HR STRATEGY
Littlejohn Capital | January 11, 2022
LJC Investments V, LLC, an investment vehicle controlled by Littlejohn Capital, LLC ("Littlejohn Capital"), today announced the acquisition of Alto Healthcare Staffing ("Alto"), a diversified healthcare staffing firm.
Alto was established in 2003 in line with the personal values and mission of Founder and RN Leslie Kahn. Alto's three key business lines include providing clinical temporary staffing primarily for nursing homes and long-term care facilities on a per diem or short-term contract basis; travel nurses primarily to hospitals; and medical assistants to doctors' offices. Alto is headquartered in Dayton, OH.
"Littlejohn took the time to really get to know our business and our management team, and we were greatly impressed with their relevant experience in the staffing sector. With their partnership, we believe we can grow while remaining true to our mission. Littlejohn will provide valuable resources to help us accelerate our growth and build on our relationships with healthcare facilities, hospitals and doctors. Our goal is to provide industry leading services to more customers and provide the right healthcare professionals to patients wherever they are needed most."
-Leslie Kahn, President of Alto
"Over the past several months, we have gotten to know Leslie and her team and were very impressed by the company she has built and the differentiated approach Alto's talented healthcare professionals provide to long-standing clients. The healthcare staffing industry is experiencing dynamic growth, and Alto's services have become a more viable and easily accessible option for healthcare facilities across the country. We look forward to working with Leslie to help achieve her vision of expanding Alto's compassionate care and leveraging the experience from our successful investment in Hospitality Staffing Solutions as we further diversify the business geographically."
-Angus C. Littlejohn III, President of Littlejohn Capital
Staffing industry veteran Timothy McPherson, who served as CEO of former Littlejohn Capital portfolio company Hospitality Staffing Solutions, will join the Alto Board of Managers, in addition to Mr. Littlejohn III and Littlejohn Capital Chairman, Angus Littlejohn, Jr.
UHY Corporate Finance served as financial adviser to Alto and Morrison Cohen LLP provided legal counsel to Littlejohn Capital on the transaction.
About Littlejohn Capital
Littlejohn Capital is the family office of Angus C. Littlejohn Jr., co-founder of Littlejohn & Co., where he currently serves as Chairman. The platform seeks to make control investments in small to mid-sized private companies that are undergoing strategic, operational or generational transition.
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RECRUITMENT & RETENTION
SHRM | December 14, 2021
Three recently published reports suggest that while the demand for technology will remain high in 2022, skilled IT workers will be hard to find and difficult to keep.
These trends will disrupt technology projects, but they will also close the gap between technology and HR leaders according to a survey report titled The Impact of Technology in 2022 and Beyond: an IEEE Global Study.
The report reveals that 97 percent of IT leaders agree that their team is working more closely than ever with human resource leaders to implement workplace technologies—though it may take longer than usual due to the staffing shortages.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) report, which was published in November, relied on 350 chief information officers, chief technology officers, IT directors and other technology leaders in the U.S., China, U.K., India and Brazil who work at organizations with more than 1,000 employees across multiple sectors.
The IT leaders shared their views on the state of HR technology as the impact of COVID-19 continues to change the workplace.
Respondents predict that in 2022 they'll have a plethora of difficult IT problems to solve:
Maintaining strong cybersecurity for a hybrid workforce of remote and in-office workers (83 percent).
Managing return-to-office health and safety protocols, software, apps and data (73 percent).
Deciding what technologies are necessary for their company in the post-pandemic future (68 percent).
Recruiting technologists and filling open tech positions will be difficult to do in the year ahead (73 percent).
A survey published in October by TalentLMS, part of the Epignosis Group of Companies, and recruiting software company, Workable, suggests there's more trouble ahead. The companies polled 1,200 IT workers for its report and found 72 percent of respondents in the U.S. said they are thinking of quitting their jobs in the next 12 months.
Respondents cited several reasons to quit, with 41 percent saying their jobs had limited career progression, 40 percent noting a lack of flexibility in working hours, and 39 percent citing a toxic work environment.
"The percentage of IT workers [who] are thinking about quitting their jobs is higher than I would imagine,"
- Periklis Venakis, chief technology officer at Epignosis.
Venakis said employers will have to adapt to remote work, which will continue after the pandemic ends. He added that HR should see this as an opportunity because companies can find employees in markets that were closed to them prior to the pandemic.
One company that is watching its IT staff turnover rates is Cloudflare Inc., an infrastructure and website security company based in San Francisco.
According to Janet Van Huysse, Cloudflare's senior vice president and chief people officer, since the pandemic began, the company's employee turnover rate peaked in May 2021. Cloudflare has more than 2,200 employees and an IT organization of 964 workers globally.
"Since March 2020, the IT organization accounted for approximately 30 percent of all our terminations, most of which were voluntary, Primarily, these were due to either career progression, opportunities elsewhere, or because of performance or capabilities fit,"
-Janet Van Huysse, Cloudflare's senior vice president and chief people officer
She agreed with the 2021-2023 Emerging Technology Roadmap for Large Enterprises report from Gartner Inc., published in September, in which 64 percent of IT executives cite talent shortages as the most significant barrier to the adoption of emerging technology, compared with only 4 percent in 2020.
Gartner's survey also showed that among the technology areas affected by IT talent shortages are computer infrastructure and platform services, network, security, digital workplace, IT automation, storage and database systems. IT executives cited talent availability as the main adoption risk factor for the majority of IT automation technologies (75 percent) and nearly half of digital workplace technologies (41 percent).
Yet across all technology domains, 58 percent of respondents reported either an increase or a plan to increase emerging technology investment in 2021, compared with 29 percent in 2020.
As companies seek IT skills, Huysse said HR leaders need to be open-minded about where talent comes from and embrace unconventional paths to tech by using more inclusive hiring strategies.
She added that looking in unconventional areas for talent also means seeking applicants from more geographies. While a larger talent pool diversifies the candidate pipeline, it also creates more complexities for organizations. HR leaders must be flexible in their approach and be ready to support teams and leaders as they make this transition.
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HR STRATEGY
Glassdoor | January 15, 2022
Wpromote was named one of the top 50 Best Places to Work in 2022 and awarded a Glassdoor Employees' Choice Award across all industries in the U.S. small and medium company category. The 14th annual Employees' Choice Award is based solely on elective, anonymous employee feedback about their job, work environment, and employer on Glassdoor, the worldwide leader on insights about jobs and companies.
We don't believe great work is possible without a supportive culture that prioritizes a strong-work life balance, Our people are the driving force behind our success as an organization and what we can achieve for our clients, and continuing to improve the way we work through employee feedback is a top focus. As a leader, this should be a no-brainer: a better work culture and investment in our employees' growth means people are more willing to try new things, take risks, and unlock their full potential.
-Wpromote CEO Mike Mothner
Between pandemic disruption, "The Great Resignation," and a hyper-competitive job market, both retention and talent acquisition are particularly challenging for organizations across every industry. Marketing agencies in particular have struggled to retain employees. But 95% of reviewers on Glassdoor are willing to recommend Wpromote to a friend because investment in workplace improvement and culture is not a brand new priority and is constantly evolving based on multiple employee feedback mechanisms, including an annual employee engagement survey.
On Glassdoor, current and former employees voluntarily and anonymously share insights and opinions about their work environments by sharing a company review, designed to capture a genuine and authentic inside look at what a specific job may be like at a particular company.
"The world of work is rapidly evolving, fueled by the pandemic and now millions of workers reevaluating their expectations from employers. This year's Best Places to Work winners are leading the way by listening and responding to employee feedback and reimagining the employee experience to truly put their people first, It's inspiring to see these employers step up during the pandemic to expand and grow company cultures where employees feel supported and valued in and out of work. Congratulations to all of this year's Employees' Choice Award winners."
-Christian Sutherland-Wong, Glassdoor chief executive officer.
Glassdoor's Best Places to Work were determined using company reviews shared by U.S.-based employees between October 20, 2020 and October 18, 2021. To be considered for the U.S. small and medium company category, a company must have had fewer than 1,000 employees and have received at least 30 ratings across each of the nine workplace attributes (overall company rating, career opportunities, compensation and benefits, culture and values, diversity and inclusion, senior management, work-life balance, recommend to a friend and six-month business outlook) taken into account as part of the awards algorithm. The final list is compiled using Glassdoor's proprietary algorithm, led by its Economic Research Team, and takes into account quantity, quality and consistency of reviews.
About Wpromote
Wpromote is a digital marketing agency that helps our clients Think Like A Challenger: from enterprise brands to fast-growing digital disruptors, we believe that the right marketing strategy can help every business connect with customers and drive profitable growth. With 6 offices across the United States, we help leading brands like Whirlpool, TransUnion, Zenni, Adobe, and Frontier Airlines achieve not just performance increases but success against overall business objectives by taking a holistic approach that combines best-in-class expertise and proprietary technology. As the top Performance Marketing Agency in the latest Forrester Wave, we're proud we don't answer to anyone's interests but our clients.
About Glassdoor
Glassdoor is revolutionizing how people everywhere find jobs and companies they love by providing deeper workplace transparency. Professionals turn to Glassdoor to research ratings, reviews, salaries and more at millions of employers, and to Fishbowl by Glassdoor to engage in candid workplace conversations. Companies use Glassdoor to post jobs and attract talent through employer branding and employee insights products. Glassdoor is a subsidiary of Recruit Holdings, a leading global technology company, and a part of its fast-growing HR Technology business unit.
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TALENT MANAGEMENT
Atlas | June 14, 2022
Atlas, a global Human Experience Management (HXM) technology company that simplifies global expansion with unified software and solutions, including Employer of Record (EOR), expands its executive leadership team with the addition of two strategic hires: Ruairi Kelleher as general manager (GM) of Europe, and Michelle Mesina as chief people officer (CPO).
As GM of Europe, Ruairi Kelleher will lead Atlas' business operations and oversee expanded development within the region. As CPO, Michelle Mesina will direct Atlas' internal people strategy to deepen global impact while cultivating rewarding employee experiences for an increasingly diverse workforce.
"Strengthening our foundational leadership team is essential as Atlas continues to evolve our best-in-class HXM technology solution to meet the demands of our customers and launch us into our next phase of growth, The addition of Ruairi reflects our commitment to meeting the increased demand for global expansion solutions in the untapped market of Europe. Additionally, Michelle's extensive experience in organizational design, cultural alignment and employee wellbeing, will further enhance Atlas' reputation as a purpose-driven employer."
-Rick Hammell, CEO of Atlas.
Kelleher brings more than 15 years of experience building and scaling innovative companies via operations, technology, strategy, revenue and M&A activity. Prior to joining Atlas, he served as CEO at global payroll technology company Immedis where he oversaw its 2016 launch and repositioning. Under his stewardship, Immedis emerged as a leader in the payroll space with more than 400 employees and year-over-year growth of more than 100%. As chief executive officer, Kelleher spearheaded the successful Series A and B funding rounds at Immedis and led the commercial practice for expat tax mobility within the Group. Additional previous experience includes consulting for international firms, where he focused on delivering business growth through corporate relationship solutions.
Michelle Mesina, SPHR, comes to Atlas with over 20 years of experience from start-up, high- growth and transformative environments, helping organizations to scale quickly. She joins Atlas' C-suite following a series of high-profile positions leading HR and people ops for such dynamic companies as Gensler, PowerReviews, project44 and Hazel Technologies. At Hazel Technologies, she had overall responsibility for thought leadership strategies and solutions to attract, engage and retain the best talent.
The largest direct employer of record (EOR), Atlas brings experience and localized expertise into an enterprise-grade technology platform that empowers innovative companies to onboard, manage and pay global talent. The HXM platform delivers end-to-end EOR solutions with self-service capabilities, real-time insights that optimize business outcomes and human touchpoints along the way. The expansion of the leadership team furthers Atlas' position as the leader in simplifying global people operations in the thriving work-from-anywhere world.
About Atlas
Atlas enables innovative companies to compete in a global economy, believing that businesses should employ whomever they want, wherever the talent exists. As the largest direct employer of record (EOR) with entities in over 160 countries, Atlas is a technology platform that is supported by experts and delivers flexibility for companies to expand across borders, onboard talent, manage compliance, and pay their global workforce without the need for a local entity. Atlas was built on years of experience navigating the challenges of quickly deploying and paying international employees while ensuring compliance with local regulations. This experience brings localized experience and expertise into an enterprise-grade technology platform that supports thousands of companies and remote teams. The Atlas platform is uniquely designed to deliver end-to-end EOR solutions and empowered user experiences that provide self-service capabilities and real-time insights that lead to improved business outcomes.
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