01 Jul THE WAR FOR TALENT GETS INVENTIVE; MEDIA DIVERSITY IN ACTION
Welcome to this week’s business and media intelligence update.
THE WAR FOR TALENT GETS INVENTIVE
As the war for talent rages on, companies here and overseas are responding more swiftly (and more imaginatively), to help employees struggling with big economic and social issues.
In the US, for example, many companies have been covering the fuel expenses for workers, while others are allowing employees to continue working from home to help ease the pain of rising prices at the petrol pump.
Australian firms with a big presence in the US, including Atlassian, Canva and Lendlease, have now joined Microsoft, Tesla and JPMorgan in providing financial assistance to employees needing to travel for an abortion after the US Supreme Court wound back the constitutional right of women to terminate a pregnancy.
M&A DEALS – ON PAUSE
After 18 months of record-breaking merger and acquisition activity, deal makers are finally catching their breath.
In what’s been dubbed “the big pause” by the Australian Financial Review, top dealmakers at JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs say that while M&A activity hasn’t completely ceased, it has certainly slowed in the wake of higher interest rates, murky asset valuations, bottlenecked supply chains and soaring labour costs.
“The level of engagement hasn’t really declined, but the pace of that engagement has become a little more cautious,” JP Morgan head of M&A, Kierin Deeming, said.
BIG BROTHER IS ALWAYS WATCHING
I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘e’? EMPLOYEES.
As remote and hybrid working becomes the norm, workforce monitoring is increasing, with more companies using desktop and video surveillance to keep tabs on employee productivity.
Consulting firm Gartner found that the number of medium-to-large US companies using monitoring tools has doubled to 60 per cent since early last year and is set to reach 70 per cent by 2024.
But as Big Brother’s watch over us increases, so does employee mistrust and rule-breaking. Several studies have found that monitored employees were more likely to feel stressed, anxious and engage in behaviours such as cheating on tests, stealing equipment, and purposely working slowly.
MEDIA DIVERSITY IN ACTION
Feel free to share these updates with colleagues or friends. They can sign up here to receive our daily newsletter.