Technology Archives - Ination

Get ready for bigger paychecks: Record high increases expected in 2023

ination online — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 10:47:36 +0000

Employers are planning to increase their salary budgets by 4.6% next year, the highest expected annual jump in 15 years.

That’s according to the latest international survey from consulting firmWillis Towers Watson, which included responses from 1,550 US employers. The survey was conducted from October 3 to November 4.

A large majority of the organizations attributed the big bump to inflation and a tight labor market.

But with headline inflation still at 7.7%, any raise an employee gets below those levels effectively means they will be earning less because their paycheck won’t buy as much.

Oftenwhat companies expect to pay more for a given year and what they end up paying differs based on market conditions. This year, for instance, 70% of organizations surveyed by Willis Towers Watson said they spent more than they originally planned. Overall, employersended up spending 4.2% more on salaries this year than in 2021.

What does that mean for your raise?

Employers indicated they will use a host of ways to fund bigger salary increases next year:21% said they would reassess their total rewards package to ensure it has the biggest impact on retention and engagement; 17% said raise prices; and 12% saidrestructure and reduce headcount.

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Stocks have been clobbered this year, but people are still contributing to their retirement accounts

ination online — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 10:44:49 +0000

Stocks and bonds have been turning in volatile, bearish performances this year in an economy marked by high inflation and rising interest rates. But that hasn’t deterred most retirement savers, especially the youngest ones.

401(k) participants have held relatively steady in their savings contribution rates and in their portfolio allocations, according to new third quarter data from Fidelity Investments. And GenZers have actually increased their contributions.

By the end of the third quarter, the S&P 500 was down 25% for the year. The Nasdaq had fallen 33%. And the S&P US aggregate bond index was off about 13%.

So it’s not surprising that the average 401(k) account balance fell to $97,200 in the third quarter, according to Fidelity, one of the country’s leading providers of workplace retirement plans. That’s down 6% from the second quarter and 23% from a year earlier.

Butthe average savings rate among 401(k) participants, meanwhile, held relatively steady at 13.8%, which includes both employee and employer contributions. That’s only down a fraction from the 13.9% recorded in the second quarter and the 14% recorded in the first quarter.

Meanwhile GenZers in the workplace – those roughly ages 22 to 25 – increased their savings levels from 10% to 10.3%. That may account for why the youngest generation of today’s employees actually saw their account balances increase 1.2% relative to the second quarter, despite terrible market performance.

In terms of gender differences, men saved a bit more than women (14.5% versus 13.5%). And age wise, Boomers on the cusp of retirement saved the most (16.5%).

Allocations also held fairly steady, Fidelity found, with only 4.5% of 401(k) and 403(b) plan participants opting to make a change in the third quarter. The majority of those who did made just one change, and only 29% of them opted for a more conservative investment.

Despite the volatility in the markets and the economy this year, “Retirement savers have wisely chosen to avoid the drama and continue making smart choices for the long-term,” said Kevin Barry, president of Workplace Investing at

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What managers should know about ‘quiet quitting’

ination online — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 10:39:01 +0000

The now viral phrase “quiet quitting” is annoyingly imprecise and misleading.

Some say it means doing the bare minimum at work or just not going above and beyond. Others say it’s about setting healthy boundaries or not mindlessly buying into ‘hustle culture.’ And then there are those who say it’s about taking back control of your time and standing up to employers expecting you to do morewithout paying you more.

But one thing quiet quitting is not about is someoneactually quitting.At least not yet.

So managers and leaders, especially those facing staff shortages, might view the concept less as a threat than an opportunity to re-engage your employees by asking what really interests them in their work and letting them prioritize their efforts accordingly. And at the same time to better prioritize what is essential for teams to be doing, and what isn’t.

“It’s on [managers] to genuinely and authentically understand where people are coming from,” said Simone Ahuja, a Fortune 500 strategic consultant who focuses on fostering innovation. “One of the things [supporting] innovation is … radical prioritization by employees and managers and leaders.”

Consider possible origins

There is no universal reason why someone may quiet quit.

Maybe they’re experiencing burnout – which hit a lot of people during the pandemic.

Telling your bossthat you’re burnt out can be scary … and futile because managers often will say they’ll see what they can do, but then nothing happens, said Ashley Herd, founder of ManagerMethod.com and a former employment attorney and human resources executive.

So quiet quitting may be an employee’s way of “taking control and having boundaries,” Herd said. “Managers should be concerned if their expectation is for people to go above and beyond constantly. It doesn’t serve anyone if you burn out.”

Or maybe someone is choosing to give a little more priority to their life outside of work than they used to or than “hustle culture” tolerates.

That doesn’t mean, however, they don’t think work is important, or that they won’t do a good job.

But at the same time, Ahuja noted, an employee may not want to be defined entirely by their job. After all, the pandemic and a series of other ongoing crises in the world have reminded everyone just how fragile life is and have forced them to seriously reconsider what they want out of it.

And of course, there will always be the person who quiet quits because they hate their job, or are ill-suited to it and should be looking for something else or reassigned. But they don’t want to lose a paycheck.

In any case,assume nothing about anyone until you find out more. “Assumptions always lead us astray,” Ahuja said.

Talk to your team as a group and one-on-one

Getting buy-in from your employees on how best to achieve their team’s and their personal goals while also allowing everyone space for their lives outside of work can go a long way toward boosting retention.

“Have a genuine inquiry – people feel cared about when they’re invited in to a co-design process,” Ahuja said. “Ultimately, we all want to be in a sandbox that’s fun to play in.”

But figuring out how to make it all work for everyone involves a lot of open communication. For instance, don’t ask if or assert that someone is quiet quitting. “It has a negative connotation for very valid feelings,” Herd said.

Instead, she suggested, find out how they’ve been doing, how they feel about their workload, and whether they’re able to balance it with everything else they have going on.

And don’t just give lip service to feel-good ideas – e.g., that work shouldn’t be the only priority in people’s lives. Model the behavior. Be vocal about when you’re leaving or taking a day off or going offline to be with family, Herd said. And don’t send emails at all hours of the night.

It’s also always a great idea to publicly recognize a job well done. Just don’t limit the praise to employees who put in long hours to complete a project – which, sure, will be required at times in any workplace. Do the same for employees whose work is consistently excellent and completed within the normal hours of work. And hold that up as a good example for others to follow.

“Celebrate that,” Herd said. “[Ask] how are you doing it? We’d like to model that.

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Summer is over. And the battle to get workers back to the office is heating up

ination online — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 10:32:19 +0000

The battle to get employees back into the office is about to get a little more heated.

Many companies experimenting with a hybrid work schedule have said they want employees to be in the office a set number of days eachweek. But thus far,they have not done much to enforce those mandates, even as employees remain adamant in their desire to work remotely for more days than many CEOs want.

But now that summer vacations and Labor Day are behind us, more employers may start taking a harder line.

Justhow tough companies will get remains an open question, though.

Currently, 69% of mid- to large-sized employers say they require employees with jobs that can be done remotely to be at work a set number of days, according to new survey data from business consulting firm Gartner.

Of that group,25% require employees to be on site three days a week; and 16% are opting for a two-day minimum. A small number (4%) require just one day, while only 5% require workers to be in the office five days a week. Another 4% say they are requiring employees to show up either one day a month (2%), or one day per quarter (2%).

A full 31% said they have set no minimum. One such company is JLL, a global commercial real estate services firm with more than 100,000 employees – about half of whom have remote-capable jobs. And JLL has no plans to set a requirement this fall.

“We’ve always believed in flexibility to draw the talent we need,” said chief human resource officer Laura Adams.

That said, Adams noted, for the purposes of collaboration and creativity, “we believe fundamentally that the office is a key part of the work ecosystem.” And as such the company will continue to try to entice people to come in more often through things like social gatherings.

Will the leniency last?

Office occupancy is now double what it was at the start of the year, but it is still at just 43% of what it was prior to the pandemic, said Mark Ein, chairman of property security management firm Kastle Systems.

In his dealings with clients, however, Ein said he sees a lot of companies pushing for more time in the office after Labor Day. So he expects that occupancy percentage to rise.

Indeed, as Covid becomes a more manageable risk, CEOs are eager to have more people back on site, said Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management.

“Short of another surge – in which the scientific community says it’s unsafe to come to work – CEOs are saying it’s no longer an issue of safety, and kids are in school,” Taylor said.

And the way Taylor made it sound, they’re peeved that they havehad to do so much cajoling to get butts in seats. They feel that the hybrid model requires both leaders and employees to make accommodations, he noted. “They’ve accepted that we’re not going back to the good old days, but [feel] employees don’t want to give anything.”

Should the prospect of layoffs grow, however, that may give CEOs a lot more leverage.

“The game changer would be if widespread layoffs begin taking place. At that point, employees might voluntarily begin spending more time in the office to protect their jobs,” said Ben Wigert, director of research and strategy for workplace management at Gallup.

Either way, it’s likely companies will announce what they expect in terms of time in the officeafter Labor Day. Many will track badge swipes into the building, and might hold managers accountable for ensuring attendance, Taylor suggested.

Until now, such tracking has remained fairly light. When Gartner asked companies if they track employee attendance, 43%said they are not. Among those thatare, they’ve been relying on data from badge swipes (35%), manager tracking (22%) and self-reporting on digital apps (10%).

In response to an open-ended question from Gartner about whether they would terminate someone who didn’t comply, no more than 3% of employers indicated they would, said Brian Kropp, chief of research in Gartner’s Human Resources Practice. And about 30% said HR or a manager would have a conversation with an employee who came in less than required.

In other words, “If you’re not meeting the attendance [requirement] you get in trouble, but you don’t get fired,” Kropp said. “They will try to make it work … because the labor market is still so competitive. So they’re not willing to make their hiring problem even worse.”

But for companies that more strongly assert their expectations of employees post-Labor Day, there could be tougher repercussions for non-compliance. It may first involve a couple of conversations over time. Then if non-compliance continues, in some cases, it could result in job loss, Taylor said.

“Organizations have thought about ‘What if 10% of employees refuse to do it? What do we do?’”

Ultimately, that could mean a greater willingness to outsource jobs. “Once you make the case you can fully do it remotely, I can hire remotely. Why should I keep you?,” he said.

More immediately, however, noncompliance with in-office requirements could make an employee more vulnerable to any layoffs on tap. Even A-players could make the list to demonstrate that the company meant what it said about showing up.

“Maybe the star becomes the example,” Taylor said.

Cracking down could backfire

Leaders who require workers to be on site for more days than staffers prefer and threaten them with pay cuts or termination if they don’t comply may be creating a longer-term problem, workplace experts say.

Many leaders’ arguments for coming into work are now focused on the need to preserve company culture, collaboration and mentoring of younger workers.

“CEOs realize it’s not a productivity question, but a comraderie/culture question,” Kropp said.

And they have a point … up to a point.

Face time is always important. But workplace research shows that neither culture nor collaboration are necessarily optimized just by having employees spend 40 hoursa weekin the same room. It also shows that when employees and teams are allowed to schedule their in-person versus remote time, itcan boost engagement, morale and retention.

Threatening to lay workers off simply because they don’t come into the office enough also could backfire.

“The tide has not shifted entirely yet. It’s still a good job market. Employees have options. And even if the tide turns, don’t disenfranchise them through fear and distrust,” Wigert cautioned.

Because fear and distrust, he noted, will lead to even greater disengagement and turnover in the future.

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Companies can no longer silence laid-off employees in exchange for severance

ination online — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 10:28:40 +0000

If your company lays you off, your employer might offer you severance pay — but only if you agree to adhere to a number of restrictions.

Staying quiet is often one of them.

But the National Labor Relations Board this week put employers on notice that they can no longer silence laid-off employees in two very specific ways that the board says violates employees’ rights under sections 7 and 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act.

Employers can no longer include a broadly written confidentiality clause that requires you to keep mum about the terms of your severance agreement. And they can no longer include a broadly written non-disparagement clause that prohibits you from discussing the terms and conditions of your employment with third parties.

“A severance agreement is unlawful if it precludes an employee from assisting coworkers with workplace issues concerning their employer, and from communicating with others, including a union, and the Board, about his employment,” the board wrote in its decision Tuesday.

The ruling is a reversal of what the Trump-era NLRB members had decided in a prior case were lawful restrictions on employees as a condition of receiving severance.

With the exception of railroads and airlines, US business employers are subject to the NLRB’s authority.

While the labor board’s ruling this week could be appealed, the ruling is effective immediately. That means employers must review — and, if necessary, revise — their severance agreements to ensure they don’t include overly broad language that would restrict workers’ rights in the two ways the board ruling indicates.

The board’s decision will give back a bit of power to employees, but how it plays out remains to be seen.

“Companies are definitely incentivized to silence their departing employees…[because it helps them keep] all the skeletons in the closet,” employment attorney Alex Granovsky told CNN via email.

“This decision opens the door. While on the one hand sunlight is the best medicine, and greater exposure should lead to better companies, this decision could also change the dynamics of a severance negotiation.”

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Your iPhone will soon be able to replicate your voice after 15 minutes of training

ination online — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:35:04 +0000

Apple on Tuesday announced a series of new accessibility tools for the iPhone and iPad, including a feature that promises to replicate a user’s voice for phone calls after only 15 minutes of training.

With an upcoming tool called Personal Voice, users will be able to read text prompts to record audio and have the technology learn their voice. A related feature called Live Speech will then use the “synthesized voice” to read the user’s typed text aloud during phone calls, FaceTime conversations and in-person conversations. People will also be able to save commonly used phrases to use during live conversations.

The feature is one of several aimed at making Apple’s devices more inclusive for people with cognitive, vision, hearing and mobility disabilities. Apple said people who may have conditions where they lose their voice over time, such as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) could benefit most from the tools.

“Accessibility is part of everything we do at Apple,” said Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s senior director of Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives, in a company blog post. “These groundbreaking features were designed with feedback from members of disability communities every step of the way, to support a diverse set of users and help people connect in new ways.”

Apple said the features will roll out later this year.

While these tools have potential to meet a genuine need, they also come at a moment when advancements in artificial intelligence have raised alarms about bad actors using convincing fake audio and video – known as “deepfakes” – to scam or misinform the public.

In the blog post, Apple said the Personal Voice feature uses “on-device machine learning to keep users’ information private and secure.”

Other tech companies have experimented with using AI to replicate a voice. Last year, Amazon said it’s working on an update to its Alexa system that would allow the technology to mimic any voice, even a deceased family member. (The feature has not yet been released).

In addition to the voice features, Apple announced Assistive Access, which combines some of the most popular iOS apps, such as FaceTime, Messages, Camera, Photos, Music and Phone, into one Calls app. The interface includes high-contrast buttons, large text labels, an option for an emoji-only keyboard and the ability to record video messages for people who may prefer visual or audio communications.

Apple is also updating its Magnifier app for the visually impaired. It will now include a detection mode to help people better interact with physical objects. The update would allow someone, for example, to hold up an iPhone camera in front of a microwave and move their finger across the keypad as the app labels and announces the text on the microwave’s buttons.

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This jet-propelled, self-inflating paddleboard is making a splash

ination online — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:27:15 +0000

In the world of water sports, stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) has been riding a wave of popularity in recent years. But the sport requires a degree of strength and stamina.

Inspired by his daughters’ struggles to navigate strong currents, Slovenian entrepreneur Sebastjan Sitar is on a mission to make the sport more accessible to people, regardless of their physical ability.

In 2016, he founded SipaBoards in Kamnik, Slovenia, and created the world’s first jet-propelled, self-inflating paddleboard. Although electric and self-inflating boards exist separately, Sitar’s design was the first to incorporate both features in one board.

“The idea was not to change the sport but to give it a wider audience. People feel much safer if they know an engine will help them get back to shore,” he said.

The next wave of technology

The Sipa Drive All-Rounder is the company’s latest e-SUP model, featuring a fully integrated jet engine powered by dual batteries that last up to six hours.

The board also has a built-in compressor that inflates it at the push of a button, promising optimal pressure in a matter of minutes. The board can reach up to 4.3 miles per hour on the water and comes with a Bluetooth smart paddle that acts as a remote for the motor.

Riders can inflate their board and control its speed through the SipaBoards app, which also monitors battery life and tracks the distance covered.

“The engine is like a small submarine. It has an easy-to-remove cover so you can access the batteries, recharge the board, and hit the water,” Sitar said.

A remote control attached to the paddle allows users to control the board’s speed via Bluetooth

Nejc Ferjan

Currents of change

When SipaBoards first introduced the concept of an electric motor in its paddleboards, people were hesitant to combine electricity with water, according to Sitar. But he says its innovative design ensures the rider’s safety.

“Once people try the board and experience how stable and enjoyable it is to use, we find that they quickly change their minds,” Sitar said.

There are now other options for those looking to power their paddleboards. Scubajet produces a portable jet system that can be used by divers and swimmers, but can also be fitted to canoes and SUPs, and Jobe produces an SUP with an integrated motor, which can also inflate it.

With the global standup paddleboard market forecast to be worth $1.65 billion in 2023, according to market research company Fact.MR, Sitar believes that SipaBoards’ electric models will revolutionize the sport of stand-up paddleboarding in a similar way that electric bikes have transformed cycling – letting users go faster and travel longer distances with less effort.

However, they are considerably more expensive than standard inflatable SUPs, which can cost upwards of $160. Sitar says his various e-SUP models are now available in 38 markets worldwide, starting at €3,025 (about $3,260). SipaBoards is now trying to set up SUP rental locations worldwide and is aiming to partner with 30 rental locations before the start of the 2024 season.

“We want to create a social network for electric water sports, where people can share their experiences, create new paddle routes, and connect with other riders,” Sitar said.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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China’s Xiaomi dreams of building a car ‘as good as’ Porsche and Tesla

ination online — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:20:57 +0000

Xiaomi has unveiled its first electric car, just days after Huawei launched another one of its own, showing that the efforts of Chinese tech giants to join the electric vehicle race are beginning to bear fruit.

Xiaomi unveiled the SU7 sedan Thursday, two days after Huawei launched its Aito M9 SUV. The two companies have made their names as manufacturers of smartphones and other consumer electronics, but in recent years have revealed big ambitions in autos.

In 2021, Xiaomi announced that it would invest $10 billion over the next decade into a subsidiary focused on smart EVs.

Speaking at the launch event Thursday, CEO Lei Jun said the company was entering a “new decade” and hoped to become one of the world’s top five automakers in the next 15 to 20 years.

“It’s a new starting point for Xiaomi, and I’m convinced that one day in the future, there will be Xiaomis running on every road of this world.”

During a three-hour-long presentation, Lei said the company wanted to create “a dream car that is as good as Porsche and Tesla.”

It quickly realized the uphill battle it faced, he added. “To build a good car, it is still very, very difficult,” he told the audience.

However, Lei suggested that after several years, Xiaomi had come up with an offering similar to Tesla’s Model S and Porsche’s Taycan Turbo, directly comparing the performance statistics of all three models on a slide shown onstage.

Mark Rainford, an automotive industry commentator based in Shanghai who hosts the YouTube channel “Inside China Auto,” called Xiaomi’s offering “a winner,” predicting it would sell well in China.

“It looks very compelling on paper, both performance- and tech-wise,” he said, noting that the car could easily connect with Xiaomi’s smartphones.

By creating what is a luxury product, the company also appears to be targeting a different market, Rainford suggested.

“It’s clear they believe they’re a match (for) or even better than Porsche and Tesla’s flagship models, which is very ambitious for a brand most might consider a very strong consumer electronics brand but not necessarily perceive as premium,” he added.

Xiaomi did not reveal the model’s price at the event, though Lei said it would be “a little bit high.”

The company’s EV debut comes the same week as Huawei’s launch of the Aito M9, a six-seater vehicle priced starting at 469,800 yuan (about $66,500).

Customers are looking at Huawei’s Aito M9 model at a store in Shanghai on December 27.

Costfoto/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Huawei said the SUV has “the largest space performance in its class,” and the company has incorporated premium features, such a projection screen designed to replicate the experience of watching a movie in a cinema and not cause motion sickness to the viewer. The vehicle also comes with seats that have massage functions, and double armrests to allow passengers to relax during rides, it added in a statement Tuesday.

The new vehicles add to China’s crowded auto market — the world’s largest — which has seen a price war in recent months due to fierce competition and high inventories.

Last month, Huawei also launched an electric sedan that was designed to take on Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA).

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