For this article, we interviewed a wide variety of students, teachers and administrators to get their insights on the effects of COVID-19 on higher education in the U.S. For the broad purposes of this article, we use higher education and post-secondary education to refer to colleges (community colleges, technical schools and liberal arts colleges) and […]
The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it many things — sickness, disease, financial loss, anxiety, fear — and it completely transformed life as we once knew it. Although the pandemic has impacted virtually every industry, it hit one particularly hard. According to the World Tourism Organization, “global tourism suffered its worst year on record in 2020, […]
Is your business struggling to effectively utilize social media? If so, you’re not alone. The coronavirus pandemic has taught us several valuable lessons, and one of the most important lessons learned has been the need for effective communication. With supply chain shortages, longer shipping times, pandemic regulations and social unrest, the need to communicate with […]
No doubt you’ve heard the laments. People don’t want to work. Employers can’t fill jobs. Businesses are closing early because they’re short-staffed. Even if you haven’t heard the grumbling firsthand, you’ve likely seen headlines like, “Staff Quit” Sign Posted on Family Dollar Store as Employees Walk Out. Or, you might have noticed the “Help Wanted” […]
This past January, CNN predicted that mental health would be one of the biggest issues of 2021. As we near the end of another unprecedented year, we can all agree that their predictions have proven to be correct. This shouldn’t come as a surprise after months of pandemic stress, natural disasters, political upheavals, and countless […]
It’s been a breakdown of epic proportions, and it all started with toilet paper. In March of 2020, the global supply chain was brought to its knees by Covid-19, and today, 20 months later, we’re still seeing massive disruptions in the form of empty supermarket shelves, higher priced goods and clogged shipping ports, just to […]
In our last blog post, we discussed the phenomenon now known as, The Great Resignation. As a quick refresher, The Great Resignation describes the mass exodus of employees from the labor market that has occurred in response to the global coronavirus pandemic. In April of 2021, the U.S. began to see a record number of […]
Over the past 20 months, the Covid-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented disruption in the global economy. The toll has been felt across all industries and in businesses of all sizes. As organizations attempt to resume some semblance of normalcy, one of the biggest challenges they face is historically high levels of employee attrition. This […]
A Quick Recap The past 18+ months of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic have undoubtedly been devastating for many businesses. Data from the past year and a half, shows that approximately 34% of small businesses across the nation have had no choice but to close permanently, and that percentage is even higher for larger cities. […]
The pandemic taught us many important lessons in business, and some of these will remain long after COVID-19. One of the main ones? The importance of specific skills and expertise, especially with new and emerging technologies. During the pandemic, companies couldn’t get their hands on technology nor find people who knew how to use it […]
The rush toward online tools, spurred by the pandemic of the past year, has created new jobs. From email automation to data entry to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms, businesses are continually seeking ways to improve efficiency and profitability. While the trend toward automation isn’t new, COVID-19 absolutely accelerated its timeline. In fact, a recent Deloitte survey […]
Over the last decade, businesses have become gradually more focused on supporting good causes and displaying their goodwill publicly. But over the last year, COVID-19 forced companies to take an even closer look at how they’re truly making a difference. As the pandemic impacted employee wellbeing, company culture, and revenue, organizations could no longer ignore […]
As shelter-in-place orders rolled out across the globe, many companies were overwhelmed with customer phone calls. But many of those calls involve time-consuming, repetitive processes that could easily be automated. It simply doesn’t make financial sense to have hundreds of humans in contact centers answering customer phone calls or responding to online chats that could […]
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) – or drones – are being reported as the next big thing in-home delivery services but they are already being used extensively for surveying land, mining, farming, military applications, environmental work, research, and photography. Today there are more than 1.7 million drones registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), over half […]
Developments in autonomous driving are moving at a rapid pace with expectations that cars will soon be able to handle the majority of the driving and complex situations, without human intervention. What has yet to be developed extensively is full automation where there is no driver whatsoever. Once this happens, transportation as we know it […]
In the last few years, 3D printing has been touted as the next cool thing, with promises of it revolutionizing industries. While the focus has mostly been on manufacturing, the truth is that 3D printing will touch on almost every part of business, even reaching into space. So what is 3D printing and why should […]
Smart factories, warehouses, and facilities not only use automation or software to simplify and process tedious tasks, but can also self-optimize, self-adapt, and learn from the condition in order to constantly improve. It’s the learning and self-optimizing that sets it apart from a standard factory. Both Alibaba and Amazon are great examples of this. They […]
Robots have already been successful in commercial situations, manufacturing, and the workplace, but the most exciting developments are still to come – robots as care-givers, civic robots, and even family members. As deep learning and AI improve, so will the ability of robots to reason, make decisions, and maybe even empathize. Pre-COVID-19, Robotics, and automation […]
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in some form has been around us for decades. Already, AI is in many cars, is part of manufacturing, the medical field, finance, mobility, and more. AI is not going away and for that matter, neither are pandemics like COVID-19, which is why leaders need to think about their business will be […]
As the global pandemic shows no sign of abating, banks around the world are beginning to realize that they’re in this for the long haul. For many industries, especially banking, the timing seems right to introduce new digital technologies. However, it shouldn’t be at the expense of the personal touch. If anything, it’s an opportunity […]
