Category Archives: Workplace / Legal / Security

By Paul Post

A Queensbury firm and its Singapore-based partner are helping companies worldwide with a new high-tech hiring service that purports to find key employees quickly and efficiently while saving valuable time and money.

“Our first customer in New York City went from an average of two to three months per hire to just three days using our tool,” said Tim Montgomery, owner and president of TIMIT Solutions LLC. “Our primary target is businesses that hire a lot of people. We’ve initially engaged with some very large IT (information technology) companies in India.”

ConvInt.ai (Conversational Intelligence), founded and owned by Virender Aggarwal, of Singapore, uses artificial intelligence to locate top candidates not only for IT companies, but those in other industries such as insurance, healthcare and the rapidly expanding field of cannabis production.

“Many human resources people aren’t technically savvy and don’t know much about who you need to hire for the cannabis industry, the types of people and skills they need,” Montgomery said. “This tool makes them an expert in all of those areas because we’re asking expert questions on their behalf.”

By Rob shauger
Most businesses these days are very aware of security threats and have policies in place to keep themselves protected. However, even with these policies in place, there are many seemingly-innocent documents that are often forgotten about that can leave your business open to security breaches.
Here are five documents you should be shredding, but probably aren’t:
1. Junk mail. While junk mail seems harmless, enough personal data is usually included for identity thieves to use against you. For example, names and addresses are inserted into pre-approved credit card applications. It would be all too easy for a person to send in these applications and use them for their own personal gain.
2. Photos. Photos of employees, customers, and suppliers may seem harmless, but thieves can use these photos to make up an identity. Combine this with any other personal information they may have collected from your business, and you could be in trouble. Keep your employees and customers safe by shredding these photos instead of tossing them into the garbage.
3. Hiring information. When people apply for jobs a hard copy of their resume and other documents containing personal information is often left behind. This information would be all too easy for identity thieves to take advantage of. Keep these applications in a locked location and shred when no longer needed.

By Michael Cruz
The first reason is that you simply do not trust each other. In his breakthrough work, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”, Patrick Lencioni wrote that the absence of trust is the biggest reason teams do not work well together. This is because we are not often trained to be vulnerable and to trust the people we work with. This means that everything else we try to do is built on a weak foundation.
The second dysfunction is fear of conflict. Again, we were taught in kindergarten that it is most important for everyone to get along. Even if that means holding back on contrary views. If we don’t trust each other, we cannot have intelligent debate about options to solving problems. This hurts the team because we do not bring our best ideas to the table.

By Christine Graf
According to a recent Gallup poll, approximately 70 percent of employees consider themselves “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” at work. In many instances, their disengagement is directly related to their company’s culture.

Culture can be defined in simple terms as a company’s personality. It is reflected in everything from dress code to office setup. Culture often develops organically over time, based on the traits of the people the company hires, experts say.

The importance of culture is often overlooked by many businesses. Yet it is culture that sets a company apart from its competition and enables it to attract the best talent, according to experts in the field. Because 30 percent of today’s workforce is made up of Millenials, culture has become especially important. According to Pew Research Center, Millenials want to work for companies that share their values. They also want to feel that their work has purpose and meaning.