Talent Community Community Newsletter March 18, 2022

Hello, I am so happy you are a part of this professional community where you can learn from curated programs, expand your network, and share your insights. As we look to build a trusted network of talent professionals, we will continue our virtual community programs while testing the waters for in-person meetings at the executive level. If you have anything you would like to share with the MassTLC Talent Community that can help, please send it so we can share with our member companies. Don't forget to check out MassTLC's new job board offering over 9,000 jobs listed! We are thankful to the Talent Community sponsors, Aceup and Cangrade.   Happy Spring!

Nayla Daly Communities Manager MassTLC Email

Stay Informed and Get Involved Board-Ready Bootcamp, deadline for application is Friday, March 25th: The Board-Ready Bootcamp is designed to improve the quality of board governance and composition at tech companies by providing a high-impact curriculum on board fundamentals, strategy, and governance. Given the lack of diversity in the tech boardroom, the bootcamp is focused on preparing underrepresented tech leaders, including Black, Latinx, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, and women tech executives. Learn more here. Virtual Career Fair: Register for our March 29th fair and meet with hot companies like NETSCOUT, Blink by Amazon, Centric Consulting, Rapid7, Triverus Consulting, and more. Register here. Lead A Discussion: The MassTLC Talent Community meets quarterly and is seeking conversation leaders and fresh topics. Please email Nayla if you have a topic you would like to explore with your professional peers or if you would like to lead a conversation.

Industry News and Resources

How Emotion AI Overcomes the Challenges of Gender Bias: Many AI products and services that we still use today tend to be tested and validated with data from western-based, English-speaking, Caucasian, and/or male populations, as those were the predominant sample demographics that were available at the time. While this may have sufficed in the past, we now need to broaden our horizons and think about how we can make technology applicable to all. We still use these products and services, but never think about the repercussions of having such a skewed dataset. Read more here. The Importance of a Coaching Approach to Leadership: While the pandemic may finally be showing signs of slowing, the Great Resignation unfortunately continues. Employees are tired of being micromanaged and told what to do. As a result, they feel trapped in their careers and see little opportunity for growth. Now more than ever, leaders are being called to coach their employees, thereby supporting development, engagement, and trust between themselves and those whom they lead. Read more here. Kids in Tech Launches: The ABCs of STEM Careers" Video Series for Children: Kids in Tech, a nonprofit that empowers kids with the technical skills they need for the career paths of the future, has launched a new, educational video series for young people called "The ABCs of STEM Careers." Each video introduces a new STEM career, including what a person with the career does, how to become someone who practices that career, and how the career impacts the world. Read more here. Benefits of Offering Online Training Opportunities: Employee development can be pivotal for many reasons but at times is overlooked. After an employee is onboarded and trained for their role, there are many benefits of continuing the access to ongoing, online training opportunities as they build tenure. Read more here. The Top 2 Skills You Need to Become a Data Analyst - and How to Get Them Fast: If you’re reading this, you are likely seriously considering a career in data analytics. Or, maybe you already have a data analyst job but are questioning whether you have the top skills and knowledge of the best tools to earn a promotion to senior data analyst or even data scientist. One thing is certain: the most successful businesses in any industry eliminate the guesswork, rely on analysis, and make data-driven decisions to develop products, achieve sustainable growth, and gain market share. The demand speaks for itself. Read more here. This is What You'll Be Remembered For: Twenty years ago I was promoted into a significant leadership leap in my career. I doubled my salary and tripled my responsibility overnight, and it set up my next ten years like I didn’t fully realize at the time. I was 32. I received some of the best advice in my life from my first leader at FranklinCovey. This will be controversial for some readers, because it may be counterintuitive to what you’ve been taught, but I repeat, it’s the best professional advice I’ve ever received. Read more here. What Candidates and Hiring Managers Can Learn From the Olympics: I’ve never been an elite athlete, but when it is time to watch the Olympics, I’m always in awe of how these athletes prepare, compete, and live their lives once the games are over. This has not been an easy year for most of us, especially these athletes who have needed to perform on the world stage in isolation and without their family and support. This ability to do the impossible is somewhat related to what hiring managers and Talent Acquisition leaders are faced with today during this challenging talent market. I thought I would share a few clear lessons from the Olympics for us to consider navigating the world talent stage in 2022. Read more here.

Community Member Spotlight

Keeping Human Resources Human: Dr. Liana Epstein, Chief Operating and Analytics Officer at Cangrade, on Humanizing Hiring with AI, Valuing Employees, and More By her own admission, Dr. Liana Epstein ended up in tech by accident. Armed with a doctorate in quantitative social psychology, she initially set out with the mission to use data to tackle real-world messy problems at a time when data science, as a discipline, barely existed. Today, after working in both private and public sector roles across the world, she remains true to that mission as the Chief Operating and Analytics Officer at Cangrade. Cangrade is a hiring solution that uses AI and Machine Learning to empower organizations to make data-driven hiring decisions – from pre-hire through professional development and promotion – so that companies hire candidates who will succeed and stay and candidates find the right role for them. For Dr. Epstein, building Cangrade was not only a way to create positive change in the world from within the private sector, but also a way to build the type of place that she wanted to work for, from the ground up. MassTLC Community Manager, Nayla Daly, spoke with Dr. Epstein to learn more about why employee happiness is not just a nice to have, but a need to have in all organizations and how Cangrade is keeping human resources human. Read on for the full conversation.

Meet Ace Up

We have a new Talent Community sponsor, AceUp. Get to know a little more about this transformational coaching leader. Who is AceUp? AceUp helps organizations create lasting workplace cultures that fuel their business strategy by coaching the entire organization towards common goals. AceUp’s one-on-one and group coaching uses behavioral science and technology to answer today’s most pressing organizational challenges and unleash the full potential of people, leaders, and teams. We are a customer-focused, inclusive group on a mission to drive positive change by empowering professionals to maximize their impact through transformational coaching. AceUp’s community also includes our partnership with Harvard’s Institute of Coaching, our global network of the world’s best leadership coaches, and our inspiring clients such as LVMH, Teradyne, Ginkgo Bioworks, and many more. Why are you excited to be part of the Talent Community? This is such a pivotal time for the talent community. Many of the opportunities and challenges organizations face today fall under the talent umbrella. Attracting and retaining employees, developing human-centered leaders, keeping employees connected and engaged in hybrid environments, building DEI&B among others are finally getting the attention they deserve. For all of these reasons, it is especially important to have a space for talent professionals to come together to support one another. Proud to be headquartered in Massachusetts, we are excited to connect with this community right in our own backyard. What are you hoping you can share and receive from this community? We look forward to learning from this talented talent community about their insights, emerging trends, successes they’ve experienced, and lessons learned along the way. We would like to be a supportive partner by offering our insights, ideas, and research both from the work we do with our clients and our own talent initiatives. Read this article here.

Thank You to Talent Community Sponsors

Thank You to the Talent Community Advisor

Mike Beck Talent Aquisition Nasuni

MassTLC Global Sponsors