Happy At Work
Jack Kelly
Forbes, Board of Directors Blind, Founder and CEO of The Compliance Search Group and Wecruitr.com, Co-host of the Blind Ambition Podcast
In this Happy at Work podcast, we speak with Nikki Selenetri, VP of People at GymPass, about the importance of building a healthy work environment. Watch episode here.
In this Happy at Work podcast, we speak with the Founder of OfficerTogether, Amy Yin. Watch episode here.
We are in a new, exciting era that places the focus of attention on workers. Companies have realized that they need to roll out the red carpet to job seekers and show empathy and appreciation to their current employees. With millions of open jobs each month, and 4 million quitting on a regular monthly basis, executives nervously noticed the sea change. In response, they are offering an array of benefits to attract, recruit and retain people.
This may sound politically incorrect, but the pandemic pushed Corporate America to make powerful employee-empowering changes to the workplace that enhanced the lives of millions of people. Only two years ago, it would’ve been unimaginable to believe that we could successfully work remotely at scale. Now remote, hybrid, flexibility (you can choose when and where you work), digital nomads and relocating to lower cost locations at the same pay all became acceptable and commonplace.
Experts and economists were expecting about 422,000 new jobs to be added in December, but the employment report came in at a disappointing 199,000, the United States Department of Labor reported Friday. While many people were discouraged with the substantial miss, compared to what was expected, there is more to the story.
A?Forbes?piece about the metaverse, posted on LinkedIn, went viral with over 100,000 views and thousands of comments and reactions. The article tapped a nerve. It brought out an overwhelming visceral reaction to many people who expressed their dismay with social media sites—lumping virtual reality into this medium. The reactions, from the predominantly white-collar professionals that consider LinkedIn their go-to social media platform to network or find a new job, provided honest, raw insights into their mindset about this emerging technology.
It feels like almost everyone is looking for a new job. There are about 11 million jobs available. Each month, millions of Americans quit their positions, in pursuit of better opportunities. One of the most important aspects of a new job is the compensation. Up until now, the overwhelming majority of companies conveniently left out the salary from their job advertisements.
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Business leadership needs to wake up to the fact that the Great Resignation and war for talent is here to stay. If you are in management and are still in the pre-pandemic mindset, believing that candidates for your jobs are ubiquitous and employees fungible, you’re in for a rude, abrupt awakening.
There is a word that exists only in the Scandinavian languages: Arbejdsgl?de. This means “happiness at work.”?Denmark is known as one of the happiest countries in the world. It’s a relatively small, tight-knit country. The people are proud, but humble. They are open to diversity in actions and thought,?and treat each other with equality. The country offers free college and hospital visits with little corruption. The citizens of Denmark tend to possess an open-minded, rugged and mountaineering mindset. To find out what Denmark does differently, I spoke with LogPoint CEO Jesper Zerlang. Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, with offices across Europe, the United States and Asia, LogPoint is a multinational, multicultural and inclusive cybersecurity company.
Last year, companies were forced to scramble and find workers. After years of taking people for granted, the pandemic upended the job market. There were about 11 millions jobs available, but a scarcity of people who were willing to take them. In an effort to attract and recruit talent, businesses had to make fundamental changes. They offered higher wages, sign-on bonuses, remote, hybrid and flexible work styles, one-on-one mentoring and free college tuition. Even with these accommodations, seats were left unfilled. There is another sweetener that some businesses are considering to attract people to join their firms—paying in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. In 2021, we saw digital assets go parabolic. The number of new crypto projects and incredible rise in value of the asset class caught America and the world’s attention.
The surging Omicron variant first made major corporations?push back their return-to-office plans. Now that the holiday season is over, schools and universities are figuring out what to do, in light of the spread of the virus. According to Burbio, a firm that monitors school data, more than 2,000 schools were prepared to close for at least one day, due to Covid-19 concerns for the first week of January. There are about 21 states with at least one school district closed or transitioning to remote learning this week. Reuters reports that?thousands of U.S. schools have?delayed this week’s scheduled return to classrooms, following the holiday break, or switched to remote learning, as the Omicron variant spread.
Omicron may be closing down businesses, schools, sporting events and concerts, but the job market is still strong. As of December, the United States government data shows that over 11 million jobs are available. There is a Great Resignation trend in which millions of Americans are quitting their jobs in record numbers. The stage is set for a good time to hunt for a new job.
We’re likely to see a divergence in how people will act in this new multivirus pandemic. There will be one group that needs time to heal and practice self-care. They may have lost loved ones or fell stricken with the disease. For nearly two years, we’ve been operating under stress, fear and anxiety.
New York-based, top-tier banks Goldman Sachs, Citi and JPMorgan, along with other financial services firms, have pushed harder than other sectors to get their people back into an office setting. While the mighty banks have money, power and clout, they are not immune to Covid-19 and its omicron and delta variants.
About Jack Kelly
Jack?Kelly is the CEO, founder, and executive recruiter at one of the oldest and largest global search firms in his area of expertise. He has personally placed thousands of professionals with top-tier companies over the last 20-plus years. Jack?is passionate about advocating for job seekers. In doing so, he founded a start-up company, WeCruitr, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The mission of WeCruitr is to help people in need and make the job search more humane and enjoyable. As a proponent of career growth,?Jack?shares his insider interviewing tips and career advancement secrets as a Senior Contributor for Forbes.?He?also covers timely topics related to corporations, high-profile people, Wall Street, politics and other important matters. The pieces offer insight into the news and how it may impact your career. Jack is the author of?How To Get A Job In Tough Times, as well as the co-host of the?Happy At Work?podcast.