Tausi Insider

If your career objective is to climb the corporate ladder, then you need to get recognized as a high-potential employee, or HiPo. HiPos have been tagged as the top performers in an organization and are invited to key meetings, asked for input, offered advanced learning opportunities and given plum assignments. And even when economic circumstances lead to layoffs, they are the ones who seem to emerge unscathed. So what does it take to be recognized as a HiPo? While some of it may be who you know, or luck, there are ways to influence how you and your talents are perceived. If you are deliberate and thoughtful about showcasing your strengths and establishing your workplace value, you can, and will, position yourself as a HiPo. Read the full article for seven things you can do right now to become worthy of HiPo status. Stop trying to fix women. Start fixing your organization for gender equality Do women become less “nice” in middle age? It would appear that we think so. And that throws a...

Julie Maranda, the chief medical officer at Accenture, took the Digital Transformation Executive MBA at McMaster’s DeGroote School of Business in Hamilton because she wanted to gain skills that increased her digital literacy. Christinne Muschi/THE GLOBE AND MAIL To help her decide where to do her MBA, Julie Maranda made an elaborate spreadsheet, taking into consideration cost, time, prerequisites and a slew of other factors, including what skills future business leaders need to stay relevant. The Digital Transformation Executive MBA (EMBA) through McMaster’s DeGroote School of Business in Hamilton won out because Ms. Maranda, who is the chief medical officer at consulting firm Accenture, says she needed to go beyond the traditional leadership teachings of an MBA and to tap into the skills that were outside her comfort zone. “Being in health care in particular, the reason for me to go back to school at my age was because I really felt that as a leader, I needed to up my digital litera...

Tala Abu Hayyaneh, photographed outside a pub in Calgary, says that the social pressure to take part in after-work drinks can result in uncomfortable situations. Leah Hennel After-work drinks has long been the default setting for casual networking in many Canadian workplaces. The act of gathering at a bar or restaurant to consume alcohol is often seen as a way for employees and their bosses to bond, chat and get to know one another outside the pressures of the job. But for women and other marginalized groups, this common social practice is not always inclusive. For Tala Abu Hayyaneh, a Calgary-based millennial working in the public sector, the presumed participation in drinking culture has resulted in uncomfortable situations. As a Muslim woman, Ms. Abu Hayyaneh recalls the social pressure to conform that occurred during her first employee work retreat post-pandemic lockdowns. “This was the only socializing opportunity to network, [and it] was happening late in the evening at a brewe...

According to research conducted by Gartner, worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services increased nearly 19 per cent in 2022. pcess609 Cloud services were originally billed as a more cost-effective way to manage information technology (IT). As a rising number of companies flock to them it’s becoming clearer that, left unchecked, cloud costs can accumulate quickly. According to research conducted by Gartner, worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services increased nearly 19 per cent in 2022, and it is projected to grow an additional 20.7 per cent in the year ahead. In another recent study from Toronto-based cloud-managed services provider Aptum, 73 per cent of IT decision makers said cloud computing has resulted in higher-than-expected costs, up from 57 per cent last year. Sixty-five per cent admit to having wasted money on cloud-related inefficiencies. “We are beginning to see the kickback, where customers are starting to say ‘wait, this isn’t working the way I thoug...

Text-to-image generators like DALL·E 2 create pictures with as little as a few words of guidance. Artificial intelligence (AI) has long been a recurrent topic in science fiction. These days, AI isn’t just a plot point, it’s an intensely practical tool that is transforming entire industries. Among those upended is the creative sector, with tools such as Midjourney, DALL·E 2 and Movio revolutionizing the way digital content is produced. These tools rely on natural language processing (NLP) and natural language generation (NLG) technologies to automatically create new content based on user input. A simple prompt can produce an entire article, a new logo design or a compelling product video with minimal effort from users. AI tools stand to change how a range of industries – from advertising and media, to building and architecture design, to automotive and engineering – generate both internal and consumer-facing content. They’re most intuitively deployed for such things as brand images, b...

Erin Bury, and husband, Kevin Oulds, founders of Wilful, celebrate the Holidays with staff at Founders Restaurant & Cocktail Bar in Toronto on Dec. 1. Peter Power/Tausi Insider Since Willful went fully remote earlier this year, its twice-annual retreats are central to maintaining the company’s culture, says co-founder and chief executive officer, Erin Bury. Willful’s latest gathering, a three-day event that included the Toronto-based estate-planning company’s holiday party on Dec. 1, was no exception. It was a chance for staff to reconnect and for recent hires to meet their colleagues in person for the first time. While a full social schedule will be tiring for some not used to so much in-person time, Ms. Bury says her 20-member team was eager for the in-person holiday gathering. “People miss that in-person interaction,” says Ms. Bury, who surveyed the team in advance to get a sense of what kind of party staff wanted. The company settled on dinner, followed by karaoke and music t...

The decentralized social media platform Mastodon has gained popularity as an alternative to Twitter and other social media platforms. hapabapa Some of the world’s biggest social-media companies have faced a reckoning in the public forum, and in response, many users have been rethinking their engagement and considering alternatives. Decentralized social media – platforms on which users, rather than corporations, are in control of their content – has become an attractive proposition. One option gaining steam is Mastodon. Launched in 2016, Mastodon is a federated network of independently operated servers (or “instances”) that work together to provide a decentralized social-media experience. No single company or entity controls Mastodon – it is run by and for the people who use it, funded through donations and crowdfunding campaigns. Unlike platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, Mastodon does not, and claims it never will , accept advertising dollars. That lack of advertiser-specific ...

Going back to the office full-time comes at the cost of inclusion and diversity. PeopleImages Content from The Globe’s weekly Women and Work newsletter, part of The Globe’s Women’s Collective. To subscribe, click here . “When I was raising my two boys and trying to advance my career in tech, I often faced seemingly impossible choices. Trying to juggle drop-offs, school events, sports and other family activities with travel, meetings and work at the office – it seemed like I could never do enough,” says Mary Ann Yule, chief executive and president of HP Canada. “That level of pressure can take a heavy toll. I have seen women pass up projects and promotions and even leave promising careers because of the balancing act required. “Today, though, hybrid workplaces are ubiquitous as a byproduct of the pandemic. More professional women have an opportunity to re-enter the workplace on their terms, while improving the balance between their work and home lives. “As we continue to edge toward a...

Natalie Archibald, vice-president of people at Clio, in Burnaby, B.C., on Nov. 29. DARRYL DYCK Employees at Clio can take their dogs to work and have access to a flexible paid time-off program. Staff at Schneider Electric Canada can save up their paid time off that the company will augment for a paid leave of absence down the road. And Capital One gives its employees an “Invest in Yourself” day every month to do whatever recharges their souls. These are just some examples of what employers across Canada are doing to prevent burnout among employees and help them manage their mental health. The Burnaby, B.C., headquarters of Clio has a yoga studio, a games lounge, community gardens and libraries. In addition, the company provides every employee with $2,000 a year for counselling services and a monthly wellness allowance. But the jewel in Clio’s wellness crown is the flexible paid-time-off program launched this year. Instead of allotting vacation time by years of service, the legal prac...