Getting Real About Getting To Mars

SpaceX founder Elon Musk deserves kudos for outlining an ambitious plan to get humans to the Martian surface and beyond.  But chutzpah alone will not solve the multitude of research problems that are going to have to be solved before anyone --- NASA, ESA, the Chinese, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, or even the Russians --- successfully land crews on Mars.

Chip Cards Are Still Frustrating And Confusing People

Happy anniversary! Chip cards have been around for about a year now-but consumers still aren't used to them, a new study has found. Here's what's happening.

Needed: neighborhood heliports for drone deliveries

Home builders and architects are behind the curve on our 24/7 delivery lifestyle.

Hillary Clinton Will Kill With Kindness ... And Drones

While Hillary Clinton is working hard to label herself as the "candidate of compassion," it is important to note that under the Obama Administration upwards of 116 civilians have been killed by drone strikes. Cartoon by Ed Hall.

6 Scotch Whisky Microdistilleries That Will Change the Industry (Part 1)

Craft distilling is already becoming a hot trend in the Scotch whisky world.

Workday Rising - My First HR Conference

I attended the Workday Rising conference in Chicago, my first major HR conference.

Almost 7,000 people attended. HR software company Workday released information about new products, features and partnerships. We're going to take a break from my normal beat of wellness for a moment and consider two other workplace issues that I encountered at the conference: learning and recruiting.

James Cross, director of product strategy at Workday, spoke of the increasing relevance of video in today's workplace learning. For example, Workday is incorporating video learning on its platform, and users can create their own content from their own phones. They can post it in seconds onto the platform for learners to watch.

The rising importance of video is as significant as the rise of mobile a few years back, Cross said, paraphrasing Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg who saw the increasing importance of video and developed Facebook Live.

Video has always been powerful, Cross said, but it's only recently that it's been at the reach of your average person or consumer. And because people consume so much video content in their everyday lives, they want their learning content to look the same.

But this explosion of video in the consumer world - think YouTube - hasn't been as quick to spread to the enterprise market, which is why Workday is investing so much time in developing a simple, effective video learning system.

The other gem of this conversation: Cross started out his career as a high school music teacher, which is when he realized how video could have such a strong impact on learning. At the time though, video was difficult enough that other teachers didn't necessarily use it in the same way. Now in 2016, video is so simple anyone with a phone can create video content.

My conversation with Cross was valuable, first of all, because I used to write mostly for our sister magazine Chief Learning Officer about learning and development. Now, on my benefits and wellness beat I wonder: If the rise of video is such a noteworthy development, how might video be incorporated in wellness programs, benefits communications and the like? The rise of telemedicine, for example, is related to the increased availability of video chatting and the convenience of speaking to a doctor or counselor via a phone or computer. Increased access to video and increased simplicity in creating video content is something that could impact other parts of a business outside of learning.

I also spoke with Kelly Swanson, director of HR operations at FICO, the leading data analytics software company. The company is now using Workday's platform and especially found value in the recruiting capabilities. What was especially interesting about this conversation was how FICO used very focused data to recruit a particular type of person: students.

Whereas before their internship program was not robust, now internships are key to FICO's growth strategy. The company looks at developing interns for full time positions, Swanson said. They use this recruiting system, which allows them to focus the search and find the right people who are interested in working in the industry.

Also key to this conversation: the unification of HR processes. For example, FICO uses Workday, which unifies everything from recruiting to onboarding to compensation under one platform and which does so across all of FICO's 38 global offices.

Simplifying HR processes is something I hear a lot about now, and as I head to my next HR conference next week, I'll be sure to look out for more about it.

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

Tags: Facebook Live, learning, recruiting, Workday Rising

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MarketWatch First Take: Tech must look to past to protect the future from an artificial intelligence apocalypse

Through a joint alliance on artificial intelligence, five tech giants need to take a better look at the guidelines established by one of the most influential writers of modern science fiction to protect us from an apocalyptic future.

North Korea Has A Best Friend Forever, U.S. Sanctions Show

Chinese nationals and companies faced sanctions over suspected military support for North Korea, but a broader probe shows one thing for sure: China is North Korea's BFF.

How to Actually Execute Your Business Strategy

Great ideas are a dime a dozen. It's the actual execution that makes the difference.

Key Words: What Twitter can learn from the Green Bay Packers

Writing in the Guardian, Nathan Schneider digs into the Packers organization's playbook, suggesting that, rather than selling out to another publicly traded company, Twitter should team up with its users to take the company private.

Apple's Messages Metadata Could Be Valuable To Law Enforcement

A leaked document shows that authorities can use data from the iPhone chat app to figure out someone's location.

Will OSHA's New Whistleblower Rules Invalidate Your Settlement Agreement?

When an employer presents an agreement to an employee ancillary to the separation of that employee's employment, or settles a claim asserted by an employee, part of the bargain for which the employer is paying is finality. Yet, over the past couple of years, the federal government has made this finality harder and harder to achieve.

Confidentiality, non-disparagement, and other “gag” provisions in employee separation and settlement agreements have been under attack by various federal agencies, including the EEOC and the NLRB. Now, OSHA also has joined the fray. 

Last month, OSHA published new guidance, part of its revisions to its Whistleblower Investigations Manual, which seeks to free employees to report safety and other violations to the government.

As part of OSHA's administration of myriad whistleblower protection statutes, OSHA reviews settlement agreements between complainants and their employers. OSHA only approves such agreements that it deems to be fair, adequate, reasonable, and in the public interest, and if the employee's consent was knowing and voluntary. If OSHA encounters a provision that prohibits, restricts, or otherwise discourages an employee from participating in protected activity, it will reject the agreement until the employer removed the allegedly offensive provision.

OSHA's updated guidance clarifies the criteria OSHA will use to evaluate whether an agreement impermissibly restricts or discourages protected activity.

Moving forward, OSHA will not approve any of the following “gag” provisions:

1. A provision that restricts the employee's ability to provide information to the government, participate in investigations, file a complaint, or testify in proceedings based on an employer's past or future conduct. For example, OSHA will not approve a provision that restricts an employee's right to provide information to the government related to an occupational injury or exposure.


2. A provision that requires an employee to notify his or her employer before filing a complaint or voluntarily communicating with the government regarding the employer's past or future conduct.


3. A provision that requires an employee to affirm that he or she has not previously provided information to the government or engaged in other protected activity, or to disclaim any knowledge that the employer has violated the law.


4. A provision that requires an employee to waive his or her right to receive a monetary award from a government-administered whistleblower award program for providing information to a government agency, or that requires an employee to remit any portion of such an award to the employer.

So, what is an employer to do? How can an employer secure as much finality as possible while satisfying OSHA's stance against gag provisions? OSHA suggests prominently inserting the following clause into the agreement:

Nothing in this Agreement is intended to or shall prevent, impede or interfere with complainant's non-waivable right, without prior notice to Respondent, to provide information to the government, participate in investigations, file a complaint, testify in proceedings regarding Respondent's past or future conduct, or engage in any future activities protected under the whistleblower statutes administered by OSHA, or to receive and fully retain a monetary award from a government-administered whistleblower award program for providing information directly to a government agency.

Another suggestion? Don't go this alone. Work with your labor and employment counsel to ensure that your agreements are up to date with the ever changing legal landscape. If you haven't recently updated your “standard” release, now is a good time to do so. The government is watching.

Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman's blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.

Tags: NLRB, OSHA, whistleblower

The post Will OSHA's New Whistleblower Rules Invalidate Your Settlement Agreement? appeared first on Workforce Magazine.

Like Old HP, BlackBerry Is Giving Its Advantage Away . . . Piece By Piece

Unable to keep up with Apple, Samsung and the like, BlackBerry is making a big strategic mistake: it is giving its advantage away piece by piece to Asian competitors through outsourcing, as old Hewlett Packard did decades ago.

Not All Captive Insurance Risk Pools Are Created Equally

A "risk pool" is a device used by captive insurance companies to pool their risk with other, like captives, so as to attempt to meet the IRS's so-called "50% third-party insurance" test for risk distribution.

Apttus valued at more than $1.3 billion, eyes IPO next

Apttus raised a new funding round of $88 million at a valuation “significantly north of $1.3 billion,” the last investment planned before an initial public offering, the company's chief executive told MarketWatch.

Amy Schumer And Justin Bieber Ranked Highest In Annual Most Dangerous Celebrities Study

According to Intel Security's annual McAfee Most Dangerous Celebrities study, which is now in its tenth year, Amy Schumer is the highest rated celebrity in a list of well-known figures that includes actors, comedians, musicians, TV personalities, athletes and other noteworthy figures.

The Most Expensive Bottle of Orange Juice Ever

I bring you a first for the blog. A magic trick. Read along as the EEOC transforms a $1.69 bottle of OJ into $277,565.

I'll let the EEOC explain its own magic:

A federal jury has found in favor of the EEOC in a federal disability discrimination lawsuit against the retail giant Dollar General…. EEOC had charged Dollar General with firing a cashier at its Maryville, Tenn., store because of her need to treat her diabetes.  

According to EEOC's suit, the cashier, an insulin-dependent diabetic, told her supervisor she was a diabetic and requested on several occasions that her supervisor allow her to keep juice near the register to prevent a hypoglycemic attack. At trial, the cashier testified that her supervisor told her that Dollar General did not allow employees to keep food or drink near the register. … 

While alone in the store one day, the cashier drank orange juice prior to purchase, in violation of Dollar General's “grazing” policy, in response to symptoms of a hypoglycemic attack and to protect the store. As soon as the medical emergency passed, the cashier paid for the bottle of orange juice that cost $1.69 plus tax. Later, the district manager and loss prevention manager appeared in the store to address inventory shrinkage and fired the cashier after she admitted to drinking orange juice prior to purchase. The store fired the emp­loyee even though it knew she drank the orange juice because of her diabetes and that she had requested to keep juice near the register. … 

The jury returned a verdict … for EEOC and the victim, awarding the former cashier $27,565 in back pay and $250,000 in compensatory damages.

When an employee requests an accommodation that costs a grand total of $1.69, make the accommodation. Never mind that the employee's manager was ignorant of the company's accommodation policy that would have permitted the employee to keep a drink near her register.

Truthfully, there is no magic here, just a stunning failure of common sense, not to mention legal obligation.

Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman's blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.

Tags: Dollar General, EEOC, orange juice

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How to Identify Best Practices from Other Organizations that Will Work for Your Company

Best practices, or those methods and procedures that are widely considered to be most effective, can take businesses years to cultivate. For this reason, it is not uncommon for companies to look to organizations that are thriving, and to model their techniques on these examples. But when there are dozens of examples to choose from, how do you identify the best practices with the most promise? Here is a three-step guide to recognizing best practices from other businesses that will work for your company:

Take A Look At The New All-Luxury Commercial Flight ($50,000 A Seat)

It's like a Ritz-Carlton in the sky, but slightly more ritzy. Or, at least, glitzy.

Netflix is pouring money into some of TV's most expensive shows

Netflix is pumping a lot of money into its shows and producing some of the most expensive TV ever made.

How This CEO Went From Shutdown, To Shake Up, To Nearing IPO

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Framework Of Trust Between Founder & VC

The value that comes from a trusting investor-founder relationship cannot be overstated for either party in the relationship. However, the dynamic of the relationship often does not lend itself to one of trust. Understanding the framework of trust, doing your homework on a VC and communicating openly and regularly will help bridge the gap.

Why Great Content Marketing Is About Creating Successful Customers

In the competitive rat race of"content," why has solving for the customer become a footnote?

Can Taiwan Come Back As Asia's Silicon Valley?

Taiwan plans to create its own Silicon Valley. The island with IT talent but without the culture of imagination that defines California?s Silicon Valley might feel inspired by having its own place by the same name.

Why Trump Is Right About China

The debate last night was entertaining. It's sad to see how the media manipulates facts and cherry picks quotes to fit their narrative. But that's what they do and it ultimately shapes views for voters, unfortunately.

17 Arnold Palmer Quotes that Inspire Success

Arnold Palmer is an icon and someone whose wisdom can inspire success.

Why This Man's Inspiring Story Will Make You Want to Be a Better Leader

By learning about other people'sexperiences, it will help us not only be better leaders, but better people.

Asian FinTech Sandboxes -- Can They Work And Do We Need Them?

Are they really beneficial for the FinTech ecosystem and will they support the transformation the financial industry is going through? Or are they just another buzz word with little substance and limited benefits?

How Beijing Can Gracefully Win The South China Sea Dispute

The South China Sea verdict in July, which Beijing called a ?farce,? may ultimately favor China over four Southeast Asian countries.

Online Advertising In China Continues To Generate Public Concern And Police Action

Recent news reports from China illustrate a recurrence of issues concerning online advertising practices. The latest episode involves the alleged redirection of web traffic on Internet service provider (ISP) Baidu from links to seemingly innocuous sites to sites advertising gambling and other unlawful activity.

7 Dangerous Myths About Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is extremely powerful. But it's also easy to misunderstand.

Remembering Shimon Peres: 13 Inspirational Quotes

The Israeli statesman left a legacy of accomplishments - and inspirational words.

Four things to know before Nutanix goes public

Nutanix, an enterprise cloud company and a tech unicorn, could debut on the public market as soon as this week.

Germany Orders Facebook To Stop Collecting WhatsApp User Data

German regulators have banned Facebook from collecting WhatsApp user data, in a move that could set a precedent in other countries.

Here It Is: Elon Musk's Master Plan to Start a Colony on Mars

The entrepreneur wants to send 100 people to the Red Planet at a time.

The Wall Street Journal: Labor Dept. sues Palantir, alleging discriminatory hiring

Palantir Technologies has discriminated systematically against Asian job applicants since at least January 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor said in a lawsuit filed Monday.

Korean Mayor Crusades Against Samsung, Hyundai In Bid To Boost Country's SME

Twice elected mayor of the Korean capital, Park Won-Soon is crusading against domination of the South Korean economy by enormous conglomerates known as chaebol. The question is whether small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can ever gain the heft and momentum of the giants, led by the Samsung, Hyundai Motor, LG and SK empires.

Forget About Law and Ethics -- Is Hacking Back Even Effective?

Are the risks and practical issues too great to allow "hacking back", even if it's not illegal or bad?

The Tell: Disney knows a good buy when it sees it

Walt Disney Co. is reportedly considering a bid for social media platform Twitter Inc.

Taking a Pass on Fantasy Football to Geek Out on Clinton and Trump

I have Drew Brees and Mark Ingram going tonight in my fantasy football league, and if they do anything at all I'm looking at topping KevinTheDude to start the season 3-0.

Not bad for a rookie in this fantasy thing if I do say so myself. It's fresh and new, and, you'd think that I would be riveted to Falcons vs. Saints on Monday Night Football tonight.

But Brees and Ingram will have to toss and tote the rock without me. Instead I'll be tuning in tonight's initial Clinton-Trump presidential debate, largely because I geek out way more on politics than following pro football in an entirely new and somewhat perverted way.

I just saw that ahead of tonight's Clinton-Trump gabfest, stalwart HR association WorldatWork sent an open letter to both campaigns outlining needed policy changes regarding total rewards.

Read: “Clinton Vs. Trump: The Workforce Winner Is … ”

WorldatWork's letter is timely, extremely relevant to employer concerns and addresses crucial workplace issues that unfortunately have taken a backseat to the bloviating that's been exhaled from both camps.

Here are the points made by the folks at WorldatWork:

Compensation: Protecting Millions of Exempt Employees. WorldatWork supports repealing the automatic salary test indexing requirements included in the U.S. Department of Labor's new Fair Labor Standards Act overtime-pay regulations. According to our analyses, the number of employees who are currently exempt from the regulations will drop dramatically at the first indexing update just three years away, sending this long-established professional and managerial category to near extinction during the next 15 years. Millions of midlevel employees could lose their benefits and workplace flexibility options. This new requirement has the potential to radically change the structure of the American workforce and must be repealed. WorldatWork supports all legislative efforts to address this indexing threat to the nation's exempt-employee classification.

Compensation: Supporting a Modern Mobile Workplace. We urge you to join WorldatWork and support legislation that would help simplify a patchwork of complicated nonresident state income-tax laws that are making administrative burdens even worse on employers and employees who travel for business purposes outside of their states. We support the Mobile Workforce State Income Tax Simplification Act (S.B. 386/H.R. 2315) because it provides consistency for reporting and withholding across the 50 states and reduces the administrative burden on everyone. Currently, each state has different tax filing requirements for individuals that travel to the state for business purposes, making a federal solution the only realistic option.

Protecting Employer-Sponsored Health Care Benefits: The 40 percent excise tax on employer-sponsored health care plans, or the “Cadillac tax,” is a ticking time bomb for employers. While Congress sensibly delayed the tax's full impact until 2020, the tax needs to be abolished outright. This destructive tax, part of the landmark Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, was meant to only target a small percentage of extravagant health care plans. But the tax is now expected to hit millions more Americans and their families' health care plans. The threat of this tax is already forcing employers to shift more costs to employees who are in-turn incurring higher out-of-pocket expenses. Several pieces of bipartisan legislation accomplish this repeal, each earning WorldatWork's support. WorldatWork is fully committed to the Alliance to Fight the 40's efforts to repeal this tax.

Child Care and Dependent Care Programs: Expanding Access for More Employees. A candidate's 2016 election platform should recognize modern workplace environments and help employers establish affordable child care and dependent-care programs for their employees. There are a number of easy solutions that a federal candidate can support, such as changing obsolete definitions of eligibility to include dependents and care of elders. We also strongly encourage you to back increasing the 30-year-old limit of $5,000 for dependent-care flexible savings accounts. Significantly increasing this limit will help families facing costly yearly expenses for daycare for their children, help for special needs children or elder care for their parents.

Executive Compensation: Seeking Reporting Accuracy and Fairness. Compensation professionals are seeking a repeal of the CEO pay-ratio requirement found in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Compensation experts are calling this requirement unworkable and extraordinarily expensive, and believe it will not result in any meaningful benefit for shareholders and investors. WorldatWork supports two bills (S.B. 1722/H.R. 414) repealing the law's requirement to produce this inaccurate median employee statistic.

Given that tonight's debate topics include health care, the economy and trade, it seems likely that Clinton and Trump will offer some insight into their policies on these topics. But like Brees, Ingram and Monday Night Football for me, I have a sneaking suspicion that workplace issues will take a backseat to hot-button debate topics like domestic terrorism, national security and immigration.

Good for WorldatWork to put these crucial workplace issues before the candidates. And it's worth asking: Do you think they're listening?

Rick Bell is the editorial director for Workforce. Comment below or email rbell@workforce.com.

Tags: Clinton vs. Trump, fantasy football, geek, Saints vs. Falcons, WorldatWork

The post Taking a Pass on Fantasy Football to Geek Out on Clinton and Trump appeared first on Workforce Magazine.

Can You Make Teleworking Work For You?

Here's a scenario that every small business owner fears: A key employee resigns because he or she cannot continue to come to your place of business to work for reasons out of their control, such as an illness or a family issue. Is there another answer besides accepting the resignation?   With

Behind the Storefront: Oculus VR feels backlash over founder's support for pro-Trump group

Revelations that Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey secretly funded a pro-Donald Trump organization have led some developers to pull their support of Facebook's Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset.