Why Men Still Get More Promotions Than Women

Your high-potential females need more than just well-meaning mentors.

Read the HBR In Brief -by Herminia Ibarra, Nancy M. Carter, and Christine Silva

Are women as likely as men to get mentoring? Yes.
As companies continue to see their pipelines leak at mid-to-senior levels even though they’ve invested considerable time and resources in mentors and developmental opportunities, they are actively searching for ways to retain their best female talent. In a 2010 World Economic Forum report on corporate practices for gender diversity in 20 countries, 59% of the companies surveyed say they offer internally led mentoring and networking programs, and 28% say they have women-specific programs. But does all this effort translate into actual promotions and appointments for both sexes?

Does mentoring provide the same career benefits to men and women? No. The numbers suggest not. A 2008 Catalyst survey of more than 4,000 full-time-employed men and women—high potentials who graduated from top MBA programs worldwide from 1996 to 2007—shows that the women are paid $4,600 less in their first post-MBA jobs, occupy lower-level management positions, and have significantly less career satisfaction than their male counterparts with the same education. If the women are being mentored so thoroughly, why aren’t they moving into higher management positions?

Do men and women have the same kinds of mentors? No. (All mentoring is not created equal, we discovered. There is a special kind of relationship—called sponsorship—in which the mentor goes beyond giving feedback and advice and uses his or her influence with senior executives to advocate for the mentee. Our interviews and surveys alike suggest that high-potential women are overmentored and undersponsored relative to their male peers—and that they are not advancing in their organizations. Furthermore, without sponsorship, women not only are less likely than men to be appointed to top roles but may also be more reluctant to go for them.

Why Mentoring Fails Women
Although more women than men in the 2008 Catalyst survey report having mentors, the women’s mentors have less organizational clout. We find this to be true even after controlling for the fact that women start in lower-level positions post-MBA. That’s a real disadvantage, the study shows, because the more senior the mentor, the faster the mentee’s career advancement. Despite all the effort that has gone into developing the women since 2008, the follow-up survey in 2010 reveals that the men have received 15% more promotions.

Does having formal versus informal mentoring make any difference in terms of promotions? Yes.

Does mentoring provide the same career benefits to men and women? NoAmong survey participants who had active mentoring relationships in 2008, fully 72% of the men had received one or more promotions by 2010, compared with 65% of the women.

Does having formal versus informal mentoring make any difference in terms of promotions? Yes
Women who had found mentors through formal programs had received more promotions by 2010 than women who had found mentors on their own (by a ratio of almost three to two).

ASOCIA Group is a top-tier information technology consulting and staffing firm recognized as one of the top ten diversity businesses in the U.S. in 2010. ASOCIA Group is a woman-owned enterprise (WBE) certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). www.asociagroup.com/WBENC

How Women Can Become CIOs

Denise Coyne is a 28-year veteran of oil giant Chevron and has been one of its CIOs for the past two years. She’s also one of the few female CIOs at big companies. Forbes caught up with Coyne to discuss her career and challenges facing women in IT.

Forbes: What are some of the challenges that you’ve faced as one of the few female CIOs of a major corporation?

Denise Coyne: Actually, I think that it’s the same kind of challenges that any woman in business faces, especially starting when I did. But I think, in some ways, it was a little easier for me. I grew up in a military family. And the military is a very male-dominated, hierarchical kind of organization, just like Chevron was when I started. So I would say, when I started, I was usually the only woman in any meeting. Now, probably half the meeting is women.

Being focused on what you want and determined–not letting things overwhelm you, but just keep going–is one of the major ways you stay focused and get ahead.

Why aren’t there more women in CIO roles at companies?
I think the CIO role is a very demanding role. And trying to balance all of the different family, children, extracurricular activities in your life with work is a tough juggle. So I think that’s one of the reasons that people come to points in their life when they have to make a decision, “Is it going to be work or is it going to be something else?”

What made you aspire to be a CIO?
I always like to say that I took the circuitous route through life. My undergraduate degree is in criminology, but I wrote a paper on police use of data banks and information. I went back to school and got my master’s in business administration and got a marketing job with IBM. And they trained me in information technology.

From there, I went into Chevron. And an early mentor of mine basically said, “Denise, if you want to be a top executive, keep that focus and determination on that, and then plot your career, but be willing to be really flexible. If you come to a roadblock, know that you can take a sidestep; know that you can take a lateral. Maybe you need to take a lateral to get more breadth to prepare yourself to have that broad perspective for a top job.” And I think that I’ve done that.

What advice would you give to women who are interested in becoming a CIO and advancing their careers in IT?

I actually mentor quite a few young women that we hire into Chevron. And I tell them the same thing: Ask for what you want. If you think, “I’m working really hard; why isn’t anyone noticing me,” that’s the wrong thing. But if you’re putting it out there, “I want the next promotion. I want more responsibility. I want more challenge,” I think it’s amazing the kind of things that come to you.

Are there any things that you wish you had known more about the CIO job before stepping into it? And how would you have prepared differently?

Making sure that you have a core of self confidence walking into meetings is critical. So, being very clear on your personal values, on your personal beliefs, on your beliefs about the company and the direction of the company is a way to prepare yourself to act confidently in those meetings.

www.forbes.com Full article courtesy of Forbes.

Asocia Group is a woman-owned(WBE) enterprise certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council(WBENC). www.asociagroup.com/WBENC.

Asocia Group provides information technololgy consulting, staffing and executive search services to clients nationwide and was ranked as one of top ten diversity businesses in the US in 2009. In 2010, Asocia Group launched S.W.I.T., an organization to help create more executive-level career opportunities for women in technology.

Asocia Executive Search is a division that specializes in retained executive search for CIO positions.

ASOCIA Healthcare Executive Search– One of the Top Retained Healthcare Search Firms in the US

ASOCIA Healthcare’s Executive Search Division, based in Atlanta, Georgia, is a nationally recognized leader among retained Healthcare executive recruiting firms. Our firm has developed a successful national Healthcare executive recruiting practice with direct access and strong businesses relationships with corporate board members, senior executives and top performing senior managers throughout these Healthcare segments:

• Financial Services
• Hospital Vendors and Outsourced Solution Providers
• Insurance & Managed Care
• Medical Technology & Device
• Providers - Hospitals, Health Systems & IDNs
• Specialized Healthcare Services
• Turnaround & Corporate Restructuring Organizations
• Venture Capital, Private Equity & Leverage Buyout Investment Firms

Our Healthcare executive recruiting clients include Fortune 500, Fortune 100 and Fortune 25 businesses, mid-cap growth companies, Private Equity and Leverage Buyout firms and related portfolio companies, turnaround and restructuring firms and entrepreneurial Venture-Capital start-ups.

About Asocia Healthcare
Asocia Healthcare, a subsidiary of Asocia Group, LLC, is a full-service healthcare consulting, staffing and medical products provider to hospitals and medical facilities nationwide. Asocia Healthcare’s services and products include: healthcare information technology and medical consulting and staffing services; medical products and devices. www.asociahealthcare.com.

Asocia Group is a top-tier information technology consulting, staffing and executive search services provider focused in the commercial, government and healthcare sectors. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Asocia provides services to clients nationwide. Asocia was ranked as one of the nation’s top 500 diversity businesses in 2009 by Diversitybusiness.com. www.asociagroup.com.

Asocia Group is a minority- and woman-owned organization certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).

For additional information, please contact:

Media Contact
Asocia Healthcare- media@asociahealthcare.com
1.800.481.0352

Most Influential Women In Technology 2010

Fast Company’s List of the Most Influential Women In Technology 2010 is impressive to say the least. Here is a list of the top women arranged by categories.

The Executives: Susan Lyne, CEO Gilt Group; Julie Lee, SVP Vevo; Sheryl Sanbert ,COO Facebook; Ursula Burns, CEO Xerox, Rebecca Parson, CTO Thoughtworks, Virginia Rometty, SVP IBM; Ann Livermore, VP HP; Carol Bartz, CEO Yahoo, Teresa Carlson, VP of Microsofts US Federal Business, Genevieve Bell, Director User Experience Intel, Marissa Mayer, VP Google, Judy McGrath, CEO MTV.

The Activists: Shela Krumholz, Executive Director Center for Responsive Politics; Ellen Miller, Cofounder Sunlight Foundation; Leslie Harris, CEO Center for Democracy; Lelia Chirayath Janah, Founder Samasource; Jessica Jackley, Founder Kiva; Cheryl Contee, Founder Fission Strategy, Sarah Durham, Founder Big Duck; Gwen Bell, Social Media Guru.

The Media: Allison Lewis, Creative Innovator Switch Craft; Darlene Liebman, Cofounder and Vice President of Production Howcast Studios, Laura Brunow Miner, Founder Pictory, Elizabeth Spiers, Media Consultant The Cut; Pim Techamuanvivit, Food Blogger; Lisa Stone, Cofounder BlogHer, Liza Sabater, Publisher Daily Gotham and Culture Kitchen; Meredith Artley, Managing Editor CNN.com.

The Entrepreneurs: Jen Bekman, Founder 20×200; Clara Shih, Founder Hearsay Labs, Tina Sharkey, President and CEO BabyCenter, Claire Boonstra, Cofounder Layar, Danae Ringelmann, Cofounder IndieGoGo, Sam Reich-Dagnen, Cofounder Braincandy; Tan Le, Founder and President Emotiv; Caterina Fake, Cofounder Hunch

The Evangelists: Shireen Mitchell, Founder Digital Sisters; Shaherose Charania and Angie Chang, Founders Women 2.0; Allyson Kapin, Founder Women Who Tech; Molly Holzschlag, Web Standards Advocate; Debbie Weil, Corporate Blogging Expert; Cindy Padnos, Founder Illuminate Ventures, Addison Berry, Document Team Lead Drupal; Susan Scrupski, Founder and CEO 2.0 Adoption Council; Pamela Jones, Founder Groklaw, Laura Fitton, Founder OneForty; Gina Trapani, Project Director Expert Labs.

The Gamers: Susan Wu, Cofounder and CEO Ohai; Jane McGonigal, Director of Games Research & Development Institute for the Future; Lucy Bradshaw, Electronic Arts, Nicole Lazzaro, Founder XEO Design; Shinyoung Park, Founder Funji, Kate Connally, VP Addicting Games; Annie Chang, Cofounder and Head of Products LoLapps, Trina Schwimmer, Founder GamingAngels, Sara de Freitas, Director of Research Serious Games.

The Braniacs: Elizabeth Stark, Cofounder Open Video Alliance, Sheila Campbell, Head of the General Service Administration’s Web Best Practices Team, GSA’s USA.gov, Melissa Hathway, Cybersecurity Expert; Jayne Poynter, Cofounder Paragon Space Dev Corp; Amber Case, Cyborg Anthropologist; Fernanda Viegas, Cofounder Flowing Media; Robin Murphy, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Texas A&M University; Jill Tarter, Director SETI; Maria Alovert, Biodiesel Advocate; Alexis Ringwald, Cofounder Valence Energy Corp

ASOCIA Group would like to congratulate these amazing women for their great contributions and leadership in technology.

ASOCIA Group is a woman-owned enterprise(WBE) certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC).www.asociagroup.com/WBENC.

ASOCIA Group is top-tier information technology consulting, staffing and executive search firm.

Full article at Fast Company

U.S. Women Directors and Executives: A Case For Diversity

The InterOrganization Network (ION) recently released its annual Report on the Status of U.S. Women Directors and Executive Officers and, as has been the case for the past six years the study has been conducted, the results aren’t much to be excited about. Or, as ION more optimistically states, the findings illustrate a “bleak landscape ripe for change.”

The Numbers

ION has 14 regions that are represented by their member organizations, these include: California, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Florida, Georgia, Kansas City, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Philadelphia, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. In these regions, women were found to hold between 7.6 and 17.8 percent of board seats in the nearly 2,000 companies included in the study.

In Fortune 500 companies located in the 14 regions, women hold between 12 and 19.5 percent of all board seats, while in Fortune 501 to 1000 companies, women hold between 6.3 and 18 percent of all seats.

Often with the results, the bad outweighs the good. For example, companies with boards on which women comprise 25 percent or more range between 1.4 and 21 percent. However, the percentages of companies that have no women directors range between 11 and 55 percent. And women of color have even less representation. ION’s 14 member organizations report that women of color hold between 0.8 and 3.6 percent of the board seats of companies in their respective research pools. It was also found that between 32 and 70 percent of the companies surveyed have no women in their executive suites and between 60 and 78.1 percent of companies surveyed don’t have a single woman among their highest paid executives.

A new addition to this year’s study is a “Guys Who Get It” segment, which features 11 male business leaders who, according to ION, “understand the value of diversity at the top.” Some of the men include Douglas Conant, President and CEO, Campbell Soup Company, Eric Foss, CEO, Pepsi Beverages Company, and John W. Rogers, Jr., Chairman, CEO and Chief Investment Officer, Ariel Investments, among others. All of the companies represented by these men demonstrate a clear understanding of the business case for diverse leadership by aiming for increased diversity in the C?suite and on boards of directors.

The Business Case for Diversity

According to Rona Wells, ION’s outgoing president, who has been with the organization in some capacity since its inception in 2004, the men included in this year’s report understand that the business case for diversity is key. “Some of the most important information to come out of this study is not stated, but implied,” Wells said. “When you read over the information and think about the findings, you’ll reach the conclusion that diversity is a business issue, not a social one. The interviews with the male CEO’s illustrate that; they’re using diversity to impact business results. I do believe that many feel diversity is a social issue; they simply get caught up in the urgency of the day-to-day politics of business.”

A five-year study conducted by the non-profit group Business Opportunities for Leadership Diversity (BOLD) states that during the 1990’s diversity rhetoric began shifting in order to emphasize the business case for supporting workforce diversity. Many studies seem not just to suggest, but to prove that diversity – from the bottom up – has a wide range of business benefits, including higher staff retention, reduced recruitment costs, a more satisfied customer base, access to a wider customer base, better supply chain management, increased revenue, and access to new ideas for development, process, and product development.

So, why is it that women continue to be represented in low numbers for director, executive officer, and other managerial positions despite these promising findings?

Because studies, such as the one entitled “Harnessing Workforce Diversity to Raise the Bottom Line” conducted by CREATE, an independent research center, also found that diversity management is a long-term process with no quick fixes and oftentimes companies who put forth diversity efforts encounter major obstacles along the way. The most telling of which, is that diversity also creates a culture of long working hours, which makes it difficult for women to aspire to these senior management positions. It leads one to wonder whether or not diversity efforts geared toward the upper ranks of companies will simply lead to the inclusion of more men, though from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, as opposed to including more women.

According to Amin Rajan, chief executive of CREATE and co-author of the study, companies are beginning to see that diversity in the workplace pays and that “instead of thinking about diversity in terms of equality – that is, in terms of the law or compliance – companies are now seeing it as an issue of merit and merit alone.”

Parlaying the Numbers into Action

So what can women do? How can women improve their chances of obtaining director and executive officer positions despite all of the cards seemingly stacked against them? According to Wells, there is no “silver bullet,” no one thing that women can do to fix the problem.

“Obviously, it’s not an easy question to answer,” Wells said. “Though there are things that women can do to help their cause. Networking, of course, is at the top of the list. Too many women think that if they do a good job they’ll get noticed, but that’s usually not the case. It’s also important to stick together; help the women beside us and by us, reach out a hand and pull them forward. Sometimes it’s also really just a matter of being in the right place at the right time with the right qualifications. If it’s like that in life, why wouldn’t it be that way in business?”

Another problem Wells is quick to point out is the lack of available, qualified women. “The pipeline’s not as full of women as it is of men,” she said. “We need to engage men and make sure they understand the importance of having women in the pipeline who are being considered.”
Another option, one that many companies overseas are pioneering, is the use of gender quotas to drastically improve the number of women in managerial positions. Due to the success of these quotas, many in the United States are left wondering if we should jump on the bandwagon.

As illustrated by ION’s latest study, the number of women directors and executive officers in the United States varies little – if at all – with each passing year. Though laws such as those passed in Norway in 2003 were controversial at first, they have proven to be a great success. As Wells commented, it may be worth looking into. “Although it would be best to get progress without mandates, I am beginning to hear more and more women say they are in favor since the pace of women increasing in leadership positions seem to be so slow.”

ASOCIA Group, a leading information technology consulting and staffing provider, is a woman-owned enterprise (WBE) certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council(WBENC). www.asociagroup.com/WBENC.

Asocia is committed to helping women advance in the workforce. For more information on programs we are sponsoring, please visit www.asociagroup.com.

Senior Technical Women: A Profile Of Success

New Report Outlines the Attributes of Success for Senior Technical Women; Offers Recommendations for Companies to Advance Women in Technology and Facilitate Diversity.

A new research report released by the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology (ABI) outlines the attributes of success for Senior Technical Women who, at only four percent of the 1,795 technical men and women surveyed for the report, represent a rarity in the technology industry.

The report, titled Senior Technical Women: A Profile of Success, examines the characteristics of high-ranking women in technology, how they perceive themselves and their top attributes for success, and what organizational practices they most care about. The ABI report is publicly available at www.anitaborg.org.

Senior Technical Women: A Profile of Success explores the demographics and attributes shared among women who defy the odds and achieve senior level positions on the technical track. It also makes recommendations for companies looking to retain senior technical women and for women seeking to advance to senior level positions.

A growing body of research has documented the underrepresentation of women in technical
positions in US companies. Women hold 24 percent of technology jobs, yet represent half the total workforce. This underrepresentation persists even though the demand for technical talent remains high: computer occupations are expected to grow by 32 percent between 2008 and 2018.

Companies are increasingly aware of the benefits of diversity for innovation, and are looking for solutions to recruit, retain,and advance women.

A combination of factors helps to explain the dearth of women in technical positions:

• A shortage of women graduating with degrees in technical fields. Women earned 18.6 percent of Computer Science bachelor’s degrees in the US in 2007, and 18.5 percent of engineering degrees. For computer science, this represents a sharp decline from the 37 percent of women graduating with a bachelor’sdegree in 1985.
• For women who do enter technical careers in industry, persistent barriers to retention and advancement have been documented, including: isolation and lack of access to influential social networks and mentors;unwelcoming cultures; work-family conflict and family configurations that differ from male colleagues;organizational cultures that do not reward mentoring and employee development; and hidden bias andstereotyping that become embedded in organizational processes.
• The mid-career level has been identified by researchers as an especially difficult juncture when 56 percentof technical women leave their companies, representing twice the turnover rate of their male colleagues.Furthermore, half of those women leaving their companies end up leaving technical fields entirely.

What about the women who persist and advance past the mid level? Little is known about the women who defy these trends and achieve senior level positions on the technical track.

ASOCIA Group is a leading information technology consulting and staffing firm and is 100% woman-owned and certified(WBE) by the Women’s Business Enteprise National Council(WBENC).
www.asociagroup.com/WBENC

Dont Miss The Largest Women In Computing Conference: Grace Hopper Celebration- September 2010-Atlanta

“Collaborating Across Boundaries”
Atlanta, Georgia
September 28 - October 2, 2010

Co-founded by Dr. Anita Borg and Dr. Telle Whitney in 1994 and inspired by the legacy of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, the Institute’s Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) Of Women In Computing Conference is designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. It is the largest technical conference for women in computing and results in collaborative proposals, networking and mentoring for junior women and increased visibility for the contributions of women in computing. Conference presenters are leaders in their respective fields, representing industry, academia and government. Top researchers present their work while special sessions focus on the role of women in today’s technology fields, including computer science, information technology, research and engineering.

Past Grace Hopper Celebrations have resulted in collaborative proposals, networking, mentoring, and increased visibility for the contributions of women in computing.

Keynote Speakers Include:

-DUY-LOAN T. LE, Senior Fellow & World Wide Advanced Technology Manager, Texas Instruments
-CAROL BARTZ, Chief Executive Officer, Yahoo!
-BARBARA LISKOV, Institute Professor Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, MIT
-AMY ALVING, Chief Technology Officer, SAIC
-KELLI CRANE, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Thomson Reuters

Registration

ASOCIA Group is a woman-owned enterprise(WBE), certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council(WBENC) since 2007. www.asociagroup.com/WBENC

ASOCIA Group provides IT staffing and executive search services. We strive to help support women in all levels in information technology careers, from entry-level to executive management.
www.asociagroup.com

8 Trends Driving IT Job Growth, Salaries

1. Expect more churn in IT staff as CIOs accelerate their move to more flexibile staffing models, says Foote Partners. CIOs are outsourcing more technical work, including managed IP services such as VoIP and VPNs. They’re hiring more contractors for desktop and security services, and they’re putting more applications such as remote backup in the cloud. At the same time, they’re looking to hire IT people with business and analytical skills, such as risk management and project management. Indeed, CIOs report that they’re having trouble hiring IT people because either they can’t find IT professionals with the right business skills or they can’t afford them. All of this means more turnover in IT departments.

2. IT hiring will grow in the second half of 2010, according to Dice.com. The Dice.com Web site, which lists tech job openings, conducted a survey of IT hiring managers and recruiters, and nearly half of them said they plan to add 10% more employees in the next six months than they did in the first half of the year. Another 28% of respondents plan to increase hiring by 11% to 20%. Survey respondents are getting more optimistic about salaries, too. A quarter of survey respondents predicted that IT salaries will rise in 2010, compared to 10% of survey respondents making this prediction six months ago. Another good sign: 69% of survey respondents said layoffs are not likely at their companies during the next six months.

3. Banks are starting to hire IT staff, but they are in no hurry to fill open jobs, says Dice.com. Dice says banks are looking for IT professionals who can manage new technology or integration projects, but that they are taking from six to eight months to fill open jobs. This compares to three or four months to fill jobs prior to the recession. Dice said banks are being “really selective” and are looking for “exact matches” for their detailed job descriptions.

4. IT pros are getting paid slightly more than last year, says Janco Associates’ mid-year IT salary survey. Total mean compensation for IT pros has increased to $78,210 from $77,690 a year ago – a rise of less than 1%. However, most of the additional money is going to CIOs, and not their staffs. Compensation of CIOs in large enterprises rose 7.5% to $181,533, and in midsized enterprises it rose 3.7% to $169,303, Janco found. Lower-level IT pros, on the other hand, are experiencing reduced bonuses, frozen salaries and in some cases they are being asked to pay a greater portion of their healthcare costs, Janco said. One positive sign: companies are more willing to consider flexible hours and work schedules as a low-cost benefit for IT workers.

5. CIO confidence is up, according to a survey released in June by Robert Half Technology. The survey found that 10% of CIOs plan to expand their IT departments in the third quarter of 2010, while 4% plan to reduce staffing. The states with the most active IT hiring are expected to include New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. Overall, 81% of CIOs said they are confident in their companies’ growth prospects in the third quarter, while 40% said their firms are likely to invest in new IT projects in the next three months.

6. Job hopping is on the rise, prompting CIOs to worry more about IT staff retention. A recent report found that more Americans quit their jobs in the last three months than were fired. The rise in voluntary departures is prompting CIOs to worry about retaining their best IT staff. The Robert Half Technology survey found that 34% of technology executives are concerned about losing top IT performers in the next year, up three percentage points from last month. Similarly, 43% of CIOs say it is “challenging” to find skilled IT professionals today.

7. CIOs say networking and security top their list of hot IT skills. CIOs surveyed by Robert Half Technology said they had the hardest time filling jobs in networking, applications development and security. Other hot skills include software development, database management and help desk/technical support. Similarly, a recent survey of 400 U.K. recruitment consultants found that IT security skills were most in demand for permanent hires. The Report on Jobs, by KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, also found that full-time staff with enterprise software and developer skills were in short supply.

8. Government, usually the safest sector of the economy in a downturn, has announced more job cuts this year than any other employer. Challenger, Gray & Christmas said government agencies and nonprofits announced more job cuts than any other industry segment in May. The sector shed 16,697 jobs in May, 12% more than the job cuts announced in April. All total, the sector has shed 93,470 jobs in 2010. What’s driving the cuts are state and municipality budget problems, which are likely to continue due to lower tax revenues and stagnant housing values.

Full Article: www.networkworld.com

Silicon Valley Rebound Increases Competition In Tech Hiring

The pickup in tech hiring is spreading beyond Silicon Valley, forcing companies outside the big tech center to rethink their recruiting tactics.

Companies in second-tier tech locations such as Austin, Texas, and Raleigh, N.C., had an easier time recruiting talented employees during the slump. But now that Silicon Valley firms have started aggressively hiring, and the general economy is improving, competition is stiffening.

“We’ve always had a bit of a competition for talent with Silicon Valley,” says Julie Huls, president of the Austin Technology Council, a trade group of Austin-area technology executives. “As firms over there start to recover, we have to make sure we stay in the game.”

Convio Inc., a 370-employee Austin-based maker of fundraising software, continued adding employees during the recession, hiring about 35 people last year. “We were able to recruit incredible people that we couldn’t have gotten before the recession,” says Angie McDermott, vice president of human resources. That has gotten harder this year. Convio is planning to increase hiring and is looking for six engineers now.

SailPoint Technologies Inc., an Austin-based maker of security software for industries including banking and insurance, says many recruits are more discriminating now. This year, the firm is looking to hire about 20 people, about double last year.

“The days of ‘I’ll take what I can get’ are over,” says Mark McClain, the 60-employee company’s chief executive. SailPoint mostly competes against other startups, some of which are in Silicon Valley. Candidates he recruits now often have at least one offer in hand, sometimes two, he says. Mr. McClain says he hasn’t had to start offering perks such as increased signing bonuses, but anticipates that he will. For now, he is emphasizing Austin’s short commute times, cheap real estate and quality of life to potential employees.

“As hiring improves in the Valley, I’d expect that we might have to start looking at bonuses, salaries, or options again as ways to attract people,” he says. “We feel some of that tightness coming back.”

In Raleigh, N.C., Red Hat Inc. has also seen greater competition in recent months. In March, the maker of open-source software started retraining hiring managers as the firm looks to add 800 employees to its 3,200-person work force this year.

Previously, Red Hat’s recruiting pitch focused on pay, benefits and the product a developer would work on. But as Red Hat executives watched their Silicon Valley rivals rebound, they didn’t want to have to compete against them on pay and benefits. “We realized the competition would pick up,” says DeLisa Alexander, who heads human resources and brand marketing.

Instead, Red Hat made its pitch more personal. Hiring managers now are trained to talk about their career histories, emphasizing the variety of projects they work on and ideas they have been able to execute. The idea is to portray Red Hat as a more entrepreneurial place to build a career than its rivals in California. So far, the company has retrained 50 of its 437 hiring managers, and the firm says the effort is helping to land hires.

Full Article: WSJ.com

Health IT Funding To Create 50,000 Jobs

Federal dollars being pumped into grant programs to spur students to enter IT careers in the health care industry should help to create between 45,000 and 50,000 jobs over the next five years.

Speaking at the Health Information Technology (HIT) Conference here, Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said a portion of $2 billion in discretionary spending under Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) is being targeted at education and training for electronic health record implementation. A large part of the training is for people to staff 60 regional extension centers, which are public, private partnerships that will assist rural hospitals and physician practices with 10 or fewer doctors in rolling out electronic medical records (EMRs) and supporting technology.

“There’s a shortage of workers who can staff these regional extension centers and provide the kind of support physicians and hospitals need to become meaningful users” [of EMRs], Blumenthal said.

Without specifying an amount, Blumenthal said the ONC has already handed out funding to 70 community colleges or other universities to create programs for workforce training for health information technology.

The HIT conference, hosted by the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium, focused not only how to create jobs in health information technology, but how that technology can reduce health costs while improving quality of care.

A final version of the government’s Notice of Proposed Rule Making helps define what type of technology should be used and spells out how $36 billion in incentives from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 should be paid out. A physician in private practice can receive up to $44,000 for rolling out EMRs and showing “meaningful use” of that technology.

Hospitals could potentially received millions of dollars in reimbursement.Physicians and hospitals that don’t roll out the EMR technology and prove that they are making “meaningful use” of it by 2015 face penalties in the form of reduced Medicare reimbursements.

“Our real challenge is to redesign health care so that it’s patient-centric, safe, effective, high quality for all individuals and affordable,” Griswold said. “That redesigned healthcare system will use health information technology to achieve those goals. She cautioned that IT is not a silver bullet, and that products need to be not only well designed but tested and carefully implemented with patient input.

The main hurdles to adoption included the ability to aggregate medical data and organize it, how to share it without mature, robust information exchange networks, and the security of data once it is online. John Moore, a managing partner with Chilmark Research, said that while 80% of people use the Internet to search for health information, a recent study showed that only 7% actually use PHRs.

Over the next two years, 58% of small physician practices plan to roll our EMRs, according to a recent survey. EMRs will share patient information between health care providers, ensuring a patient’s treatment medical history, existing conditions and prescription medication warnings are made automatically available to a treating physician.

Over the next year, Blumenthal said his office will focus on finalizing “meaningful use” regulations, which should be published later this spring, and implementing the Beacon Community Grant program, which will use $220 million to build out health IT infrastructures and regional information exchange capabilities in 15 communities.

Blumenthal said so far 130 counties throughout the U.S. have applied for the grant money. The ONC will also focus on helping hospitals and other health facilities use the National Health Information Network (NHIN), which is a set of standards, services and policies that enable secure health information exchange over the Internet.

“This is a major change to one of the most complicated systems in our society. ” Patrick said.“But, in a world where more and more average citizens are banking, shopping and communicating in an increasingly electronic world, it’s time for the health care system to catch up.”

Patrick pointed to New Zealand as the ideal for EHRs. “In New Zealand, when you are born, you get an electronic medical record. And that record is available in any hospital, clinic, doctor’s office, or pharmacy anywhere in New Zealand for the rest of your life,” he said. “That’s where I want to be. I want that kind of seamlessness, that kind of simplicity, that kind of efficiency.”

Full Article: CIO.com
Post by: Beth Frazier, Asocia Healthcare