A coalition of more than 30 chief executive officers from companies including Merck & Co., IBM, and Nike are backing a startup that will connect employers with Black workers. The startup, called OneTen, aims to create one million jobs for Black Americans over the next 10 years and has so far recruited over 35 company backers and raised more than $100 million in seed funding. Merck CEO Ken Frazier, one of the startup’s founders, said the nonprofit organization will focus on helping Black Americans without four-year college degrees, but with high school diplomas and other certifications, find and retain “family-sustaining jobs,” or those earning $40,000 or more depending on the region. Nonprofits, community colleges, and credentialing organizations will provide training to help them be successful in business, and the CEOs who have joined the effort are committing to hiring these workers. WSJ
It’s an intuitive idea: an app that provides proof that a person has received a coronavirus vaccine. Plenty of technologists are working to make it a reality. Companies of all sizes are all taking hacks at what some call vaccine passports. Apple and Google have participated in discussions about how to create digital COVID-19 vaccine certificates, experts said, but they haven’t announced plans. But behind the scenes, the realities of medical records, privacy concerns, and the virus itself mean such products are unlikely to be widely available in the coming months, experts said. And with some Americans set to start receiving COVID-19 vaccines as early as this month, the proof that they got their shots will come on an older technology: paper. NBC News
China’s Corporate Social Credit System (CSCS), a national regulatory framework intended to audit the nation’s industries and hold individual players to account, is inching toward completion — and it may pose a new challenge for foreign firms operating in China. The CSCS is a centralized database that gives Chinese authorities greater oversight of businesses operating in China — both foreign and domestic — and provides a system by which to blacklist those deemed out of line. Improved regulation could help China crack down on wayward businesses — tackling issues of pollution and tax avoidance, for example. But some Western observers fear the system will be used to restrict market access to foreign firms. Fortune
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a large fraction of the global workforce to work from home, which has led to an almost complete elimination of the daily commute to work. We examined detailed time-use diaries of 1,300 U.S.-based knowledge workers [and found] different types of workers used that time very differently: Employees without managerial responsibilities reallocated much of it to personal activities, whereas managers just worked longer hours and spent more time in meetings. For managers, their work day increased on average by 56 minutes, and the time they spent replying to emails increased by 13 minutes. These data suggest a significant post-COVID reorganization of work, especially for managers. Organizations and managers will need to understand the details of these changes if they hope to adapt successfully to our new work-from-home reality. HBR
The role of senior management is to create a situation of trust, where dissenters are heard and the option to zig when everyone else is zagging doesn’t carry the risk of ridicule or dismissal. Without a culture in which people can take the risk of speaking up, you can’t fix anything. In high-performing teams, people are not afraid to take risks. There’s safety in arguing and an understanding that disagreement is useful, so long as it is followed by a commitment to execute the policy once it is debated and decided upon. Embracing failure is a very difficult concept. No one ever won prizes for failing, only for winning. And yet making mistakes can be one of the healthiest events to happen to you. Fairness is one of the most fundamental elements of a great culture. If you know in your heart that where you work operates with no bias or favoritism, you will be more willing to share your successes and failures. HRPS
