Ever heard of income-sharing agreements? Neither had we. But the concept just might eliminate student debt, rewrite the economics of getting an education in the process … and put HR in an interesting position when hiring recent grads. The concept is: instead of charging students tuition, universities allow them to go to school for free. The catch? They are required to pay back a percentage of their income after graduation, but only if they get a job with a good salary. At Lambda School, an online learning start-up initially focused on coding and data science education but now expanding to other fields, students pay nothing upfront but are required to pay 17 percent of their salary to Lambda for two years if they get a job paying more than $50,000. If their salary is less than that, they’re off the hook. The New York Times
Remember all of those slightly panicked stories about how the gig economy is transforming the employment landscape as we know it? Yeah, as it turns out, not so much. Two leading experts on the gig economy, Alan Krueger of Princeton and Lawrence Katz of Harvard, the ones who authored the 2015 study that got everyone hot and bothered about the issue in the first place, said this week that upon sifting through new evidence, they realized they had got it wrong. Rather than Uber et al being the Grim Reapers of traditional employment, they were, and are, life rafts to help people make ends meet until something better comes along. Not to say that some people aren’t gigging full-time, they’re just not running out of their workplaces like rats off sinking ships to drive for Uber like these predictions had us believe. The Wall Street Journal
Herb Kelleher, the larger-than-life founder of Southwest Airlines, died last week at age 87. His legacy is a master class in how putting your employees first and embodying the zeitgeist of your business leads to a killer employer brand, which leads directly to your bottom line. Kelleher’s philosophy: employees first, customers second, shareholders third. Where did that get him? Year after year, Southwest is on the Best Places to Work lists, from Fortune to Glassdoor to Indeed. In more than 45 years, in an industry famous for red ink and high-profile bankruptcies, Southwest has never laid off employees and never had a money-losing year. Ever. Southwest’s has been the best-performing stock in the three decades it has been public. Coincidence? Nope. That’s how it’s done. Harvard Business Review
Weight loss, schmeight loss. Korn Ferry Institute CEO Gary Burnison is telling people to go on a career diet instead. He wants us to adopt a three-month plan to recharge professionally. It starts by assessing where you are now. Engaged? Recognized for contributions? Have you been promoted recently? Are you learning new things? Once you have your current picture, dive deeper into it, looking at your traits (assertive or passive? risk adverse or risk taker?), your drivers (challenge, power, independence, collaboration), your competencies, and experience. Once you know those things, you can make a new plan for the future. If you’re interested, stay tuned. This is the first article in a series about your career diet. Korn Ferry Institute
The implications of the government shutdown, now the longest in history, go beyond those 800,000 federal workers who aren’t getting their paychecks, the Smithsonian shutting its doors, national parks brimming with trash, and everything else we’re seeing on the news. It’s an HR problem as well, even if you don’t work for the federal government. That’s because the EEOC is closed, so they’re not actively handling job discrimination claims. What it means for HR: If you’re filing a discrimination claim on behalf of an employee or advising that employee on filing, the clock is ticking. Generally, charges have to be filed within 300 days of the incident. But, in some states (NC, GA, AL, MS, AR), it’s 180 days. If you’re within 30 days of your deadline, do not wait just because the EEOC is closed. Start the process. Find info on how to do that on the EEOC website. EEOC
