Oakland, U.S.A. — Ask.com, an online brand for questions and answers, announced on November 15, the results of its job benefits study, conducted online by Harris Interactive among U.S. adults during the month of October. The 2012 State of the Workplace: Benefits and Perksstudy reveals that 95 percent of Americans weigh job benefits and perks before deciding to either stay put or take a new position. Benefits such as health insurance, 401K matching, paid time off and life insurance are so critical, more than half of U.S. workers (60 percent) would rather spend a night in jail than go without.

“Our goal here was to get a national view of what potential recruits value most, while pinpointing how job seekers in the West might differ,” said Lisa Ross, vice president of human resources at Ask.com. “While it’s clear that perks like free massages resonate with Westerners in particular, they pale in comparison to the value all Americans put on benefits like paid life insurance and tuition assistance.”

Healthcare: Worth Sleeping in the Slammer? 
Benefits and perks are so coveted, Americans say they’re worth a night behind bars. Men (64 percent) are more likely to indicate this than women (56 percent).

• U.S. adults (77 percent) list health insurance as the benefit that most factors into their employment decision.
  • Surprisingly, those without children (80 percent) are more likely to choose health insurance than those with children in the household (70 percent).
• Other benefits that topped the list for Americans include:
  • Retirement/401K matching (69 percent)
  • Paid time off (66 percent)
  • Life insurance (54 percent)
  • Ease of commute/proximity to transportation (49 percent)
  • Stock options (39 percent)
  • Tuition assistance (35 percent)

More Me Time, Please!
Americans are also protective of personal time, actively seeking employers invested in their health and well-being.

• More than a third said unlimited paid time off (PTO), telecommuter flexibility, and access to a free on-site gym/fitness center would encourage them to take or keep a job (34 percent each).
• American workers despise time wasted in gridlock. Half of respondents base their decision on a job on how close it is to public transportation, or the ease of the commute (49 percent).

Unlimited Vacation…For Real? 
Unlimited PTO is gaining traction with companies such as Netflix, Zynga and Ask.com embracing the concept. But how do Americans feel?

• Sixty-nine percent said they would be swayed to take a new job if the company offered unlimited PTO.
• Unlimited PTO matters more to single people (42 percent) than those who are married (30 percent) or divorced (27 percent).
• Is it really unlimited? Nearly half of U.S. adults (48 percent) worry about how much personal time they can actually take from their job.

Surprise…What Else They Want

• Western adults (21 percent) are more likely to be encouraged to take or keep a job with an on-site masseuse than those in the Northeast and South (14 percent and 12 percent, respectively).
• A job that comes with a clothing allowance is a big draw for many (26 percent), more so than a childcare subsidy or onsite childcare (22 percent).
• Younger adults (18-34 -year-olds) are more likely to want a nap room (24 percent), free dry cleaning (19 percent), and a personal shopper (16 percent) than adults 35 and older.
• Offering weekend trips planned for employees and their families on anniversaries and birthdays can also sway job seekers (18 percent).

“Silicon Valley companies are known for offering unusual perks like onsite haircuts and laundry service, which are nice-to-haves,” said Ross. “But at the end of the day, what American workers value most are employers committed to their health and well-being and those who are actively invested in their overall quality of life.”

Ask.com also released an infographic here detailing the benefits of adopting an unlimited PTO policy, a benefit the company offers.

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San Francisco, U.S.A. – Renewable resources will make Scotland the “Silicon Valley” of marine energy in the same way that hi-tech industries transformed Northern California, the First Minister said June 19 in the keynote speech of his American trade mission.

First Minister Alex Salmond made the claim June 19 during a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco, the oldest public affairs forum in the United States.

In a speech entitled “Scotland: A Good Global Citizen”, the First Minister will tell an audience of Californians that Scotland’s growing marine energy industry will turn the country into an international center of excellence – with potentially huge economic and environmental rewards.

The First Minister said: “Scotland is a nation which has made a big contribution to the world in the past and has a huge amount to offer the world in the future. We are ambitious for the future, both for ourselves and what we can contribute to the rest of the world.

“I believe that developing the concentration of expertise, commitment and investment in marine energy that Scotland already possesses will make us the Silicon Valley of marine energy.

“That patch of Northern California that became known as Silicon Valley began by creating a community of technical scholars. Big business followed the skills and big rewards soon followed – and the same is happening in Scotland in our marine energy sector.

“All twelve of Scotland’s major universities have formed the Energy Technology Partnership, which earlier this year agreed a unique collaboration with Abu Dhabi’s prestigious Masdar Energy Institute.

“Glasgow is the premier center in Europe for offshore wind research, with Strathclyde University’s $114,165,000 Technology and Innovation Centre a hub for researchers and industry to work together on pioneering technology.

“There are more different types of wave and tidal devices in the waters around Scotland than in the rest of the world combined and the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters leasing area is the world’s largest commercial scale marine energy site.

“We possess 10 per cent of Europe’s wave power resources and 25 per cent of its offshore wind and tidal resources – all with only 1 per cent of the EU population.

“Scotland is becoming the Silicon Valley of marine energy worldwide. Having been at the heart of the marine engineering revolution of the 19th century, we are now placing ourselves at the heart of the marine engineering revolution of the 21st century.

“As hi-tech industries concentrated in Silicon Valley and transformed the economic landscape of Northern California, so marine energy will do for Scotland.”

The First Minister gave the speech at the Commonwealth Club of California, the U.S.A.’s oldest public affairs forum, which has hosted speakers such as Theodore Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

Image Courtesy of  Saul Gordillo

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New social networks are being released every day. What makes each one unique is their individual focuses and functions, though they all have the common goals to increase social relations and to establish contact with the professional world, educational target, medical network, travel communities, and so on.

The focus is usually developed based on the needs of the public. Opensoft, a Portuguese company, saw a need for the business environment, and they are trying to put this new model  in the competitive world of social media. Spreadd is a Portuguese startup focused on business environments and tries to differentiate itself from LinkedIn and Facebook, arguing that it is actually able to create opportunities to companies through the improvement of a collaborative environment.

Facebook offers big opportunities to reach target markets and great tools to develop marketing and communication with the public. However, there are limitations in developing sharing tools inside the company, since a social network is not a business-oriented network if it has other focuses.

LinkedIn, on other hand, is a business network. However, it allows people to connect to each other, but doesn’t solve the match problem between people and tasks, which Spreadd promises to do. The inefficiency inside of companies created by issues, such as employees repeatedly doing the same tasks and assigning the wrong employee to perform a task, can impact business performance.

It can be solved through a better sharing, communicating, and collaborating environment. The ambitious goal of the project is be a perfect network solution to small companies, big organizations, and even the ones geographically dispersed.

The network has been in the testing stage for the past six months, but it has already been seen as a solution to companies that are already using basic sharing tools, such as e-mail, instant message systems, internal networks, and blogs. Such tools have a time-gap between assigning the task and seeing the task completed, which is the issue Spreadd is trying to solve.

The Opensoft project will be going to Silicon Valley in California to accelerate the development of the business. It will be an important part of companies concerned with transparency, increase in opportunities, and creativity. There are high expectations coming from this developing season.

The goals the company have made will be able to help all companies interested in increase competitiveness through efficient information sharing. For companies that want to get a head start, they can sign up using a company e-mail address, which will be added to the Spreadd’s social network, and wait for a developed version of Spreadd to become available to the public.

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