Today's Labor Research Articles

Building a Talent Portfolio: A Modern Approach to Career Development

In today's disruptive business environment where entire job categories are emerging and transforming rapidly, traditional career path models centered on predefined vertical progression no longer adequately equip organizations with the workforce mobility and strategic resilience needed to dynamically deploy talent as work evolves. This article explores how progressive companies like global banking giant HSBC and humanitarian relief leader World Vision have overcome these challenges through transitioning to career portfolio-based talent systems that empower employees to curate diverse experiences through roles, projects, assignments and skills development opportunities. A shift from narrow career paths to emphasis on capability and experience building strengthens organizational agility through a multi-skilled workforce while providing strategic benefits to talent retention, succession planning and futureproofing the business in uncertainty. Perhaps most importantly, the career portfolio approach also empowers individual contributors with the versatility and lifelong learning critical for navigating today's fluid labor market landscape - futureproofing both their employability and work fulfillment in the new world of work.

Building Bridges: Integrating Entrepreneurial Education into Professional Development

This research investigates the incorporation of entrepreneurial education into professional development programs for university teachers and its influence on equipping students for future professions. The study reveals primary obstacles faculty encounters, such as limited involvement in guest lectures and speaker series, reluctance towards creative teaching approaches, perceived insignificance of entrepreneurship in specific fields, time limitations, and absence of well-defined goals and results. The research employed faculty members and a heterogeneous group of students. The study used a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative data from surveys with qualitative data from interviews. This technique enabled a complete comprehension of the involvement of teachers and students in entrepreneurial activity. The results emphasize the significance of customizing programs to particular demographic groups and executing optimal strategies to improve efficacy. Suggestions include enhancing the frequency and diversity of guest lectures, delivering specialized professional development workshops, creating multidisciplinary resources, providing adaptable online courses, and defining explicit objectives and criteria for entrepreneurial education endeavors. These initiatives are designed to cultivate an environment that encourages creativity, enhances the involvement of teachers and students, and provides students with the necessary skills and mindsets to thrive in today's ever-changing labor market. The research results emphasize the crucial importance of entrepreneurial education in higher education and provide practical insights for institutions to improve their professional development programs and overall educational influence.

Career Guidance using Machine Learning

This study introduces a novel method for career counselling: an application that uses cutting-edge technology to provide individualised suggestions for jobs and skills. People frequently struggle to identify appropriate career options that match their objectives and abilities in today's fast-paced labour market. These difficulties might not be sufficiently addressed by traditional counselling techniques. Our novel approach analyses large-scale job and skill databases using machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and data analytics to deliver personalised advice based on each user's interests and career aspirations. Our programme makes advantage of these technologies to help users stay ahead in their professional endeavours by providing insights into developing job trends and facilitating informed decision-making.

The role of informal support systems during illness: A qualitative study of solo self-employed workers in Ontario, Canada.

Today's labor market has changed over time, shifting from mostly full-time, secure, and standard employment relationships to mostly entrepreneurial and precarious working arrangements. In this context, self-employment (SE), a prominent type of precarious work, has been growing rapidly due to globalization, automation, technological advances, and the rise of the 'gig' economy, among other factors. Employment precarity profoundly impacts workers' health and well-being by undermining the comprehensiveness of social security systems, including occupational health and safety systems. This study examined how self-employed (SE'd) workers sought out support from informal support systems following illness, injury, and income reduction or loss. Based on in-depth interviews with 24 solo SE'd people in Ontario, Canada, narrative analysis was conducted of participants' experiences with available informal supports following illness or injury. We identified three main ways that SE'd workers managed to sustain their businesses during periods of need: (i) by relying on savings; (ii) accessing loans and financial support through social networks, and (iii) receiving emotional and practical support. We conclude that SE'd workers managed to survive despite social security system coverage gaps by drawing on informal support systems.

From Disunity to Synergy: Transdisciplinarity in HR Trends

Modern trends in the labour market demonstrate a significant change in the paradigm of intersectoral and interdisciplinary interaction in a changing reality. In this study, current trends in the HR market will be considered. The World Economic Forum 2023 Future of Jobs report stated, that the past three years have been shaped by a challenging combination of health, economic and geopolitical volatility combined with growing social and environmental pressures. These accelerating transformations have and continue to reconfigure the world’s labour markets and shape the demand for jobs and skills of tomorrow. The obvious importance of transdisciplinarity in today's labour market is not always reflected in reality. This is largely due to the unwillingness to change, which in many respects goes back to the field of psychology. In this context, Kurt Lewin's theory of change is considered, which confirms that there is always a balance in life, which in relation to life changes manifests itself in the following: there is a certain driving force that gives changes and changes in people's lives for the better, and the same resistance force, which opposes it and wants to keep the usual order, to leave everything unchanged.

Study of areas for improving management in banking institutions: socio-psychological aspects

This article addresses the crucial issue of enhancing the efficiency of banking institutions by focusing on the socio-psychological aspects of management. Acknowledging the significance of people in the banking sector, comparable to the monetary value of the bank's capital, necessitates an exploration of socio-psychological factors as pivotal contributors to the productivity of bank staff. Emphasizing the need to study a relatively independent type of relationship among employees within one organization, this research aims to identify the most influential socio-psychological factors affecting the performance of bank employees, ultimately revealing areas for improvement in banking institution management.
 In today's dynamic labor market, a modern, highly qualified specialist, even without a leadership role, can thrive by actively engaging with colleagues and management, possessing essential communication skills. The study of personnel management, considered one of the most vital disciplines in management, is instrumental in fostering such qualities. A proficient leader must possess the ability to articulate a desirable social future and effectively predict its realization – a crucial initial step in management.
 Utilizing surveys as an effective and accessible method of sociological research, this study comprehensively investigates the social environment, team dynamics, and the intricacies of social relations within the banking institution. The survey enables an examination of the organization as a holistic system, delving into the root causes of challenges, and proposing strategies to enhance the management system.
 The primary objective of this study is to elucidate the necessary intentions for forming a competitive and highly qualified staff in today's labor market. By leveraging socio-psychological aspects of management, this paper demonstrates how strategic management practices can create conditions conducive to elevating the quality of work, enhancing production efficiency, increasing profits, and substantially improving overall organizational performance.

Thriving at the Crossroads: Navigating Work and Wellness in the Modern Workforce

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the significant impact of work on an individual's physical and mental health. Factors such as job insecurity, long working hours, and increased use of technology have contributed to the changing landscape of work-related health issues. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges, highlighting the importance of health and safety in the workplace. Employers are increasingly focusing on employee well-being, implementing wellness programs, flexible work arrangements, and mental health support. Remote work, accelerated by the pandemic, has reshaped the traditional office environment, raising questions about work-life balance and the potential long-term effects on health. At the same time, disparities in access to healthcare and the social determinants of health continue to influence the health outcomes of workers. Vulnerable populations, including low-income and gig economy workers, face unique challenges in maintaining their health while navigating precarious employment situations. This abstract underscores the need for ongoing research and policy efforts to better understand and address the intricate relationship between work and health in today's labour markets.

Soft Skills Demand and Supply Through the Lens of Higher Education Students

Soft skills are becoming equally crucial as hard skills in today's labour market. In contrast to hard skills which are teachable typically through formal education, soft skills are non-technical and interpersonal, allowing individuals to be able to find and succeed in their studies, jobs, and professional life. Despite the increasing emphasis on soft skills, many university students are either unaware of or neglect enhancing them. Soft skills deficiency among university students has become a significant concern for employers, educators, and policymakers, as it negatively affects students' academic performance and future employment prospects. The purpose of this study is to investigate students’ perceptions of the demand for soft skills and the possibility and availability of learning opportunities. The expected outcomes intend to provide insights about awareness of soft skills among students and pathways to reduce the soft skills gap through training provisions in higher education settings. Furthermore, it aims to find out how the young generation (mainly Generation Z) would perceive digitalisation and specifically gamification as a solution to facilitate soft skills training. This is a mixed method study, in which, an open survey was the data collection media. The survey was conducted during the spring semester of 2023 and analysed using visualisation and summarisation methods. Based on the outcome of 66 master’s and bachelor's students attending the digitalisation courses in two classes in Sweden, over 50% of the students perceived a lack of soft skills in their curricula. They were also positive toward the use of gamification as an effective digital strategy, recognising it as a powerful tool to facilitate training and developing soft skills as a part of formal learning in higher education. As a suggested approach, gamifying soft skills training potentially creates simulations that mimic real-world situations to allow students to practice and develop their soft skills in a safe and low-stakes training environment. This facilitates training soft skills for better communication and collaboration during their academic journey and after their graduation and to prepare students for successful careers.

Remembering Herbert Gutman's Work, Culture, and Society Fifty Years On

Remembering Herbert Gutman's <i>Work, Culture, and Society</i> Fifty Years On

Türkiye'de İş Sağlığı ve Güvenliği Eğitimlerinin Elektrik Dağıtım Sektörü Açısından Değerlendirilmesi

Occupational health and safety constitute an important part of today's working life and labor law. When the measures taken in line with the relevant laws and regulations in workplaces are implemented with a strict approach, it is possible to reduce work accidents and occupational diseases. As a result of these practices, important results are obtained in terms of the sustainability of workers, employers and social security systems.&#x0D; In this study, it is aimed to determine the effects of occupational health and safety training. Therefore, the training given to ÇEDAŞ AŞ employees was evaluated with the questionnaires applied before and after the training. As a result of this evaluation, it will be proven that occupational safety training has provided a significant success.

The Making of a Periphery: How Island Southeast Asia Became a Mass Exporter of Labor

The Making of a Periphery: How Island Southeast Asia Became a Mass Exporter of Labor

The effectiveness of innovative pedagogy in the industry 4.0: Educational ecosystem perspective

Higher education institutions have been aware of the mutually beneficial interaction between Higher Education 4.0 (HE4.0), Industry 4.0 (I4.0), and Work 4.0 (W4.0). Teaching and learning (T&L) are best accomplished through the novel and blended approaches in today's smart manufacturing, services, and labor processes. The traditional T&L methods no longer complement the fourth industrial revolution and the future of work skills. Little research has focused on innovative pedagogies in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) globally and especially in South Africa from the Learning Ecosystem Framework perspective. This paper begins to address this void via a review of academic literature, aiming to understand new pedagogies of teaching and learning in HEIs and their effectiveness as we move into HE4.0. The emphasis of higher education research worldwide should be on reviewing and synthesizing current research outputs rather than performing new studies since there are fewer systematic literature reviews and a blend of systematic-narrative literature review approaches published in higher education journals. In light of this, exhaustive systematic-narrative literature reviews have been conducted to aggregate research findings within the context of global higher education pedagogy. Combined, this encompasses an analysis of 138 papers across different academic databases. We concluded that integrating teaching and learning methodologies such as flipped classroom, SCALE-UP, and blended teaching and learning are the most effective, sustainable, and student-centered pedagogy. Combining these teaching and learning approaches will ensure that students receive dynamic support, hands-on activities, practical assessments, active collaboration, and inquiry-based learning. Overall, our findings revealed that we need all parts of the learning ecosystem to work together toward teaching and learning that is transgressive, innovative, transformative, diverse, and inclusive with the I4.0, HE4.0, and W4.0 in mind – that is, if we aim to achieve effective blended teaching and learning, and sustainable student-centered academic output. Here, we point out where these discoveries might take us in research and what policies should be revised.

ОРГАНІЗАЦІЙНО-МЕТОДИЧНІ ЗАСАДИ В РОЗРОБЦІ СЦЕНАРІЮ СВЯТА ДЛЯ МАЙБУТНІХ ФАХІВЦІВ ФІТНЕСУ ТА РЕКРЕАЦІЇЇ

In today's world, all processes take place dynamically, and the requirements for the competences of future fitness and recreation specialists are changing just as quickly. Education seekers should take into account all possible options for their formation during education, namely: formal, informal. After all, today's labor market requires flexibility, the ability to be competitive, and a high level of development of digital and organizational competencies. The formation of professional competences of future fitness and recreation specialists directly depends on their peculiarities of assimilation, analysis, transcoding and use of the information obtained in the process of obtaining education for professional purposes. The labor market requires that a specialist not only possess a certain amount of knowledge, but also have developed professional competences, be ready to solve problems arising in a heterogeneous multicultural society, cope with the flow of information, constantly develop and learn throughout life, including the ability to organize a recreational activities and various holidays. Any recreational event requires careful preparation and organizational and methodical work. It will be successful if you carefully plan its organization and preparation at all the main stages. The purpose of the work is to develop a script for a family holiday, using such methods as: analysis and selection of literature, generalization and systematization. To fulfill the goal, the theme – «Grandmother's Day» was chosen for the development of the scenario of the family holiday. The topic is aimed at the formation and development of a full-fledged personality and a harmonious person, with the aim of elevating and affirming Ukrainian family values, fostering love for ancestors and the native language, devoted attitude to Women, Grandmothers. The developed scenario can be used as a basis for various topics relevant for a certain group of people. Key words: holiday scenario, recreational activity, recreational activities, professional competencies, future fitness and recreation specialist, fitness and sport.

Peningkatan Skill Komunikasi Interpersonal Mahasiswa dalam Upgrade Kualitas Profil Lulusan

This research is motivated by the needs of users for the profile of college graduates, one of the soft skills that is considered important in today's labor market is communication skills. This research is intended to facilitate students' communication skills as a provision for future careers. The participants who fulfilled the invitation were 28 3rd and 4th year students. The training focused on 3 main aspects of communication skills such as listening, speaking and writing. Evaluation is carried out in three stages, namely: pre-test, during the process and post-test. Research shows that training can improve participants' communication skills, especially listening and speaking skills. Capturing information that is heard correctly is very important in effective communication activities, where almost 50% of activities that occur in communication are listening. The ability to speak improved better when the participants had sufficient understanding of the material and the topic, and the main problem in this speaking ability lies in the participants' low self-confidence and courage, but this can be improved with continuous practice. Meanwhile, writing communication skills need more intense training and must become a habit in lecture activities, so that the tips learned in the training can be applied on an ongoing basis.

Meaningful, gamified training of reading fluency

Improving learners' reading is of importance. The digital world is centred on the written word, and today's labour market requires high literacy levels. Furthermore, the development of school and foreign language skills among learners, especially those of weaker learners, is crucial as the effects of globalisation allow for increased work mobility and the necessity for lifelong learning. GameLet provides effective training scenarios for reading fluency, a prerequisite for reading comprehension, in schools with gamified, self-guided, personalised, media-based individual and collaborative learning, thereby allowing educators to intensify and extend learning activities to out-of-school settings. At the core of GameLet lies the production of a podcast by the learners that encourages them to read repeatedly, hence improving their reading fluency, and to successfully record their role in a digitalRecording Studio. Increasing reading fluency is targeted by means of media-supported individual and cooperative learning phases with various training methods. Furthermore, GameLet implements meaningful digital media-based Gamification mechanisms for the purpose of increasing student motivation. The software is web-based and was developed with a focus on user-centred design and an agile and design-based approach. Prototype development followed an iterative and participative process, in which students and teachers of three participating partner countries interacted with the developed materials. Artefacts were tested in both face-to-face and online settings. GameLet exemplifies the successful application of Gamification for improving and extending classical learning scenarios at school as well as the design of effective learning technologies that are meaningful, gamified, effective and usable.

КОМПЕТЕНТНІСНИЙ ПІДХІД У ВИЩИХ НАВЧАЛЬНИХ ЗАКЛАДАХ: ДЕЯКІ ТЕОРЕТИЧНІ АСПЕКТИ ОСВІТНЬОЇ ПАРАДИГМИ

In today's labor market, competitive professionals are capable of continuous self-improvement and comprehensive solutions to various problems of life. Such characteristics of the specialist are best provided by the competence approach, which is the basis in the methodological strategy of modern higher professional education. Therefore, research on the range of issues related to the competency approach is timely and relevant. The problem of applying the competence approach in educational institutions was studied by V. Antipov, I. Bekh, I. Zymnyaya, I. Zyazyun, I. Yermakov, N. Kunitsyna, O. Ovcharuk, G. Pakhomov, A. Khutorsky, and others. According to researchers, the appeal of modern pedagogy to the competence approach is due to: significant changes in society, accelerating the pace of socio-economic relations; search for new concepts in education that reflect changes focused on the reproduction of such personality traits as mobility, dynamism, constructiveness, professionalism; etc. The purpose of our article is to study the substantive essence of the competency approach, interpretation of its key concepts, the possibilities of application in higher education institutions, in particular, in the process of training future music teachers. It is revealed: 1. today the majority of representatives of the scientific community recognize that the competence approach is a methodological guideline for the modernization of modern education; 2. competence approach has significant potential in the formation of future music teachers; 3. Regarding the definition of the essence and content of key concepts of the competence approach among scientists there are still discussions. Thus, the analysis of interpretations of the terminological apparatus of the studied educational paradigm allowed to single out the essential characteristics of its main categories. Competence is an integrative ability of an individual to activate and effectively apply the acquired knowledge, skills, abilities, experience, personal qualities in a certain practical activity or life situation. Competence is a socially fixed educational result that allows a person to carry out productive activities in a particular field. Competences are educational requirements for the training of specialists, the implementation of which ensures a person's success in a certain area of life. The result of professional and pedagogical training of a student in the Free Economic Zone is the competence of professional activity formed during training. Among the basic competencies of a student-musician are: theoretical, performing and personal.

Association between Outcomes of Physical activities and Sports on Work-Life Balance of Employees

The desire to succeed in a rapidly changing work environment is overwhelming. This study aims to emphasize the importance of work-life balance and to examine the relationship between work-life balance and happiness. Focusing on physical activities and workplace health among the various ways for employee health is one way to ensure employee health and productivity. Managing long working hours in personal life increases employee stress. It consists of various fields related to the IT industry, computer, and digital information. IT professionals are the most in-demand members of today's labor market, as the industry's largest companies fight to expand the adoption of digital technologies. Employers are continually striving to ensure that their employees do their jobs in the best possible way without getting tired. Employee Work-Life Balance is measured by the employee's mental and physical investment in the workplace. You are dedicated to your work in terms of time, energy, and level of motivation to work towards achieving organizational success. This paper purposes to measure happiness and employee work-life balance as a measure of physical activity. Smart-PLS 3.2.8 creates a conceptual reflex model using measures of physical activity and happiness and work-life balance as survey components.

Participation and losses in multi‐level marketing: Evidence from a Federal Trade Commission settlement

AbstractMore than 20 million Americans are affiliated with multi‐level marketing firms (MLMs), but there is little empirical evidence on who participates in this controversial part of today's labor market. We link data on 350,000 individuals cited in an Federal Trade Commission settlement with one of the largest MLMs to detailed county‐level information. We find that the share of refund claimants is greater in areas with higher median income and where women are absent from the labor market, suggesting value in flexible work. However, check amount, a proxy for losses, are correlated with higher inequality and lower social capital, suggesting that the pitfalls accrue to vulnerable groups.

The culture play, a key role in management consulting firms

Organisational culture assumes a fundamental part of the life of every organisation. The development of human resources management and its increasingly strategic role have shown the importance of organisational culture and its effects on multiple aspects of organisations. With the complexity and competitivity associated with the rapid changes of today's labour market, such importance becomes a determinant to the success of organisations. Therefore, the present article aims to understand the main factors that influence the organisational culture of management consulting firms and to develop an adequate model for such companies. This article is based on data from 15 interviews and 107 questionnaires responded by consultants with a variety of ages, positions, seniorities, from management consulting organisations, operating in Portugal, with several different intervention areas and that offer different types of consulting. The results and conclusions comprise information concerning the main factors behind the organisational culture in management consulting firms.

PEDAGOGICAL INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY OF CASE-STUDY IN TRAINING ON MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING IN PHARMACY IN THE PROCESS OF FORMATION OF PROFESSIONAL COMPETITION

The article substantiates the application of pedagogical innovation and case-study technology in training in management and marketing in pharmacy in the process of forming the professional competence of future masters in higher education institutions.&#x0D; Professional training of masters of the pharmaceutical industry in higher education institutions should be aimed at ensuring the formation of their professional competence for successful professional self-realization of the individual in today's labor market.&#x0D; The strategic landmark of our country's development - European integration determines the modernization of Ukraine's higher education system, which includes modernization processes and improvement of higher pharmaceutical education, in accordance with social conditionality and labor market demands, optimization of integration processes, adaptation to the European pharmaceutical market and labor market. New demands of the pharmaceutical market lead to the improvement of the system of professional training of future specialists in the pharmaceutical industry in higher education institutions on the basis of the competence approach and their readiness to perform professional competencies.&#x0D; It is established that the modernization of educational processes in the training of future masters of the pharmaceutical industry requires the introduction of sectoral and educational innovations and technologies that will ensure their competitiveness in the modern labor market and further development of the pharmaceutical industry in terms of European integration.&#x0D; Cases of professional-pharmaceutical model situations and level diagnostic packages of tests have been developed, which in complex use provides an opportunity to assess students' academic achievements and diagnose the level of professional competence, readiness to implement professional competencies in management and marketing in pharmacy.&#x0D; A systematic analysis and differential assessment of the formation of professional competence and readiness to implement professional pharmaceutical competencies and research competencies of future masters in applied industry research in management and marketing in pharmacy based on students solving professional-pharmaceutical model situations and test tasks diagnostic packages.