The House of Representatives has passed a bipartisan bill to improve workforce development and training programs. The proposed measures update existing law and prioritize upskilling dislocated workers, introduce employer-led training initiatives, and tackle worker shortages. The bill also incorporates successful ideas from the Eastern CT Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative and has received strong backing from stakeholders in the workforce development sector.

As routine tasks are increasingly automated by generative AI, companies are shifting their focus in terms of staffing requirements, training and upskilling, experts say. Improving soft skills and learning to use AI "will empower people to thrive in new hybrid roles, ensuring both the human and technical aspects of work complement and enhance each other," says Pragashini Fox, Thomson Reuters' head of talent and diversity.

As more employers bring workers back into the office, most employees ask that the company reimburse them for their commute expenses, a Ringover survey finds. The second most common request was a pay boost between $5,000 to $10,000 annually to return to the office.

New government regulations aimed at promoting responsible use of AI at work will affect HR departments, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. Measures include the EU AI Act, a UN resolution and data-privacy rules adopted by more than 15 US states while Congress considers federal legislation.

Sarah Franklin, CEO of Lattice, says she's planning to lead the human resources company to use AI to develop tools to help identify productive employees and reward them accordingly. "Work has become somewhere where it's the people who shout the loudest who are often rewarded the most -- while more hardworking employees go unnoticed," Franklin says.