Summary. Microsoft’s latest survey on business trends compiles input from 2,700 employees and 1,800 business decision makers in the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan across job functions to uncover the ways technology is — or is not — helping them do their… The pandemic has cemented collaboration software as the hub for where work gets done, but the daily operations of a business largely happen in other specialized applications, such as software for financial planning, supply-chain management, and managing customer relationships. This can lead to a lot of “invisible” work for employees to bring data, information, and insights to the spaces where colleagues are making decisions and moving projects forward. Microsoft’s latest survey on business trends compiles input from 2,700 employees and 1,800 business decision makers in the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan across job functions to uncover the ways technology is — or is not — helping them do their work. We found that, while advancements in workplace technology can accelerate employees’ ability to take on more meaningful work and reduce office churn, it’s only half the equation in improving worker experience. Employees are looking for tools that enable collaboration seamlessly, automate repetitive work, and guide […]

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February 23, 2023 These State Small Business Credit Initiative funds are awarded to Arkansas, Guam, Rhode Island, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Wisconsin to support local small business financing and investment programs WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the approval of five additional state and territory plans for up to $339 million in funding under the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan: Arkansas, Guam, Rhode Island, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Wisconsin. Treasury has now announced the approval of state and territory plans corresponding to over $6.6 billion in SSBCI funding to support small business and entrepreneurship and expand access to capital. “This is an historic investment in entrepreneurship, small business growth, and innovation through the American Rescue Plan that will help reduce barriers to capital access for traditionally underserved communities,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen. “These SSBCI funds will promote equitable economic growth across the country.” President Biden’s American Rescue Plan reauthorized and expanded SSBCI, which was originally established in 2010 and was highly successful in increasing access to capital for small businesses and entrepreneurs. The new SSBCI builds on this successful model by providing […]

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As expected, the first few weeks of 2023 have been volatile and eventful, with escalating domestic and geopolitical tensions, a catastrophic earthquake and ensuing aftershocks, and the proliferation of generative artificial intelligence into the mainstream with yet unclear outcomes. We expect the rest of the year to follow in similar suit, with recessionary pressures, cyclical bouts of COVID-19 and war in Europe all continuing to amplify and further stress the security, reputational and operational risks facing C-suites and their organizations. Looking ahead, CEOs and corporate boards must remain steadfast in their resiliency planning and mitigation efforts. Facing a New Year of Challenges Companies today are facing an ever-expanding risk landscape that demands more attention from executives. On the security front, growing levels of both violent and petty crime are becoming significant enough to warrant the closure of franchise stores, while the increasingly remote nature of business is exposing companies to new and expanding cyber vulnerabilities from internal and external actors. Meanwhile, the growing politicization of domestic and global issues is prompting new vectors of risk around company reputation as customers begin to judge brands and their respective leadership by a corporation’s public response – or lack thereof – to […]

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Humana is exiting the employer group commercial market after a strategic review of its business lines, the insurer announced Thursday. The review found that the business was "no longer positioned to sustainably meet the needs of commercial members over the long term" and was not playing a key role in supporting the company’s other long-term strategic focuses, according to the announcement. The decision means that Humana will no longer offer fully-insured or self-funded employer plans or any of the associated wellness and rewards programs. It will also exit the Federal Employee Health Benefits program, according to the announcement. Humana expects to phase out the line of business over the next 18 to 24 months. “This decision enables Humana to focus resources on our greatest opportunities for growth and where we can deliver industry-leading value for our members and customers,” said Bruce Broussard, Humana’s CEO, in the release. “It is in line with the company’s strategy to focus our health plan offerings primarily on Government-funded programs … and Specialty businesses while advancing our leadership position in integrated value-based care and expanding our CenterWell healthcare services capabilities." "We are confident in Humana’s continued success, and our commitment to improving the health […]

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Gettyimages.com/ Andrii Yalanskyi Science Applications International Corp. has promoted one of its own veteran leaders to be senior vice president of the company’s Army business unit. Josh Jackson first joined SAIC in 2002 as a program manager and has since risen through the ranks to roles such as division manager, chief engineer and operations manager. He most recently led SAIC’s Navy portfolio for the past two years . In SAIC’s most recent fiscal year, roughly 12% of revenue was from Navy work and 15% from Army contracts as the company’s annual 10-K filing indicates. “Josh’s passion for solving complex mission challenges for our customers, while leveraging emerging technologies in smart and unique ways, will continue to serve SAIC and our customers well,” Bob Genter, president of SAIC’s defense and civilian sector, said in a release Wednesday. Jackson also is a founding member of SAIC’s inclusion and diversity council and executive sponsor for SAIC’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics business resource group.

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Humana will move out of commercial plans over the next 18 to 24 months and focus more on government-funded programs and specialty businesses. Included in the business Humana is leaving are all fully insured, self-funded, and Federal Employees Health Benefits medical plans. The company announced the move after a strategic review that determined the Employer Group Commercial Medical Products business was no longer in a position to “sustainable meet the needs of commercial members over the long term,” according to a press release . 1 “This decision enables Humana to focus resources on our greatest opportunities for growth and where we can deliver industry leading value for our members and customers,” Bruce D. Broussard, Humana’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “It is in line with the company’s strategy to focus our health plan offerings primarily on government-funded programs (Medicare, Medicaid and Military) and specialty businesses, while advancing our leadership position in integrated value-based care and expanding our CenterWell health care services capabilities.” In late 2022, Humana announced that it was expanding CenterWell, which offers payer-agnostic, senior-focused primary care services. The plan to expand CenterWell includes adding new centers in Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, South […]

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Researchers found a trove of evidence suggesting paid sick leave is linked with favorable business outcomes. Evidence also suggests paid sick leave was associated with lower spread of disease, not only for the workers themselves, but for the entire region where paid sick leave mandates were passed. With the exception of a temporary federal law providing paid sick leave to certain employees between March and December 2020, the United States remains one of the few developed countries without federal paid sick leave protection for workers. In recent years, 14 states have enacted paid sick leave mandates, while 18 states have passed preemptive legislation prohibiting paid sick leave laws, largely due to concerns about the potential negative impact this may have on business. A new study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine by Florida Atlantic University and Cleveland State University researchers found compelling evidence of significant benefits of paid sick leave to organizations. The researchers systematically reviewed 22 years of research examining the relationship between paid sick leave benefits and short-term and long-term U.S. business outcomes. They took into consideration factors such as business size, industry, and whether or not paid sick leave was required due to a […]

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Humana, the massive Louisville-based health insurance company, is set to begin phasing out commercial insurance offerings over the next two years. The company, which reported having around 10,000 employees who live in the region as of last year , announced the move Thursday morning, noting it "remains committed to the long-term growth" of Medicare Advantage and other Medicare offerings and government-funded programs. The exit from the "Employer Group Commercial Medical Products business," which includes fully insured, self-funded and federal employee plans, will take place over the next 18 to 24 months, a release said. Company spokesperson Mark Taylor said the number of jobs that will be eliminated is not currently clear as "final decisions surrounding organizational changes, the development of new job opportunities and the wind-down of the business are still underway." A focus on health plan offerings for government and specialty businesses should "best position Humana for long-term growth and success," he said in an email. Opinion column: Greenberg’s plan to stop flow of guns is nothing more than lipstick on a pig Commercial plans accounted for 4% of Humana’s total premiums and services revenue in 2022, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings , at about $3.7 […]

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The retail media boom isn’t just for Amazon and brick-and-mortar chains. Online marketplaces are also investing heavily in ad platform businesses, albeit for different reasons. Etsy and eBay, two of the most prominent non-Amazon online marketplaces, both reported 2022 year-end earnings on Wednesday – and both framed advertising as a fast-growing revenue pillar with important implications for their respective core retail businesses. A betsy on Etsy Etsy’s market cap is down by more than half since highs in November 2021 and its stock dropped sharply after the company reported earnings. Fourth quarter revenue was down 4% YoY and full-year revenue decreased by 1%. But Etsy has been pushing hard to boost its ad business. In 2020, it made advertising mandatory for sellers who earn more than $10,000 per year, and last year increased its share of marketplace transactions from 5% to 6.5%. In other words, Etsy began requiring sellers to re-spend a portion of sales on offsite ads and started taking a larger fee on all sales it drives back to the site. While Etsy’s ecommerce marketplace revenue was up only slightly – thanks mainly to the increased fee – its services revenue, which includes advertising, was up 17% […]

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To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important crypto stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday at 12 p.m. PT, subscribe here . Welcome back to Chain Reaction. This week big news rolled out in the layer-2 blockchain space as Coinbase, the second largest crypto exchange by trading volume, launched Base , an Ethereum-focused layer-2 blockchain. In the past, Coinbase has homed in on the trading and exchange side of its business, but this blockchain is switching up the script for the company as it moves into the decentralized ecosystem. In an effort to expand further into the developer space, Coinbase is building Base to make it “dead easy” for developers to build dApps and for users to access those dApps through Coinbase products, Jesse Pollak, lead for Base and head of protocols at Coinbase, told TechCrunch. “Our goal is to bring about phase 4 of Coinbase’s master plan: to bring a billion users into the crypto economy,” Pollak added. And the new blockchain is hitting the ground running as a number of crypto organizations like Chainlink, Magic Eden, Animoca Brands, The Graph, have committed to building on its platform. This news comes just two days after […]

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