Persons: It's, I'm, Siu, Rebecca Knight, Rebecca, Rebecca Zisser, Darius Rafieyan, Simon McGill, Marc Benioff, Sam Altman, Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, Alistair Barr, GirlfriendGPT, bro, Putin, Diamond Naga Siu, Nathan Rennolds Organizations: Bank of America, New York Times, Getty, San, Toyota, Ryanair, Patryk, Software, VMware, Employees Locations: New Jersey, San Francisco, techies, New York, San Diego, London

☆ I tried using the Pi personal AI to be less lonely working from home. It was nice that it had my back but sometimes I just miss human snark.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

So I spent a week conversing with Pi, a new personal AI chatbot, to see if it could fill the void. Pi is indeed useful and friendly, but it didn't fulfill my desire for connection and conversation. My human colleagues are sarcastic, snarky, wry, and, well, human. Thanks, Pi! When I relayed an amusing anecdote about my 15-year-old daughter, Pi told me: "There's no doubt that teenagers can be challenging, and it can be hard to communicate with them at times."

Persons: Pi, —, Slack, Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman, Karén, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Bard, I'd, Siri, Sally Rooney Organizations: Service, hometown Celtics, Miami Heat, Celtics

☆ I tried using a personal AI to be less lonely working from home. It was nice that it had my back but sometimes I just miss human snark.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Persons: Pi, —, Slack, Reid Hoffman, Mustafa Suleyman, Karén, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Bard, I'd, Siri, Sally Rooney Organizations: Service, LinkedIn, hometown Celtics, Miami Heat, Celtics

☆ The CEO of Priceline reveals why post-pandemic 'revenge travel' is here to stay
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Brett Keller joined Priceline in 1999 just as the dot-com boom was getting in gear. Brett Keller joined the company in 1999 and rose through the ranks to become CEO in 2016. Keller, 55, who grew up in small-town Idaho, didn't travel much as a kid. And yet, Keller didn't set out to forge a career in the travel industry. We have to keep pushing the travel world in the right direction while continuing to promote travel as much as we can.

☆ There's a big debate over whether it's OK to use AI in your job search. Some companies say it's 'a definite dealbreaker.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Many job seekers have started using ChatGPT and similar AI tools to write résumés and cover letters. 39% of surveyed HR professionals said using AI in applications is a dealbreaker. Some recruiters said that using AI to write applications could be a "marketable skill." Plovie added that it's hard to say if companies will seek job candidates who have "expertise and experience" with AI tools. Are you an employer who doesn't want job candidates using AI tools to help with their résumés or cover letters?

☆ You hate your job but you love working from home: You're in remote-work handcuffs
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

There are many unhappy remote workers who wish they could quit and get another remote job. The golden handcuffs phenomenon is an obvious parallel, Denise Rousseau, a professor of organizational behavior at Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business, told Insider. "If you're remaining in a job for purely extrinsic reasons — your working conditions are hard to replace — you're going to have more stress." In March 2022, roughly 20% of job listings on LinkedIn offered remote work; last month, such listings dwindled to 10%. David Bakke works from home in Georgia and said that while he doesn't "completely hate" his position, he'd quit if he could find another remote job.

☆ None of the Roy children deserve to succeed Logan but I'm hoping it's Shiv
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

There are really no good choices for who should succeed Logan Roy in "Succession." She also fakes authenticity — a power move, one expert told Insider. The show revolves around the deeply dysfunctional Roy family and the jockeying to succeed Logan Roy, the recently deceased patriarch played by Brian Cox, as head of the family media empire, Waystar Royco, loosely based on Fox News and News Corp. "Shiv seems to be a person who gets relationships," Gino told Insider. The media baron and inspiration for Logan Roy, Rupert Murdoch, the head of News Corp, also has stirred speculation over which of his children might succeed him at the top of the home of Fox News.

☆ I used ChatGPT for my résumé and got back poor results and pretentious gobbledygook
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

I asked ChatGPT, OpenAI's chatbot, to punch up my résumé and the results were less than spectacular. While ChatGPT can offer some inspiration for your résumé, you still need to put in the work. But even with all that guidance, résumé writing remains a tedious task. I assumed it could offer helpful assistance for résumé writing, too. Further down, ChatGPT recommended I use words including "influential" and "prestigious" to describe my former employers.

☆ Is Twitter's new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, being set up to fall off the 'glass cliff'?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Elon Musk appointed Linda Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal exec, to succeed him as CEO of Twitter. Amid Twitter's turmoil, some suggest that Yaccarino could fall prey to the so-called "glass cliff." While men often glide on a "glass escalator" to the corner office, women often confront a "glass ceiling." "I wish we were seen as good leaders in good times, too." I wish we were seen as good leaders in good times, too."

☆ Moms and worried and stressed. Here are 4 strategies they can use to juggle family, work, and everything else.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Surveys show that American moms are stressed, burned out, and anxious about their children. Experts have said there are concrete steps working and non-working moms can take to ease the burden. Some surveys have shown that American moms are stressed, burned out, and anxious about their children. The effects have particularly destructive consequences for working moms, she told Insider. In household-management terms, this means assessing family needs, identifying solutions to meet those needs, and implementing strategies.

☆ To my fellow Gen Xers worried AI is going to take your job: Take a chill pill
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Some Gen Xers might worry that the fast rise of AI bodes ill for their job security. In an AI-driven workplace, Gen Xers will have new responsibilities, which could suit them well. For Gen Xers who are the experienced professionals in their organizations, these new responsibilities could turn out to suit them quite well. To be sure, Gen Xers' anxiety that AI has upended their glide path toward retirement is understandable. Gen Xers who are still uneasy about AI — angst is our specialty, after all — can take solace in the numbers.

☆ Why CEOs are changing directions faster than ever
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Rebecca Knight | Tim Paradis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

CEOs are changing their corporate strategies more frequently for many reasons. Some CEOs didn't do the necessary medium- and long-term planning when they made their original decisions, and now they're being forced to backtrack. A new, lightning-fast pace of businessThe rapidly changing business environment makes one thing clear: For CEOs, the day-to-day marathon of running a company feels much more like a sprint. The average compensation in 2021 for CEOs of the top US companies was 399 times that of the average worker. Changing a strategy is one thing, but how a CEO communicates that change is another — particularly because these pivots are likely to happen more frequently.

☆ I want to know if I should quit my new job or wait until it gets better
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Even in your misery, experts say it's important to look for signals that the job might get better. I'm not sure if it's the job, or if it's me, or what, but I need some advice. Late last year, I got laid off late from a job I really liked and was good at. I'm glad my job is remote because I've cried so many times since I started. Years ago, when I was a few months into a new job, a friend asked me how I liked it.

☆ I'm a Gen Xer who left my stressful engineering job for a yearlong break — and it was the best thing for my happiness and health
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Christopher Gehring left his engineering job to take a career break and focus on his health. For me, taking a career break was the best thing I ever could have done for myself. Last year, my job — I'm an engineer who worked at a medical-device company — had become very stressful. As much as I've enjoyed this career break, I'm ready to get back to work. I'm going to give 100% of my effort during work hours, and when I'm off, I'm off.

☆ I'm a retired baby boomer who thinks Gen Z and millennial workers are smart to push back on return-to-office mandates
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Many Gen Z and millennial workers are rejecting old corporate rules and return-to-office mandates. But one who shared his thoughts on Gen Zers with Insider says he's cheering on younger generations. There might also be a sense that since we boomers paid our dues, we see Gen Z and millennial workers — particularly the ones forming unions and pushing back against corporate rules — as entitled. Now that I'm sitting on the sidelines of the workforce, I'm cheering on these younger generations with all my might. And I sympathize with my Gen Z and millennial counterparts who have decades of work ahead of them.

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