Five for Friday 4.26.19

1. By-passing Washington

The Federal minimum wage of $7.50 an hour hasn’t changed in 10 years, but states and cities have not been as stingy.  The NYT reports that almost 90% of employees now making the local minimum wage are earning at least $11.80 an hour.  The 2019 minimum in Vermont is $10.78 and is subject to annual cost-of-living increases.

2. The Latest HR Wake Up Call

“HR has been the poster child of the sclerotic back office… There has to be a renaissance, and companies have gotten the memo. They know these jobs are going to have to change.”  Cognizant recognizes HR as a job of the future, but it’s not the job you are doing now (Cognizant re-christens us “Work Culture).

3. Remote Workers Are Lonely

Over on LinkedIn, Dan Schawbel sparks a conversation on the pluses and minuses of working remotely and it seems that a sense of isolation is a major factor in turnover among these workers. Dan offers tips on managing remotely to mitigate the impact.

4. Amazon Automates Terminations

The Verge has obtained has obtained some interesting documents from Amazon. Among other things, they include the company’s description of its performance management system at fulfillment centers.  “Amazon’s system tracks the rate of each individual associates productivity and automatically generates any warnings or terminations regarding quality or productivity without input from supervisors.”  And the standards are high. The termination rate at at least one facility is 10% annually.

5. You’re Doing It Wrong

“Businesses have never done as much hiring as they do today. They’ve never spent as much money doing it. And they’ve never done a worse job of it.”   HBR’s analysis is too much reliance on social media, and not enough (or the wrong) metrics.