Technology Archives - Page 14 of 27

March 28, 2017July 30, 2018

When Will Employees Learn That Online Comments Can and Will Be Used Against Them?

I recently gave two different speeches discussing the balance between an employee’s privacy and an employer’s right to know. One of the themes is that social media has irreparably blurred the line between one’s personal persona and one’s professional persona, and employees best be careful with that they say online, because employers are watching and holding them accountable.

Case in point? Buker v. Howard County (4th Cir. 3/20/17) [pdf].

Buker concerns a fire department battalion chief fired because of series of posts (his spelling, not mine) to his personal Facebook page.

My aide had an outstanding idea . . lets all kill someone with a liberal . . . then maybe we can get them outlawed too! Think of the satisfaction of beating a liberal to death with another liberal . . . its almost poetic . . .

and

To prevent future butthurt and comply with a directive from my supervisor, a recent post (meant entirley in jest) has been deleted. So has the complaining party. If I offend you, feel free to delete me. Or converse with me. I’m not scared or ashamed of my opinions or political leaning, or religion. I’m happy to discuss any 8 of them with you. If you’re not man enough to do so, let me know, so I can delete you. That is all. Semper Fi! Carry On.

and

Unfortunately, not in the current political climate. Howard County, Maryland, and the Federal Government are all Liberal Democrat held at this point in time. Free speech only applies to the liberals, and then only if it is in line with the liberal socialist agenda. County Governement recently published a Social media policy, which the Department then published it’s own. It is suitably vague enough that any post is likely to result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, to include this one. All it took was one liberal to complain . . . sad day. To lose the First Ammendment rights I fought to ensure, unlike the WIDE majority of the Government I serve.

Additionally, Buker “liked” a photo, posted by a co-worker, of an elderly woman with her middle finger raised, captioned: “THIS PAGE, YEAH THE ONE YOU’RE LOOKING AT IT’S MINE[.] I’LL POST WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT[.]”

He also “liked” a racist comment by a co-worker to his “beating a liberal to death” post, which suggested that Buker “pick a black one.”

Based on the totality of these posts, the department fired Buker.

The court had little problem affirming the lower court’s decision dismissing Buker’s claims.

For several reasons, we conclude that the Department’s interest in efficiency and preventing disruption outweighed Plaintiff’s interest in speaking in the manner he did regarding gun control and the Department’s social media policy. First, Plaintiff’s Facebook activity interfered with and impaired Department operations and discipline as well as working relationships within the Department. … Second, Plaintiff’s Facebook activity significantly conflicted with Plaintiff’s responsibilities as a battalion chief. … Third, Plaintiff’s speech frustrated the Department’s public safety mission and threatened “community trust” in the Department, which is “vitally important” to its function. … Fourth, Plaintiff’s speech—particularly his “like” of the image depicting a woman raising her middle finger—“expressly disrespect[ed] [his] superiors.” Lastly, we observe that the record is rife with observations of how Plaintiff’s Facebook activity … disregarded and upset the chain of command upon which the Department relies.

In sum, we conclude the Department’s interest in workplace efficiency and preventing disruption outweighed the public interest commentary contained in Plaintiff’s Facebook activity.

Let me put it a more practical way. Employees have not yet realized that anything they say online can impact their professional persona, and that every negative or offensive statement could lead to discipline or termination. Until people fully understand that social media has erased the line between the personal and the professional, these issues will continue to arise. It is our job as employers to help educate our employees about living in this new online world, because it is clear that not all employees have yet learned this lesson.

Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.

March 20, 2017June 29, 2023

Diversity Should Be Selfish

What the h-e-double hockey sticks with this headline, right? Why on earth would I promote the idea that diversity should be selfish? What about inclusion? Unity? Collaboration? Equality? It all depends on who’s being selfish and why.

Earlier this month I found this article on Forbes.com. In it staffer Katheryn Thayer detailed the story of Dots, a 4-year-old mobile app gaming company helmed by co-founder and CEO Paul Murphy. According to the article, he built his company to “make something that would appeal to everyone, not just gamers.”

Since his primary customer base, or players are women, he hired a lot of them, building a 50-person company comprised mostly of women or racial or ethnic minorities. Unlike others in the tech industry, he said doing so wasn’t hard. He lured them in with a flexible work environment, opportunities for development, and deliberately reached out to anyone whose network included the female talent he was trying to acquire. Now, “at Dots, women hold leadership roles in the development, game design, product, marketing, operations and finance teams.”

After that initial wave of women was working, others followed, as like attracted like. Thayer wrote, “Dots also sought cultural diversity for what Murphy calls a ‘selfish reason.’ ”

A team-first attitude can help unify a diverse workplace.

“Our game is played globally. It’s got a hundred million people that have downloaded and played our products and we think it’s really important that we have a team that reflects in some way the diversity of our player base.” So they’ve made an effort to hire employees from across Asia, Europe and the Americas. “We wouldn’t have been able to build the company without them here.”

We can infer three things from Murphy’s actions:

If you look for and make them welcome, you can find female tech talent.
The quickest way to make a successful diversity strategy work is to ensure top executives take an active role in its creation and execution.
Being selfish is not always a bad thing.

This version of selfish is actually inclusive, unified, collaborative, and most importantly it’s diverse. Or, some facets of it are. I will admit that a primarily female staff might not pass the sniff test under conventional definitions for diversity, but contextually? That’s a different thing.

Bottom line? Diversity can be achieved. Even in industries where its presence has not historically been of value, if leaders believe in the business case and take talent-oriented steps to bring about its deliverance: networking to facilitate recruiting, creating the right culture to support business and talent goals, and ensuring that the global marketplace at large knows of the company’s position on diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

According to the article Dots’ international staff were, shall we say, displeased with the recent travel ban. It “hit a nerve for us,” Murphy said. To make it crystal clear the company did not support the ban or that the actions reflected its values, Dots created an in-app pop-up to fundraise for the American Civil Liberties Union.

“In a single Saturday night, Murphy says the team developed a dozen translations of their message and worked out cultural nuances that might affect how players in specific regions, such as Taiwan versus mainland China, might interpret it.” Dots couldn’t track how much money players donated to the ACLU, but their reports showed their efforts drove 500,000 players to donation pages in a single weekend in late January.

I’m sure building Dots’ diverse workforce wasn’t quite as easy and straightforward as it seemed in this article. But it proves that with a little strategy and effort, it can be done.

Kellye Whitney is associate editorial director for Workforce. Comment below or email editor@workforce.com.

March 7, 2017August 31, 2023

Can 2 Letters Take Down HR as We Know It?

Tedious administrative tasks have long been the bane of the HR professional’s job.

Updating paperwork, sending out benefits reminders and plowing through hundreds of resumes can eat up hours every day, preventing HR leaders from focusing on more strategic tasks related to workforce planning and development. But the days of drudgery may soon be over, at least according to some vendors. Over the past year, HR software providers have trumpeted the fact that their technologies automate all of the manual and repetitive tasks that few want to do.

artificial intelligence — Don’t fear, HR. Industry tech experts say your job is safe.

It’s an appealing offer, said Mark Somol, co-founder and CEO of Boston-based Zeal Technology Inc., which offers software to measure employee engagement and morale. “At the heart of the automation trend are leaders who recognize that they need to understand their people better,” he said.

It’s an important message when it comes to HR automation. Unlike the manufacturing industry or the promise of self-driving taxis, automation isn’t intended to replace HR staff, it’s meant to enhance what they do. By eliminating tedious tasks, HR employees can finally focus on what Somol calls “personalized talent management.”

“We are all better off if HR and talent management leaders spend more time with people, taking care of their individual challenges,” he said.

The need for more time has often been a challenge for HR, so why are vendors suddenly eager to automate?

“Because they can,” said Alan Lepofsky, vice president and principal analyst for Constellation Research in Toronto. Access to massive amounts of data and computing power coupled with advances in the machine learning technology means vendors can finally use artificial intelligence, or AI, to automate many of the manual tasks that waste so much time.

In some cases they can do them better, faster and with fewer errors than any human ever could. In recruiting, for example, trying to find candidates on social media using keyword searches is tedious and inconsistent. But a system that uses machine-learning algorithms can be programmed to search millions of profiles and to learn which kind of candidates, sources and backgrounds deliver the best candidates.

“It’s more accurate and easier for the computer to do it for you than to do it yourself,” he said.

These tools can also be used to analyze internal forums to identify in-house experts or identify complaints that might suggest an employee is a flight risk. “If you can remediate the problem before an employee quits, that’s a great value,” he said.

The promise of automation is intriguing, though Lepofsky warns HR leaders to not get drawn in by the hype.

“A lot of the talk about AI in HR is overblown,” he said, adding that many tools are more like chatbots than AI. “They can simulate human conversations, but they can’t learn or communicate in any meaningful way.”

So while a chatbot can convincingly respond to an email query about the benefits programs, an AI system could recognize that an employee is struggling to complete their benefits enrollment and recommend training or a support tool based on what previous employees have used.

Vendors like Oracle, SuccessFactors, and Infor already offer automation capabilities that use machine learning to do compliance checks and make suggestions, and more are likely to come, said Ray Wang, principal analyst for Constellation Research. Though it will likely be another year or two before AI technology is trusted enough to be allowed to take action without any human review.

As with virtually every previous HR technology trend, Wang predicts that the small start-ups will likely bring the most innovative AI tools to market first, then shortly after, the big firms will start acquiring them to add that functionality to their suite. “Small companies have the agility to test their theories, but the big companies have the data to scale them,” he said.

Regardless of who is first to market, this trend will ultimately be benefit for HR.

“The days of counting contingency workers and entering data will soon be over,” Wang said. “As vendors automate more tasks, HR leaders will become more strategic, focusing their time on taking care of the workforce and planning for the future.”

Sarah Fister Gale is a writer in the Chicago area. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

March 6, 2017June 29, 2023

Lessons From a Ransomware Attack

CNN reports that a ransomware attack has locked the computer network of the Pennsylvania Democratic Caucus. This is what we call a teachable moment.

What is ransomware? Ransomware is malicious software that locks one’s computer or network until a sum a money is paid, at which point the cybercriminal provide a code to unlock the system. If the ransom is not paid with a set timeframe, they will wipe the data. And, any organization that relies on access to data, and cannot afford to lose access to that data at any time, is the prime target of a ransomware attack. Does that sound like your business?

How does one become infected with ransomware? Like any other virus or malware, most often by clicking a suspicious link in an email or on a website.

If you become victim to a ransomware attack, your options are limited. Depending on the type of encryption used by the cybercriminals to lock your system, you may be able to break the encryption. But that is unlikely. Much more likely, you either pay the ransom, or rely the quality of your system back-up and the expense that goes along with restoring it.

ransomware cybercrime — No business is immune from suffering a cyberattack. Being proactive is better than being reactive.

Either way, plan on a ransomware attack costing you. In 2015, for example, victims of these attacks paid a collective $24 million in ransom to these cyber-extortionists, and another $325 million to disinfect machines and restore backup data. In other words, ransomware is big business and a bigger threat, and it’s not going away anytime soon.

The best cybercrime offense is a good defense. Here are four tips to best protect your organization from suffering a crippling and expensive ransomware attack.

1. Diligently back up everything. If you invest in quality and reliable system backups, then you remove most of the risk of suffering a ransomware attack. In the event of an attack, you simply wipe your computers and servers, and start from scratch via the last uninfected backup.

2. Avoid suspicious emails and links. This, of course, is easier said than done, especially if your employees do not know for what to beware. Even a little bit of cyber-training goes a long way, and with the right training, your employees will learn to vet before they click. Your employees are the prime targets of these attacks, and they are also your first, and best, line of defense.

3. Patch software and block suspicious emails and websites. This step does not work without training your employees. The cybercriminals are at least one step (if not two three, or more steps) ahead of software patches and email/website blacklists. Nevertheless, have the latest version of everything installed lets the security experts working for your software providers do their jobs.

4. Disconnect immediately upon an infection. Any cyberattack is easier to contain and correct and limited to one desktop. Once it spread to multiple machines or, worse yet, servers, it becomes more difficult and exponentially more expensive to remedy. Once you learn of infection, notify IT and get everything offline as soon as possible. Quarantining the infected machines is the only way to stop ransomware from infecting your entire network.

No business is immune from suffering a cyberattack. However, being proactive is better than being reactive. Taking these four steps will help position your company best to avoid a cyberattack such a ransomware and to respond when it occurs.

Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.

February 23, 2017June 29, 2023

Saba to Acquire Halogen Software in 2017’s First Big HR Technology Deal

Saba Software acquiring Halogen Software — The HR tech space saw its first major deal of 2017 as Saba Software is acquiring Halogen Software. Illustration by Anna Jo Beck

While consolidation in the HR technology space isn’t much of a surprise anymore, Saba Software’s announced acquisition of Ottawa, Canada-based Halogen Software was a bit unexpected.

The deal, worth a reported $293 million, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2017.

Though it’s certainly not on the scale of cloud-based talent management software blockbusters like 2012’s $1.9 billion Oracle-Taleo deal or 2011’s $3.4 billion SAP-SuccessFactors acquisition, this could be the next wave in smaller companies building broader HR technology suites.

The thinking could be that bigger indeed is better. According to a joint release, the deal “will extend Saba’s position as a leading provider of end-to-end SaaS talent management solutions. Combined, Saba and Halogen will serve more than 4,000 customers worldwide, and together, increase value to the customers they serve with the strength, size and scale to deliver rapid innovations in talent management.”

Saba’s expertise lies in the L&D space, while Halogen’s software focuses on performance management. Not surprisingly, the release noted that the deal combines learning and performance in a way not yet realized in the market.

“Saba has a clear vision for the future of talent development and understands the powerful role learning and engagement experiences play in driving individual and business performance,” said Pervez Qureshi, CEO of Saba, which was acquired by private equity firm Vector Capital in 2015. “Combining Saba’s unrivaled learning and engagement capabilities with the proven innovation Halogen brings to performance management, we expect to accelerate delivery against this vision and rapidly create new value for our joint customers. This strong foundation for growth and innovation and our combined expertise will enable Saba to meet the ever-changing workplace needs of people and help organizations more effectively adapt, perform and thrive.”

Michael Slaunwhite, executive chairman of Halogen, was equally as effusive of the deal. “We have built Halogen into a market leader in performance management by investing in the talented and innovative team that began here in Ottawa more than 20 years ago.I look forward to joining forces with Vector Capital and Saba. Together, we have the opportunity to scale faster and lead the way in performance, learning, and engagement and expand our global impact.”

Rick Bell is editorial director for Workforce. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

February 8, 2017June 29, 2023

Is Your Company Protected From Insider Cyber Threats?

I’ve previously suggested that your employees are your company’s weakest link, and therefore, your greatest threat to suffering a cyber-attack and resulting data breach. While employee negligence (that is, employees not knowing or understanding how their actions risk your company’s data security) remains the biggest cyber risk, another is growing and also demands your attention — the malicious insider.

Dark Reading reports on a recent survey titled, “Monetizing the Insider: The Growing Symbiosis of Insiders and the Dark Web.”

Recruitment of insiders is increasing, and the use of the dark web is the current methodology that malicious actors are using to find insiders,” explains researcher Tim Condello, technical account manager and security researcher at RedOwl.

Cybercriminals recruit with the goal of finding insiders to steal data, make illegal trades, or otherwise generate profit. Advanced threat actors look for insiders to place malware within a business’ perimeter security. …

Think your business is safe? Think again. All insiders pose a risk, regardless of their seniority or technical ability, experts say. As major data breaches continue to make headlines, people are recognizing the tremendous impact leaked data can have on a business—and how they can profit from it.

There are three types of people who fall into the “insider” category, says Condello: negligent employees who don’t practice good cyber hygiene, disgruntled employees with ill will, and malicious employees who join organizations with the intent to defraud them.

What is a company to do? I’ve already discussed how to protect against the negligent employees who don’t practice good cyber hygiene—training, training, and more cyber-training.

No amount of training, however, will stop a disgruntled employee with ill intent, or a malicious employee who joins to do harm.

These latter two categories need more specialized attention—an insider threat program. The Wall Street Journal explains:

Companies are increasingly building out cyber programs to protect themselves from their own employees. … Businesses … are taking advantage of systems … to find internal users who are accidentally exposing their company to hackers or malicious insiders attacking the company.

These “systems,” however, can prove costly, especially for the small-business owner. While investment in a technological solution is one way to tackle this serious problem, it’s not the only way. Indeed, there is lots any company, of any size, with any amount of resources, can do to develop an insider threat program.

Aside from the expense of costly monitoring programs, what types of issues should employers include in an insider threat program? Here are four suggestions:

Extra monitoring of high-risk employees, such as those who previously violated IT policies, those who seek access to non-job-related business information, and those who are, or are likely to be, disgruntled (i.e., employees who express job dissatisfaction, who are on a performance improvement plan, or who are pending termination).
Inventories and audits for computers, mobile devices, and removable media (i.e., USB and external hard drives), both during employment and post-employment.
Policies and programs that promote the resolution of employee grievances and protect whistleblowers.
Pre-employment background checks to help screen out potential problem employees before they become problems.

No company can make itself bulletproof from a cyber attack. Indeed, for all businesses, data breaches are a when issue, not an if issue. However, ignoring the serious threat insiders pose to your company’s cybersecurity will only serve to accelerate the when.

Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.

December 29, 2016June 29, 2023

Brexit? Maybe it’s Time to Make the Case for HRexit

By Marcus Mossberger

wf_1216_hrexit_story — While Uber has HR pros performing traditional duties, someone else is exploring self-driving autos. It’s talent acquisition minus the talent.

While many people were surprised by Brexit, the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union, I’m hoping you might consider another once-unthinkable idea — the case for HRexit.

Please note: I don’t mean the secession of the HR profession from the corporate landscape. Rather I’m highlighting the need to completely rethink the way that HR leaders serve the individuals and organizations we work for as a result of two main paradigm shifts: the role of technology in the evolution of work and the gig economy.

Let’s start with the second of these important changes. Some 51 percent of executives plan to increase or significantly increase the use of contingent workers in the next three to five years. In fact, already more than one-third of U.S. workers are freelancers, so this is hardly a new concept. But millennials are arguably the first generation to embrace the notion that “work” has evolved into a temporary construct that will continue to evolve and change more and more rapidly in large part due to technology.

Take Brent Lager, co-founder of community improvement nonprofit The Call KC (and a millennial). Lager decided early on in his career that stability took a back seat to purpose. While he has been working to get his organization off the ground he frequently takes temporary substitute teaching gigs or other project-oriented work to stay afloat.

“I have no illusion that there is an employer out there that will guarantee me a job for the next 20 years, and frankly I’d rather focus on ways I can give back to my local community than maintain a steady income,” he said.

The legal and regulatory challenges created by this new model have been well-publicized as organizations like Uber attempt to avoid the idea that their drivers are actually employees versus independent contractors. In reality, it won’t be long before this is a moot point, as Uber has made it clear — based on their technology investments — their long-term bet is on self-driving cars. Uber is arguably among the most fascinating organizations in the world considering the fact that they will acutely face these two paradigm shifts as intensely as any other company.

While Uber has HR professionals to perform traditional duties (for its actual employees), someone else is likely exploring the idea of replacing their drivers (their humans) with machines. It’s talent acquisition minus the talent. So where does that leave HR? There is arguably no simple answer.

The Deloitte report suggests that 76 percent of the executives surveyed expect automation will require new skills in the workforce in the next one to three years. So, we could refocus our efforts on the people side of our organizations and ignore the idea that artificial (not human) resources may well be best positioned to deliver results for our organizations. Or we can find a way to partner with IT, R&D and other internal stakeholders to completely reimagine how we create value for our employees and our shareholders.

The removal of menial tasks by robots and learning machines may be welcomed if we provide tools and resources for people to gain new, higher-level skills. And the ability to find and adopt new technology to remain competitive will become as important as any functional skill in the organization.

If HR doesn’t do it, someone else will.

Marcus Mossberger is senior director, health care HCM Strategy, at New York-based Infor. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

December 19, 2016July 24, 2024

Onboarding Apps Can Aid Adding New Employees

wf_1216_onboarding_story — Mobile apps are one to to enhance the employee onboarding experience.

Every year more than 25 percent of the U.S. working population changes jobs, according to research by the SHRM Foundation. This means at least 25 percent of the workforce annually goes through the onboarding process that aims to make a new hire an inherent part of the organization. Human resources normally handles onboarding, and the faster and smoother the process, the sooner and more effectively a newcomer can contribute to the company.

Software can effectively support the onboarding process, and apps can aid what SHRM calls its “4 levers of successful onboarding”: role clarity, self-efficacy, social integration and knowledge of culture.

Depending on the role and the industry, onboarding may take from one week to 90 days. Many large organizations think of onboarding as a longer and a more delicate process: IBM’s assimilation process plan integrates a new hire into a company for a year, while L’Oréal offers its newcomers an onboarding program that lasts two years.

The use of IT is one reason why companies can afford such prolonged, multi-level and deep employee assimilation. Onboarding software can help employees complete onboarding in 30 days or less and helps reduce managerial efforts.

Having their own approach to introducing new employees to the business, every company can benefit from technologies in different ways. Foodmaker Kellogg Co. used a “track record tool” that helped to tailor an onboarding plan according to employees’ descriptions of their previous onboarding experience, while Microsoft has come up with an entire computer-based onboarding program.

Consultancy Deloitte’s research targeted at HR management shows that mobile employee apps increase employee engagement, real-time response as well as workforce satisfaction. However, 50 percent of the HR professionals admitted not using apps for onboarding and named the need to integrate an app with their existing HRM processes and corporate software as the main impediment.

That said, an onboarding app can be introduced to companies both with an onboarding IT system in place and without one. Even if not developed as a part of an onboarding solution from the very start, a mobile app can complement the existing onboarding software by either replicating its functions or extending them, being integrated via a backend. Alternatively, a mobile app can be a standalone tool with self-sufficient features. Native or not, mobile apps can be brought in to any infrastructure, so the choice of a mobile development platform is not the matter of technological aptness. If there’s no preference over a certain mobile brand in the company, a good chance to reach out to newcomers will be with cross-platform mobile development.

Onboarding With an App

SHRM’s research introduced the HR community to its four levers of successful onboarding: role clarity, self-efficacy, social integration and knowledge of culture. An app is one way to get the most out of each.

Role Clarity

If expectations and responsibilities are stated clearly at the very beginning, onboarding will lead to better job satisfaction. Being able to check with a portable onboarding plan, a new hire will get a comprehensive understanding of their role in the company along with the objectives they are to achieve. A mobile plan can also help employees fall into the habit of their daily activities by sending reminders about the next necessary step.

Self-efficacy

It’s important for a new hire to gain confidence in their skills at a new place. An interactive manual in a mobile app could get them accustomed to new procedures such as handling certain equipment/business-specific software or installing a product on a customer’s premises. The app can help a new employee feel less stressed and pressured even while going through their onboarding in the field.

Social Integration

An onboarding app with a calendar can inform workers about corporate holidays and birthdays with customizable notifications, while a special guide can, for instance, let a new hire find out about the nearby places to have lunch. The app also can help newcomers navigate the company office. At large offices, some gaming elements can be added to raise motivation to explore the property; for instance, a new employee could earn an achievement badge for discovering certain locations for the first time.

Knowledge of Culture

A company can introduce its both formal and informal regulations in a mobile handbook. Apart from mere ‘static’ rules, the handbook feature can contain tools that will get a new hire accustomed to behavior, generally accepted by the company’s culture. For example, a new hire in a restaurant can make use of a checklist that reminds to greet a client, a special offer after taking the order and thank them — all in the manner specific to the company.

When automated with the help of an app, onboarding turns into a process that is deeper at its core but easier on human resources and line management. Replicating an existing onboarding solution, extending its functionality or creating a standalone app — the choice is up to every company and depends on particular business needs. Yet regardless of the specifics, such an app can support all onboarding with onboarding plans, interactive manuals, training and review modules, as well as handbooks and office augmented reality maps.

Tatiana Lebedzeva is a business analyst at ScienceSoft, a software development and consulting company in McKinney, Texas. With three years’ experience as a human resources manager, Lebedzeva has expertise in staff performance, HR administration and HR software.

November 22, 2016June 29, 2023

Where Girls Go to Code

In late September, Accenture’s Ellyn Shook welcomed 1,200 new female engineers to the company at an onboarding event at its offices in India.

“That day was one of the most memorable in my career,” the consulting giant’s chief human resources officer said. The welcome party was hardly unique for Accenture, which has enjoyed great success in attracting female tech candidates. In 2015, the company set a goal that 40 percent of new hires — most of which are engineering roles — would be women by the end of fiscal 2017, then exceeded that goal a year early. As of August 2016, 41.1 percent of the 90,000 new hires at Accenture were women.

This accomplishment is especially impressive considering the dearth of women entering tech fields. According to data from CompTIA, a nonprofit association for the technology industry, more than 5.1 million people worked in core technology jobs in the United States at the end of 2015, but just 25 percent of those jobs were held by women. And the numbers appear to be dropping, not climbing.

“Despite being digital natives, girls’ interest in tech jobs decreases dramatically by the time they enter high school,” said Carolyn April, CompTIA’s senior director of industry research. The study shows just 18 percent of girls entering high school report an interest in a tech career, down from 27 percent in middle school.

If recruiters want to hire women into tech roles, they can’t wait until college to start looking for them, April said. Boston-based CompTIA encourages companies to begin engaging with girls as early as high school and even middle school by supporting tech curriculum development efforts, meeting with girls associations, and support summer camps and high school internship programs. “We need to raise awareness among younger girls that these are great careers,” she said.

Another popular option is partnering with Girls Who Code, a nonprofit group that hosts coding camps and immersion programs to attract girls to tech career paths. Girls Who Code and Accenture released research in October showing the number of U.S. women in technology jobs will fall to a new low over the next 10 years, despite efforts to close the gender gap in tech. The report, “Cracking the Gender Code,” identifies strategies to drive girls’ interest in computing, and includes things like supporting tech-focused summer camps geared toward girls, and offering all undergraduates on-campus and summer immersion programs in computing/coding.

“Too often girls don’t pursue computer science because they’ve never been exposed to it, or they don’t see the impact it can make on the world,” said Girls Who Code founder and CEO Reshma Saujani. “By actually embedding classrooms in today’s leading companies that create products girls use every day, we show them, ‘Look, you can do this. You can code this. This is a world that is open to you, and once you learn this skill set, the possibilities are endless.’ ”

wf_1116_trend1a_girlswhocodeimage2_300px — “Once you learn this skill set, the possibilities are endless,” said Girls Who Code founder and CEO Reshma Saujani.

Accenture is one of 60 companies that partners with Girls Who Code to support their camps and research efforts. The company is also increasing its presence on engineering-focused college campuses through sponsorships, participation in curriculum development, and hosting hackathons, innovation initiatives and other on-campus events. These long-term strategies help build relationships and brand awareness with female engineering students.

“You can’t just say, ‘We want to hire more women,’ ” Shook said. “We are trying to show these women that we are worthy of hiring the best talent.”

Hiring is just the first step. A report from the National Society of Women in IT shows 56 percent of women in tech leave their jobs mid-career, which is incredibly costly for the companies that train them.

To reduce that attrition, companies need to think more strategically about what women need in the workplace to succeed — and what is standing in their way, Shook said. She points to a conversation she had with a new mom who after returning from maternity leave asked Shook if the company would pay to have her breast milk shipped home when she was working at client sites.

Shook agreed, but the request spurred her team to look more closely at the true source of the problem: nursing moms being away from their children. A month later, the company implemented a policy that new parents don’t have to work outside their home city for the first year of their child’s life.

“That program reduced attrition among new moms by 30 percent in the first year,” she said.

In a similar effort, the company created a development track for female engineers in India to pursue a certified technical architect degree, which is one of the most highly sought-after skill sets in the tech world. The certification allows engineers to “write their own ticket and to work where and when they want,” Shook said.

It gives them more power to achieve the work-life balance they need to support their families while staying actively engaged in their career. The key is looking for the root cause of the problem, then figuring out how to address it, Shook said. “You can’t make significant improvements without disrupting the way you do things.”

That level of change can be difficult to achieve, but for business leaders who want to build a diverse and engaged workforce and a strong female engineering staff, it needs to be done, April argued. “They need to think more creatively about how they are going to feed their talent pipelines with female candidates,” she said. “There are no quick fixes, but organizations that advocate for women will see a strong return on these investments down the road.”

November 16, 2016June 29, 2023

The Newest Threat to Your Cybersecurity? Lunchroom Appliances

Dinner is always a bit of cluster in my house. We are a home of two working parents, and, with music lessons and band rehearsals three nights a week, it seems that we are always scrambling for our evening meal. More often than not, we end up eating out, which is neither good for our wallets nor our waistlines.

Yet, winter is coming, which means crockpot season. The problem with some crockpot recipes, however, is that they cook for far fewer than the 10-plus hours we are out of the house every day. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to connect your slow-cooker to your WiFi network and control it via an app from your phone? That way, I could start the meal at 2 p.m. and not not worry about coming home to a tarry, burnt mess of chicken and sauce (yes, this has happened, and, yes, we ate out that night).

“Today’s your lucky day,” you say. “Behold, the Wifi-Enabled Slow Cooker. There’s just one drawback. Cyber criminals can seize control of it to take down websites and access your smartphones and home networks.” Yikes!

I’ll let Vice explain:

If you have an internet-connected home appliance, such as a crock-pot, a lightbulb, or a coffee maker, you can control it from the comfort of your smartphone. But a bug in the Android app that controls some of those devices made by a popular manufacturer also allowed hackers to steal all your cellphone photos and even track your movements.

Security researchers found that the Android app for internet-connected gizmos made by Belkin had a critical bug that let anyone who was on the same network hack the app and get access to the user’s cellphone. This gave them a chance to download all photos and track the user’s position … .

This problem is not small or inconsequential. The White House is even paying attention. Just yesterday, it issued sweeping guidelines for IoT (Internet of Things) Cybersecurity [pdf]. The paper calls for an engineering-based approach that bakes security systems directly into Internet of Things devices and technology.

If you have smart appliances in your workplace, the Wall Street Journal recommends the following best practices:

Research before purchasing your smart home products. Consumers need to research the security protocols that their connected devices follow, and pay attention to how device makers issue security updates for devices’ software.
Update the firmware of your devices. The WSJ recommends regularly updating devices, even new ones, as security updates could be released or change on a daily basis.
Change the password for your smart home devices. Most hackers attempt to obtain a universal password for users so they can hack into all of the connected devices in the home.
Secure your router. This means updating your firmware more frequently or simply setting your router to the WPA2 security setting, which can help a great deal.
Create a separate network for your devices. By setting up a separate router and network for smart home devices, users can prevent them from being hacked by PCs.
Point connected cameras in the right direction. Your connected cameras can be among the most easily hackable devices. Because of this, consumers should not have connected cameras pointed in the direction of their bedrooms, living rooms, or other very personal areas of the home.
Ask your service provider about device security. They are the ones that should know all of the security precautions that users of their devices should be taking.
Buy new devices, especially if your connected devices are older models.

If one good thing came out of the 2016 presidential election it’s that cybersecurity came to the forefront and entered our collective consciousness. If people were not previously aware of cyber-risks, they are now, thanks to Wikileaks. Employers should take advantage of the moment and capture employees’ attention with cyber policies and training.

Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.