Human Resources News

According to firms that outsource and/or off-shored IT operations, Janco found that many high-wage, high-skill jobs that were once thought to be immune to outsourcing are now being outsourced.  Over 25 percent of these enterprises reported high-skill IT jobs are being sent overseas to third parties

The settlement stems from the DepartmentÂ’s finding that, between May 9, 2006, and June 4, 2006, iGate placed 30 job announcements for computer programmers that expressly favored H-1B visa holders to the exclusion of U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and other legal U.S. workers. Such preference constituted citizenship status discrimination and is prohibited by the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Acting Assistant Attorney General for Justice DepartmentÂ’s Civil Rights Division said the DOJ is committed to protecting the right of all authorized workers in the United States against citizenship status discrimination.  The DOJ was pleased to reach the settlement with iGate, and looks forward to continuing to work with the business community to educate the public about the protections and obligations under the anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) in the Civil Rights Division, which conducted the investigation in this matter, continues to monitor iGate to ensure compliance with the settlement agreement. OSC is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which protect U.S. citizens and certain work-authorized individualsWorkauthind.htm from employment discrimination based upon citizenship or immigration status. The INA also protects all work-authorized individuals from national origin discrimination, unfair documentary practices relating to the employment eligibility verification process, and from retaliation.

• What are the basics of the annual wage package for CIOs of other companies?
• What is the preferred method for manifesting the compensation package into a time specific contract?
• Which elements of the equity compensation are most favored by CIOs? Why?
• How do CIOs value the different components of the compensation offer? What emphasis is placed on bonuses? Stocks? Wages?
• How does the CIO package set the tone for the other compensation programs offered to other Information Technology management team members?
• What language is important when it comes to the compensation in the employment contract?
• What are the 5-7 most important components of the employment contract to a CIO?
• Which components are the most challenging to negotiate? Why?
• Which components can be bargained away in favor of other, more important contract terms?
• What system is most effective when trying to update a CIO compensation package?
• What is the most common compensation structure for members of the management team? Why?
• What method is used to analyze the compensation structure for each CIO?
• What industry standards are applied to the compensation and employment contracts?
• What calculations and metrics are used to structure the CIO compensation?
• Which structural elements constitute the greatest amount of CIO pay?
• How is performance measurements detailed in the employment contract and compensation agreement?
• Which Information Technology positions are most closely tied to performance measurements? Why?
• How are complicated elements of the compensation plan analyzed and monitored?
• What procedure is used to peg compensation to other organization goals?
• What schedule is outlined for reviewing compensation against performance goals?
• Which incentive based elements of the package are preferred by CIOs?
• Which elements of the employment contract are most important to CIOs? Why?
• What negotiating strategies and techniques are most successful?
• What are the most difficult terms to negotiate? What can the CIO do to prepare for these hot topics?
• What language must the CIO or CIO insist upon when it comes to the employment agreement?
• What are the non-financial aspects of the contract? Why are these important to CIO level management?
• What must CIOs be careful about when it comes to date specific terms of the compensation and employment contract?
• How much time and money should a CIO budget for negotiating?
• What is the impact of poor negotiations on CIO performance?
• When is it best to work through a third party?
• What process is used to facilitate stalled negotiations?
• How are CIO level employment contracts changing? Why?
• What is the impact of these changes directly on the contracts? Which trends do you expect to benefit the CIO?
• What terms or issues can CIOs expect to deal with in the future, in light of recent trends?
• What techniques can management use to get a better compensation package?
• When does it make sense to go to the Board of Directors regarding pay? Why?
• Why is it important for both parties to be satisfied with the contract? How is this accomplished?
• What methods are CIOs using to keep their contracts progressive?
• How do the current tax laws influence changes to CIO employment contracts?
• What impact do corporate rules or policies have on the CIO compensation?
• Who is most actively involved in developing company policies that impact compensation? What is the trend?
• What are the challenges to CIOs who are looking to improve their package?
• What is the current thinking companies regarding deferred compensation? Why?
• How can the Board of Directors guide the employment contract process?
• What is the typical timeline for completing an agreement once the process has started?
• Who is most instrumental in facilitating the negotiations? Why?
• Which deadlines are most important in the employment contract?
• What are the biggest mistakes CIOs make when negotiating employment contracts?
• How consistent are the agreements across members of the management team?
• When is it allowable to operate without an employment contract? What are the risks?

The new CIO was a managing director who led the Morgan Stanley Application Infrastructure group.

According to an internal Morgan Stanley memo, the new CIO will leave Morgan Stanley at the end of the month to pursue opportunities outside the firm.

The memo also indicated that the new CIO is no stranger to Google. While at Morgan Stanley, one of his projects was working on initial public offering of Google in 2004, the memo.

The last CIO at Google, left to become president of the EMI digital unit. Earlier this month, rumors surfaced that Morgan Stanley executive would be the new Google new CIO.

Running the Google computing infrastructure is a daunting challenge on which the companys success hinges. Google not only has thousands of servers housed in at least 36 data centers scattered around the globe, but also a build-it-yourself culture that means the company is responsible for maintaining much of its own technology.

The CIO worked for Morgan Stanley computing operations for nearly 14 years including having worked on first Morgan Stanley Web site, its workstation software, and its intranet.

• 65,000 H-1B visas are issued each year
• 3,117 H-1B visas were issued to Microsoft in 2006 and the average wage for those holders was $100,000 including benefits.
• 19,000 H-1B visas were issued to companies based in India in 2006
• $50,000 was the median compensation paid for H-1B visa holders in 2006

Although IT organizations certainly understand these workforce trends, many are not taking significant measures to mitigate the risks that the loss of intellectual capital seems to portend. Even outside of IT, many companies seem unconcerned by boomer retirements. In a 2006 survey of 488 companies only 42% of the respondents said that the aging workforce was a significant issue, and 29% said it had little or no significance.

And in a nationwide study of 550 human resources managers conducted by Monster.com last summer (view PDF), only 12% of the respondents said they consider knowledge retention a high priority within their companies, even though one-third said they expect at least 20% of their workforce to retire in the next decade.

The inescapable conclusion seems to be that many businesses are perfectly content to see their boomers walk out the door. And because so few organizations have taken the retirement issue seriously, companies that want to transfer knowledge from older to younger workers have few models to follow. As a result, those that are attempting to get ahead of the retirement wave are finding themselves pretty much on their own.

AT&T had about 310,000 employees at the end of 2007, meaning the layoffs would affect about 4,650 workers. The layoffs are the "next step" in streamlining company operations in an effort to operate more efficiently after recent mergers between parent company SBC, the old AT&T and BellSouth, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

AT&T expects its total number of employees to remain stable in 2008 as the company hires additional employees to support growth areas, AT&T said in the filing. In 2007, the company added about 7,000 employees, said an AT&T spokesman.

This initiative is part of the companys move from a collection of regional companies to one AT&T focused on customers, AT&T said in the filing.

The layoffs mean AT&T will take a  one-time charge of $374 million during the first quarter of 2008. AT&T is scheduled to announce its first-quarter earnings Tuesday.

AT&T reported a net income of $3.1 billion for the fourth quarter of 2007. It's revenue for the quarter was $30.3 billion.

But the loss of women in the technology field begins long before they reach the professional level. The proportion of CS (computer science) bachelor's degrees awarded to women has fallen from 36 to 21 percent between 1983 and 2006.

Dr. Stephen Bloch, a professor in the Department of Math and Computer Science at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York, told eWEEK that computer science degree enrollments have been in the toilet since 2001.

• CIOs and CTOs must be trusted contributor to executive thinking.
  CIOs and CTOs who perform well establish a strong connection with executive management and are key providers of insights to the executive team about new business opportunities, ways to speed up product introduction, or other potential technology-enabled business changes.
• CIOs and CTOs must propose new solutions to solve business problems.
  CIOs and CTOs that are in tune with business unit issues surface opportunities and direct their staff to solve business problems, like paper-intensive sales lead handling or cumbersome manufacturing processes.
• CIOs and CTOs must hire, retain, and develop a loyal staff.
  Some IT execs describe high job satisfaction and very low turnover in IT, even for highly marketable skills. Why? Because career and employee development is a priority of the CIO who makes the time for his or her team.
• CIOs and CTOs must take time to learn and test ideas.
  CIOs and CTOs are the thought leaders in their firms about the business uses of technology and the primary guide of IT strategic thinking. CIOs and CTOs who pause to learn from others and reflect will find that new ideas and a refreshed perspective keep the job fresh and their organizations energized.

The Bureau of National Affairs Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based news publisher, said its revised third-quarter Wage Trend Indicator rose to 100.86 from the final second-quarter index of 100.72. BNA put the initial third-quarter reading at 100.92.

"We expect year-over-year wage increases to continue to accelerate modestly, even though the pace of job growth has slowed recently," said economist Kathryn Kobe, who worked on the development of the index for BNA.

The indicator recorded its ninth straight quarterly increase for the first time since 1996-1998, BNA said.

A sustained increase in the indicator generally foreshadows increased pressure for higher wages, BNA said.