Can Technology Reverse the Workforce – Depleting ‘Great Resignation’ of 2021?

by Felicien | Dec 13, 2021 | Education

Can Technology Reverse the Workforce – Depleting ‘Great Resignation’ of 2021?
Although remote and other technology appears to be an underlying cause of the 2021 “Great Resignation,” it may also hold the key to a“Great Return.”
Many believed the mass exodus from the workforce had peaked in April when a total of 24 million had quit for the year. But month-over-month attrition rates have remained staggeringly high. More than 4 million Americans quit their job in July. During September and October, the monthly dropout rate hovered around 4.4 million, and the year’s tally exceeds 38 million and rising.
What makes this modern-day phenomenon perplexing is that the U.S. carries upwards of 10 million job openings, with an annual high of 11.1 million during July and 10.44 million in September. These heightened numbers seem to indicate everyday people are quoting David Allan Coe’s 1978 hit by telling the corporate world to “take this jobs and shove it, I ain’t working here no more.”
Technology Sector Hit Hard by Great Resignation
To date, at least 40 percent of the existing workforce indicates they are contemplating leaving their position. In the U.S., more than 70 percent of people in the technology industry say they are on the fence. Many appear to be positioning themselves to quit in favor of another job or just fall out of the workforce over the next 12 months.
Economists and employment experts point to wide-reaching reasons why people are dropping out in record numbers. Free money in the form of stimulus checks and the sharp increase in remote opportunities are considered driving factors. Cynics simply shrug off the movement, indicating over-entitled Millennials and Gen Z employees don’t have the work ethic of other demographics or can’t handle the stress. Such remarks are typically echoed from one generation to the next. James Forbis, an IT services expert in Cincinnati, OH shares, ” research and anecdotal evidence by people who participated in the trend highlighted the following reasons for their decision.”

Failing Technology: Faltering laptops, networks, and systems frustrated employees who were thrust into work-from-home situations. Many had little or no experience working offsite, and the change was incompatible with a healthy work-life balance.
Toxicity: Low incomes, stressful workloads, and feelings of under-appreciation reportedly led many to quit.
Loss of Control: Pandemic displacement and return to brick and mortar facilities took away a sense of ownership. Employees tended to believe they were not “heard,” and their jobs felt dissatisfying.

Among technology sector professionals, more than 90 percent of employees were disgruntled about the lack of training and learning opportunities. It may seem counterintuitive, but the very technological advancements that helped shepherd workers through the height of the pandemic appear to be infuriating them.
But living in the technology age means that nothing stands still. New developments and innovative ways to utilize existing technology could prove invaluable in reversing quit rates.
Can Technology Help a “Great Return” to the Workforce?
It’s important to avoid looking at the Great Resignation solely through the lens of technology. There are wide-reaching cultural and economic factors in play that can also provide insight into employer solutions.
For example, Glassdoor senior economist Daniel Zhao indicates that companies may be shooting themselves in the foot concerning remote talents. He recently posed the question about how companies such as Amazon and Microsoft planned to compete over the same technology talent. Will they offer salaries based on adjusted regional averages or higher ones to prevent employee migration?
That same concept applies to small business owners who find themselves in a global talent pool. But in terms of the role technology plays, the following strategies can help usher in a Great Return to the workforce.

Collaboration Tools: Easy-to-use apps and devices can help bridge the culture gap. Although people from different walks of life come to the organization with unique perspectives, collaborative tools support team building. Better remote connections typically lead to better results.
End Big Brother: Supervisors who suddenly lost in-person monitoring were pleased to discover surveillance technologies. Loyal and hard-working employees find the use of screen activity monitoring, mouse click counting, and other metrics offensive. Organizations would be better served to use technology to fairly evaluate productivity based on outcomes, not the process.
Maintain Remote Flexible: A recent Gartner study indicates more than half of the global workforce expects work-from-anywhere options. In 2019, only 17 percent of employees held that expectation. Given this live-work trend, company leaders would be well-served to invest in remote infrastructure.

Thought leaders who pivoted to remote workforces during the height of the pandemic are tasked with reevaluating their use of technology. Just as improved infrastructure, agility, and a willingness to adapt buoyed productivity, new strategies will help professionals adapt technology to a shifting business landscape.
 

What Is Apple Business Essentials?

by Felicien | Dec 6, 2021 | Education

Apple Business Essentials
A little more than a year ago, Apple acquired a platform called Fleetsmith with the intention of using it to create business management software. Now, that goal has finally come to fruition with the release of Apple’s Business Essentials in beta.
Based in the cloud, Fleetsmith device management software originally aimed to “balance the management and security needs of IT with the experience users love about Mac, iPad, and iPhone.” Now a part of Apple, Fleetsmith has been the foundational software for Business Essentials, a spin-off of Apple Business Manager, but for small and midsized businesses (SMBs).
Below, we’ll take a look at this new software and answer some common questions regarding its features, usability, and applications.
What Is Business Essentials?
According to Apple’s website, Business Essentials is “one complete subscription that seamlessly brings together device management, 24/7 support, and cloud storage.” Business Essentials works on all Apple devices, including desktop Macs, iPads, and iPhones. The unique thing about Business Essentials is that it is designed specifically for small and midsized companies. Qualifying businesses can have up to 500 employees or as few as one employee.
Apple’s Business Manager is for larger businesses that use Apple devices, but up until now, no equivalent software had been available for smaller businesses or startups.
How Much Does Apple Business Essentials Cost?
Instead of being a single-purchase software, Business Essentials is offered as a subscription service. Users can choose from three subscription plans. The first and most inexpensive plan is called the “Single device plan.” This plan includes 50 GB of storage and costs $2.99 per month for every device used with the software. It is a single device plan, and as the name implies, it can only be used with one device per user.
The next plan up is called the “Multidevice plan.” This plan costs $6.99 per user per month and includes 200 GB of storage. The plan allows you to manage up to three devices per user. So, for example, if you are self-employed and plan to use the software on both your iPhone and your desktop Mac computer, you would pay one subscription fee of $6.99 every month. If you had one employee who also planned to use the software on their iPhone, iPad, and laptop, you would need to pay an additional fee of $6.99 every month.
Finally, there is the “Multidevice, more storage plan.” This plan costs $12.99 per user per month, and it allows you to use up to three devices per user. It includes a whopping 2 TB of storage.
Should Your Business Invest in Business Essentials?
If you own a small or midsized business (or if you are considering starting a new business), Business Essentials could be a great investment for you. This is, again, especially true if you primarily use Apple devices already. The software is especially recommended for new business owners, sole proprietors, and self-employed freelancers. That’s because many of these individuals won’t have employees to start out with. This allows them to still get state-of-the-art business management software and pay only $2.99 a month.
Business Essentials is also uniquely helpful for these individuals (and those who just have a few employees) because your organizational needs won’t be too complicated, to begin with. In this way, it’s much better to use business management software that targets small and midsized businesses in particular. Using complex and expensive software that’s targeted at larger companies is asking for trouble.
When Will Business Essentials Be Available for Purchase?
As stated above, Business Essentials is technically already available, but it’s still in beta mode. This means that it’s being released to a select few users who will be able to test the software for free before it is officially launched. Apple has designated the spring of 2022 as when the paid version will be launched, but it is now taking applications for beta testers.
If you would like to be a beta tester for Apple Business Essentials, head here and fill out the online application form. Keep in mind you will need to have an Apple Business Manager account in order to apply. If you are accepted as a beta tester, you will have your Apple Business Manager account upgraded with the additional features offered through Apple Business Essentials.

Microsoft & Meta Partner to Integrate Teams and Workplace for Easier Collaboration

by Felicien | Nov 23, 2021 | Education

Microsoft & Meta Partner to Integrate Teams and Workplace for Easier Collaboration
Competing Social Software Giants Offer Customer-Requested Consolidation of the Two Applications’ Best Features

Workplace stated in May 2021 that it has reached a milestone of 7 million paying members. Microsoft similarly revealed later that July that its Teams platform had 250 million unique monthly users.
Users will be able to link Workplace with Microsoft Teams thanks to a collaboration launched by Meta, previously recognized as Facebook.
The collaboration between Meta and Microsoft is essentially a coming together of two of the industry’s biggest rivals in the business communication software sector.
The alliance could become particularly useful to Meta, whose Workplace offering has a far lower user base than competing companies.

Meta, the social conglomerate previously known as Facebook, established a collaboration with Microsoft on Wednesday, November 10th, 2021 that allows clients to connect Meta’s Workplace social networking application with Microsoft Teams software. With 7 million paying subscribers using Workplace and 250 million people using Microsoft Teams, the collab has enormous potential in the enterprise communication space.
While Meta and Microsoft have partnered to unite two competitors in the business communication software industry, Meta’s Workplace and Microsoft Teams don’t completely overlap. Teams is centered on rapid communication among employees and their immediate coworkers, whereas Workplace is concentrated on large, company-wide interactions.
Clients may now access Workplace data from within the Teams application. Users may also watch video conferences from Teams on the Workplace application. Customers on both platforms can participate in conferences hosted on the other app without having to switch to that platform. For example, they can comment, reply with emojis, and interact in other ways without having to toggle between communication applications.
Ujjwal Singh, Workplace’s Head of Product, says of the integration, “[This] will make it easier for people who use both tools for work to keep up to date with information and create even more opportunities for company-wide engagement. The way our customers end up using it is customers use the complementary features, not the competing features,” he continues. “There are customers that are just Workplace shops, and then there are customers that are just Teams shops. This is really for those customers that use both.”
The connectivity will be especially useful for clients who utilize Workplace for daily tasks but use Microsoft Teams as their primary enterprise communications technology. This partnership makes the most sense for Meta because it enables users to access content in Workplace and import that data to other places where they invest the majority of their time. According to Angela Ashenden, Principal Analyst at CCS Insight, “by surfacing the newsfeed in Teams, Workplace can continue to reach those employees, while allowing comms and HR leaders to retain control over the communications and employee engagement platform strategy.”
Tools that facilitate remote work continue to gain traction as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, and both Microsoft and Meta are reportedly developing deeper VR-based remote work solutions. This agreement reaffirms both organizations’ commitment to working remotely and accelerates Meta’s objective of creating a metaverse that delivers a completely immersive virtual environment. The move cements long-standing collaboration with other platforms, as Microsoft and Meta clients have already been able to link Workplace with Google’s OneDrive, SharePoint, and the Microsoft Office 365 suite.
The Head of 365 Collaboration for Microsoft Jeff Taper says, “One thing I’ve learned is there’s not going to be a one and only one communications tool on the planet.” He continued, summarizing that remote and brick-and-mortar office workers will toggle between several different tools to achieve maximum efficiency and productivity. The partnership between Microsoft and Meta shows promise in leading the way for competing tools to find ways for clients to integrate their work between applications and spend less time switching back and forth. Expect to see other large applications used in remote work to follow suit.
As far as the future of the collaboration is concerned, Singh has high hopes. “I would say we’re best in class around community, connection, people first and serving all employees,” he says. “Teams is arguably best in class around productivity, so this is really two best-in-class products coming together to solve an employee-experience problem.”