monday insights — June 20th

Workplace trends

Compensation

More Gen Zers and millennials are stressed about money

A growing number of GenZers and millennials are concerned about their finances and are taking on second jobs to boost their income, according to new research from Deloitte. In a 2023 survey of more than 22,000 GenZers and millennials around the world, each group cited the high cost of living as its top societal concern, and half of them reported living paycheck to paycheck – a significant increase for both generations since 2022. As a result, more than a third of millennials and nearly half of GenZers reported taking on a side job in addition to their primary employment due to their need for an additional source of income. Popular side jobs include selling products or services online, and gig work such as food delivery or ride-sharing.

Flexibility

Many financial investors would rather quit than come to the office more

One in two professional investors have or would quit if their employers required them to spend more time in the office, according to Bloomberg’s Markets Live Pulse survey. While around 40% of financial professionals say they currently work from the office at least four days a week, over half of the global survey respondents say they prefer a hybrid arrangement, and only around 20% favor working from the office. It’s worth noting that while city leaders in many countries have been adamant about calling workers back to the office due to concerns about the impact remote work has had on city businesses, the survey showed that even financial professionals, who typically have more disposable income than the average city resident, are reigning in their weekday spending (bringing lunch from home, no drinks after work, etc.) amid the challenging economic environment.

The AI corner

Platforms

Google’s AI tools are now available to everyone

Google’s generative artificial intelligence services based on Vertex AI, the machine learning platform as a service from Google Cloud, are now generally available to everyone. Experts expect many enterprises and organizations to integrate the platform’s capabilities into their own applications, customizing them with their own data, and building generative AI applications. While Microsoft partnered with OpenAI to be a leader in generative AI, now that Google’s platform is also generally available to everyone, customers will have the ability to choose the best option for their specific business needs.

Legal

Lawyers need to be careful with AI

Artificial intelligence is being used across industries to boost productivity, but as one attorney recently found out, trusting the bot blindly can prove highly costly. Steven Schwartz, a licensed attorney in New York for over three decades, recently tried using AI to conduct legal research. Unfortunately, at least six of the cases he wound up referencing in his brief appeared to be fake judicial decisions with fake quotes and internal citations, according to the judge. In an affidavit last week, Schwartz said he “greatly regrets having utilized generative artificial intelligence to supplement the legal research performed herein and will never do so in the future without absolute verification of its authenticity.”

How to welcome new team members By staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud

First impressions really matter, especially at work. In fact, multiple research studies suggest that an employee’s first few weeks on the job can profoundly impact their long-term retention with a company.

BambooHR’s onboarding studies revealed that employees who had an effective onboarding experience feel up to 18x more committed to their workplace than those who didn’t, and Digitate research showed that new hires are twice as likely to leave employers that don’t provide adequate onboarding processes.

While as a manager, you may not control your organization’s onboarding protocols, there are several actions you can take to start your employee off on the right foot and help them quickly get acclimated.

Reach out in advance

Help new hires feel like you’re actually awaiting their arrival by reaching out before they start. Summarize any logistics, outline what they can expect on their first day, and leave room for any questions. Also, be sure to emphasize that everyone is excited for them to join – this really helps initiate a sense of connection to the team and can ease some of those first-day jitters.

On a similar note, it has proven really helpful to designate a specific team member to serve as a new hire’s peer mentor or buddy in order to help make the transition more comfortable. A recent Microsoft study found that 97% of new hires who met with their buddy eight times in their first 90 days on the job experienced a productivity boost in their role because their buddy helped make the settling process much easier.

Loop other team members into onboarding

According to a recent study by BetterUp Labs, 53% of workers would actually trade some compensation for more meaningful relationships with colleagues. The same research also revealed that individuals with few connections in the workplace are 73% less engaged than their highly-connected peers, and those experiencing lower levels of belonging reported 109% more burnout and have a 313% stronger intention to quit than their more connected counterparts.

That’s why it’s so important to actively try and promote a sense of connectedness on your team from the get-go. Before a new hire’s first day, send an announcement to the whole team to let them know about the latest addition to the group, and try to include a few personal details about the new joiner coming onboard to start building that familiarity. Once the new joiner starts, encourage your team members to set up one-on-one non-work-related intros with them so they can start getting to know each other on a more personal level.

Prepare for their arrival

One of the simplest, yet most important ways to make new employees feel like they have a real place on the team is by actually preparing their place of work. Don’t let them walk in on you scrambling to find them an open seat or desk – reach out to the person in charge of assigning workstations and arrange their desk, chair, and any relevant supplies beforehand. Similarly, be sure to prepare useful resources for them to help ensure a smooth transition. That means creating a list of relevant team members they should chat with in their first few weeks and compiling various materials and documents they can reference to easily and quickly get up to speed.

Organize time to get to know each other

One of the hardest parts about being the new kid in the office is knowing that everyone else had a rhythm prior to your arrival. That’s why, as a leader, it’s so important to make space for the new joiner. If your work is from the office, first and foremost, don’t let new hires eat lunch alone on their first days. Make an active effort to initiate social time together to help the new hire feel more comfortable and settled on the team. Additionally, over time, planning social activities like happy hours, team-building exercises, and shared meals outside the workplace are great ways to promote a healthy corporate culture and give your team members the opportunity to have organic and open conversations together. Even in remote work settings, it’s still possible and beneficial to schedule non-work-related meetings with the team to create space for more casual and light-hearted exchanges.

Check in

After a few months, once your new hires are settled into their roles and have found their rhythm on the team, schedule some time to get their insights on their onboarding experience. Ask questions like, “Did you have a positive onboarding experience?”, “What would have made your transition easier?”,  “What were the greatest challenges you encountered in your first few weeks?”, and “What was most helpful about your onboarding experience?” Answers to questions like these can help you improve and ensure an even smoother transition for the next great hire joining your team.

Water cooler chatter

Netflix subscriptions jumped after the company crackdown on password-sharing in the U.S. In fact, since it started enforcing the new rules, Netflix has already seen its best days of new U.S. user sign-ups in at least four years, according to Antenna.

Serbian tennis superstar Novak Djokovic claimed his 23rd major title at the French Open, breaking a tie with Rafael Nadal for the most majors won in men’s tennis (Nadal did not play this year due to an injury.) Djokovic also became the first man to win all four majors at least three times.

Question of the week

Last week’s answer: 30%

This week’s question: What was OpenAI’s most recent valuation?

Just for laughs