Elevating the Future

Elevating the Future Elevating the Future Elevating the FutureRoald Dahls classic childrens book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was considered a work of fantasy when it was published in 1964. After all, along with nut-sorting squirrels and teleportation via television, the book describes the eccentric Willy Wonkas ingenious glass elevator that goes up, down, sideways, and every other which way you can think of going.Now over five decades later, German engineering firm Thyssenkrupp Elevator AG is turning the Wonkavator into reality. The company has developed the Multi, a rope-free elevator that can travel both horizontally and vertically in a single shaft.A cabin of the MULTI elevator ordnungsprinzip. Image ThyssenkruppElevators may not be an obvious venue for innovation, as the business is very conservative. But as buildings are growing higher and higher, it becomes obvious more and more that the traditional elevator is a limiting factor and a bottleneck for the constructors of vi sionary buildings, said Markus Jetter, head of product development at Thyssenkrupp Elevator.To avoid those bottlenecks, Thyssenkrupps technology enables multiple elevator cabins to run in a loop and the cars move via a magnet-based linear motor drive system, similar to that found in Maglev trains. The elevators have an exchanger, which can switch from vertical to horizontal to allow for sideways movement.The system, Jetter said, activates only those sections where the cars are located, so energy is consumed only where cars are areaccelerating, moving steadily, or decelerating.The absence of ropes may give a different first impression but that isnt true in any respect, he said, adding that the linear motors are safe because they need to be energized before they move. Without electricity, the cabins wont move.The cabins also include emergency batteries so they can continue to run in the case of a blackout.In June, Thyssenkrupp displayed a fully functional unit in an 870-foot test towe r in Rottweil, Germany. The company is now working on getting international certifications. OVG, the developer of smart office buildings, will be installing the elevator system in the East Side Tower in Berlin.Besides being one of the first new innovations in the elevator industry since the invention of the safety elevator some 165 years ago, the Multi promises to reduce peak power demand by as much as 60 percent, compared to conventional elevator systems.Multi offers a 50 percent higher transportation capacity. That means the same amount of people can be commuted with half the number of shafts. This is particularly important as elevator shafts can occupy up to 40 percent of the floor space in a typical tall building, Jetter said.The Multi wont have all the features of the Wonkavator, though. In the books sequel, the Great Glass Elevator flew to an orbiting space hotel. For Further DiscussionBut as buildings are growing higher and higher, it becomes obvious more and more that the tr aditional elevator is a limiting factor and a bottleneck. Markus Jetter, Thyssenkrupp Elevator AG

Baby Steps To Meritocracy

Baby Steps To MeritocracyBaby Steps To MeritocracyMeritocracy sounds great on paper. You reward your best people for doing a good job, and those who slack off reap fewer benefits. What could be fairer than that? As with any utopic vision, the devil is in the details. There is some evidence that a paradox of meritocracy exists. A study conducted by researchers from MIT and Indiana University found that meritocratic organizations tend to reward men more than women. So maybe its fairer for companies to opt out of meritocracy altogether and reward based on seniority? Companies that do so will find themselves out of synch with the future. According to George Mason University economist Tyler Cowen, the workplace is evolving into what he calls a hyper-meritocracy in which data increasingly determines employee value. In the book Average is Over Powering America Past the Age of the Great Stagnation, Cowen writes that someday soon employers will be able to measure an employees economic value w ith a sometimes oppressive precision. Imagine Company A, which has top-of-the-line data analytics. Its able to determine which employees are good for the bottom line and which ones add little or no value. As its personnel become more efficient, the firm increases profits and market share. Company B, which has been watching its market share shrink, is forced to compete, so then it also evaluates its employees analytically, promoting and paying stars and flattening wages for other employees. This forces Company C and Company D to follow suit. Cowen and other economists say hyper-meritocracy is coming. Will you work for Company A or Company D? Or Company Z? You can take steps now to get ahead of this trend. The Problem with Seniority The paradox of meritocracy is an issue that apparently needs resolving, but there are problems baked into any reward system. Thomas Zwick is a professor University of Wrzburg in Germany who studies human resource management and organization. He is the auth or of the working paper Why Pay Seniority Wages? The paper says that employers with high seniority wages in Germany pay employees a wage level below their marginal productivity during their first years with the company and gives them a wage higher than their labor productivity after theyve been with the company awhile. Can you spot the problem with this approach? Such a seniority-based system risks losing its fruchtwein talented workers during their first years if they can leave for better pay, which means the company will be stuck with workers who do not have the marketable skills to leave and find higher-paying work. Another wrinkle at some point the senior workers earnings outpace their productivity, meaning that less-productive workers are the firms most well-compensated. These talented young workers sign an implicit contract with their employer that states that they regularly get higher wage increases than their productivity increase and that the firm has a strong interest in k eeping them for a lifetime career, Zwick said in an email interview. Why should this be attractive for some talented people? First, some people in Germany are happy about a lifetime perspective. We should not forget that firms with steep seniority pay tend to be very attractive employers, such as large industrial firms with lots of high-skilled people and international success. Second, old-age pensions are based on salary during the last years of employment, and these earnings are clearly higher for employees in firms with seniority wages. Zwick says another advantage of incremental, regimented seniority pay, as compared to meritocracy, is that employers can offer long-term incentives without the disadvantage of having to decide who merits a bonus, which eliminates creating what he calls losers. In other jas, it all boils down to Trust us. We wont lay you off when youre 51. From an employee perspective, its a good deal, but only when the company keeps its word. Who can foresee what the market will look like in 10, 20 or 30 years? The citizens of the Rust Belt in the United States know that large companies cant always keep these promises. Seeing Unicorns How can an organization transition to meritocracy? Companies across the world are experimenting with meritocracy schemes right now. One of them is the Canadian-based ecommerce platform Shopify. At Shopify all bonuses are merit-based. The 414-employee company assigns bonuses with a program called Unicorn. Under Unicorn, employees are nominated every month by their peers for going above and beyond. Using an internal tool, all employees can vote on a scale of 0-3, or they can abstain, and the employees who receive the most votes are awarded a percentage bonus pegged to Shopifys current revenue. Employees can take home anywhere from $20 to $800 in a single month. The company has built in a number of safeguards to keep the system honest. Shopify Head of Human Relations Brittany Forsyth said the system has the added bonus of increasing information and communication throughout the company as employees learn what fellow coworkers and other teams are doing. Unicorn is so engrained in company culture that employees use the word as a verb. For example Nice work. Im going to unicorn you for that. Images of unicorns can be found throughout Shopifys Ottawa headquarters. On the 0-3 scale, a 3 vote is denoted with a bucking unicorn. Among the many criticisms of workplace meritocracy are Who platzsets the standards? and Who gets to decide? Shopify ingeniously avoided these dilemmas by crowdsourcing bonus decisions. When we created Unicorn, it went against the stereotypical bonus system of top-down, Forsyth said. We wanted something that was a new way of thinking about it. We wanted people to own their successes.Promotion at Shopify has meritocratic elements, too. The peer-review process is used as a tool when making the decision of whether to promote someone to Team Lead. As for data, Shopify does not use analytics to evaluate employees, but the companys human resources team is interested in evaluating which sources of hiring are most beneficial to the company (referrals versus targeted reach-outs, for example), and Forsyth would like to be able to track which performance metrics or backgrounds correlate with team members who rise to become high-impact team members. Old Dogs and New Tricks Shopify is a very young company, which gives it flexibility in establishing policies. But many organizations- schools, for example- have seniority in their DNA. So how do you change an organizations reward structure without destroying morale? Its a question University of Arkansas education policy professor Gary Ritter is studying. Ritter, the author of A Straightforward Guide to Teacher Merit Pay, believes that merit-based compensation can improve the learning experience for children in American schools. His research, which looked at schools that implemented merit rewards, has taught him lessons t hat could apply to other workplaces.Ritter says he would not alter the pay structure of current employees. He advises starting with merit bonuses. Management, he says, should then sit down with workers and co-define performance to set reasonable and appropriate goals. This part is important. While its relatively easy to evaluate a math teacher (did the students get better at solving math problems?) or a sales position (how much did you sell?), how does a manager evaluate an art teacher or, say, a marketing brand manager? Establishing clear performance parameters collaboratively answers these questions. For an organization to reap the rewards, it needs to commit to meritocracy for the long-run, says Ritter. He believes that a merit-based system cant be measured in one or two years, but rather needs to be in place long enough to attract a new wave of employees- the schriftart who would welcome working in a meritocracy. If college grads saw this, and recognized that performance was bei ng rewarded, it would change the composition of your workforce, Ritter said. To receive articles like this by email, sign up for Simply Hireds Monthly Newsletter and Feature Articles. Read more How to Leave a Positive Impression With Rejected CandidatesCharm Candidates With an Irresistible Company CulturePromote From Within or Hire From Without? Six Factors to Consider that Will Shape Your CultureHow to Prevent Your ATS from Working Against YouWhy Some Recruiters Almost Always Hire the Right CandidateThe Changing Workforce

Ace Your Job Interview by Asking This One Critical Question

Ace Your Job Interview by Asking This One Critical QuestionAce Your Job Interview by Asking This One Critical QuestionHow does this role contribute to the success of the company?Its a simple question. Straightforward. Non-specific. Not particularly exciting. But thats also why this question is powerful. It addresses two key things the position and the companys goals.Here are other effective variations of this questionHow does this role contribute to the growth of the business?How does this role help meet the goals of the company?How does this role affect the business in the short-term and long-term?Why should you ask this question? The types of questions you ask during the interview reveal a lot about you as a candidate. Interviewers like to hear that you are interested in the company beyond what you will gain as an employee. Asking this question will demonstrate that you care about adding value to the organization. It is the opposite of How much paid time off will I get? Asking this will convince the interviewer that you are engaged and you want know how you can help the company in addition to yourself.What does the interviewers response tell you?This question will help your interviewer gauge your interest, and it will help you evaluate how your values fit with the companys. How the interviewer shapes his or her answer can tell you a lot about what the role encompasses, what the company prioritizes and what you can expect working there.Many hiring managers will talk about how the day-to-day responsibilities will help drive company efforts on the whole. From this you can glean how you would fit into the bigger picture, how the companys goals fit into your personal goals and what is expected of the person who fills the role. This can help you better understand what work you will need to prioritize on the job.If the interviewer talks about future projects or business goals, then you can better understand what strategies the company is taking to grow the business. The answer will also reveal what the company is focusing on. If you find those business goals to be interesting, then you will feel more fulfilled by your work.The interviewers answer should also give insight into how influential the position is. If the role requires you to manage many teams or reports, you can assume its a high-impact role. If it only has one specific function, perhaps its a low-impact role. A high-impact role may involve more pressure but more recognition. A low-impact role might have more mundane work but offer better work-life balance. Either way you can take that answer and use it to help decide whether the role is right for you.How can you follow up after the interview?Once youve determined this position is a good match and you have a strong understanding of the role, you can create a compelling follow-up email by revisiting this question. Use the interviewers answer to craft your follow up, focusing on the points that the interviewer brought up. If they talk ed about driving a product, making sales or cultivating brand awareness, share your relevant experience and skills. Confirm that you are a great fit for both the company and the role.