Talking workplace wellness in 2020, join us a Work Rebooted, learning how to learn insights from Oxford, and more...

Four years ago I hired a virtual assistant which changed the way I lived and worked.  This newsletter shares my weekly round-up of the most important stories that educate and inspire people to re-imagine what is possible. I hope you enjoy them!

Work Rebooted - January 29-30 | San Francisco

Join me and the Staffing.com team at this year at one of the biggest Future of work events of the year, Work Rebooted. Hear from:

• Jeffrey Pfeffer - Stanford Professor, author of the must read book "Dying for a Paycheck"
• Johnny Taylor - President of the Society of Resource Management (SHRM)
• Ross Sparkman - Head of workforce planning at LinkedIn
• David Claveran - Program Manager, - Contingent Workforce Google

and many more leaders, visionaries and disputers that will help unlock the future.

Subscribers of this newsletter can get a 25% discount by using the code STAFFING25. register HERE

Talent Economy Podcast

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocketcast, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform. Do not forget to Subscribe, rate & comment and share with others that are interested in understanding the future of the talent economy.  

The Importance of Learning How to Learn - Continuously reskilling within the workforce is essential to keeping up with our rapidly changing world of work. Without understanding how and when to reskill employees, everyone falls behind. That’s what makes freelancers stand out in the crowd: They’re constantly reskilling for the future and revamping their expertise in areas where others have failed to keep up.

Workplace Wellness

Wellness programs are more popular than ever. They started out as employee perks for large corporations; in fact, they used to be called corporate fitness programs. Wellness programs have the potential to lower health care costs, increase productivity, decrease absenteeism and raise employee morale.

Workplace bullying is more harmful than we realized - New findings suggest being bullied at work won’t just affect you emotionally, but could also have serious consequences for your health.

When Your Lizard Brain Burns You Out And Short-Circuits Your Career - Your inbox slog overwhelms you. The colleague who fails to meet his part of the team’s deadline infuriates you. A coworker talks over you in a meeting and you seethe with anger. This is your lizard brain (also known as the reactive brain or survival brain) in action. We all get upset at work once in a while, but there comes a point when unbridled reactions can sabotage your career advancement.

The Freelance Revolution

The rise of independent contractors and globalization of knowledge work is the Industrial Revolution of our time. It's been called the gig economy, sharing economy, on-demand economy, and more. Everywhere we look, we can see the U.S. workforce undergoing a massive and structural change.

Gig Life: Slaves to the Algorithm - Many people around the world use staffing agencies to find work. Yet the status quo is not ideal — for workers or for businesses. Workers face rigid schedules and imperfect information about where they can find shift work and how much they can expect to earn. Businesses struggle to find suitable staff to address unexpected labour shortages.

Gig Economy: Staying at home 24/7 is now possible, but should you? - In the new decade, it will be possible to stay indoors every day, if it pleases you. People will turn up at the door with food and other necessities of life, as long as you pay your electricity and Internet bills and have a working credit card.

New California law threatens to put state's freelancers out of work - Being an independent contractor offers many benefits that traditional 9-to-5 jobs do not, including flexible hours, the ability to work from home, and not having to deal with office politics. The trade off is that workers have to be responsible for their own benefits. Things like insurance and retirement planning rest on the shoulders of the individual rather than the companies that contract them.

3 Ways to Utilize Gig Economy Freelancers to Transform Your Business - American companies already rely on freelancers for plenty of heavy lifting. As the gig economy continues to boom, nearly every company will have an opportunity to expand its talent pool by working with the alternative workforce. In Upwork’s 2018 Freelancing in America survey, more than one-third of American workers said they’d freelanced recently, pointing to a trend that doesn’t appear to be slowing anytime soon.

Remote work

The importance of remote work as it relates to the broader future of work helps create freedom, in that employees can freely schedule their work time at their own convenience. Also, the good news is employers can save money on recruiting and training costs and reap the benefits of a loyal, actively engaged workforce.

Telework program is ‘game changer’ for women in rural parts of Utah - Laura Holmgren’s job as a 4-H Club program coordinator was “kind of in limbo” after maternity leave last year. She wanted to take care of her daughter, but she also enjoyed working. Plus, she’s the insurance provider for her family since her husband farms. After hearing about Utah’s Rural Online Initiative program, the 29-year-old Bear River resident pitched an idea to her boss: What if she stayed with the Utah State University Extension office in Box Elder County but worked from home?

Five Tips For Leading A Distributed Team - Technology and changing work paradigms have enabled founders and CEOs tremendous flexibility in how they build and lead teams. The number of U.S. workers telecommuting increased by 159% between 2005 and 2017, a trend that includes growth in distributed teams.

Salt Lake City is one of the best cities for remote workers - A new report has ranked Salt Lake City as one of the best cities in the country for remote workers.

6 truths about the modern office - Private office spaces leads to more productivity, and remote workers face challenges. Apparently, most workers concur with Virginia Woolf, "I need solitude. I need space." A study conducted by Olivet Nazarene University revealed employees with private offices are the happiest (90%) and most productive (83%).

After 20 years working at big tech companies like Dell, Amazon and Microsoft I have become an independent freelancer to continue my efforts in driving the conversation forward. I feel privileged and honored to help lead the charge on Staffing.com by Toptal. It’s our job to bring you world-class insights about this dynamic talent economy from top experts and thought leaders in the field. Through case studies, articles, and in-depth reports, we will equip the staffing industry to take advantage of these massive shifts in on-demand talent, distributed teams, and remote work. In addition to serving as Editor-in-chief of Staffing.com, I’m excited to host The Talent Economy Podcast each week. We are here to educate and inspire.