Today's Workforce Research Articles

The U.S. Radiologist Workforce: AJR Expert Panel Narrative Review.

The U.S. radiologist workforce has experienced periods of growth as well as stagnation and downturns, with concerns of radiologist oversupply during tight job markets followed by perceived workforce shortages. Major issues facing the radiologist workforce today include: impacts of accumulated policy changes; mismatch between the demand for radiologist services and the current size of the radiologist workforce; dissatisfaction, turnover, and burnout among radiologists; challenges in radiology resident education due to employment trends; and the promise and challenges of artificial intelligence. To address current and future workforce shortages, radiology as a profession must adapt to ongoing stresses and the changing care ecosystem by promoting appropriate utilization, leveraging all existing workforce reserves, and embracing innovation. In this AJR Expert Panel Narrative Review, we explore the recent history of the U.S. radiologist workforce; examine the political, social, and educational milieus faced by current and future radiologists; and consider the effects of disruptive technology.

Generation Z

Generation Z (Gen Z) is the best-educated, technologically adept, and most racially and ethnically diverse generation entering the workforce today. Gen Z also has the highest rate of diagnosed depression and anxiety. They prefer to have a side hustle on top of their full-time jobs; however, the act of monetizing their leisure activity has been shown to add more stress. The benefits of serious and casual leisure are shared; with emphasis on the need for Gen Z to engage in more forms of serious leisure to enhance their well-being and self-perceived employability. Employers and schools should encourage, promote and invest in more serious leisure activities for Gen Z. Continuing the emerging focus on research in leisure studies and careers, specifically focusing on Gen Z is highly recommended.

Synergizing workplace spirituality: fostering happiness, hardiness and psychological well-being in organizations

Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of workplace spirituality on psychological well-being (PWB). In addition, this study investigates the mediating role of workplace happiness and explores how psychological hardiness moderates the relationship between spirituality and PWB. Design/methodology/approach This study used a two-wave, self-reported quantitative approach focusing on millennials. Data were gathered from 416 participants through structured questionnaires. Regression analysis and bootstrapping techniques were used to investigate the moderated mediation models. Findings The bootstrapped 95% confidence interval for the indirect effects did not include zero, indicating that workplace happiness mediates the relationship between workplace spirituality and PWB. Furthermore, the moderated mediation model revealed that happiness also mediates the relationship between spirituality and PWB, particularly when millennials exhibit low levels of psychological hardiness. Research limitations/implications As millennials make up a significant portion of today's workforce, tapping into the inner resource of spirituality can enhance PWB. Individuals with happy, resilient, clear and receptive minds are more inclined toward achieving well-being. Originality/value This study explores the emerging concepts of workplace spirituality, PWB, workplace happiness and psychological hardiness, focusing specifically on their impact on the well-being of millennials in the workplace, an area that has been relatively under-researched.

Why I'm Careful About Encouraging My Best Employees to Consider Outside Job Offers

This article examines the complex issue of encouraging top employees to consider external job opportunities and provides a strategic perspective on retaining high-performing talent. Drawing from academic research and professional experience, it explores why high-caliber employees represent strategic assets deserving proactive retention efforts. The brief discusses the full costs of turnover, importance of loyal commitment, and balancing internal versus external mobility. It emphasizes crafting fulfilling career paths through development opportunities, mobility channels, and individualized career discussions. Additionally, the article advocates balancing traditional retention tactics with flexible, motivation-harnessing approaches to engage today's workforce. Overall, it argues the savviest talent management thoughtfully weighs open career coaching against organizational needs through attentive, long-term relationships with each employee.

Effectively Comprehend and Manage a Multigenerational Workforce

In today's workforce, there is greater generational diversity than ever before. However, businesses who are able to identify and capitalize on the advantages of every generation have a major competitive advantage. There are people from five distinct generations working today, each with their own expectations, work habits, and communication styles. Businesses can achieve their objectives when they employ tactics that maximize the capabilities of a multigenerational workforce. This offers a wealth of options as well as additional obstacles for managers overseeing multigenerational teams. It's difficult to see things from their perspective when we essentially find it impossible to relate to someone because they are so different from us in age or experience. Rather than trying to comprehend the differences that separate us, we frequently turn to hurtful stereotypes and place the responsibility for problems that can be solved on one another. We must learn how to work together and value our individual tastes, routines, and behaviors if we are to fully reap the rewards and leverage of having a workforce that spans generations. This study used a theoretical overview of the subject and offers some guidance on how to manage a multigenerational workforce well.

A STUDY ON WORK LIFE BALANCE

The term "Work- life Balance (WLB)" was coined in 1986, although its usage in everyday language was being made for a number of years. Interestingly, work/life programs existed as early as the 1930s. The policies and procedures established by an organization with the goal to enable employees to efficiently do their jobs and at the same time provide flexibility to handle personal concerns or problems at their family front in fact; dual-wage-earning families in general are working longer hours. A balance work and life are supposed to exist when there is a proper functioning at work and at home with a minimum of role conflict. Therefore, the incompatibility between the demands from the work and non-work domain give rise to conflict and consequently, people experience a lack of Work- life balance. There is confirmation of the fact that people entering the workforce today are laying emphasis on the importance of Work- life balance more than their predecessors. In spite of this, the extent to which this balance is being achieved is far less than what is desired. In fact, researches bring to mind that graduates are being drawn into situations where they have to work for progressively longer hours and so experience an increasingly unsatisfactory balance between home life and work-life.

Can Anyone Learn to Code? A Qualitative Study of Place-Based Information Technology Training Programs

The demand for workers with information technology skills is high, creating a challenge for today's workforce system to train enough people. In response, nonprofit organizations and workforce development agencies have developed place-based training programs for information technology jobs. The intricate nature of these jobs necessitates innovative training approaches that address both technical proficiency and cultural competence. Drawing from interviews and case studies, this analysis highlights the importance of rigorous prescreening processes, structured support for graduates transitioning to employment, and collaboration with employers in ensuring the success and sustainability of place-based information technology training programs. It is recommended that programs incorporate these elements into their design to effectively meet the demands of the labor market and foster diversity and inclusion within the technology sector.

Create a Burning Platform for the C-Suite: Investing in the Nursing Workforce Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow

The nursing workforce is essential to all healthcare organizations. Despite this, nursing continues to struggle to prove its value, secure funding, and justify resources essential for workforce development. Today’s nurse executives must assert their role in the C-suite as experts in developing sustainable and scalable workforce solutions. Hence, it is incumbent on these leaders to shift their focus away from daily operations to design nursing workforce strategies capable of sustaining a supply of qualified nurses.

An investigation of employer perceptions of Irish nutrition graduate competencies.

Undergraduate nutrition programmes prepare students and graduates for a wide range of employment opportunities. However, little is known about how employers perceive current nutrition education practices in Ireland and how well graduates are prepared for the realities of today's workforce. The present study aimed to explore employers' perspectives of nutrition placement students and graduates' competencies for the workforce. Interviews were conducted with 12 nutrition employers across Ireland and the UK who currently or have recently employed Irish nutrition graduates or supervised placement students. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Three themes were identified including: "adapting to modern workforce needs", "professional competency expectations" and "valuing competency-based educational and professional systems". Employers reported an overall positive experience with Irish nutrition placement students and graduates. They are perceived as adaptable, willing to learn and professional. Many felt nutrition students and graduates had received quality education with knowledge, skills and attitudes meeting expectations of nutrition education being provided but felt that students and graduates often lacked confidence in their abilities. Employers remarked that graduates who had undergone placements were better prepared for the professional work environment. However, gaps were identified because employers felt nutrition curricula lack training on business skills and digital competencies. Employers had a positive experience with Irish nutrition graduates and students and felt they were competent for the workforce. Addressing the gaps identified by employers to adapt curricula to modern workforce needs would further enhance graduate employability.

Understanding compassionate leadership

In a culture of compassion and care, the benefits to the individual and the organisation are vast—these include: creating a positive working environment; staff wellbeing; high morale; engaged workforce; and commitment to the organisation. All these factors will ultimately lead to a high quality of care for patients, and a better patient experience and outcomes. The challenges faced by society and the workforce today heighten our need for compassionate leaders across health and social care. A compassionate leader is an individual who embodies care, kindness, consideration, wisdom and integrity in their treatment of themselves and others. The article looks at compassionate leadership—its definition, characteristics, and traits. While the benefits are well documented in the literature, this article discusses the challenges that compassionate leaders may encounter and how best to support their development accordingly. The importance of self-awareness and self-care is vital to sustain the energy levels and effectiveness of the compassionate leader. Compassionate leadership has the ability to make individuals feel supported, valued and dignified. It is the author's view that it is one of the most important leadership styles within 21st century health care.

Bio-foods through the prism of generations

One of the main problems faced by marketers in recent years is the study of food needs and their degree of satisfaction in different generations: the baby boomers, generations X, Y and Z. The four generations that make up a significant portion of today's workforce, their incomes and purchasing power pose different questions for marketers, so how to communicate with each of them to make marketing strategy effective. There is a noticeable gap in beliefs, consumer demands and lifestyles among their representatives. There are a number of studies that show and prove that the leading factors influencing the purchase decision process are different across generations. This paper explores and analyses the main factors influencing consumer choice and purchase of bio food products. It seeks to answer the question, which attributes of a bio food product are leading and provoking the implementation of its purchase? The study focuses on the factors that influenced the consumption behavior of the generational sample studied: education, income, price of the product, for whom the product is purchased. Beyond the suggested factors, other factors of a subjective and objective nature, as well as an imposed healthy, lifestyle are applicable over the consumer’s influence, behavior and choices of bio-foods.

EXPLORING EMPLOYEE JOB SATISFACTION AT CONCENTRIX: A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY

The paper sheds light on Concentrix workers' job satisfaction levels. Managers and employees may have various motivations for desiring work-related organizational environments. Life values, fulfillment, a sense of wholeness, love, purpose, contribution, and meaning are issues that affect today's workforce. Employees now consider job pleasure to be a right, much as the company expects top performance from its staff. Individuals who feel that they cannot change the results they create at work or perhaps in another organization because they are unhappy with the results that are achieved. On the other hand, people feel more involved when they are satisfied with the amount of knowledge they can gain from their employment. Study participants include the Concentrix branch situated in Chandigarh's IT Park. All of Concentrix's workers are included in the study. For the study, a sample of 100 Concentrix personnel in managerial and functional positions was selected.

Implementation of programs for the development of operational processes of the HR management system of government agencies in Western countries

Today, the problem of digitalization of HR management system operational processes is the lack of automated HR management programs for government agencies, lack of resources, staff reduction, data management, and change management. Many countries have faced problems with the digitalization of HR processes in government agencies. To a greater or lesser extent, such structural problems of the labor market can be found in all Western countries. The development of technologies and information systems creates new opportunities for managing and improving the processes of government agencies. The specifics of public administration require effective personnel management on a country or city scale, which makes it necessary to implement effective technological solutions. With this in mind, today's workforce data from many sources provides an opportunity to manage civil servants with an evidence-based HR policy. Thus, governments are increasingly able to recruit, deploy, train, motivate, and retain their employees scientifically and analytically based on objective HR data. As a result of the analysis, the authors found that most Western countries collect HR data to analyze, interpret and actively use it to make better management decisions, as well as to develop and implement HR policies. The purpose of the article is to highlight the problem of digitalization of HR processes in government agencies and to demonstrate the analysis of HR data from Western countries in tabular forms. The article demonstrates the results of implementing information collection of HR data for effective HR management on a country or city scale. The authors analyze and demonstrate in infographics the growing possibility of collecting human resources data as a basis for improving public services, service delivery and continuous performance management. The authors analyze and present in the infographic data from surveys of civil service employees in Western countries, information on employee engagement and satisfaction with work and the working environment in government agencies.

“We Are The Future”: Career Attitudes of MilleniGenZ College Students

Millennials make up the largest segment of the workforce today and it is estimated that by 2025, 75% of the global workforce will comprise this emerging generation (Fry, 2018). In this current study, I examine the career attitudes of Latinx and Asian American Millennial and Gen Z college students to understand better how their unique college experiences- shaped by their familial, cultural, and personal backgrounds – can inform how they imagine their post-college trajectory. Specifically, I explore to what extent these sociocultural influences impact MilleniGenZ’s interest and attainment in leadership roles within their future careers. Two sets of surveys were administered. A 184-question survey was administered to college students in Southern California in 2017 (N=936), and in 2020, an updated 211-question survey was administered (N=742). The findings show the importance of providing better career resources (e.g., workshops, mentorship, networking opportunities) for MilleniGenZ during college, which will ease their transition into the workforce and potential leadership roles. The findings of the current study contribute to the existing literature by unpacking how complex sociocultural factors intersect to influence Latinx and Asian American college students’ career attitudes. Based on our findings, institutions, and organizations should incorporate diversity and inclusion considerations into the career planning process to support individuals in overcoming systemic barriers.

Making sense of cultural diversity’s complexity: Addressing an emerging challenge for leadership

The growing complexity of cultural diversity within organizations’ workforce today requires leadership to find new organizational approaches to diversity management. Today’s workforce are seeking a different management approach where the staff experience inclusion and belonging whilst contributing to the organization’s purpose. The current organizational approaches to diversity management have not been successful in delivering on the promised outcomes (e.g., creativity and innovation) that leadership seeks. Leadership’s role is critical to developing organizational approaches to diversity management. Cultural inclusion offers leadership today’s approach of managing for inclusion. This paper proposes a conceptual framework that looks at leadership’s role in their organization’s diversity management approach. We identify three dimensions in our conceptual framework that influence leadership in their effort’s for effective diversity management: leadership’s accountability for diversity management; leadership’s approach to diversity management; and leadership’s focus of diversity management. This conceptual framework allows the leadership of organizations to identify their current diversity management approaches by mapping leadership position’s position with the three dimensions to identify leadership’s role in managing their culturally diverse organizations.

Recovery from shift work.

One fifth of today's workforce is engaged in shift work and exposed to various mental and physical health risks including shift work disorder. Efficiently recovering from shift work through physical and mental interventions allows us to mitigate negative effects on health, enables a better work-life balance and enhances our overall wellbeing. The aim of this review is to provide a state-of-the-art overview of the available literature. The role of sleep timing and naps, light therapy and psychotherapy, diet and exercise in recovery from shift work is presented here. We further review the impact of shift schedules and social support on post-shift unwinding.

The life of the party: Entrepreneurial labor, sexual harassment, and the fashion industry

Sexual harassment is a serious problem that continues to affect primarily women in the United States workforce today. The modeling industry within cultural economy—which focuses on the production of goods and services chiefly for their aesthetic value—presents significant challenges in this area as predominantly young girls are working in a field dominated by powerful men. Female fashion models must engage in networking entrepreneurial labor in what I call “the party life” in order to obtain employment, keep their jobs, and secure future work. This study uses qualitative content analysis to map out how the party life leads to incidents of sexual harassment with both personal and professional consequences for fashion models using 20 distinct narratives. Implications for how the party life actually occurs in the modeling field on a daily basis and how entrepreneurial labor and gendered power relations interact to produce sexual harassment are discussed. Finally, recommendations for reform in the industry are detailed.

“From Where Should We Work?”

The COVID-19 pandemic forced organizations to re-evaluate the ways in which they conduct business—specifically, how they allow employees to work. Changes to organizational culture and the demands of today's workforce have brought about a revolution in the work arrangement universe—and a possible death to the traditional ‘full-time in office' model. Through the analysis of Twitter sentiment regarding three types of work arrangement preferences, this study observes the preference for flexibility in work modes—a combination working from home + office (hybrid work). Random forest models were able to predict a worker's specific preference to an accuracy of ~68%. Such findings can help businesses continue to sharpen their work arrangement policies that take into consideration trends among the American working populace to ultimately build an effective employment model that will help their organization thrive.

Navigating identity formation via clothing during emerging adulthood

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to examine the experiences of emerging adults transitioning from college to career and the implications of this transition on clothing choice and identity formation.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilized a phenomenological approach to address how appearances are used by emerging adults during the transition from college to the workplace and how those appearances help form identity.FindingsThe study found that participants have a desire for high-status consumption, primarily fueled by social comparison and the desire to keep up with colleagues, a desire to express identity through clothing, even if they are working from home, and the tendency to convey maturity during this transitory time by dressing the part.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of this study is the homogenous nature of participants. Most are white females in their 20s who work in the fashion industry. It would be fruitful to consider a more representative population of emerging adults to examine the role of clothing choice on identity formation during this critical time.Practical implicationsThis study highlights the need for change in the retail sector, regarding which garments create a professional wardrobe. Since the pandemic, many companies have shifted to a casual dress code, thus rendering the historically professional wardrobe of business attire obsolete.Originality/valueExamining what it means to be an emerging adult joining the workforce in today's post-pandemic world is a complex and ongoing process. This study provides insight into how this experience is navigated via clothing and how identities are shaped during this transition in a person's life.

Social engineering the dispersed workforce

The workplace has gone through a forced and dramatic change. Remote and hybrid working have been normalised, putting a huge strain on the technology infrastructures that support them and rendering many of our traditional cyber defences obsolete. Of all the threats that face today's workforce, social engineering is arguably the most pernicious and difficult to mitigate.