After decades of making strides toward more equality for women in the workplace and leadership positions, the past year has felt for many like a setback. With 2 million women leaving the labor force in 2020, women are at the lowest workforce participation level since 1988, which Vice President Kamala Harris recently called a national emergency.
Tech companies like Apple were some of the first to allow their corporate employees to work from home at the start of the pandemic. Now, tensions are rising about when and if these employees will return to the office.
Before a job candidate is ever hired, people in power make basic but significant decisions on how a job search will be conducted ― decisions that can either help attract applicants of underrepresented backgrounds or turn them off.
It’s no secret that most entrepreneurs are highly motivated to reach their business goals. The most successful entrepreneurs, however, find a way to get all of their employees working together to reach those business goals. That starts with ensuring their business goals are developed in such a way that employees fully understand what their part is in reaching those goals and what exactly they need to do to accomplish them. That can be challenging for entrepreneurs, especially when they seem to intuitively know what needs to be done. Employees, on the other hand, need guidance and direction.
As the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, an overriding concern of Manatee County businesses is recruiting and retaining their workforces. That’s what we are hearing across diverse industries as our team at the Bradenton Area Economic Development Corp. works with established local businesses to provide the resources they need to succeed.
Intelligent chatbots are proving that there’s no talent shortage when you know how to personalize employee recruitment. Just ask Bipul Vaibhav, founder and CEO of Skillate, a startup in India with an AI-based talent intelligence platform. "We help organizations quickly find the most qualified candidates, using intelligence to speed up hiring while improving the candidate experience and addressing diversity and inclusion objectives," said Bipul Vaibhav, founder and CEO of Skillate.