Newsletter #11 (December 2, 2024)
HR Tech Stack, Waffle House fights The Man, Boeing grounds its corporate jets, and damn it, Disney
1. If you are in HR, make sure your HR tech stack is not eliminating the H in HR.
Technology has rapidly increased our ability to automate many of the mundane parts of HR. Let’s face it: no one wants to sift through literal paperwork, and that includes reviewing 250 applicants for a vacant role. But, if you are increasingly relying on just technology to do your applicant screening – without any human intervention or oversight – you are likely missing out on a golden candidate for your role.
These comments from the CEO of Greenhouse illustrate this particular issue. Specifically, this part: “In the first quarter of 2024, each job listing on Greenhouse received an average of 222 applications — a 43% increase from the same time the year before.” That statistic highlights several possible issues: our economy is not as great as it seems (meaning there are more people looking for work than we think), employers are making it easier for people (and bots) to apply for our jobs, AI is likely helping people shotgun their resume/application process, and companies are fighting over the same talent for key roles. All of that said, it is likely no coincidence there has been that kind of increase in applications in such a short amount of time.
I see both sides of the equation: as employers, we want to remove as many barriers as possible so candidates don’t spend 20 minutes filling out our application process while still not making it completely easy on everyone, and as a potential employee, I want a very quick and efficient application process so I can move on with my day (or potentially a job search for other applications). While some candidates are very selective on a role and the company they want to work with, others I can understand they may just want A job (not THE job).
I’ve seen both sides of the coin at different companies I’ve worked at, meaning I’ve had key roles I swore I would get 200 applicants and we got 10, and then I’ve also had the luxury of sorting through 300 applications for one vacancy. Personally, I prefer to get the 300 applications, but you have to have a mechanism of some sort to not have to look through all of them.
Skills-based hiring is but one solution, and while there’s not enough space here to cover that topic, employing some type of technology (based on a skills focus) can help you reduce this burden. But if you are relying solely on that technology without teaching your recruiter(s) to personally look through your applicants, you are going to miss out on a candidate who could be THE candidate, and you will never know because they will get cut by the tech. Find the balance in your tech to ensure you still have a personal touch in your hiring process, while not making it impossible for people to apply for your roles (looking at you, WorkDay). You won’t regret it, and please, don’t be “those guys.”
2. Skills-based learning must start before the workplace and be sponsored by employers.
No, seriously! I briefly wrote about this on LinkedIn, but a recent HR Dive article (which itself referenced a study by DeWalt) found that a majority of high school students learning the trades were “were placed on a waitlist for training. Once enrolled, though, 55% participated in internships, 47% in mentorship opportunities, and 46% in real-world work experiences.”
In other words, there was more interest in the trades with this survey group than placements or services available to teach them. Employers in the trades need to wake up to the realization that there will need to be significant investment in training platforms for the next generation workforce in order to staff their industries in the future. Apprenticeships, internships, part-time jobs and even direct sponsorship a la capital investment in high school or trade school programs will be necessary to establish a labor pipeline.
Considering the likelihood that certain industries are aging out of the talent necessary to run their operations, companies will increasingly need to adjust their budgets to begin investing in these programs.
3. Not the Waffle House!
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has pissed off the fine folks over at the Waffle House. The Waffle House conglomerate is arguing that the NLRB’s “administrative law process, which does not preclude parties from recourse to federal courts, is unconstitutional and deprives the chain of due process.”
More specifically, Waffle House “argues this quasi-judicial process, which was established because of the propensity for courts to use injunctions to break strikes and destroy unions, is unconstitutional.”
So, Waffle House leadership has taken issue with how the NLRB has in effect acted as a judge and jury in federal complaints about its operations, and joined in with the likes of Amazon and SpaceX to get that changed.
4. Nissan’s financial woes continue.
Interestingly, following last month’s cost cutting announcements, Nissan’s CFO is leaving his position, according to Bloomberg. Coupled with Renault’s planned investment exit, Nissan seems suddenly in very big trouble.
Taken with a grain of salt, many of the automakers including Ford, Stellantis, Toyota and Honda are all experiencing some levels of financial trouble. Gone are the heady days of the COVID-spending spree (by both automakers and consumers). Indeed, most automakers have experienced a stock price decline since July 2024 (I’m ignoring Tesla, which besides GM and Ferrari, are the only three automakers who are outperforming the rest of the industry).
A peek under the hood for Nissan, though, shows they have more trouble in store for them than others. Besides the Renault investment exit (which is significant), the cost-cutting announcements by Nissan I’ve previously written about include not only job cuts but a 25% reduction in vehicle output. Shockingly, in Japan, Nissan is now the 5th-largest automaker in terms of market value, ranked lower than even Subaru and Suzuki. This is not just about bloated costs for Nissan, this is also about a significant branding issue with the company, and according to Forbes, a failure to compete with the Chinese electric automakers. Simply put, the luster has just worn off for Nissan.
I’m not sure I’m buying the news about Honda making a significant investment in Nissan to help them stave off bankruptcy. Rather, I could see Honda making a very small investment for now, since they are partners already in technology, instead allowing Nissan to slide further, thereby making it a cheaper acquisition opportunity in 4-6 months. Tough times are ahead for Nissan, that much is clear.
5. Boeing’s new CEO continues his warpath on cutting costs.
This time, one of the cost-cutting maneuvers making the news is the cutback of executive usage of the company’s five private planes. I can understand how much simpler travel can be for executives of a large company like Boeing, but this change has two effects: one is the obvious of cutting the expense of operating the jets, while the second is likely a ‘show’ to the rest of the staff that those executives are ‘no different’ than the rest of the employees by flying commercial from now on. As the article noted, “He’s trying to show some of the shared sacrifice.”
If their CEO was even more serious about the long-term cost implications of operating an independent airline, so to speak, he would sell off one or two of those 5 private planes. Indeed, “With Ortberg looking to streamline, it’s likely Boeing will eventually consider divesting some of these aircraft, Foley said, and rely more on fractional holdings if executive flying is permanently reduced.” Settling into this new cost structure environment is a must, especially if Boeing is serious about righting their overall situation, and it would definitely continue the show to their employees that everyone must be part of the equation.
6. Disney settled the 2019 lawsuit over gender pay equity. Surprise, surprise.
News hit last week that Disney decided to settle the massive lawsuit, agreeing to “pay $43.3 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that its female employees in California earned $150 million less than their male counterparts over an eight-year period.” Disney is also agreeing “to retain a labor economist for three years to analyze pay equity among full-time, non-union California employees below the vice president level, and address differences”, per the terms of the settlement.
This is a significant settlement in that, while it makes the case go away for Disney for now, it continues a troubling history with the large corporation of labor unrest. Despite its carefully crafted image of being the ‘happiest place on Earth’, Disney occasionally finds itself in hot water with its large employee population. There are literally college classes which teach (in part) about Disney’s historical HR struggles in the hopes of making future leaders who are more in tune with their employees at their future companies.
Here’s hoping Disney takes the cue to fix some of its core issues and finds other ways to endear itself to employees beyond the prototypical corporate vision of “employee engagement.”
7. There needs to be more of these programs in the construction industry to foster inclusivity.
I’m talking about this mentorship program in Massachusetts for helping women break in to and find the support they need in building a career in the construction industry. This is an amazing idea and would be very interesting to see this spread to other states. Part of the need for developing the next generation of employees for the construction industry has to include making it more inclusive for women, and programs like this are a great way to do just that. Great job!
8. Congress can’t get its act together on figuring out a farm bill. Again.
Looks like it’s another one-year extension ahead for the renewal of the Farm Bill, effectively punting it to the new Congress to be sworn in in 2025. There are way too may considerations involved in legislation this large, especially this late in the legislative session, including the desire for some in the new Congress to move SNAP food support programs from the USDA to Health and Human Services, for example.
There have been multiple proposals made and kicked around since the expiration of the last bill. With this much money on the line, thousands of corporate lobbyists, and literally the future of small towns across the US, it certainly deserves lengthy debate. If you’re interested in seeing one version of the Farm Bill being considered and the CBO estimate of impact from it, you can see it here, but here we are again with Congress not able to just, you know, figure out how to make something work.
9. LinkedInLunatic of the Newsletter belongs to…..
……not a lunatic! This guy knows what’s up.
10. The Dallas Cowboys are a joke.
Yeah, OK, they bested the Commanders two weeks ago, and barely escaped with a win over the lowly Giants on Thanksgiving. But make no mistake, this team is a joke as long as it continues to be lorded over by Jerry Jones, and spare me the “but they can still make the playoffs” talk. Even if they squeaked in, it would require a fall from grace of a few teams on autopilot right now, AND the Cowboys would be one-and-done in the first round.
The Cowboys’ (5-7) remaining games are, in order, against the Bengals (4-7), Panthers (3-8), Buccaneers (5-6), Eagles (9-2) and Commanders (7-5). While simply going off of paper records could lead to a conclusion of a 7-10 or 8-9 record, there are a few things working against them, with the first being their terrible defense. They rank second-to-last in total points allowed, beaten only by the Panthers (by one point!), and second-to-last in points per game allowed. They’ve given up the most rushing yards in the NFL through 12 games, which does not bode well for the late season games when many teams turn to the run in colder weather.
Their offense scores 20.7 points per game, which seems decent at first glance until you realize that a) this is middle-to-lower of the pack in the NFL, and b) they’ve scored 19.3 points per game in their last 4 games, trending downward after the injury to Dak Prescott. They have next-to-no running game, 6th worst in the NFL in total rushing yards and next-to-last in rushing yards per game, ‘bested’ only by the Vegas Raiders.
In other words, it’s just an ordinary year by the Cowboys standards.
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That’s it for now. I’ll be back in two weeks!
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© December 2024 Brandon Caldwell, all rights reserved. Hyperlinks are used frequently for proper credit to source material on respective websites, news articles, social media or other sources. Images are used with and in credit to rights reserved to their respective owner(s). While it can be a useful tool, no ChatGPT or other generative AI was used in the production of this newsletter. Opinions are mine and do not reflect the opinion or policy of others including employers past or present.