New research from The Conference Board reveals that strong wage pressures recently seen in the United States are not being observed in many other economies. According to the Wage Pressure Index, a new metric developed by researchers at The Conference Board, wage pressures vary widely around the world.

As the global economy emerges from the worst of the pandemic, strong growth returns, accompanied by inflation. Led by the United States and China, the world economy has resumed growth trajectories last seen in 2019. The OECD leading indicators point to growth above long-term averages in the United States

When the coronavirus pandemic erupted, companies had to change. Many business-as-usual approaches to serving customers, working with suppliers, and collaborating with colleagues—or just getting anything done—would have failed. They had to increase the speed of decision making, while improving productivity, using technology and data in new ways, and accelerating

Aligned Growth Partners expands its consulting resources to Japan with Goichi which is in Ushiku city, Ibaraki prefecture. June 28, 2021, Singapore. A new alliance partnership has been formed between Aligned Growth Partners and GOICHI Consult Company with the purpose of leveraging on each other strengths and geographical

More than one-third of human capital executives recently surveyed said that they expect a significant number of their employees (40 percent or more) will still work primarily remotely one year after COVID-19 subsides. This is in stark contrast to pre-pandemic, when most organizations (nearly 75 percent) had fewer

This quarter’s survey marks a remarkable turnaround from a year ago—when CEO confidence reached a nadir of 34 at the height of COVID-19’s first wave,” said Dana Peterson, Chief Economist of The Conference Board. “For CEOs, the challenge of navigating a once-in-a-century pandemic is receding, as the focus

By Lisa Nagele-Piazza, J.D., SHRM-SCP, May 5, 2021 The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is officially withdrawing the prior administration’s independent-contractor rule, which would have made it easier for businesses to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees. “The department believes that the rule is inconsistent with the

With Jodi, Chavez, President of Tatum With more states and cities lifting restrictive business measures amid a decline in the number of coronavirus cases, the jobs economy continues to show signs of improvement. Will organizations and top executives be ready to handle a quick bounce back? How effectively organizational

By John Rodi, US Audit Partner and Leader of the Board Leadership Center for KPMG Early last year, the idea that millions of Americans wouldn’t set foot in an office for months at a time would have been unimaginable. Now, many have started new jobs – never having

It’s been a year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, which overnight sent organizations COVID-19 scrambling to adapt to a new way of operating. While the business world had already been preparing for digital transformation and the future of work, the sudden need to switch

Have you ever been on a “mushroom” board of directors? While the reference about being “treated like a mushroom” (kept in the dark and fed — let’s say manure) is typically used to refer to employees working for a very uncommunicative or dictatorial manager, the same analogy aptly

Posted on the National Association of Corporate Directors Blog, July 2020, by Hedley Lawson and Victor Deksnys Everyone wants to know what the world and the world of business will look like once the COVID-19 pandemic abates. Numerous articles have appeared in business publications such as The Atlantic (May  6,

Give Sight Global, an organization dedicated to providing treatment to curable blindness and vision impairment internationally, announces the addition of two new members to its team: Aly Bandali, as president and CEO, and Hedley Lawson, to the board of directors. Bandali believes that everyone has the right to

The coronavirus outbreak brought with it a major shift to telework in many industries. Whatever their existing policies for telework may have been, some industries, such as the insurance, professional and technical services and information sectors, were better poised to shift to telework at the start of the

IF WE WANT MORE EMPATHY AND COLLABORATION WE HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO LISTEN By: Stephen Hevesi Design thinking is an approach for achieving practical, creative solutions to problems. It is a form of solution-focused thinking with the intent of producing a constructive future result. Many companies are successfully

By: Stephen Hevesi “When all think alike, then no one is thinking” — Walter Lippman We are living in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment in which the speed of change is unprecedented. Technology is changing at a very rapid pace. In order to survive and thrive,

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, approved by Congress on December 21, 2020, and signed by President Donald Trump on December 27, 2020, generally provides the annual funding for the federal government and contains several important rules giving further COVID-19 relief, and relaxes several health, welfare, and retirement plan

As COVID-19 cases surge, doses of emergency-approved vaccinations begin to be administered to first responders and the availability of a vaccine for the greater public seems more promising, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently issued its highly anticipated guidance regarding employer-mandated COVID-19 vaccines. Under EEOC Guidance, Employers

By Michaleen K. Lewis MS-OD, PCC, CPTD  As the leader of your organization, you are tasked to create a focused, productive and engaged workforce for a higher level of success all around.  You’ve probably attended an array of workshops, podcasts and have read numerous books on how to

By Hedley Lawson, Global Managing Partner, Aligned Growth Partners, LLC The Securities and Exchange Commission voted to remove certain disclosure requirements for public companies, making additional changes to Regulation S-K. Among other disclosures, the amendment focuses on the management discussion and analysis section of companies’ financial statements. The

Ours is an era in which the consumer reigns supreme—he or she can get just about anything they way, anywhere they want and at just about any price they want.  The level of competition to sell people stuff, from luxury cars to paperclips, has accelerated at a dizzying

By Hedley Lawson, Global Managing Partner of Aligned Growth Partners, LLC Responding to calls from investors, proxy advisory firms, and other stakeholders for companies to provide more information about their human capital management practices, the Securities and Exchange Commission acted to amend Regulation S-K, which details the information

It has become almost daily news to read about the workplace concerns expressed by employees — either passively, in the press and media, and sometimes through active protests. And these ever-increasing concerns span highly regarded publicly listed companies as well as those of less public stature. Some of