解决科技行业多元化问题的关键在于留住员工
科技行业的多元化对话往往更关注于“交流途径”，让更多少数族裔的员工跨过这道门槛。不过，这只是第一步。第二步、也是最为关键的一步是，让他们留下来。如果具有不同背景的员工不能给公司创造一种包容性和友好的环境，那么公司就没有必要耗费资源来聘请这样的员工了。
“这并不是说你不应该重视招聘，而是说你不仅要重视招聘，还要把精力放在留住员工上面，这就像你正在填满漏水的水桶一样。”Paradigm 的首席执行官乔利·埃莫森（Joelle Emerson）告诉我。
Paradigm 是一个专注于多元化问题的咨询公司。目前 该公司正在与一些高速发展的公司合作 ，例如 Pinterest 和 Slack，用以培育并保留多样化的工作场所。这是因为，如果企业不能有效留住背景不同的人才，那便是对金钱和资源的大量浪费了。事实上，根据美国进步中心（Center for American Progress）的 研究 ，招聘和雇佣新员工的成本通常在员工年薪中占到 20%。
Twitter 工程部经理莱斯利·米莱（Leslie Miley）是位黑人，他告诉我：“我认为，即便不是更重要的一个问题，但留住员工也很重要，因为你不想挖掘具有不同背景的员工。因为如果你拥有了背景不同的员工，这便和你的文化有很大关系了。不想拥有这种员工的企业，将永远无法增强自身的多元化。这听起来很简单，但是真的很有趣，有些公司还没弄清楚这一点。”
米莱谈到，流失这样的员工可能意味着几件事。一是表明公司的企业文化没有意识到员工多元化的重要性，二是说明公司有“害群之马”，让员工在这里呆不下去了。
“事实上，我之前遇见过这样的情形，在我的职业生涯中，有人只会给有色人种创造让人寒心的环境，”米莱说道。“例如有这样一家公司——但我不会说出这个公司的名字——当他们意识到问题的时候，一切都太晚了。”
虽然米莱并未指名道姓提到 Dropbox，但我敢打赌，他指的就是 Dropbox 前员工安吉利卡·科尔曼（Angelica Coleman）遭遇的情况。科尔曼称，由于 Dropbox 工作环境对女性不友好，她最终离开了这家公司。
根据《哈佛商业评论》实施的 一项调查 ，女性离开科技公司的比例是男性的两倍。最常见的原因就是工作环境，例如得不到晋升、工作时间长以及工资低等。
埃莫森表示，若想解决员工留存问题，一个办法就是确定你的公司是否可能存在这种问题，做到这一点并不难，通过对员工进行调查即可。这种调查应该问员工几个问题，如他们打算在公司工作多长时间，他们如何看待公司的多元化和包容性问题，他们是否看到获得晋升的机会等等。若想让具有不同背景的员工们明白他们会有晋升的机会，那就是确保公司有少数族裔背景的人在领导岗位上。
埃莫森指出，企业还必须意识到，具有不同背景的员工留存率高，并不意味着企业做的任何事情都是对的。员工有可能会出于经济方面的考虑被迫留在公司里，而不是因为他们真的很享受在那里工作。“如果人们并没有离开，企业有时可能自我感觉不错，但事实并非如此，”埃莫森说。
团队任务管理平台 Asana 是与埃莫森有合作关系的另一家高增长型创业公司，该公司已经认识到多元化员工的留存重要性，但它并没有试图通过建立一套有效的机制，将员工留在公司里。
Asana 人力资源部门主管安迪·斯托（Andy Stoe）说：“我们并不是依靠我们作为‘北极星’的自我价值，让我们各司其职，相反，我们还试图打开‘黄手铐’（golden handcuff），这样员工会出于合理的考虑留在 Asana。”
斯托所说的“金手铐”是指各种公司福利，比如说股票期权及其他丰厚的奖励等，旨在鼓励员工不要离开公司。Asana 尝试放松“金手铐”的束缚，改变标准的劳资协议条款，令其适用于公司新的股票期权规定。
以前，Asana 员工离职后，只有三个月时间来执行股票期权，过后即丧失期权。如今，从 Asana 授予其股权之日起，员工将有 10 年时间来执行期权，即便他们任职未满 10 年就离开了公司。
最终，科技公司必须对两个问题进行深入思考，一是创造哪种工作环境，二是如何能让背景多元的员工寻找和获得晋升的机会。此外，企业还必须要知道激励员工留下来的原因是什么。是企业包容、健康的工作环境，还是说员工手腕上的“金手铐”？如果是因为后者他们才留了下来，那么企业就必须做出改变了。
Hacking Diversity In Tech By Emphasizing Retention
Conversations around diversity in tech often focus on the “pipeline” and getting more people from underrepresented groups through the door. But that’s just a first step. The next, most critical step is retention. There’s no point in a company using its resources to hire a diverse people if they’re not going to offer them an environment that is both supporting and nurturing.
“It’s not to say that you shouldn’t focus on [hiring], but to focus on that and not focus on retention, it’s like you’re filling up a leaky bucket,” Paradigm CEO Joelle Emerson tells me.
Paradigm is a consulting startup that focuses on diversity. It’s currently working with high-growth companies like Pinterest and Slack on fostering and retaining a diverse workplace. That’s because if companies can’t effectively retain diverse people it’s a huge waste of money and resources. In fact, the cost of recruiting and hiring a new employee is typically 20 percent of the annual salary for that person, according to the Center for American Progress.
“I think that [retention is] as important if not more important because you don’t want to churn out diversity,” Twitter Engineering Manager Leslie Miley, who is black, tells me. “Because if you churn out diversity, that says a lot about your culture. Companies that do churn out diversity will never be able to increase their diversity. It sounds very simple, but it’s really interesting to see that some companies haven’t figured that one out.”
Losing diverse employees could mean a couple of things, Miley says. It could mean either that it’s a culture that doesn’t recognize diversity matters, or it could be that there’s just a bad apple driving people out the door.
“I have actually seen that previously in my career where one person can create an environment that is just chilling for people of color,” Miley says. “There’s one example, but I won’t name the company, by the time they realized that there was a problem, it was too late.”
Even though Miley didn’t specifically call out Dropbox, my bet is that he was referring to the situation with former Dropbox employee Angelica Coleman, who says she left the company because of its unsupportive environment.
Women leave tech companies at twice the rate of men, according to a study by the Harvard Business Review. The most common reason is the working conditions (e.g. no advancement, number of hours, low salary).
One way to combat retention issues is by determining if your company is at risk of them, which can be accomplished through surveys, Emerson says. These surveys should ask employees things like how long they plan to be at the company, how they perceive diversity and inclusion in the company, and if they are aware of opportunities for advancement. And one way to signal to diverse employees that there are opportunities for advancement is to ensure there are people from underrepresented backgrounds in leadership roles.
Companies also need to recognize that a high retention rate of diverse employees doesn’t necessarily mean the company’s doing anything right, Emerson says. People might be forced to stay on at a company because of financial reasons, not because they actually enjoy working there. “If people aren’t leaving, companies sometimes make the assumption that everything is fine, and that’s not always the case,” Emerson says.
Productivity startup Asana, another high-growth company that Emerson works with, recognizes that retention of diverse employees is really important, but it tries not to create mechanisms just to keep people at the company.
“Instead we rely on our own values as the north star, and literally hold ourselves accountable, Asana Head of Recruiting Andy Stoe says. “We also try to remove the ‘golden handcuffs’ so people want to stay at Asana for the right reasons.”
The “golden handcuffs” Stoe is talking about are the benefits, like stock options and other deferred payments, that aim to discourage people from leaving the company. Asana has tried to loosen the handcuffs by changing the standard terms that apply to the company’s new stock options.
In the past, employees had just three months after leaving Asana to exercise their options before they were forfeited. Now, employees have 10 years to exercise those options from the date Asana grants them, even if they leave the company before that time.
Ultimately, tech companies need to be thoughtful about the kind of work environment they create, and how they enable diverse employees to seek and attain opportunities for advancement. Companies also need to be aware of what is incentivizing people to stay. Is it because of the company’s supportive, nourishing environment? Or, are employees staying because of the golden handcuffs around their wrists? If it’s the latter, something needs to change.
来源：techcrunch
未来，人们的工作会是什么样子？会将更多依赖移动设备和云平台？[摘要]你有没有忙里偷闲想一想，未来3到5年，人们的工作会是什么样子呢？
谷歌高管阿米特·辛格在Rise大会上
随着机器人、自动化和人工智能（AI）的稳步发展，人类也一直在不断思考一个问题，即究竟是什么能够成为人们在未来时间内维持工作的动力呢？或者说，未来人们的工作会是什么样子呢？我们需要在办公桌前连续工作多长时间才能获得支付帐单所需的报酬？
在近期于中国香港召开的Rise大会上，客户支持服务供应商Freshdesk的首席执行官吉里斯·马斯鲁布塔姆（Girish Mathrubootham）和谷歌“Google for Work”部门总裁阿米特·辛格(Amit Singh)就未来的生产力和工作等问题交流了他们的看法。在他们看来，随着云计算业务的稳步发展，移动设备的不断涌现，未来人们的工作将主要通过移动设备和云基础设施来完成，而不是再依赖传统的办公桌。
辛格认为，桌面应用正在走向灭亡。他称：“没错，一些人仍在电脑上工作，但是他们也越来越多地通过移动设备来完成工作。将来，你可能会花费更多的时间在移动设备上，并因此而远离桌面。”
马斯鲁布塔姆也引用他公司的桌面支持服务相关的内容对辛格的发言进行了补充。马斯鲁布塔姆称：“最近一段时间以来，我们希望能够通过使用移动设备来了解到我们客户支持电子邮件，无论你身在何方。传统的软件将人们束缚在办公桌前，并要求人们在工作过程中使用VPN。
在移动设备上工作，没有地理位置的限制，这样工作的便捷之处完全是由现代化的应用所提供，这样的便捷之处也是推动人们从桌面设备向移动和云解决方案迁移的一大重要原因。”
为未来设计各种工作应用：
辛格认为，新应用将越来越具有协作性，可以提高生产力，而不是仅仅围绕个人的贡献。辛格对此称，“新的共享经济和千禧一代的思维方式，已经共同打造了一个全新的协同工作文化。我们如今可以一起处理同样的文件，并在同一地方彼此发送消息。这更多的是一种实时的团队工作，而且也更透明，这大大强于传统的个人单独工作模式。”
电子邮件会消失吗？
电子邮件的一些功能仍是非常有效的交流与沟通方式，例如可检索性和记录交流内容等。但是，在未来的几年时间内，电子邮件将不会消失——而且还可能会进一步进化并适应未来更快更精简的协作需求。
辛格声称，“事实上，现在的电子邮件量比此前更多，人们花在电子邮件上的时间也更长。然而，使用电子邮件的方式正在发生变化——变得更快、更加实时。例如，Gmail的收件箱就已经朝着那个方向在进展。”
企业将他们所有的数据都放到云平台，难道这不是风险吗？
辛格认为，云基础设施值得依赖，不管是现在，还是在将来。他还进一步表示： “云平台比企业自己定制的安全平台要安全得多。我们知道是什么让谷歌系统更加安全。我们已经打造了一切云服务，从碎片信息、从我们的数据中心到平台等，与此同时，我们还花费了大量时间来保护我们的网络。
这并不是说糟糕的事情就不会发生。打造一个安全可靠的解决方案需要花费很长的时间、金钱和努力。向云基础设施过渡即将发生，当然还会考虑安全性，而不是置之不管不顾。”
马斯鲁布塔姆一直忠诚于大规模的云系统。他表示：“你的钱放在哪儿更安全，是在家里还是存在银行？云公司都在销售数据安全业务，而不仅仅是软件。如果我们丢失了客户的数据，那么我们就要关门走人了，因此，对我们而言，至关重要的一点就是要重点关注真正安全可靠的稳定系统。”
我们未来5年的工作方式会发生什么样的变化？
辛格预计，基于人工智能的助手应用将在提升人类生产力的过程中发挥非常重要的作用。他表示：“我们一直在大量思考移动在工作中越来越大的重要性这一问题。我们目前仍在谈论传统数据和工具，并将这些传统数据和工具从办公桌前移走。但是，打造一个让你随处可以工作并在你需要时通过显示数据来给你提供帮助的智能化助手，是可以即时实现的——而且我认为，这就是未来的模样。 ”
去年，谷歌收购了人工智能公司DeepMind，以此增强谷歌公司的人工智能能力，因此，值得关注的一点是，谷歌将如何遵循辛格的预测，或者会在未来推出什么样的人工智能工作模式。
马斯鲁布塔姆曾经非常简洁地表述过：“全世界的数据消费量占90%，而数据创造量只占10%。消费的内容已经稳步向云平台和移动设备上转移，尽管创造工具仍然与桌面有关。预计到2020年时，所有的一切都将从传统的计算设备转移到更加个人、更加可携带的解决方案上来。”（悦潼）
What does the future of work look like?
As robotics, automation and AI steadily improve, I’ve been thinking a lot about what will keep the human workforce busy in the years to come. How much longer will we need to park ourselves at our desks for hours on end in order to pay our bills?
At the Rise conference in Hong Kong yesterday, customer support service Freshdesk’s CEO Girish Mathrubootham and Google for Work president Amit Singh shared their thoughts on the future of productivity.
Singh believes that desktop apps are on their way out. “Sure, some people work on their desktops, but they’re increasingly getting more done on mobile devices. In the future, you’ll be spending even more time on them, away from your desk.”
Mathrubootham added to this with context from his company’s helpdesk service:
These days, we want to be able to access our customer support email from wherever you are. Traditional software chains you to your desk and require you to use a VPN when you’re on the move.
The convenience of working from anywhere that modern apps offer, is what is driving the shift from desktop-focused to mobile and cloud-based solutions.
Designing work apps for the future
Singh feels that new apps are more about collaboration for increased productivity and less about our contributions as individuals.
Google for Work president Amit Singh speaking at Rise Conference 2015
“The new sharing economy and the way millennials think, have combined to create a new collaborate work culture. We’re now working on the same files together and messaging each other all in one place. It’s more about real-time teamwork and transparency than individual effort,” he said.
Is there an end in sight for email?
There are some aspects of email as a method of communication that are useful, like searchability and keeping correspondence on record. But it won’t just vanish in the years to come — it’s more likely to evolve and adapt to our needs for faster and more streamlined collaboration.
Singh said, “There’s actually more email now than before, and more time spent on it. However, the way it’s being used is changing. It’s more about quick, real-time communication. For example, Inbox by Gmail is a step in that direction.”
Isn’t it risky for businesses to put all their data in the cloud?
Singh believes that cloud-based infrastructure can be trusted now and in the future:
The cloud is a lot more secure than companies’ own bespoke security infrastructure. We know what it takes to secure Google’s system. We’ve built everything from scratch, from our data centers to our platforms, and we spend a lot of time protecting our network.
Not to say that bad things can’t happen, but it takes a lot of time, money and effort to build secure solutions. The transition to cloud-based infrastructure will be because of security and not in spite of it.
Freshdesk CEO Girish Mathrubootham speaking at Rise Conference 2015
Mathrubootham has faith in large-scale cloud-based systems. He said, “Where is your money safer, in your home or deposited in a bank? Cloud companies are in the business of selling data security, not just software. If we lost our customers’ data, we’d have to shut shop. So it’s important for us to focus on robust systems that are indeed secure.”
How is the way we work going to change in the next five years?
Singh predicts that AI-based assistants will play a big role in increasing human productivity:
We’ve been thinking a lot about the the increasing importance of mobility at work. We’re currently taking traditional data and tools and unlocking them from your desk. But creating an intelligent assistant that goes where you do and helps you out by surfacing data when you need it, in context, cognitive in real-time — I believe that’s the future.
The search giant acquired machine learning firm DeepMind last year to boost its AI efforts, so it’ll be interesting to see how Google follows up on Singh’s vision.
Mathrubootham articulated it quite simply: “90 percent of the world consumes while only 10 percent creates. Consumption of content has moved steadily into the cloud and onto mobile devices, while the tools for creation remain tied to desktops. That’s all going to move away from traditional computing devices to more personal, portable solutions by 2020.”
来源：TNW News
观点
观点
观点
观点
观点
观点
观点
观点
观点
观点
扫一扫 加微信
hrtechchina
