28

Apr

Now graze as you wish at grass you find greeener

What is a common factor between a dental assistant, a bartender and a hairdresser who is feeling exploited financially or being sexually harassed? Or it is an intern at a research institute whose thesis is in a limbo because the guide has better interests. These are among the members of the public who submitted comments to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), urging it to ban noncompete provisions in employment contracts.

These workers are based in widely diverse fields and regions, from Boston and Baltimore to Michigan and Georgia. They all found their careers upended because their employers subjected them to noncompete provisions, which prevent workers from getting a job with their current employer’s rivals for a significant period.

On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) voted 3-2 to implement a nationwide ban on non-compete agreements. According to the FTC, an estimated 18% of US workers (around 30 million people) are restricted by noncompetes. Unfortunately, business groups, including the US Chamber of Commerce have already filed lawsuits challenging the rule. But for now, it’s here to stay.

This will bring powerful benefits to workers and the economy. Given its solid foundation in law and evidence, courts should uphold it: The FTC has statutory authority to regulate unfair methods of competition, and hard data from scholars and countless individual testimonies demonstrate noncompetes’ damage to fair market competition and to people’s lives.

Nonetheless, the FTC’s action is a watershed moment, whatever happens in court. It establishes a clear, incontrovertible record about why noncompetes are so harmful: They prevent workers from moving to a new job in their field and geographic area, leaving workers only bad options — stop working altogether, leave their field, move to a new region or stay stuck.

I recall a case from my previous assignment overseas. A brilliant Chemical Engineer, who returned from an overseas assignment with UDHE, had joined back his former employer who happened to be a close business associate of the company I was working at. Before his overseas assignment he had brief assignment with our business and couldn’t handle the ego-eccentricity of his boss. Learning the news of that person joining the local business who operated in the same end segment in a noncompetitive way, his ex-boss went around seeking legal counsel if that qualified man who had a right to earn honest living can be prosecuted under any law. To his dismay non such legal framework was available in India.

Coming back to USA FTC, enforcement of this is essential; otherwise, some unscrupulous employers are likely to still include banned noncompetes in workers’ contracts. This would allow them to benefit from a chilling effect: Many desperate employees will assume that legally-right-looking employment contracts are valid and won’t look for new jobs for fear of being sued.

The drive to pursue new opportunities is deeply embedded in this country’s history and ethic. So, the research intern, dental assistant, bartender, and hairdresser deserve the ability to advance in their careers, and their current employers should have no right to stop them.

3 days ago Short URL Comments

Employee Retention

07

Apr

The Sun Rises for the Bitish Businesses

Having learnt a lesson during Covid-19’s supply chain disruptions, many companies are futureproofing by nearshoring to spread that risk and diversify their sourcing strategy. Forget about the manufacturing and call-center jobs sent to China and India in the early 2000s; the latest trend involves white-collar jobs and workers in the U.K.

Making yourself indispensable won’t save the job of an American employee. To some becoming the employee with certain needed skills or knowledge might feel like insurance. But to some bosses, being overly reliant on individuals is risky.

In the face of rising wages and staff shortages at home, U.S. businesses are looking to a struggling UK economy across the pond for recruitment opportunities. Logical reason is, US and the UK share a common language, and outsourcing is fundamentally cheaper than the U.S. Post Brexit, as trade with the EU falters, British businesses see the U.S. as a chance to sell their services to a market several times larger than their own, often at higher fees.

While U.K. management consultants, financial-services firms and insurers have boosted exports by billions of pounds compared with before the pandemic. There are some key differences in work, starting with English preferring more of a relationship-driven approach to the workplace than Americans who are more about putting the work first. And, folks in the UK can be very indirect when compared to the US, where US professional may sometimes err on the side of being a tad too blunt.

As per Deutsche Bank Exports of services to the U.S. have brought in close to $90 billion for the U.K. in the year through last September, but does this mean that the UK is an option for American businesses to ‘outsource’ jobs? Perhaps in the short term, but how about the long-term view?

Not many British employees (most nations in fact) are prepared for the intense stress, long hours, and demands that U.S. companies have. They value their work-life balance vs the superficial idea of success that’s so ingrained in the U.S. culture.

In my opinion, select industries will benefit in the short term. The insurance industry, for example, has been boosted by the restructuring of global supply chains and demand for specialty policies covering natural disasters or pandemics, areas in which the London insurance market has expertise.

Warner Bros. who filmed their blockbuster ‘Barbie” mostly in the U.K., as they found salaries in the country are lower and labor contracts aren’t as strict as in the U.S., where many film-industry workers are part of powerful unions in Hollywood.

To reiterate, this isn’t the traditional outsourcing model of the 2000s, which saw the mass relocation of American manufacturing jobs to China or call centers to India and other parts of the developing world. It remains to be seen in long run, how U.K.’s cost advantage and the rise in remote working is allowing high skilled jobs to be done by people in Britain.

3 weeks ago Short URL Comments

Marketing

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