“Digital transformation was the opportunity for our generation before COVID,” says ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott. “Now with COVID, it has accelerated and exacerbated all the issues of broken systems and siloed operations. Before COVID they didn’t want to be told to go into a cubicle. Do you think after COVID once this thing clears up at some point in the future they are going to be told to go into a cubicle? No, they’re going to be digital.”
Digital transformation was the opportunity for our generation before COVID. Now with COVID, it has accelerated and exacerbated all the issues of broken systems and siloed operations. People are not realizing that 75% of the workforce by 2025 will be millennial generation people. Before COVID they didn’t want to be told to go into a cubicle. Do you think after COVID once this thing clears up at some point in the future they are going to be told to go into a cubicle? No, they’re going to be digital.
They’re also going to absolutely expect their employer to give them the best tools. The big idea if you want to give the customer a Michelin 3 experience is you have to fuse the employee experience and the customer experience on a common platform. This way most things can be automated for the customer on a self-service basis. The things that can’t be automated can immediately be workflow ordered to get the right person in the right place with the right skill set at the right time. That’s what we do and that’s why this is a thrilling moment.
Now Platform Is the Standard For Digital Transformation
The Now platform has become the standard for digital transformation in business today. If you think about most of these companies they’re grappling with the future of work. They have to accommodate their employees. They have very distributed workforces. How are they going to get them the tools that they need and onboard them properly? In some cases, they never even meet the people they hire. Then obviously, how are they going to manage the experience they have digitally?
This also goes direct to the customer. How do you go direct to the consumer? How do you make sure you give them a great service so they stay loyal to you? The ServiceNow Platform is at the epicenter of all of that. More and more, developers are building new innovation on the fly on the Now Platform. The Now platform has become a standard for large enterprises around the world. The ecosystem and the network effect building on that are truly sensational. We’re extremely fired up because we want to make work… work better for people all over the world. What we’re trying to do is get to the essence of everything.
ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott: COVID Has Accelerated Digital Transformation
The massive shift toward remote work during the pandemic is making it tougher for employees to stay engaged and motivated according to a report by employee assessment firm Questionmark.
Since millions of employees have been working from home, companies are facing significant challenges in maintaining an engaged and motivated workforce. This not only impacts productivity but it also is key to high retention rates. According to research by LinkedIn, 94% of employees are likely to remain with a company longer if they believe their employer is investing in their career.
Employers also know that an engaged employee is a happy and productive employee. A recent survey noted in the report found that 41% of employees feel their career development has stalled during the first months of the pandemic and 9% believe they have gone backward.
Based on conversations with customers, here are the four common obstacles to building an engaged and motivated workforce:
Lack of career development – people are more likely to move jobs to develop their career than for money. Some 41% believe their careers have stalled in recent months.1
Feeling less valued – managers play a crucial role in encouraging and motivating staff. But when working remotely, they can’t rely on facial cues and body language to check if praise is needed.
Disconnected from colleagues – employees miss the social interaction they enjoyed with co-workers. Team spirit can suffer as a result.
Uncertainty and anxiety – when workers worry that their job is on the line it increases anxiety and undermines performance. A survey suggests 75% of workers believe that living amidst a pandemic has increased their stress levels.
“Now more than ever, employers need to ensure that they give staff the support they need to perform at their best,” says Questionmark CEO Lars Pedersen. “The ability of employees to adapt to changing circumstances and learn new skills will be at the heart of surviving a period of economic uncertainty.”
“The decisions that employers make around engaging and motivating staff really matter. Data from online staff assessments can give employers the information they need to make good people decisions. Leaders can ensure employees get the support, training and development they need to thrive.”
“Who here feels happy?” asked Sir Anthony Seldon, in a Google talk last year. Seldon is the author of the book, Beyond Happiness and Britain’s best-known headmaster. Sir Anthony famously introduced happiness, or well-being, lessons at his school, Wellington College. In 2011, he co-founded Action for Happiness, a body to raise awareness of the discovery of happiness and reduction of depression, whose influence according to many is growing rapidly in Britain and across the world.
“Who here would like to be happier?” he asks. “Who thinks deep down that other people are responsible for your happiness? Who blames other people for the unhappiness that you feel? Who blames others, in part, for the unhappiness that you feel in your life? And lastly, who believes that we have it in our power to be unbelievably happy?”
“So the question then is, what is it that is stopping you from being happier,” asks Seldon.
Sir Anthony Seldon provides an excellent introduction into the concept of happiness and how you have the power to either make yourself happy or unhappy. Business has caught onto this concept as an opportunity to improve productivity and profits. But how do you change an individual employees’ mindset? Here are a few thoughts from some experts.
Shock: Happiness Impacts Productivity!
“It’s not so shocking, it turns out that employee happiness impacts productivity in the work setting,” says Corbett Barr, Co-founder and CEO of Portland, Oregon based FizzleCo. “Of course, I know this probably isn’t news to you, but when I’m happy I know it’s really easy to get work done and when I’m bummed out or if something really negative happens it’s hard to find the motivation to do anything worthwhile.”
“I remember back when I worked in a big company environment, if my boss was a jerk it was really hard to get work done,” Barr added. “Likewise, if the company felt like it was going nowhere or if my results just weren’t being acknowledged, it was really hard to put in that extra effort.”
“But here’s the thing, this also applies to our work as entrepreneurs,” he said. “If you work for yourself, you’re the boss, so stop being such a jerk. Have fun once in awhile and your productivity will jump.”
How Do You Find Happiness at Work?
“It turns out that autonomy is a really big factor, meaning that if you have influence over where, when, and what you’re working on, it’s much easier to be happy and therefore productive in your work,” says Barr. “Of course as an entrepreneur it’s probably easier to have influence over these things then when you’re in a big corporate environments, but you still have to think about it.”
“The next step is to lower your stress and anxiety in all facets of your life, not just your work life,” explained Barr. “This means eating well, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, avoiding caffeine and other stimulants, and making sure that you’re letting yourself have fun on a regular basis when building your own business. It’s really easy to feel like you have to be committed to your business 110% of the time, but this can lead to stress and burnout which leads to anxiety and depression which reduces your productivity which then makes you feel more stressed and more burned out. You can see how this cycle can start to spiral.”
“Take a breath and commit to spending less time on work and more time on staying healthy and having fun,” recommends Barr. “Your work will improve dramatically because of it.
Happy Employees Increase the Bottom Line
“I saw this news piece (last year) about happiness in the workplace and about how some companies were embracing these new workshops, teaching employees how to be happy,” noted Stephen Goldberg is the founder and president of Optimus Performance, which offers companies training programs to help motivate and improve the productivity of their employees. “I thought that was really interesting.”
“One of the company’s was a pharmaceutical Sanofi here in Montreal another one was Kohl’s in the United States,” said Goldberg. “They were saying how the happiness workshops were paying off fantastically in terms of improved productivity and Sanofi said it actually created an increase of about 40 percent in productivity and the bottom line.”
“So yes, you can provide motivation to people in the form of teaching people how to be more happier and I think that’s a great thing to do,” commented Goldberg. “But I think it’s a responsibility of each person to find their own happiness, because really happiness is an experience, it’s a feeling inside that we have and yes certain things that we do can cause that feeling.”
“It’s really something independent of everything we do on the outside,” he said. Otherwise, we’re always dependent on doing things or having things that are going to cause certain happiness.”
Employee Happiness is Contagious
“Imagine if everybody came with the mindset of appreciation and giving and helping each other in an organization,” exclaimed Goldberg. “That would really sparked teamwork and would also create a better performance, because people would be supporting each other much better.”
“Of course, the employer has a responsibility when it comes to performance, not just creating a happy workplace, but also providing the tools and the support so that people can do their jobs,” says Goldberg. “Even if they’re motivated for their work, they need those tools, support and direction. They need clarity to know what’s expected of them.”
Turning Your Brain Happier While You’re At Work
“We know that in the traditional business world, employees and managers think about happiness as something that you do at home, something that you do on your own time, that work is for work and that doesn’t necessarily make you happy,” says Eric Karpinski, Co-Founder and Director of Strategic Development of Potentia Labs, a neuroscience-based behavior change platform for enterprise talent development. “I want to turn that concept on its head.”
“I think it’s been turning over the last 10 to 20 years, people know that’s not really the core, but it’s still at the base of a lot of our assumptions around work, that it’s supposed to be something we are constantly focusing on,” he said. Karpinski says that research shows that happiness actually leads to success. “If you can find a way to turn your brain happier while you’re at work, it will give you all kinds of benefits.”
“You can increase your happiness,” he adds. “A lot of happiness and positive emotions in general are about choice. We can choose to feel happier.” Karpinski believes that by changing your habits you can actually rewire your brain so that you are more likely to “grab onto your happiness and notice the good things.”
“Happiness is infectious,” he says. “As each of us take on habits and start doing things that are going to help us be a little happier each day, we spread that out to our teams at work, to our families, to our communities and to our friends, and that lets everybody else tap into the benefits of being happier.”
Accenture has a new report out called Organizing for Digital Success, which is based on the survey of over 200 digital executives in the U.S. at companies with revenue of $1 billion to over $75 billion. These include CMO CDO, CIO, SVP, VP, and senior digital executives at companies in the consumer-packaged goods, manufacturing, retail, financial services, communications, media and technology, SaaS, healthcare, hospitality, and travel industries.
The report found that nearly a third of companies are not satisfied with the skill sets of employees in their digital organizations.
As a spokesperson for Accenture told us in an email, “The study found there is a significant gap in the skill sets wanted and the skill sets possessed by digital organizations, and 4 in 5 (81%) of the digital executives surveyed voicing the need for additional hiring.”
“This data shows a clear disconnect between expectations and reality in the digital branches of many organizations,” they added.
To give you an idea of what these companies are actually wanting their employees to achieve, here’s a look at the KPIs being measured:
Despite a troubling amount of dissatisfaction, most respondents feel that their companies are either on par with their major competitors (42%) or that they are the sector leader (27%) in terms of digital capabilities. Only 7% think they’re trailing behind the majority of their competitors. 24% believe they’re in the middle of the pack.
The cost cutting at Microsoft continued this week, as the company laid off some more of its workforce.
The company quietly laid off around 1,000 employees on Wednesday, ahead of its FY16 Q1 earnings report.
From the New York Times:
Microsoft also continues to cut costs. On Wednesday, the company quietly laid off around about 1,000 employees, which amounts to less than 1 percent of its global work force, according to two people briefed on the layoffs who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the company did not plan to release the figure. The layoffs were in addition to earlier, deeper cutbacks in the company’s phone division.
“The job reductions were spread across more than one business area and country and reflect adaptations to business needs,” a company spokesman said in a statement.
In July, Microsoft announced it would be cutting around 7,800 jobs – mostly in its phone hardware business. About a year before that, CEO Satya Nadella announced a significant shakeup and set in motion the company’s biggest-ever job cuts – 18,000 in 12 months.
And in June, Microsoft sent around 100 Bing maps data collection engineers over to Uber.
As far as its earnings go, Microsoft reported revenue of $20.4 billion GAAP and $21.7 billion non-GAAP, a decline of about 12%. But its earnings did rise and it reported growth in key divisions.
With the rapid growth of the so-called ‘sharing economy’, one of the biggest issues has been whether or not workers for services like Uber and Lyft are employees of contractors.
Uber’s stance has always been that it’s a software company. Uber connects people wanting a ride to those offering a ride. It’s a logistics company. Uber simply connects third-party contractors with customers. Its drivers are independent contractors, not employees.
This has been met with numerous lawsuits and some unfavorable (for Uber, at least) rulings from regulatory bodies.
But it’s not just Uber that’s facing lawsuit over the employee or contractor question.
Food delivery services like GrubHub, Caviar, and DoorDash are now embroiled in a class action lawsuit of their own.
And it’s the same lawyer that’s going after Uber in San Francisco.
The complaints were filed in San Francisco Superior Court on behalf of the delivery drivers by Boston attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who is also representing plaintiffs in similar lawsuits against on-demand transportation companies Uber and Lyft. A federal judge in San Francisco certified the lawsuit against Uber for class action last month.
The complaints filed against GrubHub and DoorDash are both class actions, while the Caviar complaint is a demand for arbitration on behalf of a San Francisco driver.
Earlier this month, a court ruled the case against Uber could proceed as a class action.
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2013 and fought by Uber all the way, questions the company’s classification of its drivers. The class of drivers says it should be considered employees, not contractors, which would entitle them to things like reimbursement of expenses, minimum wage, overtime pay, and more.
A week later, the California Employment Development Department (EDD) ruled that a former Uber driver was in fact an employee, not a contractor. That’s not the first time a regulatory agency has done that.
In 2005, Atlantic City hotel and casino Borgata issued a controversial policy involving its servers, known as the Borgata Babes.
If your appearance changes too much, you’re fired.
Borgata’s policy specifically bars any cocktail server from gaining or losing 7% of their body weight – and not losing/regaining it within a few month period. Violation of this rule can result in termination.
In 2013, a New Jersey court ruled that the casino can in fact fire its Borgata Babes for putting on a few extra pounds. The ruling came after 22 former Babes took legal action against the company. They claimed that they were told to take laxatives before mandatory weigh-ins and told to stop taking medications that cause weight gain, according to the lawsuit.
“This is a significant victory for Borgata,” said Joe Corbo, Borgata’s vice president and legal counsel. “We have long held that Borgata’s personal appearance policy is fair and reasonable. We are pleased that the three appellate court judges agreed with prior rulings that our policy is lawful and non-discriminatory to women. As the court noted in its ruling, Borgata’s policy was fully and openly disclosed to all costumed beverage servers, male and female, and all of the litigants voluntarily accepted this policy before they began working for us.”
The decision stated that while Borgata’s policy is legal, the lawsuit should be returned to a lower court so that it can be determined whether or not the plaintiffs were treated fairly in the commission of said policy.
As you can see, the Borgata Babes are an integral part of the company’s marketing strategy:
According to Borgata, only two servers have ever been fired pursuant to the policy.
Uber has lost another cases over the categorization of its fleet of drivers – whether they are employees or contractors.
Reuters reports that the California Employment Development Department (EDD) has ruled that a former Uber driver was in fact an employee, not a contractor.
Uber’s general stance has always been that it’s a software company. Uber connects people wanting a ride to those offering a ride. It’s a logistics company. Uber simply connects third-party contractors with customers. Its drivers are independent contractors, not employees.
The agency’s ruling reflects what we’ve heard in a couple of similar cases – that Uber basically controls every aspect of the operation.
The evidence showed a distinct and strong right to control by the appellant USER in the manner and means in which these services were provided. The appellant had complete control on who could obtain the services, The riders could only obtain the services by entering into a contractual agreement with USER, The claimant was not involved in these transactions, The employer/appellant communicated directly with the client or rider and established the pick-up and destination points of the trip. The appellant, UBER, had sole discretion In determining the amount to be charged for the services and when and how to
collect these charges. Only UBER could make adjustments to the charges and decide requests for reimbursements,
The claimant, once logged on UBER application Indicating readiness to work, was informed of the requested trips. She could only provide the services to those riders referred by USER and could not pick up other riders on the street who were not processed by UBER’s application. The claimant could not obtain or develop her own clientele, UBER also determined which drivers will be offered the trips, The claimant was not told of the destination until she arrived at the pick up point.
The appellant, UBER, had absolute control in determining the compensation the claimant would receive for the services. The appellant established a percentage to be paid to the claimant, and whether or not at certain times this percentage rate will change, was decided by the appellant. The time and method of payment for her services were determined by the appellant. The claimant was paid in a weekly basis through direct deposit to her bank account, The appellant provided the claimant with a weekly statement reflecting the trips done, amounts collected for services and amounts disbursed to her.
There was clear evidence of supervision and right to discharge at will The claimant had to he approved by USER in order to become a driver. She had to submit to background checks as required by UBER and had to complete tutorial videos, The claimant’s work was also supervised through regular reports containing customer service ratings, The claimant was warned when the numbers In her customer service ratings were below the acceptable number as established by the appellant. She was warned of deactivation when her acceptance of trips fell below the minimum percentage required by the appellant, The appellant had, In fact, deactivated the claimant’s account, not allowing her to use the application to obtain work, when she failed to provide certain documents required by the appellant.
Every aspect of the trip completed by the claimant for the clients of UBER were controlled by USER without the claimant’s intervention. The claimant was authorized to provide services in a specified area by the appellant. The only aspect of the trip left to the rider’s discretion was the route. Even in those cases, If the claimant had deviated from the suggested route by the appellants applications, she might need to explain the reasons.
Based on the evidence and given consideration to all the factors used to determine an employment relationship pursuant to section 621 of the code and principles established by relevant precedent case law, it Is concluded that there was in fact an employer/employee relationship between the claimant and the employer/appellant.
According to Reuters, Uber appealed this specific decision twice to no avail.
There’s been an important development in a lawsuit brought against Uber over the much-publicized tensions between the company’s insistence that its drivers are independent contractors and some drivers’ claim that they are employees.
“The court concludes that a number of Uber’s class certification arguments are problematic,” wrote Judge Edward M. Chen There’s “simply no basis” to Uber’s claim “that some innumerable legion of drivers prefer to remain independent contractors rather than become employees.”
The court has narrowed the class a bit, however.
Here’s the specific class the court certifies:
All UberBlack, UberX, and UberSUV drivers who have driven for Uber in the state of California at any time since August 16, 2009, and who (1) signed up to drive directly with Uber or an Uber subsidiary under their individual name, and (2) are/were paid by Uber or an Uber subsidiary directly and in their individual name, and (3) did not electronically accept any contract with Uber or one of Uber’s subsidiaries which contains the notice and opt-out provisions previously ordered by this Court (including those contracts listed in the Appendix to this Order), unless the driver timely opted-out of that contract’s arbitration agreement.
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2013 and fought by Uber all the way, questions the company’s classification of its drivers. The class of drivers says it should be considered employees, not contractors, which would entitle them to things like reimbursement of expenses, minimum wage, overtime pay, and more.
Uber’s stance has always been that it’s a software company. Uber connects people wanting a ride to those offering a ride. It’s a logistics company. Uber simply connects third-party contractors with customers. Its drivers are independent contractors, not employees.
The company says it will appeal this ruling.
Recently, in a move that gave weight to the drivers’ position, the California Labor Commission ruled that an Uber driver was an actual employee – as Uber is “involved in every aspect of the operation.”
Last month, UK union GMB, which represents professional drivers, has engaged a law firm to file suit against Uber “on the grounds that Uber is in breach of a legal duty to provide them with basic rights on pay, holidays, health and safety and on discipline and grievances.”
This issue is clearly not going away. And this particular class action case will probably stretch on into eternity.
A couple of months ago, very white and very male company Twitter made a vague promise to build “a representative workforce, and is dedicated to ensuring fairness in all people decisions, including hiring, promoting, and paying.”
Twitter has set diversity goals, which it hopes to achieve by next year. These include a workforce that is 35% women overall, 16% women in tech roles, 25% women in leadership roles, and 11% underrepresented minorities (going by Twitter’s most-recent diversity reports, this likely means black and hispanic).
Twitter’s last diversity figures showed that the company is 70% male overall – 90% male in tech roles and 79% male in leadership roles.
“We considered simply setting company-wide hiring goals, but we don’t want to stop at that. If our aim is to build a company we can really be proud of — one that’s more inclusive and diverse — we need to make sure it’s a great place for both new and current employees to work and to grow. That’s why these new goals focus on increasing the overall representation of women and underrepresented minorities throughout the whole company,” says Twitter.
Twitter outlines a handful of ways it plans to achieve these goals, like actively recruiting at historically black colleges and “refining our recruiting and hiring practices to attract more diverse candidates … ensure our job descriptions appeal to a broad range of applicants, increasing the diversity of interview panels, and posting openings where more underrepresented candidates will see them.”
“Today we’ve outlined what we believe progress should look like. We expect to come back to you next year and show we’ve delivered, and to be held accountable to it!” says the company.
In an effort to “sharpen its focus”, Angry Birds creator Rovio is announcing another round of job cuts.
Rovio says it will soon “begin employee negotiations on up to 260 redundancies.”
If you’re working on the Angry Birds movie, you’re safe – but all all division are up for the cuts.
Rovio says it wants to focus on three areas – games, media, and consumer products.
According to the company’s CEO, it tried to “do too many things.”
“Rovio’s growth and eagerness to explore new business opportunities over the past few years has been exceptional,” said Rovio’s CEO Pekka Rantala. “As a result, we did too many things. In our current financial condition we must now put focus on where we are at our best: in creating magnificent gaming experiences, in producing an amazing animation movie and in delighting our fans with great products.”
“While we have gathered good momentum this year, especially with the launch of the Angry Birds 2 game — downloaded nearly 50 million times in its first month of release — fundamental changes are needed to ensure Rovio succeeds in its global ambitions to be the leading entertainment company with mobile games at its heart,” he adds. “This is personally a difficult decision. However, it is certain that a leaner and more agile Rovio is absolutely necessary to move forward and take the company to new successes in the future. We will work with and support all our employees through this period of change.”
While Angry Birds 2’s 50 million downloads may sound impressive, it’s obvious that its freemium model isn’t enough, and Rovio has to cut the fat to survive.
Uber is once again facing a lawsuit from a driver who says he should be treated as an employee, rather than an independent contractor.
A Los Angeles man named Greg Fisher has sued Uber in California Northern District Court. He claims that Uber owes him unpaid minimum wages, unpaid overtime, and other damages.
According to Fisher, Uber owes him this under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which covers employees in both the public and private sector.
Of course, the issues here is that Uber does not see its drivers as employees.
Uber’s stance has always been that it’s a software company. Uber connects people wanting a ride to those offering a ride. It’s a logistics company. Uber simply connects third-party contractors with customers. Its drivers are independent contractors, not employees.
Earlier this year, the California Labor Commission ruled that an Uber driver was an actual employee – as Uber is “involved in every aspect of the operation.”
“One of the main reasons drivers use Uber is because they love being their own boss,” said Uber in response. “As employees, drivers would drive set shifts, earn a fixed hourly wage, and lose the ability to drive elsewhere. The reality is that drivers use Uber on their own terms: they control their use of the app.”
But the lawsuits keep piling up.
Last month, UK union GMB, which represents professional drivers, has engaged a law firm to file suit against Uber “on the grounds that Uber is in breach of a legal duty to provide them with basic rights on pay, holidays, health and safety and on discipline and grievances.”
Mr. Fisher is seeking class action status for his lawsuit.
Last year, when Apple released its first ever diversity report, the company revealed that its workforce was 70 percent male and 55 percent white. Of course, this didn’t set Apple apart from any other major tech company – everyone in Silicon Valley has been struggling with diversity.
Tim Cook said he was not happy with that.
“Let me say up front: As CEO, I’m not satisfied with the numbers on this page. They’re not new to us, and we’ve been working hard for quite some time to improve them. We are making progress, and we’re committed to being as innovative in advancing diversity as we are in developing our products,” he said in August of 2014.
The silver lining, according to Apple, is that it’s hired “more diverse candidates than in any other year to date.” This includes, in the new hires, 35 percent women, 19 percent Asian, 13 percent Hispanic, and 11 percent Black.
“We are proud of the progress we’ve made, and our commitment to diversity is unwavering. But we know there is a lot more work to be done,” says Tim Cook.
“Some people will read this page and see our progress. Others will recognize how much farther we have to go. We see both. And more important than these statistics, we see tens of thousands of Apple employees all over the world, speaking dozens of languages, working together. We celebrate their differences and the many benefits we and our customers enjoy as a result.”
“Diversity is critical to innovation and it is essential to Apple’s future. We aspire to do more than just make our company as diverse as the talent available to hire. We must address the broad underlying challenges, offer new opportunities, and create a future generation of employees as diverse as the world around us. We also aspire to make a difference beyond Apple,” says Cook.
In terms of maternity and paternity leave, The United States lags behind many other developed nations. A lot of them. American company Netflix, however, is setting the bar incredibly high with a new family leave policy.
Netflix has announced that its instituting an unlimited family lave policy – for both new moms and new dads – for the first year.
This applies to both births and adoptions. Netflix says it’ll just keep paying its employees normally during the leave period.
Here’s what Netflix’s Chief Talent Officer Tawni Cranz had to say:
At Netflix, we work hard to foster a “freedom and responsibility” culture that gives our employees context about our business and the freedom to make their own decisions along with the accompanying responsibility. With this in mind, today we’re introducing an unlimited leave policy for new moms and dads that allows them to take off as much time as they want during the first year after a child’s birth or adoption.
We want employees to have the flexibility and confidence to balance the needs of their growing families without worrying about work or finances. Parents can return part-time, full-time, or return and then go back out as needed. We’ll just keep paying them normally, eliminating the headache of switching to state or disability pay. Each employee gets to figure out what’s best for them and their family, and then works with their managers for coverage during their absences.
Netflix’s continued success hinges on us competing for and keeping the most talented individuals in their field. Experience shows people perform better at work when they’re not worrying about home. This new policy, combined with our unlimited time off, allows employees to be supported during the changes in their lives and return to work more focused and dedicated.
People want to have babies, and people want to keep their jobs. This makes decisions difficult for a lot of Americans. This is a pretty bold move for Netflix – one that not only makes that decision easier but also, in the end, promotes more equality in the workplace.
Uber’s stance has always been that it’s a software company. Uber connects people wanting a ride to those offering a ride. It’s a logistics company. Uber simply connects third-party contractors with customers. Its drivers are independent contractors, not employees.
That notion is being challenged quite a bit as of late, and it looks like Uber is facing another lawsuit over the question of employee or contractor.
UK union GMB, which represents professional drivers, has engaged a law firm to file suit against Uber “on the grounds that Uber is in breach of a legal duty to provide them with basic rights on pay, holidays, health and safety and on discipline and grievances.”
According to GMB, Uber drivers are employees and the company should conform to all applicable employment laws.
“The Uber assertion that drivers are ‘partners’ who are not entitled to rights at work normally afforded to workers is being contested,” says Nigel Mackay,a lawyer involved in the suit. “Uber not only pays the drivers but it also effectively controls how much passengers are charged and requires drivers to follow particular routes. As well as this, it uses a ratings system to assess drivers’ performance. We believe that it’s clear from the way Uber operates that it owes the same responsibilities towards its drivers as any other employer does to its workers.”
GMB demands that Uber adopt the national minimum wage, give paid holidays, ensure that drivers take rest breaks and have a maximum work week, and “adhere to legal standards on discipline and grievances.”
“A successful legal action against Uber could see substantial pay outs for drivers, including compensation for past failures by the company to make appropriate payments to who we argue are their workers.” Mackay adds.
Last month, the California Labor Commission ruled that an Uber driver was an actual employee – as Uber is “involved in every aspect of the operation.”
But Uber’s argument is that its setup lets drivers choose everything.
“One of the main reasons drivers use Uber is because they love being their own boss,” a spokesperson for Uber told Engadget. “As employees, drivers would drive set shifts, earn a fixed hourly wage, and lose the ability to drive elsewhere. The reality is that drivers use Uber on their own terms: they control their use of the app.”
That lawsuit only applied to one woman, however, and didn’t result in any sort of mandate. GMB thinks that this new lawsuit could have farther reaching consequences.
On December 31st at around 8pm, Sofia Liu, her younger brother Anthony, and mother Huan Kuang were struck as they walked a crosswalk in San Francisco. Sofia died as a resulted of the accident. The driver was logged in to the Uber app, according to the lawsuit.
According to Reuters, Uber and the girl’s family have reached a settlement – the terms of which are being kept under wraps at the family’s request.
When the lawsuit was filed, Uber asserted that the driver was not actually providing services for Uber at the time of the accident.
“Our hearts go out to the family and victims of the tragic accident that occurred in downtown San Francisco on New Year’s Eve. We extend our deepest condolences. We work with transportation providers across the Bay Area. The driver in question was not providing services on the Uber system during the time of the accident. The driver was a partner of Uber and his account was immediately deactivated,” said Uber at the time.
The family’s argument against Uber was two-pronged – first, it challenged the notion of what it means to really be “on the clock” while employed at Uber and second it took issue with Uber’s app, how it relates to the company’s entire business premise, and how it could run afoul of California law.
Uber asserts that Uber drivers without fares are not Uber cars. The suit, filed by Chris Dolan, a San Francisco lawyer, directly challenges this effort by the company to detach itself from its own users. It says Uber needs the vehicles to be logged into the Uber app — that’s the only way potential riders know there is a car in the vicinity. So even when there is no fare in the car, the drivers are in essence on the clock, working for Uber. When drivers accept a call, furthermore, they need to interface with the app. The suit goes on to note that under California law, it is illegal to use a “wireless telephone” while driving unless it is specifically configured to be hands-free — which the app is not. In essence, the suit argues that Uber was negligent in the “development, implementation and use of the app” so as to cause the driver to be distracted and inattentive.
It looks like Uber decided to settle rather than risk this argument in court.
Of course, this lawsuit sounds very similar in tone to others currently in motion. Are Uber drivers employees? Or are they simply contractors? When is an Uber driver actually working for Uber?
Uber’s argument has always been that it’s a software company. Uber connects people wanting a ride to those offering a ride. It’s a logistics company. Uber simply connects third-party contractors with customers.
In a recent decision the California Labor Commission ruled that one Uber drivers was actually an employee.
Over the past year, the gender and ethnic makeup of Facebook’s workforce didn’t really change.
As of today, Facebook’s employees are 55% white and 68% male. A year ago, when Facebook reported its first diversity data, those numbers were 57% and 69%, respectively.
So, progress. A little bit.
“While we have achieved positive movement over the last year, it’s clear to all of us that we still aren’t where we want to be. There’s more work to do. We remain deeply committed to building a workplace that reflects a broad range of experience, thought, geography, age, background, gender, sexual orientation, language, culture and many other characteristics. It’s a big task, one that will take time to achieve, but our whole company continues to embrace this challenge,” says Maxine Williams, Facebook’s global director of diversity.
In terms of Facebook’s senior leadership, things are pretty stagnant. A year ago the top-level was 77% male and 74% white. This year it’s 77% and 73%, respectively.
Apart from just reporting 2015’s diversity figures, Facebook has outlined some moves it’s making to address the issue and build upon the “positive but modest change.”
First, Facebook officially confirmed that it has implemented a version of the NFL’s “Rooney Rule”, requiring the “underrepresented” be considered for all open positions:
Piloting a diverse slate approach in some parts of our business in the US, which means that we aspire to present hiring managers within the pilot organizations with at least one qualified candidate who is a member of an underrepresented group to fill any open role. The opportunity to compete is often the biggest hurdle for underrepresented people to overcome. This approach, similar to the Rooney Rule in the National Football League (NFL) in the US, encourages recruiters to look longer, harder and smarter for more diversity in the talent pool and ensures that hiring managers are exposed to a range of different candidates during the interview process.
Facebook also discussed its Facebook University program for picking early college kids and giving them opportunities to learn valuable skills:
We are also testing a number of efforts that provide the opportunity for those early in their college careers to learn both the soft and the hard skills it takes to succeed at Facebook. We’ve increased by a factor of four the number of freshman year paid training opportunities we offer. Our Facebook University training program (FBU) invites college freshmen, generally from underrepresented groups who demonstrate exceptional talent and interest in Computer Science, to spend most of their summer working on teams with Facebook mentors, learning the skills we are looking for at the company. FBU for Business takes the same approach for those interested in the non-engineering career tracks.
At the upper level, Facebook says it has reworked its Managing Bias course to help those in charge “surface biases that people might not even realize they have, and gives people the tools to identify and interrupt biased behavior as it occurs.”
Summer is diversity figures season, as many tech companies will be reporting their workforce makeup in the coming weeks. Last week, Twitter made a solid, albeit vague promise to make sure its workforce is more diverse.
Twitter has made a promise, albeit a bit vague, to make sure its workforce is more diverse.
The company has partnered with the UN’s HeForShe initiative, a “solidarity movement for gender equality that brings together one half of humanity in support of the other half of humanity, for the benefit of all.”
“Twitter will use its full reach to advance gender equality around the world, amplifying the HeForShe movement to reach millions of individuals. In 2014, Twitter, along with others in the technology industry, took the bold step of transparently sharing their workforce demographic data. To advance gender equality within Twitter and across the tech industry, Twitter will continue to support key initiatives that provide women with mentoring and opportunities in STEM, and reform its own people practices to increase the representation of women at Twitter,” says Twitter.
The company didn’t go into detail as what it would do in future hiring practices, but it did make a general promise to make the company more representative of the general population.
Twitter says it is “wholly committed to building a representative workforce, and is dedicated to ensuring fairness in all people decisions, including hiring, promoting, and paying.”
As of today, only 30% of Twitter’s workforce is female – and only 10% of its technical workforce.
Of course, Twitter is far from the only tech company with these sorts of diversity issues.
Earlier this week, Facebook confirmed that it was implementing a “Rooney Rule” of sorts, forcing departments to consider at least one minority candidate for any open position before making a hire.
Facebook has a diversity problem. Facebook is far from the only company in the Valley with a diversity problem, but it exists nonetheless. When it comes to the company’s over 10,000 employees, the landscape is very white and very male.
So, what’s Facebook doing about this? It’s in the process of instituting its own “Rooney Rule”.
Established in 2003, the Rooney Rule requires NFL team to interview minority candidates for coaching and senior operational positions. Facebook’s version of the rule forces the company to consider at least one minority candidate for any open position before making a hire.
Apparently, Facebook started doing this a while ago in some departments, but plan to roll it out company wide soon. From Bloomberg:
The rule went into effect in some Facebook departments in the last few months, according to a person familiar with the matter. If it helps increase the presence of people who are black, Latino or otherwise minorities, it will be implemented at the social network widely. Facebook spokeswoman Genevieve Grdina confirmed the effort, while declining to comment further.
Last June, when Facebook released its first diversity report, we found that the company’s global makeup is 69 percent male and 31 percent female. In terms of ethnicity, Facebook is 57 percent white, 34 percent Asian, 4 percent hispanic, and 2 percent black.
“As these numbers show, we have more work to do – a lot more. But the good news is that we’ve begun to make progress,” says Maxine Williams, Facebook’s Global Head of Diversity at the time. “Diversity is something that we’re treating as everyone’s responsibility at Facebook, and the challenge of finding qualified but underrepresented candidates is one that we’re addressing as part of a strategic effort across Facebook. Since our strategic diversity team launched last year, we’re already seeing improved new hire figures and lower attrition rates for underrepresented groups.”
Like I said before, Facebook isn’t the only one struggling with this.
Wage disparity is a problem everywhere but it might just be more visible in a place like Silicon Valley, where employees at tech companies often make six figures while those who support their very existence make much, much less.
Facebook has just announced that it has implemented “a new set of standards on benefits for contractors and vendors who support Facebook in the US and do a substantial amount of work with us.”
The new benefits for Facebook contractors include a $15 minimum wage and a minimum 15 paid days off for holidays, sick time and vacation.
Also, contractors who don’t already get some sort of paid parental leave will get a $4,000 “new child benefit”.
“We’ve been working on these changes for some months and had originally planned to announce this last Monday. Effective May 1, we’ve already put these standards in place for some of our largest support teams at our Menlo Park headquarters. We will be working to implement this program with a broader set of vendors within the year. This broader group will include workers who do substantial work for Facebook and who are employed by companies based in the US with more than 25 employees supporting Facebook,” said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
Facebook didn’t say exactly how many people would be affected by the new policy, but the Wall Street Journal reports that it will cover “food-service, security and janitorial workers, among others, at its U.S. facilities.” Facebook says it wants to expand the program to other contractors in the coming years.
“Taking these steps is the right thing to do for our business and our community. Women, because they comprise about two-thirds of minimum wage workers nationally, are particularly affected by wage adjustments. Research also shows that providing adequate benefits contributes to a happier and ultimately more productive workforce,” said Sandberg.
Facebook isn’t the first company to take a step like this. Both Apple and Google have promised to make security staff full-time employees (with benefits), Google improved wages for shuttle bus drivers, and Microsoft gave basic-level benefits to “tens of thousands” of contract workers.
Among other things, 2014 has been the year of the diversity report.
Like dominoes, tech company after tech company has made a point to release their internal diversity figures – basically, gender and ethnic breakdowns of the companies’ workforces. As more and more companies released these numbers, more and more companies felt compelled to do the same. By the end of the summer, we’d seen diversity reports from Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, eBay, Amazon, and more.
And most of them painted a rather monochromatic picture – one filled with a lot of white dudes.
Of course, gender equality in tech has been a hot-button issue for years – but it’s seen an uptick in discussion over the past few months.
Though all the aforementioned companies admitted that they need to do better in terms of employee diversity, it’s all talk at this point. Women are still outnumbered in the tech workplace.
But of these underrepresented female employee groups – who has it the best? Which companies are the best for women, according to the women themselves?
Glassdoor has revealed its findings, based on thousands of company reviews from former and current employees.
And according to the employer-review site, the top places for women employees (in terms of overall satisfaction) are LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google.
Scoring a 4.5 out of 5.0, LinkedIn was voted the best place for women workers. Both Twitter and Facebook scored a 4.4 rating from female employees, and Google registered a 4.2.
On the other end of the spectrum, Zynga received a 3.1 rating – the lowest of the bunch. Also brining up the rear was IBM, HP, eBay, and Amazon.
Apple placed somewhere in the middle, with a 3.8 score.
For the most part, men were more satisfied at their jobs than women.
“At just four of the 25 tech companies (Texas Instruments, Epic Systems, Hewlett-Packard and Intel), women are more satisfied with their jobs and their company. Men are more satisfied at 15 of the 25 companies in this report (including Citrix and National Instruments), and there are six companies where men and women report the same level of satisfaction with their job and company,” says Glassdoor.
“Further, we also found that among this sample of 25 tech companies women are slightly less satisfied on average than men across four key workplace factors: senior leadership, culture & values, career opportunities and work-life balance.”
