- Study Points to Hiring Stability for Rest of Year
- Rolls-Royce to Reward Employees with Company Stock
- Intel Among Companies Announcing Job Cuts
- Court Awards $35.8M in Back Wages, Damages After Probe
Study Points to Hiring Stability for Rest of Year
New research from consulting firm Robert Half suggested hiring will keep pace for the remainder of 2024. According to the results of its State of U.S. Hiring Survey, released July 30, 52% of surveyed companies reported plans to add new permanent positions in the second half of the year. Forty-three percent plan to fill vacated positions, and 57% said they plan to increase the number of contract professionals on staff, down 10 percentage points from the first half of 2024.
The survey found top factors influencing hiring decisions include company growth (57%), employee turnover (47%) and project-based work requiring skilled talent (42%).
However, most surveyed employers (86%) reported hiring challenges, with major concerns including:
- A lack of applicants with the required skills (48%)
- Hiring quickly enough to land the best talent (48%)
- Meeting candidates’ salary expectations (48%)
Given these challenges, nearly two-thirds (62%) of surveyed managers said they’d be willing to bend on years of experience if the candidate possessed the necessary skills for the open role.
“Today’s workers are more selective when it comes to making a career move,” said Dawn Fay, operational president of Robert Half. “Employers should have a strategic hiring plan in place and remain flexible in order to land in-demand talent and keep projects on track and workloads in check.”
To stand out from the competition and acquire talent, surveyed hiring managers said they are implementing proactive strategies and offering:
- Hybrid jobs where workers can spend time at home and in-office (41%)
- Windowed work, allowing teams to work outside of typical business hours (41%)
- Higher starting salaries (38%)
“While hiring remains a priority, employers shouldn’t lose sight of their current workforce,” Fay said. “Skilled talent is still in high demand, so it’s crucial to prioritize retention strategies to keep your best employees on board.”
Rolls-Royce to Reward Employees with Company Stock
Rolls-Royce will give each of its 42,000 global employees 150 shares of company stock (currently worth £700, or around $890) following an economic revival, according to an internal memo obtained by the BBC.
The shares, which will cost Rolls-Royce £30 million ($38.1 million), will be provided to employees in September. It is the first time the company has gifted its stock to employees.
News of the benefit came after Rolls-Royce announced profits of £1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) for the first half of 2024, almost double what it made over the same period in 2023.
Intel Among Companies Announcing Job Cuts
Several prominent companies recently announced payroll reduction plans, according to various news outlets. Among the big names:
- Chipmaker Intel will cut 15% of its workforce — approximately 15,000 jobs — to reduce costs and increase competitiveness. CEO Pat Gelsinger shared the news, part of a corporate plan to save $10 billion in 2025, in a memo to staff on Aug. 1. “Simply put, we must align our cost structure with our new operating model and fundamentally change the way we operate,” he wrote. “Our revenues have not grown as expected — and we’ve yet to fully benefit from powerful trends like AI. Our costs are too high, our margins are too low.” Gelsinger added Intel will soon announce an “enhanced retirement offering” for eligible employees and an application program for voluntary departures.
- Automaker Stellantis will offer voluntary buyouts to its U.S. salaried workers in numerous divisions, Automotive News reported on July 30. This marks the latest in a series of cost-cutting moves focused on its American operations. The Netherlands-based company laid off 400 U.S. salaried workers in March and twice offered buyouts in 2023 to thousands of workers in several U.S. groups.
- The Walt Disney Company reportedly plans to eliminate some jobs within its television business unit to reduce costs in a declining piece of its corporate portfolio. According to an Economic Times article, the cuts will affect approximately 140 employees, including 2% of staff at Disney Entertainment Television and 13% at NatGeo.
Court Awards $35.8M in Back Wages, Damages After Probe
In one of the largest wage recovery judgments in U.S. history, a Pennsylvania federal court awarded $35.8 million in overtime back wages and liquidated damages to 6,000 current and former workers employed by the operators of 15 residential skilled nursing, rehabilitation and assisted living facilities in western Pennsylvania that “willfully denied” them overtime pay. This is according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
After a 13-day bench trial, the July 22 judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania is the DOL’s latest step to recoup wages and damages from the 15 nursing facilities, their owner and CEO, as well as CHMS Group, the payroll office the defendants used to oversee and implement their compensation practices. The action followed an investigation by the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division in Pittsburgh and litigation by its Office of the Solicitor in Philadelphia.
DOL investigators discovered the employers violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for years by:
- Willfully failing to pay employees for all hours worked, including work done during meal breaks;
- Failing to incorporate all promised compensation, including nondiscretionary bonuses and shift differentials, when calculating overtime pay;
- Avoiding paying overtime by incorrectly treating employees as exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements; and
- Not keeping accurate records of hours employees worked and compensation due for those hours.
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