GM's lineup includes a 27k model. While hardly any car manufacturers cater to the poor other than maybe Tata in India....27k is not for the wealthy
https://www.forbes.com/sites/edgarst...n-as-q2-falls/
letter to shareholders sent in conjunction with the automakers second quarter financial results, GM chair and CEO Mary Barra wrote, “GM has also done something unique in the industry to help secure our future EV production. We have binding agreements securing all battery raw material to support our plan for 1 million units of annual EV capacity in North America in 2025. These are commitments with strategic partners for key materials like lithium, cobalt and nickel. This includes new multi-year agreements announced today by Livent Corp., for lithium, and LG Chem, for cathode material.”
Specifically, the agreements are:
LG Chem plans to provide GM more than 9
The conditional commitment to the loan comes through the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program which supports U.S. production of vehicles, components and other materials that improve fuel economy.
“While this conditional commitment demonstrates the Department’s intent to finance the project, several steps remain, and certain conditions must be satisfied before the Department issues a final loan,” wrote Jigar Shah, Director of the Loan Programs Office in a DOE blog post on Monday.
The positive news regarding GM's march into its electric future came as the automaker released negative numbers on its second quarter financial performance.
For the three months ending June 30, net income came in at $1.7 billion, down from $2.8 billion during Q2 in 2021. That, despite revenues of $35.7 billion during the quarter, an increase of $1.6 billion over Q2 2021 revenues of $34.1 billion.
In her letter to shareholders, Barra blamed the decline in the bottom line to “impacts of the supply chain disruptions we experienced, especially in June.”
Barra said demand for GM vehicles remains high, but there just aren't very many cars or trucks from which to choose.
The company said inventory on GM dealer lots is only a 10-15 day supply compared with an optimal inventory of about 60 days.
Barra said the company is already making moves to protect itself against further downturns or challenges, telling analysts, “While demand remains strong there are growing concerns about the economy to be sure, that's why we're already taking proactive steps to manage costs and cash flows including reducing some discretionary spending and limiting hiring to critical needs and positions that support growth.”
However, Barra said the company is sticking with positive projections for now, telling shareholders in her letter, “Our outlook for the second half is strong, and we are reaffirming our full-year earnings guidance that includes EBIT-adjusted of between $13 billion and $15 billion. This confidence comes from our expectation that GM global production and wholesale deliveries will be up sharply in the second half.”
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3 Ways To Tackle Hiring’s Mammoth Bias Problem
Laura Thompson
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Grads of Life
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Krysta Sadowski
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Grads of Life
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Jun 30, 2022,12:12pm EDT
The shift toward skills-based hiring is part and parcel of improving racial equity in the workplace, but even the most well-intentioned hiring initiatives can fall flat if bias is not addressed.
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The skills-based hiring movement is growing. A Burning Glass Institute analysis of more than 51 million job posts found that employers removed degree requirements for nearly half of middle-skills roles and more than one-third of high-skills roles between 2017 and 2019. And federal, state and private sector employers appear poised to accelerate this trend. This shift is partly driven by the call for improved diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) outcomes in the workforce and the recognition of skills-based hiring as a conduit for advancing racial and economic equity.
But as companies work to make this shift, we’re noticing a risk: Skills-based hiring efforts could fall flat if HR teams do not also invest in addressing the ways in which bias can impact hiring processes.
Skills-based hiring focuses primarily on reducing pedigree bias — the common tendency to prefer candidates who have a four-year degree or B.A. equivalent even when one is not necessary to be successful in the job. But there are other kinds of insidious bias that creep into hiring and can prevent businesses from maximizing DEI goals.
So, how can we transform talent processes to counter all forms of bias, center equity and ensure skills-based practices thrive?
1. Develop a shared internal understanding of common biases and how they can show up in hiring.
The first step in addressing bias is accepting and acknowledging that it exists. It may also help teams to understand that bias is not inherently negative and serves an evolutionary purpose. Cognitive shortcuts help us parse millions of bits of information, identify patterns and streamline our decision-making.
However, these shortcuts become harmful when they influence how we assess and interact with groups of people. In the labor market, bias toward white candidates has led to occupational segregation and disparate outcomes in upward mobility.
To secure economic opportunity and mobility for all, we must raise awareness of the many biases behind our decision-making. Beyond pedigree bias, affinity bias and the halo/horn effect are the blockers we see most often in recruitment.
Affinity bias refers to the tendency of interviewers to gravitate toward, and more favorably rate, candidates with similar backgrounds, interests, personalities or work styles to the team and themselves. Statements such as “They would fit right in” or “They have a lot of similarities with the team” may be indicators that affinity bias is at play.
The halo/horn effect describes the tendency for hiring teams to allow one positive or negative trait to sway their first impression and overall ratings. This might look like placing an exaggerated emphasis on a particular response or experience from a candidate, whether positive or negative.
In our training sessions with companies, we find that simply surfacing and calling attention to different kinds of biases and engaging in honest reflection and discussion can have a significant influence on individual and team behavior.
2. Update your practices and policies at each step of the hiring process.
Once teams have a shared understanding of the most prevalent biases, focus on redesigning systems to bring more objectivity and equity at every stage of hiring. Guiding questions to consider might include:
Do we conduct blind resume reviews? Removing candidate names, addresses, and the names of higher education institutions listed on resumes can limit the impacts of pedigree, affinity, gender and racial bias on the screening process. This can be done manually or with the help of various tech tools. Several employers are already anonymizing candidate applications, including HSBC, Deloitte and BBC.
Do we use standardized interview processes, questions and evaluation criteria for all candidates in a given search? Keeping the interview format consistent will allow you to objectively evaluate candidates’ skills as opposed to relying on proxies, such as their alma mater, previous company or internal referrals. A standardized scoring template can also help hiring teams avoid hiring based on “culture fit” or “good feelings” about candidates, which are all too often code for affinity bias.
Do we engage diverse hiring panels to make decisions on candidates? Doing so can help uncover hidden biases, add rigor to the evaluation process, and provide greater insight into candidates’ backgrounds.
Though not a comprehensive list, each of the above practices has evidence of reducing bias and increasing the likelihood of hiring historically excluded talent.
3. Provide training and design accountability structures for everyone involved in hiring.
It is not enough to institute a new policy or practice — companies must consistently support the people who will be implementing those practices day to day. This includes both training for hiring managers on new approaches, such as standardized interviewing, and accountability mechanisms to support implementation, such as integrating DEI hiring outcomes into performance reviews. Companies who are most successful at both skills-based hiring and mitigating bias are diligent about communicating with and training their people to understand the value of these strategies and their role in enacting change.
Without thoughtful examination of how bias can subvert every step of the hiring process, efforts to take a skills-first approach run the risk of leaving DEI outcomes exactly as they were before. If diverse representation and equity are a key priority, companies must mitigate the many kinds of bias that we all have when making hiring decisions.
What’s more, bias mitigation protocols should not be limited to the hiring stage. They should be embraced as part of a broader strategy, to bolster DEI and support workers at every phase of the talent journey. That strategy will look different for every employer, but understanding your DEI growth areas can help shape and advance it.
Laura Thompson
Laura leads strategic initiatives for Grads of Life, with a focus on building and... Read More
Krysta Sadowski
Krysta Sadowski currently serves as a Director with Grads of Life’s Advisory Services... Read More
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