Author: Eduindex News

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COLLABORATION IS KEY: TIME FOR HR TO TAKE A DOSE OF ITS OWN MEDICINE

Collaboration is a buzzword that\’s thrown around often in the world of HR, and business in general – and for good reason. Getting great minds to work together often produces results greater than the sum of its parts. And often, companies look to HR for advice and guidance on how to get employees to emerge from their own little worlds and collaborate to effect big change.
So why then, is it so difficult for HR pros themselves to embrace the concept of collaboration in their daily work? For starters, according to Carol Anderson, a seasoned HR veteran:   
1. Many skills in HR are highly specialized and not transferable
2. HR pros prize autonomy  
\”HR pros want to run their own show,\” she writes on Human Capitalist. \”I know I certainly did when I was in these roles.\”
But what if HR managers took a dose of their own medicine and worked collaboratively to achieve the greater goals of the company: hiring great people, helping those people to reach their full potential, and doing everything in their power to retain top talent. By making sure the entire HR department is on the same page and continuously working together to achieve these goals, the silos that impede collaboration will come tumbling down. Think of the possibilities. 
If your company\’s HR department is still operating with an every-man-for-himself mentality, maybe it\’s time for an HR performance review?
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Exploring New Horizons: Studying in Uganda

Liz Hoey will never forget playing with children in the Ugandan village of Kamuli, where she studied for three weeks last summer with the UVM Travel Study program.
“The children loved having their photos taken and they would just laugh seeing themselves,” Hoey says. “Because many of the children do not have a mirror at home, they aren’t used to seeing their reflection.”
For Hoey, an Environmental Studies major with a concentration in Environmental Health, studying in Uganda heightened her interest in personal and academic pursuits.
“I wanted to study abroad in a location that was different and more adventurous than going to Europe,” she says. “When I heard about studying with UVM in Uganda, I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do.”

Studying in Uganda with UVM

Studying in Uganda was clearly different from classes on campus. Students spent three weeks immersed in the country’s culture, participating in service projects in the villages, working with a non-governmental organization called the 52 Kids Foundation, visiting schools, and enjoying a three-day safari. Working side by side with community members was one of the most memorable and rewarding aspects of her journey abroad.
UVM students in the Uganda program each took part in job-shadowing with a community member who worked in their area of interest. While some students observed a Caesarian birth at the hospital. Hoey worked with a local botanist, who taught her how to plant coffee crops.
“Everything just really came to life because we were there living it,” she says. “I think I didn’t even realize how much I was learning at the time. It’s difficult for me, even now, to express how much I learned.”
Students stayed in a guest house and worked with the 52 Kids Foundation, which supports youth orphaned by HIV/AIDS. For Hoey, who is interested in public health, the work offered an inside look at community health and advocacy.
Returning from the trip resulted in some culture shock for Hoey, which is common for students returning from non-traditional, study abroad locations. “When I got home, I found everything to be a little less exciting and just normal in comparison to my weeks in Uganda,” she says. “I found myself not caring too much about technology, and I was choosing to ignore my cell phone or social media for more human interactions.”

A New Outlook on Life

The real-world experience of Uganda helped Hoey recognize a new side of herself – just as the young children did when they saw their own reflections in photographs.
“I was that person who was unsure about studying abroad,” Hoey says. “But I’m glad I took this opportunity because it helped me to expand my perspective and gain some experience in a different setting.”
Her advice to other students unsure about studying abroad? “If you don’t explore the opportunities available to you, then you could be missing out on the chance of a lifetime.

HOW TO FUTURE-PROOF YOUR ORGANIZATION IN 2018

What does the future of hiring look like at my organization? Who should we be hiring to set ourselves up for long-term success? How are we helping talent get from where they are now to where they want to be?
As head of talent acquisition at Cornerstone OnDemand, I’ve been thinking about these questions lately as we prepare to ring in a new year. With artificial intelligence and machine learning entering the space at breakneck speed, not only will the role of talent acquisition shift, but the industry as a whole will evolve.
There are a lot of forces of change at work here.
The unemployment rate in the U.S. has dipped to 4.1 percent — the lowest we’ve seen in the last decade –and employers are feeling the impact. According to the 2017 Manpower Talent Shortage Survey, 40 percent of employers currently report talent shortages.
Plus, the gig economy continues to grow. A study by Intuit predicts that by 2020, 40 percent of American workers will be independent contractors. This is a new type of candidate, one who is more interested in having short-term work, a flexible schedule, and the ability to jump between gigs rather than permanent work. Beyond this, influencing everything, is the fact that we are experiencing a technological revolution –not only are job demands evolving, but employees’ skills and work styles are also changing. A talent transformation is inevitable in the next three years, McKinsey research predicts, and we need to be ready.
Here are four ways talent acquisition professionals can future-proof their organizations in 2018.

Be Proactive, Not Reactive With Your Talent Pipeline

Technology is dramatically changing the skills your future hires will need. Just a few years ago, handling accounts payable was a manual task — you needed someone to look at each invoice, evaluate it and pay it. Now, there are systems in place that largely automate the process, and you need someone who understands technology to manage it.
Given this rapid pace of change, it’s critical for talent acquisition to work with leadership and HR to evaluate how they expect the business, as well as specific roles, to transform. Once there’s a clear vision, start planning how to upskill employees to ensure they live up to future role expectations.
Take time to identify critical skills and talent needed for the next three to five years. Determine how prevalent these skills are in the market and in your current workforce. Finding the right candidates could require bringing in university talent and shaping them through learning and internships, or setting up internal training programs for existing employees. Identifying talent and skill gaps early will enable you to build a pipeline and be proactive instead of reactive as your company evolves.

Use Learning to Shape Potential Candidates

Just because you didn’t hire a candidate the first time doesn’t mean you won’t in the future. For promising external candidates that you don’t hire, provide them with specific learning criteria to help them prepare for a future position with your company. Create a tangible path forward with specific competencies and skill sets they can learn. You can also provide them with an internship or apprenticeship and train them directly for potential future opportunities.
With internal candidates, think about how you can create your own “gig economy” within the organization. Creating opportunities for employees to learn new areas of the business, meet others in the organization and retain your talent by engaging them in new ways with new work they love.

Take Charge of Your Story

As always-on technology blurs the line between work and life, it’s becoming more important for candidates to connect with companies on a deeper level and be passionate about their work. Glassdoor found that a candidate looks at 18 sources of influence to learn about a company before applying to a job. Make content readily available across these channels to help candidates connect the dots. Build profiles on sites like The Muse, Glassdoor and BuiltInLA, bolster your employees’ social presence and create articles or listicles that share your company culture and clearly communicate your purpose and values in a genuine way.

Customize Your Interview Process

With competition for talent rising and candidates becoming more selective, recruiters need to personalize the interview process for individuals. Bots, machine learning and automation will help accomplish this by giving recruiters the freedom to become interviewer concierges instead of administrators.
While it’s easy to get caught up in the future talent needs of your organization, don’t forget to take some time to be critical of your own role. Do you have the skills you need to lead your organization into the future of work?

Where to get the Best UVM Food

Whether you’re new to campus or a seasoned senior, you’re bound to want be on the lookout for some comfort food on campus.  If you need a study break or you’re afraid that you’ll run out of points before the semester ends, these on campus eateries will provide you the best of food and service.

UVM Food Choices – The Best of:

Bang for your Buck: The Harvest Café

Looking for a meal after hours?  Within the hours of 5am and 3am, you can fill your tray with healthy, locally harvested options for just a few dollars. The Harvest Café prepares meals worth the walk across campus. Whether you’re stuck on campus when the dining halls are closed or you’re looking to meet a date in scrubs, YELP gives this hospital food 4 stars.

If your parents are visiting: The Waterman Manor

Show off a little at the Waterman Manor, where you can enjoy an a la care menu of local foods served to you by a friendly and knowledgeable wait staff. Rub elbows with University administrators, bring a date, or just enjoy the views of the lake from the back balcony!

For specialty items that meet your dietary needs:  The Marché

Enjoy the specialty items offered in The Marche, from the pizza oven, to smoothie bar, to make your own salad station. There are Vegan / Gluten-Free / Kosher options, including a mini grocery for your convenience!

For a stacked sandwich: Alice’s Café

Whether for breakfast or lunch, the staff at Alice’s make a mean sandwich. With your choice of bread and all the right fixings, a sandwich from Alice’s Café is one of the most satisfying ways to spend your points on campus.  Plus! Bring your own mug for coffee – all vessels charged the same price!

For the International Palate: The Marketplace

Looking for something with cultural flare? Check the menu at the Marketplace, which changes every day of the week. Sample Sukhi’s samosas & pakoras, or enjoy freshly prepared sushi. You’ll find plenty of comfort foods with an international twist.

For the underground music scene: Brennan’s Pub

Enjoy this unique on-campus pub, conveniently located on the ground floor of the Davis Center. Find a cozy lounge chair, where you can snack on complementary popcorn and listen to live music while you wait for your specialty burger and fries to be ready.
Still need some inspiration? Check out these tasty on-campus culinary creations by nom de plume Dude Hubris on Tumblr. You’ll be skipping off to the cafeteria in no time!  There’s food on campus for every palate and if you can’t find it the way it’s cooked at home, you can put your skills to the test and create your favorite flavors in a new way.

Earning Experience to Land your Dream Job

The infinite cycle of needing a job to gain experience but needing work experience to get that job leaves some job seekers dizzy – and perhaps a little panicked too.  This stipulation can seem an especially cruel obstacle if you’re a new graduate or starting a career in a new field. So, when every job posting today seems to require one to two years of experience, how can you meet it before getting the job?
What is work experience?
Work experience is any time spent actually doing a job. It can come from part-time jobs held before or during college or work placement internships or from working experience gained at a previous job or career. Work experience is most valuable for employment opportunities if it is in the same field as the job sought.
Bryant & Stratton College hosted a “Job Ready or Not?,” an Employability Summit featuring HR and hiring experts from several top companies. Below are some thoughts these experts had on gaining experience as a new graduate.
Create a pitch that explains your skills gap
All job seekers should start with an honest assessment of their individual skills and strengths. “Know yourself,” said Carleen Haas, Vice President of Talent Strategies at Humana, Inc. “If you’re not aware of your strengths and your character flaws, if you’re not aware of what you are passionate about and how you like to work, then you’re doing yourself a disservice. You really need to do some internal landscape work to really understand what you’re about.”
Not only is this helpful in creating your professional story and sharing with employers why you would be a good fit, but it can also unearth any gaps in skills and experience you may have in filling the open position. “Really understand where the gaps in your experience may be,” said Heather Tinguely, Program Manager of Global Talent Labs at Microsoft. Ms. Tinguely suggests coming up with a short pitch or sentence about how you would overcome lack of experience or a weak skill in the first six weeks of a job.
Going the unpaid route
One way to get experience for a job is to look for unpaid positions, like internships or volunteer opportunities. Once you’ve identified your experience or skills gaps look for positions that will help you fill them in. “I think that it’s important, first and foremost, when you’re doing anything unpaid or extracurricular, to really go about it in a very strategic way,” said Ms. Tinguely. She recommends job seekers to think about volunteering on two levels, “I’m going to give unpaid time to X organization, one, because I’m a good person and I love the organization, but secondly, because I feel like perhaps that organization has a good reputation, and they’re going to give me in return some skills in a real-world setting that I need, as well as some references.”
How to Find your Dream Job
Holding out for your dream job is understandable. If you’ve put in the hard work to earn a degree, you’re eager to put what you’ve learned to work. But, sometimes getting your foot in the door is just as important as finding the perfect position. By taking a position that isn’t your ideal job you are earning experience that may be transferable in the future. Soft skills are something all employers value and they can be earned in every type of position. Sometimes the path to your dream job is not a direct path.
Additionally, even if you don’t have your dream job that doesn’t mean you can’t take on additional activities that earn you beneficial experience in your desired career field. It may be hard work and require an investment of time but that preparation could pay off. “I think you have to take advantage of every single opportunity to volunteer and do things that I would call extracurricular, outside of your day-to-day work or your day-to-day life as a student, if that’s the situation,” said Jessica Lee, Director of Digital Talent for Marriott International. “It takes a sheer amount of hustle and hard work and a willingness on your own end to really dig deep and say, ‘I’m going to take it a step above, beyond what everyone else is doing.’”
Some ideas Ms. Lee suggested were start a blog, Tweet about professional topics, or reach out to friends and family members to see if they have opportunities available that could help you gain experience.
Whatever you do, don’t lose hope if you are not able to land your dream job right away. Today’s employment landscape can be challenging but with a little persistence and some grit you’ll fully launch your career in no time!
Bryant & Stratton College is dedicated to helping students improve their employability skills and become job ready. Through outcomes-based education and career training, Bryant & Stratton College helps students learn the technical skills as well as the soft skills they’ll need to be successful in a career. If you are interested in learning more about the online degree programs at Bryant & Stratton College, please call 1.888.447.3528 to speak with an admissions representative.

Career Insight: Nursing Home Administrator

Medical and healthcare students and workers are in a great position to remain employed and to advance into the ranks of management and nursing home administrators are no exception
Baby boomers currently make up a large portion of the population and as they age, the demand for medical and health care services is growing. In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Statistics projects it to grow 17 percent between 2014 and 2024.Doctor and Nurse with patient at desk
That’s quite a bit more than the 11 percent average growth for all occupations. And, it translates into an addition of 56,300 jobs! In May 2014, medical and healthcare managers held 33,300 jobs nationwide not in hospitals, but in nursing care facilities.
So if you are a student who is considering a career as a nursing home administrator, you have a long, secure career to look forward to.
Entry into the realm of management in medical and health care services requires at least a Bachelor’s Degree, though Master Degree holders fare better.
Health administration and healthcare management majors are better prepared for the higher levels of management in this field since they require courses like hospital management, accounting and budgeting, law and ethics and strategic planning. In other words, the best prepared workers are well-trained in both patient care and financial management.
If you are pursuing a career specifically in nursing home administration, round out your studies with a concentration in long-term care, gerontology, patient rights or nursing home administration.
Nursing Home Administrator Job Description
Nursing home administrators are responsible for managing ‘the whole ball of wax’ including the employees, the admissions process, financial matters, the building, and of course, the patient care and nursing home activities. Large facilities may also have assistant administrators who help with daily decisions and who may manage clinical aspects of the facility such as surgery, therapy or medical records.
All states require nursing home administrators to be licensed, so check out this table of state-by-state requirements at the National Association of Long Term Care Administrator Boards website (http://www.nabweb.org/nursing-home-administrators-licensure-requirements)
Salary and Hours
Nursing home administrators typically work full time like their other medical management colleagues and may work nights, weekends, overnight and even on holidays. However, in 2014, median pay for Nursing and residential care managers was $78,540per year.
Medical services management, including nursing home administration is definitely a field to explore for a healthy career over the next ten years.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

DEAR REWORKER: THE NEW GENERAL MANAGER IS CLEANING HOUSE

Dear ReWorker,
I am a manager in a retail business and have been there for over six years. Recently, a new general manager took over, and she seems to be cleaning house and hiring her own team. I have found out that a supervisor (we\’ll call him John) that reports directly to me is being asked to step down and he does not want to. The GM targeted him because he said he wanted to leave retail and was looking elsewhere. His replacement is coming from within our district, and she is a \”favorite\” of my district manager. I feel this is just an ill attempt to promote her and find an easy spot for her. John has had no performance documentation or any write ups for performance. He is actually very good at his job and isn\’t disengaged.
Can my managers and company do this? It\’s also important to note that I don\’t believe that my corporate HR knows the real actions behind this internal promotion and that someone is being pushed out to make it happen.
Sincerely,
Concerned Manager
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Dear Concerned Manager,
Short answer: Yes. They can do this. The only way it would be \”no\” in this case is if the new general manager targeted John because he was male and she prefers women.
The question you didn\’t ask, but the one I will answer anyway, is should the general manager do this? The answer to that is more complicated.
It is extremely common for new managers to bring in their own people. They\’ve worked with them before, they know this person will bring good results, there\’s no time lost building relationships, and it\’s just more fun. But, it may or may not be good. If the previous general manager had a completely different personality and built up the staff around her personality or leadership style, it can be difficult to get people to change. If the new general manager got her job precisely because her boss wanted big changes, this can be the fastest way to do so.
However, I think you should wait and see in most situations. Find out who will work well with you and who won\’t, then make decisions. Lots of companies don\’t allow a wholesale changing of leadership when a new big boss comes to town.
In the specific case of John, though, he told people he wanted to leave. He told them he was actively job hunting. If you\’re the new general manager, and you have a supervisor who doesn\’t want to be there, no matter how effective he is at his job, and you have an employee you know to be great who earned a promotion and just needs a spot to open up, it makes a lot of sense to promote the person who wants to be there and let go of the person who doesn\’t want to be there .
Lesson is this: Don\’t tell people you don\’t like your job and are looking to move on unless you\’re 100 percent sure they\’ll support you until you do leave.
Your ReWorker,
Suzanne Lucas, Evil HR Lady
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Certificate vs Associate Degree – Make the Right Choice

Many students enter the continuing education arena with the belief that an associate degree program and a certificate program are the same thing. While associate degree programs may prepare a student to obtain certification in their chosen area or career field, it is not the same thing as a certificate program. In general, an associate degree is a very broad term, encompassing a varied educational platform. Certificate degrees are extremely focused in their objective(s) and are related to a specific job or career niche.
Besides this general difference, there are three main differences between the two: the requirements to begin the program, the length of time towards completion, and the number of transferable education units earned at the end of the program.
Three differences Between Associate Degree Programs and Certificate Programs
Requirements for acceptance: In most cases, a certificate program will have one or more requirements before a candidate may be accepted. Depending on the focus of the certification, applicants may need to have a certain level of career experience or educational experience before they can be admitted into the program. Associate degree programs differ in the sense that anyone with a high school diploma, or who has passed the General Education Development (GED) test, may begin an AA program.
Length of time towards completion: While there are exceptions, in most cases it takes students one year (two semesters) to complete a certificate program. As mentioned above, the programs are tailored to individuals who already have specific academic and/or experiential knowledge of the subject. Certificate programs provide additional focused education, and further training, towards a measurable level of competence as a certificated “expert” in the subject. Certificates are often obtained as an add-on to an associate degree.
Associate degree programs require two years of full-time classroom attendance in order to complete a degree. Depending on the educational facility’s schedule, students complete the classes by quarter or semester, so it takes eight quarters or four semesters to receive an associate’s degree. While an associate program may allow you to choose a specific area of focus, such as accounting, or IT, it is a platform for furthering your education and requires a host of general education courses as well.
Education units earned at the end of the program: A certificate program may or may not provide you with transferable education units, and therefore may not put you in position to further your education if that is your ultimate goal. For example, if you have been working in an office as a bookkeeper, you may be able to begin a bookkeeping certification program with a few online classes, your current work experience, and the completion of an exam. But should you desire to continue to receive your associate degree or bachelor degree, your certification courses may not count in an accredited university system.
An associate degree program at an accredited college is structured in such a way that students can use those credits to continue their education, pursuing a bachelors or master’s degree immediately, or using the credits to transfer into a different school/program. Students who have achieved an associate’s degree will have completed units from a comprehensive course list, rather than a single subject area.
For further clarification regarding whether or not an associate degree program is right for you, contact the admissions counselors at Bryant & Stratton College.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Where to get the Best UVM Food

Whether you’re new to campus or a seasoned senior, you’re bound to want be on the lookout for some comfort food on campus.  If you need a study break or you’re afraid that you’ll run out of points before the semester ends, these on campus eateries will provide you the best of food and service.

UVM Food Choices – The Best of:

Bang for your Buck: The Harvest Café

Looking for a meal after hours?  Within the hours of 5am and 3am, you can fill your tray with healthy, locally harvested options for just a few dollars. The Harvest Café prepares meals worth the walk across campus. Whether you’re stuck on campus when the dining halls are closed or you’re looking to meet a date in scrubs, YELP gives this hospital food 4 stars.

If your parents are visiting: The Waterman Manor

Show off a little at the Waterman Manor, where you can enjoy an a la care menu of local foods served to you by a friendly and knowledgeable wait staff. Rub elbows with University administrators, bring a date, or just enjoy the views of the lake from the back balcony!

For specialty items that meet your dietary needs:  The Marché

Enjoy the specialty items offered in The Marche, from the pizza oven, to smoothie bar, to make your own salad station. There are Vegan / Gluten-Free / Kosher options, including a mini grocery for your convenience!

For a stacked sandwich: Alice’s Café

Whether for breakfast or lunch, the staff at Alice’s make a mean sandwich. With your choice of bread and all the right fixings, a sandwich from Alice’s Café is one of the most satisfying ways to spend your points on campus.  Plus! Bring your own mug for coffee – all vessels charged the same price!

For the International Palate: The Marketplace

Looking for something with cultural flare? Check the menu at the Marketplace, which changes every day of the week. Sample Sukhi’s samosas & pakoras, or enjoy freshly prepared sushi. You’ll find plenty of comfort foods with an international twist.

For the underground music scene: Brennan’s Pub

Enjoy this unique on-campus pub, conveniently located on the ground floor of the Davis Center. Find a cozy lounge chair, where you can snack on complementary popcorn and listen to live music while you wait for your specialty burger and fries to be ready.
Still need some inspiration? Check out these tasty on-campus culinary creations by nom de plume Dude Hubris on Tumblr. You’ll be skipping off to the cafeteria in no time!  There’s food on campus for every palate and if you can’t find it the way it’s cooked at home, you can put your skills to the test and create your favorite flavors in a new way.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

WHY APPLICANT TRACKING SYSTEMS NEED A HUMAN TOUCH

Thank you for submitting your application. If your qualifications meet our needs, we’ll contact you. Otherwise, we’ll keep your resume on file for 12 months.”
If your company has an online application system, every applicant receives an email like the above. Likewise, when someone applies to a specific job you’re sourcing, you get a notice. In theory, online application systems are great — the candidate is notified when her resume is received and your human resources team doesn’t have to engage with the candidate unless you want to conduct an actual interview. Applicant tracking systems allow HR professionals to keep on top of numerous requisitions, sort through stacks of resumes without touching a single sheet of paper and run reports to understand the level of interest in any job posting. 
But if these systems make the entire hiring process easier, why do job candidates hate them so much? Because they take the “human” out of the process.

The Danger of Asking Questions Without Context

The questions on a standard application form are often intrusive and provide no room for context: Have you applied for a job lately? Have you applied for another job at your company? What was your salary at your last job? The system demands a number, and gives no opportunity for a candidate to explain if a role was part-time at 30 hours a week. As a result, if the recruiter runs a query on salary, some worthy candidates may not show up at all.
Many online applications also require candidates to list references in order to continue. While gathering this information saves time for the recruiter later on, the question can also make applicants nervous, wondering “Are you going to call my reference before an interview?” or “If I mark off ‘Please don’t contact’ next to my current employer, does that take me out of the running?” Applicants don’t want to bug their references for a job they have no shot at getting, and they certainly don’t want unexpected calls to their current boss. 
Here’s the problem: As recruiters, hiring managers and HR generalists, we want to know as much as possible about candidates before offering an interview. But in return, we provide candidates with as little information as possible. We communicate when we need to know something, but not when they need to know something. We’ll contact a candidate to set up an interview, but we’ll rarely contact a candidate to say, “We’re not interested.” 

How to Look Beyond the Checkbox

Since the online application system masks the actual humans behind the process, we easily reduce job seekers to checkboxes. Instead of thinking, “The person who submitted this resume is really interested in this job and holding out hope that we’ll give her an interview,” we think, “Only three years of experience, a degree in business and no statistical skills. Reject!”
Don’t get me wrong, it’s critical to consider skills and qualifications. It’s important to know when a candidate isn’t a good fit. We want to use everyone’s time – our time, the hiring manager’s time, the candidate’s time – strategically. But when we reduce people to checkboxes and keyword searches, we often skip over people who can do the job, but may not have every checkbox filled in.
Consider the value of a college degree. Degrees are awesome. I have a BA and an MA. I love education. But someone with 20 years of experience and no degree isn’t necessarily less qualified than someone with two years of experience and a degree. It’s important to question why you are looking for someone with a degree in the first place — it’s probably not because they need a piece of paper to hang on the wall. It’s because having a degree shows you can stick through something difficult and perform. Five years of work experience shows the same thing.
Additionally, when we rely on computers to screen our applicants, we may accidentally reject qualified people just because the keywords are so specific. For example, I recently received an email from a woman who applied for a job as an “undergraduate advisor.” The job posting required 3 years of experience. She had 5 years of experience as a “graduate student advisor.” She was certainly qualified, but the recruiter didn’t pull up her resume because she was looking for something specific. When the candidate reached out to the hiring manager and shared her qualifications in person, the manager quickly pulled her resume out of the system, interviewed her and hired her. But the computer? The computer rejected her.
Applicant tracking systems are efficient, but they can also cause you to miss out on the unique experiences that define a great applicant. It’s important to remember to keep the “human” in human resources – use the ATS as a tool, not as the final decision-maker.

THE SECURITY DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE: WHERE PROACTIVE CONTROLS SAVE THE DAY

The connected world of HR technology is exploding, and more and more companies are trusting employee and company information in the hands of cloud software companies. The problem? Complex, public-facing cloud systems are hard to secure. That’s just a fact. So, what can providers do about it?
The answer is simple: Detect and minimize security risks and threats in your product before they are released. But to do that, you need a well-defined strategic framework—a Security Development Lifecycle (SDL)—to guide product development and help ensure that security is baked in by various teams.  This is a cross-functional effort with the Product, Development, QA, Security and Release teams acting together for the common good.
The SDL concept is not new, but growing pressure on software developers to adopt a formal framework is—especially when it comes to protecting critical and private employee information. Recent high-profile data breaches involving major retailers, financial institutions and government agencies have customers asking vendors more questions about security. They want assurance that developers are doing all they can to reduce risk and make safer products.
Instilling greater confidence in your customers is an important reason to adopt an SDL process, of course, but there are other benefits. Reducing the need for firefighting is a primary one. Think of the resources you need to deploy to respond to a security incident after your product has been released—the time and cost involved can be significant.
In fact, as Microsoft notes on its website about the “Benefits of SDL,” the National Institute of Standards and Technology estimates that code fixes performed after release can result in 30 times the cost of fixes performed during the design phase. So, the bottom line is that it can be far more cost-effective to ask questions about security and address risks in the earliest stages of product development. Here’s what you need to know about creating an SDL at your company.

Tailor the SDL Framework to Your Needs

SDL frameworks provide inspiration and tools for reducing software security risk, but you have to make sure you implement a framework unique to your organization’s processes and culture. You will need to tailor your own blend of best practices to create a relevant and effective framework. Technical controls typically require particular customization and tuning based on internal process, technology and capability.
Process-based preventative controls include verifying that project-based security activities occur prior to release, while technical controls include static analysis and dynamic analysis security testing.  Technical controls often require a security toolbox including tools like SIEM (Splunk), static source code analysis (Checkmarx), static binary analysis (Fortify), and dynamic analysis security testing (WhiteHat Sentinel, Burp Suite, ZAP).  We also build custom scripts and have meaningful manual processes for verifying that new features are free of severe and common kinds of security defects, including SQL injection, command injection, cross-site scripting, and authorization issues.
That’s what we’ve done at our company. Cornerstone’s SDL framework is actually a hybrid of leading frameworks like the Microsoft SDL and the Building Security in Maturity Model (BSIMM). We’ve also added a core element that is a reflection of what Cornerstone is—a learning company. Continuous learning is the cornerstone of our SDL, with product security training forming the hub of our SDL “wheel”:

Educate Your Team

Our goal is to make learning fun.  We believe that education and training is the best proactive security control. For example, we have developed an application security game that is part of the mandatory curriculum for all of our technology personnel. It’s multiple choice, but it’s tough—and we can chart the progress of every developer as they move through that curriculum.
What we are doing at Cornerstone is advanced for the talent management space. And it’s enabling us to confidently answer three vital questions customers ask in security RFPs and audits:
  • Do you have a strategic framework for secure product development?
  • Have you implemented some level of control that indicates maturity across those practices?
  • Do you conduct role-based application security training and measure the results?
We leverage our internal implementation of the Cornerstone LMS to deliver annual training on security policies and guidelines for all employees, and provide focused, role-based application security training for Dev, QA, and the technical personnel responsible for delivering code-shipping products.  Additionally, we provide specialized training on SIEM, static analysis, and dynamic analysis security testing tools.
Further, Cornerstone is proud to be a member of Cloud Security Alliance, and frequently hosts monthly gathering in the Los Angeles area at Cornerstone’s Santa Monica headquarters.  This educational forum helps keep Cornerstone ahead of the curve when it comes to cloud security.

Proactive Product Security

More importantly, our SDL framework allows us to confirm that we have done everything we could to build security into a product before we release it, answering key questions like:
  • Did we specify secure design requirements? Were they met/satisfied/followed?
  • Did we conduct secure code review? What did we find?
  • Did we perform dynamic security testing? What was the result?
  • Did we ensure new features were covered in per-release penetration testing? What was the outcome?
  • Is the product security incident response team aware of the new attack surface, and do they know who to contact in the event issues are found?
The whole concept of the SDL is to build proactive controls that reduce risk and the reactive need for firefighting. You developed a more secure product by bringing together all stakeholders at the outset—the product designer, the development lead, the quality assurance team, and others—to ask and answer, “What are we building? What are the risks? And what can we do to prevent them?”
What’s the conclusion?  The program and process has to be ongoing since technology changes and employees take on new challenges.  Updating the programs frequently is critically important. The process is iterative and meant to support a “Maturity Model” mindset.

ESCAPE THE MULTITASKING MADNESS: 6 WAYS TO STAY FOCUSED

Like it or not, multitasking has become de facto for workers. Bouncing between answering emails, checking text messages, reading news headlines and attending meetings, employees are more inundated with data and distractions than ever before.
Millennials are especially prone to flitting between screens, browser tabs and actions. At the same time, research about multitasking’s harmful effects continues to emerge. A McKinsey study found that only 9 percent of executives are “very satisfied” with how employees’ time was allocated.
How can managers encourage these overly wired team members to stay focused?
  • Give employees creative tasks that provide incentive enough to focus. “Make sure they grasp the point of what they’re doing. Many switch-taskers say they don’t care how productive they are because their work is ‘just dumb,’” says Neil Howe, author of Milliennials in the Workplace.
  • Streamline meeting schedules. Ineffective meetings are among the top time wasters in the work week. Make sure that every meeting has a clear purpose, or else employees might be forced to involuntarily multitask for lack of time.
  • Make the ability to focus part of company culture. Management can lead by example, refraining from texting during meetings, for instance, and voicing the merits of concentrating on one task at a time.
For employees susceptible to multitasking (who isn’t?), here are some ways to stay focused:
  • Schedule time to “unitask.” When employees have a memo to write or a deck to prepare, they should block off a set time on their calendars to devote all of their attention to that one item.
  • Unitask for a specific amount of time. It might not be feasible to focus on one agenda item for hours on end, but employees can set aside say, 10 minutes, to answer an email, and follow through.
  • Use tools to turn off distractions. RescueTime provide users with data about how much time they spend on different activities. It also let employees block distracting websites for certain periods of time. AwayFind re-prioritizes users’ emails based on important senders and topics, decreasing the need to check the inbox every few minutes. Coffee Break lets employees schedule a break, and turns their screens dark when it’s time to step away for a minute.
What do you think managers can do to limit multitasking and help employees focus?

Bryant & Stratton College On Campus Childcare is a Gamechanger for Students

She had moved to a new city with her 3-year-old son. There was no family nearby who could help watch him while she went back to school. Her son had speech impediments and needed to be in a daycare she could trust to work with his special needs.
And, there was little extra money to pay for daycare while she worked and attended classes.
When she applied to Bryant & Stratton College in Hampton, Va., the flexible schedule and personal service were not the only perk. Her campus also offered on campus childcare.
“My son loves it. He really loves it,” she said. “I can be at home and tell him to get ready and he won’t move. Then I say we are going to class and he jumps up.”
Porter earned her counseling associate degree and is now working at the child care center on campus helping other working parents achieve their goals.
“People come in the middle of the semester when their other childcare plans fall through,” she said. “People come and say, ‘if this wasn’t here, I wouldn’t be able to go to class. It’s a lifesaver.’”
It is a sentiment that the staff at the children centers on several Bryant & Stratton College campuses hear on a daily basis.
“I’ve heard quite a few of my parents say, ‘Thank God we have children’s college. We have nowhere for our children to go. This is a lifesaving place for a lot of people,” said Denisetrica Lankford, Children’s Center Coordinator at the Richmond, Va. campus.
The centers are not curriculum-based preschools but are more than simple babysitting. Lankford said children who attend in the morning do follow a schedule and work on pre-kindergarten skills. Children who attend in the afterschool and evening hours receive homework help and can play educational games on the center’s computers.
Many of the centers are open as late as 10:30 p.m. After dinner, children are treated to a movie and given time to wind down while they wait for their parents to finish class. The majority of the centers are open five days a week and available to part-time and full-time students. The stipulation is that parents must remain on campus while their child is in the center.
Cost is roughly $4 an hour, depending on the location; students can use their financial aid dollars to pay should they qualify. To find out more about using financial aid for childcare, visit your campus financial aid office or childcare center.
Lankford said she loves working at the center and making a better life possible for working parents and their children.
“They are learning and growing, that is the best part,” she said. “You know you made a difference in a child’s life.”
Want to go back to college but are struggling with how to manage daycare? Check out the degrees available at colleges with daycare like Bryant & Stratton College.

LEARNING CORNER WITH JEFF PFEFFER: HOW TO GET MORE BENEFIT FROM HEALTH BENEFITS

Some years ago, after a particularly bad experience, I asked our associate vice president of benefits how much we were paying the person who helps us decide which health benefits to offer to employees. When he replied, I told him that I was sure I could provide at least as much aggravation for substantially less cost.
My story is all too common.
In my opinion, there are some important truths about health benefits that employers should consider in order to maximize the dollars they spend on them: First, it’s imperative to remember that benefits are a vitally important way to attract and retain employees—so the better the benefits, the higher probability of retention. Second, most large health benefits administrators have low net promoter scores because they aren’t doing a great job interacting with a company’s employees—wasting employees’ time and increasing costs. And third, it’s critical to choose benefits administrators that take advantage of new, technology-enabled, customer-focused health providers in the marketplace. All of this means that there are significant opportunities for companies to get many more benefits from their health benefits spending.
Health Benefits: The Hard Truth
Let’s examine these ideas one at a time.
Benefits matter to employees. A 2016 Aflac survey reported that 60% of employees were likely to take a job with lower pay but better benefits. The same survey noted that 42% of people said that improving benefits is the one thing employers could do to keep them in their job. Sixteen percent of respondents said they had left a job or turned down an offer in the preceding 12 months because of the benefits offered. Another survey found that 55% of the respondents said that health insurance was the single most important benefit affecting their job satisfaction. Health benefits matter for attracting and retaining workers, particularly in tight labor markets and for crucial jobs—and data show this is true even for younger workers.
But health benefits are costly. The 2018 Kaiser Family Foundation survey noted that average family premiums were $19,616. With employees contributing $5,547 toward coverage, the average employer spends $14,069 per employee. For an employer with 2,500 employees, that’s $35 million per year.
Unfortunately, that money is not doing what it could, because too many employers are using the wrong health insurance administrators and not holding them accountable. Many of the companies administering health benefits are failing in their fundamental task of serving companies—and their employees. PeopleMetrics’ 2013 Most Engaging Customer Experiences study noted that “across seven different B2C verticals, health insurance had the lowest net promoter score” with “few customers trusting their insurance providers to do what’s in their best interest.” The average NPS score in that survey was -20. 
What’s more, employees waste time interacting with their health insurance providers. At my urging, Gallup recently asked a random sample of people how much time they spent in the prior week both on and off the job dealing with health insurance issues. Dan Witters, Gallup’s research director for the National Health and Well-Being Index, told me he estimated more than $14 billion in lost productivity to non-farm employers from time spent hassling with health insurance companies. And that cost does not include the psychological consequences of people’s attitudes toward the employers who choose plan administrators and benefits providers. 
This level of bad service is not inevitable. Technology, increasingly implemented by start-ups in the healthcare space, can now predict and manage health care costs while providing a more employee-friendly service. The health insurance industry is ripe for disruption and is attracting enormous outside investment. One recent article noted that “between 2010 and 2017, the value of investments in digital health increased by 858 percent” with more than $40 billion invested this decade. 
Even now, employers can find vendors (both health insurance administrators and providers) that will do better, if they are willing to use newer and more innovative organizations. As healthcare has moved from a B2B to a B2C model, a number of providers focusing more on customer engagement have emerged and their net promoter scores are showing the true benefits of a new, customer-first approach: one benchmarking study found that Collective Health (on whose advisory board I sit) had a net promoter score of 70, Plansource 74, and Kaiser-Permanente 40.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Here are some straightforward but important things companies can do to fix their approach to benefits. First, and most fundamentally, companies should change their decision criteria for benefits to focus on things besides cost. That will require expanding the range of measures substantially, because what gets measured receives management attention.
For example, measure employee satisfaction with health benefits administrators and use that information to find administrators that aren’t wasting employees’ time and creating dissatisfaction. Measure how much time your people are spending, at work and off the job, on administrative work related to healthcare and see if, just as in other parts of your operations, you can eliminate a lot of this waste. The hassle factor of dealing with health insurance admins and providers is one of the most enormous and largely unnoticed costs of the current way of administering health care.
As another measure, consider the fact that health insurance is, believe it or not, presumably designed to promote health. So why not use health indicators as outcome measures? Things such as work days lost to sickness, people’s self-reported health, measures of health behaviors, biomarkers related to health status. In the narrow fixation on the costs of health claims and benefits administration, companies are not seeing the whole picture. A 2017 article noted that too few analyses of the costs of illness included productivity loss estimates in their economic evaluations. A study of more than 51,000 employees working for 10 employers found that health-related productivity costs were almost 2.5 times larger than direct medical and pharmacy costs.
Having seen all of this at close range in my years on a Stanford committee overseeing our health insurance benefits, I have come to one conclusion that will fix a lot. If outside “experts” recommend suppliers with net promoter scores that are negative or in the single digits, maybe it’s time to get some new experts, people who will help your organization get greater value from your important expenditures on the benefits that are crucial to the well-being of your employees—and your company.
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Women’s Soccer Starts 2016 on the Right Foot

The Bryant & Stratton College women’s soccer team took a win and a hard-fought draw from two NCAA DIII opponents this past weekend. Senior Kai Jacobs scored a pair of goals in BSC’s 2-0 win over Cazenovia College while senior goalkeeper Megan Hagadorn made 13 saves the following day against SUNY Poly.