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5 Reasons "Expertise Marketing" Programs Fail.

As a company dedicated to “Expertise Marketing” we work with some of the largest organizations from higher education and healthcare, to top global corporate brands. What these organizations have in common are smart, educated professionals…and a lot of them. The types of individuals that would be valuable ambassadors, true thought leaders, helping you deliver on your organization’s reputational and revenue goals. Instinctively marketing and communications teams recognize the intrinsic value of this human capital and have created a variety of “Thought Leadership” and “Expert Marketing and Directory” initiatives. The overriding objective is how to best connect their experts to audiences that matter. Seeking opportunities ranging from acting as media sources to event speakers to providing a valuable entry-point for research and business collaboration, even lead generation. To execute on this goal, one of the most effective approaches, and starting points for any expertise marketing program starts with better profiling their experts and related insights on their website. Building out and leveraging this expert content is at the core of most expertise marketing efforts. Despite the promises these web initiatives offer, most programs don’t deliver organizations the results they were hoping for. Success most often has nothing to do with how smart your people are. Some of the largest organizations with deep rosters of expertise fail where smaller organizations consistently punch above their weight. When creating an expertise presence on your website there are important areas to consider. The following represents the top 5 reasons many expertise marketing programs fail and how to maximize your success.  Reason #1 You’re missing critical team members There is no “going it alone” when starting a program like this.  Having the following individuals onboard at the start is crucial. Don't worry, these aren't all full-time resources by any means.  As your program progresses, these individuals may come in and out in terms of importance, but having access to them over the lifetime of your program will positively impact your success. At the core, you need access to the following individuals. Program Champion - Having a senior leader as a champion is pretty much table stakes for any successful company-wide initiative such as this.  Someone who can articulate to others, both up and down in the organization as to how this initiative fits into the broader long-term goals of the organization is imperative. Failure to establish this individual upfront puts your program's future at the whim of shifting priorities and budget cuts. Marketing/Communications - You need someone with ongoing responsibility for maintaining and promoting your roster of experts and their content.  This ensures your most relevant experts are showcased at the right time to meet the changing demands of your audiences and the news cycle. Digital/Web - You need someone with the keys to the website/CMS. Ensure you have connections to people who control not only your small area of the website such as a newsroom or department level webpages but also those that have access to the layouts and navigation of the broader website.  The latter is important as it helps prevent your expert content from combing isolated and disconnected from the rest of your website. IT - The level of involvement of IT is highly dependent on how you’re looking to implement your expert content on your website. By leveraging a variety of content implementation tools from simple "cut and paste" embeds to WordPress plugins you can severely limit the necessity to involve IT. However, depending on your budget and goals, IT can leverage a platform's API, accessing advanced layouts and functionality, including integrating with other systems your organization may already be using. Engaged Experts -  Last but not least, having your experts on board is critical. By properly communicating upfront and ongoing with your experts around the goals of the program, you're helping ensure your content best represents the talents that lie within. We realize it is often difficult and sometimes cost-prohibitive to assemble such a team. It is important if you don’t have access to all these members in-house that you access them through an external partner's professional services offerings. This could include assisting with building out content such as profiles and posts or providing technical assistance in integrating this content into your website. Reason #2 You’re relying too much on IT for implementation or updating. To be successful long term, it is important that key owners of the expertise marketing program feel empowered to take control of their expert content. From creation to ongoing management, those with marketing communications roles and others closest to their organization’s expertise need the flexibility to update content in real-time to remain relevant and up-to-date. Being able to quickly log into an external platform that syncs content with your website is key.  It eliminates the need for special access to your CMS or the possible requirement for IT to be in control of your updates. It also allows for a mix of individual expert and administrator access providing the highest level of flexibility. Often left out in IT-focused builds is how you will effectively handle inquiries.  Simply showing emails and phone numbers is a recipe for missed opportunities (and SPAM) as these experts are some of the most time-constrained individuals in your organization.  Ensuring you have access to a customizable workflow feature is essential in ensuring your organization doesn't miss potential time-sensitive inquiries. When working with IT to implement an Expertise Marketing Program on your website, you will often be presented with a “we’ll build it for you option” vs using a purpose-built platform. Understanding the tradeoffs of this approach is critical. One of the greatest benefits of using a SaaS platform, besides costs, is that you constantly have the most up-to-date software, with the latest features and functionality to best showcase your expertise. To learn more, download the “True Costs of DIY” to better understand the tradeoffs and functional requirements needed for success. Reason #3 Your expert content is siloed, one-dimensional, and rarely updated. This is by far one of the biggest reasons programs fail.  Well, it's actually a number of reasons, but it all relates back to how your content will be perceived and ultimately drive connections with interested audiences.  By addressing the following you'll present not only better but more easily discoverable expert content that drives inquiries. You have boring, not engaging profiles for your experts - Before people feel comfortable reaching out they need a good sense of the person. Profiles that lack media assets such as video, publications and even podcasts are one-dimensional. Furthermore, showcasing past media and event appearances provides an enhanced level of credibility. Focused solely on a directory & profiles - Your expertise is more than just showcased through a profile found in a directory. Adding long-form posts where experts can share their insights and even expert focussed Q&A (download report on "The Power of Q&A") provides audiences additional ways to connect with your experts. Ensuring all these additional assets connect back to your profiles provides more insight into the person behind the expertise. No main website navigation - Despite adding menu navigation on a specific web page, such as a newsroom or About Us page, most organizations neglect to add navigation to their main website’s menu structure. You can never assume visitors will know where this content resides. We recommend multiple links in both headers and footers to your expert content. Names such as “Find Experts”, “Media Sources” or “Research Experts” are some of the most common, accessible from overall menu items like “About Us”, “News” or “Research”. Expert content stuck to one small area of your website - If you restrict your expert content to just one area, you’re just making discovery that much harder and limiting exposing the breadth of expertise you have in-house. Highlight your experts and expertise on your homepage or in key sections of your website. Refine your experts and their insights found in posts or Q&A by tagging them based on specific topics and showcasing just those experts in various areas of your website. Using a dedicated SaaS platform means that when you update content it updates everywhere, making changes quick and easy. Expert content never gets updated - This is a big issue for organizations that build in-house or through their CMS. Visitors can quickly understand that the content isn’t fresh and it reflects poorly on the individual and the organization as a whole. The key to ensuring content is maintained is to provide multiple access capabilities where admins (internal or external) and the experts can maintain the content. Failure to respond in a timely manner to inquiries - Displaying content that exposes phone numbers and emails of your experts is not the best approach...both from a privacy and timely communications standpoint. Without an advanced inquiry workflow that alerts multiple members of your team, you risk missing out on time-sensitive requests such as those from journalists.  Reason #4 You haven’t considered everything needed to win the SEO game. Building out content on the web without having a plan for how external and internal search engines will interact with your pages is a big mistake. Organic search can play a big role in discovery leading to valuable opportunities. Before you consider your new expert content pages ready, ensure you've taken into account the following. Proper Meta Data - Do your expert profile pages have dynamically created titles, descriptions and keywords that automatically adjust to changes in areas such as an individual's expertise? Schema Data - Do you have proper schema tags that indicate to Google and other search engines the type of content displayed as well as the credibility of both the individual and organization behind it. Sitemaps - Have you ensured all your pages have been added to your sitemap. Is it automatically updated when new experts or pieces of expert content are added? Google Search Console - Are you pushing pages directly to Google by requesting important new content is updated in the search index. For more info on better SEO read my Spotlight "Why Expertise Ranks Higher". Reason #5 You’re not doing enough to actively promote your expertise… a “they’ll just find us” approach usually fails. It's like owning a Porsche and leaving it in the garage…pretty to look at but you’re not realizing its full potential. Simply putting your expert content on a web page is only the start. Successful organizations actively distribute these assets, sharing links to profiles and other content elements like news posts or Q&A in a variety of ways. Social Media Channels - They start by promoting these assets on their social media channels, from their Twitter feeds to Facebook and LinkedIn posts. Media Distribution Software - Whether it is systems like Cision or Meltwater, including links to expert profiles and related content when reaching out to journalists adds a layer of depth to your pitches. Press Releases - Every time you reference your organization's expertise, include links to additional content and individual experts for more insights and pathways to connect with real people. It sounds like a lot, but with a bit of planning and some ongoing maintenance, a properly constructed expertise marketing program can deliver incredible results for many years. To be successful it's more than just firing up a few new web pages. However, with the advent of specialized platforms specifically designed for these programs, and a bit of guidance, it is easier than ever to create an expert content footprint on your website and deliver valuable connections for your organization.  

Villanova Professor Sees Costs and Benefits in Corporate and Federal Return-to-Office Mandates

In early February, federal agencies submitted plans in accordance with an executive order to initiate an estimated 1 million government employees’ full-time return to their duty stations. The departments’ actions are among the latest in a series of RTO moves enacted since the start of 2025. Notably, they follow policy changes by corporate giants Amazon, AT&T and JPMorgan, who in January began requiring five days of in-person work for select staffers, with justifications ranging from strengthening culture to improving performance. With more employers expected to require in-office work in the coming months, some predict that 2025 could be the “year of the RTO mandate.” But, given the arguments from those pushing for these policies, it’s worth asking: Are these return-to-office requirements truly justified? Do they actually improve communication, strengthen teams and boost productivity, as supporters claim? According to Kyoung Yong Kim, PhD, whose research focuses on telework, strategic human capital management and employee-organization relationships, the answer is complicated—and highly circumstantial. Dr. Kim says that, by gathering coworkers around the proverbial water cooler, RTO policies can in some cases facilitate dialogue, promote teambuilding and foster organizational success. Yet, in other instances, work-from-home (WFH) arrangements can significantly boost employee morale, efficiency and output. “In a recent paper, my colleague Ijeoma Ugwuanyi [a professor at Hong Kong Metropolitan University] and I examined how social distancing initiatives, which reduce interactions among people, impact working relationships,” says Dr. Kim. “We found that they can actually help improve negative ones, at least in employees’ minds.” Analyzing data collected on 105 working relationships among 43 full-time personnel at a South Korean healthcare company, Dr. Kim and Dr. Ugwuanyi discovered that, when afforded extended WFH privileges, colleagues previously at odds were given the space necessary to reassess their outlooks and improve their dynamics—especially when the individuals involved were viewed as competent and warm. As a result, these repaired relationships generally empowered more effective collaboration in the long run. Additionally, employees with positive in-person relationships maintained a solid rapport even when geographically apart. “These findings are particularly relevant as corporate and government workers increasingly return to their offices,” says Dr. Kim. “Managers need to remember that, according to the research, employees are willing to reset negative relationships they had previously. That said, returning to the office also offers a chance to strengthen relationships and make them more positive, which is crucial since team dynamics are a key determinant of team performance.” Per Dr. Kim, in order to best position themselves for success on the RTO front, organizations need to take a measured, sympathetic approach in facilitating their in-office policies, with an eye toward mitigating negativity. They need to remain cognizant of the logistical and interpersonal challenges that could emerge in the wake of a return, address their employees’ concerns in an attentive manner and foster a “supportive climate characterized by supportive behaviors.” It’s a situation that Dr. Kim says bears parallels—perhaps somewhat counterintuitively—to the mass shift to telework that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. As he found in his research on that phenomenon, employees responded best to changes in their working arrangements when organizational leaders and managers took the time to explain and actively discuss the reasoning behind them, especially in mission-driven terms. “Essentially, an important implication of the findings is that, to sustain employees’ positive attitudes and behaviors, it is crucial to frame these moves in a way that highlights how working in the office benefits both employees and the organization,” says Dr. Kim. In turn, RTO-focused organizations should recognize that their words and messages have a very real impact, particularly when scrutinized by workers who may not be happy about resuming their morning commutes. “Amazon, for instance, appears to be taking a thoughtful approach by emphasizing the value of collaboration with colleagues and the enrichment of organizational culture,” says Dr. Kim. “One potential drawback, however, lies in their message about the consequences of non-compliance, specifically that failure to adhere to the in-office policy could jeopardize employees’ chances of promotion. “A more positive framing, emphasizing how such policies support professional growth as well as employees’ well-being, could enhance favorable perceptions and work behaviors.” In the event organizations remain attuned to such situations—taking their employees’ perspectives into account, actively communicating their intentions and presenting clear value propositions—Dr. Kim thinks a year of the RTO mandate could potentially be a less daunting prospect. And maybe, with time, the transition back from Zoom to the boardroom could be a beneficial one.

The World Cup proved to be big for sports and Qatar's business future

The 2022 FIFA World Cup was one of the world’s most-watched sporting events, but it also provided an opportunity for exponential growth for business development in the Middle East. Qatar was selected as the first country from the Middle East to host the worldwide tournament over 12 years ago, allowing plenty of time to prepare for the competition and create everlasting business relationships. Kyriaki Kaplanidou, a UF professor and researcher, published a study in 2016 for the Journal of Business Research, working alongside her fellow colleagues. The study followed the industrial progress made in Qatar after its 2010 selection and demonstrated how their networking efforts improved the Persian Gulf region business infrastructure. “The country has invested a great deal of time and money to expand its physical and human resources. They’ve had to understand how business is done in other countries, learn innovative construction techniques and develop their human capital in areas of knowledge, skill and awareness of other cultures and business practices,” Kaplanidou said. Kaplanidou and her team interviewed 24 Qatar sports organizations stakeholders, both indirectly and directly involved with the 2022 World Cup. Her research found that almost all the interviewees highlighted Qatar’s characteristics that either impede or improve their current development status. The most highlighted criteria pertained to labor cases pertaining to hazardous working conditions and displayed racial discrimination, as the United Nations put Qatar on blast for their treatment of infrastructure workers. The government decided to implement changes and with the introduction of new, stricter labor laws, Qatar is now considered one of the most worker-friendly places in the Gulf Region. Despite all the controversy surrounding the FIFA World Cup host country, fans were still excited to cheer on their team of choice, and the tournament provided Middle East countries with something to be proud of. “It will be interesting to see if the country can reposition itself in the business world and establish its presence in other industries now that it has gained new experience and knowledge through the process of preparing for this mega event,” Kaplanidou said. By Halle Burton

Building Your Own Expert Network - How Expert Personas Help you Organize & Develop Your Talent Pool

As business continues to evolve at an unprecedented rate, companies need new ideas and strategies that help them rapidly transform to keep pace and grow. This explains the massive popularity that expert networks are having as companies look to connect with subject-matter experts with specialized sector and functional expertise who can accelerate their transformation efforts. Expert networks now represent a multi-billion dollar industry, helping companies in a variety of ways. From helping build primary research to assessing new market or acquisition opportunities to conducting due diligence for new technology purchases or competitive benchmarking, expert networks provide a valuable service. While many companies are increasing their use of traditional expert networks, there is also a trend toward organizing and developing internal talent by implementing a "knowledge management platform" or "employee skills marketplace." These can also be extended to engage broader audiences when experts are listed publicly as part of an Expert Center, Media Room, or Speakers Bureau. Depending on the scope and market visibility organizations wish to commit to in sharing their expertise, such programs can yield the following benefits: Improved access to shared knowledge throughout the organization Faster innovation through an improved discovery of key experts available for project opportunities Higher amount of cross-functional engagement between departments A more collaborative relationship with employees through better knowledge engagement and skills development Less reliance on outside consultants and traditional expert networks Improved brand reputation by engaging experts in thought leadership activities Increased media coverage and speaking engagements Improved business development opportunities by engaging experts earlier in the sales process Improved connection with the local community Additional ways to foster Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion throughout the organization What is an expert network? An expert network is a service that matches clients with experts who are willing to share their knowledge and advice via short conversations. These are usually in the form one hour long expert interviews conducted with the client. Expert networks such as GLG, AlphaSights, Guidepoint Global, Third Bridge, and Coleman Research help match the client's interest to specific experts in their private database of experts on call. They also look after logistics such as scheduling the expert interviews and have detailed processes for qualifying experts to ensure compliance with the exchange of information. And they handle time tracking and billing of interviews which are typically charged based on an hourly rate. They also handle the payment of fees to the experts following the interview. Building your own knowledge platform There is a growing trend towards organizing their expertise given the profound challenges organizations are facing. And these challenges didn’t just start when the pandemic hit. In a recent Deloitte survey, 63% of executives reported that work in their organizations is currently being performed in teams or projects outside of people’s core job descriptions, 81% say work is increasingly performed across functional boundaries, and 36% say work is increasingly being performed by workers outside of the organization who don’t have defined jobs in the organization at all. Yet fewer than half (42%) of respondents say their organization’s job descriptions do an “excellent job” of specifying the work that needs to be done in their positions. As work becomes far more fluid, packaging skills into rigid job descriptions leads to a lot of untapped human capital in organizations. It’s an issue that hasn’t gone unnoticed by leadership. Research shows that only 18% of executives strongly agree that their workforce is using their skills and capabilities to their fullest potential. 85% of HR and business executives say organizations should create more agile ways of organizing work to improve speed and swiftly adapt to market changes. These issues underscore the need to better organize and develop internal talent by implementing a "knowledge management platform" or "employee skills marketplace." This is for a variety of reasons. With vast amounts of acquired knowledge pooled across various departments and teams, it can be difficult for other employees to access this knowledge when it is outside their area of expertise - as the old saying goes, “people don't know what they don't know.” Organizing your expertise for external audiences also can provide huge benefits for building reputation, relationships, and revenues. How to position your experts as industry thought leaders More and more organizations are looking at employees who can advance their innovation efforts internally, often as part of a cross-functional team or special project. And there are also important revenue-generating activities, such as sharing research and perspectives through content generation (blogging, webinars, podcasting) or speaking (at internal events, industry conferences, or as an expert source for media interviews). Determining how to best identify and put experts to work isn't a simple process. That's because to do this right requires a more disciplined approach to assessing and developing the talent across your organization. One that goes beyond linear career paths and traditional job titles we assign to employees. It also requires a more progressive approach to diversity and experience. One that is not simply correlated to seniority or authority in an organization. Given the current state of the talent market, most organizations are also recognizing the importance of managing their talent, listening more to employees, and helping them achieve their goals - both professional and personal. And that extends to how best to tap into their skills that can benefit the organization both internally and externally. That's why we developed a talent framework that helps identify opportunities where subject-matter experts can best contribute as well as potential options for professional development. To make this process more intuitive, we have developed a model that outlines 4 "expert personas" that detail the various characteristics related to experts in an organization along with a potential development path. Level 1: Experts in the "Practitioner" persona group can offer their organizations a wide range of skills. Our research and in-field experience with companies focused on innovation reveals that organizations can realize significant gains by tapping into this broad pool of talent. To better engage practitioners, we have helped universities better engage their Ph.D. candidates who are approaching graduation to conduct research and writing content that promotes their work and institutional brand to prospective students or donors. This also extends to corporate innovation. A recent example of this was our collaboration with a Fortune 500 company in the CPG sector, where we completed the build of an internal expert network. One of the key challenges this organization faced was the inability to quickly engage with “practitioners” - subject-matter experts across the organization who could help with specific R&D and innovation projects. While this organization had legacy HR and intranet communication platforms, they had experienced a number of challenges engaging their researchers. To make things worse the pandemic forced many to work from home, creating the need for more opportunities to engage online. They needed the ability to conduct simple searches to find other researchers relevant to their work who could help them with projects. Our research/writing team started the process by taking an inventory of experts and then developed profiles for each researcher in collaboration with the company’s research/innovation team using the ExperFile SaaS software platform. With the unique data structure used to categorize this broader set of biographical information, we then enabled advanced search capabilities to build a private, SOC2 (security) compliant expert network which was easily integrated into their existing talent platforms. With thousands of researchers across the globe, they now have the ability to quickly search for experts on areas such as skills, topics, work experience, research publications, company/industry experience and IP/patents. It’s important to note that activating all this hidden expertise not only lays the groundwork for faster innovation. It also can reduce the fees associated with outside expert networks and consultants, maintains tighter internal control of proprietary research information and forges stronger collaborations between experts across the globe. Level 2: The "Ambassador" category represents experts with a more developed set of skills and a reputation both inside their organization and within their community of practice. Working with them to generate more exposure through internal speaking engagements and within their local community is a great way to create market visibility. For example, we have worked with a number of professional services firms to make experts at this level more visible in their local markets. Building reputation and generating new client opportunities with thought leadership activities such as blogging, webinars and speaking at local business events or on podcasts is a proven way to tap into this talent. These activities have allowed organizations we have worked with to bring in new clients and increase revenues across various practice areas. Ambassadors are also perfect for involvement in on-campus recruitment events where competition for talent is high. Particularly in fields such as engineering, law and accounting. One way to make these experts more approachable to a wider audience is by creating a speaker’s bureau. Remember that not all your experts will be comfortable speaking to the media, however, they can still meaningfully contribute as a keynote speaker or panelist at an event. Organizing your experts on key topics enables local event and conference organizers to find you more easily in Google search results and on your website. In addition to getting your experts on the podium, it’s a proven way to get your expert's guest appearances on webinars and podcasts. Given the growing importance of these channels, we recently formed partnerships with the leading marketplaces for webinars and podcasts - BrightTalk and Podchaser to help our clients promote their experts for speaking opportunities. Level 3: Experts in the "Authority" category have developed a strong reputation as an expert in their field, often speaking at academic or industry conferences. At this level, they have also developed a degree of proficiency in speaking as an expert source with the local or national media. They can be found speaking as a guest on podcasts to share their knowledge and are often active on social media. In higher education, these people are critical to helping media relations and other departments generate media coverage that is essential to building a reputation. We have worked with many organizations that effectively engage their Authorities by staying connected to their research and publications and collaboratively creating regular content with them to reach a broader audience. You will find regular opportunities to boost coverage with local and national media by utilizing this group of experts. We work with media teams to conduct Google Search (SEO) analysis to identify what topics their target audiences are searching for. This allows them to more strategically focus on key experts to promote. They are also focused on delivering more engaging content formats such as video interviews and Q&A to boost Google PageRank and audience engagement across their website. And they are working collaboratively with their faculty to post media advisories and a regular stream of content that contributes to higher rates of discovery by journalists looking for expert sources. Level 4: Experts in the "Evangelist" category are those go-to experts that you often see in the media as key spokespeople representing a certain topic. They are seen as notable authorities with deep domain expertise within their community of practice which has often been earned through heavy research and publications. Chances are they have also authored books that provide a path to speaking engagements at conferences and media interviews. These are also the people who have developed a regular audience through blogging or by hosting a podcast and have a well-established social media following. Ultimately, what separates this group from the others is the significantly broader market profile they have earned as a thought leader. These individuals have an intuitive sense of how to communicate complex topics in a relatable way that both educates and engages. That makes them particularly valuable to the organizations whose brands they represent. Given the degree of qualifications required to operate at this level, it’s to be expected that you will find far fewer “evangelist” category experts in any organization. Many are naturally found within the ranks of the executive team. These are the people who are comfortable in interviews, and most have extensive public speaking experience appearing on a large stage and on radio and television. At this level, organizations need to be far more strategic about how they utilize this talent pool to build a reputation and reach a wider audience. We have seen first-hand how strategic thought leadership programs can build a platform for these experts that can pay huge dividends. One healthcare system we have worked with recently forged a relationship with ABC News to feature one of their medical experts (a medical doctor) on a weekly segment related to important Covid-related health topics. Given the frequent appearances this expert has made on television, this was an earned media home run and a great way for this healthcare system to build visibility and trust within the community by providing accurate medical information. Their commitment to making their medical experts more discoverable and approachable online has also helped them promote their strengths in areas such as cardiology, neonatal, cancer, and genetic research. And the results are impressive. Over the past year, they have doubled their national media coverage and are currently outperforming much larger healthcare systems in their area. How to organize your experts Personas by their very nature are designed to provide a more standardized approach for planning using "clusters" of talent that are grouped against common characteristics. However, we're very aware that they cannot possibly capture all the nuances you will find within your organization when it comes to talent. But our experience helping leading organizations in knowledge-based industries to better manage thousands of experts shows that having a more methodical approach pays off. It optimizes the internal/external contributions and the development paths of experts to create win-win opportunities. but it also helps forge a stronger connection with employees who feel their organization is taking the development of their professional skills more seriously and more actively creating avenues for them to engage and contribute. With an understanding of these personas, we can then focus on another important consideration - where can we best engage our experts to more effectively tap into their skills inside and outside the organization? To help answer that question, we developed a "Talent Assessment Grid" (TAG) that helps you identify key areas where each of these personas can contribute. As a planning tool, it's meant to provide a more organized approach that helps you assess your bench strength and create a more tangible system for measuring progress over time in areas such as skills development or contributions to cross-functional innovation projects or outside industry consulting. Playing to the individual strengths these experts have while moving them out of their comfort zone to develop additional skills also yields additional marketing benefits. Contributing content; speaking at conferences or community events or to the media are proven ways to build market visibility, establish trust and generate revenues - and experts play a vital role in this process. A thriving network where knowledge is easily discoverable inside an organization and strategically shared outside in the community and beyond can make a huge difference in boosting innovation and culture. When properly promoted, these experts will also help you grow your reputation, relationships, and revenues. Although this process requires commitment, it positions you to be more agile and outperform your competition by ensuring you are optimizing every employee’s true potential and making them more discoverable both inside and outside the organization. How are you putting your expert talent to work? Do you have a process you use today for identifying and engaging your experts? We would like to hear from you. For more insights on how you can organize your experts online to support your internal knowledge management or promote them to a wider audience, visit us at https://expertfile.com/resources to learn more.

Women in STEM Careers Face Bias

Women are excluded from promotions when firms look at potential, rather than proof, says Dr. Nishtha Langer, an associate professor in the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Promotions are an accepted way for firms to attract and retain talent. In an ideal world, promotion for employees would be purely merit-oriented, and thus, performance – or potential for performance – would be a firm’s most important criteria for career advancement. But, according to Dr. Langer, we don’t live in this idyllic world – we live in a world where women are evaluated differently than men, and often endure biases in the work environment that men don’t face. Dr. Langer believes that several factors contribute to such deleterious workplace practices. Promotions rely less on absolute merit and more on relative merit. Thus, prejudiced ideas of potential capabilities, for instance, those relying on gender-role orientation – or the ability of a woman to do what may be perceived to be a masculine task – may prevent senior managers responsible for promotions from realizing the potential of their female colleagues. Women in STEM or technology often suffer from this bias. This prejudice may further bias how women are evaluated. Especially in those jobs where women are a minority, the in-group versus out-group biases would affect the visibility of women vis-à-vis men for promotions. Another factor that may inhibit women from being promoted on the basis of potential – or even indeed with proof – is what researchers term the compensatory stereotype. If men succeed, it is because of their abilities; if women succeed, it is because of factors other than their abilities. Unfortunately, the potential or abilities of women are misattributed to luck or team factors, inhibiting them from the starting line. Finally, promotions are a way for firms to ensure valuable talent does not leave. In that sense, managers may be less sensitive to women’s outside prospects and may thus ignore their potential and choose to not promote them. They do so at their peril and fail to take advantage of the multitude of abilities women bring to the table. Dr. Langer, an authority in the field of business and the societal value of IT and IT human capital, has long focused her research on women in technology careers. She is available to speak to this and other concerns about equality in the workplace.

GEORGE FEIGER

Inflation: Simple Causes But a Complicated Cure JULY 2022 We face a wave of strikes, intended to restore the purchasing power of wages in face of inflation. But strikes cannot succeed in restoring everyone’s purchasing power. In the near term, inflation’s impact on living standards can be significantly mitigated only by importing more and so increasing our trade deficit, financed by foreign borrowing. Unwillingness to do that means we are likely to prolong the wave of strikes and so suffer a bruising recession created by restrictive monetary policy. This will cause yet more damage to living standards. However, debt-funded importing of consumption items in order to maintain living standards is poor policy longer-term. It can’t stop the harmful redistribution effects of inflation that are already emerging. Most important, it doesn’t address the longstanding source of our lagging living standards – too little economic growth and economic resilience due to our failure to grow productivity. Without increased productivity, debt-funded consumption repair will cumulate to tomorrow’s fiscal crisis. Therefore, we face a very difficult policy challenge. We must act to support living standards over the next year or two, mitigate the social problems that inflation is already causing and, simultaneously, divert our priorities (and our continuing borrowing) to foster much improved productivity growth. Causes This is a simple story. Today’s inflation demonstrates that we are poorer than we were three years ago. The value of what we, collectively, produce and earn, has shrunk, relative to the cost of the things that we seek to consume. Inflation constricts our consumption options to what we can now afford. We are poorer for two reasons. First, because we produce and earn less domestically, and second, because the things that we don’t produce but import have become scarcer, forcing us to pay more to get them. • Brexit caused an immediate and seemingly permanent devaluation of Sterling, raising the costs of everything that we import. It also seemingly permanently reduced our exports to the EU, our largest trading partner. No new trade possibilities are similar in scale, so there is a long-term loss of income. Moreover, increased non-tariff barriers have raised the cost of imports from the EU beyond the exchange rate effect. • The pandemic has reduced the worldwide supply of all sorts of goods, therefore raising their prices. This is due to supply chain problems, the zero-Covid China lockdown, the reduction in UK output because a significant portion of the population is out with Covid at any time. Crops are left rotting in the fields because there aren’t enough domestic agricultural workers and, of course, no more EU farm workers. • The war in Ukraine has escalated the costs of energy and food grains. In the future it will propel redirection of domestic resources to the production of war material, which is not edible. Consequences Inflation not only makes us, collectively, poorer, it differentially distributes the pain. • Everyone in the UK could go on strike to try to raise their wages enough to maintain their real consumption. But as the pie has shrunk, that is impossible. The extra money people get will simply chase the same, smaller amount available and the prices of goods and services will rise further. If the ensuing price rises provoke further wage increases, we chase our tails. This is the wage/price spiral that the Bank of England fears. • Some groups have more wage bargaining power than others. Perhaps the railway unions can indeed hold the country to ransom and regain their purchasing power. But then others, less empowered than railway workers, will become greater losers. • Inflation causes a flight to real assets – houses, commodities – whose values float up with the price level. Because ownership of real assets is very unequally distributed, the asset-rich minority is likely to come out better than before while the asset-poor majority lose even more. The purchasing power of people living on fixed-return assets such as retirement annuities would be devastated by a wage/price spiral. Similarly, as interest rates rise with the price level (or even faster if the Bank of England has its way), debtors on floating rate loans will be hit hard. • Different geographic areas have different mixes of people who would be gainers and losers from a wage/price spiral, exacerbating our substantial regional inequalities. Cure Part 1: Near-Term Mitigation How is it possible to offset the fall in current consumption which is provoking the wage/price spiral? People can consume more than they earn only by borrowing. The key is how that borrowing is undertaken. Households could borrow from private UK lenders, or the state could sell bonds to UK citizens and give the proceeds to other UK citizens to spend. But if all they can spend it on is the total value of UK output, that pie is shrinking. More money from borrowing would only raise prices, that is, add to inflation. Total UK consumption can exceed the value of UK output only if the extra is imported. Because the imports are paid for in another currency, borrowing to pay for those imports must be borrowing from foreign sources. The debt (public and private) that the UK owes others must rise by the value of the excess consumption. However, consuming more today by adding to our overseas debt isn’t a miracle cure. • Not everything can be imported. Domestic services of all types are provided, well, domestically. GP visits and houses and hotel rooms and haircuts will cost more as a result of wage inflation, no matter the amount of net foreign borrowing. These price increases will continue to provide some impetus to a wage/price spiral and make it more likely that the Bank of England will end up pushing the economy into recession to stop it. • The problem with debt is that you have to pay it back, and in the meantime, you pay interest on it. More consumption today means surrendering a greater amount of potential consumption in the future. Only if there is strong UK productivity growth will this foreign debt repayment not cause significant future trouble. Sadly, the UK has lagged in productivity growth among advanced economies for many years. Cure Part 2: A More Productive Economy The policy most likely to maintain social cohesion in the near term, and greater prosperity in the longer term, is a tricky two-step. We need to borrow to defend most people’s consumption in the next year or two, but then switch the budget to support growth and productivity-enhancing investment. Unless we do this, our debt repayment obligations will grow to unmanageable levels and meanwhile our level of consumption will continue to shrink relative to that of our peers. Our political system has not been good at tricky two-steps. It can manage short-term stimulus, funded by debt. But for decades the UK has failed to invest sufficiently in physical, technological and human capital to create productivity comparable to our peers. The inflation crisis is a call to action. Not only to mitigate current deterioration in living standards but to build a modern economy that sustains rising living standards into the future.

How Express Entry to Canada works: Moving as a Permanent Resident (PR)

The Express Entry program is one of the most sought after and popular ways to immigrate to Canada, mainly due to its simplicity and quick processing timelines. Express Entry is ideal for skilled individuals who want to settle in Canada permanently. Here are 5 steps to apply for PR through Express Entry: 1. Determine if you qualify for Express Entry In order to apply through Express Entry, you must be eligible for one of the three economic immigration streams: Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program: This program is for applicants with significant foreign work experience and/or a high level of education who want to immigrate to Canada permanently. Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP): This program is for skilled tradespeople who want to immigrate to Canada. Canadian Experience Class (CEC): This program is for foreign nationals who have been working in Canada for a period of at least one year to apply for Permanent Residence (PR). To understand the key differences in these three programs, check out the comparison table provided by the government of Canada. Confused about which immigration program you qualify for? Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) also have an easy-to-use tool to determine the immigration program you qualify for; all you need to do is answer a few questions online, and you will receive your results. This tool gives you a number at the end (a personal reference code). Use this number to move your information from the tool to your Express Entry profile. Note: Consult an immigration lawyer to know your best options and be sure to check their credentials to avoid scams. 2. Create an IRCC account and an Express Entry profile If you qualify for one of the Express Entry programs, first, you will need to create an account on the IRCC website and submit your profile to formally enter the Express Entry pool of candidates. During this step, you won’t need to upload any documents. However, based on the information you enter on your profile, once you are selected and invited to apply for PR, you will need to upload copies of relevant documents to support your application. What do you need to create an Express Entry profile Occupation: Your National Occupational Classification (NOC) number. It is a system that the Canadian government uses to classify various jobs and occupations, which are grouped based on categories and skill levels. Education: Your education credential assessment (ECA) report. An ECA is used to verify that your foreign degree, diploma, or certificate (or other proof of your credential) is valid and equal to a Canadian one. There are different types of ECAs. You need to get an ECA for immigration purposes. If you have another type of ECA, you may be able to get it reissued, depending on the type of ECA and/or issuing organization. You will have to include your ECA report and the reference number in your Express Entry profile. Language skills: Results from an approved language test. Canada has two official languages — English and French. You can provide language test results from any one of these two languages. Each of these tests evaluates your language skills on four parameters: speaking, reading, listening and writing. For English: International English Language Testing System (IELTS) or Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP) For French: Test d’évaluation de français (TEF Canada) Test de connaissance du français (TCF Canada) Note: Your test results have to be less than two years old at the time of submitting your application. 3. Calculate your Comprehensive Ranking Score (CRS) Canada uses a point-based system (considering factors such as skills, education, language ability, work experience, etc.) to rank and evaluate individual immigration applications. The CRS tool is very intuitive; upon answering a few questions, it generates your score. This score can be used to check if you rank above the minimum required points from the most recent round of invitations. Candidates for Express Entry are awarded up to 1200 points under the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) meant to identify candidates who are most likely to succeed in Canada. 500 points: Core human capital factors which include age, education, language and Canadian work experience. 100 points: Skill transferability which is a combination of foreign qualifications, work experience, education and language ability. 600 points: A provincial nomination certificate. 50-200 points: For arranged employment through a valid job offer — this requires very specific criteria to be met. Note: (1) Express Entry only awards points for skilled work experience (NOC skill type O, A or B). These should be selected based on job duties performed, not your job title. You will also have to provide proof of work experience to claim these points. (2) Applicants can also be awarded points for bonus factors including having a Canadian sibling or for studying in Canada. These bonus points are often what can make a difference for a non-competitive profile and convert it to a competitive one. Tip: If your CRS is slightly lower than the scores for latest Express Entry draws, you may still want to consider submitting your profile, mainly because: - You may have a chance at being selected through the Provincial Nomination Program (PNP). - There is no cost associated with submitting an Express Entry profile. 4. Submit your profile Your Express Entry profile enables you to enter the pool of potential candidates for immigration. Once you fill out your profile and submit it online, you’ll be ranked in the Express Entry pool using a points-based system — the CRS. This score is based on the information in your profile. Note that submitting an Express Entry profile is not the same as submitting a PR application. Everyone intending to immigrate submits a profile, but only the high-ranked candidates are invited to apply for PR. Profiles may remain in the candidate pool for up to one year. If during this time, any of your ranking factors change, you must ensure you update your profile in the candidate pool. Those who do not hold a qualifying job offer can register with Canada Job Bank. Candidates are encouraged to promote themselves to prospective employers in order to increase their chances of being invited to apply. This is not mandatory but may be a good way to connect with employers. Note: Each applicant is given a personalized document checklist while filling out the PR application. Ensure you review it and the document requirements thoroughly before submitting. 5. Receive an invitation and apply for PR Draws from the candidate pool occur every few weeks, and the highest-ranked candidates in the Express Entry pool receive an Invitation to Apply, after which they have 60 days to complete an application for PR in Canada. Do not wait until the last minute to submit your application as deadlines cannot be extended. Once you are invited to apply, you will need to submit supporting documents. Some of them are: Passport or travel document Language test results ECA report Work experience certificates Police certificates Medical exams Proof of funds It is a good idea to keep a copy of the application you submit. After submission, IRCC estimates a total processing time of approximately six months. At first glance, the Express Entry process may seem complicated. The resources provided by the government of Canada along with advice from authorized immigration lawyers/consultants, can make your Canadian dreams come true. Sources: Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Green and Spiegel Immigration Law Firm Note: The information provided in this article is general, is subject to frequent changes and does not constitute legal advice. For specific immigration legal advice that you can rely on, please contact Green and Spiegel. Original article located here, published by Arrive. About Arrive Arrive is powered by RBC Ventures Inc, a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada. In collaboration with RBC, Arrive is dedicated to helping newcomers achieve their life, career, and financial goals in Canada. An important part of establishing your financial life in Canada is finding the right partner to invest in your financial success. RBC is the largest bank in Canada* and here to be your partner in all of your financial needs. RBC supports Arrive, and with a 150-year commitment to newcomer success in Canada, RBC goes the extra mile in support and funding to ensure that the Arrive newcomer platform is FREE to all. Working with RBC, Arrive can help you get your financial life in Canada started – right now. * Based on market capitalization