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Tag: hiring

  • 10 Strategies for Hiring and Retaining New Employees

    10 Strategies for Hiring and Retaining New Employees

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    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    In a competitive job market, employee retention is everything. Long-term business success can be attributed to employees who feel like their efforts are acknowledged and that they’re contributing to their organization’s goals. Hiring and training new people can be costly, so prioritizing retention can save you a lot of money, foster a winning office culture, and encourage innovative thinking.


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    It’s important to keep in mind that job candidates are evaluating your organization just as much as you’re interviewing them for a role. Keeping applicants engaged during the interview process can make all the difference when recruiting the people your business depends on. If they don’t feel valued during the hiring process, why would they think they’d be valued as an employee?

    Here are 10 strategies for hiring the right talent and limiting turnover so your business can thrive.

    1. Simplify the hiring process.

    Having plenty of qualified applicants is great, but make sure you’re not losing the right person because your hiring process is inefficient or unclear. This is the first impression you’ll give a potential employee, so be sure to present a positive image of your company by using a hiring platform like ZipRecruiter. It’s arguably one of the best, cost-effective services for streamlining the hiring process. ZipRecruiter even syncs to your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to optimize your application flow and can help you discover new hires.

    Not only that, businesses can tap into ZipRecruiter‘s Invite to Apply feature to invite top candidates to apply for their jobs. The company says jobs where employers use the Invite to Apply feature receive more than 2.5 times more candidates.

    Related: Best Way to Hire Employees: 3 Tips for Landing Top Talent

    2. Find the right employees.

    Consider the values you’re looking for out of a new hire. Aside from technical capability, ask interview questions that help you understand what motivates a candidate and how they interact in a group setting. Phone screenings, pre-employment behavioral assessments and time-saving screening questions effectively determine if someone would be a good fit before investing valuable resources into further recruitment.

    3. Play to your strengths.

    Though every employer should offer competitive compensation, you can still find and retain quality people by playing to your strengths. Do you have a strong company culture? Offer an employee discount? Is your business involved in the community? Offer unlimited PTO? Not everyone is purely motivated by salary. Some people may simply believe in your company—and that’s someone you want on your team.

    4. Personalize communications with applicants.

    Sometimes submitting a job application feels like throwing your resume into a black hole. Even with an automated response, knowing your application will be reviewed by a human can make all the difference. As it turns out, you can hire faster and send personalized messages to job seekers through ZipRecruiter. It’s an opportunity to keep applicants engaged in the hiring process with a professional experience.

    Related: Looking for Employees? 4 Things You Need to Know About Online Job Boards.

    5. Be transparent.

    Hiring has a lot of moving parts, and things don’t always go as planned. Maybe a project you were hiring for fell through or isn’t happening as soon as anticipated. Perhaps someone wasn’t the perfect fit for a specific role, but you know they’d be a contributor in a different position. Hiring can be a long-term game, so stay organized and be honest every step of the way. Communicate a transparent process for applicants to keep in mind and answer their questions to the best of your ability. You never know when you’ll cross paths again.

    6. Prioritize the onboarding experience.

    Set your employees up for success from the beginning with a winning onboarding and orientation process. By investing time in developing onboarding materials, you’ll get your new hires up to speed faster. They’ll feel like they know the organization better and can contribute to their new role sooner. Company swag and personalized welcome emails from coworkers are also simple ways to make someone feel part of the team.

    7. Provide a clear path for advancement.

    Along the lines of transparency, don’t push talent away because of stagnation in career growth, salary, or skill development. Offer employees a roadmap for promotions and what qualifies them for a merit increase. Mentorship opportunities for new and existing staff can develop new leaders while giving insight into the promotion process. Your employees will deliver their best work when they know they’re working toward something.

    Related: How to Find Employees: 4 Tips for Hiring the Best

    8. Create an environment of open communication.

    Keep lines of communication open between employees and leadership. This gives employees a voice and can lead to positive changes in the organization. Consider conducting regular employee engagement surveys that allow staff to provide feedback on career satisfaction, office culture, business outlook and career development. Acting on the results from the surveys and using that data to improve the employee experience can lead to improvements across your organization.

    9. Place emphasis on employee wellness.

    In a world where working from home has become the norm, job flexibility is highly relevant. People are more likely to do their best work when their company understands they have lives outside of their 9-5. Offer simple perks like flexibility with leaving early to take care of family members or summer Fridays. Encourage personal wellbeing with healthy snacks in the office, physical fitness stipends and mental health resources.

    10. Give employees recognition.

    Employees need to feel appreciated, and there are plenty of inexpensive methods to do so. Acknowledgment of their accomplishments goes a long way, especially when it’s coming from leadership. Create opportunities for employees to get recognition from their peers with regular work share-outs, office emails highlighting big wins and awards.

    Whether you’re hiring your next employee on online job boards like ZipRecruiter or via your internal networks, keep the above tips in mind to help make sure you hire the right person and keep them around for the long haul.

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  • How Big Tech’s pandemic bubble burst | CNN Business

    How Big Tech’s pandemic bubble burst | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    In January 2021, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke in lofty terms about how the first year of the pandemic had sparked a staggering shift toward online services, benefiting his company in the process. “What we have witnessed over the past year is the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry,” he said.

    Two years later, the situation appears much more stark. This week, Microsoft said it planned to lay off 10,000 employees as businesses rethink their pandemic-era digital spending and confront broader economic uncertainty. Microsoft’s customers, Nadella said, are now trying “to do more with less.”

    Microsoft isn’t the only company experiencing such a dramatic reversal. Days later, Google-parent company Alphabet followed suit, saying it plans to cut around 12,000 jobs, amounting to more than 6% of its staff.

    Over the past three months, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Facebook-parent Meta have announced plans to cut more than 50,000 employees from their collective ranks, a stunning reversal from the early days of the pandemic when the tech giants were growing rapidly to meet surging demand from countless households living, shopping and working online. At the time, many tech leaders seemed to expect that growth to continue unabated.

    By September of 2022, Amazon

    (AMZN)     had more than doubled its corporate staff compared to the same month in 2019, hiring more than half a million additional workers and vastly expanding its warehouse footprint. Meta nearly doubled its headcount between March 2020 and September of last year. Microsoft

    (MSFT)     and Google

    (GOOGL GOOGLE)     also hired thousands of additional workers, as did other tech firms like Salesforce

    (CRM)    , Snap

    (SNAP)     and Twitter, all of which have announced layoffs in recent weeks, too.

    But many of those same leaders appear to have misjudged just how much growth spurred by the pandemic would continue once people returned to their offline lives.

    In recent months, higher interest rates, inflation and recession fears causing a pullback in advertising and consumer spending have all weighed on tech companies’ profits and share prices. Wall Street analysts now project single-digit revenue growth during the all-important December quarter for Google, Microsoft and Amazon, and declines for Meta and Apple, when they report earnings in the coming weeks, according to Refinitiv estimates.

    The recent cuts in most cases amount to a relatively small percentage of each company’s overall headcount, essentially erasing the last year of gains for some but leaving them with tens or in some cases hundreds of thousands of remaining workers. But it nonetheless upends the lives of many workers now left to search for new jobs after their employers exit a period of seemingly limitless growth.

    “They went from being on top of the world to having to make some really tough decisions,” said Scott Kessler, global sector lead for technology, media and telecommunications at investment firm Third Bridge. “To see this dramatic reversal of fortunes… it’s not just the magnitude of these moves but the speed that they’ve played out. You’ve seen companies make the wrong strategic decisions at the wrong times.”

    Apple

    (AAPL)     remains an outlier as the one major tech company that has yet to announce layoffs, although the iPhone maker has reportedly instituted a hiring freeze of all areas except research and development. Apple

    (AAPL)     grew its staff by 20% from 2019 through last year, markedly less than some of its peers.

    “They’ve taken a more seemingly thoughtful approach to hiring and overall managing the company,” Kessler said.

    Tech CEOs, from Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg to Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, have blamed themselves for over-hiring early on in the pandemic and misreading how a surge in demand for their products would cool once Covid-19 restrictions eased. Pichai on Friday also took the blame for Alphabet’s cuts, and said he plans to return the company’s focus to its core business and “highest priorities.”

    “The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,” Pichai said in an email to employees that was posted to the company’s website Friday.

    Notably, however, none of the Big Tech company CEOs now overseeing layoffs appear to have been hit with any change to their compensation or title.

    The tech layoff announcements are likely to continue into the upcoming earnings season, Kessler said, amid ongoing economic warning signs. And even companies that might not yet be feeling the pain may follow their peers’ lead in trimming their workforces.

    “I think there is an element of [some companies saying], ‘We might not see this right now but all these other big companies, these companies that we compete with, that we know, that we respect, are taking these kinds of actions, so maybe we should be thinking and acting accordingly,” Kessler said.

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  • 10 Tips to Help You Pick Your Next Great Employee

    10 Tips to Help You Pick Your Next Great Employee

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In its recent monthly jobs report, the National Federation of Independent Businesses revealed what many small businesses already know: finding quality labor is a challenge.

    In fact, the report noted that filling open positions is the single largest issue facing small firms. Nearly one-quarter of owners said the worker shortage is affecting their ability to fill open positions and limiting their ability to grow.

    Among the respondents, 46% said they were unable to fill job openings in September. That brings the number of unfilled job openings to a historic high.

    While finding the next great employees may seem futile, it is not impossible. Contrary to popular belief, there are qualified candidates in the market. It’s just a matter of knowing where to find them and capturing their interest in a compelling way.

    Sourcing talent requires a strategy and creativity that reaches beyond posting positions online and praying for a rush of candidates to apply. A more effective approach is to unearth passive candidates who may not be looking for a career move but would entertain the right position. That means searching for high-performing individuals through trade associations, events, universities and even those who may be working in another industry but whose skills are applicable to the open position.

    Related: How Entrepreneurs Can Find Great Talent Despite a Labor Shortage

    Here are some proven ways to re-energize your recruitment process and unearth candidates with the skills and passion for your business:

    1. Revisit your company’s mission and values to use as selling points in attracting talent

    As a business owner or department leader, you undoubtedly are familiar with your company’s mission. But do you understand what separates your firm from others in your industry? That is, does your company have a unique product or service, a nurturing culture or a penchant for giving back to the community? Use this information to craft a compelling company story that will pique the interest of job-seekers and passive candidates alike.

    2. Audit your brand to find out what others are saying about you on popular websites and social media platforms

    Shoring up your reputation with positive reviews from current and past employees and customers will go a long way in selling a position to a potential new employee.

    3. Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes

    Why would someone want to work in this role? What are the opportunities for advancement (a key consideration for job candidates)? In what ways can the employee contribute to your company’s mission and the greater good? Equip your hiring team and recruiting partner with details that serve as selling points for the organization.

    4. Consider what’s most important to candidates in a changing work environment

    Pay remains a top driver in attracting quality candidates to jobs, but work-life balance and an opportunity for employees to do what they do best rank high on the list too. In a study among 13,085 U.S. employees conducted by Gallup earlier this year, 61% of respondents said greater work-life balance and personal well-being were important — a steady rise since 2015. This includes more flexibility in how and where they work. It may sound obvious, but workers also want to focus their efforts on areas where they have strength and training. As such, hiring leaders must be in sync with what candidates want, and in the words of Gallup “sell what employees want to buy.”

    Related: Why Small Businesses Struggling to Hire New Employees Should Embrace Gig Workers

    5. Plan for your hiring needs today and devise a strategy for filling open positions

    Some things to think about: What is the budget for recruiting? How will you plan to find candidates in a tight labor market and for hard-to-fill positions? And what does your company’s diversity hiring plan look like? Answering these questions before you begin the recruiting process will help crystallize your hiring plan and move the recruiting process along quickly and efficiently. Remember to start the search now for positions that need to be filled in the first quarter. And consider engaging an outside recruitment partner to get a fresh perspective and uncover candidates in unexpected places.

    6. Before initiating a job search, understand the candidate’s journey

    Where do they congregate? What are their circles of influence? How do they get their information? Then put your detective skills to work by searching for “passive” candidates – those who may not be actively looking for a job but may consider the right opportunity for a career change online, through professional networks and even cold-calling.

    7. Ensure your company and the candidate are aligned

    If you are wondering about the focus on passive candidates, it’s because some of the most desirable individuals are not looking for work. Oftentimes, their skills are in direct alignment with the open role. They are also transparent, sharing exactly what they want in their next career move, including opportunities for advancement, plus how they would approach the job at hand.

    8. Create a story that humanizes your company and piques your candidates’ interest in the job

    For example, share ways the company engages employees, celebrates success and gives back to the community. Using information gathered in your fact-finding exercise for the company and the position, craft an interesting “pitch” to attract best-in-class talent to your company.

    9. Strategize ways to keep in touch with top candidates

    Your candidates are probably entertaining multiple offers. Find reasons to check in and do it in ways, such as texting, that are effective without being intrusive.

    10. When the search is over, create customized, in-depth candidate profiles

    Include details on their skills, abilities and passions that may not be evident in a resume. Highlight silver medal candidates who may be a perfect match for your next job opening.

    Recruiting new staff members can be a laborious task. But the investment you make into recruiting will pay dividends in the form of stellar employees who can help your business prosper.

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    Kathleen Duffy

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  • What to expect at work this year | CNN Business

    What to expect at work this year | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    The pandemic has transformed work over the past three years in ways few expected. It normalized remote work, created a shortage of critical workers and drove home to organizations that employees’ mental health and need for a sane work-life balance are critical to retention and engagement.

    So what does 2023 likely hold for you at your job, regardless of your industry?

    There are welcome and unwelcome developments on tap, along with some potentially confusing ones, too.

    Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.

    Regardless of whether the United States slips into a recession, there will be more widespread job cuts than what we’ve seen happening so far in industries like tech, media and finance.

    “We’re starting to see more layoffs pick up in other industries. I do anticipate rising layoffs in most sectors,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

    But that shouldn’t be surprising, given that layoffs in 2021 and 2022 were at their lowest levels since 1993.

    That said, the job market has cooled a bit — but it’s still running hot, with a high level of job openings per job seeker.

    The overall slowdown in hiring is likely to continue, with employers more likely to reinstate performance-improvement plans for underperforming employees and performance-related layoffs, Challenger predicts.

    And, of course, should there be a real recession, the layoffs would cut much deeper.

    While there is still tension between executives and employees about how many days people should be physically present at work, hybrid work and work flexibility isn’t going away.

    “Today, the majority of employers (66%) are permitting hybrid working and an additional 9% give employees the option to work from home every day,” according to benefits consulting firm Mercer.

    Nevertheless, this may be the year employers start to actually enforce their minimum-days-in-the-office mandates, Challenger said.

    Just this week, for example, Disney CEO Bob Iger ordered employees to return to corporate offices four days a week beginning March 1.

    Front-line employees like retail workers, health care aides and security guards, whose jobs require them always to be on site, may be offered other forms of flexibility, said Emily Rose McRae, senior director of research at Gartner, a workplace consulting firm.

    That could include being given a regular schedule, as opposed to working “on demand,” where they don’t know their schedule in advance, McRae said. It also could mean getting more paid leave, or that front-line workers could opt out of working certain shifts or certain days.

    McRae said she sees more employers offering what she calls “proactive rest” options this year.

    The idea is to actively help people recover before becoming fully depleted not only by work, but by the upending of their lives from the pandemic and the social and political upheaval of the past few years.

    “The big shift is in recognizing our work force is in trouble,” McRae said.

    Proactive rest can take many forms. Some employers may offer days off — whether it’s a whole week or just one day a week for a set period of time. Or it could simply mean branding a given workday as a no-meeting day.

    Information technology professionals will continue to win the day at work when it comes to who gets the biggest raises and bonuses.

    “Most organizations are anticipating the talent market to remain as competitive, or more competitive, at least in the first half of this year,” said Tony Guadagni, a senior principal in Gartner’s HR practice. “They will do what they have to to attract that critical talent.”

    Employers’ projected increases for this year in terms of merit increases (3.9%) and total pay (4.3%) are the highest they’ve been in 15 years, according to workplace consulting firm Mercer. But given that inflation is still pacing higher than those levels, you may not feel the raise you get is making a huge difference in what you can afford — unless your skills are in high demand.

    It used to be difficult to figure out whether you were being paid competitively for your talents, since companies weren’t open about what they paid others and colleagues wouldn’t discuss their pay.

    But now that New York City, the state of California, and a handful of other states and localities have implemented pay transparency rules for job postings, it will be easier in 2023 to confirm you’re being paid fairly relative to your teammates, and to determine the salary range on offer if you’re looking for a new job.

    Still, these laws are very new, and companies have not been uniform in how they’re handling the new rules. Some recent job postings, for instance, have advertised unhelpfully wide pay ranges — think $50,000 to $200,000.

    Beyond the big benefits employers typically offer full-time staffers (e.g., subsidized health insurance, a 401(k) match, etc.), they also offer a range of secondary benefits or perks, such as tuition reimbursement, supplemental life insurance, a stipend for home office supplies or financial coaching.

    Gartner and Mercer are seeing more companies let employees decide how best to spend these perk dollars by letting them direct a fixed amount of money across the secondary benefits that are most important to them.

    Your organization may engage in “quiet hiring” this year, if it hasn’t already.

    It’s a misleading term, in that it is neither quiet nor does it involve actual hiring.

    Rather, your company will want to repurpose existing employees — possibly you, if you have relevant skills — for the employer’s highest priority projects this year.

    That could be a great opportunity if you hate being limited to the same tasks of your official job, or if you want to develop new skills and work with new people in your company.

    It also could be highly frustrating, especially if a company is simply putting everyone on rotation to make sure understaffed, critical tasks get done by anyone with the adequate skills to do so.

    Either way, “quiet hiring” may offer an initial taste of a broader trend likely to unfold over the next several years that could spell the end of “jobs” — and specifically job descriptions as we know them, according to consulting firm Deloitte.

    That’s because many employers want to transition away from being a jobs-based organization to a skills-based one so they can quickly adapt to change, address talent shortages and provide their workforce with opportunities to develop professionally, said Arthur Mazor, a principal global leader at Deloitte’s Human Capital Practice.

    So instead of viewing you as a holder of Job X, your company is likely to view you as a person with an array of skills that can be deployed in many ways.

    Early adopters this year can be found across various industries, Mazor said — from software makers to auto manufacturers to financial services to health care.

    Even at companies that have not formalized a shift to being a skills-based organization, the change is happening anyway. Roughly 70% of workers say they’re already doing work outside of their job, according to Deloitte.

    One recent example, cited in Deloitte’s latest work report, comes from M&T Bank, a leading Small Business Administration lender. Its chief talent officer told the firm, “when the Paycheck Protection Program was rolled out during the pandemic, we had to stop thinking about jobs and start thinking about skills. … By focusing on skills versus jobs — and rapidly mobilizing talent in an agile way — we outperformed our peers.”

    It’s too early to determine exactly how this will play out for employees, in terms of incentives offered for switching to a new project or pinch-hitting for another department, how an employee’s work will be assessed and rewarded, and how much say they will get in the projects assigned.

    But done right, Mazor said, employees should have the opportunity to share on an internal database their skills and what areas they wish to develop before being matched with a new assignment.

    “This isn’t a clandestine effort. It involves worker input.”

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  • 5 reasons why the Republican claim about 87,000 new IRS agents is an exaggeration | CNN Politics

    5 reasons why the Republican claim about 87,000 new IRS agents is an exaggeration | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    In its first vote on legislation, the new Republican-controlled House approved a bill Monday that would rescind nearly $80 billion for the Internal Revenue Service – with key GOP lawmakers making the exaggerated claim that the money would be used to hire 87,000 auditors who will target hardworking Americans.

    “House Republicans just voted unanimously to repeal the Democrats’ army of 87,000 IRS agents,” tweeted speaker Kevin McCarthy after the vote.

    “This was our very first act of the new Congress, because government should work for you, not against you,” he added.

    But Democrats approved the $80 billion in funding last year as part of the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act, intending to support the troubled IRS crack down on tax cheats and provide better service to taxpayers.

    The bill to rescind the funding, which passed along party lines, has little chance of becoming law, given the Democratic majority in the Senate and a pledge from President Joe Biden to veto the bill if it ever reaches his desk.

    But the vote highlights how funding for the IRS has become a political football. The issue is sure to come up when Daniel Werfel, Biden’s nominee for IRS commissioner, gets a confirmation hearing.

    Here’s why the Republicans’ oft-repeated claim about new IRS agents is exaggerated:

    The 87,000 figure comes from a 2021 Treasury report that estimated the IRS could hire 86,852 full-time employees over the course of a decade with a nearly $80 billion investment – not solely enforcement agents.

    And all those new employees can’t be hired overnight. The money will flow to the IRS over a 10-year period.

    “The reality is the $80 billion boost would be spread throughout the agency, with money flowing to enforcement, taxpayer services, operations, and modernization,” wrote Janet Holtzblatt, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

    The Inflation Reduction Act dictates that about $45.6 billion will go toward strengthening enforcement activities – including collecting taxes owed, providing legal support, conducting criminal investigations and providing digital asset monitoring. But the IRS has not specified how many auditors will be hired.

    More than $25 billion is allocated to support IRS operations, including expenses like rent payments, printing, postage and telecommunications.

    Nearly $4.8 billion can be used for modernizing the agency’s customer service technology, like developing a callback service.

    Roughly $3 billion is allocated for taxpayer assistance, filing and account services.

    Many of the new hires will be replacing staff that the IRS has already lost or is expected to lose through attrition in coming years.

    Last year, then-IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig told lawmakers that staffing has shrunk to 1970s levels and that the IRS would need to hire 52,000 people over the next six years just to maintain current staffing levels to replace those who retire or otherwise leave.

    The IRS is already using the new funds to ramp up hiring for work outside of its audit operations.

    In October, the IRS announced it had hired 4,000 customer service representatives to answer phones and provide other taxpayer assistance. At the time, the agency said it intended to hire another 1,000 staffers by the end of 2022.

    Many of the new staff will be in place at the start of the 2023 tax season, and nearly all are expected to be trained by Presidents’ Day in February, which is traditionally when the agency sees the highest call volumes.

    National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins expects IRS services for taxpayers to improve this year – in part due to the funding increase.

    Taxpayer service, like answering the phones and processing returns in a timely manner, has suffered as the IRS’ budget has shrunk by more than 15% over the last decade. Collins, who heads the independent watchdog organization within the IRS, last year called the IRS service “horrendous.”

    Only about one in eight calls from taxpayers got through to an IRS employee last year, according to her annual report released Wednesday.

    The IRS struggled significantly during the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing backlogs of millions of tax returns to pile up in the past two years.

    “The majority of new hires the IRS makes will be those who answer the phones, work on processing individual tax returns or go after high-end taxpayers or corporations who are avoiding their taxes,” wrote Rettig in an op-ed published by Yahoo!Finance in August.

    A Trump appointee, Rettig called the claim that the IRS is hiring 87,000 agents to harass taxpayers “absolutely false.”

    While audit rates are expected to go up for some taxpayers as the new funding flows to the IRS, the rates have also been declining for some time.

    Audit rates of individual income tax returns decreased for all income levels between tax years 2010 to 2019, according to the Government Accountability Office. They decreased the most for taxpayers with incomes of $200,000 and above, which are generally more complex.

    The Inflation Reduction Act says that the new investment in the IRS is not “intended to increase taxes on any taxpayer or small business with a taxable income below $400,000.”

    Still, there is some uncertainty about how exactly the IRS will decide how to ramp up audits.

    In an effort to shed some clarity, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen affirmed the Biden administration’s commitment to not target low- and middle-income taxpayers.

    “I direct that any additional resources – including any new personnel or auditors that are hired – shall not be used to increase the share of small business or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels,” she wrote in a six to Rettig in August.

    Yellen also directed the IRS to produce an operational plan within six months to detail how the new funding will be spent.

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  • Lovie Smith said the NFL had ‘a problem’ about Black coaches. A year later he was fired and the league is being criticized yet again about its lack of diversity | CNN

    Lovie Smith said the NFL had ‘a problem’ about Black coaches. A year later he was fired and the league is being criticized yet again about its lack of diversity | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    When Lovie Smith was hired by the Houston Texans in February 2022 as the team’s new head coach, he said the NFL had “a problem” with hiring Black coaches and diversity.

    “I realize the amount of Black head coaches there are in the National Football League,” Smith told reporters just under a year ago.

    “There’s Mike Tomlin and I think there’s me, I don’t know of many more. So there’s a problem, and it’s obvious for us. And after there’s a problem, what are you going to do about it?”

    Smith was fired Monday at the end of his one and only season at the helm of the Texans, finishing with a record of 3-13-1.

    Smith is the second Black coach in two years to be relieved of his duties by the Texans, which fired David Culley at the end of the 2021 season.

    Smith’s time in charge wasn’t full of wins and high points – though his parting gift to the organization was a last-minute Hail Mary victory over the Indianapolis Colts, which saw them relinquish the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL draft to the Chicago Bears. But his Texans team showed togetherness and competence, traits often desired by outfits undergoing a rebuild.

    Houston general manager Nick Caserio said Smith’s firing was the best decision for the team right now.

    “On behalf of the entire organization, I would like to thank Lovie Smith for everything he has contributed to our team over the last two seasons as a coach and a leader,” Caserio said in a statement.

    “I’m constantly evaluating our football operation and believe this is the best decision for us at this time. It is my responsibility to build a comprehensive and competitive program that can sustain success over a long period of time. We aren’t there right now, however, with the support of the McNair family and the resources available to us, I’m confident in the direction of our football program moving forward.”

    But the firing of the 64-year-old coach, the Texans organization as a whole, and the measures implemented by the league to promote diversity have been heavily criticized by former players and TV pundits.

    “The Houston Texans have fired Lovie Smith after 1 year. Using 2 Black Head Coaches to tank and then firing them after 1 year shouldn’t sit right with anyone,” former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III tweeted Sunday, when news of Smith’s firing broke.

    On ESPN, Stephen A. Smith and NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin also condemned the decision. Smith called the Texans organization an “atrocity.”

    “They are an embarrassment. And as far as I’m concerned, if you’re an African American, and you aspire to be a head coach in the National Football League, there are 31 teams you should hope for. You should hope beyond God that the Houston Texans never call you,” Smith said.

    Irvin said Black coaches are being used as “scapegoats” by the Texans.

    “It’s a mess in Houston and they bring these guys in and they use them as scapegoats. And this is what African American coaches have been yelling about for a while and it’s blatant, right in our face,” he said.

    When CNN contacted the Texans for comment, the team highlighted the moment at Monday’s news conference when Caserio was asked why any Black coach would consider working for the team, and his response was that individual candidates would have to make their own choices.

    “In the end it’s not about race. It’s about finding quality coaches,” the general manager said. “There’s a lot of quality coaches. David (Culley) is a quality coach. Lovie (Smith) is a quality coach.

    “In the end, each coach has their own beliefs. Each coach has their own philosophy. Each coach has their comfort level about what we’re doing. That’s all I can do is just be honest and forthright, which I’ve done from the day that I took this job, and I’m going to continue to do that and try to find a coach that we feel makes the most sense for this organization. That’s the simplest way I can answer it, and that’s my commitment.

    “That’s what I’m hired to do, and that’s what I’m in the position to do. At some point, if somebody feels that that’s not the right decision for this organization, then I have to respect that, and I have to accept it.”

    CNN has reached out to Lovie Smith for comment.

    At the beginning of the 2022 season, NFL.com reported Smith was one one of just six minority head coaches in the NFL, a low number in a league where nearly 70% of the players are Black.

    Since Art Shell was hired by the Los Angeles Raiders in 1989 as the first Black head coach in modern history, there have been 191 people hired as head coaches, but just 24 have been Black.

    However, the NFL has taken steps to increase diversity in the coaching ranks.

    Notably, in 2003, the NFL introduced the Rooney Rule to improve hiring practices in a bid to “increase the number of minorities hired in head coach, general manager, and executive positions.”

    But the Rooney Rule hasn’t been an unqualified success.

    In 2003, the Detroit Lions were fined $200,000 for not interviewing any minority coaches before hiring Steve Mariucci as their new head coach.

    In response to criticism, the NFL announced it was setting up a diversity advisory committee of outside experts to review its hiring practices last March. Teams would also be required to hire minority coaches as offensive assistants.

    Despite changes to the rule being implemented in recent years to strengthen it, a 2022 lawsuit alleges that some teams have implemented “sham” interviews to fulfill the league’s diversity requirements.

    Last February, former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a federal civil lawsuit against the NFL, the New York Giants, the Denver Broncos and the Miami Dolphins organizations alleging racial discrimination.

    Flores, who is Black, said in his lawsuit that the Giants interviewed him for their vacant head coaching job under disingenuous circumstances.

    Two months after submitting the initial lawsuit, Flores added the Texans to it, alleging the organization declined to hire him this offseason as head coach “due to his decision to file this action and speak publicly about systemic discrimination in the NFL.”

    In response to the lawsuit, the Texans said their “search for our head coach was very thorough and inclusive.”

    The NFL called Flores’ allegations meritless.

    “The NFL and our clubs are deeply committed to ensuring equitable employment practices and continue to make progress in providing equitable opportunities throughout our organizations,” the league said in response to the lawsuit.

    “Diversity is core to everything we do, and there are few issues on which our clubs and our internal leadership team spend more time. We will defend against these claims, which are without merit.”

    But 12 months after firing their last Black head coach, the Texans have fired another one.

    “How do you hire two African Americans, leave them one year and then get rid them?” questioned NFL Hall of Famer Irvin.

    “You know the mess that Houston is,” Irvin added. “We get the worst jobs and we don’t get the opportunity to fix the worst jobs, just like this.

    “I don’t know any great White coach that would take the (Texans) job unless you give them some guarantees. ‘You’re going to have to guarantee me four years to turn this place around.’ But the African American coaches can’t come in with that power because Lovie wouldn’t have got another job.

    “This was his last chance to get back into the NFL and you have to take what’s on the table to try to change that.”

    The Texans are now searching for a new head coach under general manager Caserio. The new appointment will be Caserio’s third coach in the role: It is almost unprecedented for a general manager to get the opportunity to hire a third head coach with the same team.

    Texans chairman and CEO Cal McNair said he would take on a more active role in the hiring process. The next head coach will be the organization’s fourth in three years.

    According to the NFL, the Texans have requested to speak to five candidates already about filling Smith’s position, a list that includes two Black coaches.

    After Smith was hired in March 2021, McNair said: “I’ve never seen a more thorough, inclusive, and in-depth process than what Nick (Caserio) just went through with our coaching search.”

    At that introductory news conference, Smith spoke candidly about how to bring greater diversity to the NFL coaching ranks.

    “People in positions of authority throughout – head coaches, general managers – you’ve got to be deliberate about trying to get more Black athletes in some of the quality control positions just throughout your program. If you get that, they can move up, that’s one way to get more.”

    Smith continued: “It’s not just an interview, if you’re interviewing a Black guy. It’s about having a whole lot of guys to choose from that look like me. And it’s just not about talk. You look at my staff, that’s what I believe in. And letting those guys show you who they are. That’s how we can increase it, then it’s left up to people to choose. We all have an opportunity to choose, and that’s how I think we’ll get it done.”

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  • What Is ‘Quiet Hiring’? And How You Can Use It To Your Advantage.

    What Is ‘Quiet Hiring’? And How You Can Use It To Your Advantage.

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    2022 came with a slew of new workplace lingo: quiet quitting, quiet firing and fast quitting. However, a new trend is likely to dominate the hiring space in 2023: “quiet hiring.”

    The concept of quiet hiring hinges on the idea that a business can add new skills and fill gaps without actually hiring full-time employees. Gartner research expert Emily Rose McRae told CNBC that quiet hiring often comes in two different forms: internal and external.

    Internal quiet hiring means current employees might temporarily move to other roles or take on different assignments within the organization. External quiet hiring means hiring short-term contractors to keep the business running without taking on more full-time employees.

    “The reality for the next year is — whether or not we go into a recession — everyone’s a little nervous,” McRae said, per CNBC. “In a lot of cases, organizations are not necessarily doing a hiring freeze or layoffs but maybe slowing down a little bit on their hiring.”

    Although quiet hiring might be the ideal solution for employers to ensure workplace efficiency without causing financial strain, its success or failure could hinge on one factor: communication.

    Related: Google’s ‘Quiet Hiring’ Method Is Excellent for Employers, But Dangerous for Employees Who ‘Quiet Quit’

    McRae warns that without adequate transparency about the reasoning behind the decision to implement quiet hiring, some employees might take the shift from their current role into another one as a signal they aren’t needed and therefore begin looking for other opportunities.

    McRae told CNBC that employers should be clear about what the move means for workers and assure them of the importance.

    “If you’re asking a bunch of people to make this move, you should be able to articulate: What does this mean for them?” McRae told the outlet.

    Employers should reiterate how the move not only helps the organization but also the individual’s strengths and career trajectory.

    McRae encourages employees to think about leveraging quiet hiring as a way to advance their careers and current positions. If the company shares its plans to restructure, employees should consider how the pivot might actually help them in the long run and even position them for a promotion.

    “This is a really good chance for employees to sit down and say to their managers, their HR people and to the company as a whole, ‘Yeah, I’m willing to do this. Let’s talk about what this means for my career,’” she said, per CNBC.

    Related: ‘Quiet Quitters’ Might Not Have the Upper Hand for Much Longer. Here’s Why.

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    Madeline Garfinkle

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  • If You’re Struggling to Find Diverse Talent, Look at These 5 Areas

    If You’re Struggling to Find Diverse Talent, Look at These 5 Areas

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Recruiting and retaining talented employees from various backgrounds is important for many reasons. Diverse teams are likely to outperform their competitors in profitability. As well, your organization can better cater to diverse consumer needs while enhancing workforce innovation.

    Unfortunately, many organizations today experience difficulties in filling up their talent pipeline with talents of diverse backgrounds. This means that they are not able to meet their representation objectives nor experience the benefits of having a diverse and inclusive workforce.

    If your organization is facing a pipeline problem when it comes to hiring more diverse talents, it is essential to take corrective steps to resolve this issue. This article will discuss five areas to help you troubleshoot what might be causing the pipeline problem, and strategies to mitigate this.

    Related: Unconventional Ways to Source Diverse Talent

    1. Barriers and goals

    What is the representation goal for your organization? Perhaps your company may want to increase the percentage of women leaders within the C suite by a certain percentage or are looking to have more talents from under-represented backgrounds occupying senior leadership positions. The goal can be either quantitative or qualitative. Whatever your vision may be, the vision must be clear and have specific metrics associated with it.

    Once the company goal is clear, then move on to the individual experience. Underrepresented talents experience various barriers in their careers. Identify what barriers exist for your target groups. This could show up in ways such as not feeling supported by colleagues or opportunity gaps.

    Consider how these individual barriers will affect their career trajectory. Identifying any existing processes in the company can help to mitigate these barriers in the short term.

    Related: 4 Criteria Diverse Talents Use to Evaluate Their Prospective Employers

    2. Reconsider your talent-sourcing strategies

    What do your current talent-sourcing strategies look like? If you’re looking at your existing talent pipeline, where are your talents currently coming from? Do you feel that that is meeting the representation goal that you have at the organizational level? If you’re looking to have a different result and increase representation in your organization, you may need to reconsider your talent-sourcing strategies.

    If the company is not meeting its representation goals and are looking for more talents of under-represented backgrounds, then you can’t be doing the same thing that you have been doing before. There has to be some sort of a shift. Whether you are innovating the existing strategy jobs that are working very well or you’re trying something completely different, you have to be doing something different. This is not an exception when looking at your talent-sourcing strategy.

    So what does the sourcing strategy look like? It is imperative to understand that you cannot expect a different result if you’re doing the same thing as you have been doing before, so make sure that your sourcing strategy reflects that change somehow.

    Related: Struggling With Hiring Right Now? It’s Time To Go All-In on Diversity

    3. Interpretation of assessment criteria

    How are you currently evaluating and assessing candidates? You may already have a set method on how you evaluate and assess the candidates. But what if it is hindering your underrepresented talents from even applying? While the criteria stay the same when it comes to skills or experience, the interpretation will have to change.

    For example, when evaluating cultural fit, many companies evaluate the cultural fit based on shared personal interests. This can turn away talents coming from different backgrounds. So instead of similar personal interests, focus on evaluating from the shared professional values.

    If you are looking for diverse candidates, your criteria may have to shift to assess candidates from different perspectives. For example, instead of assessing cultural fit from shared interests, consider evaluating their professional values. Rather than focusing on specific tiered schools or grades, consider keeping it to a certain educational level or equivalent amount of professional experience in a specific business function.

    By shifting the interpretation of the assessment criteria itself, your recruitment team will be able to start evaluating diverse talents based on additional strengths they can bring to the table, rather than how similar they are to everyone else. This, in turn, will help with the number of applications that make it through the initial rounds of recruitment stages.

    Related: Hire Like a Diversity Expert: 5 Key Qualities of Inclusive Employees

    4. Interview to offer ratio

    Are people from diverse backgrounds even being interviewed in the first place? If the answer is no, the first three areas in this blog can be useful to troubleshoot this. However, if diverse candidates are being interviewed but no offers are being extended, that might be a symptom of a deeper issue.

    Consider recording the interviews for both training and transparency purposes. When you go back to the recordings, you will see things that stand out. Maybe a candidate may have been asked a question, even as an icebreaker, that wasn’t asked to other candidates. It could have been a different setting, or a candidate not being provided the accommodation that they requested.

    This is going to help you to pinpoint possibly why some of these talents were not even able to get to the final offer stage and determine from the strategic level, where the problem could be coming from.

    Related: Diversity and Inclusion Best Practices for Your Workforce

    5. Career trajectory

    Perhaps you have everything absolutely nailed down in terms of the strategic direction, sourcing strategies, a great interview-to-offer ratio and the candidates accepting the offer. However, retention or representation at the leadership levels could use more improvement. If this is the case, career trajectory should be examined.

    This is a long-term strategy where you will need to collect over the years to examine the trend. For example, if entry-level employees are leaving the company for another company that gave them a higher-level role, this could mean that they did not see the opportunity for growth. While if a senior team member comes in as a new leader and they depart, it may be that they were not feeling set up for success.

    Once you identify a clear pattern, go further into the records. What concerns did they bring up with their managers? Did anyone else who was managed by that manager experience a similar issue? Were there any indications? Use the data to better shape the career trajectory and experience.

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    Clair Kim

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  • What is Staff Augmentation? 3 Reasons It is Vital For Your Business

    What is Staff Augmentation? 3 Reasons It is Vital For Your Business

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Recruiting and retaining exceptional talent is challenging and takes a lot of time, especially when companies in the tech space demand experienced developers and engineers.

    Moreover, filling in the gaps due to a lack of resources or specialists can be challenging and time-consuming at the same time, especially for high-tech roles like iOS developers or machine learning engineers, for which the demands have been escalating since the great resignation.

    This is where the model of staff augmentation comes into play! In this article, we will discuss the concept of staff augmentation, its increasing demand and why enterprises need to focus on in-house team expansion for quick hiring.

    Related: 10 Strategies for Hiring and Retaining New Employees

    Staff augmentation

    Staff augmentation is a type of cooperation model where businesses, from startups to corporate enterprises, source talent via staffing agencies to work with them temporarily to fill the talent gaps promptly.

    Today, staff augmentation has turned mainstream, with nearly $500 billion annual spending on global IT staffing services alone.

    Businesses now prefer partnering with staff augmentation service providers to boost the competency of their internal teams and accelerate the development process rather than spending weeks prospecting ideal candidates, conducting interviews and shortlisting candidates to fill an immediate talent gap.

    Related: 6 Ways to Effectively Navigate Market Turbulence in the IT World

    Why is staff augmentation surging in popularity?

    The staff augmentation model has been successful over recent years due to the following three reasons:

    1. It is suited for a hybrid work environment

    People willing to switch to low-paying remote jobs rather than continuing on-prem work in their previous settings indicate that the future of work is remote. Remote work is the new normal, especially in the technology and digital transformation sectors.

    Staff augmentation services are suited to cater to the needs of a remote-first global economy that still needs to prepare to let go of all the advantages of on-prem work. With this setting, businesses can extend support to their internal teams by partnering with staff augmentation service providers to cater to bridge talent gaps and meet deadlines faster.

    2. It is low risk compared to other outsourcing models

    The staff augmentation model triumphs over all the outsourcing models regarding flexibility, affordability and quality. Compared to other outsourcing models, the risks involved with staff augmentation services are zero to none due to constant collaboration with the internal teams.

    The augmented team or resource operates either as mere extensions of the internal teams or under the supervision of the in-house managers. Uninterrupted collaboration and seamless integrations of both teams eliminate any possibility of errors.

    Thus, the risk involved in this model is considerably lower than the other project outsourcing models like offshoring or managed services.

    3. Staff augmentation is flexible to scale without compromising sustainability

    As the global recession started knocking on the doors, the results of aggressive hiring and fierce spending started becoming more evident. Consequently, most businesses either stopped or at least cut-down spending on scaling by considerable margins.

    This phenomenon has kept thousands of global entrepreneurs from putting all the stakes in and investing aggressively in scaling their businesses. However, things have started to take quite an exciting turn as IT staffing, and resource augmentation services became mainstream.

    With IT staff augmentation, businesses no longer remain prone to compromising sustainability, as they can end contracts with external teams if things start going south.

    This model enables entrepreneurs to fuel their desires to achieve exponential growth and scalability without worrying about laying off permanent employees or (in the worst case scenario) signing up for bankruptcy.

    Related: 6 Ways to Effectively Navigate Market Turbulence in the IT World

    Why you need to start implementing the staff augmentation model

    The following facts and figures are clear evidence that the staff augmentation model is here to stay:

    1. The great resignation and the wake-up call

    The quiet quitting culture has been disturbing the workflow of organizations since the epidemic. Even amidst the global recession session, where companies like Meta and Amazon are forced to lay off a considerable part of their workforce, the culture of quiet quitting has not stopped.

    People silently leave their well-paying jobs due to a lack of serenity, toxic work environments, pay disparity or other reasons. As an entrepreneur, you should be prepared to deal with such cases within your organization.

    Although you must prioritize fostering a culture of collaboration and encouragement, you should also be prepared to fill in talent gaps in case a team member resigns on short notice rather than compromising on the resource quality to fill the gaps.

    2. Going above and beyond to fill talent gaps

    The onshore, offshore and nearshore markets could provide more diversity in IT skills and expertise your company needs, depending on your location. With staff augmentation services, you can access a broader universal talent pool, including from regions acknowledged for having the finest IT talents, such as Europe and Asia.

    Building external teams to bridge the talent gap using staff augmentation services can also help you save the time and cost of setting up dedicated workspaces and recruiting highly-skilled teams.

    3. Increasing cyber attacks

    As businesses switch to fully remote and hybrid working models, they become prone to cyber-attacks and data breaches. According to Statista, the data breaches in the third quarter of 2022 were at the all-time highest, with businesses reporting approximately 15 million data breaches.

    Although businesses are now setting up dedicated networking teams to safeguard confidential information from hackers and intruders, not all of them can afford it. Thus, they eventually recruit network engineers via an augmented staffing model to stay protected from potential cyber threats and data breaches.

    Related: 4 Best Practices When Choosing a Staffing Agency

    Final thoughts

    Using staff augmentation to address the talent gaps instead of outsourcing or managed services models let business owners keep the charge of the project. As a business owner, you get to choose the talent you deem fit for the role and maintain authority over the project to get things done your way.

    With staffing services, you not only eliminate the recruitment time and cost but also access a global talent of highly-skilled developers and engineers to work alongside your in-house teams to optimize overall competencies and boost productivity.

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    Asim Rais Siddiqui

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  • Amazon CEO explains thinking behind layoffs as unionized warehouse workers protest outside | CNN Business

    Amazon CEO explains thinking behind layoffs as unionized warehouse workers protest outside | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on Wednesday said an “uncertain” economy pushed the e-commerce giant to move forward with rare and wide-ranging layoffs after having gone on a significant hiring spree for much of the pandemic.

    “We had the lens of a very uncertain economic environment, as well as our having hired very aggressively over the last several years,” Jassy said in an interview at the New York Times DealBook summit on Wednesday. “We just felt like we needed to streamline our costs.”

    The remarks came as part of Jassy’s first interview since Amazon

    (AMZN)     confirmed earlier this month it had begun laying off corporate workers, with plans for layoffs to continue into early next year. The company is reportedly planning to cut up to 10,000 employees, though it has not confirmed a figure.

    Amazon, more than most tech companies, experienced a staggering pandemic boom as more customers shifted their spending online during the health crisis. Like other tech companies, it has since changed course and begun cutting employees as it confronts a shift in demand as well as rising inflation and recession fears.

    “A lot has happened in the last few years that I’m not sure people anticipated,” Jassy said. “You just look in 2020, our retail business grew 39% year-over-year, at a $245 billion annual run rate, which is unprecedented, and it forced us to make decisions in that time to spend a lot more money and to go much faster in building infrastructure than we ever imagined we would.”

    “We built a physical fulfillment center footprint over 25 years that we doubled in 24 months,” Jassy said.

    Even so, Jassy said he thinks the team “made the right decision” regarding its infrastructure build out. Regarding the hiring spree, Jassy said he now looks at is as a “lesson for everyone.”

    “I don’t necessarily think it was the wrong thing to have been doubling down, because we were growing so well and we had so many ideas that we thought were good for customers and good for the business, but I think it’s a good lesson, I think, for everybody,” Jassy said. “When you’re hiring, even when things are going really well, that it’s good to think about if there’s some kind of sudden change, even one that you just have a little bit of a hard time imagining. Would you like the incremental headcount that you’re adding at that time, or do you want to be a little bit more conservative?”

    As Jassy spoke, Amazon warehouse workers who helped organize the company’s first-ever US labor union at a Staten Island facility gathered in the rain outside of the venue to protest their chief executive’s appearance in New York.

    Despite the landmark union victory in April, Amazon has so far refused to formally recognize the grassroots worker group known as the Amazon Labor Union, or come to the bargaining table. The company has aggressively pushed back against the workers’ victory through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

    While the NLRB battle indicates the labor union is on the cusp of being certified, Jassy suggested Amazon’s legal battle with the worker group isn’t done yet. He said there “were a lot of irregularities in that vote,” which is why the company filed objections with the NLRB. (Amazon’s objections were previously rejected by an NLRB hearing officer.)

    Jassy also emphasized that the last two Amazon union elections held resulted in workers voting not to unionize, and that Amazon prefers to have a direct relationship with fulfillment center workers rather than going through unions.

    Labor activist Chris Smalls joins members of the Amazon labor union and others for a protest outside of the New York Times DealBook Summit as Amazon's CEO, Andy Jassy, will be appearing on November 30, 2022 in New York City.

    “In my own opinion on where we are with that legal process is that we’re far from over with it,” Jassy said. “I think that it’s going to work its way through the NLRB, it’s probably unlikely the NLRB is going to rule against itself, and that has a real chance to end up in federal courts.”

    In an interview with CNN Business ahead of Jassy’s remarks, Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls slammed that Jassy “even had the audacity to feel comfortable to come to New York City knowing that we haven’t negotiated anything yet.”

    “We definitely want to take this opportunity to let him know that the workers are waiting and we are ready to negotiate our first contract,” he added of the demonstration, which he called a “welcoming party” for Jassy.

    Smalls said he’s been contacted by a few laid-off Amazon employees in corporate roles, who have since grown interested in the protections of unions. “I tell them — you may have good salary, you may have good perks, you may got good stocks and benefits, obviously better than warehouse workers, but at the end of the day, you’re still an at-will employee,” Smalls said.

    “I explained to them, the one building that can’t be touched right now by mass layoffs is JFK8 Staten Island,” he said. “I encourage them to do what they have to do, if that means form a union, so be it, we support it.”

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  • Four ways to attract (and keep) top tech talent | Bank Automation News

    Four ways to attract (and keep) top tech talent | Bank Automation News

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    Perhaps the Nasdaq’s doldrums will turn the attention of the nation’s top IT talent from tech to a banking industry in dire need of their services. 

    Kris Kowal, global retail banking lead, SAP America

    Perhaps, but don’t bet the company on it. In a banking business rolling out steady streams of innovative, technology-dependent products amid a massive cloud transformation, that’s what you’d be doing.

    The safer wager is that banks must continue to work hard to attract and retain the best of the best. Banks can do so in four ways:  

    • Promote what you have to offer; 
    • Change the culture to one that puts IT on even footing with business units; 
    • Delineate your tech strategy to workers interested in interesting work; and  
    • Develop a comprehensive talent plan.  

    Promote what you have to offer

    Banks are technology companies, and they are finally making a point of trumpeting that fact. It’s more than talk: Gartner has estimated this industry’s annual IT outlays to be in the $600 billion range. That’s roughly the combined state budgets of California and New York — with Ohio thrown in for good measure.  

    Those investments are pouring into the backend cloud transformations that the industry now recognizes will be necessary to compete, much less thrive. But that money is also going into new products that depend heavily on technology from the customer-experience standpoint on through analytics. Which brings up a key point: IT talent in banking is about more than software developers; we need diverse skills. In addition to developers, banking lacks automation specialists and analytics experts. Each of these fields involves many subspecialties that a potential hire can evolve into over time.  

    Among other areas, those diverse skills are necessary to develop the products that can meet — and ideally exceed — customers’ increasing expectations. A few examples include browser plugins that find coupon codes, personal financial management and financial literacy tools, automated interest rate rebates based on payment behavior or product bundling and carbon scoring and suggestions for offsets based on transactions such as airline-ticket purchases.  

    That’s in addition to ongoing — and increasingly demanding — banking-industry needs related to customer interfaces, cybersecurity, fraud detection, risk management and countless other areas. Also, banks are at the forefront of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement, a fact that aligns with the sensibilities of young tech professionals in particular. 

    Oh, and don’t forget that banking is, as before, generally profitable and stable — and it pays well. 

    Change the culture

    A recent Deloitte report on the challenges of tech hiring in the industry noted that tech workers in banking bemoaned their status as “second-class citizens.” Fair or not, an industry deeply dependent on technology can ill afford such sentiment to perpetuate. Fortunately, it’s just not true anymore. American Express CEO Steve Squeri’s rise to the top from the chief information officer job may be the clearest example of technology’s importance to this industry, but examples abound of recent high-end banking industry hires from the likes of Google, Microsoft and others.  

    Banks want to operate like tech companies, so they’re hiring tech leaders who are shaking up old hierarchies. The long-brewing transition of banking technology from back office to customer-facing is leading to a dismantling of traditional banking pecking orders, breaching silos and embracing the sorts of flexibility and collaboration that is good for banks in general and, specifically, for tech workers.  

    Delineate your tech strategy

    Yes, banking still involves paper, which to a prospective hire from a top computer science program or tech company may as well be a stack of cuneiform tablets. Yours and every other bank is working to change that, and you’re going to need tech talent to do it. Your core technology may seem outdated (another complaint in that Deloitte report) — that’s why you’re moving to the cloud, and that’s where tech talent can engage in a mission-critical way.  

    Tech talent doesn’t want to be feel like they’ll be shunted off in a coding shop working on patchwork solutions for finicky business users. Your technology roadmap is much more exciting than new hires would guess; don’t be shy about sharing it with them. 

    Develop a comprehensive talent plan

    Talent planning requires looking at your existing workforce as well as the needs to be filled through hiring. What skills do you need now? What will you need two years out? How can you cast the widest possible net and eliminate the sorts of hiring biases that reduce an organization’s cultural diversity and cause excellent candidates to be overlooked? These are some of the core questions of talent planning. 

    Technology can help in many ways, among them, through talent-assessment platforms that can automate the screening process and match applicants to jobs better than the old resume-based approach. But the reality is, if you haven’t put considerable thought into what talent you need and how to develop it, you probably won’t find it. 

    The tech industry’s dipping fortunes won’t last forever. Now is the time for banks to exploit what’s sure to be a temporary advantage in the long-term competition for tech talent. 

    Kris Kowal is the Global Retail Banking Lead for SAP America. 

    Bank Automation Summit US 2023, taking place March 2-3 in Charlotte, is a crucial event on automation and automation technology in banking. Learn more and register for Bank Automation Summit US 2023.

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    Kris Kowal

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  • 3 Difficult Personalities That Are Great Hires

    3 Difficult Personalities That Are Great Hires

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The concept of personality types, temperaments and working styles has been foundational in organizational behavior for years. As entrepreneurs or managers, we frequently assess personality to determine ideal team composition and workflows. While toxic personalities certainly exist, many others that seem difficult can offer severe advantages to start-up organizations. Oppositionality, non-conformity, perfectionism and the fickleness that often accompanies abstract thinking should not be deal-breaking traits.

    As a founder, I tend to have strong opinions about the working styles and personalities of those I consider creative, resourceful and hard-working people. At the same time, certain characters tend to clash within small teams, creating a challenging work environment. However, hiring managers can quickly write off people who are “difficult” as toxic — which can cost a startup its competitive edge. I, for one, appreciate the contributions that seemingly “difficult” people make. Here are three challenging personalities that frequently make great hires and give startup teams the edge they wouldn’t have without them.

    Related: Smart Advice for Networking With These 4 Personality Types

    1. Demanding yet artistically brilliant

    Just about any founder or CEO would appreciate a genius as part of their team, yet these rare outside-the-box thinkers can be notoriously difficult employees. They can be prickly, fiercely individualistic, anti-team players and have fragile personal lives.

    At my former design retail business, a set stylist we worked with fit the bill perfectly. Not only did he demand twice the market rate, but he also wanted my constant attention and would not allow anyone else on the team to address his concerns. That said, he successfully delivered the most beautiful sets in the most unlikely and underwhelming locations: he could turn a cave into a castle for the camera.

    In today’s ultra-competitive consumer product market, where hundreds of versions of every item are available, the differentiation of brilliant design can make or break your brand.

    Despite the obstacles, hiring a category-defying genius paid off for us. The key is to manage these individuals with empathy, awareness and appreciation for their unique contributions — while still setting the requisite boundaries for your sanity. Set your expectations that these hires will be individual contributors — not necessarily team players — and budget your time accordingly.

    Related: Are You Asking for Employee Feedback? If Not, Good Luck With Retention.

    2. Absent-minded abstract thinker

    For rational, linear thinkers who prioritize planning and organization, absent-mindedness can drive you crazy. Yet the same mental process that leads to fickleness can fuel fresh ideas and uncharted solutions.

    According to a study published in Psychological Science, mind-wandering spurs what neuroscientists call “creative incubation,” allowing a disjointed train of thought to make unlikely and uncommon connections that yield unique and creative solutions.

    Although one of the most inspired web developers I worked with often didn’t know what day of the week it was or where to find the printer he used every day, he figured out how to fashion a basic Shopify ecommerce system to deliver a fully custom site with sophisticated and unique UX features, flexible navigation and a robust backend–the likes of which even enterprise-level systems don’t often offer.

    The key to working with these absent-minded gems is to pair them with a colleague who can provide extra operational support.

    3. Problem-finding contrarian

    While working with someone forever finding problems can be discouraging and morale-crushing, a team that enthusiastically supports an unrealistic product idea is headed for failure. The right balance is hiring that smart contrarian: “Someone who looks for business practices that don’t make sense, who’s not too reliant on a small group of like-minded people, who can embrace diversity, and who’s happier on the sidelines.”

    A founder I mentored shared with me that she only hired people who showed extreme enthusiasm for her product — a scheduling app. She wanted to avoid negativity. As a result, no one on her team paused the beta launch to address a known glitch, and her app experienced a significant feature failure.

    Having that smart contrarian to call out real concerns at the right time, even if it’s not the popular or politically correct move, can help ensure problems are addressed before too many resources are invested, or larger issues ensue. While contrarians can be frustrating, they spot critical gaps others might fear speaking out about. To work effectively with contrarian personalities, practice prioritizing their observations and be prepared to translate unsolicited criticism into better ideas and more innovative solutions.

    Related: 5 Ways to Make Your Company’s Hiring Process More Fair

    The final decision

    Ultimately, you’ll need to weigh the costs and benefits of working with challenging personalities in your organization. While many demand special accommodation, buffering and hand-holding, I have found that their contributions are worth the investment.

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    Marina Glazman

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  • As Meta and Twitter slash staff, TikTok plans to keep hiring | CNN Business

    As Meta and Twitter slash staff, TikTok plans to keep hiring | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    While much of Silicon Valley is grappling with hiring freezes and job cuts, at least one social media company is still planning to keep hiring: TikTok.

    The short-form video app remains committed to its goal of hiring nearly 1,000 engineers at its Mountain View office, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN on Monday. This specific hiring target is related to the company’s goal of ensuring US user data is overseen by a team based in the United States amid scrutiny in Washington due to its parent company ByteDance’s ties to China.

    News of TikTok’s hiring plans was first reported by The Information.

    TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew confirmed that the company was still recruiting during remarks last week at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, in response to the topic of layoffs at other tech companies, including Facebook-parent Meta and Amazon.

    “We have always been more cautious in terms of recruitment,” Chew said at the conference. “At this stage of our growth, I think that our pace, our cadence, of hiring is just right for us.”

    In recent weeks, Meta said it was cutting 11,000 jobs across the company, Twitter cut about half its staff under new owner Elon Musk, and Amazon confirmed that it had begun wide-ranging layoffs. Current and former leaders of these companies have said they expanded too fast, particularly during the pandemic as consumers shifted their lives online. Now these same tech companies are facing whiplash in demand and cutting thousands of positions as broader economic conditions crumble and recession fears mount.

    The shift in the hiring landscape in Silicon Valley could help TikTok as it looks to appease critics and cement its position in the United States, and also as it works to expand into new product categories.

    TikTok’s career portal website currently lists more than 4,000 global positions, though it is not clear how often the hiring site is updated. In October, as some of the initial reports of hiring freezes and other cost-cutting measures began to emerge from Silicon Valley, TikTok made headlines for listing a number of new e-commerce-related roles that seemed to indicate it was looking to create a logistics and warehousing network in the United States.

    “We are still hiring,” Chew said at the conference last week, “although, you know, at a pace that we think has corresponds with the global challenges that we’re facing.”

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  • American workers can expect bigger raises next year, despite a looming recession

    American workers can expect bigger raises next year, despite a looming recession

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    It’s the most wonderful time of the year: corporate budget season. Or in some cases, budget re-adjustment season. 

    It’s the time when companies start to get realistic about what’s ahead for the coming year, particularly during the first quarter. And while that’s already playing out for some companies in the form of layoffs and hiring freezes, there is some good news for some employees heading into 2023. 

    Next year’s raises should be even higher than 2022 payouts, according to WTW’s annual salary budget planning report, based on survey responses from 1,550 U.S. organizations fielded in October. Despite the threat of an impending economic downturn, companies estimate they’ll be increasing their average workers’ salary 4.6% next year, up from the 4.2% the average worker received in 2022. 

    “As inflation continues to rise and the threat of an economic downturn looms, companies are using a range of measures to support their staff during this time,” Hatti Johansson, research director of reward data intelligence at WTW, said in a statement. 

    Boosting salary budgets is proving especially critical as companies continue to struggle to attract and retain employees. Three-quarters of organizations admitted to hiring and staffing issues—a number that’s nearly tripled since 2020. The continued tight labor market is the primary reason about 68% of companies opted to increase salary budgets. 

    But that pressure to pay well is a balancing act. About seven in 10 companies said they spent more than they’d planned to on salary increases and compensation adjustments over the last year. In order to fund pay increases, one in five are planning to raise prices on their products while 12% expect they will need to restructure and reduce staff headcounts. 

    And yet, despite the historic pay increases that organizations have doled out in recent years, compensation has not kept pace with inflation. National wage growth during the third quarter of 2022 increased 4.7% year over year, according to the PayScale Index. Yet, as of the end of September, real wages—which factor in the effect of inflation—are actually down 3% year over year. 

    For organizations struggling to make the math work if workers keep playing musical chairs with jobs and employers, WTW’s Lesli Jennings recommends focusing on the overall employee experience, not just providing pay increases. Two-thirds of companies surveyed have already provided workers with more flexibility and 61% have sharpened their focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and programs. 

    “By focusing on health and wellness benefits, workplace flexibility, careers and DEI, organizations can position themselves as the employer of choice for their current and prospective employees,” Jennings says.

    Our new weekly Impact Report newsletter will examine how ESG news and trends are shaping the roles and responsibilities of today’s executives—and how they can best navigate those challenges. Subscribe here.

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    Megan Leonhardt

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  • 3 Ways I Attracted The Best Generation Z Applicants

    3 Ways I Attracted The Best Generation Z Applicants

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Just when you think you’ve figured out the generational differences in your team, a new generation exits the classroom and into the workplace. For the first time in history, there are five generations in the workplace. They are traditionalists (born 1925 to 1945), baby boomers (born 1946 to 1964), Generation X (born 1965 to 1980), millennials (born 1981 to 2000) and Generation Z (born 2001 to 2020. And trust me, navigating these differences is no easy feat. I found this out the hard way.

    When I first started my own business, I lived out the old adage, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” I figured the same recruiting and retention practices that had worked for my own generation would easily translate to Gen Z. But I was wrong. Very wrong.

    In fact, I had to relearn everything before I could create a business that attracted top-level Generation Z applicants. But it was well worth the effort. So, how did I do it?

    Here are a few things that helped me in my own journey:

    1. Rethink your office space

    The “always on” mentality really started to take hold as the internet revolutionized how we communicate and interact. The first generation of employees expected to be “on” 24/7 were millennials. The workplace was no longer separate from your life — in many ways, it became your life.

    Generation Z recognized this. They saw the mental health struggles and burnout that came with being “always on” from the generation before them. This is why when they left the classroom and entered the boardroom, they valued, above all else, a work-life balance. They want flexibility. They want privacy. They want boundaries.

    That’s why, when I first started my company, I made sure to cut the cereal bar out of the budget and offer employees the ability to work from anywhere and at any time. How do I do this?

    Well, I meet with my team once a week via Zoom and we cover our weekly, quarterly and annual goals. Then, I’m able to break them down into manageable projects that can be done from anywhere. Once they’re done with the task that week, they can either take the rest of the week off or use that time to work ahead on the next week’s project.

    Now, I realize that this format doesn’t work for all types of businesses. But, if you have the capability of being entirely remote, giving your team the freedom to work from anywhere will go a long way in attracting top-level Generation Z applicants.

    Related: Gen Z Brings a Whole New Dynamic to the Workforce

    2. Let them lead the conversation

    One of the worst mistakes that I did early on was trying to lead with answers instead of questions. Well, let’s just say that didn’t go over too well. In fact, it completely flopped. And for good reason.

    You see, I was terrified of looking like a fool in front of my team. So, I didn’t give them a chance to catch me off guard. I lead with confidence, masked my fear and hoped that I could get through the day without falling flat on my face. However, my facade came at a high price. I almost lost the respect of my employees in the process.

    My team was frustrated because they felt like I was trying to control the conversation instead of letting them have a voice. They were done with the top-down management style and desperately wanted a leader who would listen to their needs.

    I knew I needed to change — and fast. This is why I started hosting weekly one-on-one conversations via Zoom.

    During these conversations, I asked my team about their work-style preferences, what motivates them, and how I could better support them. I even asked about how they like to socialize and what their favorite type of team-building activity is. And you know what? These conversations completely changed the way I ran my business –– for the better.

    My Gen Z employees are now some of my most valued team members because they feel heard and appreciated. Because once they knew that I was willing to listen, they were willing to open up and share their ideas — which has led to some pretty amazing results for my business.

    Related: 5 Ways Businesses Can Reach ‘Generation Z’

    3. Focus on their development, not placement

    The great Mark Twain once said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Now, I’m sure Twain wasn’t thinking about Generation Z when he made this statement, but it couldn’t be more relevant for today’s young workers. And I’ll tell you why.

    I learned the hard way that if you want to retain Generation Z workers, you need to focus on their development, not placement. For instance, when I brought on my first intern, I eagerly looked at my needs and then placed her in the department where I thought she would excel the most.

    But, after a few weeks, it became clear that she was miserable. She wanted to be doing something completely different — and she’s not the only one.

    According to Deloitte, “Most Gen Z professionals prefer a multidisciplinary and global focus to their work, with the expectation that this can create opportunities for mobility and a rich set of experiences.”

    For Gen Z, A plus B equals growth. This is why offering them the chance to cross-train is so important.

    My intern didn’t want to be boxed in by her past experience or education. She wanted an opportunity to grow. And, once I gave her that chance, I grew as a leader, too. I stopped focusing on placing my employees in specific roles and started focusing on giving them the freedom to grow within the company.

    Working with Generation Z can be a challenge, but I can guarantee you that it’ll be worth it in the end. In my experience, I’ve found you need to offer them these three things:

    • The ability to work from anywhere.
    • The chance to lead the conversation.
    • An opportunity to grow.

    If you start with that, you’re well on your way to attracting and retaining top Gen Z talent — and becoming a better leader in the process.

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    Dr. Colleen Batchelder

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  • Silicon Valley’s greatest minds misread pandemic demand. Now their employees are paying for it. | CNN Business

    Silicon Valley’s greatest minds misread pandemic demand. Now their employees are paying for it. | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    In the early months of the pandemic, Facebook only grew bigger and more central to our lives. With lockdowns spreading, countless people began shopping, socializing and working on Facebook and other online platforms. As CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in March 2020, usage was so high that the company was “just trying to keep the lights on.”

    Against that backdrop, Zuckerberg’s company went on a remarkable hiring spree. Facebook, which later rebranded as Meta, went from

    48,268     staffers in March 2020 to more than 87,000 as of September of this year. In other words, it hired another Facebook’s worth of staff. And it looked like the company would only keep hiring to support its ambitious plans to build a future version of the internet called the metaverse.

    On Wednesday, however, Zuckerberg reversed course and laid off more than 11,000 employees, marking the most significant cuts in the company’s history. In a memo to staff, Zuckerberg coughed up some of the hardest words in the English language. “I got this wrong,” he wrote, “and I take responsibility for that.”

    “At the start of Covid, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments. Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected.”

    Silicon Valley operates on many myths, but one of them is the idea of the founder as a visionary who can see key trends coming years if not decades out. But Zuckerberg is one of a growing list of prominent tech leaders who are cutting costs and issuing mea culpas after failing to anticipate a whiplash in the market between 2020 and 2022.

    The tech industry, already seemingly invincible in early 2020, only grew more dominant during the pandemic while other parts of the economy were upended. Consumers shifted spending online. The Federal Reserve maintained near-zero interest rates at the time, giving tech companies easier access to capital. And private and public market valuations for tech companies only seemed to go higher.

    As the world reopened, however, many consumers have returned to their offline lives. Meanwhile, high inflation and fears of a looming recession have cut into consumer and advertiser spending, disrupting the core businesses of many of the biggest names in tech, after years of rapid growth.

    Now the industry is cutting thousands of jobs.

    Last month, home fitness company Peleton — which had been embraced by investors during the pandemic — underwent its fourth round of layoffs in 2022. Last week, payment-processing giant Stripe said it was eliminating 14% of its staff. And Twitter recently announced widespread job cuts after its new owner Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion, funded in part by debt financing.

    While Musk was largely silent regarding the mass layoffs, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who ran the company until late 2021, said in a contrite thread that he takes responsibility for the situation. “I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that,” Dorsey wrote.

    Twitter headquarters is seen on Friday, October 28, 2022 the day after Elon Musk aquired Twitter for $44 billion.

    Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, one of the most valuable startups in the world, similarly told employees that leadership takes responsibility for the pandemic-era miscalculations that resulted in people losing their livelihoods.

    “For those of you leaving: we’re very sorry to be taking this step and John and I are fully responsible for the decisions leading up to it,” Collison wrote. “We were much too optimistic about the internet economy’s near-term growth in 2022 and 2023 and underestimated both the likelihood and impact of a broader slowdown.”

    Other big tech companies, including Amazon, Apple and Google, are now pausing or slowing hiring amid recession fears after a wave of expansion. Amazon, in particular, had seen breakneck growth during the pandemic, doubling its fulfillment centers in a two-year-period, only to shift earlier this year to focusing on “cost efficiencies.”

    The e-commerce giant is now freezing corporate hiring “for the next few months” and reportedly looking to cut costs in some of its unprofitable units. Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said senior leadership regularly reviews investment outlook and financial performance, adding, “As part of this year’s review, we’re of course taking into account the current macro-environment and considering opportunities to optimize costs.”

    While there have been layoffs in Silicon Valley over the years, the latest wave of cost cuts appears to be hitting every corner of the industry, including the engineers and coders who were often considered untouchable. The tech bubble may not have burst, but the bubble on top of the bubble certainly has.

    Zuckerberg said Meta’s layoffs would be spread throughout the company, including impacting both its family of apps and the Reality Labs division that is tasked with helping build the metaverse. He noted that some teams — such as recruiting — will be affected more than others.

    With Musk at the helm, Twitter slashed half its staff, including on its ethical AI, marketing and communication, search and public policy teams.

    Roger Lee, a startup founder based in San Francisco, has been closely tracking layoffs in the tech industry since the onset of the pandemic via his website Layoffs.fyi. Initially, his goal was to informally keep track of staffing reductions to help look for potential candidates to recruit for his own company, a digital 401(k) provider for small businesses. Eventually, laid-off workers began submitting their own data and compiling spreadsheets for his website to attract the attention of recruiters.

    “I did not, unfortunately, anticipate the extent to which the layoffs were going to surge,” Lee told CNN Business. With nearly two months still left to go, he said the number of tech employees laid off in 2022 has already surpassed 100,000 based on his data.

    Lee said some of the biggest trends he’s been seeing recently are major job losses across recruiting, human resources, and sales teams. While “engineers are still in better shape relative to the other roles,” Lee said his data indicate even these positions have suffered cuts in recent months.

    “No one knows how long this current period is going to last,” he said.

    Already, there’s been a clear shift in the industry’s mood. Blind, a popular online forum that lets employees at major companies commune anonymously to share interview tips and brag about compensation packages, has emerged as a sobering forum where people are posting about layoffs rather then their jobs.

    Some laid-off workers are also banding together on social media and crowdsourcing spreadsheets for recruiters. These workers have created documents featuring hundreds of names and LinkedIn profiles (as well as visa statuses) of former Twitter and Meta workers.

    While some companies may be better equipped to weather the storm than others, it’s becoming apparent that no company is completely unaffected, said Nikolai Roussanov, a professor of finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

    “Tech has been clobbered so much precisely because it has been seen as very immune to fluctuations in the real economy, but in the end, nobody is immune,” Roussanov said. “And that realization, I think, is important and perhaps what contributed to these sky-high valuations coming down pretty quickly.”

    Meta’s market cap has fallen from a peak of more than $1 trillion last year to less than $300 billion. Amazon, meanwhile, has seen its market cap drop by $1 trillion from a peak last summer.

    Roussanov said current fears of a recession are not unwarranted, but in many ways, “there is a little bit of a self-fulfilling nature to this.” He added: “As these fears become more and more widespread, they slow down people’s consumption, they slow down firm investment, and that kind of snowballs on itself.”

    What’s going on in tech right now is “perhaps a taste of what’s yet to come” elsewhere, Roussanov said.

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  • How Crypto Can Be Used to Attract and Retain Top Talent

    How Crypto Can Be Used to Attract and Retain Top Talent

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    In April 2020, unemployment in the U.S. was at “the highest level on record,” followed by nearly record-low unemployment in 2022. There’s also a record high of two open jobs for every unemployed person, which is driving fierce competition for talent. Some firms are turning to cryptocurrencies to sweeten the pot.

    Offering salaries in cryptocurrency isn’t new, but it’s becoming more common as companies attempt to lure top talent. In 2017, Japanese internet company, GMO, announced that it would pay part of its employees’ salaries in bitcoin, and it is joined by the likes of SC5, Fairlay and io.

    Related: 3 Ways to Stay Competitive in the War for Talent

    Why offering crypto payroll is a meaningful perk

    A tremendous 56% of American adults (around 145 million people) own or have previously owned crypto. To offer salaries denominated in cryptocurrency is to appeal to a much wider swath of the population. What’s more, young people are particularly bullish on crypto. A recent survey found that buyers in the Gen Z and millennials buckets make up nearly 94% of all crypto buyers.

    Offering cryptocurrency as a payroll option is a way for companies to tap into this enthusiasm and signal that they’re forward-thinking when it comes to new technologies. It’s also a way to attract employees who might be interested in working for a company that is comfortable with and supportive of cryptocurrency.

    Paying salaries in cryptocurrency comes with some risks, of course. The value of digital assets can be volatile, and so a worker who is paid in crypto could see his or her earnings fluctuate wildly from month to month. For this reason, it’s important for companies to consider whether they’re prepared to offer salary protection in the form of cash top-ups or other benefits if the value of crypto falls.

    Employees may want to get paid in crypto for a number of reasons, from the potential for appreciation to the simple fact that it’s a more convenient way to hold and use digital assets. But regardless of the reasons, companies that want to stay ahead of the curve would do well to consider offering crypto payroll options. It could be the key to attracting and retaining top talent in today’s competitive landscape.

    Related: The Complete Guide to Crypto, Bitcoin, ApeCoin and Blockchain Technology

    Crypto payroll is beneficial for employers, too

    In addition to the ability to attract top talent, there are a number of reasons why paying salaries in cryptocurrency could be beneficial for employers.

    For one, it can help companies save on costs. Cryptocurrency transaction fees are generally lower than those associated with traditional payment methods like wire transfers or credit cards, particularly for cross-border payments.

    In addition, crypto payroll can help firms hedge against currency risk. If a company pays its employees in a foreign currency, it is exposed to the risk that the value of that currency will decline relative to the company’s home currency. By paying salaries in cryptocurrency or stablecoins like USDT, companies can hedge against this risk. For example, the value of the Japanese Yen dropped over 20% against the U.S. dollar (or the stablecoin equivalent, USDT) this year.

    Last but not least, crypto payroll can give companies a competitive edge when it comes to speed and efficiency. Cryptocurrency transactions are generally much faster than traditional payments, which means employees can get access to their earnings more quickly. And because digital assets can be stored and used electronically, there’s no need for paper records or checks (which can often get lost or delayed in the mail) — everything is stored securely on the blockchain.

    Related: The Future Of Banking: How Blockchain Technology Can Merge Crypto and Traditional Banking

    How to offer crypto payroll

    If you’re interested in offering crypto payroll to your employees, there are a few things you need to consider.

    First, you’ll need to decide which cryptocurrency or cryptocurrencies you want to use. There are thousands of different digital assets in existence, so it’s important to do your research and consider what makes the most sense for your company.

    For example, if you want to offer employees the ability to hold and use their earnings easily, you might want to consider a major cryptocurrency like bitcoin or Ethereum. If you’re more interested in hedging against currency risk, a stablecoin like USDT could be a good choice.

    Once you’ve selected a cryptocurrency, you’ll need to set up a way to pay salaries in that currency. The naive approach would be to simply ask employees to provide you with their cryptocurrency wallet address and manually transfer the appropriate amount each month. But this is time-consuming and exposes you to the risk of human error.

    Another option is to use a crypto payroll service. This not only saves you time and reduces the risk of error, but it also makes it easy for employees to receive their earnings directly into their own wallets or exchange them for other currencies if they so choose.

    Ultimately, offering crypto payroll is a way to stay ahead of the curve and attract top talent. If you’re interested in doing so, there are a number of things you need to consider. But with the right preparation, it could be a major competitive advantage for your business.

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    Frederik Bussler

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  • Amazon will pause corporate hiring for months | CNN Business

    Amazon will pause corporate hiring for months | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    Amazon is pressing pause on corporate hiring and expects to keep the policy in place for months, in the latest sign that even the biggest tech companies are rethinking staffing in an uncertain economic climate.

    The e-commerce giant has decided to implement a “pause on new incremental hires in our corporate workforce,” Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon

    (AMZN)    , said in a memo to employees this week. The letter was shared on Amazon

    (AMZN)    ’s website on Thursday.

    “We had already done so in a few of our businesses in recent weeks and have added our other businesses to this approach,” Galetti wrote. “We anticipate keeping this pause in place for the next few months, and will continue to monitor what we’re seeing in the economy and the business to adjust as we think makes sense.”

    Amazon will continue to hire backfills for some employees who leave for new opportunities, she said, “and there are some targeted places where we will continue to hire people incrementally.”

    Amazon saw its business boom during the pandemic, as more customers turned to online shopping. But as pandemic restrictions eased, however, Amazon has had to confront the dual challenges of more people returning to in-person shopping and a souring economic outlook weighing on consumers’ demand.

    Late last week, Amazon forecast its revenue for the holiday quarter would be lighter than analysts had expected, causing its stock to fall sharply. Shares of Amazon are down more than 45% this year.

    In recent months, tech companies including Google-parent Alphabet, Facebook-parent Meta, Twitter and more have also announced plans to slow hiring and cut costs amid the economic uncertainty.

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  • How to Hire a Tech Team When You Don’t Know Much About Tech

    How to Hire a Tech Team When You Don’t Know Much About Tech

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    For many leaders at many organizations, it’s tough to hire a tech team. After all, while you have a deep understanding of your own business, if you’re not a software engineer or IT specialist, it can be difficult to tell if the person you’re talking with can actually do all that wonderful stuff he or she is promising. (That’s why you need help in the first place!)

    A lot of business owners and executives without technical expertise often select their engineering hires or partners based on the things they are more confident assessing – how well a person presents and the cost of hiring that person or team. And while those metrics are certainly helpful, they are often not the best metrics to figure out if the person or the firm you’re interviewing can actually do the job well.

    Related: 5 Ways Businesses Benefit From Having a Tech-Savvy CEO

    That leaves many executives hoping for the best and crossing their fingers. Given that IT budgets are often some of the biggest costs for an organization, given how critical these systems are, and given the increase in cyber attacks, choosing incorrectly can have dire consequences.

    I’ve led three different technology companies over the last 15 years and have seen a lot go wrong. Today, as Chairman of a software development company called Plan A Technologies, one of the most common requests I hear comes from leaders who have chosen incorrectly…and need us to help bail them out of a bad situation.

    So what are some of the pointers we share with our clients about how to avoid such situations in the future? Here’s a quick list of what you should be listening for and what you should be saying.

    Cover the basics

    Make sure the person or the firm you’re talking to is friendly, easy to communicate with, follows up quickly, and behaves professionally in all your interactions. Make sure to ask for (and check!) references, and make sure those references are from legitimate companies and not friends and family.

    Are they asking multiple relevant questions?

    The external firm you hire or the individual you hire should have a lot of questions for you about your vision, the problems you may be facing, and your current tech stack. They should be asking about how everything has been designed, where everything is hosted, the front-end and back-end technologies that were used to create or integrate your applications, and more. In addition to technical questions, external firms should ask at least a few big-picture business questions as well: about your timelines, budget, how you’d like to differentiate yourself from your competitors, etc.

    Related: Pros and Cons of Hiring a Consultant for Business

    But are they only asking questions?

    Yes, questions are good. But at a certain point, they should also be making suggestions off the cuff. There’s an old saying in writing: show, don’t tell. The same is true for a good engineer or software engineering firm. During your conversation, they should be showing you how much they know about the issues by speaking about potential solutions, potential pitfalls, and more.

    Are they condescending?

    Mediocre engineers often throw around a lot of technical words and try to intimidate a non-technical audience by showing how much more terminology they know. But great engineers are usually also great teachers and have no problem explaining complex concepts to a non-technical audience.

    Do they seem to know your industry?

    Ahead of time, check their history to see if they’ve worked in your field before. And when talking, ask yourself: Do I believe they’re capable of handling my business? This is something you can question them about with confidence—after all, you know your business. Ask specific questions about how they’ll handle your specific needs. If you’re unsatisfied with a response, ask follow-ups.

    Related: Don’t Know Much About Tech? Don’t Panic.

    Can they talk details?

    Let’s say they show you a case study about building a mobile app for a hospital. Even if you’re not experienced in health care, you can still dig in: Walk me through how you built it. What was your biggest concern going in? How did you handle privacy information? Did you find a way to show ER wait times? Etc.

    Can they spot the trick?

    Do some research ahead of time about a technology that’s pretty new (say, 4 or 5 years old). Then ask: “Do you have at least ten years of experience with X?”

    If they proudly say they do, it’s time for the next candidate.

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    Aron Ezra

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  • 3 Strategies for Hiring Promotable Entry-Level Talent

    3 Strategies for Hiring Promotable Entry-Level Talent

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Beating a tough labor market is easier when you can promote from within. And the easiest way to have a promotable workforce is by setting up a pipeline of eager, entry-level workers.

    Companies that hire from within do better than those that focus on promoting outsiders. Case in point: A University of Massachusetts Global deep dive shows that internal hires cost about 18% less than their external counterparts. They require limited sourcing efforts, too, which can lead to more savings. But that doesn’t mean you can just pull from the rank and file and start filling positions. Being able to hire from within starts with a consistently replenished entry-level talent pool pipeline. If you’re not being strategic about bringing in high-performing, entry-level newcomers, you can’t get the benefits of internal hiring.

    A 2021 Joblist survey showed just how much of an advantage it could be to promote current employees when possible. Out of the 1,000 workers asked, nearly two-thirds said they’d rather be led by someone from within the company. Seven out of 10 felt the practice was important for their employer’s growth potential. More than 55% said it led to heightened morale and lowered training costs.

    LinkedIn’s 2020 Global Talent Trends report reflected similar findings. The report found a 41% uptick in how long workers stuck around at companies that hired from within. Plus, it reveals that almost three-quarters of hiring professionals are in favor of inside recruiting.

    Related: 7 Ways to Make Sure Your Employee Knows How to Get Promoted

    The message is clear: Internal promotions can accelerate employee engagement, trim onboarding timeframes and attack attrition. And the simplest way to have internal job candidates is to bring rising talent into the fold. By regularly pulling in strong, entry-level employees, you can create a funnel that pushes future leaders up the corporate ladder.

    The following strategies will help you attract eager entry-level applicants to your organization. That way, you can choose the right ones to start constructing an enviable — and internally promotable — workforce.

    1. Interview for both hard and soft skills

    Most jobs require some type of basic technical know-how, even if it’s just being comfortable with general word processing or spreadsheets. However, employers are discovering more often that it’s soft skills that make certain employees stand out. And a stand-out employee is one who may be interested in moving around the company.

    According to recent data gathered by a High Point University poll in 2022, companies put a higher value on soft skills than hard ones. The poll of 500 leaders from enterprise-size organizations identified employee motivation and coachability as markers of future success. Three-quarters of poll participants said it was easier to teach technical aptitude than motivation. Seven out of 10 felt the same way about technical expertise versus the ability to accept constructive feedback.

    How can you determine someone’s soft skills based on resumes or initial conversations? One method is to ask candidates to answer situational “What would you do if…?” questions. Another is to have prospective workers talk about challenges and failures and how they faced them. Just be sure you’re asking the same questions to all applicants. You’ll reduce interviewing bias and be able to compare interviewees’ soft-skill responses objectively.

    Related: Why Soft Skills Are More Important Than Hard Cash for Your Acquisition’s Long-Term Growth

    2. Make career pathing part of your onboarding and ongoing training

    Career pathing involves helping your employees create roadmaps to move through your organization. For example, a career path will show the routes an employee can take to get from job A to job B to job C, and so on. Most entry-level workers haven’t been in the workforce long enough to understand how to construct career paths. You can assist them by introducing them to career pathing during onboarding and making it part of their employee experience.

    Having a group of employees who have constructed realistic, doable career paths can improve your internal hiring. Deloitte’s Talent 2020 report notes that 42% of employees looking for different employment are leaving because they’re not using their talents. 37% said they were unsatisfied with their career progress. Dynamic professional development support and career pathing can ease those challenges.

    Remember that you can’t just set up career paths and let them gather dust. Teach supervisors how to encourage their team members to identify training areas using their career paths as guides. Be sure to set aside resources for upskilling, too.

    Related: 4 Reasons Employees See a Bleak Career Path and Quit

    3. Treat your internship programs as feeder opportunities

    Information culled in 2020 by Chegg Internship suggests that around 70% of all internships turn into job offers. Of those interns offered a position, 80% accept. This means that for every 10 interns you bring into your organization, you could end up with around five or six new employees. Those employees would already be familiar with your culture — and buoyed by a chance to start working.

    Even if you have an internship program in place, take a harder look at it. See how you might be able to make it more of a feeder into a bigger succession plan. For instance, should you be broadening your current pipeline and accepting interns from more disciplines? Could you use interns in more departments than you normally do? These are all questions worth asking.

    Interns who feel their time with your company was well-spent may become members of your C-suite someday. At the very least, they’ll be more likely to join your company if you extend a job offer after they graduate. So look for ways to boost the real and perceived value of your internships. Don’t be afraid to survey current and past internships so you can continuously improve your internship experiences.

    The Great Resignation has shown how tough it can be for employers to find candidates. When you can hire from within, you have more choices. You also reduce downtime associated with empty seats. So start (and keep) bringing entry-level workers into the fold. They’ll become your competitive advantage.

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    Rashan Dixon

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