We have a new company president who was pirated by the owner from a competitor. He is a supply chain expert who doesn’t believe in the importance of human resources (HR) as a support function in the organization. In a recent town hall meeting with managers, he told us that everyone can do the work of HR and it need not become a specialist function. Since I am the HR department head, it has become uncomfortable for me to work with him given his critical position against my job. I’ve been in this company for close to 20 years now. And I don’t have any plans of moving to another organization. Please give me your advice. -- Bumpy Ride.

THE Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), a government think tank, said the K-to-12 Program boosts students’ skills and knowledge in their chosen fields, but students outside the technical track expressed a need for further education to make them more hireable.

PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte has signed an executive order “approving and adopting” the National Technical Education and Skills Development Plan (NTESDP) 2018-2019 prepared by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

JOB RECRUITMENT site Monster.com said online hiring activity in the Philippines increased 11% year-on-year, with each of the first three months posting successive month-on-month gains.

THE Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) said it signed an agreement with Microsoft Philippines Thursday for a pilot program on executive training for policy makers focusing on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

PARIS -- Sanofi on Wednesday said a reorganization of its research and development operation in Germany and France would result in 466 job cuts in the two countries.

I’m an ordinary employee at a medium-sized corporation. My concern is about the management style of our department boss who thinks he knows everything about our job. Whenever we give excellent ideas on how to do a certain job, including how to save money, our boss normally rejects them all. Some of the employees think the boss is doing that for fear that he may lose control of the situation and make him look like a weakling before top management. The trouble is that many practical ideas, including those that don’t cost money, have long been relegated to the sidelines. Sometimes, our boss will simply delay judgment by asking the proponent-workers to give their ideas some serious thought before passing it to higher management. What’s the cure for this? -- Lost Dissident.

THE Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said it is exploring measures to raise the salaries of nurses to address local shortages ahead of the implementation of the Universal Health care (UHC) Law.

DAVAO CITY -- Officials of the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), the biggest government hospital in Mindanao, said hospitals and hemodialysis (HD) centers in Davao City are facing a “brain drain” of nurses amid the rising number of patients with kidney-related diseases.

AMAZON Web Services (AWS), a unit of Amazon.com, said it has started to offer a second year of cloud technology training sessions for higher educational institutions, expanding beyond Metro Manila to include participants in other parts of Luzon as well as Cebu and Davao.

CONSUMER GOODS group Reckitt Benckiser has picked PepsiCo executive Laxman Narasimhan as its next chief executive, becoming the latest industry heavyweight to turn to a company outsider to tackle faltering growth and new media-savvy rivals.

I’m a newly-promoted line supervisor at a Japanese factory in Laguna. My problem is the lack of guidance from our human resources department on how I should be giving clear instructions to my workers. I’m at a loss as our department head keeps on telling me that I should go to HR for guidance. I suspect there’s a professional conflict, if not personality issues between the HR head and my boss. What should I do? (Itals end) -- Fork in the Road.