Mandatory vacations may yield higher productivity and greater employee satisfaction than traditional vacation policies or unlimited vacations, according to a new study from Harvard Business Review. Under traditional vacation policies, many employees feel pressure to maximize enjoyment from their two- or three-week breaks,, though the looming...
South Korea has introduced what is being called the world's first tax on robots amid fears that machines will replace human workers, leading to mass unemployment.
The country will limit tax incentives for investments in automated machines as part of a newly proposed revision of its tax laws.
It is hoped the policy will make up for...
Hawaiian Airlines is using a system from a company called LivePerson to run its messaging system. Customers can send texts to the airline, and a human will respond. In the not too distant future, we expect bots will be sophisticated enough to handle almost all customer service inquires sent via text message. But we're not there yet, so it's...
The declining use of cash is causing a shake-up in a banking services around the US, including at Hartsfield-Jackson International airport in Atlanta. The proliferation of credit card use means fewer people use cash regularly and has cut demand for ATMs. That makes it less profitable for banks to operate retail outets, prompting changes in how...
The fight for primacy in the the world of mobile payments is still in its early stages. Now Amazon Pay Places is in the game with a recently announced feature of the Amazon brand that allows consumers to pay for restaurants and purchase items that are sold in stores through their accounts with the eCommerce site. To start, the brand has...
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation, the Royal Canadian Mint has released three million glow-in-the-dark coins into general circulation. The $2 coins, or “toonies” as they’re colloquially called, depict two people in a canoe on a placid lake surrounded by trees, with the lights of the aurora borealis in the sky....
One major green trend today is urban farming – from tiny indoor farming plots to vertical gardens that can supply restaurants. Now, Finnish company Exsilio has developed a high-tech solution to allow almost any small business to “grow its own”. The company uses a renovated shipping container to create a 13-metre long farming module, known as...
It didn’t take long for drones to graduate from an unnerving military weapon to a big new social trend. From real estate agents using them to photograph estates, to Amazon (and others using them for package deliveries, there are a huge range of possible uses for civilian drones and people keep coming up with innovative new ideas. The drone, it...
