More than simply process automation, AI has become the intelligent foundation for a more productive, more collaborative, and more secure way to work. When paired with human ingenuity, it has the power to transform business functions everywhere from top to bottom.
The organizations poised for the greatest success in the future are the ones embracing the Frontier Firm—human-led, agent-operated—transformation and the tools that enable it.
During the conference, we shared more than 70(!) announcements, all aimed at ensuring that everyone can do their best, most strategic work. Across all these exciting new products and features, several themes emerged: strengthening AI integration, driving ubiquitous innovation, and making agents easier to manage and secure.
AI that joins your flow
Powerful, effective AI isn’t an add-on, it’s an integral part of the everyday systems and tools that businesses use. The more your AI learns about the way every team member works and the shared goals of your organization, the more valuable it can be toward helping you achieve success.
As the intelligence layer behind Microsoft 365 Copilot, Work IQ enables Copilot to bring organizational data—emails, files, meetings, documents—and personal data, including work habits and preferences, together to gain a better understanding of the flow and goals of your unique business. It then uses this combined data to discover insights, make connections, and provide predictions.
The result is AI that’s more in tune with how your people work and the goals you’re trying to achieve together.
The key to innovation with AI is context. Data provides vital information, but true insights come when AI is able to connect it to the “real world” of your business.
During Ignite, we announced three new products that have been designed to help businesses bridge the gap between raw data and meaning in order to understand context and drive progress.
By bringing together analytical, time series and location-based data with operational systems, Fabric IQ enables both people and AI to act in real-time. Mapping data sets to real-world entities creates a shared semantic structure and ensures that insights, predictions, and actions are grounded in the way you operate.
Foundry IQ goes further by enabling more advanced agent reasoning and more value for builders. It does this by grounding agents over multiple data points—including custom applications and the web—through a single knowledge endpoint with routing and intelligence built in.
And Microsoft Agent Factory brings these layers together, empowering everyone in the organization to create AI agents with confidence. It enables builders to deploy agents anywhere, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, without the need for upfront licensing and provisioning. And eligible organizations can also tap into hands-on support and training to help boost AI fluency.
AI that’s manageable at scale
As more and more agents become integrated with process, organizations need to be able to observe, manage, and secure the ones in their ecosystem.
Agent 365 leverages the same apps and protections you use to manage your people but tailors them to agents, simplifying the integration process. Through visualizations, dashboards, and other tools, administrators can get a clear view of how agents are being used—even if they are created on open-source frameworks or third-party platforms—and ensure they are productive and protected.
The innovations announced at Microsoft Ignite 2025 are both the result of and the catalyst for the Frontier transformation.
From Work IQ synthesizing countless data points about your organization, your work, and you, to innovations that make creating, monitoring, and securing AI agents as simple as a click of a button, each advancement has been designed with one goal in mind: helping businesses supercharge operations, power productivity, and unlock innovation.
We can’t wait to see what you do with them.
For more from Ignite 2025, dive into our Book of News, catch sessions on demand, and learn the skills that will help you be part of the Frontier Firm transformation.
The spreading use of artificial intelligence (AI) in business has generated much debate about its potential to replace many duties now done by humans — and also fears about the tech eliminating those jobs. But new data indicates that rather than spending time worrying about that risk, a majority of employees have been actively embracing AI, and using it to become increasingly valuable to their companies.
That proactive approach to AI, and its positive benefits were a main finding in the recently released Global Workforce of the Future annual report by staffing and tech advisory company Adecco Group. Its survey of 35,700 global employees — 5,500 of whom were in the U.S. — showed 77 percent of respondents reporting use of the tech permitted them to perform tasks that had previously been beyond their reach. Another 71 percent of participants said nothing is holding back increased use of AI applications — up from 19 percent the previous year. That lead 37 percent of surveyed employees to describe themselves as already “future-ready” to keep pace as the tech continues changing their work, and ways they can serve employers.
Significantly, vanishing jobs wasn’t the workplace mutation from AI that respondents cited most. Indeed, only 23 percent said they expected AI to eliminate company positions — a view shared by 20 percent of U.S. workers.
By contrast, 76 percent of global participants believed the tech will create new jobs — an opinion also held by 90 percent of U.S. employees — with 70 percent of thinking it will redefine the ways they work (an evolution forecast by 73 percent of Americans).
An Inc.com Featured Presentation
One consequence of most respondents viewing AI as an opportunity rather than a threat was the increased influence it had on their working lives in 2025. As a result, factors that topped the 2024 survey — including working flexibility and economic uncertainty — were pushed down the list by the spread and adoption of various forms of AI, which rose from the fifth to the first spot this year. Receiving more instruction, training, and guidance to use the tech more effectively for work were also top desires cited by participants.
“Our research shows that three in four employees view AI as an opportunity, not a threat,” said Adecco Group CEO Denis Machuel in a foreword to the report. “In 2025, the workforce is more confident, ambitious, and ready for AI.”
Still, the positive survey findings were partially offset by several concerns that employers should be aware of.
For example, increased use of AI has not only left employees feeling confident and capable of doing more tasks than before, but also enjoying more flexiblility. On average, respondents said the tech saved them two hours of weekly work. While some participants said they used that time to check the quality and accuracy of content the tech produced, others said they invest the extra hours on upskilling, doing more creative work, and collaborating with colleagues.
But at the same time, many respondents said they wanted more input and direction from employers on how to measure the impact of their use of AI for their company. Others said they’d similarly benefit by being briefed on and included in how the business intends to use AI in its strategic planning, which would allow them to more proactively adapt their jobs.
“On one hand, there’s real excitement about what AI can do,” Machuel wrote. “On the other, there’s a need to set honest expectations about how it will change jobs in the long run. Getting this balance right means involving employees in the journey not just as technology adopters, but as co-creators of the future of work… AI and technology play an enabling role, but it’s clear they must be aligned with human needs, recognizing how a sense of purpose at work correlates directly to feelings of value and belonging.”
What do business owners get from making that effort? In addition to employees increasingly embracing AI and improving their performance with it, they saw other benefits.
For starters, fully 99 percent of respondents who described themselves as “future-ready” said they planned to stay with their current employers for the foreseeable future, compared to 53 percent of less AI-capable people. Meanwhile, the more employees said they’d been informed about how their work with the tech improved their own performance as well as their company’s results, the more inclined they were to go farther and faster with their AI upskilling.
Progress is already being made in that area. The new survey found 41 percent of “future-ready” respondents reporting they were already involved with their employers’ efforts to redesign tasks and entire jobs to increased AI use, compared to just 24 percent in 2024. But participants in the recent study said they needs to go even farther in supporting their use and confidence in AI as an ally, rather than a rival.
“Redesigning roles successfully will depend on open collaboration between employers and employees,” Machuel wrote. “Leaders have a responsibility to clearly communicate their vision, showing how people and AI in harmony can contribute meaningfully to the organization’s goals… There is no substitute for human connection. It will be people — not technology — who build resilient, adaptable workforces fit for the future.”
At Allegis Group, empowerment is a mindset. As a global leader in workforce and business solutions, the organization has a common purpose: to create significant opportunities for people and companies to grow and thrive.
That purpose drives how Allegis Group operates both externally and internally. When generative AI began reshaping the business world, the organization didn’t wait on the sidelines. Instead, it leaned in and asked:
“How can AI help us work better and faster?”
What began as a spark of curiosity quickly ignited a movement, reaching HR, operations, IT and delivery teams to reimagine how work gets done.
Turning excitement into confidence
Here’s what made progress real:
Education-first rollout. Teams got hands-on through demos, pilots and safe environments that made AI approachable. From rewriting Outlook emails with Microsoft 365 Copilot to extracting insights with Azure AI, employees were encouraged to ask, “what if?” and see what was possible.
Leadership-driven transformation. Senior leaders didn’t just endorse AI, they championed it. With backing from the CIO and enterprise architects, AI became a clear priority, giving teams confidence to experiment and adopt new workflows.
Culture of exploration. Curiosity was celebrated. Managers invited AI ideas into team discussions, and employees shared creative use cases that built momentum across departments.
“We weren’t focused just on leveraging the technology,” explains Pervez Nadeem, Chief Enterprise Architect at Allegis Group. “Our goal was to reshape processes, remove inefficiencies and free people from the routine tasks that can slow them down.”
Real change, real results
Faster time-off requests. PTO calculations that previously took an average of 31 hours now close in just 13 hours with 100% accuracy, thanks to an AI-powered solution built on Azure AI.
Smarter translation at scale. With the Azure AI-based Allegis Language Translation Assistant translations now happen in minutes, saving an estimated $1.5 million year-to-date and ensuring consistency across regions.
Everyday productivity. Administrative tasks are now streamlined with Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps and Teams, empowering employees to redirect their time and energy toward the work that matters most.
Better candidate experiences. As demand for digital skills accelerates, Allegis Group uses AI to match candidates with personalized job recommendations, speed up onboarding and improve communication, helping customers in every industry connect with top talent faster.
“AI is helping us move problems out of the backlog and tackle them faster,” says Anshuman Jain, Enterprise Architect for AI, Allegis Group.
Kelly Quick, Compliance Controller at one of Allegis Group’s companies adds: “AI also makes our work more efficient, giving us time back for critical thinking, deeper data analysis and better interactions with colleagues”.
The new mindset: AI as a co-pilot
For Allegis Group, this is just the beginning. With strategic support from Microsoft and implementation guidance from TEKsystems Global Services (TGS), Allegis Group’s internal systems integrator and a trusted Microsoft partner, the organization is building on its foundation with:
Multi-agent solutions for complex workflows
AI-powered training and onboarding experiences
Intelligent search and knowledge assistance at scale
Enterprise-wide innovation, where every new solution becomes a stepping stone for the next
At its core, Allegis Group’s AI journey shows that when people and technology work hand in hand, the results ripple outward. Customers benefit from faster placements, higher retention and cost savings. Candidates gain more personalized opportunities, smoother onboarding and stronger support throughout their careers.
By putting AI to work across its business, Allegis Group is reimagining how work gets done internally and reshaping the future of professional services.
Read the full case study to see the transformation in action.
NEW YORK, October 8, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– Cierra Gross, a former Googler and seasoned HR professional, was at the mid-point of her career when workplace trauma sent her into depression—her nearly nine years of experience helped her navigate an otherwise devastating situation. The cause? Blatant racism and stereotyping that so many marginalized employees face in corporate America.
That transformative experience led her to her start-up, Worklution Inc., a future-of-work solutions company dedicated to creating solutions that empower employees and transform workplace dynamics. Today, they proudly announce the launch of Wrk Receipts, a revolutionary AI-driven mobile platform designed to empower employees by providing real-time support and advocacy in the workplace.
With Wrk Receipts, employees can seamlessly log workplace events—whether positive, neutral, or challenging—using text, images, or voice notes. These documented “receipts” can be securely stored and shared with trusted third parties like legal counsel, mental health professionals, or HR representatives. The platform’s built-in AI advocate, Jayla, analyzes these receipts to offer tailored advice on employment laws, company policies, and the next steps in navigating complex workplace issues.
Key Features Include:
AI-Powered Guidance: Personalized advice on workplace rights, employment laws, and best practices for resolution.
Easy Documentation: Professionally designed templates for capturing key details, ensuring users document information correctly.
Organized Record Keeping: Secure storage and sharing options for workplace incidents and experiences.
Access to Human HR Consultants: Wrk Receipts’ sister brand, Caged Bird HR, allows users to connect with independent human HR experts for further support.
Predictive Insights: Upcoming features will include AI-driven trend analysis to identify and proactively address potential workplace issues before they escalate.
“As a workplace trauma survivor, I understand the critical need for a tool like Wrk Receipts,” said Cierra Gross, Founder and CEO of Worklution Inc. “This platform is more than a tool—it’s a lifeline for employees who deserve to be heard, protected, and supported in their professional journeys. Wrk Receipts equips them with the power to document their experiences, access personalized HR advice, and advocate for themselves. Our vision is simple: to have Jayla in the hands of every employee globally, ensuring no one has to face workplace challenges alone.”
Wrk Receipts is designed to create ripples of positive change across industries. By anonymously aggregating and analyzing workplace data, the platform offers powerful insights that enable a deeper understanding of workplace trends, helping to shape more inclusive and equitable environments.
The highly anticipated app is expected to gain 2,500 users in week 1. Wrk Receipts is now available for download on the Apple App Store. For more information, visit wrkreceipts.com.
About Worklution Inc.: Worklution Inc. is a future-of-work solutions company dedicated to transforming workplace dynamics through employee-first innovations. Its two core brands, Caged Bird HR and Wrk Receipts provide tools for independent HR support and self-advocacy, ensuring every employee can access the resources they need to thrive.
Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt has a complaint about his old stomping ground—and it’s one that workers have heard on repeat for the past two years: They aren’t working in the office enough.
Schmidt, who left Google for good in 2020, blasted the company’s working-from-home policy during a recent talk at Stanford University, while claiming it’s the reason why the search engine giant is lagging behind in the AI race.
“Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning,” Schmidt told Stanford students.
“And the reason startups work is because the people work like hell.”
“I’m sorry to be so blunt,” Schmidt continued in the video posted on Stanford’s YouTube channel on Tuesday. “But the fact of the matter is, if you all leave the university and go found a company, you’re not gonna let people work from home and only come in one day a week if you want to compete against the other startups.”
Schmidt made the remarks in response to a question from professor Erik Brynjolfsson about how Google have lost the lead in AI to startups like OpenAI and Anthropic.
“I asked [Google CEO] Sundar [Pichai] this, he didn’t really give me a very sharp answer. Maybe you have a sharper or a more objective explanation for what’s going on there,” Brynjolfsson posed to the former Google boss.
Fortune has contacted Schmidt and Google for comment.
WFH became the norm at Google after Schmidt left
Schmidt, who led Google from 2001 to 2011, before handing the reins back to the search giant’s co-founder Larry Page, stayed on as Google’s executive chairman and technical advisor until 2020.
Since then, the world of work has undergone a significant transformation. Despite the dangers of the pandemic being long behind us, companies are largely still operating remotely—at least for part of the week.
In fact, a study from KPMG recently revealed that CEOs who believe office workers will be back at their desks five days a week in the near future are now in the small minority.
It’s worth highlighting that Schmidt’s one-day-a-week remark is an exaggeration: Like most firms, Google has asked workers to come into offices around three days a week, per the company’s 2022 Diversity Annual Report.
More recently, Google has even begun formally tracking office badge swipes and using it as a metric in performance reviews.
However, Schmidt should note that employee backlash from rigid return-to-office mandates could actually wipe out any productivity gains in Google’s AI department.
WFH, RTO and productivity
Schmidt’s not the first leader to complain that working from home kills innovation.
However, CEOs who order their staff to work from an office five days à la pre-pandemic risk having fewer staff around to innovate.
Reams of research suggest that workers would quit their jobs if forced to return to their company’s vertical towers.
Meanwhile, leaders who have already enforced an RTO mandate have admitted they experienced more attrition than they anticipated and are struggling with recruitment.
Elon Musk, for one, has been an outspoken advocate for in-office work—he quickly found out that employees will call their bosses ultimatum to commute to work or find another job.
Twitter’s (now X) operations were put at risk soon after he took over when more workers than expected chose to quit rather than answer Musk’s call to go “hardcore”.
Plus, even if employees don’t quit in anger, they’ll likely have less zing for their jobs: A staggering 99% of companies with RTO mandates have seen a drop in engagement.
Either way, Google’s lack of innovation in the AI department can’t be down to staff working from home more than those at OpenAI—they have the same 3-day in-office policy.
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Bosses have tried everything to convince staff they’ll be happier working in the office than at home, from free lunches to subsidized commutes. When that hasn’t worked, they’ve tried putting their foot down.
Now, exasperated employers want to know what makes their workers tick.
Neil Murray, CEO of Work Dynamics at real estate services group Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), indicated businesses were examining every angle of a worker’s brain to find the right formula to get them back to the office.
Most bosses want workers back under their noses, at least in a hybrid model, but are struggling with resistance from employees who have grown used to flexibility.
Murray’s unit consults significant corporations on their real estate footprint, covering everything from a space’s sustainability to workers’ interactions with that space. The latter is becoming increasingly crucial to businesses before they shell out a fortune on Grade A office space.
Changing space
He describes a new approach to designing these spaces as “a moment in time of reinvention of space” that emphasizes human behavior.
“Sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists. You get an input, and everybody has slightly different opinions,” Murray told Fortune.
Murray says this way of thinking has shifted drastically since the COVID-19 pandemic, and businesses now need to consider how their office spaces can benefit employees.
“You completely shift that paradigm and think, ‘Why do I need space in the first place if I can conduct my business virtually? What’s its purpose?’ And then you need those inputs from various people to try and think about the psychology of what’s going to make people comfortable.”
The Future of Real Estate, a new report from JLL published Thursday, looks at the requirements of corporate office space following the AI revolution. Companies will likely focus more on the social impact of spaces, prioritizing “wellness, hospitality, and entertainment,” the authors say.
But that doesn’t mean an array of attractive workspace additions, like gyms and cinemas, is the answer to increasing office attendance.
JLL’s Murray says his group has tested every possible amenity that might entice workers back to the office, including free lunches or coffee machines. However, there isn’t a silver bullet.
“The most attractive amenity to bring people back is other people,” he says.
Creating an office that brings them together, Murray says, is becoming a generational battle.
The psychological differences between Gen Z workers and their older colleagues are emerging as one of the factors behind a reevaluation of office space. Murray says attending university in a remote setting before graduating into hybrid work has altered young workers’ needs compared with their predecessors.
“There’s bound to be some collective psychological differences in that generation in terms of expectations,” Murray said.
Office space
Beyond generational- and incentive-based considerations, Murray says businesses who are taking the stick approach to bringing staff into the office aren’t seeing much success.
“The ones that try to be prescriptive and try to mandate three days, we’re seeing pretty much exactly the same attendance for the ones that aren’t pushing a mandate, and it’s settling at that just under three days a week.”
Murray says that businesses are typically settling on a three-day hybrid model, adding that younger and later career workers spend more time in the office than mid-career workers.
Speaking to Fortune in February, Murray’s colleague, EMEA CEO Sue Aspey Price, said companies asking staff to come back to the office four days a week were doing so with the expectation they would only return for three days.
Aspey Price says this because changes to office space requirements led to a downsizing through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If everybody followed the policies that are being put out there, a lot of companies don’t have anywhere near enough space,” she said.
“If every working team came in on those days, the chances of them having enough space are almost non-existent.”
Murray thinks offices will see a return of designated workspaces for employees, countering the widespread uptake of hot-desking, even if it means workers alternating days at their desks.
“You think about the notion of everybody moving toward total unassigned, well where’s the ‘me’ space in there, and where’s your own personality?”
More people are now mulling their options as they increasingly feel overworked and underpaid amid relentless cost pressures.
Employees feel so bogged down by work that far more people are considering resigning now than during the mass resignations we saw in 2022, auditor PwC found in its Global Workforce Hopes & Fears Survey published Tuesday, covering over 56,000 workers worldwide.
The report, with nearly half of its respondents being Millennial, followed by Gen X and Gen Z employees, found a staggering increase of 28% in the number of people who plan to change jobs, compared to 19% during the Great Resignation in 2022.
Their reasons? Higher workload, career ambitions and new technology wriggling into the workplace.
Nearly half of those surveyed said their workload had increased “significantly” in the last 12 months. Workers are also nervous about how much they are being paid, with 43% keen to ask for a pay rise. That’s not all—62% of employees feel like the pace of change in the workplace has also ramped up during the same period, especially as they’ve had to adapt to new tech tools in their jobs and increased financial pressure.
To add to the mix, employees’ personal goals to expand their skill set and further their careers are also prompting them to consider jumping ship.
Overall, more workers feel better off moving to a new role, hoping to find some respite.
“Workers around the world are increasingly prioritising long-term skills growth and looking to organisations that can help them facilitate this,” Carol Stubbings, PwC U.K.’s global markets and tax & legal services leader, told Fortune, adding that emerging technologies like generative AI and its applications at work remain front and center for employees.
“Ultimately, employees may be looking to switch for a variety of reasons, many of which will depend on their unique circumstances and the broader trends facing their geography, industry, and role.”
Other studies on the subject have also indicated similar results—for instance, a LinkedIn and Microsoft survey published earlier this year covering 31,000 people worldwide revealed that an even higher proportion of people were inclined to quit their jobs in the year ahead than during the pandemic.
Europe and its growing pool of quitters
The Great Resignation may have taken off in the U.S., but Europeans haven’t been spared. Countries like France and Germany have also faced dilemmas surrounding their job, pay and benefits in the last few years.
Even in the U.K., more workers have considered quitting their jobs following the pandemic than during it. Worker dissatisfaction has come at a time of elevated interest rates and living costs, pushing more of them to consider looking for greener pastures. It doesn’t help that employees are also giving up on their jobs by quietly quitting from the workplace, impacting their productivity.
“It’s essential that leaders prioritise well-being as a core value and critical enabler of performance within their organisation. Overstressed and distracted workers are less likely to perform well,” the PwC report said.
These trends point to a continuation of the Great Resignation. The only difference? We’ve moved from a period marred by lockdowns and remote working to one that’s relatively “normal” but still facing new challenges.
AI is one them, PwC’s report found. Such platforms can help increase efficiency, making them invaluable in the future workplace.
Most CEOs think tech is the reason for new changes at work, but very few employees use generative AI-powered tools regularly. That doesn’t mean they aren’t optimistic about AI, Stubbings said.
The study found that 72% of the infrequent AI users among the respondents think the tech will improve the quality of their work, while half of them believe it will lead to higher salaries.
The catch for employees shifting their gaze elsewhere is that most of those who quit their jobs eventually regret their decision, data suggests.
But will that stop the burgeoning pool of workers considering quitting? Maybe not. However, PwC suggests managers step up in helping employees navigate the tricky balance between all the changes at the workplace and not feeling swamped while at it.
“Companies need to create guidance and mentoring about the types of skills employees need to build. It’s also important to create a culture of learning, where freeing up opportunities for learning is part of the organisation’s DNA,” PwC said in its report.
WeWork is set to become a smaller—and potentially rightsized—company. Following a final hearing on its bankruptcy plan Thursday morning, the coworking pioneer will have fewer locations, a new influx of capital, and $4 billion in debt wiped from its books.
In a packed courtroom in Newark, New Jersey, Judge John Sherwood approved WeWork’s restructuring plan. WeWork expects to finally exit bankruptcy in mid-June. The plan also staved off a bid by WeWork’s controversial founder Adam Neumann, who had sought to buy back the company he’d founded before he was infamously ousted.
WeWork’s clean slate will coincide with a new era of working, one in which office workers have pushed back against returning to offices full-time; as of late 2023, nearly 20 percent of office space in the US sat vacant. Yet workers are also experiencing more loneliness, a problem that coworking companies argue they can address by bringing people together. WeWork’s reboot is a test of the future of coworking itself.
“WeWork still believes that this is a viable business model,” says Sarah Foss, global head of legal and restructuring at Debtwire, a financial services company. “They’re exiting a much leaner company.”
WeWork filed for bankruptcy in November. Hammered by high interest rates and the Covid-19 pandemic, which started a work-from-home phenomenon, it was left with too many leases and too many hot desks and flexible office spaces it couldn’t fill. In 2023, lease costs made up two-thirds of its operating expenses.
WeWork had more than 500 global locations before it filed for bankruptcy, and will operate about 330 WeWorks going forward, about half of which will be in the US and Canada. That will save WeWork about $12 billion in rent obligations, cutting its rent costs in half, according to the company’s estimates. WeWork’s plan comes from amending or assuming many leases, and rejecting or negotiating to exit some 150 others. It prioritized reducing its footprint in areas where it had oversupply, either from occupying too many floors in the same building or having multiple locations in close proximity.
Many of these changes come as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings, but locations outside of the US and Canada are not part of that bundle. In other countries, WeWork has worked with landlords to renegotiate some of its leases, including those in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Manila, and Paris.
WeWork went to hundreds of landlords during the process to negotiate new lease terms or exits from buildings. Bankruptcy allows companies to renegotiate and reject leases outright, but the market conditions that now plague office landlords primed WeWork with advantages to negotiate better terms to stay in place. “They have all the leverage, knowing that we’re in a terrible time for landlords,” says Eric Haber, counsel at Wharton Property Advisors, a New York City office-leasing advisory firm. Now, a slimmer WeWork has a “streamlined configuration where they hope they can make money, but they have very optimistic projections,” Haber says. “Even with this much better setup, they still have to execute.”
More US workers will soon be free to leave their employers to work for rivals, thanks to a new federal rule that will block the long-standing practice of locking in workers with noncompete agreements.
The US Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday issued a final rule that bans most noncompetes nationwide. The agency estimated that by allowing people more freedom, the change would lead to the creation of 8,500 new businesses annually, an average annual pay increase of $524 for workers, lower health care costs, and as many as 29,000 more patents each year for the next decade.
The FTC says about one in five US workers are bound by contract clauses that prevent them from taking new jobs from a competitor, or starting their own competing businesses, for some period of time. The agreements can trap workers and slow career advancement and wage increases—two things workers often achieve by hopping jobs.
The agreements also disproportionately affect workers in tech and certain other roles: 36 percent of engineers and architects work under noncompetes, as do 35 percent of workers in computer and math fields, according to research from the Universities of Maryland and Michigan.
Under the FTC’s new rule, “tech workers will probably experience a rise in the outside opportunities that they face,” says Evan Starr, an associate professor of business at the University of Maryland who worked on the research. “They’ll have more freedom to work where they want; they will be more likely to be paid higher wages.”
Opponents of noncompetes say they hurt workers by keeping them in lower-waged jobs and also stifle innovation, preventing people from starting their own businesses or putting innovative ideas into practice. Noncompete supporters argue that the arrangements encourage investment in staff and protect trade secrets. But recent research from Starr indicates that banning noncompetes hasn’t led to an increase in trade secret litigation.
The new FTC rule has a carve-out to keep existing noncompetes for senior executives in place. But it blocks companies from creating new noncompetes for these high-level workers. The rule is due to take effect in about four months, but it’s expected to face challenges. Two commissioners who voted against the rule saw it as overstepping the FTC’s power. The US Chamber of Commerce quickly announced after the rule passed that it will sue to try to block it.
Several states, including tech hub California, have already banned enforcement of noncompetes. But a recent tidal shift has seen the issue resonate in dozens of states. In the 2023 legislative session, 38 states introduced 81 bills that sought to ban or restrict enforcement of noncompetes. California’s long-established law is seen as part of the reason Silicon Valley became a hub for innovation, while Massachusetts’s once-similar tech corridor didn’t soar in the same way.
Tech executive Daniel Powers has battled noncompetes twice in his career. In 2010, IBM tried to delay his move from New York to Seattle to work for Amazon Web Services, the online retailer’s cloud division, by a year. The parties settled on Powers taking six months off. Fortunately for Powers, Amazon agreed to pay him even while he couldn’t work.
Sixty percent of organizations are now sharing salary ranges on their job listings, according to the 2024 Compensation Best Practices Report from compensation software firm Payscale. That’s a 15% year-over-year jump. The biggest challenge for companies today, per the Seattle-based firm’s report, is compensation. Namely: Despite a tight job market and record-high inflation, workers are still gunning for better and better pay. That concern comes ahead of recruiting, retention and engagement for their employers.
“While the economy may be in flux, employee expectations have not swayed,” Payscale’s chief people officer Lexi Clarke wrote in the report, which surveyed nearly 6,000 HR company managers. “Transparent pay practices and meaningful raises are now table stakes to attract and retain top talent, but many organizations are falling behind as legislation is only accelerating.”
Half of companies lack a compensation strategy or firm messaging on the reasoning behind their pay, which is a problem, because employee engagement “hinges on workers understanding the ‘what’ and ‘why’” behind their salaries, Clarke said.
Even worse, despite the pronounced desire for better compensation, fewer organizations are planning on shelling out. (Seventy-nine percent said they plan on giving raises, against last year’s 86%.) On average, companies are planning for a 4.5% base pay increase; last year’s average was 4.8%.
Maybe companies have reason not to sweat: Last year’s rate of reported voluntary turnover was 21%, Payscale found, a 4% year-over-year drop. That’s all the evidence bosses need that it’s an employer’s market, and they can probably get away with being less generous.
In direct response to the pay-transparency boom, more and more workers are asking questions about their pay, companies told Payscale. That’s led, predictably, to some unrest.
Fourteen percent of companies say some of their workers have left because they saw an ad for a similar position offering higher pay elsewhere—and 11% saw higher paying roles listed within the company itself. Indeed, pay transparency can be a double-edged sword, but the risks of bad feelings are considerably lower if companies prioritize fairness to begin with.
The best of the rest
When it comes to the three pillars of workplace future-proofing—artificial intelligence, skills-based hiring, and flexible work—trying to stave off the inevitable is never a sustainable approach, and Payscale’s findings confirm it. (“If we were to capture how to approach 2024 in one phrase, it might be ‘cautious optimism,’” Payscale’s research team wrote.)
Each of those three pillars come back to fairness and equity, and each, when executed correctly, can make workplaces fairer places to be.
“Fair pay is the bedrock of compensation strategy, yet alarmingly, more than a quarter of employers are not proactive about correcting pay disparities,” Ruth Thomas, a pay equity strategist at Payscale, wrote in the report. “We’re seeing forward-thinking companies, on the other hand, make adjustments for external and internal pay equity, pay compression, and competitive skills—while diversifying their workforce by removing barriers to entry like degree requirements.”
Just shy of half (49%) of HR leaders are optimistic about AI in their workplace; their top concern is that AI would stand to worsen existing biases rather than mitigate them. Just 7% of HR leaders would feel completely comfortable letting AI carry out pay-related decisions.
On the skills front, over a third (34%) have removed college-degree requirements from their salaried job postings. Just 22% of firms say a college degree is a requirement for all of their salaried positions this year—a sizable improvement, and part of a rapidly building skills-first wave.
Then there’s remote work, which is considerably less of a threat than most bosses may fear. Just 11% of the employers Payscale surveyed are fully remote—the same share as last year. But there’s still lessons to be learned among that small group: The voluntary turnover rate at fully remote companies is 13%, compared to 16% at hybrid workplaces and 30% for fully in-person companies.
France is the newest country to join the bandwagon in trying the famed four-day work week.
But unlike most other countries that have piloted the system for a select few companies, France is looking to open up the program specifically for divorced parents who share child custody.
The French scheme, first reported by The Times of London on Monday, will kick off in September and apply to a select group of civil servants. In practice, parents who have custody of their child only on specific weeks can work for four days instead of five, under the new program.
The 35-year-old Gabriel Attal, who became France’s youngest prime minister earlier this year, has spoken about experimenting with the four-day work week in the past. According to his plan, employees would spend longer in office on the days they’re working, so that the time worked doesn’t drop from the stipulated 35 hours.
Attal first introduced the four-day week about two years ago, when he was France’s budget minister. Now, he hopes to expand the system to apply to the entire French workforce, The Times reported. It’s still unclear if the hours will be reduced for good or compensated by working extra on the other days of the week.
Among Attal’s other proposed economic reforms are changes to the minimum wage system and tax cuts for the middle class.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
Nathan Laine—Bloomberg/Getty Images
France has a pressing need for greater flexibility among co-parents—an estimated half a million children (or 12% of the total) in the country switch between their parents on a weekly basis, the outlet reported.
Studies have shown that children of separated parents can negatively impact their standard of living, according to a French demographic study institute INED. The new four-day system could help by accommodating parents’ schedules so they can spend more time with their children while working their regular jobs.
The appetite for a four-day work week in France has been picking up for years—at the turn of the century, it introduced a 35-hour week. Since then, the needle has been shifting among the French who’ve been warming up to the idea of fewer days at work. Roughly 10,000 workers are already working four-day weeks, Le Monde reported.
There are big benefits to be had—one French company, LDLC, tried out the compressed week and saw that turnover was up 40% without needing to hire additional talent, according to the World Economic Forum.
Some of France’s European neighbors have had a few years’ head start. Belgium, for instance, introduced a reform that gives people the right to work four days instead of five. Several other countries, including the U.K. and Iceland have all piloted a shorter work week and have seen overwhelmingly positive results. Employees said they were less burnt out and more productive under the new system.
Happy holidays, remote workers. In software firm Scoop’s 2024 Flex Report, which includes flexible work predictions from an array of industry experts, one idea bubbled to prominence: CEOs might finally give up the effort on making mandated in-office days happen.
“By the end of 2024, executives will be forced to admit their RTO mandates did not improve productivity,” read the top-line prediction from Annie Dean, longtime flexible work evangelist and head of Team Anywhere at software firm Atlassian.
For years now, experts like Dean have said flexibility is key, and employees have made that priority clear on their own terms, too—often with their feet. So why do so many bosses nonetheless hold out?
“There are two camps on RTO mandates: Small companies and large companies,” Robert Sadow, Scoop’s CEO and co-founder, tells Fortune. Small companies, those with under 500 employees, “overwhelmingly” let workers choose whether or not to go in. It’s the bigger companies, especially those with over 25,000 employees, that tend to set mandates.
Dean went on to cite a recent Atlassian survey of Fortune 500 executives, which concluded that low productivity is expected to be a prime challenge for most of them in the coming year—as it’s been in years past. That’s despite the fact that nearly all (91%) of the leaders surveyed currently mandate some amount of in-office presence per week.
“It seems like many already know that these mandates aren’t the answer,” Dean commented. “Only one in three executives with an in-office mandate are convinced that their in-office policies have had a positive effect on productivity.” Rather than where work happens being of significance next year, how work gets done will become the “key cultural touchpoint.”
Dean’s held this line for over a decade, even before the pandemic forced everyone to be a remote work proponent, if only temporarily. Another leader featured in the report, Cara Allamano, who heads up people operations at management software firm Lattice—which, like Atlassian, is remote-first—agreed with her.
Return to office mandates will not provide a “quick fix” to productivity and engagement issues, Allamano wrote, despite how badly bosses want that to be true. Amid continued uncertainty in the larger economy and workforce, she added, company leaders will remain focused on productivity and performance next year. To that end, many bosses will, as they did in 2023, continue to default to dragging employees back into the office to “solve” what they see as engagement problems.
It will be a wasted effort. “RTO will not solve challenges in engagement,” Allamano wrote plainly. Instead, companies should extend that effort diving deep into their business needs, evaluating their overall approach to gauging performance and engagement, and then come to an agreement on the strategies that will align those two. Their RTO policy, she advised, “should follow from there.”
Innovative organizations are defined by how their people work—and what, if anything, keeps them from succeeding. Dean posited that efficient processes, leaders who are willing to disrupt the norms with new tools and AI, and well-run meetings will define companies instead. Leaders who actively seek out more effective tech will undoubtedly attract and retain the best talent. Any other way will be a non-starter.
Who needs an office anyway?
As in Dean’s prediction, Allamano said the real draw for workers will be companies who clearly prioritize flexibility wherever it’s possible. “Organizations with best-in-class management practices, led by HR teams who have centered their programs around what’s best for the business and managed towards that, will be able to navigate flexible work changes just fine,” she said.
She also noted that a recent Lattice report found that nearly half (48%) of employees said they’d consider quitting an otherwise great job if it doesn’t offer a satisfying flexible work policy. That dovetails with recent FlexJobs data finding that most companies would even take a pay cut to work a remote job.
For his part, Sadow doesn’t expect mandates to totally disappear among those big, insistently pro-office companies in 2024. Rather, he anticipates that they’ll give workers more flexibility on how to implement mandates. That may mean shifting away from requiring specific days or weeks to be in-person in favor of outlining a minimum amount of in-person time which each team can decide how to use for themselves. (Which experts say is the best approach to hybrid plans anyway.)
“It’s like bumpers on a bowling lane,” Sadow says. “Big companies may set bumpers, but they’ll let teams decide where they want to deliver the ball.”
Here’s hoping everyone bowls a spare in 2024.
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By the end of this year, 39% of all global knowledge workers will be hybrid workers.
That’s a forecast from Gartner, and it’s more than just a statistic; it’s a harbinger of a seismic shift in our work culture.
Some business leaders may mistake this trend as a partial return to “the way it was.” But that is shortsighted. The hybrid model isn’t just “old office life” for half the week, and it also isn’t a free-form, work-from-home life for half the week. To embrace the hybrid work model means reimagining the very fabric of our work environment. The pandemic taught us that work is not a place you go; it’s something you do — so the office must now serve as a hub for collaboration and innovation, not a factory for rote tasks.
At Harvard’s Future of Business conference on Thursday, Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, a professor at Harvard Business School, told attendees he was there on a mission: to present the undeniable business case for flexible work, and to instruct leaders on how to effectively pull off a work from anywhere model.
Choudhury, a long-time proponent of flexible work, kicked off his presentation with the hard data from Kastle Systems, a building security and research firm, and WFH Research, a leading research group. Offices in the U.S. have stabilized at roughly 50% occupancy over the last two years. The percentage of remote work days for the entire population has held at around 30%—up from 5% pre-pandemic. That’s a six-fold increase, he pointed out, “and the trendline seems to be very stable.”
That’s despite bosses’ best efforts to finally shirk the trend and yank workers back in, whether they like it or not. Those pushes reached a fever pitch around Labor Day, as they usually do, when many major U.S. firms drew a line in the sand mandating a handful of days per week in the office—or else. But per Kastle Systems’ weekly office occupancy data, there was no Labor Day bump to speak of.
“Every Labor Day we have a big return-to-office push,” Choudhury said. “But the numbers in the overall economy seem to be stable.” That’s because surveys show workers are generally willing to sacrifice 5% to 7% of their total compensation in exchange for the opportunity to work flexibly, he said. “This is a phenomenon that will sustain, because individuals are demanding it.”
That may be an understatement. Workers across industries have, in varying degrees, made clear that if their job is remote-capable, they’re hugely resistant to going into an office. After all, working from home means fewer costs; more time for sleep, exercise, socializing, and family bonding; and not having to commute—even if that means giving up the team bonding, career development, and mentorship that in-person work facilitates.
Indeed, despite the current cost-of-living crisis, nearly two-thirds of workers would be willing to take a pay cut to be able to work remotely, per a FlexJobs survey last month. Seventeen percent of respondents said they’d relinquish 20% of their paycheck, and one in ten said they’d give up more than 20%. The majority of respondents to that survey said remote work pulls ahead of salary, work-life balance, or a boss they can tolerate. “Lack of remote work options is a significant reason why people leave their jobs,” Keith Spencer, a FlexJobs career expert, wrote in the report.
To that end, offering flexible work arrangements is a talent strategy, Choudhury said. “Unless you implement it, it’ll be way harder, in today’s economy, to attract and retain diverse talent.”
Balancing flexibility with isolation
If flexible work—with employees leading the charge on their own schedules—is the way, that leaves bosses in a bind, Choudhury added. A typical middle manager must carry out the executive demands of the C-suite who want full offices, while also affording junior workers some amount of autonomy.
Many pros have broad recommendations on how to manage it. Flexible work arrangements are best pulled off with an “organized hybrid” plan, Stanford economist and remote work guru Nick Bloom told Fortune. That means clear orders from the top, plenty of room for customization, and intentional collaboration with team members on in-person days.
Crucially, those in-person days don’t need to be all that often. Drew Houston, Dropbox’s CEO, told Fortune last month that his company’s approach—90% remote, 10% in-person—has been their strongest retention and satisfaction tool. Bosses who are insistent on in-person work as a rule need to give up control, he advised, “and need a different social contract. If you trust people and treat them like adults, they’ll behave like adults. Trust over surveillance.”
But when it comes to assessing the actual optimal number of in-person days, even the experts are often caught flat-footed. “I won’t pretend to know the answer—we need to study for years,” Choudhury said, though he added that recent research suggests in-person work somewhere between 23% and 40% of the time is the ideal. “You’re in the best of both worlds when you balance flexibility with isolation.”
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The Covid-19 pandemic has handed us a Rubik’s cube, transforming how and where we work. With the gift of hindsight, we can start to solve this complex puzzle, understanding what works best for productivity working from home, per a new white paper on this topic by researchers from Stanford University, University of Chicago, and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México.
This compelling research provides a new and definitive level of insights that I will be sharing with clients who I help guide in figuring out the future of work.
The discordant notes of fully remote work
When considering work from home, it’s crucial to differentiate between two distinct styles: fully remote and hybrid work.
Studies by Emmanuel and Harrington (2023) and Gibbs et al. (2022) highlight the discordant notes of fully remote work. To illustrate, imagine workers as runners on a track. When the gun fires, and workers go fully remote, our sprinters stumble, tripping over an 8% to 19% reduction in productivity.
Challenges in communication and innovation — likened to a game of telephone where messages get distorted — can stifle productivity. Like playing Jenga in the dark, building new connections becomes more challenging in a remote setting (Yang et al., 2021).
Now, imagine trying to cook up a Michelin-star meal in a cluttered kitchen. The ingredients of creativity are there, but the chaos makes it harder to focus. Brucks and Levav (2022) found that fully remote teams struggled in this cluttered kitchen, producing lower-rated product ideas.
An orchestra without a conductor might start playing out of tune. Similarly, in a remote setting, it’s easier for employees to deviate from tasks, leading to the “shirking from home” phenomenon. It’s the proverbial battle between the allure of your Netflix queue and that daunting spreadsheet.
Thus, fully remote work is best for individual contributors who are self-motivated. Those employees who work in more collaboration-focused roles, or individual contributors with poor motivation, would best work in a hybrid setting.
The researchers find the rhythm of hybrid working more harmonious. As though conducting an orchestra with precision, hybrid work schedules allow employees to strike a balance between remote and in-office work. The recent research sings in its favor.
An early study by Bloom et al. (2015) serves as our overture. Picture employees as instruments in an orchestra. In a hybrid setting, our instruments were 13% more melodious. They hit more notes (9% more working time) and hit them with more finesse (4% greater efficiency per hour).
Additionally, studies by Choudhury (2020) and Choudhury et al. (2022) demonstrate that the sweet melody of hybrid work can increase productivity and job satisfaction. Employees not only produced more (a 5% to 13% increase in productivity) but also felt happier doing it.
Furthermore, Bloom, Han, and Liang’s (2022) randomized control trial lends more support to this tune. It revealed that productivity either stayed the same or increased by around 4%. A perfect harmony, you might say.
Our encore is the positive self-assessments of hybrid workers. As if applauding their own performance, hybrid workers reported 3% to 5% increases in productivity (Barrero et al., 2023). The international echo was similar, with positive reports from around the world (Aksoy et al., 2022).
Conducting the future of work
Blanket return to office mandates, especially for full-time in-office work, harm productivity by decreasing employee engagement. That’s why I see so many clients adopting a flexible hybrid work model as the most harmonious tune for productivity. Like a symphony that hits all the right notes, it’s poised to become the standard performance for advanced economies.
So why, you might ask, would an organization choose the discordant notes of fully remote work? The researchers find that it boils down to cost savings, like tuning your business guitar to play more economically. Remote employees require less office space and can be hired at lower wages.
So overall, depending on the organization and business model, you might get a higher return on investment from remote workers even for collaborative roles. In other words, the reduction in productivity per employee might be overcome by the reduced cost of each employee.
Moreover, the researchers only evaluated remote work productivity where managers used traditional, office-based collaboration and leadership methodology. I’ve seen fully remote teams and even companies succeed when they apply new techniques and effective technology stacks to work remotely; it does take more discipline and effort to do so, and requires training managers to manage remote teams.
The researchers themselves suggest that as technology improves, the number of people working remotely will increase. Still, at this stage, for most clients, I recommend a hybrid-first, flexible model, where teams make the decisions on when they need to come in together based on the activities best done in the office: synchronous collaboration, mentoring and training, socializing, and nuanced conversations. That approach results in the highest engagement and productivity while boosting retention and wellbeing.
Let’s take our final bow and appreciate this: Remote work is here to stay. But let’s be discerning conductors, choosing the most harmonious tune – the hybrid work model. Not only does it strike the right balance for productivity, but it also sets the stage for a more dynamic, adaptable, and resilient business environment.
CFOs have become central in steering business strategy and value creation. But that task is about to get a lot more comprehensive in scale.
The workforce is changing into an ecosystem, consisting of full- and part-time employees, but also includes robots, chatbots, contractors, gig workers, professional service firms, app developers, and even customers. These internal and external elements all contribute to an organization’s value creation and strategic goals, according to the new book, Workforce Ecosystems: Reaching Strategic Goals with People, Partners, and Technologies.
Two of the authors explained their research on Thursday during MIT Sloan Management Review’s (SMR) virtual summit on the future of work. “When Amazon decided it wanted to have its own transportation system, it didn’t hire people,” said Elizabeth J. Altman, coauthor and an associate professor of management in the Manning School of Business at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. “It started subcontracting, often with mom and pops. These people add value to Amazon, but don’t work for Amazon.”
She continued, “If you think about YouTube or TikTok, those content creators are contributing to the business in a very meaningful way, and enabling the business to go forward. For many platform businesses that rely on contributions from users, those users absolutely, in my mind, are part of the workforce ecosystem.” However, “the relationship between the company and their customers or contributors is a little more complex than it was when a company was just selling a product to customers,” Altman said.
The years of research culminating in a book included global surveys of more than 10,000 business leaders across industries, and more than 100 executive interviews, with 26% of the businesses surveyed earning more than $1 billion in revenue.
When external contributors are considered to be part of an organization’s workforce, that’s “a non-trivial shift,” said David Kiron, a coauthor and editorial director of MIT SMR. “It’s so nontrivial that three-quarters of managers agree that effectively managing these external folks is critical to their organization’s success,” Kiron said. “It’s especially true for organizations like Cisco and Novartis, and some of these other organizations that have tens of thousands of external contributors getting the work done.”
However, based on their research, just 30% of business leaders agreed that their organization is sufficiently prepared to manage a workforce that relies on all of these external contributors. “Those leaders who are taking this issue seriously consider it to be a holy grail, or a potential strategic differentiator for them to figure this problem out,” Kiron said.
Regarding a workforce ecosystem framework, four vital themes emerged in their research: management practices, technology enablers, integration architectures, and leadership approaches. Senior leaders and business unit leaders have to manage these themes. And the departments—HR, procurement, finance, legal, and IT—closely collaborate in a cross-functional approach for the workforce, internally and externally. There can’t be departmental silos in this approach.
However, a workforce ecosystem comes with challenges like issues of ethics, compliance, and regulatory matters. “The third part of the book is about ethics and social responsibilities and corporate social responsibility,” Altman explained. “We’re very aware that this structure leads to all kinds of questions. Like, who owns the intellectual property, for example. That is an ongoing discussion. There are different mechanisms for working with it. It’s not that it hasn’t been addressed at all, but I think these discussions continue to evolve as workforce ecosystems become more prevalent.”
In a workforce ecosystem, I asked the authors if company strategy and value creation ultimately fall under the purview of the CEO and CFO. “We have realized that these discussions move to the C-suite,” Altman said. “They are strategic conversations because they get to the heart of how organizations compete [in their] industry, how they develop new products and services and move into new markets. So yes, ultimately, we think this is a very cross-functional C-level discussion. But we also see it going down deep into an organization.”
The “Nasdaq 2023 ESG & Climate Survey” is based on feedback from executives in North America and Europe. Companies of varying maturity levels report they are leaning in on sustainability initiatives despite an unclear path forward and with regulation looming on the horizon. Forty-five percent of companies have been tackling ESG strategy for fewer than three years, and 9% of companies have been tackling ESG for more than five years. As companies advance in their journey, teams grow and become more integrated into day-to-day operations and decision-making.
When asked how the most senior team member responsible for ESG and sustainability was appointed, 47% of executives said the person voluntarily took on responsibilities on top of their own role. Meanwhile, 39% said the team member migrated internally from other teams, and 14% said the person was hired for the role.
Markus Neubrand was named CFO at Guess?, Inc. (NYSE: GES), effective Aug. 1. Neubrand will succeed interim CFO Dennis Secor. Neubrand currently serves as group CFO of luxury fashion brand MCM Worldwide. Before that, he spent 17 years at Hugo Boss, in roles including managing director of Scandinavia, and group director of financial planning, then COO and CFO.
Teresa Chia was named CFO at Vertafore, an insurance technology company. Before joining Vertafore, Chia was a senior partner and managing director at White Mountains Insurance Group, a publicly traded holding company. She was responsible for White Mountains’ direct investing and corporate mergers and acquisitions activity. Before that, Chia was a private equity investor at Permira Advisors, where she focused on investments in the global technology and consumer verticals.
Tim MacCarrick was named CFO at project44, a supply chain visibility platform. MacCarrick has over 25 years of senior executive experience in finance and operations roles. He’s held both COO and CFO roles at public and private companies including Qlik, Xerox, DLL, and most recently OutSystems.
Patricia Kaelin was named CFO at Safe & Green Holdings Corp.(Nasdaq: SGBX), a developer, designer, and fabricator of modular structures, effective May 2. Kaelin served as CFO of Buddies Brand, a privately held consumer packaged goods (CPG) company. Before that, she served as CFO of 1933 Industries, Inc., a publicly traded CPG company. Kaelin also served as CFO of business operations at Clifton Larson Allen, a CPA and consulting firm.
Jay Matushak was named CFO at Bright Health Group, Inc. (NYSE: BHG), the technology-enabled health care company, effective May 12. Matushak will succeed Cathy Smith, who is stepping down to pursue another opportunity. Matushak joined Bright Health in 2021. He currently serves as SVP of finance. Matushak also serves as CFO of Bright HealthCare, the company’s insurance business.
Michael Dougherty was named CFO at bioAffinity Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: BIAF; BIAFW), a biotechnology company. Most recently, Dougherty served as CFO of Alexa Business Domains, Amazon’s Alexa AI and Voice division. Before that, Dougherty was chief financial and operating officer of TINT and CFO at Filestack. He also previously served as CFO for Amazon Pay.
David Black was named CFO at Proterra Inc. (Nasdaq: PTRA), a commercial vehicle electrification technology company, effective May 16. Karina Padilla, the current CFO, will step down from her role, effective May 15. Black served as a special advisor to the CEO of BWX Technologies, a supplier of nuclear components and fuel to the U.S. government. Before that, he served as SVP and CFO of BWX Technologies.
Overheard
“We continue to see our customers return to us for reasons of the product innovation…in areas like refreshers, iced shaken espresso, cold foam, those are difficult to make at home, they give customers a reason to come in.”
WICHITA, Kan., January 12, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– Positioned as a leader in digital transformation across industries, weavix™ today announced a $10 million Series A funding round from Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), the growth and venture arm of Koch Industries, Inc., a fellow Wichita company.
This investment will be used to accelerate the growth of the company’s communication, safety and productivity platform, along with further developments of its walt™ smart radio.
As a platform, weavix™ creates a seamless communication ecosystem enterprise-wide. Just as smartphones transformed the way people stay connected, weavix™ is leading the revolution toward smart radios, which provide greater visibility and enable better insights for entire businesses, with capabilities including Enterprise-Vital Push-to-Three (EVPT3) and other multimedia features. These capabilities allow the frontline workforce, with its global population exceeding 2.7 billion, the opportunity to communicate more effectively and reliably than with traditional analog radios.
weavix’s Internet of Workers™ platform, powered by Microsoft Azure® private multi-access edge compute (MEC) solutions, is the first of its kind to generate frontline efficiency and safety data and give executives complete visibility into their facilities. Its communication capabilities empower the global frontline workforce, which has historically been ignored by modern innovations.
This partnership with KDT will not only bring the Koch Labs® capability linking it with teams across Koch, but it will also provide access to KDT’s deep connections with Microsoft and other critical ecosystem partners, creating additional opportunities to develop innovative solutions for industrial customers.
“This investment from KDT will help us rapidly transform how the ‘hands-on’ worker becomes safer and more productive through our innovative, wearable technology,” said weavix Founder and CEO Kevin Turpin, a seasoned entrepreneur with extensive experience in industrial services. “And it’s especially exciting because we’ll have the opportunity to work alongside Koch companies as we refine and iterate new products for our growing customer base.”
Each component of the platform is designed to create a single source of truth for enterprises. Globally, weavix™ has been used to increase collaboration across facilities, enhance safety protocols, automate workflows and provide data-driven insights to maximize productivity and enable higher-value tasks.
“Kevin’s experience in industrial services, on the frontline, gave him the extensive experience required to develop a platform like weavix, which has the potential to truly improve how facilities of all sizes operate,” said KDT Managing Director Adam DeWolf. “As a benefit of Koch Labs, weavix will be able to tap into Koch’s diverse ecosystem of subject matter experts, businesses, and capabilities to grow its operations, as well as deploy technology within facilities across our businesses. We’re looking forward to seeing how our employees benefit from the innovative technology, while also providing real-world feedback to the weavix team.”
weavix™, the Internet of Workers™ platform, revolutionizes frontline communication and productivity on a global scale. Since its founding, weavix™ has shaped the future of work by introducing innovative methods to better connect and empower the frontline workforce, like Enterprise-Vital Push-to-Three (EVPT3) communication. weavix™ transforms enterprise by providing data-driven insights into facilities and teams to maximize productivity and achieve breakthrough results. weavix™ is the single source of truth for both workers and executives. Our mission is to empower workers around the world with disruptive technology. Visit https://weavix.com/ for more information.
About Koch Disruptive Technologies
Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT) is a unique investment firm, partnering with principled entrepreneurs who are building transformative companies. KDT provides a flexible, multi-stage investment approach. KDT works with companies that can help Koch transform its capabilities, disrupt existing businesses or expand into new platforms. KDT is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, one of the largest privately held companies in the world, with annual revenues that exceed $125 billion and a presence in over 70 countries. KDT helps its partners unlock their full potential by bringing Koch’s full capabilities and network to them, structuring unique capital solutions and embracing a long-term, mutual benefit mindset. For more information, visit http://www.kochdisrupt.com/.
The flexible work app, Instawork, matches a network of on-demand hourly workers with Florida businesses.
Press Release –
Dec 1, 2022 08:00 EST
SAN FRANCISCO, December 1, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– Instawork, the leading platform for connecting businesses with skilled workers, announced today the platform’s availability to hourly workers in the Tampa area looking to earn higher wages as holiday and end-of-year travel are expected to be the highest in years.
In Tampa, the average hourly pay rate on the Instawork platform is $16.52 per hour, a vast improvement over the state’s minimum wage of $11 per hour. That steep increase gives Sunshine State residents a way to pay for expensive additions to their household budgets during the holidays.
It also comes as New York Fed researchers recently reported that credit card balances in the third quarter were up $38 billion – the biggest annual increase in more than two decades. Florida residents can remedy this and start paying down their holiday bills by downloading the Instawork app, creating a profile, and finding work opportunities with businesses across the Tampa area.
While Florida recently increased the state minimum wage by a dollar as part of its six-year plan to bring the minimum wage to $15 by 2026, flexible workers who join Instawork can achieve an increased level of income without delay. Immediate access to higher pay rates are also crucial with current inflation and a recession looming.
More than 60,000 people in Tampa have already downloaded the Instawork app and are working to staff business locations across the area. Common roles for Instawork in Tampa include general labor, counter staff/cashier, warehouse associate, line cook, and event servers. Local workers can easily create a profile, find a shift that matches their skills and interests, and start working in as little as 24 hours.
“I love Instawork and will likely never go back to a full-time job again,” said James Morter, an Instawork Pro and Tampa resident. “It gives me the flexibility I need to take care of my kids and pick and choose when I work. It’s by far the best work platform I’ve tried.”
Tampa businesses that rely on Instawork range from nationally-recognized hotels and restaurant groups to some of the area’s favorite local hot spots and sports venues. They have easy access to quality, reliable workers, following Instawork’s announcement that over 1 million people have joined the app in recent months leading up to the holiday season to fill shifts in the first post-Covid holiday season.
“Instawork has been a blessing for us. We would not be able to operate without it. Instawork has completely changed the staffing landscape for the better,” said Steve Andress, President of Florida Statewide Logistics.
Instawork is currently staffing businesses in more than 30 markets across the U.S. and Canada. Those interested in learning more about Instawork should visit www.instawork.com or download the app.
About Instawork Founded in 2016, Instawork is the leading flexible work app for local, hourly professionals. Its digital marketplace connects thousands of businesses and more than three million workers, filling a critical role in local economies. Instawork has been featured on CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Associated Press, and more. In 2022, Instawork was ranked in the top 10% of the country’s fastest-growing companies by Inc. 5000 and was included in the Forbes Next Billion Dollar Startup list. Instawork was also named the 2022 ACE Award recipient for “Best Innovation,” one of the “Best Business Apps” by Business Insider. Instawork helps businesses in the food & beverage, hospitality, and warehouse/logistics industries fill temporary and permanent job opportunities in more than 30 markets across the U.S. and Canada. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
