Freelancing platforms including Upwork and Freelancer.com have been targeted by scammers during the pandemic, often setting up elaborate schemes to convince freelancers to cash company checks that appear to be legitimate. After posting bogus jobs, the scammers ask the freelancers to move outside the platforms to set up onboarding payments.
The COVID-19 pandemic will change the way businesses recruit workers, according to recruiting strategist Jack Whatley, as more employers report they won't be hiring everyone back. Employees need to consider job stability as they re-enter the workplace and look for businesses that effectively communicate the company's culture, values and compensation plan, suggests Whatley.
Adapt your body language to make the best impression in a video interview, writes Rachel Mucha, starting with looking at the camera instead of the screen and keeping hand gestures to a minimum. Situate the screen an arm's length away, lean forward slightly when the interviewer speaks to show that you are engaged, and make sure that your nods and smiles are natural and not forced, she suggests.
Offering pay flexibility and personal finance assistance to employees is a win-win situation for companies, says Doug Politi, president of compliance solutions for ADP. On-demand pay, early wage access, budget management and savings tools, and fully integrated retirement planning are all ways to help boost the long-term financial well-being of employees.
AARP employment and Department of Labor data show that women over 55 face higher rates of unemployment in the current economic crisis, increasing from 3.3% to 15.5% in the recent months. Increased care-giving responsibilities and extant stereotypes about older workers mean older women's earning potential is positioned for a bruising.
Various aspects of coping with the coronavirus pandemic can be stressful and lead to negative outcomes for employees, but some people are so good at hiding the stress that it can be hard to detect. Thomas Hellwig of INSEAD and Caroline Rook of the Henley Business School offer a technique for emotional triage to identify and assist struggling workers.
With Major League Baseball exploring how to play games in the next normal, umpires might be deemed surplus to requirements. New technology that can make better in-game decisions could remove human fallibility from the game, along with the need for human umpires.