Technology Archives - Page 12 of 26

September 21, 2017June 29, 2023

Hiring and the H-1B Visa

U.S. employers, including domestic divisions of India-based outsourcers, are curtailing their use of the controversial H-1B visa, which allows organizations to bring highly skilled foreigners into the United States to work. Simultaneously, other businesses are bulking up overseas offices or sending employees who are foreign nationals to work out of offices in their home countries.

Employers that have used the visas have been scrambling to revise policies ever since President Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election when the controversial program was targeted for overhaul. Whatever workplace policies are being implemented, a sharp dip in 2018 fiscal year applications for H-1B visas makes it clear that employers aren’t waiting on legislation or federal edicts from new officials before they take action.

Applications filed by the April deadline declined for the first time since 2013, to 199,000 from 236,000 for fiscal year 2017. The 16 percent decrease is a sharp reversal from the previous five years, during which time applications for the visa rose a cumulative 90 percent.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Homeland Security department that administers H-1Bs, grants 65,000 of the temporary work visas annually to foreign workers with specialized skills, plus another 20,000 to foreigners with advanced degrees. The visas are good for three years and can be extended for another three.

In mid-July, the USCIS said it had returned all applications not selected in the annual April lottery the agency holds to award the visas. The USCIS has not released names of employers whose applications were accepted or signaled when that data would be made public.

To bypass potential H-1B problems, U.S. companies are increasing hiring in their overseas offices. Nicole Sahin runs a PEO, or professional employer organization, that helps major U.S. companies and fast-growth startups hire salespeople in 150 countries. Since late 2016, Sahin has seen a 30 percent jump in clients sending foreign nationals back to their home countries or hiring locally, all direct responses to coming changes to the H-1B.

Nicole Sahin runs a professional employer organization that helps major U.S. companies and fast-growth startups hire salespeople in 150 countries.

“There’s a lot of fear around it,” said Sahin, co-founder and chief executive at Globalization Partners in Boston. “Some employees want to leave the U.S. because they don’t feel like they’d have the security they had under the previous administration.”

Outsourcers Respond by Increasing American Workforce

Indian outsourcers, which accounted for 69 percent of all H-1B workers as of 2015, the latest available data, are taking some of the most drastic measures to deal with changing policies. After the Justice Department and USCIS announced stepped-up H-1B audits earlier this year, a handful of Indian outsourcers said they wouldn’t use the visas to bring as many workers into the country.

Infosys Ltd., which has received thousands of H-1Bs over the years, plans to hire 10,000 U.S. workers in the next two years and open four technology centers here. In June, Infosys paid $1 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the state of New York that claimed the outsourcer routinely abused the H-1B visa program, and in doing so, failed to compensate workers fairly or pay required taxes.

In late June, Wipro Ltd., another India-based outsourcer, said it had hired more than 1,600 U.S. employees over the previous six months, and that U.S. citizens represent more than half of its workforce here. That’s a substantial change from recent years, when the company was among the top five H-1B visa users in order to staff its U.S. offices with Indian workers.

Indian outsourcers’ new labor model will no doubt be welcomed by H-1B critics, who claim the foreign companies haven’t adhered to requirements of the visa program to attempt to fill jobs with Americans before handing them to immigrants. Critics also fault the program for allowing H-1B employers to pay local prevailing wages that generally are less than what most U.S. workers with similar jobs earn.

The same critics maintain loopholes and lax oversight have allowed companies such as The Walt Disney Corp. and Southern California Edison to lay off highly paid U.S. employees and replace them with lower-paid foreign workers, many of whom are outsourcer employees. In several highly publicized cases, the laid-off workers were required to train their replacements. Such practices have led to a number of lawsuits, including one filed by a group of former Disney World IT employees who maintain they were discriminated against for being American.

Big Boosts for Gig Economy, STEM Workers?

Uncertainty about the visa program could push employers to embrace the gig economy and hire independent contractors, said Yvette Cameron, senior vice president for strategy and corporate development for SAP SuccessFactors. If employers were using H-1Bs to lower costs, using gig workers who aren’t eligible for benefits or pensions is another way to keep labor costs low, said Cameron, whose job puts her in touch with thousands of SAP SuccessFactors customers.

Yvette Cameron is senior vice president for strategy and corporate development for SAP SuccessFactors.

Historically, U.S. companies relied on H-1B visas to hire foreign graduate students with science, technology, engineering and math degrees from American universities. However, H-1B reform and Trump administration immigrant policies have already put a damper on applications to U.S. colleges and universities from India, China and the Middle East. As a result, total applications from foreign students dropped 38 percent for fall 2017, according to the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

Stepping up domestic STEM studies could help fill the gap left by fewer foreign grad student coming here. Companies have gotten accustomed to hiring employees who can hit the ground running, said Ron Hira, an H-1B expert and political science professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Having government agencies subsidize on-the-job training “might be a way to fill genuine gaps,” Hira said.

Employees also need to step up their training, said Katherine Jones, a partner and director of talent research at consultancy Mercer. Starting STEM education in elementary or high school could help, Jones said, as could projects such as the charter public high school Oracle is paying for that opens this fall on its Redwood City, California, campus in the heart of Silicon Valley. Coding schools and other types of short-term bootcamps that teach STEM skills are other options, Jones said.

Reforms Pending in Congress, White House

Ultimate responsibility for rewriting immigration laws lies with Congress. Since the start of the current session, supporters and opponents of the current H-1B system have introduced bills that would expand or curtail it respectively. A bill re-introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, in January would raise minimum salaries for H-1B visa worker to $100,000. A competing bill sponsored by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, would kill the H-1B lottery and award the visas first to holders of advanced degrees from U.S. universities, then to high-salary workers, then to people with valuable skills. The H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act, also introduced in January, would bar companies from having more than half their employees on H-1B or L-1 visas, and prohibit companies from replacing U.S. workers with visa holders, among other things. Both bills have been referred to committee but no other action has been taken.

Other recent attempts to pass H-1B reform laws have gone nowhere, and it’s a toss-up whether a Congress that’s been preoccupied with repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act and other issues will get to it this term, said Leon Rodriguez, who ran the USCIS under the Obama administration from 2014 until Trump took office.

“There are those who think the number should stay where it is or go backward, along with tighter restrictions,” said Rodriguez, who now practices immigration and health care law at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, in Washington, D.C. “Then there’s the school of thought that says let’s expand the numbers but also put in more safeguards protecting U.S. workers and design the system in a way that favors getting the highest levels of talent we can.”

In a June appearance before a congressional committee, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta said the administration supports increasing the current $60,000 minimum salary for H-1B workers — which hasn’t changed since 1998 — to at least $80,000 as a way to stop the flow of cheap labor into the country.

Opponents to the administration’s H-1B clampdown say the policy shift is ill-conceived and ultimately could do the country more harm than good, particularly for a U.S. tech sector that’s seriously understaffed. In an address earlier this year, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman at Google parent company Alphabet called it “the stupidest policy in the entire American political system,” according to Fortune.com.

But Trump fans and critics of the program in its current form laud the president’s moves to protect U.S. jobs for U.S. workers. The present H-1B program undercuts American jobs by allowing companies to shift positions to outsourcers who pay substantially less or send the work overseas, argues Sara Blackwell, a Sarasota, Florida, lawyer who’s represented laid-off workers in H-1B lawsuits.

“We have executives who are outsourcing for cheap foreign labor,” Blackwell said.

Michelle V. Rafter is a contributing editor in Portland, Oregon. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

September 7, 2017June 29, 2023

YourForce: We’re All Technology Companies Now

We are all technology companies now. Technology has taken over operations, marketing and sales at companies large and small.

We’re also all tech workers. From back-end systems that manage production to the front end that customers see, technology is impossible to extricate from work.

Human resources work is also tech work, the central theme of this issue of Workforce. Those who went into HR because they enjoy working with people now find themselves managing massive enterprise software systems and digital apps that administer benefits enrollment and deliver training.

But through it all, the human touch is essential. We’re not just tech companies. We remain people companies, too. The work of HR lies in making the most of the human resources that continue to make our digital future a reality.

—Mike Prokopeak, Editor in Chief

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Benchmark Senior Living launched its “I’m Engaged” campaign that puts employees front and center on direct-mail pieces, videos and ads. The campaign spotlights employees who exceed expectations and devote themselves to helping others and their senior residents. Bottom photo, director of community relations Lauren Stowell poses during the photo shoot. By putting a unique spin on an engagement “announcement” — which included a professional photo shoot with each “star” employee — the company hopes to convey the commitment employees have with the work they do.

READER FEEDBACK

One reader responded to Rick Bell’s Last Word column titled, “Take it Easy on the Boss; There’s a World to Save” in the July/August edition. Mary Ellen Wasiellewski had this to say:

There is a myriad of balls that must be kept in the air by the “captains of the ship.” They are the first to get blamed and the last to be acknowledged. Much has been written about the isolation at the top tier. The same human problems face the leaders who keep us all in employed positions: death, divorce, disease, burnout and chronic stress. What does HR do to support those high performance individuals who drive these ships during times of person adversity? They, too, are often expected to just show up and work through it.

Workforce.com/TheBoss

Two readers commented on the Workforce July/August print story titled, “Contracting a Cure for Prescription Drug Costs.” F.R. Fogenberg wrote:

Good article based on MBGH Annual Pharmacy Program, and more information from the National Employer Initiative on Biologic & Specialty Drugs for employer plan sponsors available at www.specialtyrxtoolkit.org.

Reader David Moll added: As a pharmacist of 26 years, I would love to help other companies that self-insure do the same type of thing as Caterpillar has done. I am very much familiar with how PBMs work and have resources to tap to build a network for companies large enough to support their own benefits.

Workforce.com/DrugCosts

A couple of readers chimed in on the Workforce July/August story titled, “Change Jobs to Trim the Fat.” Reader Eli1mxp stated:

My company has a robust wellness program. They encourage us all to take steps to improve our health. I worked 13 hours yesterday. I don’t think I could do more.

HerHealthySelf responded to Eli1mxp, saying: That’s the conundrum most employees face — grinding hours, limp home, answer emails, crash in bed. Get up, rinse and repeat. Most people don’t work an eight-hour day anymore (and the shady looks you get if you don’t answer email while on vacation … sheesh), yet to read articles like this, you’d never know that was the reality.

Workforce.com/TrimTheFat

Reader Bill Fotsch offered his thoughts on the Workforce July/August story titled, “Beyond Great: Features of Today’s Legendary Companies:”

I appreciate the author’s focus on successful companies. I have a different list of companies that have stood the test of time longer than the companies that he suggested. Southwest Airlines, Capital One and BHP Billiton and hundreds of private companies treat their employees like trusted business partners, enabling them to make more money for their company and themselves. They consistently see both profits and engagement soar.

Workforce.com/legendary

We welcome your comments on these stories and others on our website. Be sure to follow us and give us a shout on Twitter at @Workforcenews, too. Hope to hear from you!

August 15, 2017June 29, 2023

Does a LinkedIn Request Violate a Non-solicitation Agreement?

In Bankers Life and Casualty Company v. American Senior Benefits (Ill. Ct. App. 8/7/17), Bankers Life sued a former sales manager, Gregory Gelineau, for violating the following non-solicitation agreement after he jumped ship to American Senior Benefits, a competitor:

During the term of this Contract and for 24 months thereafter, within the territory regularly serviced by the Manager’s branch sales office, the Manager shall not, personally or through the efforts of others, induce or attempt to induce:

(a) any agent, branch sales manager, field vice president, employee, consultant, or other similar representative of the Company to curtail, resign, or sever a relationship with the company; [or]

(b) any agent, branch sales manager, field vice president or employee of the Company to contract with or sell insurance business with any company not affiliated with the company.

According to Bankers Life, Gelineau allegedly asked three of its employees to connect via LinkedIn. By connecting, Bankers Life argued, the employees could then view Gelineau’s profile, which would uncover job listings at American Senior. Galineau argued that he never used LinkedIn to send direct messages to Bankers Life employees, and instead merely sent “LinkedIn generic emails” asking them to form a professional connection on social media.

The court held that the mere act of asking someone to connect on the social network, via a generic, canned email generated by the network itself, did not violate the non-solicitation agreement:

Here, … the undisputed facts established that the invitations to connect via LinkedIn were sent from Gelineau’s LinkedIn account through generic e-mails that invited recipients to form a professional connection. … The generic emails did not contain any discussion of Bankers Life, no mention of ASB, no suggestion that the recipient view a job description on Gelineau’s profile page, and no solicitation to leave their place of employment and join ASB. Instead, the emails contained the request to form a professional networking connection. Upon receiving the emails, the Bankers Life employees had the option of responding to the LinkedIn requests to connect. If they did connect with Gelineau, the next steps, whether to click on Gelineau’s profile or to access a job posting on Gelineau’s LinkedIn page, were all actions for which Gelineau could not be held responsible. Furthermore, Gelineau’s post of a job opening with ASB on his public LinkedIn portal did not constitute an inducement or solicitation in violation of his noncompetition agreement.

In other words, like other courts to consider this same issue, a breach of a non-solicitation agreement requires active efforts on the part of the former employee to induce a former co-worker or customer to do something. The mere act of connecting on a social network is not enough; it’s akin to keeping the person’s email and phone number in your Rolodex.

If, however, you are concerned about ex-employees using LinkedIn or other social networks to connect with employees or customers, why not include language in your no-solicitation agreement to cover such a possibility?

“Solicitation” includes, but is not limited to, offering to make, accepting an offer to make, or continuing an already existing online relationship via a Social Media Site. “Social Media Site” means all means of communicating or posting information or content of any sort on the Internet, including to your own or someone else’s web log or blog, journal or diary, personal web site, social networking or affinity web site, web bulletin board or a chat room, in addition to any other form of electronic communication.

By defining “solicitation” to include passive social media connections and activities, you are at least putting yourself into a position to have a court consider shutting down an ex-employee for creating or maintaining these online relationships.

Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

August 11, 2017June 29, 2023

Namely Sells Its HR Technology Platform as a Managed Service

To make it easier for resource-strapped small and midsized companies to set-up HR systems, Namely Inc. is borrowing from the past and selling its existing cloud-based HR technology platform as a managed service.

The New York-based company on Aug. 9 said it is offering a managed version of its HR technology platform called Managed Services, including core functions such as payroll, benefits and compliance along with features such as time keeping. Customers will have dedicated account managers who can do everything from run payroll to track benefits. Existing customers “frankly were asking for additional support,” said Namely founder and chief executive Matt Straz.

Straz said he is unaware of another company that runs payroll, benefits and compliance through managed services, which places Namely as the first to make such an offering. “There are companies like TriNet that run it through a professional employer organization, or PEO. And companies like Workday, Oracle and SAP” target much larger customers, Straz said. “As far as I know, we’re the only one that’s brought this type of offering to the market.”

Namely hopes its first-mover status will steer prospective customers toward it and away from competitors such as BambooHR.

Startups and fast-growth companies have been averse to adding sufficient HR systems, policies and personnel early in their life cycles. Whether by choice or accident, they wait too long and then develop serious people management problems, as a string of recent high-profile incidents at companies such as Uber, Tesla, Thinkx and Skip the Dishes have shown.

HR technology alone won’t stop sexual harassment and other illegal or unethical behaviors from happening, especially if a company’s upper management, board and financial backers condone it or turn a blind eye.

But a service with templates for compliance and other HR systems can save companies from building everything from scratch, which could make them more amendable to adopting the systems in the first place, Straz said. “I’ve founded three companies, and we had to build it as we went. It would have been nice to have been handed this stuff,” he said.

Managed services are a throwback to the HR outsourcing of previous decades, when major HR technology players offered to “lift and shift” large enterprises’ entire HR back-office operations. The transitions proved to be more problematic than anticipated, and thanks to the emergence of cloud-based services, HR outsourcing never grew as big as expected.

Regardless of size, any type of HR outsourcing might be a good short-term solution but bad in the long run because it encourages top management to view people as expenses not assets, said Bernie Aller, an HR industry veteran who now helps companies vet people-management systems.

“Would they consider outsourcing management of financial assets? That would never happen,” said Aller, who ran and sold an HCM and payroll processing business to Ceridian in 2000 before consulting. “As companies grow, at some point they recognize it’s their people who determine their performance” and are motivated to do better at managing them, Aller said. “Outsourcing it to a third party will never get you there.”

Managed services aren’t the only alternative for smaller organizations that can’t handle HR in-house. Technology vendors have offered comparable services through service bureaus. Small and midsized employers still use professional employment organizations for HR and recruitment process outsourcing for hiring.

HR technology integrators also fill the role of go-between for HR departments and vendors. Derrick Ware, founder and principal at Atriad in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina, provides such services for his clients. At small companies, “The HR function is always overlooked,” said Ware, who got his start in HR technology working as vice president of global technology operations at PeopleFluent. “Or they bring someone in and call them an HR generalist and they don’t have the right background to keep the business out of trouble.”

Namely has been testing the service with an undisclosed number of customers. Managed services customers will pay a fee over and above the $12 per-employee, per-month subscription cost for the company’s technology platform. Target users for both the managed services and the platform are companies with 20 to 2,000 employees, with a sweet spot of 180 to 200 employees, Straz said.

Namely will run the managed service division from a year-old office in Austin, Texas, where it expects to add to a staff of 20 that’s already there. The company is using some of the $50 million in venture money it raised in December 2016 to fund the expansion.

Michelle V. Rafter is a contributing editor. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

August 9, 2017June 29, 2023

Could a Smart Mirror Make Us More Productive or Invade Our Privacy?

When you hear about a smart mirror, you think it’s a future endeavor. Then you hear it’s a real thing happening right now, and others have created similar tools — like HiMirror, a smart mirror that tracks your skin health. Or the one with a personal and business application — MirroCool, a personal assistant smart mirror and camera.

When I got an email about MirroCool, which uses facial recognition technology and keeps track of your calendar events and to-do lists, my mouth dropped. Not because it sounded like the next technology people would be grabbing,

but because it sounds like a choke on our increasingly shrinking private lives outside of technology.

MirroCool is the creation of the company’s founder and CEO Wojtek Kaszycki, who worked in business and investment in Poland for more than 20 years. Given his wide expertise in IT, consulting and finance, he set out on a new adventure to create the smart mirror that also acts as a personal assistant.

The advanced facial recognition system makes it a selling point and no longer seems like something you’d find in a futuristic film. But while it also seems convenient for organizing your day, taking selfies with friends and reading your face, it feels more like just another thing to connect to all of our devices and does not sound like it will improve any productivity, as it is meant to do.

Kaszycki begs to differ, and said the mirror is compatible with organizational apps on smartphones you use daily to sync up and provide all the information you need for your morning routine.

“What is the perfect personal assistant? A person or device that gives you information when you want and when it is done in a way that you don’t lose your time,” Kaszycki said.

Sure, efficiency is key, but having a mirror in my bathroom still sounds invasive. While it can be placed anywhere you wish — whether that is in the bathroom, in the living room or in an office space, the bathroom is getting the most points in terms of advertisement for the mirror’s locations.

It knows all my information and can tell me what I need to know based on smiles or frowns, but I don’t want to be bombarded with all my daily tasks first thing in the morning. When I am doing my hair — or the seldom occasion that I wear makeup — the last thing I want is to see bubbles of information blasted back at me from my reflection. How many productivity hacks do we need these days?

MirroCool’s Instagram shows examples of messages the smart mirror can shoot at the user to be ready for the day.

Kaszycki hopes for just one in the future and sees the mirror as a one-stop memo. Technology is becoming more intelligent and is ever-changing; mirrors will always be a necessity, he said.

“MirroCool is safer and more secure than a regular smartphone,” he said. He reasons that smartphones connect to the internet, whereas the mirror is connected to just the MirroCloud, which does not store personal data but rather numbers from face recognition vectors. If the cloud were to be breached, hackers would not be able to connect the numbers to specific people.

Kaszycki also shared that you can turn the camera off for more privacy and always need to turn it on manually to take a photo. He said privacy is the biggest concern of his customers, but hearing these features did calm me down about user safety, although not enough to use a MirroCool.

I asked my friends and coworkers if they shared my same opinion, and they all felt similarly terrified of the addition of a smart mirror in a sacred place like the bathroom. With all the increased tech in our lives, meditation and yoga are seeing an uptick in our generation who want to get away from all the screens — myself included. Picking up a fiction book rather than reading online or watching the real sunset instead of it being through a screen is so much more meaningful these days; even at work, people are adapting to methods of not being so “on” all the time.

Although one could put the mirror in the hallway or even a workspace for communal use, the tools we already have — our smartphone, computer, smart watches and even tablets — help people manage their lives, stay productive and remind us to send flowers to grandma. Having a mirror at work to ping us for meetings or work-related events is a waste of wall space; we already have our computer and phone beeping at us constantly.

The Kickstarter campaign surpassed its goal within two days of being open.

My skepticism might be small in the target audience of the product. MirroCool Inc. launched its smart mirror on Kickstarter on July 11 to an anxious crowd ready to get their hands on the new personal assistant. By day two, the campaign had reached its backing goal of $50,000. Currently, it stands at over $68,000 with 15 days to go. Kaszycki said he hopes to reach between $500,000 and $700,000, and most of the backers are from the U.S.

I am struggling to find out who would want a selfie-taking-assistant mirror in their sacred space or how it would amplify their lives, but the campaign shows that there’s clearly a market for this new item. While I cannot foresee myself ever using it, I can reach to see the appeal of a mirror that takes that perfect selfie you want when you are looking back at yourself. I, like so many these days, am not ready to jump into the immediate future; sticking with a cell phone that tells me the weather and reminds me to check my laundry is innovative enough.

Ariel Parrella-Aureli is a Workforce intern. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

August 1, 2017June 29, 2023

NBC Reignites Privacy Debate by Requiring Job Seekers’ Social Media Passwords

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

George Santayana

It’s been eight long years since Bozeman, Montana, set the internet on fire by requiring that job applicants for municipal positions turn over passwords to their personal social media accounts as part of the application process. In the wake of that story, states rushed to introduce legislation prohibiting this practice; many succeeded. And, the story more or less died.

Thank you, NBC, for reigniting it.

From the New York Post:

A fired NBC employee claims a recruiter who initially contacted her for a job as an audio-visual coordinator told her NBC “specifically asked for good-looking employees”— and wanted to see pictures before she could get her foot in the door.

Stephanie Belanger says the recruiter asked her “to show her Facebook/Instagram profile to NBC before she could be interviewed.”

Despite all the the negative press that this story is going to receive, I would be surprised if one-percent of one-percent of all employers have even considered asking a job applicant for access to a private social-media account, let alone carried through on the thought by making it a hiring requirement.

And do you know why most (nearly all?) employers do not do this? It’s bad HR policy, with significant legal risk:

EEO Risks: Mining Facebook and other social sites for information on job applicants can reveal a wealth of protected EEO information (age, religion, protected medical information, genetic information). The risk is great enough when the information is publicly available; it is exponentially heightened when you gain unfettered access to information shielded by a password. For some thoughts on best practices on conducting Internet searches on applicants or employees, click here.

Stored Communications Act Risks: At least one court has concluded that an employer who requires employees to disclose passwords to social media sites violates the federal Stored Communications Act, which extends liability to parties that exceed authorization to access electronic communications. While this area of the law might be unsettled, testing it could prove a costly mistake.

Legal issues aside, this story raises another, more fundamental, question — what type of employer do you want to be? Do you want to be viewed as Big Brother?

Do you want a paranoid workforce? Do you want your employees to feel invaded and victimized as soon as they walk in the door, with no sense of personal space or privacy?

Or, do you value transparency? Do you want HR practices that engender honesty, and openness, and that recognize that employees are entitled to a life outside of work?

Social media provides a lot of benefits to employers. It opens channels of communication between employees in and out of the workplace. And, when used smartly, it enables employers to learn more about potential employees than ever before. You can learn if an employee has good communication skills, is a good cultural fit, or trashed a former employer. But, this tool has to be used smartly to avoid legal risks. Requiring passwords is not smart.

While it seems like we cannot recall a time without social media in our lives, it remains a new and developing form of media. The rules and regulations that govern it are still evolving. Moreover, governments are looking for opportunities to regulate it.

If a small minority of businesses pursue this poor HR practice, state legislatures and Congress will continue pursuing legislative solutions. Do not provide the government the opportunity. Can we all just agree that requiring social media passwords is a bad idea and finally move on from this story?

Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

July 25, 2017June 29, 2023

Unicorns, Meet the Dinosaurs: Leading a Fast-Growth Tech Company at Age 50

It was clear from the 2017 SaaStr conference in San Francisco that technology has not lost its luster. In only its third year, the three-day conference was a huge hit with around 10,000 post-revenue software as a service founders, executives and investors. But at the same time it had identified some disparities, such as clear underrepresentation of female founders and CEOs.

While rare at 22 percent attendance, the female executives were still remarkably more visible than an almost extinct cohort: the over-50 tech executives. These “dinosaurs” appeared to be so rare that no one even dared (or cared) to take the statistical analysis of their presence (or lack thereof).

The only anecdotal knowledge of their existence was my own experience observing the busy hallways and energy-filled sessions and looking for my own kind. An occasional nod from a like species as a sign of mutual affection and understanding was accompanied by a sheer sign of strength, confidence and pure enjoyment, as if we already knew the end of the movie and all other participants were just watching the trailer.

Do Unicorns Need Dinosaurs?
Unicorns are startup companies valued at over $1 billion. By the latest analysis, there are 197 private tech companies valued at $1 billion or more (including whisper valuations). According to Fortune, at least a dozen of those would have a chance of making it to the S&P 500 list; an impressive feat.

It is well known (and celebrated) that 14 out of the top 100 wealthiest tech CEOs are under 40 years old. At the same time, the median age of a U.S. worker is 42. In Silicon Valley, that number drops to 31, according to Bloomberg. Even more remarkable, and to put things in perspective, less than 10 executives under the age of 40 are heads of non-tech Standard & Poor’s 500 companies, according to Spencer Stuart, while the average age of all CEOs at S&P 500 companies is 53, according to The Conference Board.

Is there an executive age bias in Silicon Valley? It is not due to age discrimination. A vast majority of tech firms are socially and culturally very liberal and pride themselves on diversity.

The best way to understand it is to look at how most tech firms get started and by whom.

In most cases, there is an identified, unfulfilled need that is subject to a “disruption of an existing solution” and it triggers a professional cognitive “juice flow” by either a young marketer, or (in most cases) a young programmer who believes they are placed on this Earth to solve that problem.

Those individuals are rarely busy running large organizations and are frequently either students, or employed by other young marketers or programmers whom they want to emulate or even one-up. Once the idea is born, they have the time and passion to drag their friends out of their jobs (or dormitories) and convince them to resort back to the college all-nighters in order to produce a prototype or launch the app so the initial capital can be raised and get the company started. Very few, if any, existing mid to large-company CEOs are going to do that (unless already retired from a previous financial windfall).

In most cases, the founder(s) end up not including a more experienced business executive in their early ranks, either as an adviser or, even rarer, as their boss. Here are the most common reasons as to why this practice is so rare:

Twenty- to 30-year-old tech wizards are very self-assured and believe that their tech prowess or expertise in marketing to like cohorts will create products and market demand for the company to succeed on its own and within their own leadership.
The technology evolves so rapidly that there is a common belief that if an executive is over 40, their ability to recognize, apply and leverage the most advanced techniques and tools is outdated and therefore rendered immaterial.
Since most young founders have rarely held more than midlevel jobs at more established companies, there is a significant lack of mentoring and familiarity created between the two (sometimes three) generations of leaders.

The Case for Dinosaurs
So, are the young founders missing out? Why should they reach out to gray-haired elder statesmen and women? Here are three reasons:

Experience. Older executives have seen the market cycles, funding fads and corresponding investor mood swings. They have, in most cases, already made operational errors in burn rates and know when to step on the gas and when to brake.
Patience. As Rome was not built in a day, neither is a successful company. The best outcome for a growth company is to combine youthful exuberance with cautious optimism.
Advice and confidentiality. Since few if any tech startups are created by a parent-child team, the next best thing is a synergistic, complimentary relationship of a visionary young founder and a mature executive whose personal interests for the partnership are diverse and business interests aligned.

Every aspiring Mark Zuckerberg and Nathan Blecharczyk ought to have a Warren Buffett or Sir Richard Branson in their executive suite. Because when they are planning to create that next unicorn, they may just need a dinosaur to sustain their dream.

Sasha Poljak is the executive chairman of Nimble Software Systems, creator of Ximble.com, a staff scheduling and time tracking app software platform deployed in more than 30 countries worldwide. Poljak is a seasoned entrepreneur and angel investor who has led strategy and market development in a number of successful tech ventures.

July 5, 2017June 29, 2023

Smart Lockers Open Options for Workplace Wellness and Safety

Employees at Hull & Knarr have no excuses to not pedal around on a bike. The Indianapolis-based financial services firm has opened the door to new wellness and team-building initiatives for its employees in an eco-friendly and accessible manner.

A brightly lit orange locker room with company-owned bikes, showers and personal lockers with bike equipment and accessories line the workout room for the firm’s workers to use at their leisure. Commuting to work and rides during lunch are the most common times the equipment is used, said Brad Ferrell, director at Hull & Knarr.

“Anything we can do to remove reasons not to participate [in biking] — we really try to remove all those obstacles,” Ferrell said.

Of the company’s 13 employees, Ferrell said five or six use the bikes daily. He said having all of the biking equipment easily accessible has created happier and healthier workers, which in turn has positively affected the workplace.

“We are creating a culture where people want to be a part of something, but it also gives them a cause and something to root for,” said Ferrell, who tries to bike at least twice a week. “It creates teamwork outside of the office.”

Hull & Knarr use IM lockers for personal bike and workout equipment. *Photo courtesy Brad Ferrell*

In the three years Hull & Knarr has used the smart lockers — which can track employee use and well-being by how many times lockers are opened and offer data for rewards and incentives — they have evolved to become more user-friendly and personal for anyone looking to balance work and wellness. While these locker trends are not new to corporate wellness, they are beginning to reshape workplace culture to give employees a healthy dose of activity and social engagement with others in their office and the larger community.

Much of this has stemmed from IVM Inc., the creators of the lockers and one of Hull & Knarr’s clients. The lockers can be used numerous ways — from IT help, snacks and medical supplies to fire extinguishers, according to IVM President Mike Pitts, who has seen the product’s growth since the company was founded in 1991.

IVM produces not only smart lockers but smart vending machines too, which thrive among big tech companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Facebook, and are made to improve accessibility of needed items in the workplace. By scanning an employee badge, those looking for headphones, a temporary computer or a new keyboard can get them immediately without using cash or coins.

Facebook, whose headquarter offices in Menlo Park, California, use IVM’s vending machines to sell bike parts to employees and promote corporate wellness. The machines replace the need for a campus repair shop and promote cycling across the board, giving employees instant gratification through IVM’s technology, Pitts affirmed.

Facebook’s office headquarters sell bike parts to employees and promote corporate wellness.

The newest tool to the vending machine community are the fire extinguishers from WESCO Distribution, a longtime IVM customer. The company is getting ready to roll out the fire extinguisher application with a major electric utility. WESCO places IVM’s vending machines and lockers in utility and nuclear plants to distribute safety tools such as goggles, safety suits and gloves for employees to grab before starting their shift.

“That all came about from this culture of watching out for employees,” Pitts said of the upcoming deal. “[It’s] not just giving them the tools they need to do their job but the things that make their jobs safer and better to this far extreme of even the well-being of their employees.”

This kind of technology use in the workplace brings up the question of future technological assistance and how smart lockers are influencing the workplace. Pitts said he does not foresee any negatives as technology will positively affect productivity, accessibility and job security and will not eliminate jobs — similar to the continued growth of robotic technology.

“What you are going to see over the coming years is that these vending systems are going to be prevalent throughout all industries,” he said. “They are going to be used for so many different things that it staggers the imagination.”

Ariel Parrella-Aureli is a Workforce intern. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

June 26, 2017August 3, 2023

2017 Game Changer: S. Cameron Cox

It’s not easy being a media company these days.

It’s even more difficult, one might argue, to be a media company experiencing seismic transformational change. So is the case of Atlantic Media, publisher of the 159-year-old Atlantic magazine. S. Cameron Cox isn’t an editor or writer at any of the company’s esteemed publications, but ask any of his colleagues and it’s easy to see how his work has been equally as instrumental in the company’s recent growth and success.

Cox, 38, is managing director of talent and culture at Atlantic Media, and in the seven years he’s been with the firm, the company has grown twofold, from about a 400-person operation with a primary presence in Washington, D.C., to an 800-person operation with offices spread across the globe. In that span, Atlantic Media has launched new publications, expanded its headcount and reorganized its teams globally, all of which have required an astute leader on the talent and culture side to manage the change.

Even before taking on his current role in June 2016, colleagues say Cox has been a sought-after adviser to new hires and seasoned executives alike on matters relating to anything from the intricacies of people management to the technical minutiae of implementing a new benefits administration software platform and building a global recruiting function.

[To read about our other 2017 Game Changers, click here.]

June 12, 2017August 31, 2023

Beauty and the Gig Economy

When actress Cara Santana first heard about Uber’s gig economy model, she thought it absurd. She wanted to rebuke the idea. But now it’s a noun, verb and an adjective. In 2014 she took the same business model and started The Glam App, which brings local makeup, hair and nail artists to women looking to beautify their lives from home. Santana, also known for TV roles in “Salem,” “Santa Clarita Diet” and movies “Reunion,” “Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva La Fiesta!” and the upcoming drama “Steps,” points out Uber has changed the way people see the free-market economy and bolstered independent contractors. CEO Santana only has eight full-time employees with offices in London and Los Angeles, yet Glam has over 30,000 active users in 22 markets in the U.S. and U.K., and over 2,000 stylists.

The company recently partnered with L’Oreal for an exclusive artistry program called the Glam Academy, curated in collaboration with Beyoncé’s go-to artist Sir John who is curating four new looks for The Glam App this year using L’Oréal Paris products. Workforce intern Ariel Parrella-Aureli recently chatted with Santana about being an entrepreneur, hiring employees and creating a strong company culture.

Workforce: Why did you pick the gig economy structure for the app?

Cara Santana: The social culture of the modern-day working woman, the millennial, is instant gratification, convenience, accessibility. They really believe the shape of the culture was going to a place where, either because of time constraints or because of this need and ability to get most things instantaneously, that the beauty industry would fit in. With 65 percent of women working more now than in 2008, you have obviously a culture of millennials who have grown up where they are able to get things when they want, whether it is Postmates or Tinder or whatever. We have to be able to fill a real need, which is beauty — it’s not going anywhere. It felt like a natural progression to apply this model to the business of beauty.

WF: How has your acting career helped your app company?

Santana: How it really helped me is being an “entrepreneur” which is the term I think that gets thrown around a lot, and being an actress, there are a lot of similarities. There is no linear path, there is no handbook on how to get to success; you don’t do A and get to B. there is a lot of rejection, creating your own brand and identity as an actress and same with a business. The turmoil and the struggle of “making it” in the acting world is very similar to “making it” in the small business entrepreneurial world. And thinking outside of the box, having a tough shell, being open to rejection and hearing “no”—there are a lot of similarities in it, so that prepared me for resilience and to march to the beat of my own drum and have faith in myself.

WF: How do you balance being a CEO and a celebrity?

Santana: My mom has always taught me, you can’t do everything on your own. She has always been a working mother, ever since I can remember. When I started to build The Glam App, I knew inherently that I wasn’t going to be able to build it on my own and make it successful. I surrounded myself with people whose strengths were my weaknesses, whether it’s partnering with Joey, who had a very strong creative vision, which is not really my forte, or hiring a COO who was very strong in operations and hiring an assistant who could help balance my schedule. That is a large team, and such cohesion helped simplify and streamline everything I’m doing and it allows me to really create that balance.

WF: How do you build your workforce in this industry?

Santana: The challenge to any business is the hiring. When I talk to other CEOs and owners of businesses, it is always the staff. You really want to create a company that has good culture. You want to have like-minded people working for you. It is such an interesting time — millennials are now the workforce. I am looking for innovative, ambitious and creative talent who have the best qualities millennials have to offer but with a really strong work ethic, because a startup is just categorically different than any other type of environment. It is long hours — I work 80 hours a week, everyone on my staff pretty much works 50 minimum and we are a small team, so you want to find people who are invested in the cause who really want to see The Glam App meet its potential.

WF: What are the positives and negatives to this business model and specifically to the beauty industry?

Santana: The biggest challenge is converting behavior. When something is new and not the norm, there is a natural sense of reservation to it and so big cities like Los Angeles or New York, where people have been getting their hair and makeup done at home, it’s a luxury. But in Phoenix or Dallas, that is really changing the normal behavior [of the makeup industry]. We are allowing all women — no matter their socioeconomic status, age, where they live — you are allowing them the opportunity to have affordable and accessible beauty experiences in some capacity. You are also enabling this group of artists; the hair, makeup and nail professionals, who otherwise would have a very limited ability to work, whether it be in a salon or building their own freelance business, which is incredibly hard. We are allowing these stylists to build their brand, build their clientele, supplement their income while allowing young consumers and stay-at-home moms and working women to find the time to feel good about themselves without having to compromise on their life.

WF: How does this affect local beauty salons or makeup stores?

Santana: I like to always say we want to be their partners. We are not trying to cut and color — do all of the salon-type services. What we are trying to do is simply the styling aspects. Salons cannot always fill all of their needs. Maybe there are not enough stylists; maybe someone wants an in-house call. We want to work hand-in-hand and enable the growth and progression of stylists and beauty providers in every capacity, so we hope it positively affects the salon space.

WF: What is the partnership with L’Oreal going to do for the company’s growth?

Santana: Partnering with such a recognizable beauty brand helps our artists see what we are doing that people are taking notice. This isn’t just a fly-by-night idea, but there is real legitimacy to the business, and brands like L’Oreal and Dolce & Gabbana, the W Hotel, Glamour Magazine — all these people we are working with are realizing the value of the market. This really is the future.

WF: How do you create a common work culture and value system with employees on the internet and working remotely?

Santana: It is a work in progress. You want to instill a sense of incentive and desire to work toward a common goal. We do a lot of incentivized tasks, whether it is winning trips to other offices, incentivizing our stylists to bring in clientele by providing them with a program that gives them rewards back. We certainly try to create a fun and positive working environment and create a company culture of like-minded individuals who want to work hard, who are bringing creativity to a “sterile business model.” It is about finding those young millennials who are interested in making a change and making a social impact while maintaining the Generation X sentiment of work hard and play hard. Today’s generation is really driven by the ideology of making an impact. Do I feel valuable? Am I doing something substantial? Am I being recognized? It’s a balance but having incentives and creativity to really garner the interest of your employees and independent contractors is key. As long as you are playing to that base instinct and base feeling of those needs, you get a successful employee.

WF: What have you learned about being a CEO in the workforce?

Santana: I look back at who I was or what version of myself I was two years ago and the version of myself I am today — it’s leaps and bounds different. The hardest part is picking and choosing your battles and creating an environment where people want to come to work. I didn’t go to business school so a lot of what I am learning I am learning on the go. The hardest part for me has really been balancing the work and the small successes and really taking a moment to identity what has been a win versus moving on and bulldozing to the next thing, and balancing my personal life and not losing my own identity.

Ariel Parrella-Aureli is a Workforce intern. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.