Measuring Onboarding Effectiveness: Key Metrics for Success

Having an employee orientation program is a great start. It usually involves getting paperwork signed, introducing new hires around the office, and providing some initial training. But are you truly onboarding your employees? Effective onboarding is more than just a warm welcome—it’s about integrating new hires into your company’s culture and ensuring they become productive quickly. Here’s how you can measure and improve your onboarding effectiveness.   Why Onboarding Matters…

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Is the Appointment of Michel Barnier as Prime Minister the Beginning of an Autocratic and Eurocratic Coup in France?

In France, the July 2024 elections had ensured victory for two political forces opposed to Macron, viz. the Rassemblement National and the Nouveau Front Populaire. But Macron had postponed the choice of a Prime Minister until the post-Olympic period, two months later. Now, in September 2024, he has appointed Michel Barnier, his ideological twin, as Prime Minister, without taking into account the new political forces in the National Assembly. Macron…

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What are Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions?

Five smoke stakes line up against a backdrop of a blue sky. A thick cloud of white smoke pours out from one of the stakes.For centuries, philosophers have opined on the nature of control and the challenge of recognizing what’s in one’s power to change. Solving the problem of climate change—that is, achieving net zero in time to spare our planet the worst effects of a warming climate—will likely require all…

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Don’t Bet Against the Move to Clean Energy

Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images The transition to an economy with radically lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is not a matter of if but of when and how. Discussions with executive teams about how they are navigating sustainability issues, however, too often remain framed around the question of “Should my business become more sustainable?” rather than “How should my business become more sustainable — and what advantages might that…

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Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave Start Date for Payroll Withholdings and Quarterly Wage Reports Is January 1, 2025

Quick Hits January 1, 2025, is the start date for payroll withholdings and submission of quarterly wage reports under the Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave Program. Employers may not apply for private plan substitutions until after April 1, 2025, and will be responsible for payroll contributions until their plans are approved. Employers with fifteen or more employees must contribute 1 percent of wages and may deduct up to half…

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The Climate Targets Leaders Need to Know as Regulations Loom

As investor pressure mounts on companies to show their environmental impacts, leaders are encountering an unwieldy tangle of terms and approaches. Climate accounting basics and a dictionary of sorts can help demystify the calculations and voluntary targets that companies need to know now, says Michael Toffel, the Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management at Harvard Business School.Roughly 42 percent of Fortune 500 companies said they’d reached an environmental target…

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When Do Ads Become Too Deceptive?

There’s a reason charity advertisements often revolve around a specific person: an upsetting picture or story is more likely to elicit donations than are statistics or depictions of a group’s collective plight. Psychologists refer to our tendency to open our hearts and wallets wider for specific people than we do for generalized ones as the “identifiable victim effect.” Yale SOM’s Deborah Small, who studies the areas where consumer choice, moral…

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Women in the Workplace 2024: The 10th-anniversary report

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Women in the Workplace report. Conducted in partnership with LeanIn.Org, this effort is the largest study of women in corporate America. Over the past decade, more than 1,000 companies have participated in the study, and we have surveyed more than 480,000 people about their workplace experiences. For this year’s report, we collected information from 281 participating organizations that collectively employ more than…

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New Jersey Nears Finalization of Temporary Workers Bill of Rights Regulations

Quick Hits New Jersey’s labor department released responses to comments on its proposed TWBR regulations published last year. Following a review of the comments, the regulations appear to be moving forward without substantial changes. The final regulations are expected to be adopted and published on September 16, 2024. On August 21, 2024, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s (NJDOL) Division of Wage and Hour Compliance issued its…

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Obstacles to the greening of energy-intensive industries

17 September 2024By Gert Bijnens, Cédric Duprez[1] and John Hutchinson Energy-intensive firms continue to suffer from low profits margins even as energy prices have fallen from their peak. The ECB Blog discusses implications for the green transition in the EU. Skyrocketing energy prices during the recent crisis ate into most firms’ profit margins across all industries. Using Belgian data, we find that many firms regained profitability when prices fell again.…

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Venezuelan Democracy Triumphs Despite External Pressure

The US has not yet found its way out of the labyrinth that its Venezuela policy has created. The key to the door lies in returning to diplomacy and a policy of mutual respect despite geopolitical differences, but the US does not seem ready to take on that challenge, Carlos Ron writes.  On July 28, Venezuela held its 31st national election in 25 years. President Nicolas Maduro was re-elected to…

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Protectionism, US style

The vision of the benefits of globalisation, wherein free trade is a seen as a positive-sum game, very much in vogue in the 1980s and 1990s, has now given way to that of the potential dangers of global trade, a source of dependence and weakness. For the United States, with its chronic trade deficit, trade surpluses are something to be suspected; in this zero-sum mercantile world, they serve to legitimise…

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Russia and Indonesia: A Time-Tested Partnership

On September 16, the Valdai Club hosted a presentation of the analytical paper titled “Maritime Geopolitics of the Pacific and Indian Oceans: A View from Moscow”, prepared ahead of the Russian-Indonesian Seminar in Jakarta. The moderator was Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Club. Lyudmila Vorobyova, Director of the Third Asian Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, briefly spoke about Russian-Indonesian cooperation, describing Indonesia as a time-tested partner for…

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Global Materials Perspective 2024

The global metals and mining industry is entering a new era. Historically, the industry has been driven by economic growth and the development of the middle class, resulting in major demand growth for materials such as steel, aluminum, and coal. While 80 percent of the industry today primarily consists of five materials—steel, coal, gold, copper, and aluminum—the landscape is rapidly changing as a result of the energy transition. Indeed, the…

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How to Build a Cyber Crisis Communications Plan

Leaders building cyber resilience often overlook the need to develop a crisis communications plan. Here’s how to construct and practice a strong response before a hack. Kelly Miller and Keri Pearlson September 16, 2024 Reading Time: 18 min  Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Business and IT leaders have made large efforts to build cyber resilience, or the ability to respond to and bounce back after a cyber crisis such…

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German Federal Labor Court Ruling Facilitates Presentation of Evidence When Notice of Termination Is Served by Registered Mail

Quick Hits Germany’s Federal Labor Court held that posting a termination letter in a mailbox constitutes receipt as soon as the subsequent removal is expected, which the court said would be the day of posting. Employers that use registered mail for delivering employment termination notices may want to obtain proof of delivery immediately and routinely. Personal delivery, accompanied by thorough documentation of the entire process, provides greater legal certainty. Receipt…

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Direct from Michael Dell: Leadership lessons and the future of AI

There are only a handful of people who have taken a start-up from zero to $88 billion in revenue and continue to lead it today. Michael Dell is one of them. The founder, CEO, and chairman of Dell Technologies has steered his company through four decades of change and wave after wave of technology trends. The company that he founded in his college dorm room in 1984 has become a…

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The IMF Is Returning to Russia. No One Should Be Surprised.

This commentary originally appeared in Fortune. The news that the International Monetary Fund will become the first major international financial body to officially return to Russia since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 underscores the systemic pro-authoritarian impulses of the IMF and its tolerance to blunt violations of international law by Russia under its current managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, who needs to be replaced urgently. With the U.S. presidential…

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Space became a place we study aging

Since the first astronauts spent time in space, scientists have known that space travel affects the human body in strange ways. Muscle and bone mass decrease; telomeres, the protective end caps on chromosomes, shorten; and the risk of conditions usually associated with old age, such as cancers, cataracts and cardiovascular disease, ticks up. Why the human body should decline faster in space is still largely a mystery, but one that…

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Monoclonal antibodies offer hope for tackling antimicrobial resistance

A team lead by researchers at the University of Cambridge has developed a monoclonal antibody drug, using a technique involving genetically engineered mice, that may help prevent infection from Acinetobacter baumannii, a bacteria associated with hospital-acquired infections, which is particularly common in Asia.A. baumannii bacteria can cause life-threatening respiratory illness and sepsis in vulnerable individuals, particularly in newborn babies whose immune systems have not fully developed. It is usually spread…

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Job Mobility Eliminates the Gender Gap in Networks

There’s a famous quote from a 1982 Frank and Earnest cartoon that says a lot about gender equity in just a few words. Commenting on a poster for a Fred Astaire film festival, the woman in the cartoon says to her male companions, “Sure he was great, but don’t forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did … backwards and in high heels.” The implication, which has been borne out…

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The Key Components of Strategy Execution

In digitally disrupted business environments, having a solid strategy is not enough. The real challenge lies in successfully executing that strategy. Strategy execution is the bridge between brilliant ideas and tangible results. It involves a sequence of deliberate actions and processes that ensure your strategic plans are transformed into reality, driving organizational success. This guide […] The post What Are The Key Components of Strategy Execution? appeared first on Accelare.

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What Listening Data Reveals About Well-Being of Third-Shift Workers

While many of us enjoy the luxury of leaving the office or logging off at 5 p.m. on a weekday, fundamental to the functioning of our society are the little-mentioned, often-forgotten "third-shift" workers, otherwise known as the night shift. The majority of research focuses on the prototypical, 9 to 5 office dweller or assumes a similar lens when discussing front-line, healthcare, or blue-collar workers. The resulting analysis tends to focus…

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Truck as a service: The next step en route to zero-emission fleets

Today, more than 95 percent of trucks on the road around the world run on diesel or gasoline. The traditional truck ownership model of combining purchasing or leasing with selected add-on services is a proven model for both OEMs and customers. Large-fleet customers have a strong understanding of vehicle life cycles, including the expected residual value when vehicles leave their fleets. They know how to arrange for emergency engine repairs…

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Demand for efficient airplanes persists: An interview with Darren Hulst

Throughout his 19-year career at Boeing, Darren Hulst has seen the aerospace sector change in many ways. As the vice president of Boeing’s Commercial Marketing division, Hulst keeps his finger on the pulse of the industry to see how consumer demand, technology, and the global dynamics have evolved. Today, sustainability, affordability, and connectivity are top of mind for both consumers and stakeholders. At the 2024 Farnborough International Airshow, McKinsey Senior…

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Australia: Anti-scam measures and ransomware reporting on the agenda

Cyber regulation is changing in Australia. As governments globally grapple with the everchanging and increasingly challenging cyber landscape, Australia is poised to implement new laws and update existing regulation in order to enhance Australia’s cyber security and resilience. These changes fall within the framework established by the 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy, which aims to make Australia a world leader in cyber security by 2030. Scam Code Act In light…

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Lumen CEO Kate Johnson: In the age of AI, ‘what got us here isn’t going to get us where we need to go’

MOLLY WOOD: Today, I’m excited to be talking to Kate Johnson, President and CEO of the telecommunications giant Lumen, who’s here to discuss how embracing the potential of AI tools is powering a cultural transformation there. Now, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said that AI transformation requires not just technology, but that companies do the hard work of culturally changing how they adopt technology. Johnson is a former Microsoft executive…

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Apple shows iPhone 16 & iPhone 16 Plus

  Built for Apple Intelligence with the all-new A18 chip, both models feature Camera Control, powerful upgrades to the advanced camera system, the Action button to quickly access useful features, and a big boost in battery life CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today announced iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, built for Apple Intelligence, the easy-to-use personal intelligence system that understands personal context to deliver intelligence that is helpful and relevant while protecting…

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Restrictive Covenants: Employment Contracts -v- Commercial Agreements

Restrictive covenants/post-termination restrictions play an essential role in protecting business interests such as confidential information and commercial connections. These protections are most commonly found in employment contracts and certain types of commercial agreements. When assessing the enforceability of post-termination restrictions in an employment contract, the starting point is that such restrictions will be considered void as a restraint of trade unless it can be shown that they go no further…

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Revitalizing organizational health in the care delivery sector

Research conducted over two decades has continually affirmed that organizational health (how you run the place) is a valuable, competitive differentiator across industries. Organizational health has been linked to value creation, profitability, resilience, and safety metrics (see sidebar “How to assess organizational health”). Organizations in the care delivery sector are no exception: those that prioritize and invest in building a healthy culture, even as they confront persistent internal and external…

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The bumpy road to zero-emission trucks

As major trucking companies decarbonize their fleets, they are currently prioritizing lower-carbon fuels such as natural gas and biofuels over zero-emission trucks. Adopting these fuels marks a positive step toward sustainable commercial mobility but represents only an intermediate step toward zero-emission mobility in the commercial sector. Meanwhile, true zero-emission mobility in the form of electric or hydrogen-based trucking appears to be stuck in traffic as massive challenges delay adoption. The…

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How to determine the optimal ‘spans of control’ for your organisation

Determining the optimal ‘spans of control’ is crucial for maximising organisational effectiveness. This article explores how the ideal number of direct reports for managers varies based on factors like company culture, work complexity, and desired outcomes. It also offers best practices, potential pitfalls to avoid, and insights into customised span analysis. At Q5, we are often asked, “what spans of control should we have to maximise the effectiveness of our…

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The Four Guardrails That Enable Agility

Magazine Fall 2024 Issue Research Feature Large organizations can move as fast as startups if leaders empower employees to act autonomously via well-defined constraints. Nick van der Meulen September 10, 2024 Reading Time: 17 min  Anuj Shrestha What does it take for a large, established business to be as responsive to changing market conditions as the startups in its industry are? That question is a vital one for leaders seeking…

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Power your school year with AI solutions for educators, leaders and IT teams

With a variety of AI solutions for educators, leaders, and IT staff, we can help you create efficiencies that give you more time to focus on what matters most: students. Are you looking for new ways to reenergize this school year? Microsoft can help you to save time, personalize learning, manage day-to-day tasks and responsibilities, and ensure safe and more streamlined operations. With a variety of AI solutions for educators,…

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E-Evidence Package – A New Regime for Cross-Border Law Enforcement Requests

In 2020, we published a briefing considering the existing law enforcement requests regime. Since then, the final text of the anticipated e-Evidence Package, comprising Regulation (EU) 2023/1543 (“the e-Evidence Regulation”) and Directive (EU) 2023/1544 (“the e-Evidence Directive”) has been agreed. This briefing outlines key elements of the new regime, which is to apply in 2026. Legal Framework Parallel Application of Legislation The Law Enforcement Directive (the “LED”) applies specifically to…

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Flowers compete for pollinators with adjustable ‘paint by numbers’ petal design

The study, by researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Sainsbury Laboratory, also found that bees prefer larger bullseyes over small ones, and fly 25% faster between artificial flower discs with larger bullseyes – potentially boosting efficiency for both bees and blossoms.Using the hibiscus plant as a model, the researchers selected plants with three differently sized bullseye patterns – H. richardsonii (small bullseye covering 4% of flower disc), H. trionum (medium bullseye…

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Flowers use adjustable ‘paint by numbers’ petal designs to attract pollinators

The study, by researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Sainsbury Laboratory also found that bees prefer larger bullseyes over smaller ones and fly 25% faster between artificial flower discs with larger bullseyes – potentially boosting efficiency for both bees and blossoms. Patterns on the flowers of plants guide insects, like bees, to the centre of the flower, where nectar and pollen await, enhancing the plant's chances of successful pollination. Despite their…

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Technology alone is never enough for true productivity

As generative AI (gen AI) grips the attention of business, corporate leadership can support their companies’ growth most by prioritizing the needs of their workers while simultaneously standardizing the use of cutting-edge tech. In this episode of the At the Edge podcast, economist and Stanford professor Erik Brynjolfsson speaks with McKinsey’s Lareina Yee about how gen AI differs from previous technological innovations, why it will likely augment more jobs than it…

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Cancer researchers and astronomers join forces in fight against disease

The technology from Cancer Grand Challenges team IMAXT uses advanced spatial biology techniques to analyse tumours, some of which are based on technology originally developed to map the Milky Way and discover new planets. Now, other scientists will be able to access these technologies to create detailed tumour maps that could one day transform how we diagnose and treat cancer.Led by Professor Greg Hannon and Dr Dario Bressan at the…

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