March 23, 2009 (Computerworld) A delegation from one of India's largest business groups visited Washington last week to make a case for the H-1B visa program, among other political topics. And it was a group with enough clout to meet with top White House officials.
The meeting likely would have gone unnoticed had it not been for reports in the Indian news media. Heading the delegation was Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and CEO of Bharti Enterprises Ltd., India's largest mobile phone operator. The U.S. officials at the meeting included Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council (NEC) and assistant to President Obama for economic policy.
In India, H-1B visas are seen as critical to that country's IT services industry. The four largest visa recipients during the federal government's 2008 fiscal year are all India-based services firms. After an earlier visit to the U.S., officials from India's top IT trade group, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), called the H-1B hiring restrictions set by Congress on financial services firms that receive federal bailout funds an issue of "extreme concern."
In last week's visit, Mittal was representing the Confederation of Indian Industry, whose affiliate members include Nasscom. According to the Indian press reports about the trip, Mittal characterized the delegation's meeting with Summers as "positive."
The Obama administration has yet to outline its plans for the H-1B program, but the White House has given some signals that it might support an increase in the annual visa cap — primarily via the appointment of officials who have advocated cap increases in the past, such as Janet Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona and now secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
And in meeting with Summers, the delegation from India found itself with the White House organization that may be most likely to support an H-1B increase. One of the NEC's deputy directors is Diana Farrell, an Obama appointee who has been a strong supporter of offshore outsourcing. Prior to taking her job at the NEC, Farrell was a director at management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., which has argued in reports — some authored by Farrell — that offshore outsourcing creates savings that are reinvested by companies.
When Obama was a U.S. senator, he supported a comprehensive immigration reform bill that was proposed in 2007 but never voted on after its sponsors failed to get enough support for a procedural motion to end debate. That bill would have raised the annual H-1B cap from 65,000 regular visas to as many as 180,000, while also authorizing additional visas for foreigners with advanced degrees from U.S. universities beyond the 20,000 that currently can be issued each year. Since 2007, Obama has continued to urge support for comprehensive immigration reform, but without being specific on the issue of raising the H-1B cap.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Managing Employees from a Distance Becoming Business Reality
As signs of an economic turnaround remain elusive, business leaders are becoming more focused on increasing employee productivity, according to a report released January 2009 by The Conference Board.
With business operations growing increasingly global, maintaining dispersed employees and identifying key tools for optimizing their efficiency and engagement become all the more vital to business success. To make managing an employee at a site other than one’s own a mutually rewarding experience, several factors must be taken into consideration, according to the report titled Meeting the Challenges of a Dispersed Workforce: Managing Across Language, Culture, Time and Location.
“The issue of whether or not to allow employees to work at a distance is no longer a cost benefit issue—it is simply the reality of doing business,” said Linda Barrington, research director and labor economist, The Conference Board, in a statement accompanying the report release. “And effective management of dispersed employees is a key to success in that new reality.”
The Conference Board research working group on managing a distant workforce examined the issue of managing distant workers during meetings and through interviews, surveys and focus groups of relevant high-performing, dispersed work teams. The goal of the research working group was to identify effective ways to address the organizational, managerial and individual challenges of managing distance employees.
In addition to survey responses, the report includes case studies from MetLife, Qualcomm and Lincoln Financial.
Effective Manager-Employee Work Teams Are Key
Major findings of this study include:
More than 60 percent of the respondents surveyed agreed that managing same-site employees is easier than managing distance employees.
Nearly 80 percent of the respondents believe that the extra costs of enabling employees to work at a distance do pay off.
Managers’ perceptions of the job they’re doing differs from that of distance employees; 53 percent of managers surveyed reported spending more than an hour a week developing working relationships with distance employees, whereas only 18 percent of employees believed that their managers spent that much time with them.
Five practices, however, were found to be shared among effective distance teams:
In-person meetings.
Clear agreements on accessibility.
Good use of group software.
Adequate company support.
Clearly defined roles for team members.
Study author Pete Linkow wrote: “Great distance managers must first and foremost be inclusive, empowering, supportive and trustworthy. Then they must master the fundamentals of management, like setting goals, evaluating, giving feedback and coaching. Finally, they must be superb at three competencies: cultivating relationships, focusing on outcomes and developing employees.”
Although managers and employees disagree about how much time is spent on developing relationships, they both agree that it is vital. Of managers and employees surveyed, about 90 percent and 70 percent, respectively, said the two most effective communication tools for building distance relationships were the telephone and face-to-face meetings.
In addition to identifying the challenges presented, the group identified key skills for managers and employees that can help maximize productivity and lead to effective manager-employee teams. At the heart of managing distance employees well is proper communication and employee engagement in order to create a productive work environment. Effective distance employees were identified as those who know how to execute, use technology and collaborate.
With business operations growing increasingly global, maintaining dispersed employees and identifying key tools for optimizing their efficiency and engagement become all the more vital to business success. To make managing an employee at a site other than one’s own a mutually rewarding experience, several factors must be taken into consideration, according to the report titled Meeting the Challenges of a Dispersed Workforce: Managing Across Language, Culture, Time and Location.
“The issue of whether or not to allow employees to work at a distance is no longer a cost benefit issue—it is simply the reality of doing business,” said Linda Barrington, research director and labor economist, The Conference Board, in a statement accompanying the report release. “And effective management of dispersed employees is a key to success in that new reality.”
The Conference Board research working group on managing a distant workforce examined the issue of managing distant workers during meetings and through interviews, surveys and focus groups of relevant high-performing, dispersed work teams. The goal of the research working group was to identify effective ways to address the organizational, managerial and individual challenges of managing distance employees.
In addition to survey responses, the report includes case studies from MetLife, Qualcomm and Lincoln Financial.
Effective Manager-Employee Work Teams Are Key
Major findings of this study include:
More than 60 percent of the respondents surveyed agreed that managing same-site employees is easier than managing distance employees.
Nearly 80 percent of the respondents believe that the extra costs of enabling employees to work at a distance do pay off.
Managers’ perceptions of the job they’re doing differs from that of distance employees; 53 percent of managers surveyed reported spending more than an hour a week developing working relationships with distance employees, whereas only 18 percent of employees believed that their managers spent that much time with them.
Five practices, however, were found to be shared among effective distance teams:
In-person meetings.
Clear agreements on accessibility.
Good use of group software.
Adequate company support.
Clearly defined roles for team members.
Study author Pete Linkow wrote: “Great distance managers must first and foremost be inclusive, empowering, supportive and trustworthy. Then they must master the fundamentals of management, like setting goals, evaluating, giving feedback and coaching. Finally, they must be superb at three competencies: cultivating relationships, focusing on outcomes and developing employees.”
Although managers and employees disagree about how much time is spent on developing relationships, they both agree that it is vital. Of managers and employees surveyed, about 90 percent and 70 percent, respectively, said the two most effective communication tools for building distance relationships were the telephone and face-to-face meetings.
In addition to identifying the challenges presented, the group identified key skills for managers and employees that can help maximize productivity and lead to effective manager-employee teams. At the heart of managing distance employees well is proper communication and employee engagement in order to create a productive work environment. Effective distance employees were identified as those who know how to execute, use technology and collaborate.
Canadian Scientist: HR Must Lead Biometric Collection Education
When it comes to biometrics, human resource professionals must know privacy rules and science because they will be the first to handle data collected from retinal scans, fingerprints, voice imprints and the like.
So says Dr. Len Goodman, a defense scientist with Defence Research and Development Canada, an agency of the Canadian Department of National Defence.
The easiest way to do that is through education, and HR professionals might have to get up to speed on their own.
Securing Canada
Because Canada shares a border with the United States, fears of possible terrorism there led them to action. After 9/11, Canada became serious about instituting biometric programs, albeit slowly, Goodman said during a telephone interview with SHRM Online.
“Since 9/11, Canada recognized that we needed to ramp up our science and technology capabilities.” A substantial investment has been made to “create an initiative designed to put enhanced technology in the hands of first responders,” Goodman told attendees at the 2nd Annual Biometrics for National Security and Defense conference held just outside Washington, D.C., in February 2009.
He said the Canadian government learned a lot from the United States in those first days following the devastating terrorist attack on American soil.
“One big [lesson] is that all of the different agencies in the U.S. seem able and willing to share information,” Goodman said. “Things like templates and exchange formats and databases and information on privacy procedures.”
Another lesson is how the United States shares information among different levels of government and different agencies. For example, he said “the Department of Defense is sharing lessons learned and techniques with Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials, who are sharing information with Border Protection and Homeland Security. There seems to be a very good sharing of technical aspects and biometric databases,” he said.
“That’s a very interesting lesson learned for us in Canada,” he said.
But for now, training people in the field of biometrics hasn’t been cohesive, experts say.
Learning Is Fundamental
Even so, HR will need to lead the way when it comes to biometric collection and security, Goodman said.
“It’s really up to human resource professionals” to hone their knowledge of science and technology “so they can learn what’s coming down the pike,” Goodman said.
And what’s coming down the pike is stunning.
Many things will be miniaturized—such as cameras, scanners and computers. Advances in nanotechnology and the fusion of biometric technology—face, iris print, and voice— into video surveillance is on its way as well. High-performance computing, advance counter-spoofing technology and increased international cooperation round out the list, Goodman said. He added that industry and academic will lead the way in these advances, road-mapping biometric technologies.
And HR will be on the forefront of keeping this data secure, as privacy will be a top priority.
“It’s coming to grips with how to handle biometric data” that will be the challenge for HR, Goodman said. He said HR professionals will need to focus on storage and collection and to assuage fears and misconceptions that specialized equipment used to capture this biometric data could cause employees harm.
“Such as: When you take a picture of a face,” some believe that “you are exposing the person to radiation or damage, and that’s not true. There are no [side] effects. It’s completely non-invasive.”
Storage and collection shouldn’t be a concern either, he said.
“There are tremendous advances in encryption and database storage, and they are continuous,” he said. “The really important advances will be in the encryption and protection of information, and that’s the key thing,” he said.
People should remember that “biometrics is more than just cameras and scanners,” Goodman pointed out. “It’s information technology specialists who are there to create the safe storage and templates that are impenetrable from theft,” he said. “If done right it can be very, very secure. For example, “there are tools to encrypt an iris or a piece of voice, and that can become very secure.”
Unfortunately, employees aren’t all ready for these new advances, but the government is hoping to change that, one expert said.
When it comes to biometrics, “we are not preparing the employee for the 21st century workforce” nationally or internationally, Michael Yura, Ph.D., told conference attendees.
Yura, a consultant and a former senior vice president for the National Biometric Security Project, West Virginia Operations, said the federal government and other organizations are working to develop a worldwide curriculum to train future workers in the field of biometrics.
Only one university in the world offers an undergraduate degree in biometrics—West Virginia University—where Yura helped develop the program with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s assistance in 1996.
So says Dr. Len Goodman, a defense scientist with Defence Research and Development Canada, an agency of the Canadian Department of National Defence.
The easiest way to do that is through education, and HR professionals might have to get up to speed on their own.
Securing Canada
Because Canada shares a border with the United States, fears of possible terrorism there led them to action. After 9/11, Canada became serious about instituting biometric programs, albeit slowly, Goodman said during a telephone interview with SHRM Online.
“Since 9/11, Canada recognized that we needed to ramp up our science and technology capabilities.” A substantial investment has been made to “create an initiative designed to put enhanced technology in the hands of first responders,” Goodman told attendees at the 2nd Annual Biometrics for National Security and Defense conference held just outside Washington, D.C., in February 2009.
He said the Canadian government learned a lot from the United States in those first days following the devastating terrorist attack on American soil.
“One big [lesson] is that all of the different agencies in the U.S. seem able and willing to share information,” Goodman said. “Things like templates and exchange formats and databases and information on privacy procedures.”
Another lesson is how the United States shares information among different levels of government and different agencies. For example, he said “the Department of Defense is sharing lessons learned and techniques with Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials, who are sharing information with Border Protection and Homeland Security. There seems to be a very good sharing of technical aspects and biometric databases,” he said.
“That’s a very interesting lesson learned for us in Canada,” he said.
But for now, training people in the field of biometrics hasn’t been cohesive, experts say.
Learning Is Fundamental
Even so, HR will need to lead the way when it comes to biometric collection and security, Goodman said.
“It’s really up to human resource professionals” to hone their knowledge of science and technology “so they can learn what’s coming down the pike,” Goodman said.
And what’s coming down the pike is stunning.
Many things will be miniaturized—such as cameras, scanners and computers. Advances in nanotechnology and the fusion of biometric technology—face, iris print, and voice— into video surveillance is on its way as well. High-performance computing, advance counter-spoofing technology and increased international cooperation round out the list, Goodman said. He added that industry and academic will lead the way in these advances, road-mapping biometric technologies.
And HR will be on the forefront of keeping this data secure, as privacy will be a top priority.
“It’s coming to grips with how to handle biometric data” that will be the challenge for HR, Goodman said. He said HR professionals will need to focus on storage and collection and to assuage fears and misconceptions that specialized equipment used to capture this biometric data could cause employees harm.
“Such as: When you take a picture of a face,” some believe that “you are exposing the person to radiation or damage, and that’s not true. There are no [side] effects. It’s completely non-invasive.”
Storage and collection shouldn’t be a concern either, he said.
“There are tremendous advances in encryption and database storage, and they are continuous,” he said. “The really important advances will be in the encryption and protection of information, and that’s the key thing,” he said.
People should remember that “biometrics is more than just cameras and scanners,” Goodman pointed out. “It’s information technology specialists who are there to create the safe storage and templates that are impenetrable from theft,” he said. “If done right it can be very, very secure. For example, “there are tools to encrypt an iris or a piece of voice, and that can become very secure.”
Unfortunately, employees aren’t all ready for these new advances, but the government is hoping to change that, one expert said.
When it comes to biometrics, “we are not preparing the employee for the 21st century workforce” nationally or internationally, Michael Yura, Ph.D., told conference attendees.
Yura, a consultant and a former senior vice president for the National Biometric Security Project, West Virginia Operations, said the federal government and other organizations are working to develop a worldwide curriculum to train future workers in the field of biometrics.
Only one university in the world offers an undergraduate degree in biometrics—West Virginia University—where Yura helped develop the program with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s assistance in 1996.
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