AUTOMATION allows skilled professionals to spend more time on other projects, rather than performing routine processes that automated systems can easily do. A Robert Half survey found that 79 percent of managers in the U.S. are either currently using automation or expect to do so within the next three to five years. It allows managers to tackle their to-do lists while simultaneously building a smarter, more efficient business for the future.

INVESTING in human capital appears to be a strong motivator for companies looking to hire in the next year or so. Fifty-one percent of senior managers are looking to hire talent in new permanent positions, with 48 percent of managers offering signing bonuses to incentivize new talent. Employers are facing new hiring challenges, and this renewed focus on skilled personnel seems to be a popular hiring plan in most industries.

WHEN hiring new business leaders or other personnel, it’s important to keep this statistic in the back of your mind: Only 4 percent of C-suite leaders are women of color, based on findings from McKinsey’s 2021 Women in the Workplace report. Based on this report, 75 percent of C-suite employees are men. Despite some modest gains in the workplace pipeline, women are still underrepresented across the corporate ladder.

INTERESTINGLY, that same report found that employees with female managers believed their manager was more supportive and helped them manage their workload more than male managers. Women managers scored 12 percentage points higher than male managers when it comes to offering emotional support to employees, 7 percentage points higher than men for checking in on the employees’ overall well-being, 5 percentage points higher for helping employees to manage burnout and navigate work-life challenges, and 6 percentage points higher than male managers for making sure employees’ workloads were manageable.

NOW that members of Generation Z are starting to enter the workforce, employers should be mindful of how their values align with the company’s. According to research by Rainmaker Thinking, the No. 1 factor for what Generation Z values most in the workplace is supportive leadership. This new generation of workers finds that professional relationships are key to their success and overall happiness with their employer, with an emphasis on mentorship. Something to keep in mind during your next hiring phase.