The Great Resignation: stopping the 'bleed'

As hospitality businesses open up ‘post-pandemic’, the unavailability of qualified staff has become one of the biggest obstacles to businesses’ ability to take maximum advantage of the pent-up desire and need for travel. A study published by McKinsey in September 2021 under the headline “Great attrition or great attraction? The choice is yours”1 verbalised and quantified for the first time something that the hospitality industry around the globe is experiencing as businesses start their return to the ‘next normal’. The article explained in detail a mindset that has become commonplace both for employers and employees, and that will be troubling the industry for a while if not properly addressed. When Covid first brought the world to a standstill, the hospitality industry was one of the first and worst hit. Business came to a halt; many hotels and restaurants closed or decreased staffing levels as much as possible in order to cut expenses. In the developed world, this was done with the help of government programmes so that employees could access some kind of safety net. In developing countries, these safety nets often did not/do not exist. Many employers were ruthless, simply telling staff that they were no longer needed. ‘Thanks’ to many governments calling Covid-19 a “force majeure”, employers got around paying legally required compensation for terminating employees at short notice. Many of our colleagues, expatriate and local, found themselves literally ‘on the street’ within weeks of the pandemic ravaging the industry. Employers’ social responsibility to the communities in which they do business was one of the first victims of the pandemic. The understanding that “our staff is our most valuable asset” turned into pure semantics. Today, as these businesses celebrate that they are opening again, there is a surprising level of surprise among the most callous of employers that now they can’t find staff. The industry will have to come up with new ways of working if they want to attract colleagues back – the loss of trust and goodwill will have serious repercussions. To ‘make good’ on their actions, employers need to first understand how much they broke – initial observations show that they have not even started to understand what they did. What about people still employed? Shouldn’t they be lucky to still have a job? In the McKinsey study, 40% of participants who were still employed answered that they were at least somewhat likely to leave their job in the next 3–6 months; 64% of these claimed that they are planning to leave without a new job lined up. At the core of this is, I believe (and the study suggests), is a general disconnect between what employees are looking for and what employers think that employees are looking for. The pandemic has sent many of us into a survival mode, forcing actions that were purely transactional. Yet the hospitality industry, at its core, depends on people who care for others. Employers need to ask employees questions that show they care and rebuild the trust that has been lost due to their actions when the pandemic hit. As a member of a Vietnamese investment group that did exactly the opposite, that held on to employees at substantial cost to the enterprise and with employees at all levels ‘chipping in’ through unpaid leave to help keep everyone employed, I know first-hand that this has built a substantial amount of trust and our levels of attrition are substantially below the market average as other businesses reopen. Asking the right questions, listening to the answers and consistently responding with empathy and tangible action, not words, will be key to our success. Corresponding author Oliver Horn can be contacted at: [email protected] Note McKinsey & Company, September 8, 2021, study conducted with 4,294 participants in the US, UK, Australia, Singapore and Canada. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/great-attrition-or-great-attraction-the-choice-is-yours

INNOVATION MANAGEMENT RESPONSES TO REGULATION—SUP-DIRECTIVE AND REPLACING PLASTIC

Changes in regulation trigger changes in the innovation environments. They may block specific development trajectories, but they may simultaneously inspire and stimulate completely new openings. In this study, we look into regulation that aims to address environmental problems and facilitate creation and diffusion of sustainable technologies and processes as we examine the responses of innovators to the regulation on plastic use and production—specifically, the so-called SUP-directive. A multiple-case study comprising six companies suggests that companies manage (with) the regulation-induced innovation and needs for change by adopting three distinctive strategies: (1) proactive change orientation, (2) reactive opportunity capturing, or (3) reactive survival mode. Acknowledging that sustainability-oriented regulation may push companies with environmentally friendly innovation activities and solutions towards reactive survival mode highlights the need for managerial agility in adjusting the solutions and the ability to adopt parallel innovation strategies. Observing the strategies adopted by innovators also is informative when evaluating whether the regulation meets its profound goals and intended effects.

Freedom of Life and Self Pursuit: Discussion on the Awakening of Female Consciousness in Rose Gate

In the development of “new period literature,” the prominence of female family novels is a new tributary in the long river of literature development, which shows the subversion and rebellion of traditional family novels with a distinct female consciousness. The publication of Rose Gate by Tie Ning opened up a new field of female writing. Through the description of women’s life world, it shows the survival mode, life situation and survival experience of Chinese women, and shows the struggle of Chinese women’s life and the predicament of their souls in the 20th century, as well as the different salvation paths of women under these circumstances.

Global Skills After COVID-19

COVID-19 has profoundly reshaped our world. The disruption to lives and livelihoods has been staggering. The economic devastation has thrown many industries into survival mode. As we begin to revive jobs and economies, it will be important to understand the impact of the crisis on the skills landscape. Universities among the ones adapting to the crisis. Equal access to education and skills is one of them. COVID-19 has further exposed many inequalities with respect to education and employability .Online learning has proven effective in delivering on that promise, now more than ever. From March to July of this year, more than 15 million new learners registered on different courses. School closures have disrupted higher education for millions of students in countries already in need of more accessible learning. Eighty percent of students enrolled in tertiary education are located in countries that have both closed schools due to COVID-19 and are in the bottom half of the world rankings for proficiency in business, technology, and data science skills. To help overcome deepening skill inequities, institutions must work together to democratize access to quality online learning resources and ensure we are all prepared for the rapidly changing economy.

Assessment in ‘survival mode’: student and faculty perceptions of online assessment practices in HE during Covid-19 pandemic

This paper presents a cross-sectional study that demonstrates how King Abdulaziz University has responded to the lockdown imposed by the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of students and faculty towards assessment that had to take place online due to physical or social distancing rules and lockdowns. A descriptive mixed-method study was conducted with two different self-administered questionnaires that were developed for students and faculty, respectively. A total of 547 responses were received from undergraduate students and 213 from faculty. The main finding suggests the need for a multilevel approach to the problems of cheating and plagiarism, including raising student awareness and ethics, training teachers to detect cheating methods, and institutions activating their code of practice and applying severe sanctions on those who engage in such practices.

Estimation of required power for Leader icebreaker in stormy seas

Object and purpose of research. The object of this research is the Leader icebreaker; the purpose is to assess the icebreaker’s ability to move in stormy seas with minimum allowable speed as per IMO requirements. Materials and methods. The main methods of investigation is analysis of the icebreaker model test data and methods to estimate the towing resistance and propulsion performance in waves. Main results. Propulsion performance of the Leader icebreaker was estimated for survival conditions in stormy seas. Wind resistance and added resistance in irregular waves were included, as well as the influence of stopped propellers on the icebreaker resistance in survival mode was considered. Conclusion. It is shown that the Leader icebreaker meets the IMO recommendations to move at a speed of 6 knots against the wind force 8 in the Beaufort scale and corresponding sea state.

Performance of a Near Shore Oscillating Wave Surge Converter With Variable Flap Configurations in Various Sea Conditions

Oscillating Wave Surge Converters (OWSCs) are designed to enter survival mode during extreme wave conditions where they forego the opportunity to extract energy to preserve structural integrity. While this is a good tradeoff, it is important that OWSC technology progresses to a point where energy is constantly extracted as long as waves are present. This work addresses the need for an OWSC that can extract wave energy in a wide range of sea conditions while minimizing structural overloading by regulating the fluid-structure interaction. The OWSC being studied here was conceptually designed and patented by researchers at NREL. It consists of a flap face that resembles household blinds, where the flaps can be opened or closed to accommodate the sea conditions. The performance of this variable geometry OWSC in various, shallow wave states was studied in two numerical modeling programs. Of particular interest were the flap’s hydrodynamic coefficients and potential power generation at a specific reference site. This configuration was predicted to mitigate wave forces by allowing some of the wave energy to pass through the device, thus preserving its structural integrity.

A lifespan approach to understanding family caregiver experiences of a blood cancer diagnosis

Objectives The study examined the diagnosis experience of midlife family caregivers of a patient with a blood cancer, exploring similarities and differences between parent caregivers and adult-child caregivers. Methods Participants were between 30 and 65 years old and were family caregivers of a living patient with acute myeloid leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or lymphoma. We conducted semi-structured interviews with parent caregivers (n = 20) and adult-child caregivers (n = 19) and a thematic analysis of the interview data. Results Both types of caregivers report the patient experiencing (1) mis- and missed diagnosis (facing delayed diagnosis or treatment and having symptoms dismissed or overlooked) and (2) emotional distress (being in shock and survival mode, struggling with uncertainty, and confronting mortality). Adult-child caregivers also experienced relational shifts in assuming control of their parent's care, sometimes despite geographic distance, and struggled to distribute the care burden among family members. Significance of results Differences between the caregivers’ experiences emerged based on the relational role and the patient's place in the lifespan. Findings can be used to inform the development of support resources to address the needs of each group.