HR headlines this week: ‘Bossware’ fears, dodgy training providers and Gen Z soft skills

The past week in HR has seen employees discuss workplace monitoring, government crackdowns on shoddy training providers, and business leaders call for more soft skills development for younger workers.

Younger workers report higher levels of monitoring but care less

Seventy per cent of employees would find it intrusive to be monitored by an employer.

Despite this, around one in five report employers doing just that, as reported in a recent article by The Guardian.

The kinds of monitoring listed in the survey include:

• Tracking internet activity or keystrokes
• Taking screenshots or webcam footage
• Monitoring timekeeping
• Recording audio or video
• Tracking of location at work
• Surveillance of phones, personal devices, and social media channels

While employees aged 55 and above were least likely to report being monitored by an employer (11 per cent), they would be most likely (76 per cent) to find such monitoring invasive.

On the other hand, younger employees reported higher rates of employer monitoring but reported less discomfort with the practice.

Twenty-three per cent of employees aged 18–24 reported being monitored by an employer, while 60 per cent found the idea invasive.

While monitoring practices are largely legal as long as adequate notice is provided to employees, the shift to hybrid work continues to raise new questions.

So, too, does the advent of new workplace technologies: “Workers surveillance tech (‘bossware’) took off during the pandemic – and its use continues to grow unchecked,” said Mary Towers, artificial intelligence (AI) lead for the UK’s Trade Union Congress.

Government cracks down on dodgy training providers

A federal regulator was given a $37.8 million funding boost to target unethical and illegal practices by training providers, as reported by SBS News.

The funding boost was recently announced by Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor at the National Press Club.

“We are working to weed out the minority of non-genuine VET (vocational education and training) providers, the bottom feeders, who seek to exploit people,” said Mr O’Connor.

The nation’s VET regulator, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), will be equipped to form a new integrity unit to target and prevent “dodgy” providers.

A new, confidential tip-off line will empower students, staff, homestay hosts and employers to report instances of wrongdoing.

“We can’t be distracted by this conduct, and we can’t allow students to be exploited in the way they have been historically,” said Mr O’Connor.

Younger employees neglecting soft skills

Despite employers expressing concerns about the communication and interpersonal skills of younger workers, Gen Z does not have the appetite to improve on them.

Forty-eight per cent of Gen Z workers want more training on hard skills related to their work, according to Adobe’s recent Future Workforce Study.

Hard skills are the job-related, technical knowledge and abilities.

On the other hand, only 33 per cent wanted more training on soft skills, the interpersonal skills and traits involved in work.

According to a recent Business Insider article, major firms have been raising concerns about Gen Z’s lack of workplace etiquette, suggesting upskilling appetites of young employees might be disconnected from what employers really want.

“Contrary to Gen Z’s perceptions of themselves, managers are more concerned about their lack of communication and interpersonal skills in the workplace,” said Business Insider.

Many have speculated that COVID-era remote work may have contributed to the perception of younger workers as lacking soft skills.

“This means that there is a greater need for employers to provide training on basic professional and working skills, that wasn’t necessary in prior years,” said Jackie Henry, managing partner for people and purpose at Deloitte UK.

Despite this, workplace experience is still very important to younger workers.

The survey found that not getting along with managers or coworkers was the number one reason for Gen Z workers to leave a job, at 52 per cent.

Further, 80 per cent reported having a strong support network of colleagues their age in the workplace.

This might suggest that the disconnect between employer perceptions over the soft skills of younger employees and the high rate of social support among those younger workers is the result of generational differences.