HR has come under intense scrutiny over the past year, with the spike in allegations of sexual harassment, said Johnny C. Taylor Jr., CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management, in remarks during the general session at this year's SHRM show and conference. Taylor detailed three priorities for HR organizations, including building inclusive workplace cultures.
A stranger recently told Los Angeles Times reporter Esmeralda Bermudez to "speak English" to her 4-year-old daughter. Bermudez writes in this commentary about the choices her family has made to benefit her daughter -- she communicates with the child in Spanish, Bermudez's first language, while her husband speaks in Armenian as they raise their multilingual daughter, who also speaks English and is learning French.
Germany's Bayer has completed an offering of $15 billion in US dollar-denominated bonds divided into eight tranches ranging from three to 30 years to fund its acquisition of Monsanto, sources said. The sale is expected to be followed by a €5 billion offering in four tranches.
Kroger was named one of the top 100 places to work in information technology by ComputerWorld, ranking 58th among top organizations across the US. Kroger was noted for developing many of its software solutions in-house.
A judge upheld an HHS order for the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to pay a penalty of $4.3 million for HIPAA violations stemming from three data breach incidents in 2012 and 2013 and the center's failure to encrypt its electronic devices. "We are pleased that the judge upheld our imposition of penalties because it underscores the risks entities take if they fail to implement effective safeguards, such as data encryption, when required to protect sensitive patient information," said Roger Severino, director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights.
Reddit's chief operating officer, Jen Wong, talks in this podcast about native ads, the platform's egalitarian principles, why media companies have to be bold and why the platform is ripe for a boom in advertising interest. "Ads will be a big business for us because all things they want, we have -- authentic word of mouth, mind hive for people deep in their categories," she says.
Retailer Christine Hoffman's frustrating search for a reliable source of local, pesticide- and fertilizer-free flowers led her to launch Twin Cities Flower Exchange. The startup recently opened for its second season, selling locally grown, chemical-free flowers to wholesalers in St. Paul, Minn.
General Motors recently wrapped up a multiyear effort to reorganize IT operations and bring them in-house, says Chief Information Officer Randy Mott. GM has automated tasks and consolidated its footprint, focusing on two enterprise data centers and four geographically situated innovation centers.
House lawmakers passed 38 bills aimed at combating the opioid abuse epidemic last week, including measures that would give NIH more authority to study nonaddictive painkillers and prevent opioid smuggling through international mail. The House this week expects to pass at least another 19 opioid measures and a legislative vehicle that would wrap in all of the opioid bills passed by the chamber, with the goal of sending the bills to the Senate by August.
Comcast's purchase of 21st Century Fox assets could result in a tax bill for Fox's Murdoch family totaling more than $4 billion, whereas an all-stock deal with Disney would be tax-free, tax experts say. Fox has scheduled a board meeting Wednesday to further discuss whether to move forward with Comcast's $65 billion bid.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the construction industry is trying to fill 225,000 construction jobs each month due to an inadequate labor force. "Among the contractors expressing concern about worker skill levels, more than one-third (37 percent) believe the problem has worsened in the last six months, and almost half (47 percent) believe it will continue to worsen in the next six months," a new report says.
Oil production likely won't begin in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska until after 2030. The Energy Information Administration said companies will need time to acquire leases, look for oil and build infrastructure in the refuge, which may offer 5.7 billion to 16 billion barrels of oil in the coastal plain.
UPS is upgrading the avionics systems on 137 Boeing 757 and 767 freighters and 52 Airbus A300s, a process expected to take two and a half years. "This will allow us to be able to configure the aircraft to continue flying at least another 20, perhaps 30 years," says Christian Kast, UPS advanced flight manager.
Nine months after the devastating impact of Hurricane Maria, JetBlue Airways has returned to full capacity with 48 daily flights between the island and the US mainland. The airline has also hired an additional 50 employees in San Juan. "Our return to our pre-hurricane flight count is a testament to the incredible resilience of Puerto Rico and our crew members who kept flights operating during a very difficult period," said Dave Clark of JetBlue.
