We all know about Black Friday and Cyber Monday but 564 companies participated in Giving Tuesday this week via Benevity, the corporate purpose solution provider. The Benevity software helps employees donate to leading charities and this Tuesday, they did so to the tune of $122.2 million, an 9% increase over last year’s Giving Tuesday. The company tracked 428,000 “Acts of Goodness,” which includes donations, volunteer hours, positive social and environmental actions, and grants. “These tremendous results reveal the impact individuals and businesses around the world can have when we come together to address the social issues facing society and build awareness of how we can collectively help solve them,” said Kelly Schmitt, Benevity’s CEO, in a news release.
New products and updates
Microsoft and LinkedIn will provide free access to 350 courses and new Career Essentials Certificates for six of the most in-demand jobs in the digital economy as part of its new Skills for Jobs Program. Using data from LinkedIn and the Burning Glass Institute, a research firm that focuses on the Future of Work, Microsoft determined the six roles in highest demand: administrative professional, project manager, business analyst, systems administrator, software developer or data analyst. The program will also provide 50,000 LinkedIn Premium subscriptions to help learners from nonprofit partners of Microsoft and LinkedIn get access to the 18,000 LinkedIn Learning courses offered through LinkedIn Premium. Click here for more details. [Employee skills will be a key topic at the 2023 HR Tech Virtual Conference from Feb. 28 to March 2.]
Mercer Compensation Benchmark data is now available through Lattice’s new compensation product. In July, people success platform provider Lattice launched Lattice Compensation, a tool designed to connect performance and compensation to achieve pay transparency. The updated solution offers companies the opportunity to tap into global, curated data, which include company size, industry, geographical location, and specific job titles, to make informed and equitable pay decisions, according to a news release. “The talent landscape is quickly evolving and HR leaders need to remain agile to attract and retain top talent,” said Dave Carhart, VP of Lattice’s Advisory Services, in the news release.
Personalized health data solution provider ŌURA unveiled ŌURA For Business, a wellness solution that aims to improve the health and wellbeing of employees. The new offering collects data from Oura Ring, the sleep-tracking ring, to measure burnout, fatigue, performance optimization, illness detection and health management in the workforce. “We’ve already seen significant traction with enterprise customers and are excited to continue growing these offerings as part of the next phase in ŌURA’s evolution,” said ŌURA CEO Tom Hale in a news release. Clients include Thrive Global, NASA, Red Bull Racing, NASCAR, Noom and the University of Vermont, the company says. The company also named Lina Alcala as chief people officer in July.
ADP unveiled a new version of its payment platform Wisely late last month. The new features address financial wellness, money management and spending flexibility by providing employees with access to wages they’ve earned before payday. ADP’s research found that 91% of millennial workers and 82% of Generation Z employees consider earned wage access (EWA) important for their employer to offer and more than half of Generation X and Baby Boomer workers (57%) agreed that EWA is important to them as well. New features of the updated platform include Bill Pay, which lets employees photograph an invoice and pay it; Savings Envelope for setting aside money; and Rewards, which allows employees to earn cash back when they shop, travel or dine out.
Funding
Employee productivity solution provider Produce8 closed $6 million in new funding to grow its workforce analytics business. The SaaS startup offers what it calls “digital work data” to examine the amount of time that employees spend across business apps and workflows. This data aims to improve team collaboration and drive productivity and well-being, according to company claims. “Through our discussions with remote teams, as well as interactions with beta and early access users currently leveraging Produce8, we feel incredibly validated in our product direction and excited for this next stage of our growth,” said Mark Scott, co-founder of Produce8, in a news release.
Related: Employee monitoring: Why it’s ‘dysfunctional’ but gaining popularity
People Moves
Talent solution provider Velocity Global appointed Francoise Brougher to its global board of directors, where she will lead the vendor’s compensation committee. Brougher previously ran business and operations strategy as well as SMB global sales and operations at Google for eight years and afterward worked as COO of Pinterest. “Francoise is exactly the type of board member we need to lead Velocity Global through the next phase of our growth. She led companies that we all admire through keen insights and operational leadership. Francoise knows what great looks like at scale,” said Ben Wright, CEO and board chair at Velocity Global, in a news release.
Registration is open for the HR Tech Virtual Conference from Feb. 28 to March 2. Register here.
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