Companies, especially in technology, are pulling out all the stops to recruit and retain women: fertility benefits, shipping breast milk home from work trips, in-office massages and manicures, on-site OB/GYNs, the ability to travel with children and a care-giver and feminine products in the restrooms are just a few of the ways companies are getting creative with trying to appeal to women.But while these perks might be appreciated, they're not the fundamental drivers of women's decisions to come on board with your company -- or to stick around, says Ursula Mead, co-founder and CEO of InHerSight, an employee ratings and review site for women.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In a recovering economy and a tight IT talent market, you have more leverage when angling for a raise. And the beginning of a new calendar year is a great time to ask for more money, as budgets are new and organizations begin to execute on their strategy and goals for the upcoming year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
First, do no harm. This is the underlying message of the Hippocratic Oath historically taken by physicians to show they will abide by an ethical code of conduct. Plumbers, construction workers, law enforcement -- almost any professional whose work impacts the public must abide by some sort of ethical code of conduct.There's one fairly notable exception: technology. While there are organization-- and company-specific codes of conduct -- like these guidelines from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - Computer Science (IEEE-CS) joint task force on software engineering ethics professional practices, there's no one all-encompassing set of standards that includes the entire industry.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
New research from company ratings and review platforms InHerSight and Kununu reveal just how differently men and women perceive several key workplace factors, including issues like management opportunities for women, female representation in top leadership, access to equal opportunities, parental leave policies, family growth support and mentorship opportunities.While both men and women start their careers mostly optimistic about the opportunities for advancement and their respective representation in management and senior leadership, those perceptions shift drastically over time -- at least for women.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If finding a new job is one of your New Year's resolutions, you're in luck -- 2017 should bring a healthy employment market, and there's no better time than now to turn your career-related resolutions into reality.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
In 2016, recruiters grappled with an evolving job market, an incredibly competitive hiring landscape, a shortage of IT talent and sky-high salaries for in-demand roles. Those trends are likely to continue into 2017 as recruiters continue to adapt to the this high-demand, low supply hiring landscape, says Dave Morgan, president of IT and engineering for professional recruiting and staffing services firm Addison Group.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Diversity (or lack of it) is still a major challenge for tech companies. Poised to revolutionize the world of work in general, some organizations are leveraging technology to root out bias, better identify and screen candidates and help close the diversity gap.That starts with understanding the nature of bias, and acknowledging that unconscious bias is a major problem, says Kevin Mulcahy, an analyst with Future Workplace and co-author of The Future Workplace Experience: 10 Rules for Managing Disruption in Recruiting and Engaging Employees. AI and machine learning can be an objective observer to screen for bias patterns, Mulcahy says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Glassdoor, the employer review site, has released its annual "Best Places to Work" list for 2017, and while there are some familiar names -- Facebook, Google, LinkedIn -- companies like fast-food restaurant In-N-Out and household brands like Clorox and Nestle Purina Pet Care are making a strong showing in the top 20.What makes a company a "Best Place to Work"? Though there's a diverse group of organizations represented on the list, there are a few common themes, says Allison Berry, public relations specialist at Glassdoor.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
TEKsystems 2017 IT forecast shows IT budgets rebounding from a slump in 2016, and IT leaders' confidence high going into the new year. But challenges around talent acquisition and organizational alignment will persist.The research, which polled 700 CIOs, IT hiring managers, directors and vice presidents in October 2016, found that almost half, 49 percent, expect their IT budgets to increase in 2017. Only 12 percent of respondents say their IT budgets will decrease, and 39 percent say their budgets will stay the same.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In today's competitive war for talent, employers are using substantial benefits packages to give them an edge when recruiting and retaining talent, according a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey report.The report, which surveyed 738 randomly selected HR professionals, showed that 95 percent rated healthcare as one of the three most important benefits to employees; 71 percent say retirement savings and planning are top-rated employee benefits and 50 percent say leave is an important benefit.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The incidents of ransomware -- especially crypto-ransomware, in which cybercriminals hack vulnerable systems, encrypt the data and hold it for ransom -- saw a huge spike in 2016, and the practice shows no signs of slowing down.According to Symantec's 2016 Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), there were more than 4,000 ransomware attacks per day since Jan 1, 2016, a 300-percent increase over 2015, which saw an average 1,000 attacks per day, according to the ISTR.While organizations can't ever be completely protected, there are a number of steps you can take to minimize the risk and potential fallout from a ransomware attack, says Scott Millis, CTO at mobile security and secure device management platform Cyber adAPT.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The incidents of ransomware -- especially crypto-ransomware, in which cybercriminals hack vulnerable systems, encrypt the data and hold it for ransom -- saw a huge spike in 2016, and the practice shows no signs of slowing down.According to Symantec's 2016 Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), there were more than 4,000 ransomware attacks per day since Jan 1, 2016, a 300-percent increase over 2015, which saw an average 1,000 attacks per day, according to the ISTR.While organizations can't ever be completely protected, there are a number of steps you can take to minimize the risk and potential fallout from a ransomware attack, says Scott Millis, CTO at mobile security and secure device management platform Cyber adAPT.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With the ubiquity of cloud technology and the availability of modern systems administration tools that allow anyone from developers to administrative assistants to procure and provision servers and services, it's tempting to think that the role of the system administrator, or sysadmin, is obsolete.The sysadmin role isn't dying off, however. It's simply evolving along with the rest of the technology industry and becoming less focused on hardware and infrastructure and more on services delivery -- a shift away from being seen as a cost center in an organization to an innovation engine. And that's great news for IT pros looking to further their careers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In the years since Lean first revolutionized the manufacturing sector, the basic principles have also shown benefits in other industries and other departments, most notably within technology. But new research emphasizes the major impact Lean can have not just in your IT departments, but across your entire organization.The ultimate goal and guiding principle of Lean is creating perfect value for customers through a perfect value creation process with zero waste. In the day-to-day implementations of Lean, that translates to creating more value with fewer resources and inefficiencies.Perfect value
Organizations that have implemented Lean are seeing this principle become a reality, according to the Lean Business Report 2016 research from visual product delivery solutions company LeanKit, which surveyed 3,000 executives, consultants and team members between September and November 2015.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Congratulations -- you've got an offer for an executive level role! Whether it's your first foray into upper management or you've been a C-suite stalwart for years, negotiating a compensation package can be nerve-wracking. And while the mechanics of the negotiation might be similar whether you're an entry-level worker or a C-level executive, there are specific components of executive compensation that could throw you for a loop if you're not careful, says Howard Seidel, partner, Essex Partners."In a lot of cases, executives can have a lot more leverage when negotiating an offer, and they also can have a lot more options to consider when putting together the terms of their compensation package. What I always tell my clients is that they have to have a strategy in place to decide what their priorities are when entering into negotiations," says Seidel.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
From W-2 scams to WordPress vulnerabilities, ransomware, business email compromises, DDos attacks and allegations of a hacked presidential election -- 2016's been a hell of a year in cybersecurity, and it's not over yet.There's no reason to believe 2017 will be any better. If anything, it could be even worse as cybercriminals continue to push social engineering, find new ways to deliver malware, crack vulnerable databases and leverage mobile technology to find ways to get inside corporate defenses and target individuals.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
From W-2 scams to WordPress vulnerabilities, ransomware, business email compromises, DDos attacks and allegations of a hacked presidential election -- 2016's been a hell of a year in cybersecurity, and it's not over yet.There's no reason to believe 2017 will be any better. If anything, it could be even worse as cybercriminals continue to push social engineering, find new ways to deliver malware, crack vulnerable databases and leverage mobile technology to find ways to get inside corporate defenses and target individuals.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Most popular companies for job seekersImage by Thinkstock/UnsplashIt's no surprise that IT jobs are some of the hottest, most lucrative and exciting careers around, but some companies are more alluring than others. Job search site Indeed.com searched through its more than 16 million job postings last month, filtered results to focus on only the IT industry jobs, and then ranked each company based on viewer impressions and click-through rate to gauge how appealing each company is to potential candidates.
"With over 16 million job postings globally and more than 200 million unique visitors a month … We compiled a list of the most popular tech company job postings. We then ranked the companies by click through rates on job postings during the month of October. Each company had to have at least 100 job postings to be considered. To compile the list, Indeed looked at the number of job seeker clicks relative to impressions -- or click through rate," according to Indeed.
There were some surprises, says Daniel Culbertson, Indeed.com's lead economist; many of the Silicon Valley heavyweights like Facebook, Google and Apple had received lower job seeker scores than anticipated, and two lesser-known companies, Concur Continue reading
Sharon Florentine